"Oh, I think the Glugs can appreciate yourrequest. But they'd want at least fifty percent more for the fil-grav than the FTL."

"Now that might present a bit of a hardship. We'd have to increase our herds, but you only get prime methane from animals at their peak of youth and strength. We'll have to slaughter the aging critters to make way for young'uns. And what do we do with all those carca.s.ses? We'll have to," shudder, "eat them."

"Yes that could present a hardship," Ab'nere agreed. Secretly she checked the Glug's connection to the computer. He had shuddered in disgust right along with Lexie du Preh. The Ghoul might prove more generous than usual. Or be more desperate.

"And what about fodder for all them critters,"

Lexie du Preh continued. We'll have to divert expensive grain supplies from human consumption to feeding chickens and pigs, and bulls. That ain't going to go over too big with some folks back home."

The Glug sent several rapid communications through his Jack with instructions.

"What kind of grains?" Ab'nere asked.

"Corn mostly."

The computer flashed a visual as well as a description of a plant Ab'nere knew all too well, tall stalks with kernels growing on long tubes. Every civilized planet burned the pernicious monster as a weed that had spread from Ab'nere's home planet and adapted to every local environment-like sottand Labyrinthians themselves. No one had ever considered eating the kernels of "corn."

"Perhaps I can strike an additional deal with you.

For a fee..."

"What kind of deal?" Lexie du Preh twirled the leather head covering on one forepaw digit, staring at it as if falling into a trance.

"I know a source for this corn you require."

"We'll have to test it for DNA compatibility. Don't want our prime methane producers starvin' to death on an inert substance."

"The DNA on my planet has proved most flexible."

"How so?" Lexie du Preh narrowed her eyes.

Ab'nere had come to think of that expression as calculating. She definitely wanted the genetic advantages an Earther mate would give her offspring.

"Since the people of Labyrinth first ventured into s.p.a.ce one thousand cycles ago, sentient beings, livestock, plants, anything native to our world has proved incapable of breeding with other natives. We must crossbreed with the beings we encounter, absorbing their culture, their languages, and their genes. But the offspring always take on the overt characteristics of a Labyrinthine." Plus a few advantages.

How could she use a very large child of a Magma Giant to boost her profits?

"You think your corn will cross-pollinate with ourcorn?"

"We have yet to fail."

"Then I guess we got ourselves a deal." Once more Lexie du Preh held out her paw for a contact greeting.

"Our surveys indicate your species regards a written contract with signatures as binding."

Ab'nere eyed the slim hand devoid of fur skeptically.

"The lawyer-types back home will require one. But just between you 'n me, friends, women, new mamas, a handshake is as binding as a signature." Lexie du Preh's voice took on an edge previously missing.

"And so it is with my people." Ab'nere clasped her new business partner's paw with her own, squeezing lightly but firmly.

"Now how do I pay for this here beer? Mighty good beer it is, too." She finished the last few drops, again dabbing at her mouth with the square of fine cloth and its intriguing edge.

"What kind of currency do you use back on Earth?" Ab'nere asked, even as she added the cost of the beer to the ship's docking fees-payable in trade with the first exchange of cargoes.

"Mostly we work on a credit system, all handled by the computers. But for casual transactions we use coins." She dumped a handful of metal disks upon the bar.

"All of these are common metals," Ab'nere eyed the collection skeptically. "I could consider thatsquare of white cloth with the thread edging, though, for the beer. What besides methane does your world produce in surplus?"

"People."

Another reason to choose an Earther as a mate.

Ab'nere hoped they were as skilled lovers as the ammonia breathers.

"What about more woven textiles of this fineness?" Ab'nere held up the square of white.

"This type of edging might prove useful in paying for the corn."

Lexie du Preh fingered the curious crossed triangles emblem on her hat. She waited through a long moment.

The Glug asked anxious questions. His silent words on the computer screen nearly danced with glee. He'd get his methane. Ab'nere would turn a pernicious weed into a cash crop. The Earthers would enter into the realm of galactic trade as happy partners.

The silence stretched on for more long moments while Lexie du Preh weighed the cost of the corn against the technological gains. The atmosphere in the bar grew thick.

"Deal," she said on a deep sigh.

They shook paws again.

"Folks back home will be skeptical of this chicken s.h.i.t deal. That's one h.e.l.l of a high price to pay. But I'll make 'ern see the value in it." She handed overthe square of cloth reluctantly. "We call this a lace-edged hankie. This one belonged to my Nanna."

"Then I shall treasure this artifact and record its provenance with care." Ab'nere patted the hankie with respect. Four digits and an opposable thumb seemed to work wonders with looms her own species could not manage. She imagined woven translucent veils that had nothing to do with the spun webs of the Arachnoids of Arachnia. "I'll have a contract ready in a few centags. You, the Glug representative, and I will all sign it with three witnesses from neutral species."

"Sounds good. Say, I'm throwin' a little party on my ship tonight. The crew deserves a little three-alarm-Texas chili and beer after our trek to the First Contact Cafi. Come along and bring the Glug.

If he's lucky, he might get a sample of some of the best methane ever produced on Earth. A rare treat."

"For me or the Glug?"

ORBITAL BASE FEAR.

Eric Kotani

Eric Kotani is a pen name used by an astrophysicist who has published seven Eric Kotani is a pen name used by an astrophysicist who has published seven Eric Kotani is a pen name used by an astrophysicist who has published seven Eric Kotani is a pen name used by an astrophysicist who has published seven science fiction novels, some with co-authors, e.g., John Maddox Roberts. He science fiction novels, some with co-authors, e.g., John Maddox Roberts. He science fiction novels, some with co-authors, e.g., John Maddox Roberts. He science fiction novels, some with co-authors, e.g., John Maddox Roberts. He also edited an anthology of stories in tribute to Robert A. Heinlein. He served also edited an anthology of stories in tribute to Robert A. Heinlein. He served also edited an anthology of stories in tribute to Robert A. Heinlein. He served also edited an anthology of stories in tribute to Robert A. Heinlein. He served as the director of a satellite observatory at NASA for fifteen years, and as the director of a satellite observatory at NASA for fifteen years, and as the director of a satellite observatory at NASA for fifteen years, and as the director of a satellite observatory at NASA for fifteen years, and previously headed the astrophysics laboratory at NASA Johnson s.p.a.ce Center previously headed the astrophysics laboratory at NASA Johnson s.p.a.ce Center previously headed the astrophysics laboratory at NASA Johnson s.p.a.ce Center previously headed the astrophysics laboratory at NASA Johnson s.p.a.ce Center during the Apollo and Skylab Missions. He is now co-investigator of the during the Apollo and Skylab Missions. He is now co-investigator of the during the Apollo and Skylab Missions. He is now co-investigator of the during the Apollo and Skylab Missions. He is now co-investigator of the Kepler Mission to detect Earth-like planets. He has held professorship at Kepler Mission to detect Earth-like planets. He has held professorship at Kepler Mission to detect Earth-like planets. He has held professorship at Kepler Mission to detect Earth-like planets. He has held professorship at several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and the several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and the several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and the several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and the Catholic University of America. He has published over 200 scientific papers Catholic University of America. He has published over 200 scientific papers Catholic University of America. He has published over 200 scientific papers Catholic University of America. He has published over 200 scientific papers and edited thirteen books on astrophysics. He has received a number of and edited thirteen books on astrophysics. He has received a number of and edited thirteen books on astrophysics. He has received a number of and edited thirteen books on astrophysics. He has received a number ofawards for his work, including the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific awards for his work, including the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific awards for his work, including the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific awards for his work, including the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and Isaac Asimov Memorial Award. An asteriod has been named Achievement and Isaac Asimov Memorial Award. An asteriod has been named Achievement and Isaac Asimov Memorial Award. An asteriod has been named Achievement and Isaac Asimov Memorial Award. An asteriod has been named Yojikondo in recognition of his contributions to astronomy. He holds a sixth Yojikondo in recognition of his contributions to astronomy. He holds a sixth Yojikondo in recognition of his contributions to astronomy. He holds a sixth Yojikondo in recognition of his contributions to astronomy. He holds a sixth degree black belt in judo and in aikido and has been teaching a cla.s.s for the degree black belt in judo and in aikido and has been teaching a cla.s.s for the degree black belt in judo and in aikido and has been teaching a cla.s.s for the degree black belt in judo and in aikido and has been teaching a cla.s.s for the past few decades. past few decades. past few decades. past few decades.

LANDING maneuvers-uh, correction!-docking maneuvers in three hundred seconds!" Jacques Boutillier, the pilot of Mars Trailblazer, announced somewhat flamboyantly. The crew tensed in antic.i.p.ation. This was the last step before reaching the Martian surface. Actually, they were about to "land" on Phobos, the larger of the two satellites of Mars; it was a little over a dozen kilometers across, with an irregular shape typical of small objects in the solar system. The surface gravity of the Martian moon was so miniscule-less than a thousandth of the standard g-force on Earth but varying widely at different locations due to the nonspherical shape-that the "landing" was essentially matching the orbital velocity with the Martian moon and establishing contact on the surface smoothly.

Poul Eriksen, the captain of this manned expedition to Mars and an experienced U.S. Air Force s.p.a.ce Command test pilot, was looking closely over Boutillier's shoulder. He had an outstanding reputation among his fellow officers as the man who got the job done right, no matter what. He looked the part, too-the indomitable look of a Viking war chieftain, with an intelligent face.

Eriksen was doing his utmost to avoid the disasterthat overcame the Consortium's Mars Expedition I, and to become the captain of the first successful manned mission to Mars, something practically every kid would dream about in growing up. He had no desire to be a dead hero, but, more importantly, this was his expedition and he had no intention of letting it fail. Since he had little information on what had gone wrong in the first manned mission, it meant close supervision of everything that went on, occasionally irritating his crew, all of whom were experienced s.p.a.ce jockeys.

Boutillier was a veteran pilot, too, with the rank of Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, s.p.a.ce Division. At twenty-eight he was probably the youngest among the crew; he had been selected specifically for his skill and fast reflexes in landing flying ships of all sorts. His credentials included piloting the Navy's single stage to orbit ships several times. He also had a unique qualification-successful landing on a small Earth-crossing asteroid a few years earlier. He looked lean, his brown hair framing the clean-cut features of his determined face; there was hardly any suggestion of his one-eighth Cherokee ancestry there. He was from the Louisiana bayou country and it was not always easy to control his Cajun temper.

But it was either maintain a tight grip on his disposition or be disqualified for the mission. He had kept his cool.

The pilot ignored the close supervision by the captain and concentrated on the delicate final stageof contact with the small moon. He completed the "docking" maneuver with hardly a jolt felt by the four-person crew. After making sure that the ship was really at rest with respect to Phobos, he pushed the b.u.t.ton for the anchors, firing two super-sharp harpoons into the crust of the little moon. Once the harpoons penetrated the surface to the predetermined depth, hooks extended from them, securing the anchorage.

"Anchors in place, Colonel Eriksen. We are right next to the Stickney Crater as planned. All set for extravehicular activities now." Old habits were hard to break; Boutillier sometimes addressed the ship's captain by the latter's military rank.

"Well done, Jack."

"Thank you, sir."

The 'landing' site was near the huge crater, where an earlier flyby mission reported a possible ice deposit. With the chance of taking advantage of the putative ice deposit, two supply ships had been sent to the adjacent area and had been waiting for the arrival of Trailblazer. One robot ship was full of supplies; the other ship contained provisions but had been designed to serve as a habitat.

"n.o.bu, put on your s.p.a.ce suit and follow me outside. We're going to find out if the cargo aboard the supply ships arrived safely. We'll also see if the habitat can really be made habitable, then we'll check up on the rumored ice deposit.""I am ready, Captain," answered n.o.buo Okita, ship's nuclear physicist and all-around engineer.

Looking out the neo-gla.s.s window from his pilot's seat, Boutillier wondered aloud. "Why do we call this huge cavity the Stickney Crater? An unusual name, I'd say."

"It was named after the wife of the discoverer of the Martian moons, Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory. His wife's maiden name was Chloe Angeline Stickney." Okita, who was an astronomy buff, offered the answer, spelling out her first name for the benefit of his audience. "I understand she was a brilliant mathematician and an interesting woman. After her marriage to Hall, she would sometimes sign her letters using her initials, C.A.S.H.".

After his discovery in 1877, Hall named the two moons Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Panic, the two ancient companions of the war G.o.d, Mars. The Crater was not discovered for about a century after the discovery of the little moon. It was "imaged" by a flyby probe in the latter part of the twentieth century. Asaph had always publicly acknowledged that he would not have succeeded in the search but for Chloe Angeline's constant encouragement to keep looking. The International Astronomical Union approved naming the Crater Stickney to honor her important contribution.

While donning his s.p.a.ce suit, Okita mumbled an aside to his captain. "The Consortium ship Ares wasonly several days behind us the last time we checked.

If they go for a direct landing on Mars, they can reach the planetary surface before us."

"Yah, don't we all know it! We have no time to waste. Let's get going."

Presently, Eriksen and Okita stood on the surface of Phobos, where no human beings had walked before. The robot ships that had landed a few months before were visible at a distance of a few hundred meters. The sunlight striking the bottom of the Stickney Crater was reflected by something shiny there, possibly a dark patch of ice.

"When you start walking, slide along the surface.

Avoid up and down motions. It might not be easy on this G.o.dforsaken surface, but move horizontally as much as possible. If you try jumping over an obstacle, you might end up getting into orbit around this moonlet", cautioned the captain.

"Roger that." Actually, walking horizontally with a minimum of ups and downs came naturally to Okita. It was one of the first lessons he had to internalize in his judo cla.s.s. Many a time at the beginning, failure to do so caused him to be thrown down on his back.

As they made their way toward the two unmanned ships, Eriksen started planting automatically-piercing metallic sticks, about one and a half meters long, into the moon's crust at an interval of several meters. Like the harpoons foranchoring the ship, once the sharp point reached a certain depth, the stick would release an anchorlike hook that would open underground. But he had to be careful when he gave the stick an initial shove downward so as not to propel himself into a trajectory. Okita, following his captain, ran a wire through a loop on each pole. Those who would follow the path to the supply ships in the future could run a hand around the wire and avoid the embarra.s.sment of pushing themselves into a flight path.

An inspection of the inside of the ships showed that the shipments had arrived intact and that the habitat, after minor rearrangements, would provide a living s.p.a.ce for several occupants.

"Good, now we can stay on Phobos without worrying much about consumables. When we send the shuttle down to the surface, we may even be able to bring back some ice from near the polar regions,"

said Eriksen, sounding optimistic.

The shiny dark patch was another few hundred meters away. Upon arriving there, Okita got down on his stomach without being told to do so and cautiously crawled onto the shiny material.

Somewhat to his disappointment, the shiny surface was not ice; it would have been too good to be true, anyway. The shiny surface was a gla.s.sy material and was smooth and slippery. He was glad that he had taken the precaution; he might otherwise have skidded off, if not into a low orbit around the moon,at least to the other side of this shiny patch some fifty meters away. At the far side, he could see an overhang of rocks-just beyond where the gla.s.sy material ended. Whatever was below the overhang was totally shaded from the sunlight.

"This stuff is gla.s.sy-maybe it's molten rock. Too bad it's not an ice patch. I want to take a look at what's underneath that protruding rock over there."

Okita informed Eriksen.

"Okay, go ahead. Watch your step. I'll hang around here and check things out on this side."

Okita decided to walk around the slippery patch rather than crawl across it. When he reached the spot, he saw that the overhang concealed a cavelike structure underneath. The ceiling was high enough so that he could walk into it. It was total darkness inside as there were no air molecules to scatter the sunlight from outside. One moment he was stepping into the cave and the next moment he skidded and ended up on his back. Thankfully, in the low gravity of Phobos, the fall was slow and gentle. He felt foolish for not having turned on his portable flashlight before stepping in. When he corrected his mistake and turned on the light, he was instantly alert. For instead of finding more of the gla.s.sy staff, what he saw definitely looked like an ice deposit.

Eriksen joined him promptly, as fast as the low gravity permitted him to move. After ascertaining to his satisfaction that the stuff was indeed ice, Eriksen brought out instruments and started measuring thedimensions of the ice lake inside the cave. The surface area was easy enough to estimate. It was the thickness of the ice that presented a problem in determining the volume of the ice deposit, as the thickness could vary from place to place. He solved the problem by measuring the depth at several randomly selected sites. The average depth seemed to be no less than ten meters. As the surface area was about twenty by thirty meters, this represented several thousand tons of water, which could sustain the crew for a long time. Of course, once they established a base on the Martian surface, there would be a virtually inexhaustible supply of water in the form of polar ice, even without counting on the possible underground deposits of ice in some places.

While Eriksen was measuring the size of the ice deposit, Okita looked around his surroundings for anything unusual. During the long voyage out, Jacques Boutillier had shared with Okita his secret suspicion that Mars might not have been an entirely dead planet. The mysterious catastrophe that befell Expedition I several years earlier had probably been a natural disaster, but it could also have been caused by something else-or, should he say, something artificial?

Mars Expedition I, the first manned mission by an international consortium-consisting of the U.S.

(NASA), European Union (ESA), the Russian Federation and j.a.pan-to Mars seven years earlier, ended up in a mysterious disaster. The exact cause ofthe failure was still under investigation and remained unclear.

The crew of Mars Expedition I, the first expedition to the fourth planet, had no leeway in picking the time to land. They had to land when they arrived and where they were supposed to, no matter what the planetary conditions were. Mars Expedition I lost contact with Earth when it was behind the planet-just as it was preparing to land. Those back on Earth had never learned what had happened during the communications blackout as no message had since been received.

The orbital probes that were sent later to the Red Planet could find no trace of the s.p.a.cecraft anywhere on the ground. Since the doomed ship's...o...b..t was inclined to the equator, the ship might have plunged into the dry ice in the polar cap and disappeared underneath. The total surface area of the Red Planet was comparable to that of the entire land area of Earth. Finding the ship, if it had indeed crashed somewhere, would be more difficult than finding from s.p.a.ce a Boeing 707 that had crashed somewhere on the Eurasian continent, even if the terrain were completely bare of any plants, animals, or artifacts.

The direct landing on the fourth planet was in part necessitated by the slowness of the journey using the Hohmann trajectory, in which the ship accelerated only at the beginning, then coasted along in free fall, and decelerated at the end of the journey to matchMars' orbital velocity. It took so long getting there that the ship did not have sufficient reserve of consumables, which would have afforded the luxury of looking over the planet from an orbital alt.i.tude before landing. The ship needed to land without delay so that the crew could get at the provisions that had been dispatched to the landing site several months in advance.

One way to avoid the necessity of directly landing on Mars from Earth orbit was to shorten the travel time so that the ship would have ample provisions first to go into orbit around Mars and make certain that the landing would be safe. But it was all but impossible to do so with the conventional chemically powered rocket engines, which took so long in getting the crew to the destination. The ship could carry barely enough to keep the crew going for the nine months that it took to get there.

To shorten the travel time, it would be necessary to accelerate continuously for an extended period beyond the insertion to trans-Martian orbit. One way to do that was to use a nuclear powered rocket engine. It had turned out that the U.S. Air Force s.p.a.ce Command had been successful in developing an experimental nuclear fusion engine. Its early version had been proposed in the 1980s by Bussard at the time of the strategic defense initiative program; in its original form, the engine used protons, boron-11, lithium-6, deuterium, and helium-3 in appropriate cycles. This cycle did notemit neutrons, which made it safe for the human crew using this type of nuclear fusion engine. It had not been funded for development at the time but had later been picked up by the s.p.a.ce Command under the obscure budget heading of High-Efficiency s.p.a.ce Propulsion System. The label was not deceptive, as the nuclear fusion engine would be easily several times more efficient than chemical rockets in terms of the fuel ma.s.s involved. With a nuclear fusion engine of this type, it was possible to make it from Earth orbit to Mars...o...b..t in just two months.

Just as importantly-perhaps even more significantly- placing the interplanetary ship on tiny Phobos first and sending a much smaller shuttle to the planetary surface meant that they would not have to expend a great deal of fuel to land the entire ma.s.s of the huge ship and lift it again from Mars for the return trip home. Instead, they would be landing and lifting the considerably smaller ma.s.s of the shuttle.

However, the phobia over using nuclear power was strong among the political parties in control of the leading countries in Europe that made up the ESA, as had sometimes been the case in the United States.

After the failure of the first manned mission to Mars, recognizing the immense advantages of using a fusion engine, the U.S. had broken away from the Consortium. The U.S. manned mission to Mars had become a joint venture between the Air Force s.p.a.ceCommand and NASA.

To show unity with the European Union, Russia had decided to stick with the Consortium although historically Russia had had much fewer scruples about the use of nuclear power in s.p.a.ce or elsewhere.

Anchoring Mother Russia firmly to Western Europe was the sine qua non priority on their political agenda.

j.a.pan left the Consortium when the multinational undertaking broke up with the departure of the U.S.

and then joined the U.S. The most important reason for joining the U.S. expedition was perhaps the persuasive argument of the influential j.a.panese scientist, Professor Ikeda of the Inst.i.tute of s.p.a.ce and Astronautical Science (ISAS), that the fusion engine and the plan to use Phobos as a s.p.a.ce station before landing would give Trailblazer a substantially better chance of success than the Consortium's Ares Mission. The j.a.panese also figured that chances of a j.a.panese astronaut to be chosen for the four-man crew of Ares would be low. The member states of the Consortium would all be vying for a seat for their nation and there were more than four leading European countries involved in the venture without even counting Russia. At that point, the U.S. made an irresistible offer to the j.a.panese; they would include a j.a.panese astronaut if j.a.pan signed on.

Okita was a first-rate nuclear physicist and engineer from the Tokyo Inst.i.tute of Technology, having done his postdoctorate work at the ISAS. Hehad also spent childhood years in the U.S. with his diplomat father and his biochemist mother who lectured at local universities wherever her husband was posted. In consequence, Okita spoke accentless Midwestern American and there would be no language barrier between him and his American teammates.

The Consortium expedition, called Ares I, had left Earth's...o...b..t about six months before the departure of Trailblazer I, but it was still on its way to Mars on a free-falling Hohmann orbit and was now actually behind Trailblazer. The Consortium had not given up on the thought of being the first on Mars and maybe counting on its compet.i.tor's announced plan to convert Phobos into a s.p.a.ce station first before attempting a landing on the Red Planet itself in their shuttle.