Yeah keep that in mind Ted we got risk every time we shut down
Look—damn!—we can’t make a balls-up of this because of some sodding engineering constraint
Quiet Nigel—look, any more input before I
Yeah shut up the old crock and get us out of this pisshole
Seems to me it’s pretty clear we seen plenty systems like this already from the probes
The grav-lens told us most of this already, point is to look closer—
Okay this is Ted after reviewing the systems board I can see the logic of picking up some time on our outbound
Alex is there any new
Throw in the towel Nigel for Chrissake
Hey I’ve lost the reflection
What’s ’at?
No radio reflection at all from that moon now, just gone out
Check for detuning of the antenna Alex that’s pro’bly it
No I’m still bringing in good radio images of the gas giant, no degrading of the system—I’d say the thing’s just plain gone
Musta been a ghost image jest forget it
No possibility of that, I had it dead for sure, big as your mouth ‘n’ twice as wide, even got a spectrum ’fore it vanished
How fast is that moon spinning Alex?
Lessee, nothin’ much—no, too slow, it’s tide-locked, that can’t explain it
Then it was something in orbit around the Moon, that’s the only way it could go out that fast. It simply fell below the horizon from our angle of view
Possible I guess but
Possible hell you think of something else
Well ah I
Ted you’ve got to let us have a look at whatever that was
Hell he does! We don’ have to do anything unless a majority
No time for that
Damn—look, this is Ted—I’m asking for a quick vote
Don’t give bugger all for a vote this is a scientific issue man not a
Alex here look I think he’s got you there Ted our mandate is to study not just survey and could be the thing did drop out of sight which makes it a damned funny configuration in its own right, never mind if it’s an artifact or not
Listen, we skip this radio blip, we can pick up months, not have to worry about the drive start-up routine
Yeah, who wants to be the one goes in there an’ scrapes the throat walls while rest you guys are playin’ astronomer
Quiet look this is Ted and I—well, the directives don’t leave me much choice
Damn
We’ve got to take a look at that site
Alex this turns out to be a screw-up I’m gonna
And I want a rendezvous orbit near that gas giant
Bang on that’s it
Yeah.
THREE
Rain had brought out the scents of the gardens—loquats, crisp grains, roots, fresh-turned earth, blending and subduing them. Nigel paused in his creaking labors and looked toward the nose of the ship, where the life sphere tapered into a bare point. It was like peering into the underside of a silagree of stone, an inverted spire spun by some huge spider.
He stretched to ease his back muscles. Ah. He could barely manage an hour of this labor now. He told Nikka it was for the appearance of the thing, to defuse comments about his general incompetence at things physical, to derail a close inspection of his medical situation. But in fact he liked this turning of the soil, this 6CO2 + 6H2O, in turn giving forth starchy C6H12O6 + oxygen to burn anew, onboard as it is in heaven. With the drive off there was no ready ultraviolet for the engineers to step down into the optical region, so they had gone back to using phosphors strung along the zero-g axis. These luminous ropes gave off a harsh glare he found unpleasant, but the plants grew well; a leaf is indifferent to where it gets its photons.
