“What?” She had not seen this coming.
“We will have six months to work together. To think, to compare—”
“No, I can’t leave—”
“You will bring the samples of course.”
“No, I meant I can’t leave Viktor.”
“Most important, you cannot leave your great discovery.”
“If you listen to the Earthside media, plenty of people want us to leave it all right here.”
He waved this aside. “Fools. Western journalists.”
“Even if we ship them back with you, they’ll be quarantined.”
“So that for a long time no one will be able to work on them.”
She caught his drift. “So our work will be all there is.”
“That is quite possible.”
Something in his rapt gaze, blazing with excitement, put her off. Let’s see just what the offer is. “I don’t think the Consortium will let the samples go with you.”
“Why?” He seemed affronted.
“Because Airbus will scoop up all the Mars Prize. That hadn’t crossed your mind?”
“I do not think of the race, compared with the science.”
“I bet.” Really?
“Neither should it concern you so much.”
“Look, what if I come back, we have time to discuss all the biology, you look at all my data—there’s a lot—and we maybe write a paper on it in transit. But no samples.” What’s he gonna say to that?
His eyes narrowed. “We must have the samples. No one will be satisfied with merely your—”
“Nope, that’s a condition. The Consortium won’t let the samples out of their hands.”
“Your hands. We make the decisions here, as Viktor your captain said, and they are your hands.”
“So no berth without the samples?”
“You wish to force my hand this way?”
“Let’s call it a legitimate question.”
“A negotiation, you mean.”
“You don’t really want me, you want the vent life.”
“Your captain said only he and I, we carry out negotiations.”
“So it is the samples or else no berth for me?” As if I would go alone under any conditions.
Chen ground his teeth suddenly, as if no longer caring how he appeared. “The biological specimens, yes, they are essential.”
“Nuts.”
“What?”
“Nuts.”
29
JANUARY 29, 2018
AS THE AIRBUS ROVER FELL BELOW THE HORIZON, THROWING DUST, Viktor said, “We talk.”
“You bet,” Marc said, beating the rest of them to the communal table.
“First, what did Chen say in there?” Viktor asked Julia.
“Biology, mostly. I showed him my slate data. We discussed genetics, that the vent life is related to the early Earth life. We’re distant cousins.”
Viktor nodded. “He wants samples?”
