“We could really use another pair of hands,” he said. “We can bring partitions in easily through the open end, and we can move them to the curved floor. But because the SM is spinning pretty fast, the floor is moving relative to the partitions when they get there. One person can’t handle them.”
“How many partitions?”
“Altogether? About forty. And we have eight tables, and forty chairs, and the sound system, and all the food dispensers.”
“Then I’ve got a better answer.” Rick felt useful for the first time. “I can slow the spin way down, until all the inside fixtures are on the floor and secured, then spin back up again. Gravity’s great for dancing, but it’s a pain during installation. Give me five minutes.”
As he moved around the outside of the smelter, Rick sent a radio message back to tell Chick Teazle what he was doing. Chick’s instinct had been quite right. Plan all you liked, and there would still be a hundred things that had to be done a little differently.
It was easy to see why Lafe had complained. A quarter gee field on the circumference of the SM might be fine for eating or dancing, but to achieve that the whole cylinder was spinning around on its axis once every eighteen seconds. That didn’t sound fast—until you realized that partitions you brought in from outside had to be seated on a curved surface moving past them at seven meters a second. That was as fast as most people could run.
Rick used the drives to slow the spin to a more stately rotation, once every minute. The effective field at the outer curved surface would go down to—what? He struggled to calculate an answer in his head, and failed.
Well, it would go down a lot, from a quarter gee to maybe a fortieth of a gee. Installation work would be much easier.
But it might not be trivial. Rick headed around to the open end of the smelter and moved inside, to see how things were going. Lafe Eklund gave him a thumbs-up sign. The partitions were floating down easily into position and being secured by a super-glue that held at anything from absolute zero to a thousand degrees.
It was tempting to join Lafe and his group at their work. Rick told himself that was not his job. He was supposed to save himself for things that weren’t going well. But when Deedee returned with a dozen light fixtures, he helped her to pick good positions and install them. This was a task that had not been anticipated, so it was a natural for the troubleshooters.
He was half expecting Deedee to pick up their earlier conversation, but apparently in her absence she had changed her mind. Her comments were all technical. It was Rick, to his surprise, who found himself gesturing to her to turn off her radio. He placed his helmet next to hers. “Got any plans for the party?”
She stared at him, but even with the bright new lights he could not see her eyes inside her suit’s visor. “What do you mean, plans? Maybe I do. Why?”
“I thought you might be willing to give me dance lessons again. I mean, if you still like to dance with fire hydrants.
I’m the nearest thing to it within three hundred million kilometers.”
“Is that your idea of a graceful invitation?” But she didn’t sound angry, only amused and thoughtful. “I sort of told Chick Teazle that he and I might make a couple.”
“Oh.” Rick hit back a question about Chick and Deedee. “Pity.”
“It wasn’t definite, though. I can tell him I changed my mind.” Deedee turned, so that at last he could see her face. She was frowning. “But what about you—and Alice? I mean, I thought that you two. . .”
“It’s nothing definite.” Rick knew that was a whopping lie, and he could be getting into big trouble. It was true that he and Alice had never gone public, but in private they had done things that Rick never dreamed of before. Maybe Alice would want him to dance with her tonight. Maybe she would finally forget her worries about what the instructors might think of affairs between apprentices—certainly, no one else seemed to care.
“I’d like you to go to the party with me.” Rick spoke to end his own uncertainties. “And I’d like you to dance with me.”
“Just you?”
Rick swallowed, and took the plunge. “Just me. Nobody else.”
“Then I will.” Deedee gave Rick a glowing smile, and squeezed his arm in a gloved hand. “Damn these suits. I can’t even touch you.”
“We won’t have to wear suits at the dance. Assuming there is a dance, which there won’t be unless we get everything ready.” Rick moved his helmet away from Deedee’s and gestured to her to turn her radio on. “We’d better get back to work. There could be a million problems going on right now, and we’d never know it.”
“No. If there were, Chick would be buzzing all over the place. But I’d better go talk to him and tell him about tonight.”
“Do you think he’ll be upset?”
“Suppose he is. Do you want to call it off?”
“No way!”
“Then don’t ask stupid questions. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Deedee jetted up to the open top of the smelter and vanished around the outside. Rick realized that he ought to have his own conversation with Alice—and soon. He was probably a jerk, but if Deedee wanted to do more than dance tonight he knew he would not hesitate.
Alice was over at the main station, handling problems there with Vido. And Rick, with Deedee gone off to talk to Chick Teazle, was the only assigned troubleshooter at the smelter. He had to stay until she got back.
Before he could fret over that, other matters took over. Lafe Eklund called to say that the interior work was all done, and Rick could spin the SM back up to a quarter gee field. While he was doing it, what seemed like an army of suited apprentices appeared from the main body of CM-26 and came streaming over toward the smelter.
“What’s wrong?” he called on his suit radio.
“Wrong?” That was Vido. “Nothing’s wrong. That’s why we’re here.”
“We’re all done back there.” That was Chick, jetting along beside Deedee—if he was heartbroken he certainly didn’t sound it. “We have all the food and everything else with us. As soon as you are finished we can fill the inside with air, get out of these suits, and start the party.”
“We’re done, too,” said Lafe. He was standing on the inner surface up near the top of the smelter, checking the apparent gravity as the cylinder gradually leveled off its rate of spin. “Come in through this end. Once you’re all inside I’ll close it so we can pressurize.”
Deedee was moving past Rick, giving him a jaunty wave and a nod that said that she had talked to Chick, and everything was all right.
But it wasn’t. Rick hadn’t spoken to Alice. He hovered outside as person after person passed him, moving down into the bright and transformed interior of the smelter. Tables and chairs now ran top to bottom along one quadrant of the curved interior, with the food service area taking up another quarter. Half of the other side of the cylinder was a generous dance area. The remainder was cubicles with their own couches, walls, doors—and ceilings. No one would be able to look up from the dining area across the middle of the cylinder, and see what was going on in one of the private rooms on the other side.
Where was Alice? He felt sure that he hadn’t missed her.
“Are you coming in?” That was Lafe, waiting at the big open end of the smelter. “We’re set to close and fill.”
“I’ll be another few minutes. Go ahead and don’t worry about me. I can use the airlock at the other end.”
It occurred to Rick as he spoke that Alice might be doing exactly that. Maybe instead of moving with the main group into this end of the SM, she was entering instead through the triple airlock at the other end.