Kelly replied, "I was trying to cool off and do some thinking."
"Listen to me. Pat. I want you to get something through your skull. Colt's going to be deputy commander of Moon- base. There's nothing I can do about that. But I can create a slot for an aide to the commander. I want you to take the job. You won't have to go Earthside. You can bring your family here."
Kelly's voice was dead flat. "Not while he's here. What's the use?"
"We can make it work out okay," Kinsman insisted. "I've known Frank since we were in astronaut training. There isn't a helluva lot we agree on, but we're friends. Brothers, almost. He saved my life once. I've helped him through some rough times-"
Kelly said nothing.
"But as close as we are," Kinsman went on, "I'll never 346 know what it's like to be black. And neither will you. He's fought goddamned hard to get where he is now. He's had to jump over hurdles that we can't even imagine."
"Come on now, Chet," Kelly said. "That poor little underprivileged kid from the ghetto—I've been hearing that routine all my life. It's phony as hell."
"People still burn synagogues, Pat. And they still kick niggers. It's getting worse, not better. Frank's got the scars to prove it."
"And I'm supposed to—"
"You're supposed to act like an adult," Kinsman snapped. "You do the job that needs to be done and you bring your family up here where they'll be safe."
"Even with him around?"
"Even with him around," Kinsman said.
Kelly looked doubtful. But some of the anger had left his face.
"Start the paperwork tomorrow first thing," Kinsman said. "That's an order. You are now my aide. And your family comes up on the next available shuttle space."
"Well . . ."
"And while we're at it, dig into the personnel files and find out how many of the permanent residents here have immediate family Earthside."
"My God, are you going to start a rescue service?"
"Call it an immigration service," Kinsman replied. He snapped off the phone and Kelly's face faded from the screen.
Then he touched another button and turned to the big wall screen across from his chair. It showed the Earth.
"You know damned well you can't take them all," he whispered to himself. "I can't save them all. God, there's seven billion of them!"
