"How long does it take to install?"
Hudson shrugged. "Half an hour, but it's better if we can run some tests. Four or five hours of tests after installation."
"And then?"
"Launch," Gary said. "And I get to find out what free fall feels like."
"You're going then," Miller said. He made another note.
"Hell yes I'm going," Gary said. "I've waited all my life. Not to mention what they'll do to me for stealing my own ship. I'd take Annie, too, but she's in New York. Laid up for two weeks with a cracked ankle. Lousy timing."
Makes sense." C.C. wrote rapidly. "So. There's you, and the two Angels. Say about seven hundred pounds. How much more can we lift?"
"Four thousand pounds," Gary said.
"Hah. One seat open, and still room for supplies."
Alex shook his head. "Before you start filling those seats, you better let me talk to Commander Hopkins. He's going to have something to say about that."
"Big Daddy, this is Piranha. Big Daddy, this is Piranha."
"Da, Piranha, we relay you. Be standink by."
"Alex! Are you all right?"
"Better than all right, Mary. Is the Commander there?"
"I'm here, MacLeod. What's your situation?"
"Damned good, that's what my situation is," Alex said. "I feel like singing, that's what."
"Are you drunk?"
"No, sir, not drunk. Not on booze, anyway. Commander, we have a spacecraft."
There was a long pause. "The transponder says you're in the Mojave Desert. Phoenix?"
"Yes, sir. Phoenix. We can--Gary Hudson says we can lift off in about five days. With cargo. About two tons of cargo. Seeds, computer chips, vegetables, minerals--you name it, they seem to have found it for us."
"Hudson. Gary Hudson. He's still alive?"
"Yes, sir, alive and in charge. You know him?"
"I know about him."
Alex couldn't get any information from the tone of voice. "Sir, he wants to come up with us. But wait until you hear what all we can bring with us. Look, I know Hudson's a little old, and you don't want more crew, but-"
"That's funny," Hopkins said.
"Sir?"
"MacLeod, I'd far rather have Hudson than you; He's a ship designer. And that ship- Is Hudson there?'
"Yes, sir."
"Put him on."
Alex had set up the radio in Hudson's office. He motioned Hudson in and took off the headset. "He wants to talk to you. Commander, this is Gary Hudson. Gary, Commander Lonny Hopkins."
"Hello, Commander." Hudson put on the headset. "Yes. Yes, sir, it's the old Phoenix, and I believe she'll work, but it's going to be close. We'll get into an elliptical orbit, but there's not enough fuel to rendezvous. You'll have to come get us."
Alex listened for a moment, then felt useless. Maybe they wouldn't want him to listen? I'd far rather have Hudson than you. It made sense, but it still hurt. He went out into the main engineering bay. The others were grinning like crazy, but their faces fell when they saw Alex's expression.
"What did he say?" Gordon asked. "It is impossible after all?"
"Huh? No, as far as I know everything's fine. Last I heard they were talking details, but it didn't sound like anything was a showstopper."
"Then what is eating you?" Sherrine asked. "We're here! It's working!" Her expression didn't match her words. She looked almost as down as Alex did.
"It's--"
"Alex," Hudson called. "Your turn again."
"Yes, sir," Alex said. "Of course I can't tell without really inspecting the ship, but everything looks all right. Gary started the diesel compressor, and that works. We don't want to fire up the jet turbo expander until the hydrogen is flowing, but the unit's in place. I'd say it's just the way Hudson explained it, we make the fuel, steal an IMU, and go. About five days."
"All right," Hopkins said. "And meanwhile there's all that cargo." There was no video link but Alex could see Hopkins rubbing his hands together. "And the ship! The ship!--OK. Now for passengers. I'm told it seats four. I don't have to tell you that we don't really need more drones up here. Hudson's fine. Hudson's wonderful. Gordon's people will be very pleased to get him back. That's two. But then there's a problem."
"Problem, sir? I'm all right, I won't have to do any EVA on this--"
"You might, but that's not the difficulty." Commander Hopkins paused for a moment. "Major MacLeod, I'll come get you. But bring your own woman."
"Sir."
"We understand each other, MacLeod. Shall I get Mary in on this loop? I can, and I will if I have to."
"MacLeod, I wouldn't risk the fuel for you. You know that, I know that, Mary knows that. But you're bringing up treasure beyond price, and you'll have a new job up here, coordinating with our friends on the ground, because, although you don't seem to have noticed it, I have: that ship can land and take off again. We can send it back down for more supplies."
Son of a bitch, Alex thought. Of course it can. We were so concerned with getting up there--" Yes. I see that."
"So someone will coordinate with the ground people. You seem to understand them, and there's nothing else for you to do between flights, so it's you. Only I don't want you hanging around Mary while you do it. She's pregnant, you know."
"No. I didn't know."
"It may be yours. It's not mine."
"Shut up. I've been sterile since the Lunar reactor flared. I was impotent for a while, too. Now I'm still sterile, but I'm not impotent. And you will stay away from Mary. I want to be sure of that. Bring your own woman, MacLeod."
"So I'm in."
"Yes. Smile?"
Sherrine considered that. "I'll come, of course. But you get to tell Bob."
"Sherrine, there's room for five, or six, or whoever we have to take. It's a trade, passenger for cargo--"
"Sure."
"We'll get him aboard. But without you, I don't go. And I'm on record, I could live with that. Would you live with me on the ground? Marry me?"
"I'll come."
"Why aren't we smiling?"
Sherrine lunged. Alex thought the impact would knock him backward, but she caught her mass and his, too. What muscles she had! And she felt so good. Why hadn't they been doing this ever since Flagstaff? And she buried her face in his throat and said, "It's, I wanted, damn. Four seats. Would you have asked me anyway?"
"When I got up the nerve."
"Time was getting damn short, Alex! How long would you have waited?"
"Oh… just about thirty seconds too long, judging by past performance. But it's all right, right? Lonny Hopkins as Cupid." He pulled back to see her face. "It's not okay."
"It's okay," Sherrine said. "I'm tougher than you think."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"Death Will Not Release You…"
Stakeout could be a peaceful, lazy, catch-up time. Arteria hadn't done stakeout in years. She played a box of cassettes from Books by Mail while she watched and waited.
Some science fiction was still approved. The box was labeled as "The Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner.
She had a perfect site, on a hill high above the old Rogers Dry Lake. Her binoculars and telescope camera lenses could see most of Thunder Ridge.
Vehicles came: vans and campers, six to ten passengers each. Numerous grocery bags went into the concrete buildings. Nothing heavy. The tanker trucks had vanished into a garage; they certainly hadn't come down the hill again. Vehicles came and went. Some stayed.