"We're both lucky, I guess." Lundgard chuckled. His English had only
the slightest trace of accent, less than Bo's. "I thought I was stashed
here too for the next several months."
"How does a qualified spaceman happen to be marooned?"
"I'm with Fireball, was on the _Drake_--heard of what happened to her?"
Bo nodded, for every spaceman knows exactly what every spaceship is
doing at any given time. The _Drake_ had come to Achilles to pick up
a cargo of refined thorium for Earth; while she lay in orbit, she had
somehow lost a few hundred pounds of reaction-mass water from a cracked
gasket. Why the accident should have occurred, nobody knew ... spacemen
were not careless about inspections, and what reason would anyone have
for sabotage? The event had taken place about a month ago, when the
_Sirius_ was already enroute here; Bo had heard of it in the course of
shop talk.
"I thought she went back anyway," he said.
Lundgard nodded. "She did. It was the usual question of economics.
You know what refined fuel water costs in the Belt; also, the delay
while we got it would have carried Earth and Achilles past optimum
position, which'd make the trip home that much more expensive. Since we
had one more man aboard than really required, it was cheaper to leave
him behind; the difference in mass would make up for the fuel loss. I
volunteered, even suggested the idea, because ... well, it happened
during my watch, and even if nobody blamed me I couldn't help feeling
guilty."
Bo understood that kind of loyalty. You couldn't travel space without
men who had it.
"The Company beamed a message: I'd stay here till their schedule
permitted an undermanned ship to come by, but that wouldn't be for
maybe months," went on Lundgard. "I can't see sitting on this lump that
long without so much as a chance at planetfall bonus. If you'll take me
on, I'm sure the Company will agree; I'll get a message to them on the
beam right away."
"Take us a while to get back," warned Bo. "We're going to stop off at
another asteroid to pick up some automatic equipment, and won't go into
hyperbolic orbit till after that. About six weeks from here to Earth,
all told."
"Against six months here?" Lundgard laughed; it emphasized the bright
charm of his manner. "Sunblaze. I'll work for free."
"No need to. Bring your papers over tomorrow, huh?"
The certificate and record were perfectly in order, showing Einar
Lundgard to be a Spacetech 1/cl with eight years' experience,
qualified as engineer, astronaut, pilot, and any other of the thousand
professions which have run into one. They registered articles and shook
hands on it. "Call me Bo. It really is my name ... Swedish."
"Another squarehead, eh?" grinned Lundgard. "I'm from South America
myself."
"Notice a year's gap here," said Bo, pointing to the service record.
"On Venus."
"Oh, yes. I had some fool idea about settling but soon learned better.
I tried to farm, but when you have to carve your own land out of
howling desert--Well, let's start some math, shall we?"
They were lucky, not having to wait their turn at the station computer;
no other ship was leaving immediately. They fed it the data and
requirements, and got back columns of numbers: fuel requirements,
acceleration times, orbital elements. The figures always had to be
modified, no trip ever turned out just as predicted, but that could be
done when needed with a slipstick and the little ship's calculator.
Bo went at his share of the job doggedly, checking and re-checking
before giving the problem to the machine; Lundgard breezed through it
and spent his time while waiting for Bo in swapping dirty limericks
with the tech. He had some good ones.
The _Sirius_ was loaded, inspected, and cleared. A "scooter" brought
her three passengers up to her orbit, they embarked, settled down, and
waited. At the proper time, acceleration jammed them back in a thunder
of rockets.
Bo relaxed against the thrust, thinking of Achilles falling away behind
them. "So long," he whispered. "So long, Johnny."