"Okay I can't fire you legally--as long as you report for work,"
grumbled Jeffers, by now a shade more ruddy. "We'll see how long you
keep reporting. Because you're off the Callisto run as of now! Sit in
your quarters and see if the company calls _that_ hazardous duty!"
"Doesn't matter," answered Tolliver, grinning amiably. "The hazardous
part is just being on the same moon as you for the next six months."
He winked and walked out, deliberately leaving the door open behind him
so as to enjoy the incoherent bellowing that followed him.
_Looks like a little vacation_, he thought, unperturbed. _He'll come
around. I just want to get back to Earth with a clean rep. Let Jeffers
and his gang steal the Great Red Spot off Jupiter if they like! It's
their risk._
* * * * *
Tolliver began to have his doubts the next day; which was "Tuesday"
by the arbitrary calender constructed to match Ganymede's week-long
journey around Jupiter.
His contract guaranteed a pilot's rating, but someone had neglected to
specify the type of craft to be piloted.
On the bulletin board, Tolliver's name stood out beside the number
of one of the airtight tractors used between the dome city and the
spaceport, or for hauling cross-country to one of the mining domes.
He soon found that there was nothing for him to do but hang around the
garage in case a spaceship should land. The few runs to other domes
seemed to be assigned to drivers with larger vehicles.
The following day was just as boring, and the next more so. He swore
when he found the assignment unchanged by "Friday." Even the reflection
that it was payday was small consolation.
"Hey, Johnny!" said a voice at his shoulder. "The word is that they're
finally gonna trust you to take that creeper outside."
Tolliver turned to see Red Higgins, a regular driver.
"What do you mean?"
"They say some home-office relative is coming in on the _Javelin_."
"What's wrong with that?" asked Tolliver. "Outside of the way they keep
handing out soft jobs to nephews, I mean."
"Aah, these young punks just come out for a few months so they can go
back to Earth making noises like spacemen. Sometimes there's no reason
but them for sending a ship back with a crew instead of in an economy
orbit. Wait till you see the baggage you'll have to load!"
Later in the day-period, Tolliver recalled this warning. Under a
portable, double-chambered plastic dome blown up outside the ship's
airlock, a crewman helped him load two trunks and a collection of bags
into the tractor. He was struggling to suppress a feeling of outrage at
the waste of fuel involved when the home-office relative emerged.
She was about five feet four and moved as if she walked lightly even
in stronger gravity than Ganymede's. Her trim coiffure was a shade too
blonde which served to set off both the blue of her eyes and the cap
apparently won from one of the pilots. She wore gray slacks and a heavy
sweater, like a spacer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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