Muller closed the door. "I guess it's yours," he admitted. "Now that
you're head engineer here, Mr. Tremaine, the cabin is automatically
yours. Take over. And get that junk in the fuel locker cleaned
out--except enough to keep your helpers going. They'll need it, and
we'll need their work."
"I'll clean out his stuff at the same time," I said. "I don't want any
part of it."
He smiled then, just as Eve came down with Bullard and Pietro. The fat
cook was sobered, but already beginning to fill with his own
importance. I caught snatches as they began to discuss Bullard's
knowledge of growing things. It was enough to know that we'd all
live, though it might be tough for a while.
Then Muller gestured upwards. "You've got a reduced staff, Dr. Pietro.
Do you intend going on to Saturn?"
"We'll go on," Pietro decided. And Muller nodded. They turned and
headed upwards.
I stood staring at my engines. One of them was a touch out of phase
and I went over and corrected it. They'd be mine for over two
years--and after that, I'd be back on the lists.
Eve came over beside me, and studied them with me. Finally she sighed
softly. "I guess I can see why you feel that way about them, Paul,"
she said. "And I'll be coming down to look at them. But right now,
Bullard's too busy to cook, and everyone's going to be hungry when
they find we're saved."
I chuckled, and felt the relief wash over me finally. I dropped my
hand from the control and caught hers--a nice, friendly hand.
But at the entrance I stopped and looked back toward the cabin where
Wilcox lay. I could just make out the second movement of the Ninth
beginning.
I never could stand the cheap blatancy of Hohmann's conducting.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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