Nodding understandingly, she asked, “Moslems are allowed four wives, aren’t they?”
He seemed pleased that she knew. “The Koran allows four, yes. But the laws of the United States make polygamy illegal.”
With a slight frown, Melissa said, “Secular law shouldn’t be placed above religious law. Don’t you agree?”
“In this case, I agree wholeheartedly!”
Melissa looked down at her dinner, a prepackaged meal heated in the portable microwave oven. We might as well be aboard an airliner, she thought. The natives who had returned to the island were catching fresh fish in the lagoon, although the papaya and mango and other fruit trees had been stripped by the typhoon’s winds, if not flattened altogether.
Rashid did not offer wine; neither of them imbibed. Instead they drank clear water produced by the desalting plant that had finally gone into operation.
Slowly, as they ate and chatted, Melissa brought the subject around to Moonbase.
“I just don’t understand how the corporation can risk so much of its resources on a totally unproven scheme,” she said.
“Unproven?”
“The idea of manufacniring Clipperships with nanomachines,” Melissa said. “Nanotechnology isn’t really that reliable. It’s dangerous, in fact.”
“They use nanomachines at Moonbase all the time.”
“Yes, of course,” she said, “but only for the simplest of tasks, like taking oxygen out of the regolith. When it comes to trying to build the mass driver, they’re having trouble, aren’t they?”
Rashid’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re very well informed.”
“I am your assistant,” said Melissa. “It’s my job to know what you need to know.”
“Yes.”
“And it worries me,” she went on, “that your whole standing in the corporation hangs on this crazy scheme. How on Earth did you ever agree to be part of it?”
His brow knit more deeply. “I really had no choice. I was transferred here on the orders of Joanna Stavenger.”
“Isn’t she Greg Masterson’s mother?” Melissa asked innocently.
“Yes. And he’s the director of Moonbase.”
“But you’re his superior. He reports to you in the corporate chain of command.”
His nostrils flaring slightly, Rashid muttered, “Not for long, I imagine. He’ll be sitting on the board of directors before I do, no doubt.”
“Because of his mother?”
“Why else?”
“But she’s retired, hasn’t she? She’s living up at Moonbase, too.”
“She’s still on the board of directors. And still very powerful.”
Melissa took a sip of water, then asked, “So because of this woman you must risk your career?”
Stiffening, Rashid replied, “I wouldn’t put it just that way.”
“But suppose Kiribati decides one day to sign the U.N. treaty? What happens then?”
“That won’t happen.”
“No one expected New Zealand to sign the treaty, but they did. What if Kiribati does, too?”
Rashid puffed out a breath. “The whole scheme collapses like a house of cards.”
“And yet you have-the key to the corporation’s salvation in your hands, don’t you?”
“I do?”
“Fusion power,” said Melissa. “The secret of the stars, brought to Earth.”
“Ah, yes! Fusion. Yes, I had great hopes for it.” His face darkened again. “Before I was assigned to the Kiribati Manufacturing and Entertainment Corporation.” He pronounced the words with clear disgust.
“And what’s happening with the fusion development program?” Melissa asked.
“Nothing. It’s dead in the water. If the corporation would only put some funding behind the effort…”
She reached across the table to put her hand on his. “Why don’t you move in that direction?”
“I can’t,” he said. “I’ve got to get this miserable resort complex up and going.”
“Wouldn’t the board back you, if you made a strong presentation about the benefits of fusion energy?”
Rashid blinked at her several times as he stroked his trim dark beard. “With Quintana gone,” he muttered, “the balance of power on the board is rather shaky.”
“Moonbase has always been such a marginal operation,” said Melissa eagerly. “Why not cut it entirely and devote our resources to developing fusion? That way there won’t be any problems with the U.N. treaty to worry about, and you can end this farce of a resort complex here in these godforesaken islands.”
“But the fusion generator requires helium-three.” — Melissa waved an impatient hand. “One trip to the Moon per year could scoop up enough helium-three to run a hundred fusion generators. You don’t need a permanent base on the Moon for that.”
“Are you certain?”
She nodded. “Make fusion work and you can forget about Kiribati.”
Rashid laughed shakily. “I could go home to Savannah.”
“You could be elected to the board of directors!”
“And solve the world’s energy problems.”
“You could become the most powerful man in the corporation,” Melissa urged. “The most powerful man on Earth!”
He laughed again, stronger. “I could live in a Moslem nation, where a man is allowed his proper number of wives.”
“And concubines,” said Melissa, deliciously.
For an instant Rashid looked as if he would toss the table aside and seize her in his arms. But then the fire in his eyes dimmed, shifted. His face fell.
“Greg Masterson,” he muttered. “And his mother.”
“But they’re a quarter-million miles away,” Melissa said. “You can outmaneuver them.”
He shook his head. “Joanna is a powerful woman. And Greg — he must be the one behind this diamond Clippership concept.”
Melissa took a deep breath, then said, “Why don’t you let me deal with them?”
“What do you mean?”
Very seriously, Melissa replied, “Let me go to Moonbase and speak to them directly. Let me try to convince them that shutting down Moonbase is the right thing for the corporation to do.”
“How on Earth can you possibly do that?”
With a knowing smile, Melissa said, “Oh, there are ways to convince people of almost anything.”
“Are there?”
“Yes, of course. Especially if you know things about them that they would prefer to keep others from knowing.”
PIE FARM
“I am honored that you have come to see my humble patch of weeds,” said Lev Brudnoy, quite seriously.
He had been bent over one of the miniature lime trees that he had planted in a row of pots filled with lunar sand. Getting the cuttings to start the miniature citrus orchard had been relatively easy; people brought them up from Earthside, and, after an intense inspection by Moonbase’s environmental protection scientists, they were carried in sealed containers to the farm. The little orchard was another step in Operation Bootstrap.
Joanna cocked a brow at him. “Come off it, Lev. We’re not in old Mother Russia anymore.”
Brudnoy pawed awkwardly at his shock of graying hair. “But you are such a great lady, and I am only a sort of peasant…”
“Lev,” said Joanna sternly, “how long have we known each other?”
He screwed up his eyes, thinking. “About nine months, more or less.”
“How much actual work have you seen me do in that time?”
“Work?” He spread his hands. “Your work is far removed from the kind of thing I do.”
“Not any more,” said Joanna. “If we’re going to make a success of this Operation Bootstrap that you helped hatch up—”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Maybe it was entirely Doug’s idea, but I have a feeling that you at least aided and abetted him.”
Brudnoy spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness. “I am part of the cabal, I confess it freely.”
Joanna’s expression relaxed into a smile. “Very good. So am I, from here on. I’m here to help you. What do you want me to do? Weeding? Picking? Name it.”
He swallowed visibly. “Well, we don’t have weeds. So far, we’ve, been able to screen them out before we accept a new batch of seeds or cuttings. But pruning is important…”