“Never mind that. I have been speaking to Commander Aarons. He wishes to talk to you. In his office.”
When I got there Jenny was seated quietly on a couch. That surprised me more than anything else; what could she be doing here?
Dad was sitting in a chair, holding a sheaf of papers. The Commander looked up when I came in, said hello and motioned me to a popout seat.
“Your father brought to my attention a somewhat different version of the events on Ganymede,” Commander Aarons said, leaning forward and resting his folded hands on his desk top. “I do not mind saying that I am in something of a quandary. I must take a judicial position, since there exists conflicting testimony. At the same time there is no way to determine the truth; there were no other witnesses.”
He stopped and grimaced. The movement tilted his moustache at an angle and gave him a red nose. “Therefore, young Mister Bohles, I shall drop the matter. No action will be taken. Both your and Yuri Sagdaeff’s stories are now known to me; I may or may not consider them in future evaluations of your performance.”
The Commander stopped and let out a breath. “And that is that.” He reached out and flipped off a switch set into the top of his desk. “That’s the official recording for ship’s log. As far as regulations go the matter is now dead.” He looked at me and smiled. “But that is not the reason I had your father call you.”
“Sir?”
“I was wondering if you would be interested in changing jobs. You would work with Miss Fleming, here.”
“Huh? Outside?”
“Operating a shuttle,” my father said, “and making satellite repairs. The job Ishi had.”
Now I understood why Jenny was here. “Who recommended me?”
The Commander tapped a fingernail on the display screen mounted flat into his desk top. I could see some typed entries in what looked like a personnel form. “Your record,” he said. “You know electronics. You have maneuvered one-man shuttlecraft into parking stations.”
“And you have good no-g reflexes,” Dad said.
“I see.” I still didn’t like the idea of getting a job because Jenny put my name in. “But why so soon? Ishi’s job wasn’t all that urgent. Why do you need a replacement right away?”
“The storms,” Jenny said.
I looked over at her. It was the first sound she had made since I came in the room.
“Correct,” my father said. “They are coming more often now and they are more intense. The entire upper atmosphere of Jupiter, particularly near the poles, seems to be in turmoil. The satellites keep track of this; if they fail we’re left with nothing.”
“One is broadcasting intermittently right now,” Jenny said.
“And we must have one person on duty to repair them at all times,” Commander Aarons said.
I thought for a moment. Sure, it was dangerous. So was breathing, if you did it long enough. And Ishi hadn’t been afraid.
“Sounds reasonable to me,” I said. I’ll be glad to switch over from Monitoring, if you need me.”
“Ah. Good.” Commander Aarons stood up. “Best of luck.” He shook my hand. It gave me a warm friendly feeling.
When we were out of the office and Dad had gone back to Monitoring I turned to Jenny and said, “Was this your idea?”
“Mine? Don’t be silly. Commander Aarons called me in just a few minutes before you. He wanted to know if I would mind working with you.”
“Okay. Sorry. I guess I’m just a little edgy today. The last twenty-four hours hasn’t done me a whole lot of good.”
Jenny looked sad. “I know what you mean.”
We walked down to the student rec center to get something to eat. We had to stand in line.
“I think we ought to go down to the main bay and begin going over your shuttle,” Jenny said.
“Huh?”
“Well, you’re going to have to learn how to operate it sometime. I know you’ve done some simple piloting, but—”
“You mean you’re supposed to teach me?”
“Who else?”
“Well…”
“Say, is there some reason you don’t want to work with me?”
“Uh, no,” I lied.
In the back of my mind I was thinking about Zak’s theory about what living so close together in the Can had done to us. It felt right. Jenny was like the rest of the girls I knew. Buddies, I guess you’d say. I could see she was pretty and smart and reliable, sure. And I’d been thinking of her that way for as long as I could remember. But now I wanted something else.
Something had started me thinking. Maybe it had been Zak and his comical Rebecca and Isaac, lurching around and pounding away at each other. I felt like a dummy, a goody-goody boy stuck out here around Jupiter, while back on Earth a guy my age knew about women and how to treat them. Well, that was going to change. But until I could figure out how to do that, I didn’t want to be all palsy with Jenny. Not when I could maybe be something more…
“Hey, are you paying attention?” she said.
“Huh? Oh yeah. Look, let’s get this training over with, huh?”
She looked at me curiously. “You seem a little nervous about something, Matt.”
“Naw, I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure.”
Jenny shrugged.
“It could not be because you are afraid, of course,” a deep voice said.
I turned Yuri had filled in the line behind us.
“Get away, Sagdaeff,” I said.
“Don’t be silly, Yuri.” Jenny said. “Matt isn’t afraid.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. He did not react very well under stress on Ganymede.”
“How would you like a flat nose?” I said.
“Ah ha, threatening violence. The last resort of the incompetent. I wonder what Commander Aarons would think if you were to hit me in public?”
“Let’s find out,” I said, raising my arms.
“Yuri! Matt! Stop it. Yuri, go away. You started it.”
“I merely came over to congratulate Matt on his new position.”
“How did you know?” I said.
“Rumors, rumors. And I happened to be talking to the Commander’s secretary when she was typing up the change of status report.” Yuri smiled coldly at me.
Jenny said, “Yuri…”
“All right. I am leaving.” He walked away.
“What was that all about?” Jenny said. “Did it have anything to do with what Commander Aarons said?”
So I told her about Ganymede and the air hose. It was already getting to be an old story.
“I see,” Jenny said, thoughtfully chewing a sandwich. (By this time we had been through the line.) “That explains a lot of Yuri’s behavior.”
“It does?”
“Of course. Look.” she said, tossing her head to get some brown curls out of her eyes, “it must have been a hard thing for Yuri to have to admit to himself that he made a big mistake with the air hose. It hurt him.”
“Hurt his ego, you mean. It makes a big target.”
“All right, it damaged his self-image. He is miffed. And he’s taking it out on you.”
“Why me? I saved him.”
“You saw him make the mistake, too.”
“This sounds pretty twisted to me.”
“Maybe it is, but something must be making him act this way,”
“Let’s make a deal.” I said, patting her hand. “You don’t psychoanalyze me and I promise not to run berserk. Okay?” I decided not to go into Zak’s theory about Yuri, even though I was sure it was true. What could be gained?
“I didn’t know you were about to.”
“Well, I might if people keep giving me advice. Come on, let’s get to work. Is the Ballerina ready?”
She got up, straightening her red blouse, and said, “Yes, but that’s not the shuttle we’ll be using to train you.”