People were clustering around Kinsman, grinning, flushed with victory. But Harriman was still gabbling a steady stream of rapid-fire talk into the phone at the couch.

Kinsman made his way toward the couch; people cleared a path for him. "Hugh, how bad is it?" 431

Harriman flailed a pudgy hand at him. "I'm trying to find out, dammit! Give me a minute or two!"

Perry asked, "Sir, what about the, uh, prisoners from the water factory?"

"Return them to their quarters. Put an armed guard at the end of each corridor. Just see that they don't get into any more mischief." Kinsman's head was buzzing. "Any word from Leonov?"

Diane answered, "We received a call from Lunagrad about half an hour ago. Not from Colonel Leonov, but from one of the scientists. It was a personal call for Dr. Landau."

"Landau? No other communications from them?"

"No."

Puzzled, Kinsman turned toward the desk. On the wall display screens he could see that the sections of Selene currently being shown looked quiet and secure, completely normal, except that the main plaza was crowded with people in a holiday mood. They were milling about, looking happy, excited. But then one screen changed to show an area of the water factory: an explosion had ripped open half a dozen pipes and precious, sacred water was gushing out, flooding the area knee-deep as a team of repair technicians sloshed in it, trying to stem the flow. Kinsman felt as if one of his own arteries had burst: that was his life's blood being wasted.

He sank into the chair next to the desk and reached for the phone's extra handset. Diane handed it to him, without taking the receiver she was using from her ear. Briefly their eyes met; neither of them smiled.

Kinsman took the handset and punched an open line on the keyboard. "Lunagrad," he said into the phone. "Colonel Leonov."

A communications tech's voice answered, "Sorry, sir, but the links with Lunagrad have been very spotty. We're getting no response at present."

Jesus Christ, what's going on over there? Kinsman struggled to keep his voice calm. "Use the laser comm system. Swing it from the lock on the space station to lock onto one of Lunagrad's receiving mirrors."

"Sir, I'll need authorization for—"

"This is Kinsman. I'm going to put Captain Perry on the 432 line, and by the time he gets here that laser had better be pointing at a Lunagrad mirror. I want a link established and I want it nowV

"Yessir."

Kinsman waved Perry to the desk and explained what he wanted done. He went back to the couch where Harriman was still deep in agitated, animated conversation.

What are all these people doing here? he asked himself. Scanning the crowded room, he saw the chief of the engineer- ing section, two of the top scientists, a couple of young Aerospace Force noncoms who normally worked the catapult facility, several others from various administrative sections, and a few he could not place. And Diane. She got up from the desk and came to him.

"How's it going?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Don't know yet. The water factory's damaged. And there's been no word from Leonov."

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Fine. How about you?"

"I want to help. What can I do?"

Shrugging, "Sit and sweat it out with the rest of us." And then he understood why the others were here. Why the people were gathering in the main plaza. Waiting. Waiting to see if it was going to work. Waiting to learn if they would live or die. On my responsibility, Kinsman thought.

Harriman snorted and slapped his free hand on his thigh. "All right, all right'" he yelled into the phone. "Keep feeding all the details into the computer so we can update the assessment."