“Plenty of time to do that on the trip home,” Raoul said.
“I can’t, not and keep to the bio protocols. I’d have to work in the little onboard glove box, and there’s not nearly enough room in there to carry out my experiments on—”
“Science isn’t the issue here,” Raoul said. “Let ’em do that Earth-side, then.”
“The samples will die! I don’t know if they’ll even survive tonight—”
“If they don’t, that settles the issue, then,” Raoul said.
She made herself take a deep breath. “It does not. I might want to go back down there, do more—”
“No more trips,” Viktor said. “Raoul is right, science over.”
“It’s too early to say that! I—”
“It is too late,” Viktor said calmly, turning to her. “Game now is get back fast.”
“If we leave the big questions unanswered—”
“Airbus can answer,” Viktor said. “They have time.”
“But, but—” She could not see a way around him. “Look, let’s hear the rest of Axelrod’s message.”
This was pretty transparent, but then, they did not know that she had specifically sent Axelrod a quick question about when to announce her discovery, tacked onto the Airbus reception footage.
Sure enough, Axelrod quickly moved to answer. After a little cheerleading, he said, “Oh yes, Julia. I’m not going to go anywhere with the life story. Sure, it’s huge, but I’ve got lawyers on my tail here. The Planetary Protocol people, they’ll go ballistic when we announce. I want to do that after you guys have lifted off. No stopping you then—and I think that’s what’s at stake here. Somebody—hell, maybe the Feds—will slap an injunction on me, try to stop you coming back at all. I mean it. You got no idea what this circus is like, back here.”
“Oh no,” she said weakly.
“—and Raoul, I want your verdict on the repairs, right away. Before you knock off for today. I know you’re tired, all of you, been working hard. But we gotta know back here, make plans.” He paused, beamed again. “Plans for your victory celebration, soon as we know the launch date.”
They sat in silence as the screen went gray with static.
Julia fumed. “Damn him. This is the biggest story—”
“He knows the situation there,” Raoul said.
“He is boss,” Viktor said.
“Well, he doesn’t control everything,” she said. “I can blow the story any time.”
Raoul’s eyes bulged. “What!”
“Tell my parents, just let it slip. They’ll know what I mean.”
“You wouldn’t,” Raoul said.
“I would.” She put more confidence into her tone than she felt. “Axelrod can’t suppress news this big! We’ll have a devil of a time explaining why we stalled.”
“He is boss,” Viktor said simply.
“If he told you to dump your gemstones, would you do it?” she said sharply.
Viktor looked affronted. “Is my personal mass.”
“I’d say we may have to put all our cards on the table,” she said in what she hoped was a calm manner.
“Hey,” Marc said, “let’s cool this off a little.”
“I’m tired,” Raoul agreed. “Got to call Earthside and report, too.”
She tried to think of a way to smooth matters over. Better not let everybody sleep on unresolved issues. “How is it going?”
“Pretty well.” Raoul smiled. “I’m replacing all the seals I can.”
“Can?” Marc pressed.
“I’d like to replace every one. They’ve been standing in that damned peroxide dust for years. Impossible to tell if they have micropore damage, not without putting every square millimeter under a microscope. The temperature swings stress the material, crack it, peroxides get in, eat away—a nightmare.”
For Raoul this was a long speech, especially lately. Julia said, “They only have to work once.”
“Right, one clean shot. That’s all I’m asking for.” Raoul smiled wanly.
Viktor said, “As soon as I say we can lift, we go. Okay?”
There wasn’t any real doubt. He was captain. But Julia seethed.
23
