The Rock Rats

asked.

Before George could answer, he caught another glint in the corner of his eye. Pushing slightly away from the slab, he saw that their attacker was punching holes in their propellant tanks. Thin cold jets of cryogenic hydrogen and helium-three hissed noiselessly into the vacuum, brief whitish wisps of gas that dissipated into the emptiness of space in an eyeblink.

“We’re movin’,” George muttered, even though Nodon could not hear him. Like a child’s balloon when he lets the air out of it, the gases escaping from the punctured tanks were pushing Matilda slowly away from the asteroid.

“We’re gonna get a fookin’ tour of the solar system,” George said aloud. “Shame we’ll be too dead to enjoy the sights.”

CHAPTER 19

“I’m surprised he hasn’t had us thrown out of this hotel already,” Fuchs said morosely.

Pancho Lane tried to smile encouragingly. Lars and Amanda both looked so down, so— bewildered was the word for it, Pancho decided. Overrun by events and their own emotions. “Hey, don’t worry about the hotel,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “Astro’ll pay for it if Humphries reneges.”

Fuchs was still in the light gray business suit he’d worn for his meeting with Humphries. Amanda was wearing a pale turquoise knee-length frock, modest enough, but she still made Pancho feel gawky and shapeless, as usual. Mandy didn’t mean to, but whenever Pancho was near her she felt like a beanpole standing beside a vid star.

“We’re going back to Ceres,” Amanda said. “Back to prospecting.”

The two of them were sitting glumly on the sofa set beneath a hologram of Valles Marineris on Mars: the grandest Grand Canyon in the solar system.

“What about Helvetia, Ltd.?” Pancho asked. “You’re not gonna let Humphries muscle you out of business, are you?”

Fuchs grunted. “What business? Our inventory went up in flames.”

“Yeah, but the insurance oughtta cover enough of it to get you started again.”

Fuchs shook his head wearily.

“You got a lot of good will out there on Ceres,” Pancho urged. “Shouldn’t oughtta let that go to waste.”

Amanda’s brows rose hopefully.

“Don’t want to let Humphries get a monopoly, do you, Lars ol’ buddy?”

“I’d prefer to strangle him,” Fuchs growled.

Pancho leaned back in her chair, stretched her long lean legs. “Tell you what: Astro’ll advance you the credit to restock your warehouse, up to the limit that the insurance will pay you.”

Fuchs looked at her. “You can do this?”

“I’m learnin’ how to play the board of directors. I got a clutch of ’em on my side. They don’t want Humphries to monopolize the Belt any more’n you do.”

Amanda asked, “Is your group strong enough to let you do what you just offered to do?”

Nodding, Pancho replied, “Take my word for it.”

Turning to her husband, Amanda said hopefully, “Lars, we could start Helvetia all over again.”

“With a smaller inventory,” he grumbled. “The insurance won’t cover everything we lost.”

“But it’s a start,” Amanda said, smiling genuinely.

Fuchs did not smile back. He looked away from his wife. Pancho thought there was something going on inside his head that he didn’t want Mandy to see.

“I’m going back to prospecting,” he said, his eyes focused on the far wall of the sitting room.

“But—”

“I’ll take Starpower back as soon as the current lease on her is finished.”

“But what about Helvetia?” Amanda asked.

He turned toward her once more. “You’ll have to run Helvetia. You can stay on Ceres while I take the ship out.”

Pancho studied them. There was something going on between them, some hidden agenda someplace, that she couldn’t fathom.

“Lars,” said Amanda, in a very soft voice, “are you certain that this is what you want to do?”

“It’s what I must do, darling.” His voice sounded implacable.

Pancho invited them both to dinner at the Earthview Restaurant, off the hotel’s lobby.

“Strictly a social evening,” she told them. “No talk about Humphries or Ceres or any kind of business at all. Okay?”

They agreed, halfheartedly.

So naturally they talked about business through the entire meal. Pancho’s business.

The standing joke about the Earthview was that it was the finest restaurant within four hundred thousand kilometers. Which was perfectly true: the two other eateries in Selene, up in the Grand Plaza, were mere bistros. Two levels beneath the lunar surface, the Earthview featured sweeping windowalls that displayed holographic views from the Moon’s surface. It was almost like looking through real windows at the gaunt, cracked floor of the giant crater Alphonsus and its worn, slumped ringwall mountains. But the Earth was always in that dark sky, hanging like a splendid glowing jewel of sparkling blue and glowing white, ever changing yet always present.

The Earthview prided itself on having a human staff, no robots in sight. Pancho always felt that a truly top- rate restaurant should use tablecloths, but the Earthview used glittering placemats made of lunar honeycomb metal, thin and supple as silk.

None of them had changed clothes for dinner. Fuchs was still wearing his gray suit, Amanda her turquoise knee-length dress. Pancho, who favored coveralls and softboots, had started the day in a business outfit of chocolate-brown slacks, pale yellow sweater, and light tan suede vest. Amanda had loaned her a light auburn Irish lace stole to “dress up your outfit.”

Once their handsome young waiter had brought their drinks and taken their dinner order, an awkward silence fell over their table. They had agreed not to talk business. What other topic of conversation was there?

Pancho sipped at her margarita and watched the waiter’s retreating back. Nice buns, she thought. Wonder if he’s married?

“So what have you been doing lately, Pancho?” Amanda finally said, more to break the silence than any other reason.

“Me? I’m followin’ up on something Dan Randolph talked about years ago: scoopin’ fusion fuels from Jupiter.”

Fuchs’s ears perked up. “Fusion fuels?”

“Yeah. You know, helium-three, tritium, other isotopes. Jupiter’s atmosphere is full of ’em.”

“That’s a steep gravity well,” said Amanda.

“Tell me about it,” Pancho said. “You know I’ve been approached by some nuts who want to go skimmin’ Jupiter’s atmosphere as a stunt? They even brought a network producer with ’em.”

“Insanity,” Fuchs muttered.

“Yeah, sure.” Pancho pronounced the word shore. “But then there’s a gaggle of scientists who wanta set up a research station in orbit around Jupiter. Study the moons and all.”

“But the radiation,” Amanda said.

“Tight orbit, underneath the Jovian Van Allen belts. Might be doable.”

“Astro would fund this?”

“Hell no!” Pancho blurted. “Universities gotta come up with the funding. We’ll build the sucker.”

“And use it as a platform for mining Jupiter’s atmosphere,” Amanda added.