The crowd was silent for a moment. An engineer said, “You mean men couldn’t come back, ever? The Can would be contaminated?”
“It looks that way.”
“Doctor Yakana is in charge of radiation control. Doctor, do you agree with Dr. Bohles?”
A lanky man near the front nodded.
“Those Earthside flea-brains!” someone shouted.
“Commander!” one of the ship’s officers said. “Did the Council say they were abandoning the Lab?”
Aarons sighed. “My orders say ‘The facility will be reactivated when fiscal policy permits.’ That’s all.”
“When they speak in Latin it’s always a brush-off,” Zak said to me. The crowd was muttering, restless.
A ship’s officer stood up. He was Lt. Sharma, a heavy, dark man from Calcutta who ranked middle-high on the squash roster.
“Sir, I think most of us have had enough of ISA,” he said. “Right?” He turned to the audience and they answered with a storm of clapping.
“There’s one thing the Council forgot. We don’t have to cooperate! They can’t force us. Who is going to send armed men all the way out to Jupiter?”
“I say we stay!” another voice said. “Refuse to board the Argosy. We’ll thumb our noses at ’em.”
Lt. Sharma shook his head. “Lord preserve me from my friends. That isn’t what I meant. Not all of us can live out here indefinitely—we need trace elements in our diet, spare parts for the life system and a hundred other things.”
“Okay, how long can we stick it out?” someone said.
“I am not qualified to say,” Commander Aarons said. “You three”—he pointed out two bridge officers and the supervisor of Maintenance Division—“put your heads together and give us a guess.”
The three women met in an aisle and murmured together for a moment while everybody watched. They nodded. “A little less than two years before we have serious trouble,” one of them said.
“Thank you. I am no politician or economist, but I do not believe Earth’s troubles will clear up in two years. The Council will not be able to send more ships by that time. And if we rebel now I know they’re not going to be in the mood, anyway.”
Lt. Sharma looked exasperated. “Sir, that is not what I had in mind.”
“Oh?”
“Most of the Can’s population must return Earthside. We’ll never survive, otherwise. But we don’t have to leave the project deserted. Leave behind a skeleton crew to keep the superconductors working, so that someday men can come back.”
Mr. Moto stood up. “That sounds fine to me. We should leave a few scientists, too, to keep watch on Jupiter. Even simple, close-up observations covering the time the rest of us are gone will be immensely important.”
“I volunteer,” Mr. Jablons said.
“Me, too!”
“Single personnel should have preference.”
“That’s unfair!”
“Merde!”
“You can’t—”
“Ich muss—”
“Quiet!” Commander Aarons tugged at his moustache. “All that will be decided later.” He gazed slowly around the bowl. “I think we are all far too disturbed and hot under the collar to make reasonable judgments right now. I urge you all to think this matter through carefully; your lives may depend on it.
“I ask you then to go home and discuss it among your families. In a few days we will meet again. Good evening.”
There was a burst of applause as he left the podium.
Jenny and Zak and I got out ahead of the crowd and headed for my home. People were pretty stunned. It wasn’t until some time later that I remembered my date with Jenny; both of us had forgotten it.
“What do you think our chances are of staying on?” she asked me.
“Pretty grim. You can be sure any skeleton crew won’t include us.”
“Why has it got to be so few people?” Zak said. “We could cut out a lot of things, like the Ganymede base—”
“And have us climbing the walls and getting claustrophobic?” Jenny said. “No thankee.”
“Well, we could stretch the lifetime of some of our machines by not using them so much. Take your shuttles; don’t send them out so often. Save fuel, too.”
“And if a satellite goes on the blink we just let it sit for a month?” Jenny said, tossing her head to arrange her hair. “What’s the point of staying out here, if we can’t get any research done?”
“I think we ought to abide by what the Commander decides and not put up a squawk.” I said. “Things will be touch and go when the Argosy arrives, as it is.”
“What do you mean?” Jenny said.
“I’m not so sure the Council will expect us to come along meekly. They might have a few soldiers on that ship.”
“Oh,” she said.
“The bridge officers have firearms,” Zak said.
“I know. And shooting off a hand weapon in a spaceship is stupid, but it might happen. One bad shot and everybody on that corridor will be breathing vacuum.”
“You have a better idea?” Zak said.
“Sure,” I grinned. “Hide. A few of us stay behind, hidden—” We were just crossing an intersection of two tubes.
“Typical,” said a familiar voice. “But I didn’t think you would admit it. Bohles.”
Yuri came walking up. “Admit what?” I said.
“To being a coward.” Yuri said. “Going to hide from the Argosy crew? Count on them not missing the skeleton crew that is left behind?”
“That was the idea,” I said sullenly.
“You don’t want to fight it out with them like a man, eh?” He gave me his confident smile. “No, you would rather hide the skeleton crew and act like a coward.” He was playing this out for the benefit of Jenny and Zak. He casually folded his arms and smirked at me.
“Don’t bother him, Yuri.” Jenny said. There was a kind of plaintive note in her voice. As though she were pleading for me.
“No, let him bother me,” I said, and hit Yuri in the mouth.
He looked surprised, then angry. The punch hadn’t hurt him much. I blinked, and saw yellow sunlight, the school yard—
“You little—” he said, lowering his arms. I hit him again, harder. This time he stepped back, under the blow, and caught me solidly across the ribs. Suddenly I felt a cold tremor of naked fear.
That’s where I lost track. I used fists, elbows and even tried butting him with my head, and meanwhile Yuri was slamming his big ham hands into me, staggering me with every punch, making my eyes blur. I knew if I kept on and watched how his balance shifted just before he punched I could avoid most of the damage. And that meant I would win, because absolutely nothing was going to stop me from beating Yuri to a pulp, I told myself. The dust, the jeering, bright sunlight…
Only…my arms were so heavy…
It took them forever to reach out and hit Yuri, and when they did I could feel the shock all the way to my shoulder. I was slowing down, and Yuri was speeding up. I felt the sharp pain of being hit—
Far away a voice said. “Hey! Break it up!” and a hand spun me around.
It was one of the bridge officers, frowning at me. I couldn’t remember his name. My mind was a swirl of fear and self-disgust.
“If you two kids haven’t got anything better to do than brawl, when the Lab is in deep trouble—”
“I’ll take care of it, sir,” Zak said, pulling at my sleeve. Yuri lowered his fists and snorted contemptuously at me. Jenny pushed him away. “Wo—won’t happen again.” I gasped.