Part 9 (2/2)
Cardenas nodded and leaned her b.u.t.t on the edge of the work bench. ”It's pretty intense in sunlight, yeah. But I think we can work around it.”
”We don't want a set of nan.o.bugs that can't be turned off,” Doug warned.
She almost smiled. ”Scared of the gray goo?”
”Aren't you?”
”Uh-huh.' She lowered her head a moment, thinking. ”Look, when the s.h.i.+p lands, what actually touches the ground?”
”Four landing pads. They're about two meters in diameter and twenty, thirty centimeters thick.”
”And made of diamond?”
Doug nodded. ”Their surfaces and internal bracing are diamond. There're some hydraulic lines inside them.”
”The hydraulics are oil-based?”
”As far as I know, yes. I could check with the manufacturing division to make sure.”
”Okay,” Cardenas said, walking slowly away from the electron microscope. Doug followed in step beside her.
”The s.h.i.+p lands, right?” she said, thinking out loud. ”Its landing pads come down on top of our gobblers. Covers them up, so they're no longer in sunlight. And they're s.h.i.+elded from the UV.”
”I get it. Then they can eat their way inside the landing pads and start taking the hydraulic system apart.”
”You got it.”
Doug broke into a grin, but it faded before it was truly started. ”Only one problem, Kris.”
”What's that?”
”What good's it going to do us to prevent their Clippers.h.i.+p from leaving the Moon? We want to stop them from getting here.”
TOUCHDOWN MINUS 11 HOURS 45 MINUTES.
Zoltan Kadar sat bleary-eyed in the middle of his monitoring screens, almost in tears as he squinted at the drawing of the Farside observatory. A beautiful dream, he told himself. My crowning achievement. It would be called the Kadar Observatory some day.
But it's only a dream. I can't even get an observation satellite to survey the ground.
For more than three days and three sleepless nights Kadar had hounded Doug Stavenger, to no avail. Most of his calls were intercepted by Jinny Anson, who sternly told him not to bother Stavenger.
”He's got too much to do, Zoltan, to worry about your satellite shot.”
Twice he actually got to Stavenger himself, by tracking down Doug's movements through the length and breadth -and depth-of Moonbase.
The first time, he accosted Stavenger as Doug was talking with the technicians in the control center. Doug listened patiently to Kadar's complaints, then gripped the astronomer's slim shoulder.
”Dr Kadar-”
”Professor Kadar!” Kadar!”
Doug almost laughed in his face. ”Professor Kadar, I understand how upset and frustrated you must feel. But you're not the only one. All our outside activities have been shut down, except for our preparations for defending Moonbase against the Peacekeepers. I'm afraid your survey of Farside is just going to have to wait.”
And with that, a solidly built, grim-faced black man took Kadar's other arm and firmly led him to the door. Kadar glared at him, and when that didn't work, he stared at the man's nametag on his s.h.i.+rt front.
”Mr Gordette,” Kadar said with as much dignity as he could muster,'there is no need for you to leave your fingerprints on my arm.”
Gordette released him. ”Sorry,” he muttered. ”Just wanted to make sure you leave Doug alone. He's got a lot to do, you know.”
”So I've been told.”
Late that night Kadar actually got Stavenger on the phone. If I can't sleep, Kadar told himself, why should he?
But Stavenger didn't seem to be sleeping. His image came up immediately on the smart wall of Kadar's quarters. Stavenger was sitting at a desk in his own quarters, wide awake.
”Dr Kadar,” Doug said as soon as he recognized his caller's face.
”I'm sorry to call so late-”
”It doesn't matter. I was just going over our inventories of supplies.”
”My satellite is ready for launch,” Kadar said. ”All I need is your approval and-”
”With all due respect, Professor Kadar, there's no chance in h.e.l.l of your getting your satellite launched until this crisis with the Peacekeepers is resolved.”
”It's only one small rocket. They'll see that it's going into a lunar orbit.”
”I'm not going to debate the point, Professor. No launch.”
”You're standing in the way of science!”
Wearily, Doug replied, ”Maybe I am. It can't be helped. If it's any consolation, there are a lot of other frustrated people in the base right now. We've got a whole troupe of ballet dancers here who can't return Earthside until this mess is resolved.”
Ballet dancers did not a.s.suage Kadar's feelings. But as he sat amidst his monitoring screens, admiring the drawings of what would someday be the Kadar Observatory on the far side of the Moon, he suddenly realized that frustrated ballet dancers might be more appreciative of his predicament than the management of Moonbase.
Ballet dancers. Kadar pulled himself up from his console chair and headed for his quarters. A shower, a shave, some clean clothes-if I must spend this crisis in frustration, perhaps there is a charming ballerina or two who can understand me and offer consolation.
TOUCHDOWN MINUS 9 HOURS 45 MINUTES.
”I've never felt so frustrated in my whole life!” Joanna slapped her palm against the ornate little table that stood at the end of her couch.
Startled, Lev Brudnoy looked across the room at her.
”No one answers my calls,” Joanna complained. ”No one even acknowledges that they've received my calls! It's like shouting into a deep, dark mine shaft!”
Brudnoy turned off the wall display he had been studying, got up from his chair and went to sit beside his wife.
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