Asteroid Wars - The Precipice Part 33

They were the reason that nanotechnology was banned on Earth - and under careful supervision at Selene.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? she asked herself. Who will watch the watchmen? Some Roman asked that question more than two thousand years ago, Cardenas knew. she asked herself. Who will watch the watchmen? Some Roman asked that question more than two thousand years ago, Cardenas knew.

All nanotech work was under very strict control in Selene. No one was allowed to work with gobblers: they had killed people. They had even been used to commit murder. If they ever got loose they could destroy all Selene. The medical work had to be supervised down to the nanometer because the therapeutic nan.o.bugs that took apart plaque in a person's arteries or destroyed tumors atom by atom were forms of gobblers, nothing less. If they ever got loose, if their programming was ever-so-subtly altered...

That was why Kris Cardenas's primary duty as head of all nanotech work at Selene was to protect against such a catastrophe. She watched over every aspect of the work done in the nanotech lab.

But who will watch the watchmen? She had produced a microscopic batch of gobblers for Humphries, specifically tailored to damage Starpower 1 Starpower 1 enough so Dan would have to turn the s.h.i.+p around and limp back to Selene. Humphries had promised that he would obtain permission for her to visit Earth again, to see her daughters and her grandchildren. enough so Dan would have to turn the s.h.i.+p around and limp back to Selene. Humphries had promised that he would obtain permission for her to visit Earth again, to see her daughters and her grandchildren.

Now he was offering to bring them up here. Even better. But the price! Dan Randolph and the other people on that s.h.i.+p could get killed.

Is that what Humphries really wants? She asked herself. If I warned Dan Dan now he'd have to return to Selene. Flat and simple. But Humphries wants to wait another day or so, let Dan get to the inner fringes of the Belt and then tell him that his s.h.i.+p's going to fail. now he'd have to return to Selene. Flat and simple. But Humphries wants to wait another day or so, let Dan get to the inner fringes of the Belt and then tell him that his s.h.i.+p's going to fail.

Or maybe he won't warn Dan at all!

Cardenas sat up straight in her desk chair. That's it, she told herself. He wants to kill Dan and the rest of the crew. She knew it with the certainty of revealed truth.

What can I do about it?

Warn Dan, she answered her own question. Warn him now. now.

But how? She wondered. I can't just pick up a phone and put a call through to him. They're out past the orbit of Mars by now.

I've got to get to someone in the Astro office. Someone who can put me through to Dan. Maybe that big Australian bodyguard of his. What's his name? George something.

Martin Humphries could not sleep, despite the exertions he'd been through with the raven-haired woman lying beside him. Nominally an environmentalist on the consulting staff of Humphries Trust, the young woman's favored environment seemed to be a bedroom with plenty of furniture to play on, as far as Humphries could determine.

She was sleeping peacefully. He was wide awake.

Dr. Cardenas. Humphries was worried about her. Even the lure of seeing her grandchildren wasn't going to outweigh her overdeveloped sense of honor, he thought. She wants to warn Randolph; she's probably figured out that I want the sonofab.i.t.c.h dead.

He sat up in the bed and glanced at the woman sleeping beside him. Slowly, carefully, he pulled the silk sheet down from her shoulders. Even with no lights in the room except the green glow from the digital clock, he could see that her body was smooth, flawless, perfectly proportioned. Too bad she's heading back to Earth in a few days.

Cardenas, he reminded himself sternly.

She's going to try to warn Randolph, he felt certain. Maybe that's a good thing. If Randolph turns back now, Amanda will come back with him. With him. him. She won't be coming back to me. She doesn't want me, that's why she ran off with him. If Cardenas warns them, they'll come back here together to gloat at me. She won't be coming back to me. She doesn't want me, that's why she ran off with him. If Cardenas warns them, they'll come back here together to gloat at me.

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to drive out the mental images of Randolph and Amanda together. I've got to think this through carefully. Logically.

For Cardenas to warn Randolph she'll have to get somebody here in Selene to set up the message for her. She'll probably go to Astro; that's where Randolph's people are. And if she asks them to let her put through a call to Randolph they'll ask her why. Sooner or later she'll tell them why: Martin Humphries has bugged the Starpower Starpower s.h.i.+p with nanomachines. And then they'll know all about it. s.h.i.+p with nanomachines. And then they'll know all about it.

Conclusion: For my own protection, I've got to stop her from talking to anyone at Astro. I've got to stop her from even trying to warn Randolph. I've got to stop her. Period.

When Dan awoke from his troubled sleep the solar storm had pa.s.sed. Pancho was in the wardroom when he shambled in, bleary-eyed.

"Top o' the mornin', boss," she said cheerily, hefting a mug of steaming coffee.

"How's the weather out there?" Dan asked, heading for the juice dispenser.

"Clear and calm, except for a few rocks we should be pa.s.sin' by this afternoon."

That made Dan smile. "We're at the Belt."

"Will be, by sixteen hundred hours. Right on shedyule, shedyule, as Mandy would say." as Mandy would say."

"Good. Great. Where's Fuchs? We've got to make some course adjustments."

Ten minutes later the four of them were seated around the table in the wardroom.

"I want to get a metallic nugget first," Dan said.

Fuchs lifted his heavy shoulders slightly. "The metallic bodies are more heavily concentrated towards the outer area of the Belt."

"So we go to the outer edge of the Belt," Dan replied, "and search for a lump of iron. We can pick up the stony and carbonaceous rocks on the way back."

"We'll have to go more than four astronomical units, then," Amanda pointed out. "No one's gone that far before."

Dan said, "We've got the supplies for it. And the fuel. Everything's running all right, isn't it?"

"No major problems," said Pancho.

His brows rising, Dan asked, "What are the minor problems?"

She grinned at him. "The coffee's pretty awful. A couple of li'l maintenance ch.o.r.es to do. You know, a cranky pump, one of the fuel cells is discharging when it shouldn't. Nigglin' stuff. Mandy and I are takin' care of it."

Amanda nodded. Dan looked from her back to Pancho. Neither woman seemed worried. Well, he thought, if the pilots aren't worried, no reason for me to sweat.

"The sensor suite is in perfect working order," Fuchs volunteered. "I'm already recording data."

"We'll have to do the turnaround maneuver soon," said Amanda.

Gesturing vaguely toward infinity, Dan asked Fuchs, "Have you picked a destination point out there?"

"A general area only," he replied. "The outer Belt has not been mapped well enough to pick a precise asteroid. Most of them are not even numbered yet."

"Have you given Pancho the coordinates?"

Fuchs's face colored slightly. "I gave them to Amanda."

"I've put the data into the nav computer," Amanda said quickly, looking at Pancho.

Pancho nodded. "Okay. I'll go check it out."

"Onward and upward," said Dan, rising from his chair. "We'll be breaking distance records, if nothing else."

"Four AUs," Pancho muttered, getting to her feet also.

She headed for the bridge. Dan followed her, leaving Amanda and Fuchs still sitting at the table.

Pancho slid into the pilot's chair and tapped on her main touch-screen, the one showing the hunk on the beach. Standing behind her, Dan saw the navigation computer program come up over the muscles and teeth.

But Pancho was looking at one of the smaller screens, where an amber light was blinking slowly.

"What's that?" Dan asked.

"Dunno," said Pancho, working the screen with her fingers. "Running a diagnostic... h'mmph."

"What?"

Without turning her head from the display screens, Pancho muttered, "Says there's a hot spot on one of the superconducting wires outside."

A jolt of alarm surged through Dan. "The superconductor? Our storm s.h.i.+eld?"

She glanced up at him. "Don't get frazzled, boss. Happens all the time. Might be a pinhole leak in the coolant line. Maybe a micrometeor dinged us."

"But if the coolant goes-"

"The rate of loss ain't much," Pancho said calmly. "We're due for turnaround in six hours. I can angle the s.h.i.+p then so's that side's in the shade. If the hot spot doesn't go away then, Mandy and me will go EVA and fix the leak."

Dan nodded and tried to feel rea.s.sured.

STAVENGER THEATER.

Kris Cardenas marveled at the crowd's willingness to leave their comfortable homes and jam themselves cheek-by-jowl into the cramped rows of narrow seats of the outdoor theater. A considerable throng of people was flowing into the theater. It was built in the Grand Plaza, "outdoors." Exactly one thousand seats were set in a shallow arc around the graceful fluted sh.e.l.l that backed the stage.

Even with three-dimensional interactive video and virtual reality programs that were nearly indistinguishable from actuality, people still went to live performances. Maybe it's because we're mammals, Cardenas thought. We crave the warmth of other mammals. We're born to it and we're stuck with it. Lizards have a better deal.

There was one particular mammal Cardenas wanted to see: George Ambrose. That morning she had phoned the Astro corporate office trying to find him, only to reach his video mail. Late in the afternoon he returned her call. When she said she had to talk to him in person as soon as possible, and preferably in a public place, George had scratched at his thick red beard for a moment and then suggested the theater.

"I've got a date comin' with me," he said cheerfully, "but we can get together in the intermission and chat for a bit. Okay?"

Cardenas had quickly agreed. Only as an afterthought did she ask what the theater was playing.

George sighed heavily, "some f.o.o.kin' Greek tragedy. This date of mine, she's a nut for th' cla.s.sics."

Usually the theater was sold out, no matter what the production might be. In the days before the greenhouse cliff, when tourism was building up nicely, Selene's management invited world-cla.s.s symphony orchestras, dance troupes, drama companies to come to the Moon. Now, most of the performances were done by local amateur talent.

Medea, performed by Selene's very own Alphonsus Players. Cardenas would have shuddered if it had mattered to her at all. Still, the theater was fully booked. Only Cardenas's status as one of Selene's leading citizens wheedled a ticket out of the system, and she had to go all the way up to Doug Stavenger for that. He smilingly admitted that he wasn't going to use his. performed by Selene's very own Alphonsus Players. Cardenas would have shuddered if it had mattered to her at all. Still, the theater was fully booked. Only Cardenas's status as one of Selene's leading citizens wheedled a ticket out of the system, and she had to go all the way up to Doug Stavenger for that. He smilingly admitted that he wasn't going to use his.

She barely looked at the stage during the first half of the performance. Sitting on the aisle in the fourth row, Cardenas spent most of her time scanning the crowd for a glimpse of George Ambrose's s.h.a.ggy red hair.

When the first half ended, she trudged with the slow-moving throng along the central aisle as they chatted about the play and the performances. Cardenas felt surprised to see so many gray and white heads among the theater-goers. Selene is aging, she thought. And very few of our people are taking nan.o.bugs or other therapies to stop it. Finally she saw Big George, like a fiery beacon bobbing head and shoulders above the others.

Once past the last row of seats, most of the crowd scattered to the concession stands spread among the plaza's flowering shrubbery. A maintenance robot trundled slowly along the periphery of the crowd, patrolling for litter.

George was at the jam-packed bar. Cardenas hung back, waiting for him to get his drink and work his way out of the crowd. When he did, he had a plastic stein of beer decorated with Selene's logo in one hand and a skinny, hollow-eyed redhead on his other arm. She was pretty, in a gaunt, needy way, Cardenas thought. Nice legs. The drink in her hand was much smaller than Ambrose's.

Big George spotted Cardenas and, leaving his date standing by a flowering hibiscus bush, walked toward her.

"Dr. Cardenas," he said, with a polite dip of his head. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got to get a message to Dan Randolph," she said. "As quickly as possible."

"No worries. Pop over t' the office tomorrow morning. Or tonight, after th' show, if you like."

"Is there some way I could talk to Dan without coming to your offices? I think I'm being watched."

George looked more puzzled than alarmed. "You could phone me, I suppose, and I'll patch you through to the radio link." He took a pull from his stein.

"Can we do it tonight?"

"Sure. Right now, if you like. I wouldn't mind an excuse to leave this show. Pretty f.o.o.kin' dull, don'tcha think?"

"Not now," she answered. "That would attract attention. After the show. I'll drop in at friend's place and call your office from there."

For the first time, George showed concern. "You're really scared, are you?"

"I think Dan's life is in danger."

"You mean someone's out to kill 'im?"

"Humphries."

George's face hardened. "You certain of that?"

"I'm... pretty sure."

"Sure enough to want to warn Dan. From a safe place, where the phone won't be bugged."

"Exactly."

George took a big breath. "All right. Instead of all this p.u.s.s.yfootin' around, you come with me after the show's finished and I'll put you in an Astro guest suite. That way I can protect you."

Cardenas shook her head. "That's kind of you, but I don't think I'm in danger."

"Then why th' cloak and dagger stuff?"

"I don't want Humphries to know that I'm warning Dan. If he knew, then maybe I would be in trouble."

George thought that over for a few moments, a huge red-maned mountain of a man towering over her, scratching his head perplexedly.