Jupiter Project (17 page)

“Right!”

“I’m with Jablons!”

“Very fine, gentlemen,” the Commander said. “What do you propose?”

“Shoot the Council!”

Commander Aarons smiled wryly. “Impractical, I am afraid. Anyone else?”

Mrs. Moto stood up. “We are citizens of many different countries. Could we not appeal through our geographical representatives?”

“We are only a few more than twelve hundred people. Madam.” Commander Aarons said. “We carry very little political clout.”

“Senator Davidson has always supported the Lab. We can appeal to him,” a voice said.

A man stood and waved for attention from the Commander. When he got it he said. “Judging from a few hints in the legislative reports we get sandwiched into the news from Earth, Senator Davidson fought for us and lost. He has relinquished his position on the Advisory Board.” The Commander nodded. “Anyway, a senator is a creature half-man and half-horse. Normally the top half is a man. You can’t expect them to set sail against the prevailing winds.”

Some people nodded; others looked glum.

A woman stood. “Yes, Mrs. Schloffski?” the Commander said and I recognized her from the
Sagan.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said dramatically, “I have been sorely distressed at the things said here tonight. Murder and insurrection have been advocated. I think it is time the saner, wiser heads in this Laboratory are heeded—goodness knows we have not been listened to enough in the past. In all honesty, I feel that if the Commander and his staff had sought out proper council among the Laboratory members we would not be having such difficulties now. I have always thought—”

“Do you have a point, Mrs. Schloffski?” Commander Aarons said mildly.

“Of course I do. I wanted to say that, once the Council has spoken, we should all be good enough citizens to recognize that fact and act accordingly. Certainly there is no one else to blame than ourselves for the fact that we have found so little of lasting scientific interest out here—”

“Who says?”

“How would
you
know?”

“—far from our natural home.” She glared at the hecklers. “I believe there are a number of women who followed their husbands out from Earth and feel that they have sacrificed enough. The living conditions here are wretched. I imagine there will be many of us who will be
glad
to go home.”

Mrs. Schloffski sat down. Her husband, sitting next to her, said something. She snapped at him and he opened his mouth and then closed it again. After that he was quiet.

“Commander?” my mother said, standing. “I would like to speak for the women
I
know. We are not ready to go Earthside until our jobs are finished here. We will stand by our husbands even if we don’t have clean, ironed sheets every day.”

There was a burst of applause. Several hands were waving for attention. The Commander picked my father’s.

“Something bothers me about your wording, Commander. You said everyone returns on the
Argosy?
”

“Correct.”

“I don’t believe the Can’s fusion plant and electrical generators can be left to automatic control; it’s too risky. We will have to shut them down before we go.”

“What’s your point?” someone in the audience said.

“Without current our superconducting magnets will not work.”

There was a murmur as a few people saw what Dad was driving at. Commander Aarons frowned and unconsciously tugged at his moustache.

“Without the magnets,” my father went on, “the Can won’t be completely shielded from the Van Allen belt radiation. High-energy electrons and protons will pass into the Laboratory. Within a year they will create enough radioactive isotopes to make the living quarters here uninhabitable. The isotopes will be distributed randomly around the Lab, in the walls and deck. The Lab will be unlivable.”

The crowd was silent for a moment. An engineer said, “You mean men couldn’t come back, ever? The Can would be contaminated?”

“It looks that way.”

“Doctor Yakana is in charge of radiation control. Doctor, do you agree with Dr. Bohles?”

A lanky man near the front nodded.

“Those Earthside flea-brains!” someone shouted.

“Commander!” one of the ship’s officers said. “Did the Council say they were abandoning the Lab?”

Aarons sighed. “My orders say ‘The facility will be reactivated when fiscal policy permits.’ That’s all.”

“When they speak in Latin it’s always a brush-off,” Zak said to me. The crowd was muttering, restless.

A ship’s officer stood up. He was Lt. Sharma, a heavy, dark man from Calcutta who ranked middle-high on the squash roster.

“Sir, I think most of us have had enough of ISA,” he said. “Right?” He turned to the audience and they answered with a storm of clapping.

“There’s one thing the Council forgot. We don’t have to cooperate! They can’t force us. Who is going to send armed men all the way out to Jupiter?”

“I say we stay!” another voice said. “Refuse to board the
Argosy.
We’ll thumb our noses at ’em.”

Lt. Sharma shook his head. “Lord preserve me from my friends. That isn’t what I meant. Not all of us can live out here indefinitely—we need trace elements in our diet, spare parts for the life system and a hundred other things.”

“Okay, how long can we stick it out?” someone said.

“I am not qualified to say,” Commander Aarons said. “You three”—he pointed out two bridge officers and the supervisor of Maintenance Division—“put your heads together and give us a guess.”

The three women met in an aisle and murmured together for a moment while everybody watched. They nodded. “A little less than two years before we have serious trouble,” one of them said.

“Thank you. I am no politician or economist, but I do not believe Earth’s troubles will clear up in two years. The Council will not be able to send more ships by that time. And if we rebel now I
know
they’re not going to be in the mood, anyway.”

Lt. Sharma looked exasperated. “Sir, that is not what I had in mind.”

“Oh?”

“Most of the Can’s population must return Earthside. We’ll never survive, otherwise. But we don’t have to leave the project deserted. Leave behind a skeleton crew to keep the superconductors working, so that someday men can come back.”

Mr. Moto stood up. “That sounds fine to me. We should leave a few scientists, too, to keep watch on Jupiter. Even simple, close-up observations covering the time the rest of us are gone will be immensely important.”

“I volunteer,” Mr. Jablons said.

“Me, too!”

“Single personnel should have preference.”

“That’s unfair!”

“Merde!”

“You can’t—”

“Ich muss—”

“
Quiet!
” Commander Aarons tugged at his moustache. “All that will be decided later.” He gazed slowly around the bowl. “I think we are all far too disturbed and hot under the collar to make reasonable judgments right now. I urge you all to think this matter through carefully; your lives may depend on it.

“I ask you then to go home and discuss it among your families. In a few days we will meet again. Good evening.”

There was a burst of applause as he left the podium.

Jenny and Zak and I got out ahead of the crowd and headed for my home. People were pretty stunned. It wasn’t until some time later that I remembered my date with Jenny; both of us had forgotten it.

“What do you think our chances are of staying on?” she asked me.

“Pretty grim. You can be sure any skeleton crew won’t include us.”

“Why has it got to be so few people?” Zak said. “We could cut out a lot of things, like the Ganymede base—”

“And have us climbing the walls and getting claustrophobic?” Jenny said. “No thankee.”

“Well, we could stretch the lifetime of some of our machines by not using them so much. Take your shuttles; don’t send them out so often. Save fuel, too.”

“And if a satellite goes on the blink we just let it sit for a month?” Jenny said, tossing her head to arrange her hair. “What’s the point of staying out here, if we can’t get any research done?”

“I think we ought to abide by what the Commander decides and not put up a squawk.” I said. “Things will be touch and go when the
Argosy
arrives, as it is.”

“What do you mean?” Jenny said.

“I’m not so sure the Council will expect us to come along meekly. They might have a few soldiers on that ship.”

“Oh,” she said.

“The bridge officers have firearms,” Zak said.

“I know. And shooting off a hand weapon in a spaceship is stupid, but it might happen. One bad shot and everybody on that corridor will be breathing vacuum.”

“You have a better idea?” Zak said.

“Sure,” I grinned. “Hide. A few of us stay behind, hidden—” We were just crossing an intersection of two tubes.

“Typical,” said a familiar voice. “But I didn’t think you would admit it. Bohles.”

Yuri came walking up. “Admit what?” I said.

“To being a coward.” Yuri said. “Going to hide from the
Argosy
crew? Count on them not missing the skeleton crew that is left behind?”

“That was the idea,” I said sullenly.

“You don’t want to fight it out with them like a man, eh?” He gave me his confident smile. “No, you would rather hide the skeleton crew and act like a coward.” He was playing this out for the benefit of Jenny and Zak. He casually folded his arms and smirked at me.

“Don’t bother him, Yuri.” Jenny said. There was a kind of plaintive note in her voice. As though she were pleading for me.

“No,
let
him bother me,” I said, and hit Yuri in the mouth.

He looked surprised, then angry. The punch hadn’t hurt him much. I blinked, and saw yellow sunlight, the school yard—

“You little—” he said, lowering his arms. I hit him again, harder. This time he stepped back, under the blow, and caught me solidly across the ribs. Suddenly I felt a cold tremor of naked fear.

That’s where I lost track. I used fists, elbows and even tried butting him with my head, and meanwhile Yuri was slamming his big ham hands into me, staggering me with every punch, making my eyes blur. I knew if I kept on and watched how his balance shifted just before he punched I could avoid most of the damage. And that meant I would win, because absolutely nothing was going to stop me from beating Yuri to a pulp, I told myself.
The dust, the jeering, bright sunlight…

Only…my arms were so heavy…

It took them forever to reach out and hit Yuri, and when they did I could feel the shock all the way to my shoulder. I was slowing down, and Yuri was speeding up. I felt the sharp pain of being hit—

Far away a voice said. “Hey! Break it up!” and a hand spun me around.

It was one of the bridge officers, frowning at me. I couldn’t remember his name. My mind was a swirl of fear and self-disgust.

“If you two kids haven’t got anything better to do than brawl, when the Lab is in deep trouble—”

“I’ll take care of it, sir,” Zak said, pulling at my sleeve. Yuri lowered his fists and snorted contemptuously at me. Jenny pushed him away. “Wo—won’t happen again.” I gasped.

Somehow the bridge officer disappeared and I was being led down a corridor, toward home. I stumbled blindly away.

The next morning I could hardly remember what had happened. Mom had patched me up, disinfected a cut over my cheekbone, and gave me a sedative. It must have been more than that: I went out like a light, and woke up with a dull buzzing in my head.

Neither Mom nor Dad mentioned the fight at breakfast. I didn’t either, losers seldom do.

We did talk about the meeting, though. Dad came on rather pontifically about his obligation to his family and the fact that the Council might
never
send a relief expedition out to the Can’s skeleton crew. It wasn’t beyond ISA to drop the problem, political entanglements and all, and conveniently forget that there were men still circling Jupiter.

So, said Dad, the Bohles family would ship out on the
Argosy. I
pointed out to him that by the time the
Argosy
arrived I would be eighteen and technically a free adult.

That didn’t go down very well. Dad frowned and Mom started to get tears in the corners of her eyes.

“After all,” I said, feeling embarrassed, “you can’t be
sure
ISA won’t return. I’ll come Earthside then.”

Dad sighed. “No, it’s not that.”

“What is it, then?”

“You will be a stranger to us by then, Mattie.” Mom said. “These next few years are the last ones we would ever have together as a family, and now…”

“Leyetta,” Dad said. “Quiet. You can’t shoulder the boy with that. He has to start finding his way alone now.”

“Well, I didn’t mean it quite that way,” I said uncomfortably. “I don’t want to break up the family. You’re all I’ve got. But if I have a chance to stay here…”

“You should take it.” Dad said decisively. “I would’ve done the same at your age.”

“Paul!”

“It’s true. Leyetta. A man has got to go his own way sometime.”

“Don’t worry, Mom.” I searched around for some way to console her. “I probably won’t be picked to stay, anyhow.” But I knew very well that if I got the chance, I’d stick it out here.

“If you do stay, Matt.” Dad said slowly, “be sure you come Earthside when you can. We don’t want to lose track of you altogether.”

“Huh? Why, you’ll both be coming out as soon as ISA gets its head on straight.”

Mom shook her head. “No. Mattie… In a few more years there will be others, just as capable a
nd
younger.”

“No!”

“Yes, I’m afraid.” Dad smiled slightly. “But let’s not worry ourselves about that. Maybe there will be a way to weasel around the rules, who knows? The point that bothers me is that we came so close out here, we almost found life, and now it might be decades—hell, centuries!—before men get another crack at it.”

“I don’t see how you can be so sure there
is
life. Paul.” Mom said. “All I hear about is an endless series of negative results.”

“Atmospheric Studies is going deeper and deeper with those bathyscaphes. If there is anything there—and there
must
be!—they will find it.”