Moonrise

SAVANNAH

Looking back on it, Joa

“You don’t have to be physically there,” she told her husband, time and again.

“But I want to be,” Paul always countered.

Joa

“You are much to valuable to the corporation to go ru

Paul gri

“But what about me? What about our baby?”

He hesitated at that. But then, “This is for the baby. Don’t you see? I want this demonstration to succeed. It’s got to succeed! The whole future of the corporation depends on it.”

“It will succeed or fail whether you’re there or not,” Joa

“Maybe.”

“You’ve got a God complex!” she accused.

He shook his head, very seriously. “If I stay here and the demo screws up, I’ll blame myself for not being there to make sure it goes right.”

“That’s a God complex,” Joa

“That’s an experienced executive,” Paul retorted. “The crew always works better when the captain is on the bridge. Don’t you know that?”

“Sheer machismo.”

Since Greg was working so well with Paul, she turned to her son for support.

To her surprise, Greg agreed with Paul. “I think he ough to be there. This is a crucial experiment and we’ve got to do everything we can to make sure it comes out right.”

His newfound professional demeanor surprised and pleased her — except that his position on the matter was opposed to her own.

At di

“You want me to go with you?” Greg asked. He looked a: surprised as Joa

“Sure,” said Paul. “Why not?”

“Oh no!” Joa

Paul was bubbling with preparations for the coming trip to Moonbase. He wants to go sobadly, Joa

Greg, she saw, was nowhere near as enthusiastic about travelling to the Moon as Paul was.

“I’m not going to have both of you out there at the same time,” Joa

Paul gave her a strange expression. Only later, much later, did she realize that he felt she was willing to let him risk his life on the Moon, even though reluctantly, but she absolutely would not tolerate her son taking the same risk.

“I’m going to Moonbase,” Paul said flatly.

“Greg stays here,” she answered.

Di

Days later, Greg took Paul aside at the corporate offices and said, “I’d really like to go with you, but I can’t worry my mother so much. She’d be frantic.”

Paul looked at his wife’s son. He had a difficult time picturing Joa

But he said, “Yeah, I suppose you’re right I’ll go, you stay and hold her hand.”

“I can keep in touch with you through the VR system,” Greg suggested.

With a wan smile, Paul said, “Good as it is, virtual reality isn’t the same as being there.”

Greg shrugged his shoulders. “I agree. But it’ll have to do.” ;’Yeah,” said Paul.

Greg and, Joa

“You’re crying,” Greg said as he and Joa

“It’s just the dust,” Joa

She actually saw more of her husband over the next few days than she had for weeks: Paul called her regularly from the space station and even from the transfer rocket that took him from the space station to the clutch of buried shelters that he called Moonbase.

“Well, I’m here,” Paul’s image said to her from the display screen in her bedroom. “Landed half an hour ago.”

“I was wondering when you’d call.” Joa

“Must be after midnight, your time, right?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said to the screen. “I’m just glad you got there safely.”

There was nearly a three-second lag while her words hurtled to the Moon at the speed of light and his response raced back to her.

Paul broke into a big grin. “Hey, it’s a lot safer here than it is in New York.”

Joa

Again the lag. Then, “Well, I’ll be here for a couple of days getting things set up. Then we go out to the remote site.”

“You’ll be travelling by hopper?”

She noticed, while waiting for his reply, a good-looking young woman in the background of the crowded underground shelter. For an instant she thought it was Melissa, but no, this woman was younger and either white or Hispanic.

“By tractor. We’ve got too much cargo to haul for a hopper to lift. Had to throw my weight around to get one,” Paul said. “They’re all in pretty constant use.”

“The oxygen plant?”

Were there other women up there? Joa

“Seems fu

They chatted for nearly half an hour, always with that a

Free of me, she thought. Free to sample the younger women who have the same love for that frontier as he does.

Finally she said goodnight, pleading a full schedule and the need to get up early the next morning.

“Yeah,” Paul said, once her words reached him. “We’re go

The following evening Joa

I’d love to,” her son replied. He arrived at the house with a big bouquet of flowers. To brighten up the place,” he said.

Faced with the choice of eating in the ormal dining room or the kitchen’s breakfast nook, Joa

“So how’s he doing up there?” Greg asked as they spooned their soup.

“I haven’t heard from him all day.”

“He must be awfully busy.”

“Yes. Of course.”

“He’ll call later. They’re on Greenwich time up there. All the space facilities are.”

“I know.”

“So it’s…’ Greg pressed a stud on his wristwatch, “…God, it’s almost one in the morning there!”