Lifeline

But who really would get the most out of being sent? Clancy himself was the first obvious choice, since it was his invention—if he wanted to go. Someone else in his crew would go next. But yet … they couldn’t send just engineers; they needed someone who would make the event meaningful, an emissary—someone who could make this joining of the colonies truly memorable. Someone to make speeches and give good holotank footage.

McLaris stopped tapping his dual-end pen and bent it between his fingers.

He knew who else should go—someone who had ties back on Orbitech 1 … someone who had the vision to pull the separate colonies together and ensure the survival of the colonists.

Someone who needed to face up to the fact that he had stolen and destroyed the last regular means for the colonies to visit each other.

McLaris’s pen broke in half. He looked at the two pieces, bewildered, thinking how foolish it would be to try and put them back together again.

Once the six-pack climbed through the pass, Rutherford Crater sloped down to the monotonous plain where Clavius Base lay. Shen pushed the vehicle to its full speed, driving without relying on its inertial navigation system to find her way back. She turned on the emergency beacon, and she knew Clavius would be standing by with help when she got in. But until she came within line of sight of a receiver, she couldn’t depend on anybody else.

Clancy’s suit diagnostics were tied in to the six-pack through a light fiber; Shen kept his vital signs flashed on the vehicle’s heads-up display across the front screen. The numbers shimmered in a ghostly image from the holographic projection. Looking at Clancy’s life signs, she didn’t want to think about ghosts.

Two other six-packs appeared as dots across the plain, growing in size as they raced toward her. What good are they supposed to do? she wondered. I’m already trucking as fast as I can. She ignored their radio calls and drove on, not slowing down for fear of cutting Clancy’s time.

The low mounds and transmitting towers of the base showed up on the flat pan of the crater floor. Wide tracks from the other six-packs looked like the marks of a giant doodlebug around the center of the settlement. Not until she pulled up to the main airlock at Clavius Base did she allow anyone to help her—and then only to carry Clancy into the clinic.

Shen didn’t leave his side as they cycled through the big doors. Three medics hauled Clancy’s bulk between them, pushing her aside.

As he was carried away, Clancy mumbled something unintelligible. If those are his last words, Shen thought, he damn well better be saying how much he loves me.

Chapter 46

ORBITECH 1—Day 50

Harhoosma’s lab space would not be private enough. Other people, other listeners, were dangerous things to have nearby.

Allen Terachyk recalled the lesson shown by Linda Arnando’s mistake: privacy could no longer be assumed on Orbitech 1 unless one took elaborate precautions beforehand. Terachyk wanted no eavesdroppers, no way for sharp ears to hear his words and report them back to Brahms.

He entered the vacuum welders’ zero-G lab space without announcing himself. The smell of feed chemicals and raw materials hung in the air. Smoke floated near the burns; without gravity, it could not rise to the ventilator filters. Large fans on either side of the room kept the air stirred. On the wall, a cheery red sign reminded them that Orbitech 1 considered “Safety First!”

Three men and one woman floated at the far wall of the chamber, pressed against a transparent shield with their hands thrust into gloves that extended to a vacuum chamber outside. In the cold and microgravity of space, they tested welding techniques, different filler metals or base alloys. The welders did not need to worry about heated metals absorbing oxygen or nitrogen in the vacuum, which would have made a weld brittle and weak.

Other workers practiced simple zero-G welding at several modules, spraying argon or helium shielding onto the metal, trying new flux compositions that would not separate in the weightless environment. Some of the operations hissed and sputtered with plasma arcs and molten metal; others used silent electrical-resistance welding, while the workers chatted in forced conversation.

Terachyk could call to mind most of the projects here, since he inspected them in his assessor duties. Much of the bustle and conversation involved repeating experiments, verifying results, gaining proficiency in techniques—and appearing busy for Terachyk’s benefit. Other watchers reported to him daily with summaries of work performed by the nontechnical personnel on Orbitech 1, but Terachyk considered it his responsibility to be familiar with all the major research.