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was at stake, one that I had tried to write out of my universe but here it came calling back like some kind
of ghoul for the unfinished business that was our daughter. Should what I felt be the controlling
consideration? Or was this fate pounding at the door?
There seemed nothing I could do but nod and as I did my stomach became tight as a drum. It wasn t a
well-reasoned decision. Maybe I would get away with it.
Very well, said Ahmed Allah be with you. He said that slowly, almost like a prayer.
The next hour was blur that ended with April and me floating in our acceleration beds in the cabin of the
skeletal spacecraft a very functional looking control room with racks of equipment, a rat s nest of
cabling, and bare titanium lattice girders wherever there weren t screens. Ahmed had stuck standard
one-meter screens every which way to the point where the hull looked mostly transparent. The one just
over my feet showed Mars, sinking toward the lunar horizon. We would have to complete our
acceleration before it came between us and Ahmed s drive projectors.
Incongruously, one screen overhead showed theKorolev on its pad as seen from Ahmed s control center
at the edge of the field. It looked more ramshackle than ever.
Just inside the one true opening of our cabin, a stick-man robot under theKorolev s control held a panel
that would function as our door. As a safety measure, we would wait until achieving lunar escape
velocity before closing it and pressurizing the cabin. Our coffins sat on a floor bare except for a pair of
trunks of life support gear. One would give us our air, the toilet was in the other. We could unpack that
once the cabin was sealed.
Are you ready, April?
Sure, Dad. There was tension in that voice. A hell of a lot of tension.
Ready here, Ahmed.
Raise the ship, Ahmed told his comp.
The instruction has been countermanded, the soft, female, voice of the control center s AI declared.
Port Captain Kelly wishes to speak with whoever is in charge of this flight.
Ahmed groaned. This is my launch, Kelly.
Korolev, put Kelly and Ahmed on the front screen, I said. Mars vanished.
Bart Kelly, a large muscular man with curly black hair, came on screen. I knew him from somewhere.
We can t allow this, Ahmed.
There are extraordinary circumstances, Bart. Any delay at all may cost a life.
Which I understand may very well be lost anyway. I wouldn t want to lose other lives on the chance.
Fahsi, this isn t the time or the way to be setting any Moon-Mars speed records. Give it up.
What, Ahmed said between nearly clenched teeth, do we have to do to satisfy you? The vehicle is
space worthy it has completed ten times the length of the journey in hover tests. I have enough
redundancy for computer piloting.
Kelly smiled with teeth showing. There are Cislunar Republic resources involved here and a judgment
call to make which is not yours alone.
Very well. What do we have to do?
Comply with the provisions of the Cislunar Space Navigation Protocol.
Ahmed looked like he was about to explode. I didn t know Kelly, but thought a diversion was in order.
Pete Nelson here. Captain Kelly, I thought we were in compliance. What is your objection?
I don t have time to go through the details, Mr. Nelson. My autosec can arrange an appointment with
our legal staff.
I smelled a rat. A specific problem can be dealt with and this guy was doing everything he could not to
specify it seemed a delay tactic. Whose ax was Kelly grinding?
We ll correct whatever might be wrong and file again.
That s your privilege, but I just don t think it s going to work. In my humble opinion, this is just too
risky. Kelly out.
Finally I placed the face. Ahmed, I think Kelly used to fly L1 shuttles.
Of course he did. And now he s stuck playing port captain waiting for a shift leader s berth on a deep
space ion liner. Ahmed looked furious. Spacetrans! and they do not want to replace their ion
rockets! And the space crews you need three times as many people to run an ion rocket liner as one
of my design; they don t want to see that number go down. I bet someone in Spacetrans promised him a
berth if he keeps us here. This demonstration would be broadcast all over the solar system and they
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