Saturn

“I told you, didn’t I? I’ve memorized the whole layout of the habitat. Every centimeter of it.”

Gaeta placed his hand on his heart and made a little bow. “Perdone me, senorita. I apologize for doubting you.”

“De nada,”said Holly, which just about exhausted her knowledge of Spanish. She promised herself she would learn more.

Their adventure had started just before lunch, when Gaeta had popped into Holly’s office asking about authorization for an excursion outside the habitat.

“Gotta test the suit,” he explained. “We’ve made half a dozen modifications to it and we need to test it in hard vacuum.”

Looking up at him from her desk chair, Holly noticed that his eyes were the darkest brown she had ever seen.

“You need to see the Safety Department about that,” she said. “This is Human Resources.”

Gaeta made a small shrug. “Yeah, I know, but I thought maybe you could help me with it. I don’t know any of the people in the Safety Department, and at least you and I have met before.”

She thought that sounded something like a lie. Or maybe an excuse to see me? Holly wondered. With hardly a moment’s thought, she phoned the Safety office and made an appointment for Gaeta to talk with them.

Then he asked her to lunch and they began chatting about his plans for getting down to the surface of Titan and living in the habitat and before she knew it Holly was telling him her life story, or as much of it she remembered.

“Let’s take the afternoon off,” he suddenly suggested.

Holly sipped at her coffee, thinking that there was too much work waiting at her desk even though Ma

“And do what?” she asked.

He spread his hands and gri

“I have a better idea,” Holly said, putting her coffee cup down with a tiny clink.

“What?” he asked.

“Let’s go exploring,” said Holly.

So she led him to one of the access hatches built into the back of the administration building and down the metal ladder into the utilities tu

“Like going down to the Morlocks,” he muttered as they clambered down the ladder.

“Oarlocks?” Holly asked, puzzled.

Gaeta just laughed.

As they walked along the tu

He’s a stallion, all right, Holly thought as they prowled along the tu

Could I make Malcolm jealous? she wondered. He hasn’t paid any attention to me at all. Maybe if he finds out I’m seeing this stud, he’ll take some notice. Maybe -

“How well do you know Dr. Cardenas?” Gaeta asked as they paused at a fork in the tu

Holly hesitated a moment, picturing the tu

He scratched his chin. “We go

“Sure. It’s only three, four klicks.”

“There’s no transportation?”

Holly laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re tired!”

“Naw, not really. I was just thinking it’s getting close to di

Holly felt her pulse speed up. Is he trying to get me to his apartment?

“I got a di

Holly’s face fell. “With Dr. Cardenas?”

He must have seen her disappointment. She realized that a blind man could have seen it.

“It’s the only time we can talk about how she can make the nanobugs to decontaminate my suit,” he explained. “She’s so damn’ busy setting up her lab the only chance I get to talk with her is at di

“Oh.”

“It’s strictly business.”

“Yeah. I click.”

Gaeta gave her a sheepish little-boy look. “You wa

With a start, Holly realized she didn’t have a friend she could call for a di

And now this.

“No,” she said firmly. “Thanks anyway. I have a lot of work to catch up on.”

He nodded glumly. “I’ve taken you away from your work, huh?”

“That’s all right,” Holly said. “It was a fun afternoon.”

She started back down the tu

“Maybe you could have di

Holly brightened. “Tomorrow? Sure, why not.”

“Great,” he said, smiling at her.

When Gaeta got back to his apartment he stripped, showered, and decided the depilatory was still working well enough so that he didn’t need to shave yet. As he pulled on his clothes, one eye on the digital clock by his bed, he commanded the phone to send a message to Wendell Sloane, in Selene.

“Mr. Sloane,” he said, slightly uncomfortable at being so formal. “Progress report on Ms. Lane. Nothing much new to report. She’s still working in the Human Resources Department. Doesn’t appear to have any personal attachments; no boyfriends, not much of a social life at all. I had lunch with her this afternoon. She’s really a fine young lady: very bright, very sharp. She seems happy in her work here in the habitat. Tell her sister she’s got nothing to worry about as far as she’s concerned. But I’ll keep on looking out for her, just like you want. Just wa

That oughtta keep the suits back in Selene satisfied for a while. Without their backing, this whole Titan stunt would go down the tubes. Astro Corporation was the major funding source for Manuel Gaeta and his team.

Sammi Vyborg sat rigidly at his desk, looking past the open door of his cubbyhole office at the larger office across the corridor. It belonged to his immediate superior, Diego Romero.

Vyborg glanced at the numerals of the digital clock flashing away in the corner of his desk. Every day it’s the same routine, Vyborg grumbled to himself. He spends the morning pretending to work, takes his lunch, then goes out for the afternoon. I sit here buried in duties and chores and he spends every afternoon out of the office. The number two man in the department, and he only puts in half a day, at best.

Don’t get mad, Vyborg reminded himself. Get even. It’s time to set this lazy old incompetent against the director. With a bit of luck, I can bring them both down.

Romero stepped out into the corridor and slid his office door shut. Turning, he noticed Vyborg watching him.

“Buenos tardes,”he said, with a smile and a slight bow.

Vyborg smiled back at him, sourly.

As soon as Romero was gone, Vyborg got up from his desk and walked down the corridor to the office of the Communications Department’s director, Zeke Berkowitz. He rapped once on the half-open door, making it rattle against its track.

“Come on in,” Berkowitz called. As Vyborg slid the door all the way open and stepped into the office, Berkowitz smiled and said, “Ah, Sammi. What can I do for you?”

Amiable was the word for Berkowitz. The man had spent a long and successful career in the video news business, first as a local reporter, then as a network anchorman, and finally as a global executive. He never made an enemy, although in the cutthroat world of news broadcasting many people had tried to chop him down, stab him in the back, or even forcibly retire him. He survived it all with a smile and a homily about Christian charity, liberally sprinkled with self-deprecating Jewish humor.