"We roasted gypsum in atomic furnaces," Geedeh finished, "driving
the water out as steam, and reclaiming it for our underground
cities. The same can be done here among the Minor Planets. And since
water is hydrogen dioxide, oxygen can be obtained from it, too, by
electrolysis. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide, necessary to complete the
new atmosphere, which will be prevented from leaking into space by the
force of the artificial gravity, can be obtained from native nitrates,
and other compounds. Only vital parts of the machinery need be brought
out from Earth and Mars by rocket. The rest can be made here, from
native materials."
Geedeh's voice, as he spoke to me, was a soft, sibilant whisper, like
the rustle of red dust in a cold, thin, Martian wind.
"You bet," Pa Mavrocordatus enthused. "Nick's got a good idea. I'm
gonna raise my flowers! I'm gonna raise tomatoes and cabbages and
carrots, right here on one of them asteroids!"
It struck me as funny--asteroids--cabbages! Nothing I could think of,
could seem quite that far apart. Black, airless vacuum, rough rocks,
and raw, spacial sunshine! And things from a truck garden! It didn't
match. But then, Pa Mavrocordatus didn't match the asteroids either!
He'd had a truck garden once, outside of St. Louis. And yet he was out
here in space, and had been for a year and a half!
Well, even if the idea _was_ practical, I thought first that they were
still just dreaming--kidding themselves that it would be a cinch to
accomplish. And not being able to fight through.
Then I glanced back at Nick. That look on his face was there again. A
strange mixture of confidence, worry, grimness, and vision. It came to
me then that he was no kid at all.
* * * * *
"Let me in on the job?" I asked hopefully.
"Sure!" Nick returned. "We wouldn't be telling you all this, if we
didn't want you. That's why we came back to Enterprize--hoping to find
you around some place."
So I was in. Part of a wild scheme of progress--more thrilling
and inspiring because it seemed so wild. An asteroid made into a
tiny, artificial Earth! A boon to void-weary space men! A source of
cheap food supplies, as well as a place to rest up. A new stage of
colonization--empire building!
And then I thought I heard a sound--a faint clinking outside of the
hull of the _Corfu_. At once, I was alert--taut. Maybe half of my
sudden worry was intuition, or a form of telepathy. When you've been
out in deep space, a million miles away from any other living soul, you
feel a vast, hollow loneliness, that perhaps is mostly the absence of
human telepathy waves from other minds. But when you have people around
you once more, your sixth sense seems keener for the period of lack.
That was why I was sure of an eavesdropper, sensing his presence. With
proper sub-microphonic equipment, a man outside a space ship can hear
every word spoken inside.
Nick felt it too. "But we'd better look and see," he whispered. "Norman
Haynes keeps spies around. And he may have heard rumors. You can't keep
a project like ours secret very long. It's too big."
My pulses jumped with fear, as I piled into my space suit. But when
Nick and I got through the airlock together, there was nobody in sight.
Only some footprints in the faint rocket dust of the ways, covering our
own footprints, where we'd passed before, coming to the _Corfu_. Our
flashlights showed them plainly.
"Having a rejuvenated asteroid in these parts, producing fresh food
and so forth, would take a lot of trade away from the Haynes Shipping
Company, wouldn't it?" I said when we were back in the cabin once
more. "Norman Haynes wouldn't be practically boss of the Minor Planets
anymore, would he? He wouldn't like that. He'll fight us."
"We need you, Chet," Irene said, her eyes appealing. That was enough
for me.
"We'd better blast off right away," Nick added. "We're going to
asteroid 487, Chet. Its new name is Paradise. It's the one we've
picked."