“Since—“ Ulla broke off.
“Since my original cashed in his chips and I took over?” Guthrie replied. “Don’t be afraid to say it. Sure, that was bound to change the relationship, but it did less’n you might have expected. In the last several years, though, she’s—well, she’s gotten out of the way of sharing with me everything that’s big on her mind.”
“She grows old,” Ulla said low. “People change with age.”
“Hard to imagine her old. I remember her like yesterday, a little curiytop—“ Guthrie stopped. Thatwas not quite his yesterday. “But no. Time has only honed Dagny Beynac sharper.”
“Then what is worrying you, jefe?” Lars inquired.
“That calls for a review of the background,” Again Guthrie paused. “Look, you’re both well aware of how, ever since they got leave to, Lunarians have been making a strong push to get into deep space on their own hook. Her sons are at the forefront. Purchase, manufacture, training—small-scale stuff to date, but energetic and ambitious.”
“Yes,” Lars mused..”Ambitious. An ambition that puzzles me, I confess. It isn’t really economic. We have never—Fireball doesn’t want to suppress them, for God’s sake. But when I try to persuade them that at this stage, chartering vessels and hiring out jobs is better—they are polite, but it is as if they do not hear.”
“Your experience isn’t unique,” Guthrie said dryly.
“I have told you, dear,” UHa recalled to her husband. “This is a matter of pride, self-assertion. When will you learn that not everybody is as rational as you are?”
Guthrie laughed once more. “The besetting irrationality of rationalists. You’re right, my lady. I’m doubtful what is and is not rational to a Lunarian, that wild-ass breed, but basically you’re right.
“Okay, let ‘em go ahead. There’s sure no dearth of things to do in space, even if the rich Lunarians have to subsidize their part of it. But—you wouldn’t know, you two, because it was between Dagny Beynac and me—you wouldn’t know how she’s leaned on me about it, throughout this long while, on behalf of those folks.” ‘
Lars rubbed his chin and took a smoky sip of whisky. “M-m, I have wondered at some of the assistance Fireball has given, loans of money and facilities and so forth. How could it pay? But I am no economist.”
“You aren’t alone in wondering, either,” Guthrie said. “Others have been more vocal about it, or downright obstreperous. Not being the absolute dictator of the company that the news media make me out as, I had several knock-down-and-drag-out fights behind the scenes, getting this or that operation okayed and holding it on track.”
“Why?” inquired Ulla.
“Trust a woman to ask an embarrassingly straight question. Why’d I go along with Dagny’s requests? Well, as you might guess, partly I looked beyond the money side of it. The nations of Earth, the whole fat Federation, they need somebody in a position to cock a snook at them. At least, we the people do, if we aren’t to see government growing all over us again like jungle rot.” Guthrie’s phrase went past his listeners. He hesitated. “But, well, also … it was Dagny who asked.”
“And now she has asked for top much?” Fire-crackle mingled with Lars’s muted words.
“N-no. But it is pretty radical this time, enough to make me wonder real hard. So I thought I’d check with you.”
“I am not—an intimate of hers. Not truly. Has she had any since Edmond died?”
“You know her better than most. And you, Sefiora Rydberg, seem to have a better than average feel for people. Let’s try.”
Lars leaned forward. “What does she want?”
“A torchcraft, designed and built to order, suitable for a Lunarian crew. That’s nothing off the shelf, you realize. Financing it, complete with R and D, would be a tad burdensome for us, and repayment slow, if ever.”
“Can’t they wait until they are able to produce it themselves?”
“Evidently not. That could be a decade or more. They’re too antsy. Anyhow, that’s what Dagny claims. They want to get out and explore on their own. Really explore.”“That is … not unreasonable, is it?” Lars said. Ulla heard the longing and took his hand.