fluid. In fact, it’s virtually a perfect lubricant, and if we didn’t have things easier to use you’d see synthetic buckyballs on sale everywhere.” A vision rose in those ruby eyes. “It’s thought they may have a basic role in the origin of life on planets—”
“Damn near did the opposite number today,” Saxtorph said. “But you saved my ass, and the rest of me as well. I don’t suppose I can ever repay you.”
She got to her knees before him and seized his hands. “You can, Robert. You can fetch me back my man.”
Ponderously, Rover closed velocities with the iron asteroid. She couldn’t quite match, because it was under boost, but thus far the acceleration was low.
Ominously aglow, the molten mass dwarfed the spacecraft that toiled meters ahead of it; yet Sun Defter, harnessed by her own forcefield, was a plowhorse dragging it bit by bit from its former path; and the dwarf sun was at work, and Secunda’s gravity was beginning to have a real effect…
Arrived a little before the ship, the boat drifted at some distance, a needle in a haystack of stars. Laurinda was still aboard. The tug had no place to receive Shep, nor had the girl the skill to cross safely by herself in a spacesuit even though relative speeds were small. The autopilot kept her accompanying the others.
In Rovers command center, Saxtorph asked the image of Dorcas, more shakily than he had expected to, “How are you? How’s everything?” She was haggard with weariness, but triumph rang: “Kam’s got our gear packed to transfer over to you, and I– I’ve worked the bugs out of the program. Compatibility with kzin hardware was a stumbling block, but—well, it’s been operating smoothly for the past several hours, and I’ve no reason to doubt it will continue doing what it’s supposed to.”
He whistled. “Hey, quite a feat, lady! I really didn’t think it would be possible, at least in the time available, when I put you up to trying it. What’re you going to do next—square the circle, invent the perpetual motion machine, reform the tax laws, or what?”
Her voice grew steely. “I was motivated.” She regarded his face in her own screen. “How are you? Laurinda said something about your running into danger on the moon. Were you hurt?”
“Only in my pride. She can tell you all about it later. Right now we’re in a hurry.” Saxtorph became intent. “Listen, there’s been a change of plan. You and Kam both flit over to Shep. But don’t you bring her in; lay her alongside. Kam can help Laurinda aboard Rover before he moves your stuff. I’d like you to join me in a job around Shep. Simple thing and shouldn’t take but a couple hours, given the two of us working together. Though I’ll bet even money you’ll have a useful suggestion or three. Then you can line out for deep space.”
She sat a moment silent, her expression bleakened, before she said, “You’re taking the boat to Prima while the rest of us ferry Rover away.”
“You catch on quick, sweetheart.”
“To rescue Juan and Carita.”
“What else? Laurinda’s hatched a scheme I think could do the trick. Naturally, we’ll agree in advance where you’ll wait, and Shep will come join you there. If we don’t dawdle, the odds are pretty good that the kzinti won’t locate you first and force you to go hyperspatial.”
“What about them locating you?”
“Why should they expect anybody to go to Prima? They’ll buzz around Secunda like angry hornets. They may well be engaged for a while in evacuating survivors from the warship; I suspect the shuttles aren’t terribly efficient at that sort of thing. Afterward they’ll have to work out a search doctrine, when Rover can have skitted in any old direction. And sometime along about then, they should have their minds taken off us. The kzinti will notice a nice big surprise bound their way, about which it is then too late to do anything whatsoever.”
“But you—How plausible is this idea of yours?”
“Plausible enough. Look, don’t sit like that. Get cracking. I’ll explain when we meet.”
“I can take Shep. I’m as good a pilot as you are.”
Saxtorph shook his head. “Sorry, no. One of us has to be in charge of Rover, of course. I hereby pull rank and appoint you. I am the captain.”
The asteroid concealed the ship’s initial boost from any possible observers around Secunda. She applied her mightiest vector to give southward motion, out of the ecliptic plane; but the thrust had an extra component, randomly chosen, to baffle hunter analysts who would fain reduce the volume of space wherein she might reasonably be sought. That volume would grow fast, become literally astronomical, as she flew free, generator cold, batteries maintaining life support on a minimum energy level. Having thus cometed for a time, she could with fair safety apply power again to bring herself to her destination.
Saxtorph let her make ample distance before he accelerated Shep, also using the iron to conceal his start. However, he ran at top drive the whole way. It wasn’t likely that a detector would pick his little craft up. As he told Dorcas, the kzinti wouldn’t suppose a human would make for Prima. It hurt them less, losing friends, provided the friends died bravely; and few of them had mastered the art of putting oneself in the head of an enemy.
Mainly, though, Carita and Juan didn’t have much time left them. Ever circling, the planets had changed configuration since Rover arrived. The navigation system allowed for that, but could do nothing to shorten a run of 30-odd hours. Saxtorph tried to compose his soul in peace. He played a lot of solitaire after he found he was losing most of the computer games, and smoked a lot of pipes. Books and shows were poor distraction, but music helped him relax and enjoy his memories. Whatever happened next, he’d have had a better life than 90 percent of his species—99 percent if you counted in everybody who lived and died before humankind went spacefaring.
Prima swelled in his view, sallow and faceless. The recorded broadcast came through clear from the night side, over and over. Saxtorph got his fix. Fido wasn’t too far from the lethal dawn. He established a three hour orbit and put a curt message of his own on the player. It ended with “Acknowledge.”
Time passed. Heaviness grew within him. Were they dead? He rounded dayside and came back across darkness.
The voice leaped at him: “Bob, is that you? Juan here. We’d abandoned hope, we were asleep. Standing by now. Bob, is that you? Juan here!” Joy surged.
“Who else but me?” Saxtorph said. “How’re you doing, you two?”
“Hanging on. Living in our spacesuits this past—I don’t know how long. The boat’s a rotted, crumbling shell. But we’re hanging on.”
“Good. Your drive units in working order?”
“Yes. But we haven’t the lift to get onto a trajectory which you can match long enough for us to come aboard.” Unspoken: It would be easy in atmosphere, or in free space, given a pilot like you. But what a vessel can do above an airless planet, at suborbital speed, without coming to grief, is sharply limited.
“That’s all right,” Saxtorph said, “as long as you can go outside, sit in a lock chamber or on top of the wreck, and keep watch, without danger of slipping off into the muck. You can?… Okay, prepare yourselves. I’ll land in view of you and open the main personnel lock.”
“Hadn’t we better all find an area free of the material?”
“I’m not sure any exists big enough and flat enough for me. Anyhow, looking for one would take more time than we can afford. No, I’m coming straight down.”
Carita cut in. She sounded wrung out, Saxtorph suspected her physical strength was what had preserved both. He imagined her manhandling pieces of metal and plastic, often wrenched from the weakened structure, to improvise braces, platforms, whatever would give some added hours of refuge. “Bob, is this wise?” she asked. “Do you know what you’re getting into? The molecule might bind you fast immediately, even if you avoid shining light on it. The decay here is going quicker all the while. I think the molecule is… learning. Don’t risk your life.”
“Don’t you give your captain orders,” Saxtorph replied. “I’ll be down in, m-m, about an hour. Then get to me as fast as you prudently can. Every minute we spend on the surface does add to the danger. But I’ve put bandits on the jacks.”
“What?”
“Footpads,” he laughed childishly. “Okay, no more conversation till we’re back in space. I’ve got my reconnoitering to do.”
Starlight was brilliant but didn’t illuminate an unknown terrain very well. His landing field would be minute and hemmed in. For help he had optical amplifiers, radar, data-analysis programs which projected visuals as well as numbers. He had his skill. Fear shunted from his mind, he became one with the boat.
