Ben Bova - Test of Fire

Handing him a cup, Lawrence explained, “Deitz brewed this stuff in his chem lab, in between experiments on rat poison and rocket fuel. It’s strictly illegal, but sells for twenty-five units a liter.”

Alec took a cautious sip. The liquid burned his tongue and almost gagged him. “Yugh… who would buy a liter of that? ”

“Nobody.”

They all laughed.

Zeke, a roundish golden-haired young man who was called “the Bumblebee” because of his constant air of busy-ness, said, “We’re going to turn Deitz in to the Council… as soon as we’ve finished drinking up the evidence.”

Alec shook his head. “You’ll be dead long before then.” He placed his cup down on the bench beside him.

“It’s sort of scary seeing everybody hovering around here,” Joanna said in her throaty voice.

She was tall, dark, leggy.

Alec nodded agreement. “Isn’t anybody at work today?”

Lawrence, still standing, eyed the crowd. “Only those with really essential duties. Everyone else just walked off and came here.”

“I don’t understand it,” Alec said. It was frightening.

“Kobol’s people had a little parade just before you arrived,” said Zeke the Bumblebee. All the miners and techs… they said it was a spontaneous demonstration.”

“A parade! Without permission?”

Lawrence nodded grimly.

“ First they leave their jobs and then they parade without the Council’s permission.” Alec’s voice sounded shocked, even to himself.

“Kobol wants to head the Earth mission,”

Joanna said.

“It’s not just the Earth mission,” Lawrence corrected.

“It’s control of the Council. If Kobol can get his way, he’ll head the mission and then return to take over the Council. Your mother’s fighting for her Chairmanship in there.”

“Kobol can’t defeat her,” Alec snapped.

“If he comes back from Earth with the fissionables,”

Lawrence said, “he’ll demand an election and Lisa will be forced to step down.”

“Which is why it’s important that you head up the mission,” Zeke took over. “I sure as hell don’t want to see the miners and techs taking over. We’ll be overpopulated and run into the ground inside of a few years. Kobol’s followers never seem to understand that you can grow people a lot faster than you can carve out new farmlands.”

“Kobol won’t head the mission,” Alec said tightly. “And he won’t take over the Council.”

“Says who?” a new voice shouted at him.

A man in his mid-thirties was standing between the bench on which Alec sat and the next one. He was big, shaggy-haired, and wore the fire-red coverall of a miner.

“It’s impolite to break into a private conversation,”

Alec replied carefully, noticing that several other miners and techs stood behind the speaker.

“Oohhh.” The miner pursed his lips. “Now we mustn’t be impolite, must we? Wouldn’t want to make the frail little scientists’ darlings break into a rash.”

Lawrence put a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “Pay no attention to them.”

Alec forced himself to turn back to his friends.

“Kobol’s gonna set things straight around here,” the miner continued loudly. “Put you brittle-boned sweethearts in your place. The settlement’s gotta be ruled by the strong! You eggshells push buttons all day while we break our asses for you. Gonna be a lot of changes.”

Struggling to control himself, Alec got to his feet. “Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly to his friends. “There are limits even to politeness.”

But the miner stepped lithely around the bench and planted himself squarely in front of Alec.

Grinning, he rested his fists on his hips. He was a head taller than Alec, and bulged with strength and self-confidence.

“Hey, don’t get upset. I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

Alec stood glaring at him.

“In fact,” the miner continued, laughing, “I really oughtta wish you good luck on your vote in the Council. You’re gonna need it!”

He leaned his head back and guffawed; the miners and techs roared with him.

Alec could feel Lawrence’s hand on his arm, tugging at him. “Come on, Alec; you’re only embarrassing yourself by listening to him.”

“Hey wait,” the miner went on. “Listen, kid, I’d vote for you myself if I was on the Council.”

Alec said nothing.

“Sure! I really would. Providing I got the same goodies that the rest of the Council men are getting!”

Alec could feel the heat of his anger giving way to something far colder than lunar ice. He pulled his arm free of Lawrence’s grasp.

“What do you mean?” he asked in a voice so low that he could hardly hear it himself.

“Go ask your Momma, little boy.” The miners and techs were all grinning hugely now. Most of the crowd in the plaza had swarmed up to surround them.

Alec took a step toward him.

“What’s the matter, kid? She’s already fucked half the Council for you, why not a couple of real men?”

Alec aimed for the throat. The miner put his hands up to protect himself and Alec slammed into him. They toppled over the stone bench together and landed on the grassy ground with a thudding grunt. Someone screamed, voices shouted, but that was all far away. Alec felt the solid strength of the miner’s muscular arms grabbing at him.

The miner was big and catlike, hard-handed and strong. But he hadn’t spent hours each day in the Earth-gravity centrifuge, as Alec had for months.

Alec scrambled to his feet and turned, saw the miner still in a crouch, knees bent, one hand touching the ground like an ape’s.

Looking up at him, the miner smiled. “I heard you got a temper, kid. Now you’re gonna see what it costs you.”

He got to his feet slowly. Alec stood still, realizing that they were standing between benches now, little room to maneuver. Every nerve in him, every muscle was screaming with rage and anticipation.

But he held himself in check, waiting, waiting.

The miner towered over Alec, big as his father.

He made a feinting move to his right. Alec ignored it. Another left, and again Alec did not respond.

Then he launched a straightarm blow to Alec’s head.

Alec slipped under it, kicked the man’s knee out, chopped hard at his kidney and brought a cupped hand up into his face. It caught his nose. Blood spurted and he fell heavily against the stone bench.

He looked surprised now, with blood splashed over his face. The grin was gone. He got to all fours, tried to rise to his feet again, but the damaged knee would not support him. He went down again on his face.

Alec looked around at the circle of spectators.

“Anyone else have something to say?”

Lawrence came to his side. “Come on, it’s over. Let’s get out of here.”

Alec let his companions lead him through the hushed crowd while the miner’s friends bent over him.

They made their way to Alec’s quarters, which he shared with his mother. Gradually, one by one, his friends drifted away until only Joanna remained.

They were drinking legitimate liquor now, part of the precious supply that was synthesized each year from the unusable waste products of the hydroponics farms.

Joanna was sitting on the padded sofa, feet tucked up beneath her. Alec sat beside her. The furniture was all made of lunar stone, their most plentiful material, and padded with foam cushions. The room was spacious by lunar standards, big enough for a large viewscreen on one wall, two chairs and a low stone table in front of the sofa. Paintings hung on the other walls, and the ceiling panels glowed with a soft fluorescence.

“You know,” Joanna was saying, “I think Deitz’s rat poison extract tastes better than this stuff.”