Then Marc palmed the console to General Messages and there was Axelrod, as they had hoped. Gray trousers pressed to razor-sharp, blue yachting jacket, yellow shirt, matching gray tie; a color treat. Julia tried to read his mood and failed. Probably pointless, given the face filters.
“Hope you-all had a good day. Ever’body here’s awaiting your update on the repairs. I know it’s slow work, but you’re the best. I’ve got every confidence in you.”
“Quick compliments,” Raoul said, “always a bad sign.”
“I’ve been negotiating hot and heavy with Airbus, just like I said I would. Offered them a lot, I got to say. If their nuke is so powerful, you’d figure they could take some of you back, right?” He blinked. “Not that I’m thinkin’ you’ll need it, of course. This is just for backup. Only…”
Unusually, his eyes drifted off camera. “Uh-oh,” Marc said.
Axelrod’s eyes swept back and Julia could tell he was suppressing very real anger, eyebrows pressing toward each other. “They turned me down flat. Just not interested, they said. No deal possible, this Chinese guy says to me, smooth as a swindle.”
Axelrod had enough sense to sigh, look down at the floor, give them time to absorb this. Julia could feel the rising rage around her, laced with suddenly tightened mouths, downcast eyes.
“They launched hoping we couldn’t fix the ERV,” Marc said. “Damn! They must be celebrating now.”
“A calculated risk,” Raoul agreed. “Betting against me.”
“Against us,” Viktor insisted. “We are a team.”
“Vultures,” said Julia. She could feel her mind racing, searching for an angle, a new plan, a way out.
Axelrod gazed at them forlornly. “Wouldn’t even discuss options. Like talking to a man who holds all the cards. They just smiled and ‘expressed concern’ “—here his eyebrows rose, then crashed down again—”and said they did not want to deal with us at all. At all.”
“They just brushed us aside?” Julia asked incredulously. All our hopes, our plans, our hard work here…what will it all add up to if we can’t get home? She felt a thin tendril of despair.
Viktor scowled. “Me, if I were Airbus, I would worry about us later. After I am on the ground.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Julia.
“They must be approaching fast,” Viktor said crisply. “They will be worrying about aerobraking. Their trajectory, if they land soon, maybe two weeks from now, it brings them in with higher delta vee than we had. Maybe seven, eight kilometers per second. That is a lot of energy to burn up.”
“It’s only possible if they’re a smaller ship than ours,” said Raoul.
“They can’t have much room on board, then,” Julia said, groaning inwardly.
“No, this isn’t coming from the Airbus crew,” Marc said. “The goddamned suits are calling these shots.”
“Do they wear suits in China?” Julia asked. “More like uniforms.”
“Meaning this is essentially decision of government?” Viktor said calmly, plainly trying to keep the discussion focused and professional.
“Airbus is a collaboration of businesses that might as well be state bureaucracies,” Julia said. “Who knows how they think?”
“Or if,” Raoul added.
“Look at it positively,” Julia said, though she certainly wasn’t feeling that way. “Maybe they are just counting on Raoul’s fixes working, once we get that repair kit they’re delivering.”
Marc said sourly, “Yeah, the hundred-million-dollar kit.”
“Somehow I don’t think that’s it,” Raoul said somberly.
Axelrod had continued speaking through their discussion. The words “…your fuel?” came clearly across as Raoul stopped speaking.
“Hey,” Julia said. “What’s he saying? Are we recording this?”
“Sure thing,” said Marc, sitting down again. “In fact, this is a recording. The squirt came in while we were doing sit-als.”
“Back it up. Let’s hear what he said about fuel.”
“Keying search on words ‘at all,’ okay.”
A brief pause. Axelrod again stared at them from the screen, eyebrows lowered. “At all,” he said. He shook his head in disbelief. “I’d even put the fuel in the ERV on the table to get the discussion going.” His voice lowered. Quietly he said, “Bottom line is, they don’t think they need us to win. Now, my info is that their nuke is too small to be carrying fuel for the round-trip. Maybe you have some ideas about what they could use, besides our methane/oxy? I’d love to hear them.” He suddenly looked squarely into the vid pickup. “I have no idea what they’re planning, but just to make sure, have you thought about protecting your fuel?”
A shocked silence descended on the crew.
Axelrod looked apologetic as he continued. “Now, my lawyers tell me the Law of the Sea defines a derelict as an unmanned vessel, so as long as someone is aboard the ERV it can’t be salvaged by someone else.”
“What’s he talking about?” Julia yelled. “Airbus is going to steal our fuel? Oh, God, the man’s mad.”
“Maybe not,” said Viktor amiably. “Why pay when can just take?”
“That’s a ridiculous idea,” said Julia. “What kind of mind would dream up something like that? This isn’t ‘Terry and the Pirates,’ this is real life. We know the Airbus crew. They’re like us. Astronauts! Civilized people! They don’t act like that.”
“Do, and did,” said Viktor. “Mutinies aboard ships not uncommon in ‘civilized’ British Navy.”
“I take his point,” said Raoul. “Thirty billion dollars is a lot of money. People have killed for a lot less.”
Julia looked around. “Marc? Do you agree, too? Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?”
