Silence fell, making the ventilators sound loud. The two who manned Herschel floated adrift in it, weightless, while the ship moved on trajectory toward the point where final maneuvers were to commence. At this point in its cycle, air renewal had increased the ozone; there was a slight odor as of thunderstorm.
Jannicki reached to touch Rydberg’s sleeve. “I’m sorry,” she said low. “I didn’t mean to offend you. Especially now, of all times.” He faced her anew. “You did not,” he replied with some difficulty. “I should apologize for snapping at you. You touched a nerve, but you could not know, it was not your fault.”
“Well, you’ve never tajked much about yourself,” she agreed. “And nerves do wear thin,” during fifteen weeks with hardly anything to do but maintain health in the centrifuge, read, watch recorded shows, listen to recorded music, and pursue what other recreations are possible in free fall. “Our sheer uselessness—”
“No. We could have had an emergency, something the ship could not cope with alone. And before then—“ Outbound eagerness, study, preparation. Supplies and support borne to Himalia Base. Participation, helping explore and prospect the outer moons, sharing in the telepresence when humans directed robots through the radiation rain upon the Galileans and into the king planet itself. The knowledge that this remoteness and unknown ness required humans, were they to find and understand and someday make use of the stark wonders around them. Rydberg pondered. “Again I apologize. Memories ran away with me. It’s another bad habit of mine, repeating the obvious.”
She smiled. “I forgive you.”
“Really?”
“That has perforce become one of my habits.”
“Amazing, that you have not cut my throat.”
“Oh, I probably lack a perfection or two myself. Were you never tempted to cut mine?”
“Of course not. Quite apart from the mess and the legal consequences, what a terrible waste.”
“My feeling exactly.” She paused. The lightened mood left her. “When the new ships replace these, when it’s a few daycycles at one g to most destinations—”
“And the automation is so advanced that a single person is enough—Yes,” he sighed. “I too will often miss the long voyages. But maybe before this comes topass, we will be retired to planetside duty and living off our memories.”
“Memories indeed.”
“Indeed.”
She fluttered her eyelashes. Her voice went husky. “We can still add to them, you know. Hours yet before we’ll be wanted at the controls.”
He smiled. “Now it is you speaking the obvious.”
Together they kicked the bulkhead and soared aft.
When presently they rested at ease, harnessed against drift, otherwise in one another’s arms and warmth and breath, she said, “Yes, the psych staff took a correct compatibility profile of us.”
“I trust we will be teamed again, more than once,” he replied in his solemn wise.
“I too. And as for our leave—You haven’t told me, not really, how you plan to spend yours, aside from visiting your .,. parents … on Earth.”
He stared before him at blank metal. “I am not sure. It depends.”
“Nor am I sure. My ties are all Fireball, you know. I’ll meet friends, doubtless make new ones, variety—“ Her tone grew wistful. “But afterward, we two, a rendezvous?”
“I don’t know,” he repeated.
Being of a size for Luna if not Earth, Herschel was just a short while in parking orbit, then descended to Port Bowen. Since discussions had gone on beforehand by radio and a quick inspection showed everything apparently in order, her crew were soon finished at the office. As customary, they took separate quarters in the Hotel Aldrin—privacy, total privacy, any time they wanted!—but she was hurt when he declined to make straight for the Fuel Tank with her. He didn’t notice. “I may join you later,” he muttered, and hurried off to his room.
Alone, he put through a call to Geneva. Business hours obtained in Europe, and he got the live contact he wished. “Hold a moment,” he said, and debited for quantum coding. “Now, please, what have you learned?”
When the detective told him, he whistled long and low and sat for a span mute, until he commanded, “This is to stay strictly confidential.”