For an instant Angie looked as if she would burst into tears. But Pauline reached across the space between them and grasped her arm.
“It’s not that bad,” she said calmly. “We have plenty of food and water. We have the main engine—”
“Which we can’t control.”
“Can’t control?” Angie’s eyes went wide.
“The command pod’s gone. All the controls’re gone.”
Pauline fixed her son with a stern look. “There’s the backup command pod.”
“If it works,” Theo said sourly. “Nobody’s even been in there for more’n a year.”
“It will work,” Pauline said flatly. “That’s your responsibility, Theo. Yours and Angela’s. Get to the backup command pod and get it up and running. We can’t let ourselves continue to drift outward; we’ve got to get control of this vessel back in our hands.”
“Yeah, sure,” he groused.
“Yes, certainly,” Pauline said, with iron in her voice. “We’re not going to sit on our hands and do nothing. If we’re going to be saved, we’ve got to save ourselves.”
“Can we…?” Angie murmured.
“Of course we can,” said Pauline. “And as soon as you get into the backup pod you set up a tracking beacon so your father can home in on it and get back to us.”
Theo started to answer that his father had run away from them and wouldn’t be likely to come back, but he held his tongue. Some things you just don’t say to your mother, even if they’re true, he thought.
Turning to Angie, Pauline said, “I want the two of you to work together. No bickering. Do you understand?”
Angela nodded. “I will if he will.”
“I’ll be all right,” Theo said to his sister. Then he added, “As long as you don’t try to lord it over me.”
“Lord it over you? When did I ever—”
“You’re always pulling that older sister stuff, like you know it all.”
“That’s not true!”
“Yes it is, dammit!”
“Stop it!” Pauline shouted. “Stop it this instant! Theo, I won’t have you using such language. And Angela, you will treat your brother with respect. Is that clear? Both of you?”
Angela nodded, her lips pressed into a thin bloodless line.
“Theo?” his mother demanded.
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry about the language.”
“You should be. If your vocabulary is so limited you should study your dictionary.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled again. It was Mom’s old line, about the dictionary. He looked over at Angie; she glared back at him.
“You two have to work together,” their mother insisted. “We don’t have time for your little spats and name- calling. You both have to start behaving like adults.”
Angie behave like an adult? Theo grumbled silently. When the universe stops expanding, maybe.
Pauline stood up. “Now then, if we all work together we can get through this. It’ll be quite an adventure to tell your children about!”
“Your grandchildren,” Angie said, with a faint smile.
Theo shook his head. Busywork, he said to himself. Mom just wants to keep us busy so we won’t have time to think about the fix Dad’s left us in. But she’s right; nobody’s going to help us, so we’ll have to help ourselves. Or die.
“Theo, we need the backup command center up and functioning. The sooner the better.”
“Right,” he said, thinking, Maybe she’s right. Maybe, if I can get the backup command pod on line, maybe we
Or maybe, he thought, we could make contact with the research station around Jupiter. We’re heading in that direction anyway.
His mother clapped her hands lightly, interrupting his thoughts. “Very well, then. On your feet, both of you! We all have work to do.”
Theo started toward the auxiliary airlock, but his mother stopped him. “Thee, you’ll have to get into your suit.”
“I know.”
“And before you do, I want you to take a shower and put on clean clothes. You don’t smell very good, you know.”
“Aw, jeezus—”
Pauline leveled a stern finger at him. “Language, young man!” Then, despite herself, the beginnings of a smile curled the corners of her lips. “You’re not so big that I can’t wash out your mouth with detergent.”
“Why should I take a shower now?” Theo protested. “I’m just gonna get sweated up again inside the suit.”
“Then you can take another shower when you get back.”
Angie smirked at him. But Pauline went on, “Angela, you’ll have to suit up and check the damage to the tunnels.”
“All right.”
“I’ll try to save some hot water for you, Angel face,” Theo said, grinning maliciously at his sister.
“He’s going to use up all the hot water on purpose, Mom,” Angela accused.
Pauline shook her head. Some things never change, no matter what, she thought. Then she added, Thank god.
I’ve got to be strong, she told herself. For both of them. They’re only children and they’re frightened. I’ve got to get them working, get them to repair the damage to the ship and put us on a trajectory that will take us back to civilization. It’s up to me. There’s no one else until Victor returns to us. I’ve got to make them feel that they’re contributing to our salvation, make them understand that they can save themselves—and me.
After a lightning-quick shower, Theo went alone to the main airlock and started pulling on his suit leggings. Mom’s being a pain in the butt, he said to himself. Shower first. Shower afterward. You’d think I smell like a garbage dump, the way she talks. And Angie just sits there and sneers at me, the dumb hippopotamus. As he wormed his feet into the insulated boots he thought, What if the backup pod’s been hit? Maybe that bastard took it out on purpose.
Theo looked up at the blank, scuffed metal bulkhead. Jeezus, if the backup pod’s out we’re not just up the creek without a surfboard. We’re dead.
ORE SHIP
BACKUP COMMAND POD
Theo wormed into the leggings of his space suit, then pulled on the thick-soled boots. As he hefted the suit’s torso over his head and slid his arms into its sleeves he thought about turtles back on Earth with their shells. Born on the Moon, Theo had never been to Earth, had never faced a full Earthly g, although his parents had always insisted that he and Angie spend hour after pointless hour in the cramped little centrifuge in
“Your body’s genetically equipped to handle a full g,” Dad repeated endlessly, “but you’ve got to make sure that your muscles are trained up to their full potential.”
