 |
 |
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] from view. She went over Waite's last transmission. She saw the moonbase control center images of the telepresent hopper being disassembled at the Daedalus construction site. There seemed so much to study, but it was not enough to keep her mind completely occupied. She understood Director McConnell's need to placate millions of uneasy inhabitants of Earth. When someone wanted an answer fast, the easiest way was to grab a local expert and keep the pressure on until a solution was found. Erika had been dropped smack into the middle of the problem. She felt as if she had stepped on a big pile of horse manure. Hour by hour she pored over the events. For three days. The other crewmembers, busy with their own tasks, left her alone. That suited Erika just fine. She turned her thoughts again to Jordan Parvu. _Why hadn't he wanted to come to the Moon?_ If he wanted to study functional nanotechnology so badly, why didn't he jump at the chance? She couldn't believe he didn't want to take the risk. After all, Antarctica was perhaps the most savage spot left on Earth. And the Sim-Mars isolation lab on the Moon certainly could be no less safe than the NIL. No, there had to be something more to it. Jordan did not want to step into the spotlight, but to focus things on her. He did always speak about how much he wanted her to succeed. She felt a warm lump in her throat and tears welling in her eyes. That was the real reason. She knew it to the core. Now she had to live up his expectations. This was different from trying to meet her mother's demands -- she wanted Jordan Parvu to beam with pride over her successes. But that didn't make the monumental pressure feel any less. * * * * "Hello Dr. Trace, I'm Bernard Chu, commander of Moonbase -- " The wiry, intense man seemed flustered, then smiled thinly. "Excuse me, I'm sorry. With so many things going on, I can't even remember my own title! I'm the Lagrange waystation director -- welcome to the Collins." Erika shook the Asian man's hand. "Thank you. And please, call me Erika. 'Doctor' sounds too formal." Her soft South Carolina drawl usually made new acquaintances feel comfortable. Chu nodded and held onto Erika's elbow and helped her float out of the chamber. Webbed netting held boxes, ropes, toilet paper, silvery packaging film, and a hundred other things she couldn't identify, nor could she determine any sort of organization scheme. Since she couldn't tell "up" from "down" in the weightlessness, storing material in the netting made sense. "Since the shuttle-tug normally takes nearly a month to get here, everyone becomes accustomed to zero-G by the time they arrive," Chu said. "But you have not had time to adjust. Are you feeling all right? Space whoops?" She did not want to be reminded about the queasiness. "I've managed to keep my food down for the past day." Chu nodded. "No problem then. You'll be heading to the lunar surface within the hour. We have the shuttle outfitted and waiting, pilot ready to go. Celeste -- ah, Director McConnell told us not to waste any time." "An hour?" Erika blinked her eyes as sudden nervousness rushed up on her again. "That's the nice thing about being at L-1 -- we're always in position for a lunar rendezvous. Captain Zed -- I mean Zimmerman -- is the shuttle pilot taking you down." Chu nodded to a lanky, square-jawed man floating upside down at the rear of the room. Erika started to greet him, but Zimmerman interrupted her. "If I were you I'd take a shower," he said. "A quick one." Zimmerman pushed himself out of the chamber. "He isn't very big on explaining things," Chu said. Erika thought Bryan Zed's silence would be a wonderful change after enduring Kent Woodward in Antarctica. "He means for the dust." "Dust?" Chu set his mouth and got a faraway look on his face. Suddenly, Erika remembered that he had been the moonbase commander until a few weeks before. "Yes, the moondust gets into everything -- even the water supplies, no matter how much they try to filter it. So if you want to feel clean for one last time, take a shower here before you go. Our water is limited, but for Celeste's special guest, we can spare some." The words brought back a vision of Kent Woodward and his sidekick Gunther, anxious to take a shower at the NIL. _Was it something to do with these astronauts?_ she thought. "No wonder nobody wants to stay down there for long." She looked up at Bernard Chu, expecting the man to nod in agreement; but he looked serious, as if something else were on his mind. "Yes, you must be right." * * * * "Fifty kilometers above the ground. Check your straps one more time." Zimmerman's voice startled her; he had broken the quietness only a few [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |