“There will be an accounting when we are home,” Chen said.
Viktor grimaced. “For those who get home.”
“I am offering one berth upon our return flight,” Chen persisted. Julia could see he was getting irked with Viktor, though the only sign was a slight lift at the corners of his mouth.
“And who will fill this berth?” Viktor asked edgily.
“I believe that is up to us,” Chen said.
“I am captain of ship and I say who will go back,” Viktor said stiffly.
“Our ship, we say who goes,” Gerda said.
Both men turned to look at her. Chen said nothing. Gerda realized she had violated the levels of command and visibly swallowed. Nobody said anything for a long moment. Julia had no idea where this was going and was fairly sure that Viktor did not, either.
“I trust what we say here will not become an issue for Earth to know of, on either side,” Chen said.
Marc grinned. “Too late for that. I’m getting all this on interior camera. With audio.”
Chen was genuinely shocked, eyebrows shooting up. “I had assumed—”
“We made no promises,” Viktor said. “Axelrod wants to know what goes on here.”
Chen bristled. “When I came aboard—”
“At own invitation. We did not invite.”
Julia could see that in Chen’s mind the frontier between irritation and outright anger had grown thinly guarded, and as his irked mouth twisted she saw that he had crossed the border without slowing down. “We came offering help—”
“At price, I think,” Viktor shot back. “Only not announced yet.”
Chen stood up, loudly scraping the chair back. “I believe we could all use a time to think upon these matters.”
“Leaving?” Julia asked. “No, don’t. We can’t let things get out of control—”
“Then let us take time to slacken the trouble here,” Chen said. “Julia, I would like to have a word with you, a technical word.”
“No one negotiates but you and me,” Viktor said. “Captains.”
“No negotiations,” Chen agreed readily. “Scientific talk only.”
Claudine said in a blithely conversational manner, as though nothing at all had happened, “I would appreciate very much seeing more of this ship.”
Marc snapped this up. “Sure, lemme show you.”
The two of them moved away, buzzing. Their animation contrasted sharply with the stiffness of the others. Julia was suddenly aware of being on camera, though she had been there so much for years she felt foolish even noticing the camera near the ceiling, whose snout tracked whoever was speaking, following its software.
She said, “All right, Dr. Chen, perhaps if you would step into my office…”
Her cabin they had outfitted with two tiny workspaces with pop-out seats. They sat on either edge of the drop-desk. Chen smiled at her, two feet away, and said, “I hope we did not all get off to a bad start today.”
“On Mars, just about everything is a staged event.”
“Just so,” Chen said. “I wanted to discuss the implications of your accident.”
“Better ask Raoul. He—”
“No, the greenhouse incident. You were studying living specimens. That much was clear from your own description, as heard over the suit comm.”
“Uh, yes.”
“You have found subterranean life.”
“Yes.”
“Down a thermal vent?”
“Yes, we finally located one.” How much to give away?
“I would very much like to see those samples.”
“They’re in the greenhouse.”
“I saw you had reinflated it. The samples are now dead?”
“Not all.”
“Really!” His face lit with eagerness.
