"What's that?"
"Bringing you up here."
The smile stayed on her face but her eyes moved away from him. "Now you sound like a guy on the make."
"Not like an officer and a gentleman?"
She looked straight at him again. "Let's change the subject."
It's already been changed, he thought. We're off the weapons-in-space kick, and we're going to stay off it. "Sure. Okay," he said aloud. "You're here to get a story. Murdock wants as much publicity for us as NASA gets. And the Pentagon wants to show the world that we're not testing death rays in orbit. We may be military, but we're nice military."
"And you?" Linda asked, seriously. "What do you want? How does an Air Force captain get into the space cadets?"
"By dint of personal valor. I thought it would be fun—until my first orbital flight. Now it's a way of life."
"Really? You like it that much? Why?"
With an honest grin he answered, "Wait until we go outside. Then you'll see."
Jill came back into the cabin precisely on schedule, and it was Kinsman's turn to sleep. He seldom had difficulty sleep- ing on Earth, never in orbit. But he wondered about Linda's reaction to going EVA as he zippered himself into his mesh sleeping bag and adjusted the band across his forehead that kept his head from bobbing weightlessly under the pressure of the blood pumping through his carotid arteries.
Worming his arms inside the nylon mesh, snug and secure, he closed his eyes and sank into sleep. His last conscious thought was a nagging worry that Linda would be terrified of EVA.
When he awoke and Linda took her sleep shift, he talked it over with Jill.
"I think she'll be all right. Chet. Don't hold those first few minutes against her."
"I don't know. There's only two kinds of people up here: you either love it or you're scared shitless. And you can't fake it. If she goes ape out there ..."
"She won't," Jill said. "Anyway, you'll be out there to help her. She won't be going outside until you're finished with the mating task. She wanted to get pictures of you actually at work, but I told her she'll have to settle for some posed shots."
Kinsman nodded. But the worry persisted. I wonder if Cy Calder's nurse was scared of flying?
He was pulling on his boots, wedging his free foot against an equipment rack to keep from floating off, when Linda returned from her sleep.
"Ready for a walk around the block?" he asked her.
She smiled and nodded without the slightest hesitation. "I'm looking forward to it. Can I get a few shots of you getting into your suit?"
