The Lieutenant blinked once. "My mother ... in Mos- cow."
"Mmm. My children will be safe enough from the bombs," the Captain said. "But the fallout ... the fallout, that's what will kill them. A lingering death."
"It may not happen," the Lieutenant said, very quietly.
The Captain eyed him. "Do you know what your cargo was? What you brought up here for me to sit with, in place of the scientists?"
"No sir. It was sealed, and my orders did not specify the container's contents."
"But something that big must have aroused your curiosi- ty, hen? A single package, sealed and guarded. Heh?"
"Well . . ." The Lieutenant smiled, almost. "There were rumors at Tyuratam ..."
"Rumors? Such as?"
"Well, that the package was part of a new weapon, a system that will defend the space station against American attack."
"Hah! 1 wish it were."
"Then it's not?"
"No, Lieutenant, it is not. It's a weapon, true enough. But it won't help to defend us. If anything it will make us an even more important target to the Americans."
"What is it, then?"
The Captain gave his best inscrutable smile. "Come now, Lieutenant. You must realize that I cannot tell you. The information is highly classified."
The Lieutenant drank his tea in stony silence and de- parted. Some time later the Captain got up from his desk and strode the length of his tiny station to the loading dock. He watched the shuttle, filled with the complaining scientists now, as its rockets puffed briefly and it arced away to be quickly lost against the glare of the looming Earth.
Then another spark caught his eye. The package that the shuttle had left hanging in orbit a few hundred meters from the station's main airlock.
The bomb. Tomorrow the shuttle would be back with another one. And the day after that, still another.
I must check with Lunagrad to be certain that they are giving the highest priority to sending us more lunar soil, the Captain told himself. Maybe we can get enough to protect the bombs, as well as the station.
Then he got an inspiration. Turning from the tiny port- hole where he had been standing he told the nearest techni- cian, "Dismantle all that scientific junk and plant it on the outside skin of the station. It might help to deflect laser beams if we're attacked."
Without a word of argument, the technician moved to obey.