"I honestly don't know. I just couldn't face going back to Earth, back to a desk job and the lecture tour. You've seen over- the-hill astronauts. I could land a job on the board of directors of some big corporation." She laughed, and Bill smiled slightly.
"That's what I'm going to do," he said. "But I'm hoping for the research department. Leaving space doesn't scare me. You know I'll be going back, don't you?"
Cirocco nodded. "I knew it when I saw your nice new uniform. "
He chuckled, but there was little mirth in it. They looked at each other for a time, then Cirocco reached out and took his hand. He smiled with one corner of his mouth, leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
"Good luck," he said.
"You too, Bill."
Across the room, Streikov cleared his throat.
"Captain bones, Captain Svensen would like to talk to you now."
"Yes, Wally?"
"Rocky, we've sent your report on to Earth. It will take some analysis, so there won't be a definite decision for a few days. But we up here have added our recommendation to yours, and I don't think there will be any problem. I expect to upgrade the base camp to a cultural mission and United Nations Embassy. I'd offer you the job of ambassador, but we brought someone along in case our negotiations were successful. Besides, I expect you're anxious to get back."
Gaby and Cirocco laughed, and Bill joined in soon after.
"Sorry, Wally. I'm not anxious to go back. I'm not going back. And I couldn't take the job even if you offered it."
"Why not?"
"Conflict of interest."
She had known it would not he that simple, and it was not. She formally resigned her commission, explained her reasons to Captain Svensen, then listened patiently as he told her, in increasingly peremptory terms, just why she had to go back, and for good measure, why Calvin had to return as well.
"The doctor says he can be treated. Bill's memory can be restored, Gaby's phobia can probably be cured."
"I'm sure Calvin can be cured, but he's happy where he is. Gaby's already been cured. But what do you plan to do for April?"
"I was hoping you could help coax her to come back to us be- fore you came aboard. I'm surest,
"You don't know what you're talking about. I'm not going back, and that's all there is to be said. It's been nice talking to you." She turned on her heel and strode from the room. No one tried to stop her.
She and Gaby made their preparations in a field a short distance from the base camp, then stood side by side, waiting. it was taking longer than she had expected. She began to get nervous, glancing at Calvin's battered watch.
Strelkov came racing out the door, shouting orders to a group of men busy erecting a shed for the crawlers. He stopped suddenly, caught flat-footed when he realized Cirocco was not far away, waiting for him. He motioned the men to stay put, and came toward the two women.
"I'm sorry, Captain, but Commander Svensen says I have to place you under arrest." He seemed genuinely apologetic, but his hand was close to his side-arm. "Will you come with me, please? "
"Look over there, Sergei." She pointed over his shoulder. He started to turn, then drew his weapon in sudden suspicion. He backed away and to one side until he could steal a glance to the west.
"Gaea hear me! " Cirocco shouted. Strelkov eyed her nervously. She carefully made no threatening gestures, but raised her arms in the direction of Rhea, toward the place of winds and the cable she had climbed with Gaby.
There were shouts from behind them. A wave was traveling down the cable, almost imperceptibly, but producing a definite kink like the wave that moves through a garden hose when it is given a quick flip from the wrist. The effect on the cable was explosive. A cloud of dust expanded all around it. In the dust were trees torn out at the roots.
The wave hit the ground, the place of winds bulged, shattered, sent rocks high into the air.
"Cover your ears!" Cirocco yelled. The sound hit all at once, throwing Gaby to the ground. Cirocco was staggered, but stood her ground as all the thunder of the Gods rolled around her, the tatters of her clothes streaming out as the shock wave hit and the winds began to blow.
"Look! " she shouted again, holding out her hands and raising them slowly toward the sky. No me could hear her, but they saw as a hundred waterspouts broke through the dry ground, turning Hyperion into a mist-shrouded fountain. Lightning crackled through the thickening fog, the sound of it swallowed in the mightier roar that still re-echoed from the distant walls.
It took a long time for it to die away, and in all that time no one moved. When it was quiet again, long after the last fountain had turned to a trickle, Strelkov was sitting where he had fallen, still looking at the cable and the settling dust.
Cirocco went to him and helped him to his feet.
"Tell Wally to leave me alone," she said, and walked away.
"That was very slick," Gaby said, later. "Very slick indeed."
"All done with mirrors, my dear."
"How did it make you feel? "
"I nearly wet my pants. You know, one could learn to get off on that. It was tremendously exciting."
"I hope you don't have to do it very often."
Cirocco silently agreed with her. It had been a close thing. The demonstration, awesome for having occurred at her command, would have been merely inexplicable if it had arrived before Streikov came out of the dome to threaten her.
The fact was that she could not repeat the performance for five or six hours, even if she asked for another at that very moment.
She could communicate readily enough with Gaea. There was a master radio seed in her pocket. But Gaea could not react quickly. To do anything as awesome as she had just accomplished, she needed hours of preparation time.
Cirocco had sent the message requesting the stunt while still on Whistlestop, after carefully considering the likely sequence of events. From that time, it had been a nervous dance with the clock, drawing out her story here, skimping on the answer to a question there, always with the knowledge of the forces gathering in the hub and under her feet. Her advantage had been the leeway she had in timing her resignation, but the drawback was estimating the time it would take Wally Svensen to order her arrest.
She could see wizarding was not going to be easy. On the other hand, not all of her job would be as finicky as calling in an air strike from heaven.
Her pockets were stuffed with the things she had brought as backup measures in case the blood and thunder failed to intimidate the ground party, things she had obtained foraging through Hyperion before re-boarding Whistlestop and traveling to the base camp. There was an eight-legged lizard who could spit a tranquilzing agent when squeezed, and an odd assortment of berries that would do the same job taken internally. She had leaves and bark that could be turned into flash powder and, as a last resort, a nut that made a passable hand grenade.
There were libraries of wildlife lore in her head; if there were Gaean girl scouts, she would own all the merit badges. She could sing to the Titanides, whistle to the blimps, and croak, twitter, chirp, rumble and moan in a dozen languages she had not even had a chance to use, to creatures she had not yet encountered.
She and Gaby had worried that all the information Gaea proposed to give them would not fit into human brains. Oddly, it had been no trouble at all. They were not even aware of any changes; when they needed to know something, they knew it, just as if they had learned it in school.