"Oh dear!" A stricken look spread over her tanned face. "And I promised Edwin faithfully I wouldn't yell at you! I'm sorry. You have to excuse me-I have to make a phone call."

She darted into the bedroom and banged the door. Rob went more slowly into the messy living room. Dressed in jean shorts and a baseball T-shirt, Edwin was working out on his Lifecycle to the pounding beat of Van Morrison. The latest issue of Journal of Microbiology was clipped open on the book stand, and he was eating a large slice of apple pie from the pan. He picked up the remote and powered the stereo's volume down. "Hi, Rob, want some?"

"You don't have to pack in the calories any more, you know! Ed, have I caused trouble between you and your girl?" Rob moved a pair of rollerblades from a chair to the floor before sitting down.

"Impossible. What, did Carina lay into you? Ignore it. She has a lot on her mind. I think we're going to tie the knot at last."

"Congratulations! She's a gem-that Polaroid you have of her at the lab doesn't nearly do her justice."

Edwin raised his dark eyebrows in mock alarm. "You didn't tell her that, did you?"

"I wouldn't have the nerve!"

"She hates it when people judge her by her looks." Edwin grinned, remembering. "In fact, at the ceremony, be sure and tell her that her wedding gown makes her look intellectual."

Rob laughed. "I'll do that, and I'll tell her you told me to! When is it going to be?"

"In August sometime. She's calling her folks now to coordinate calendars.

You see, we have to do it after July twentieth."

Edwin's voice suddenly quivered with suppressed excitement. Rob asked, "And what's so important about that day?"

"This came yesterday over the net." He put the pie pan down and scooped a piece of paper from a table to pass over. It was a printout of an e-mail message:

Eddie!!! The list's FINALLY been handed down from on high! I spent all morning chasing it down, they DON'T want it all over the place yet, but YOU'RE ON IT!!!!! The official wheels will start turning next week. You can tell your family of course, but don't steal the President's thunder, okay? There'll be a White House announcement, on July 20, natch. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Jeremy

P.S. Bring me back a souvenir-how about a T-shirt? "My college roommate went to Nix Olympica, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!" :):):):):):):)

"July twentieth," Rob said, thunderstruck. "I remember, that's Apollo Day.

Does that mean-"

"A good day to make the Mars announcement, don't you think?"

"So you're in!" Rob shook Edwin's free hand with both his own.

"Congratulations again! You've been having a very busy week!"

"I'll be busier yet. I have to move to Houston to do astronaut training.

You want to take over my apartment lease here?"

"No, I... Gosh, I didn't realize you'd have to move. And you'll be in space for years." Rob's heart sank a little.

"They're only just building the space station. I figure it'll be five years easy, before they're ready for lift-off."

"That's practically forever," Rob said with relief.

"Just what Carina said. Hence the wedding." The timer dinged. Edwin leaped off the machine and wiped his sweaty forehead and neck with an old towel.

"I couldn't sleep last night, I was so jazzed up. And if we don't talk about something else I won't sleep tonight either. What are you doing with your laptop there? Do we need to print you another graph?"

Rob nodded. "I spent all this week in Atlantic City."

"And?"

From pure excitement Rob could hardly get the words out. "I lost my shirt, Ed. Every dime."

"You did? Eet me have that disk! But I thought it was going to be at least twice as tough?"

"Let me do it. I can't really describe it, but I figure it's like this.

It's sandwiches, not viruses. Gilgamesh gave me half his power, and it was like one wheel-a unicycle. It's tough to learn to ride a unicycle, but after a while I was doing okay with it. Then I got his other half, and I'm riding on two wheels now-a bicycle. And bicycles are easier, not harder.

I'm a whiz now, with total control-look at this."

Rob took one hand off the keyboard and held it up. The heat lightning effect, the only visible sign of his power, leaped obediently from fingertip to fingertip and back again.

"Holy Mike! Then that means you did it! Thank God!"

Edwin gave him a high five. The open joy on his face was wonderful to see.

Rob grinned happily back at him and said, "So I was wondering, do you have a razor I could borrow?"

"I've fallen off the sled here," Edwin confessed. "Are you taking off the face fuzz? What for?"

"I can tell you're not a parent, Ed. Angela and Davey have never seen me in a beard. The transition will be easier for the kids if I look pretty much the same as a year ago."

Edwin clapped a hand to his forehead. "Of course! I wasn't thinking. You're going home!"

"Tonight." His happiness was so great Rob felt almost sick with it. If he should ever get swell-headed his nervous stomach would keep him humble.

Carina passed through briskly from bedroom to kitchen, remarking, "Edwin says you have tummy trouble, Rob. So it's tea and toast for you. No apple pie-it'll be too rich."

"Besides, I ate it all," Edwin said. As the printer began its chatter he moved over to sit at one of the two dining tables.

Carina set a Corningware casserole dish of leftover vegetarian lasagne down. "Oh Edwin, how could you, before lunch?"

"It's not slowing me down, now is it?" He cut himself a generous portion, laughing up at her.

Rob sat down. It seemed easier not to argue with Carina, and it was too early to leave yet. Rush-hour bus service in Fairfax didn't start until four. He ate chewy whole-grain toast and drank organic herbal digestive tea, another Carina import- Edwin only ever served coffee and designer water.

Rob felt old and wise as he watched the electricity between the two, and more than a little amused. To see two such confident and self-possessed people so deeply enamored was a riot. It was obvious to his experienced eye that they were not yet sleeping together. In her worn khaki shirt and shorts, Carina looked like Miss America doing an Indiana Jones impression for the talent competition. It was particularly comic to watch Edwin assessing the fit of those shorts, and the mutual blush when Carina noticed him doing it. Just as well the wedding would be this summer.

After lunch Rob piled the dishes into the sink, and would have washed them if Carina hadn't turfed him out. "I have to put the chicken mole on," she said. "You two go and analyze your graphs." She dropped a kiss on the top of Edwin's head and went into the kitchen.

"I thought we should look over the entire file," Edwin said when they moved into the living room. "Here, hold this end."

Spread out, the bar graph showed a truly notable progress. Rob could see how he had slowly and steadily decreased the leak since autumn. "And you know, this wasn't a waste of time," he said. He slid the long sheet of paper through his work-calloused hands. "If I hadn't gotten a handle on the power, Gilgamesh would have trashed me. He nearly did anyway. "

"I think you had better stick to Gil," Edwin said. "The name Gilgamesh will excite Carina unduly. There isn't an archaeologist on earth who wouldn't kill to meet him. Even without the weirdness and the live-forever thing, he's a treasure trove. To talk to someone who's actually lived in Uruk and Dilmun ..."

"Go back to Kazakhstan then and look him up."

"Oh, don't tempt me, Rob! Maybe when I get back from Mars. You'll have to come too, you know, to translate. Sumerian's a dead language."