Gregory Benford - Jupiter Project

“I ask you then to go home and discuss it among your families. In a few days we will meet again. Good evening.”

There was a burst of applause as he left the podium.

Jenny and Zak and I got out ahead of the crowd and headed for my home. People were pretty stunned. It wasn’t until some time later that I remembered my date with Jenny; both of us had forgotten it.

“What do you think our chances are of staying on?” she asked me.

“Pretty grim. You can be sure any skeleton crew won’t include us.”

“Why has it got to be so few people?” Zak said. “We could cut out a lot of things, like the Ganymede base—”

“And have us climbing the walls and getting claustrophobic?” Jenny said. “No thankee.”

“Well, we could stretch the lifetime of some of our machines by not using them so much. Take your shuttles; don’t send them out so often. Save fuel, too.”

“And if a satellite goes on the blink we just let it sit for a month?” Jenny said, tossing her head to arrange her hair. “What’s the point of staying out here, if we can’t get any research done?”

“I think we ought to abide by what the Commander decides and not put up a squawk.” I said. “Things will be touch and go when the Argosy arrives, as it is.”

“What do you mean?” Jenny said.

“I’m not so sure the Council will expect us to come along meekly. They might have a few soldiers on that ship.”

“Oh,” she said.

“The bridge officers have firearms,” Zak said.

“I know. And shooting off a hand weapon in a spaceship is stupid, but it might happen. One bad shot and everybody on that corridor will be breathing vacuum.”

“You have a better idea?” Zak said.

“Sure,” I grinned. “Hide. A few of us stay behind, hidden—” We were just crossing an intersection of two tubes.

“Typical,” said a familiar voice. “But I didn’t think you would admit it. Bohles.”

Yuri came walking up. “Admit what?” I said.

“To being a coward.” Yuri said. “Going to hide from the Argosy crew? Count on them not missing the skeleton crew that is left behind?”

“That was the idea,” I said sullenly.

“You don’t want to fight it out with them like a man, eh?” He gave me his confident smile. “No, you would rather hide the skeleton crew and act like a coward.” He was playing this out for the benefit of Jenny and Zak. He casually folded his arms and smirked at me.

“Don’t bother him, Yuri.” Jenny said. There was a kind of plaintive note in her voice. As though she were pleading for me.

“No, let him bother me,” I said, and hit Yuri in the mouth.

He looked surprised, then angry. The punch hadn’t hurt him much. I blinked, and saw yellow sunlight, the school yard—

“You little—” he said, lowering his arms. I hit him again, harder. This time he stepped back, under the blow, and caught me solidly across the ribs. Suddenly I felt a cold tremor of naked fear.

That’s where I lost track. I used fists, elbows and even tried butting him with my head, and meanwhile Yuri was slamming his big ham hands into me, staggering me with every punch, making my eyes blur. I knew if I kept on and watched how his balance shifted just before he punched I could avoid most of the damage. And that meant I would win, because absolutely nothing was going to stop me from beating Yuri to a pulp, I told myself. The dust, the jeering, bright sunlight…

Only…my arms were so heavy…

It took them forever to reach out and hit Yuri, and when they did I could feel the shock all the way to my shoulder. I was slowing down, and Yuri was speeding up. I felt the sharp pain of being hit—

Far away a voice said. “Hey! Break it up!” and a hand spun me around.

It was one of the bridge officers, frowning at me. I couldn’t remember his name. My mind was a swirl of fear and self-disgust.

“If you two kids haven’t got anything better to do than brawl, when the Lab is in deep trouble—”

“I’ll take care of it, sir,” Zak said, pulling at my sleeve. Yuri lowered his fists and snorted contemptuously at me. Jenny pushed him away. “Wo—won’t happen again.” I gasped.

Somehow the bridge officer disappeared and I was being led down a corridor, toward home. I stumbled blindly away.

The next morning I could hardly remember what had happened. Mom had patched me up, disinfected a cut over my cheekbone, and gave me a sedative. It must have been more than that: I went out like a light, and woke up with a dull buzzing in my head.

Neither Mom nor Dad mentioned the fight at breakfast. I didn’t either, losers seldom do.

We did talk about the meeting, though. Dad came on rather pontifically about his obligation to his family and the fact that the Council might never send a relief expedition out to the Can’s skeleton crew. It wasn’t beyond ISA to drop the problem, political entanglements and all, and conveniently forget that there were men still circling Jupiter.

So, said Dad, the Bohles family would ship out on the Argosy. I pointed out to him that by the time the Argosy arrived I would be eighteen and technically a free adult.

That didn’t go down very well. Dad frowned and Mom started to get tears in the corners of her eyes.

“After all,” I said, feeling embarrassed, “you can’t be sure ISA won’t return. I’ll come Earthside then.”

Dad sighed. “No, it’s not that.”

“What is it, then?”

“You will be a stranger to us by then, Mattie.” Mom said. “These next few years are the last ones we would ever have together as a family, and now…”

“Leyetta,” Dad said. “Quiet. You can’t shoulder the boy with that. He has to start finding his way alone now.”

“Well, I didn’t mean it quite that way,” I said uncomfortably. “I don’t want to break up the family. You’re all I’ve got. But if I have a chance to stay here…”

“You should take it.” Dad said decisively. “I would’ve done the same at your age.”

“Paul!”

“It’s true. Leyetta. A man has got to go his own way sometime.”

“Don’t worry, Mom.” I searched around for some way to console her. “I probably won’t be picked to stay, anyhow.” But I knew very well that if I got the chance, I’d stick it out here.

“If you do stay, Matt.” Dad said slowly, “be sure you come Earthside when you can. We don’t want to lose track of you altogether.”

“Huh? Why, you’ll both be coming out as soon as ISA gets its head on straight.”

Mom shook her head. “No. Mattie… In a few more years there will be others, just as capable a nd younger.”

“No!”

“Yes, I’m afraid.” Dad smiled slightly. “But let’s not worry ourselves about that. Maybe there will be a way to weasel around the rules, who knows? The point that bothers me is that we came so close out here, we almost found life, and now it might be decades—hell, centuries!—before men get another crack at it.”

“I don’t see how you can be so sure there is life. Paul.” Mom said. “All I hear about is an endless series of negative results.”

“Atmospheric Studies is going deeper and deeper with those bathyscaphes. If there is anything there—and there must be!—they will find it.”

“Maybe they’ll find something before the Argosy arrives,” I said hopefully. “That would pull our chestnuts out of the fire.”

“True.” Dad sighed. “But some of our working time will be taken up with packing, shutting down the Lab, and compiling all the data we already have.”

“Well, we can try. ”

“Of course. But don’t expect miracles.”