The spacecraft that transited between Earth orbit and Moonbase had a human pilot aboard only when they were carrying passengers. Even so, the pilot was merely a redundancy required by archaic safety regulations. The controllers landed the craft remotely, as they did all the unmanned cargo carriers.
Once the access tunnel was connected and pumped up with air Doug slid down the ladder in dreamy lunar slow motion, without touching his feet to its rungs, and landed softly behind the two controllers.
“Thanks, guys,” he said, despite the fact that they both happened to be women on this shift. Without waiting for them to reply, he ducked through the hatch and padded quickly in his softboots down the tunnel that led to The Pit, the receiving area.
The airlock’s inner hatch was just swinging open as he got there. Two men stepped over the hatch’s steel lip, both dressed in me olive green coveralls of the mining and manufacturing group. The next, another man, wearing the pumpkin orange of the science and exploration group, tripped over the coaming. A newcomer, Doug realized. Despite his weighted boots he stumbled and floundered, arms flailing. Doug went to him, grabbed him, straightened and steadied him.
“I’m okay,” the man said. Like most of the short-timers, he was in his twenties.
“It’s a little strange, your first time,” Doug said. “Especially after a couple days of zero-gee.”
“I’m okay,” he repeated, scowling as he pulled free of Doug’s supportive grasp.
Doug watched him walk awkwardly away, as if he were stepping on land mines. He’ll never make it here, Doug said to himself. Too uptight to accept help; probably too self-centered to give help when it’s needed.
Turning back to the hatch, he saw Bianca step carefully through, also in orange. Her round face broke into a wide grin at the sight of Doug.
“Welcome back!” Doug said, striding up to her, arms outstretched.
“Hi!” she said, shifting her travel bag so they could embrace in a welcoming hug.
Half an hour later they were in The Cave, sipping fruit punch and catching up on the months since Rhee had last been at Moonbase.
“I’m not just a grad student slave this time,” she said proudly from across the narrow table. “I’m here to do my thesis work.”
“No kidding?”
“If I don’t run into any snags, I’ll be Doctor Rhee this time next year.”
“Terrific,” said Doug.
He liked Bianca. Ever since their experience together on the first south polar expedition — which was known now as the Brennart Expedition — Doug had felt that Bianca Rhee was one of his best friends. She had come to Moonbase twice in the past six months, for a month each time. They had eaten together, joined others for parties or meals, talked endless hours about their hopes and plans for the future. Nothing more. Sometimes Doug got the feeling that Bianca might be feeling lonely at Moonbase; sometimes he thought he saw something in her eyes, in her voice, that made him feel as if she was — what? Disappointed? Sad? Uncertain?
Maybe she’s a frustrated ballerina, Doug thought, remembering her shy confession about dancing. She had never brought up the subject again, so he hadn’t asked about watching her dance.
Doug couldn’t figure it out, and didn’t feel that he wanted to probe Bianca’s psyche that deeply. Is it sex? he wondered.
But she’s older than I am and she’s got her own life back Earthside. Probably boyfriends or lovers. Maybe her family’s already picked out a husband for her. She’s never brought up the subject and it’s none of my business. We’re friends and that’s fine; no sense getting it all tangled up with sex.
Doug was not a virgin, but he was far from experienced. He had dated now and then during his year on the Caltech campus. Despite the so-called New Morality that the politicians, the media, and even the university administration constantly drummed on, several times his dates had ended in bed. He had never had to push it, he just went along with the tide. He never considered that being good-looking, athletic, easy-going — and extremely wealthy — made him attractive to young women. Doug simply did what came naturally.
At Moonbase it was the same, yet different. There was a core of some two hundred long-term Moonbase employees, plus a couple of permanent residents such as Lev Brudnoy and his mother. The long-term Lunatics tended to form solid, long-term relationships, for the most part, although there were a couple of loose cannons of both genders. Rumor had it that Brudnoy himself was quite a Romeo, or had once been.
It was among the short-timers, the men and women who visited Moonbase for a month or so at a time, that most of the action took place. Doug had enjoyed a couple of flings, nothing major, nothing more than fun and games.
“So what’s your thesis about?” he asked.
“Well, originally I was going to do it on brown dwarfs; you know, superlarge planets that’re almost real stars. With the equipment up here I’ve been able to do a real thorough search for them.”
“Have you found any?”
“I’ve got six candidates, but I’d need some ultrasensitive infrared equipment to definitely identify them as brown dwarfs. They’ve got to be radiating at the wavelengths predicted by Chartrand’s theory.”
“Sounds heavy,” said Doug.
She grinned again. Too heavy. Too big a subject My thesis advisor wouldn’t let me tackle it”
“So?”
She took a quick breath arid then said, delightedly, “So I’m going to analyze the chemical compositions of the Earth-crossing asteroids, using the observatory here at Moonbase.”
Doug was immediately interested. “Now that’s something we can use right here. One of these days we’re going to want to go out and grab an asteroid that’s rich in carbon—”
“I remember you talking about mat last time I was up here,” Rhee said. “That’s one of the reasons I picked that topic. I thought it might help you.”
“It’d be a terrific help, Bianca. When we actually start the project, you could be part of our team.”
She beamed at him.
“If we ever start it,” he added, more soberly.
“If?”
“I’m learning economics the hard way,” Doug said. “I want to get an asteroid and mine it so we can use nanomachines to build Clipperships from asteroid carbon, make them out of pure diamond.”
“Diamond?”
Nodding eagerly, Doug said, “Diamond’s got a strength-to-density ratio fifty times better than the aluminum alloys we make at the space stations.”
“And nanobugs can produce pure diamond?”
“Out of the carbon we mine from the asteroid, sure: atom by atom.”
“Wow!” Rhee said. “That’s brutal!”
“But it takes money to get started. Capital investment And Moonbase isn’t making enough profits to swing it”
“Won’t the corporation—”
Doug interrupted, “The board of directors won’t sink any risk capital into Moonbase, not with the U.N. working up an international treaty that’ll ban nanotechnology completely.”
“That would shut Moonbase down!” Rhee said, alarmed.
“Maybe,” Doug replied. “But whether it does or not, the corporation isn’t going to provide the capital we need for the asteroid project.”
Rhee stared glumly at her half-finished drink. “And I was ready to come up here full time.”
“Full time? Really?” Doug asked. “I mean, I know you’ve got family and school and everything back Earthside.”
“There aren’t that many jobs for astronomers back there,” she said. “I couldn’t even get a teaching assistant’s position this semester.”
“Well, I’m sure we could fit you in here.” Then he added, “If this flipping nanotech treaty doesn’t shut us down completely.”
“You don’t think that could happen, do you?”
Doug smiled reassuringly. “No way. We’ll keep Moonbase going and we’ll use our nanomachines no matter what laws they pass down there.” Then he added, “I hope.”