“Take your time,” said Barney. “You won’t need to do much of this unless we have an emergency, but you have to know how ahead of time—just in case.”
Rick nodded a head made of solid lead. He turned, making sure that his feet landed in the correct place—and found himself staring into Deedee’s anxious face. Goggles Landau was next to her.
“Message from the flight deck,” said Goggles at once. He was talking not to Rick but to Barney French, now on the last step of her own descent. “Pilots Garcia and Kotite want you there as soon as possible. They have more news.”
“Shoot. I’ve got one more still to do. Anybody know where Teazle’s cabin is?”
“I do,” said Rick and Deedee simultaneously. They stared at each other. Her cheeks darkened with a blush, and she glared defiantly at Rick.
“Good.” If Barney noticed, she did not care. “Landau, you come with me. I have a job for you. Mao and Luban, I showed you how to climb. Now you go and show Teazle—I want all three of you roped together when you do it. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m putting a lot of trust in all of you, more than I should in an apprentice. Don’t let me down.”
“We won’t.” Rick and Deedee stared at each other as Barney and Goggles left the dining area for the lower level between passenger quarters and drive units, where the flight deck was located.
“What do you think happened on CM-31?” Deedee asked.
Rick jumped at the chance of a neutral subject. He was forced to put his arms around her to tie the rope, and it was the closest they had been since the night of the dance. He couldn’t help brushing against her.
“I’ll make a guess,” he said. “They were using new mining methods. Something went wrong while they were melting and separating the different metals. CM-31 is mostly metal, iron and nickel and platinum.”
She didn’t ask how he knew, merely nodded and started to climb. He followed close behind. Going up was harder work than going down, but it was also easier. You could see just where your hands had to go, instead of groping around with your feet.
“Do you know what centrifuge melting is?” he asked, after they had climbed about five meters.
“Sure.” She was breathing heavily, but moving up steadily. “It’s a confusing term—two different things in one. It means melting, plus centrifuge separation. You take a cylinder filled with different materials, and you melt them. At the same time you spin the cylinder around on its axis. That gives you like a gravity gradient, but of course it’s not gravity, its centrifugal force. The denser liquids go to the outside, farthest from the axis. The light ones stay close to the middle, sort of floating on the heavy ones. So you’ve separated them out from each other. The dross floats at the very center.”
“Dross?”
“Scum. You know, the light useless stuff.”
The long speech had taken all her breath, and she paused in her climb. Rick, focused on the placement of his own hands and feet, took an upward step and ran the top of his head into something soft.
“Oof! Do you mind?” Deedee sounded exasperated. “That’s my rear end you’re poking. It’s off limits.”
“Sorry. Not the first time you’ve called me a butt-head, though.” Rick waited, until she began to move upward again. “What happens if you don’t have a cylinder available?”
“Then you can’t do centrifuge melting, can you? Why are you asking?”
“The data bank says CM-31 was testing centrifuge melting methods. That’s why I said I guessed that something went wrong when they were trying to do it.”
They had finally reached Chick Teazle’s cabin, tucked away up near the very front of the Vantage. Deedee knocked and went in without pausing.
“Hey there!” Rick heard Chick, loud and self-confident as usual. “This is an unexpected treat. Let’s get"—Chick saw Rick at the door, and his voice changed on the final word—"friendly.”
“Barney French sent us.” Deedee sounded abrupt and unnatural. “Get up from your bunk. We have to show you how to climb down to lower ship levels.”
“Why you two?” Chick stared at Rick.
“We happened to be there with Barney.” Rick held up the thick rope. “We have to be all tied together, just in case.”
“I don’t need no damn rope.” But Chick took the end that Rick handed him, looped the rope around under his arms, and tied a deft knot. “All right, go ahead. I’ll follow you down.”
“No.” Rick put his arm on Deedee’s, just as she was about to start the descent. “You go first, Chick. That way if you fall, we’ll be above you and have a chance to brace ourselves. If you were above us you could knock us with you.”
“I’m not going to fall, you dummy.” Chick glared at Rick, but he moved forward. “What happens if you fall on me?”
“You cushion my landing.” Rick watched as Chick started down. He was long-limbed and powerful, and he moved with a speed and confidence that Rick envied. Deedee followed, saying what Rick was thinking: “Slow down a bit, Chick, or you’ll pull us off-balance.”
Chick grunted, but he did as she asked. The three descended steadily, to find Barney French waiting for them back at the dining level.
“Good,” she said. “Everyone has been through the drill. Now you do it without the rope. I want each of you back in your own cabin, and on your own bunk until we get to CM-31.”
It seemed such an anticlimax that they all stared at her instead of jumping at once to do what she said.
“Can’t you tell us more about what happened?” asked Deedee.
“I propose to do exactly that. But I’m not going to go round telling you one at a time. Get to your bunk, or you’ll miss the beginning.”
It was incentive enough. Chick went swinging away up the vertical passage like a monkey, while Deedee started downward.
Rick, about to follow right behind Chick, felt Barney’s hand on his arm.
“Give him a few seconds,” she said. “If he does goof, I assume you don’t want two hundred pounds plummeting down on you under two gees.”
Rick waited impatiently, staring up but ready to jump out of the way, until Chick vanished into his cabin. Then he made his own ascent, trying to strike the balance between speed and caution. Barney was right. Practice made all the difference. Already it felt easier than the first time.
He lay down on his bunk, fixed the straps into position, and waited impatiently for something to happen. What had Chick meant when he said, “Let’s get friendly"? And why had Deedee suddenly turned all stiff and weird?
Rick could guess, but before he had time to brood on it Barney’s image was again projected on the ceiling.
“I told you during our very first session that when you came aboard the Vantage all the babying ended,” she said. “Well, I lied. This phase of your training is supposed to place you in what we call a Level Three environment. Unfortunately, the situation at CM-31 represents a Level Five environment—the highest level of danger and uncertainty that fully-trained staff ever expect to meet. You are not ready for that, but needless to say this was not from choice. Headquarters have again confirmed that every other ship in the fleet will need at least thirty-six hours more than the Vantage to reach Company Mine 31. That time could be the difference between life and death. Therefore you, the apprentices, must assist in operations. When we reach CM-31 you will supplement six experienced staff members: myself, Tait, and Styan; Garcia and Kotite, our pilots; and Skipios, our engineer.
“Meanwhile, in the nine hours remaining until our arrival at CM-31, you are all to remain in your bunks. If you can sleep, do so. First, however, I am going to give you background on where we are going and what we will find there.”