"Yes."
"I wonder how he got the bottle."
"Please, Marte...."
"I _know_, Johnny. But that way. It was so cruel. If he'd just waited."
She looked at Johnny Nine.
"Johnny?"
He was staring at his sandals.
"Johnny?"
"Yes?"
"We aren't--aren't going to reconvert him, are we? Not now?"
"No, Marte." Johnny Nine took a deep breath. "Not now. We're going to
take him with us, and bury him, really bury him. Put the Earth over
him. He'd like that, Marte. Not in the reconverter, but in the cool
Earth, the Earth of Home."
"Yes," she said very softly, "he'd like that."
* * * * *
Closer and closer. The Ship was well inside Jupiter, skyrocketing to
her rendezvous with the pilot ship. The radio lapse was less than
thirty minutes now.
The Captain turned from the speaker. "You heard it, Johnny. What can we
tell them?"