There wasn’t much talking for the next couple of hours. Vera was sleeping in the back of Timo’s ship. The Moon was on course for Mars, they just had to follow it and take credit when it arrived in orbit. Timo kept a close watch. Den would try something sooner or later, probably sooner. They were looking at the biggest payday in the history of post-Earth, and still Den wouldn’t want to split anything if he wasn’t forced to.
Den had tried to sneak around the Moon twice. Timo had seen him, and managed to look like he was making routine course adjustments which happened to keep him out of the way.
“Circle above engines,” Vera said, taking a place on the chair behind him.
As Timo started to move, he glimpsed Den’s ship underneath him, hiding in the shadow of the Moon. He could have had him this time. Timo shuddered, but he kept his ship moving steadily.
Den was following cautiously. He wouldn’t know if he’d been seen.
As they passed behind Vera’s engines, now closed down, Timo saw two flashes from behind one of the engine bells. Vera was sitting on the chair with her remote control, looking at the small screen.
“Den,” Timo said. It was time for a distraction. “What are you doing?”
“Ain’t it obvious?” Den said. “I’m gonna take you out. Sorry Timo, you’ve always been a good friend.”
Timo had never been that good of a friend to Den, he knew better.
“That’s not too comforting,” Timo said. “Besides, I don’t think that old tub can catch me.”
“I’ll catch you soon enough,” Den said. “Or run you off. That’s it kid, just take off and I’ll take care of the Moon. I don’t really want you dead.”
“You just don’t want to pay me,” Timo said. “The Moon is mine. You should be the one to leave.”
“That won’t happen,” Den said.
Vera sat up and pulled herself closer to the control panel.
“Den,” she said. “Look above.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Who was that?” Den asked. He always was a little thick.
Then his ship blew up. Vera had guided two small missiles right into his ship. Timo watched the glowing debris scatter in every direction and he tried to make himself feel better over the death of Den.
Actually, he decided, the human race was better off without him.
Timo took his turn sleeping, setting his timer up to ten hours before he left Vera in the control seat.
Den had been stupid. All he had to do was go along with the job and he could have retired a rich man. Even split three ways, the money they would make on this salvage would be more than they could ever spend.
Den was gone. Timo hadn’t slept so well in a long time.
“All good?” he asked as he returned to the control room. He had decided he liked Vera. Since he was going to be cooped up with her in his ship for more than a year, it would be better if they could get along.
“All good,” Vera said. “I put rations in side pack of space suit. Could you get?”
“Sure,” Timo said. He stepped into the air lock and opened the side pack of the greyish suit Vera had worn. He put his hand inside. There was nothing in it. Then he checked the other side.
The door closed behind him.
“You are an idiot,” her voice crackled though the intercom.
“How am I an idiot?” Timo asked, taking a quick look around. None of the suits in the air lock had hoses on them. Someone had collected them while he’d been sleeping. They would not help him.
“You knew Den was going to try to kill you,” Vera said. Her English was suddenly very good. “I had to bail you out.”
The emergency switch, behind the landing kit, was broken. Vera had been thorough.
“Maybe I had a plan,” Timo said. “But yours worked better.”
The emergency conduit was bolted closed. He was beginning to not like Vera, not one bit.
“I doubt that,” Vera said. “I know your type. Always hoping for the best in people. It’s a wonder you’ve lived this long.”
He moved over to the small window on the door. It was over; she had outsmarted him, but maybe not completely.
“I have a backup plan,” Timo said. “We can work this out.”
“I doubt that,” Vera said, and opened the outer door.
Timo grabbed the tool kit. It had magnetics, but it came with him as the air pushed him out. Timo held his breath as he drifted away. He liked that old ship. As he got pushed outward, he noticed the chalk square just above the air lock.
He should have let Weist put in that emergency exit on the top. He might have had a chance of climbing into it. As it was, he didn’t have a chance at all.
Vera closed the outside door and returned to the controls of the ship — her ship now. She couldn’t decide which of the two had been worse, the pig or the idealist. The pig had tried to kill her the moment she was no longer useful, but he’d been honest. The idealist thought they could work together and come out ahead; but she had seen that “repopulating the species” look in his eye when he thought she wasn’t looking. Staying in a small ship with him for more than a year would have been hell.
She had been watching Timo very closely. There were individualities to every ship, an order to the controls that only the pilot would know. The controls were basic; it wouldn’t take her long to get the feel of it.
“What was it you did every time you sat down?” She asked herself. Perhaps she would spend a few days talking to the ghost of Timo. It was the only way she’d let him keep her company.
She strapped herself in, like he always did. Then he would reach up and turn a knob on the far corner of the panel.
The knob wasn’t there. There was a nondescript hole with no label. Vera was sure there had been something in there before.
Maybe it was important; maybe it was just an idiosyncrasy. It didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be that hard to pull the control panel and figure out what it was, and replace it if she had to.
There was a tool kit somewhere around, she’d seen it.
Vera didn’t know it was a timing knob, and that the ship was set to explode when it reached zero. As it turned out, an hour and fifteen minutes after she sent Timo out of the airlock.
The Mars colony — they still called themselves a colony — started out as a few temporary shelters put in place for the year-long exploration of the planet. The time frame had changed when the Earth died. They had spent the first few years finding ways to make the colony sustainable with the materials at hand. It had not been easy.
Even so, their population had doubled every year for the first three years.
“Some kind of comet, I guess,” Sandy said as they sun rose opposite a bright sphere which had appeared in the night sky. They had noticed it half an hour before, and it would be setting within a minute or two.
“I’ll set up the telescope for tomorrow night. We’ll get a good look at it and see if we can figure out where it’s going.”
There was only one telescope in the colony and Sandy had it. She spent as much time teaching people the use and care of the telescope as she did actually using it herself. The colony had learned to share; it was a matter of survival.
“Maybe one of the guys found another comet for us,” Gene said, taking a last look. “We’ve been asking for almost a year. If it is, we’ll have lakes by next month.”
Sandy was out early that evening. As the sun set, the bright sphere came up above the horizon, brighter than it had been the night before. Sandy got it in focus. She looked for a moment, and then pulled her phone out of her pocket. She almost dropped it as she dialed. The governor would want to hear this.