Chapter 17
AGUINALDO—Day 13
The crystal observation blister opened to the Aguinaldo’ s exterior. Stars wheeled overhead, making a complete circuit every ten minutes as the colony rotated.
Standing on the translucent, segmented floor of the blister, Ramis kept his attention on the view below him, trying to stay out of Dr. Sandovaal’s way. He felt as if he were in one of the glass-bottomed boats a man had used back in the P.I. to take tourists around on the inlets.
Sandovaal fidgeted like an overeager child. Ramis held his breath as the scientist touched a finger to one of the micro-earphones on his head.
“They say everything is ready, Yoli.”
Magsaysay nodded, hands behind his back. “Tell them to proceed.” Sandovaal snapped an order into the transmitter. Magsaysay had let him command the mission, since the tether idea had been his and since it would keep him from complaining.
Ramis splayed his fingers on the crystal viewport, trying to peer down the long edge of the cylinder. The shadow shield on the far end of the Aguinaldo blocked the harsh solar radiation. Smears of light, reflected from the Earth and the Moon, splashed off the smooth external hull, but most of the colony lay in black shadow.
Ten kilometers away he could see the Aguinaldo’s opposite end drop off. Scattered glints of metal a hundred kilometers distant marked the construction site of the giant wheel of Orbitech 2.
From his perspective he could not see the docking doors swing open or the team of suited engineers drift out. Dobo was supposedly directing operations down in the docking area. Ramis suspected that the engineers knew what they were doing, and he hoped Dobo wasn’t just getting in the way.
The other people clustered by the transparent ring around the end cap had a better view, but Ramis preferred to be with Magsaysay and Sandovaal, in the heart of things.
The viewport veranda remained quiet as they waited. He forced himself to be patient. Ramis knew how long it took for people in clumsy maneuvering suits to complete a simple task.
He caught a glimmer out of the corner of his eye. He paused a moment to make sure, then pointed it out to Magsaysay. “I can see the package of wall-kelp, and one of the suits, I think.” He squinted. “The tether is too narrow to make out.”
Sandovaal ducked his head down to Ramis’s level. Ramis refused to move, but the scientist did not seem to notice. He pressed his finger against the pane, indicating where a glimmer crept into view. In the dim Earthlight, Ramis found it difficult to see the compact package drifting deeper into space, reeling out from the Aguinaldo.
Sandovaal moved to one of the joysticks controlling the exterior-mounted telescopes. “Come on, slowly now…” he muttered to himself. He located the package with the telescope and focused the image on the console’s inlaid holoscreen. Sandovaal squinted at the package, down at his timepiece, then at the package again before he jabbed at the transmitter. “Dobo—tell them they are playing the cable out too fast! Slow down or it will rebound!”
“Is the cable going to break?” Ramis asked.
Sandovaal scowled. “The engineers assure us it can take the strain. It is tape-wrapped carbon something-or-other. But they are playing it out too quickly, I think. If the wall-kelp reaches the end of the tether, it will rebound back to the Aguinaldo.”
Ramis doubted the small package striking the docking end would do much damage—but they would miss a chance to send food to the lunar colony.
“I am sure they know what they are doing, Luis,” Magsaysay said, then tugged on his lip. “Though the backlash could kill somebody.”
Sandovaal blinked into the telescope. “Yes. Yes, it very well could.”
The president paced across the veranda and stared out the wide window plates. “It looks as if the package is slowing down.”
The wall-kelp crept away until they could no longer resolve the dim point of light against the grainy background of stars. Ramis joined Sandovaal at the holoscreen.
Sandovaal muttered, “Nineteen point eight eight three kilometers—not quite twice the length of the colony. It is trivial distance compared to the size of the orbits here. But the tether length must be exact, and that will bring my kelp to the Moon. Amazing subject, celestial mechanics—like witchcraft.”
Magsaysay turned from the window plate and smiled at Ramis with a look of satisfied relief. “We have already informed Dr. Tomkins at Clavius Base over the ConComm network. He is a bit skeptical, but anxious to try it.”
“And it will give us a chance to see how the wall-kelp fares in a planetary environment.” Sandovaal transmitted again to Dobo in the docking bay, double-checking everything.
After more than an hour, all of the cable had been reeled out. Dobo informed them that the tether was taut, holding the package twenty kilometers away from the colony by means of a small compressed-air container.
Sandovaal fondled the transmitter button. “We will wait a moment to be sure the tether has stabilized. We have a rather large time window, if the initial orbital trajectory is correct.”
“It is correct on this end, Dr. Sandovaal,” Dobo’s voice answered. “But if we wait too long, the cable could stretch.”
“I will not wait too long.” Sandovaal pursed his lips. He looked at Magsaysay.
Magsaysay closed his eyes as if in prayer, then nodded. “Send it to them, Luis.”
Sandovaal turned back to the radio and gave the order. A charge severed the other end of the cable from the Aguinaldo, and the bobbin and cable were ejected from the bay. If it had remained secured to the colony, the twenty kilometers of cable would have gained angular momentum from the Aguinaldo’s rotation, turning the tether into a corkscrewing whip.
Ramis could see no change in the package, but over the next few hours it would drift away as the wall-kelp and the L-4 point continued along different orbits.
“In two weeks, the Moon will have a new food source.” Sandovaal looked pleased with himself. “Dobo, tell the engineers they can finish up now. Make sure the doors are sealed properly. We can do no more now—only wait. It is in the hands of God . . . and the laws of physics.”
“I will ask the bishop to say a special prayer at Mass,” Dobo replied over the speakers.
Magsaysay looked out to where he could no longer see the tiny package of wall-kelp. “Do you think we just saved the people of Clavius Base, Luis?”
“We have given them a better chance. They must save themselves.”
Ramis cracked his knuckles. “When are we going to help the Orbitech colony? They are probably in more serious trouble.”
“We have not heard from them in several days—they claim trouble with ConComm,” Magsaysay answered, avoiding Ramis’s question. “And we must also think about the Soviets—if I can convince the Council of Twenty to extend goodwill.”
Sandovaal switched off the holotank and used controls to retract the external telescopes into their casings. “Getting to L-5 is a much more difficult problem. We must use an exotic orbit, swing around the Earth. But we must first grow the sail-creature outside the Aguinaldo. You should order the preparations to begin soon.”
Magsaysay set his mouth, making lines stand out in his dark skin. His gaze drifted out the observation window, focused on infinity. He seemed to be avoiding Ramis, who sat holding his breath.
Magsaysay spoke without turning. His knuckles were white against the window. “Luis, you are forcing me to use Ramis.”
Sandovaal grunted. “I am trying to send food to save fifteen hundred people. If anyone can accomplish this mission, the boy can. We will make it as safe as possible for him.”
Silence, then, “Very well. You and Dobo do what you must. Prepare one of the sail-creature nymphs.” He closed his eyes, then looked directly at Ramis. He seemed to be pronouncing a death sentence, no matter how much Ramis wanted to go. “And I am very sorry, Ramis.”