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and Heimdall wouldn't be visible; but soon it would be coming overhead. The
supply pods were always as close to the satellite as her engineers dared.
"It's time for our talk, then," Aeneas said. "Is there anything to talk about?
You're what I've opposed all my life."
"Yes. But you love me. And if you fight me-who are you fighting for?"
He didn't answer.
"I love you, Aeneas. I always have, and you've always known it. Tell me what
to do."
"Will you-would you throw all this away if I asked you to?"
"I don't know. Will you ask it? Remember, Aeneas. You can't destroy power. You
can fragment mine, but someone else will move into the vacuum. Power doesn't
vanish."
"No." And she had a dream. A dream that had been his.
"You don't trust me with all this. Would you trust yourself?"
"No."
"Then someone else. Who?"
"No one, of course."
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There was no change in her pose or voice, but he sensed triumph.
"Then tell me what I should do," she said.
This time she meant it. He felt that whatever he said, she'd do. She knew him
well. She was taking no chances, because she knew what he must say. Forty
billion dollars was ten dollars for every human on Earth-or the key to the
planets. "I can't."
"Then join me. I need you."
"Yes."
There were no longer barriers, and sixteen years vanished as if they'd never
been.
For a week there were only the two of them-and Miguel, silent, invisibly near.
They slipped away from Cabo San Lucas and its power plants and factories, to
find still lonely beaches where they swam to brilliant coral reefs. Afterwards
they made love on the sand and desperately tried to forget the years they'd
wasted.
One week and a little more; and then the phones in the camper buzzed
insistently and they had to return.
She told him what she could as they drove back. "Captain Shorey has been all
the authority I have up there," she said. "The station depends on the ground
launching system to survive, but there's nothing I can do to control it."
"You think there's mutiny on Heimdall?" Aeneas asked incredulously.
"I don't know. I only know Shorey is dead, and Herman Eliot says he can't meet
the manufacturing schedule. Without the finished goods from the station I
can't pay the syndicate. I'll lose
Heimdall."
There would be any number of people who might benefit from that. With over a
hundred men and women in space, the odds were good that several organizations
had agents aboard the satellite factory complex. "How do you select crew for
Heimdall?" Aeneas asked.
The Jeep camper bounced across rutted roads toward the main highway. Ten
kilometers ahead they'd meet a helicopter.
"I try to pick them myself," she said. "The pay is good, of course. Almost two
hundred thousand dollars at the end of a two-year tour in space. We have
plenty of volunteers, but not just for the money. I choose generalists,
adaptable people, and I try to keep a balance between the intellectuals and
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factory people. There's a lot of construction work, and production runs mean
repetitive labor that bores the big brains. I also look for people who might
want to go on to the
Moon colony, or be crew aboard Valkyrie. So far it's worked, but Captain
Shorey was the key to it.
Now he's gone."
"Tell me about Herman Eliot."
"He's been second in command. A mechnical genius. He's in charge of production
and research."
"Do you think he's loyal to you?"
"I'm almost sure of it. He wants to go with Valkyrie. But he didn't tell the
ground station much.
Maybe he'll tell me directly. Aeneas, if I don't keep the manufacturing
schedule, I'll lose the station and everything else!" She was near panic; and
he'd never seen her frightened before. It upset him more than he'd thought
possible.
The Jeep bounced through a dust bowl laced with a myriad of ruts. Wind blew a
torrent of fine powder across the windshield, and Miguel had to start the
wipers to remove it. The dust ran like rivulets of water.
Dr. Herman Eliot was nervous. It came through in his voice as he reported to
Laurie Jo. "We have a nasty situation up here, Miss Hansen. Captain Shorey was
murdered and the crew knows it. There's been sabotage all along, now this.
Some of the engineers are saying that the Equity Trust is going to gain
control of this satellite, and they'll remember who their friends were.
There's even talk that people who won't help the Equity cause will be
stranded, or have accidents on reentry."
"Tell them Equity will never control Heimdall!" Laurie Jo shouted into the
microphone.
"I can tell them, but will they believe it? I repeat, Miss Hansen, Captain
Shorey was murdered, and we all know there's no chance the killer will be
punished. Who's next?"
"Do you know who did it?"
"I'm fairly sure it was an engineer named Martin Holloway."
"If you know he killed the captain, why don't you do something?" Laurie Jo
demanded.
"Do what? I'm no policeman. Suppose we put Holloway under arrest. Then
what? We have no jails here, and there's no court that will take jurisdiction
over him. I doubt he was the only man involved in this; what if he won't go
when I order him down? It could start a mutiny. The crew thinks Equity will
gain control here; nobody wants that, but there aren't many who'll risk their
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"If you meet the delivery schedules, I keep Heimdall! Don't they know that?"
"If you were only fighting the Equity Trust, Miss Hansen, we could believe
you'd win. But not against the United States as well."
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