As he started down the corridor that led to the connector tunnel, he saw Doug Stavenger coming up in the other direction, looking youthful and energetic and purposeful.
Dammitall, he thought, Stavenger’s older than I am and he looks like a kid. Maybe I ought to get some nanotherapy.
“Going to watch the launch?” Stavenger asked brightly.
“Think I’ll go to the launch center and watch it from there.”
“I like to watch from the observation bubble.”
“I was just there,” Dan said.
“Come on; let’s see the real thing instead of watching it on a screen.”
Stavenger’s enthusiasm was contagious. Dan found himself striding along the narrow tunnel again, out to the bubble.
They ducked through the open hatch and into the cramped chamber. Stavenger climbed the two steps and looked out, grinning. Dan squeezed in beside him, nearly bumping his head on the curving glassteel.
“I used to sneak out here when I was a kid to watch the liftoffs and landings,” Stavenger said, grinning. “I still get a kick out of it.”
Dan made a polite mumble.
“I mean, we spend almost our whole lives indoors, underground,” Stavenger went on. “It’s good to see the outside now and then.”
“As long as the glass doesn’t crack.”
“That’s what the safety hatches are for.”
Dan said, “But you’ve got to get through them fast, before they shut themselves.”
Stavenger laughed. “True enough.”
They watched shoulder-to-shoulder in the cramped blister, listening to the flight controllers’ crisp voices clicking off the countdown. Stavenger seemed as excited as a kid; Dan envied him. A little tractor rolled noiselessly across the crater floor to the launch pad. Pancho’s spacesuited figure jumped from it in dreamlike lunar slow-motion, stirring up a lazy puff of gray dust. Then she climbed up the ladder and sealed herself into the booster’s one-person crew module.
“This is just an assembly mission, isn’t it?” Stavenger asked.
“Right,” said Dan. “She not a pilot on this flight, just baby-sitting the robots.”
Strangely enough, Dan felt his palms going clammy as the countdown neared its final moments. Relax, he told himself silently. There’s nothing to this.
Still, his heart began to thump faster.
“… three… two… one… ignition,” said the automated countdown voice.
The spacecraft leaped off the launch pad in a cloud of smoke and gritty dust that evaporated almost as soon as it formed. One instant the craft was sitting on the concrete, the next it was gone.
“We have liftoff,” said one of the human controllers in the time-honored tradition. “All systems in the green.”
Pancho’s voice came through the speaker. “Copy all systems green. Orbital insertion burn in ten seconds.”
It was all quite routine. Still, Dan didn’t relax until Pancho announced, “On the money, guys! I’m cruisin’ along with the other modules. Time to go to work.”
A controller’s voice replied, “Rendezvous complete. Initiate assembly procedure.”
Dan huffed. “She sounds more like a robot than a human being.”
Just then the controller added, “Okay, Pancho. I’ll see you at the Pelican tomorrow night.”
Stavenger grinned at Dan. “Maybe she drinks lubricating oil.”
They walked through the corridor to the tunnel that led back to Selene. As they climbed onto one of the automated carts that plied the kilometer-long tunnel, Stavenger asked, “How soon will you be ready for your flight to the Belt?”
“We’ve programmed a month of uncrewed flight tests and demo flights for IAA certification. Once we get the nod from the bureaucrats we’ll be ready to go.”
“Could your craft reach Jupiter?”
Surprised at the question, Dan replied, “In theory. But we won’t be carrying enough propellant or supplies for that. Jupiter’s almost twice as far as the Belt.”
“I know,” Stavenger murmured.
“Why do you ask?”
Stavenger hesitated. The cart trundled along the blank-walled tunnel smoothly, almost silently, its electrical motor purring softly. At last
Stavenger answered, “Sooner or later we’re going to have to go to Jupiter… or maybe one of the other gas giants.”
Dan saw where he was heading. “Fusion fuels.”
“Jupiter’s atmosphere is rich in hydrogen and helium isotopes.”
“Kris Cardenas mentioned that to me,” Dan remembered.
“She and I have been talking about it. Fusion fuels could be a major trade commodity for Selene. And very profitable for Starpower, Ltd.”