Worlds in Chaos Read Free Page B

time that things will be okay and be wrong, and they’ll never forgive you.”
    “Getting philosophical? Is this a new postflight syndrome or something?”
    “I don’t know. But I could sure use a postflight coffee.”
    “I’ll get one,” Stevie said, and moved away along one of the passages.
    Joyce nodded to indicate the doorway through to the Ccoms room. “We’ve got PCN on now, asking to talk to one of the crew. You want to take it?”
    “Sure. Who is it?”
    “Somebody called John Feld from their Los Angeles office. He’s linked through via Corpus Christi.”
    “Uh-huh.” Keene followed Joyce between the communications equipment racks and control panels. “Have we a friendly native?”
    “It’s difficult to say,” Joyce answered as they came to a live screen on one of the consoles. The face showing on it was of a man in his forties with clear blue eyes and straight, yellow hair brushed to the side. He turned to look out full-face as Keene moved within the viewing angle of the console pickup.
    “Hello. I’m Landen Keene—NIFTV’s flight engineer; also one of the principal design engineers involved with the project.”
    “John Feld, Pacific Coast Network news.”
    “Hi.”
    “You are with the Amspace Corporation, Dr. Keene?”
    “In a way. I run a private engineering consultancy that Amspace contracts design work and theoretical studies to.”
    Feld looked mildly surprised. “And does this relationship result in your going into space often?” he asked.
    “Oh, Amspace and Protonix—that’s the name of my company—have known each other for a long time. I go wherever the job demands. A desk has more leg room, but this way we get to have more fun.”
    “As we saw,” Feld agreed. “That was a spectacular performance you people gave up there earlier.”
    “And it was in spite of everything this country has done in the last forty years, not thanks to any of it,” Keene replied.
    “So what were you demonstrating? Obviously you were doing more than having fun. Is it another version of the message we hear from time to time about private enterprise being able to do things better than government?”
    Keene shook his head. “Hell no. What we were telling you has to do with the whole future of humanity, not somebody’s political or economic ideology. The world is still burying its head in the sand and refusing to face what Athena is telling us: the universe isn’t a safe place. For our own good, we need a commitment on a massive scale to broadening what the Kronians have pioneered and spreading ourselves around more of space. What we showed today is that we can start doing it right now, without needing to negotiate any deals with the Kronians—although if you want my opinion, we should avail ourselves of any help they offer. We already have the technology and the industries. The vehicle that we demonstrated today was a test bed for a Nuclear Indigenously Fueled engine. That means it uses a nuclear thermal reactor to heat an indigenous propellant gas as a reaction mass. ‘Indigenous’: native to a particular place.”
    Feld seemed to understand the term but looked puzzled. “Okay. . . . But where are we talking about, exactly, in this instance?”
    Keene spread his hands. “That’s the whole point: anywhere that you’re operating. You see, it works with a whole range of substances that occur naturally just about wherever you might happen to be. Venus is rich in carbon dioxide; the asteroids and ice moons of the gas-giants give unlimited water; others, such as Saturn’s Titan and Neptune’s Triton have methane; you can also use nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, argon. In other words, it opens up the entire Solar System by affording ready refueling sources wherever you go. Today we were using water, and you saw the results. Methane would perform about fifty percent better still.”
    “So was today’s effort to get publicity for a new technology that you’ve developed? If so, it