Then she looked at Fuchs. He sat with his drink untouched before him, his eyes staring off into some private universe. Whatever he’s thinking about, Pancho realized, he’s a zillion kilometers from here.
WALTZING MATILDA
Once they got back inside the ship, it took George and Nodon hours to patch the holes punched through the hull by the attacker’s laser and check out all the systems. They were both dead tired by the time they were able to take off their spacesuits and clump wearily, fearfully to the bridge.
George took the command chair, Nodon slipped into the chair at his right.
“You run a diagnostic on the power generator,” said George. “I’ll check the nav computer and see where th’ fook we’re headin’.” They worked in silence for another twenty minutes. At last Nodon said, “I can repair the generator. He knocked out one set of electrodes. We have spares.”
George nodded. “Okay, then. If you can get the generator back on line we won’t hafta worry about electrical power for the life support systems.”
Nodding, Nodon said, “That is good news.”
“Right. Now here’s the bad news. We’re up shit’s creek without a paddle.”
Nodon said nothing. He held his bony face impassive, but George saw that even his shaved pate was sheened with perspiration. It sure isn’t the temperature in here, George told himself. In fact, the bridge felt decidedly chilly.
With a heavy sigh, George said, “He knocked enough holes in the propellant tanks to send us jettin’ deeper into the Belt.”
“And the main engine is beyond repair.”
“Prob’ly.”
“Then we will die.”
“Looks that way, mate. Unless we can get some help.”
“The comm system is down. He must have lasered the antennas.”
George nodded. “So that’s what the soddin’ bastard was doing.”
“He was very thorough.”
Sitting there, staring at the control panel with half its telltale lights glowering red, George tried to think.
“We’re okay on life support,” he mused aloud.
“Once the generator is running again,” Nodon corrected. “Otherwise the batteries will run out in . . .” He glanced at the displays “. . . eleven hours.”
“Better fix the generator, then. That’s our first priority.”
Nodon started to get up from his seat. He hesitated, asked, “And our second priority?”
“Figurin’ out if we can nudge ourselves into a trajectory that’ll bring us close to Ceres before we starve to death.”
CHAPTER 20
Amanda would have preferred to stay in Selene for just a few days more, but Fuchs insisted that they start back for Ceres as soon as possible. He learned from Pancho that an Astro ship was due to depart for Ceres the next day, carrying a load of equipment that Helvetia had ordered before the warehouse fire. “We’ll go back on that ship,” Fuchs told his wife. “But it’s a freighter. It won’t have passenger accommodations,” Amanda protested.
“We’ll go back on that ship,” he repeated. Wondering why her husband was so insistent on returning as quickly as possible, Amanda reluctantly packed her travel bag while Fuchs called Pancho to beg a ride.
The next morning they rode the automated little tractor through the tunnel that led out to Armstrong Spaceport and climbed aboard the spindly-legged shuttlecraft that would lift them to the Harper. The ship was in lunar orbit, but rotating at a one-sixth g spin. Fuchs felt grateful that he would not have to endure weightlessness for more than the few minutes of the shuttlecraft’s flight.
“Newest ship in the solar system,” said her captain as he welcomed them aboard. He was young, trim, good-looking, and stared openly at Amanda’s ample figure. Fuchs, standing beside her, grasped his wife’s arm possessively.
“I’m afraid, though, that she’s not built for passenger service,” the captain said as he led them down the habitat module’s central passageway. “All I can offer you is this cabin.”
He slid an accordion-pleated door back. The cabin was barely large enough for two people to stand in.
“It’s kind of small,” the captain said, apologetically. But he was smiling at Amanda.
“It will do,” said Fuchs. “The trip is only six days.”
He stepped into the compartment, leading Amanda.
The captain, still out in the passageway, said, “We break orbit in thirty minutes.”