cowling over his head and inflated it into a clear bubble. “Once that’s done we’ll transfer enough hydrogen to get you back to Ceres.”
“That will be wonderful,” Pauline said.
Valker grinned at her. “Always happy to help a lovely lady in distress.”
He waved and stepped into the airlock. Theo punched out the code that sealed the hatch and started the airlock cycling.
Once the hatch shut and the panel lights indicated the ’lock was pumping down to vacuum, Pauline swung around and slapped her daughter on the face, hard.
Angela was too stunned to cry. Theo saw the stinging marks of his mother’s fingers on Angie’s face, white against her reddened cheek.
“Talking about sex!” Pauline hissed. “Are you crazy? Ten sex-starved men and you make them think…” Her voice faltered.
“I didn’t mean…” Angela said, her voice quavering.
Theo tried to get his mother’s attention. “I couldn’t refuse his help. They’d just come aboard anyway.”
Pauline said, “Thee, get your sister out of sight. Find a place to hide her. I don’t want those men to get a glimpse of her while they’re on board our ship.”
“What about you, Mom?”
“I can take care of myself,” Pauline said. “It’s Angie I’m worried about.”
Theo started to object. Before he could, though, Pauline said in a softer tone, “I’m an old lady, Thee. You saw the way that man was staring at Angie. He had no interest in me.”
“I’m not so sure, Mom. He—”
“Thee, we don’t have time to debate the issue. Get Angie to a safe hideaway, quickly. Before they all come aboard.”
Back in
“What’s the word, skipper?”
“What’s goin’ on over there?”
“How big a crew?”
“What about the women?”
Valker silenced them with a gesture, then broke into his widest grin. “Just like he said over the radio. One crewman, a teenaged kid. And two women, a mother and her daughter. Both good-looking. The daughter’s hot to trot, too.”
They all laughed.
Nicco asked, “What about the mother?”
“Good-looking, like I said. Elegant. Tries to be cool, but it’ll be fun melting her down.”
SELENE:
HOTEL LUNA
Alex Humphries personally escorted Yuan and Tamara Vishinsky to the Hotel Luna. Although the hotel’s formal entrance was up in the Main Plaza, a wide powered stairway led down to the lobby, past sheets of genuine liquid water that slid glistening down tilted slabs of granite quarried from the lunar highlands.
“The water’s recycled, of course,” Alex said as they glided down the stairway. “It looks pretty impressive, though, here on the Moon.”
Yuan nodded appreciatively and noticed that Tamara was standing as close to Humphries as she could without climbing into his clothes.
There were pools of limpidly clear water on either side at the bottom of the stairway, with fish swimming in them.
“Aquaculture,” Humphries commented. “Selene gets more protein per unit of energy input from fish than from meat animals.”
“You mean people eat those fish?” Tamara asked, her eyes wide and fixed on Humphries.
He nodded. “You can pick one out for your dinner.”
She laughed appreciatively.
The hotel lobby was bigger than any Yuan had ever seen, lavishly carpeted and decorated with oriental tables and comfortable leather-covered easy chairs. Ornate displays of artificial flowers sprouted from imitation Ming vases.
Humphries walked them to the reception desk, where a bowing assistant manager led them to adjoining rooms two levels below the lobby.
“This is our bottom floor,” the slightly pudgy man said in a self-effacing whisper. “Our very best.”
He opened a door and motioned Yuan inside. Impressive, Yuan thought. Roomy without being too big. Nice decorations. One entire wall was a smart screen that showed, at the moment, a satellite view of the Grand Canyon on Mars.
“Thanks,” he said to Humphries.
“You’re comped for everything,” Alex told him. “For three days. Then we leave for the Belt.”
“May I add,” murmured the assistant manager, “that our shops up on the lobby level offer the very latest designer fashions and a complete line of accessories.”
Yuan realized the man was telling him that he needed some new clothes. He nodded wordlessly and closed his door.
“And your room is here,” the assistant manager said, opening the next door.
Tamara looked inside. “Very luxurious,” she said to Humphries.
The assistant manager handed her the key chip, glanced at Humphries, then bowed and scurried down the corridor.
“I think you’ll be comfortable,” Humphries said.
Tamara realized he was several centimeters taller than his father, clone or no clone. Looking up at him, she asked, “Would you like to come in?”
He smiled. “I don’t think that would be wise.”
“Really?” she breathed.
“Look,” he said, “I’ve pulled you out of a cesspool full of trouble. My father isn’t happy with you—”
“It wasn’t me who let Harbin and the old woman go,” Tamara said. “Yuan did that.”
“But you killed Commander Bolestos, didn’t you? He didn’t just conveniently drop dead. You stuck a knife in his ribs.”
Humphries could see sudden anger flare in her eyes. But she controlled it immediately.
“It was wrong, I know,” she said contritely. “But he wouldn’t have allowed us to see the artifact.”
“That’s no reason to kill a man.”
“You’re right,” she murmured, her head drooping. She looked up at him through lowered lashes and added, “I realize that now… since the artifact.”
“There’s been enough killing,” Alex Humphries said. “Too much. Now we’re going out to the artifact and try to understand it, learn from it.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“That’s what I want,” he said fervently. “My father doesn’t want the IAA or the universities near it, and I think he’s right about that. But he can’t stop me.”
“Of course he can’t.”
“I’ll need your help. Yours and Yuan’s.”
“I’ll do whatever you want me to,” Tamara said, her head still lowered.
