All thoughts of Patrick vanished the moment she entered the lab. The place was a madhouse. People were scurrying about. Lots of people. Judging from the number she saw in the room, her father had called for an all hands on deck work session. That could only mean one thing: they’d had an unexpectedly promising result from the initial test sequences.
Carmen caught one young lab assistant by an elbow as she hurried by. The woman stopped long enough for a smile. “Can I help you, doctor?” she asked.
“Just got in, Martha. What’s going on?” Carmen asked, waving her hands at the room in a general way.
“Oh! Yes, I heard. So glad you’re safe. Were you very scared?” Martha asked.
“We were pretty well shielded,” Carmen replied, feeling exasperated. Did everyone on the base know? “Now, what’s going on?”
“Oh! Yes, one of the tests came back with a positive marker. We’re prepping it to test on live virus now,” Martha said.
That was good news. Carmen sometimes thought that Martha was a little bit slow. Her manner of speaking didn’t demonstrate great intellect, anyway. But she was really reliable, and quite good at getting things done when she was asked. Carmen made a shooing motion with her hands. “Back to whatever you were doing, then,” Carmen said. “I’m sure it’s important!”
“Oh! Yes, I will, thanks,” Martha said before rushing off.
Carmen shook her head, smiling in spite of herself. She wondered if she was going to be glad when she didn’t need to hear “Oh! Yes!” every day, or if she would miss it.
She glanced over at her father, the cool center of the storm that filled the room. He was working on something at a computer station, and directing staff around him as well. It looked like he had things well in hand, but… They only have five medical doctors out here as part of their team. And she was one of them. Time to go beard the lion in his den. Her father would need her help.
He looked up when she grew near. His eyes scanned her up and down, as if inspecting her for signs of illness or injury. “Clean bill of health?” he asked.
“All clear,” she replied. “The Hopper and the radiation shelter shielded me completely from the storm.”
He turned to look at whatever he was doing on his console, nodding a little absently. “Good that you were with someone who knew how to get you both to safety,” he said. “But perhaps you should stay at the base from now on.”
He looked up from his work and gave her a smile. “I’d hate to lose one of my best doctors out there in the wilds of space.”
“Dad, I’m one of your only doctors, out here,” she protested half-heartedly. “Faint praise.”
“All the more reason to keep you safe, then,” he said. “Here, I need your help. We have to run tests. We might have a vaccine already! I have Martin and Martha queuing up some rats to test on. Come, see.”
And just like that, it seemed like he’d left his earlier moodiness behind. Carmen wasn’t sure she bought it. Her father wasn’t stupid, and he wouldn’t have forgotten her untimely blush earlier. But if he was willing to set it aside and get back to work, she was happy to do the same. She came in closer and leaned over the back of his chair, peeking at his screen.
They had a lot of work to do, but this was the work of her life. Nothing was more important than what she was doing with her father right now. Everyone – all of humanity – was counting on them. She’d check in with Patrick later – after the results from the tests were in, maybe. That would be a good time, she thought. Either she’d have success to share, or failure to commiserate about. Either way, it would be a good excuse. The plan set, she regretfully pushed thoughts of Patrick aside for a while. She needed her entire focus on her work right now.
8
PATRICK SAT in front of a computer console in his office, watching data stream by. He tucked his hands behind his head. It would be a little while before the computer finished making sense of all the data they downloaded from the research site. He could relax a little, until then. Damn shame they hadn’t had time to get to the other ones, but this was a good start, at least.
A knock on his office door got his attention, and he kicked his feet off his desk. A bad habit that he never wanted the other staff here to see.
“Come in,” he said.
The door opened, and Amy popped her head in. “Safe to come in?” she asked.
“Yup, all clear,” he replied, sighing a little. The rest of the base might be oblivious, but Amy at least knew something had gone down with Carmen in the Hopper. She might not know what, but they’d been working together for too long for her to not know.
She slipped into his office. It was a tight squeeze in here for two adults, with his desk and chair taking up a lot of the room already. Amy didn’t let that slow her down. She parked herself on the edge of his desk, and set two drinks down.
Patrick glanced at the cups. “Beer? Not even gonna ask how you got a hold of these.”
“Good. Don’t. Just enjoy ‘em,” she replied with a smile. She popped the top off her own beer and leaned back against the wall, sipping her drink.
Patrick shrugged, popped the top of his, and sat back in his chair, eyeing Amy. She wanted something from him. That much was clear. The best way to find out what she was after was to sit her out, let her spill it. She’d never been a patient sort. He shouldn’t have to wait long.
He was right. She drew another gulp from her drink and sighed theatrically. “Damned stupid thing you did out there in the Hopper,” she said.
“Oh?”
“Her dad could make all sorts of shit for you,” Amy said. “And you know it. And you messed about anyway. Putting your whole career on the line for a piece of ass, Pat? What the fuck?”
“Doctor Rosa and I are getting along just fine,” Patrick replied.
She made a humphing noise in her throat. “You do her?” Amy asked. Blunt as always.
Usually, Patrick was able to handle her directness. He even liked her for it. But today, it threw him, and he wasn’t sure why. He flushed scarlet at the thoughts invading his imagination. “No, I didn’t,” he said. But oh yes, he had wanted to.
“Hmmm. I would have thought you’d been in her pants, the way she was acting. Got close though, Pat?” She leaned forward, bringing her face only a few feet from his. “This close?”
She slid off the desk, then, and sat down on his lap. Amy wasn’t a small woman, but in the lunar gravity she only weighed thirty pounds or so. It wasn’t her weight that took his breath away. Amy’d never put any moves on him before. Where the hell was this coming from?
Before he could react, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her face nose to nose with his.
“This close, maybe?” she asked in a husky whisper. “Or closer?”
Patrick could smell the beer on her breath. She’d clearly had more than just a few sips this evening. “Packed a couple away for courage before you came up here?” he asked drily. He kept his voice level, but it wasn’t easy.
“Maybe I did,” she drawled, running fingers through his hair.
“Amy, we are so not doing this,” Patrick said. He lifted his arms to untangle her fingers.
“And why not? Pat, if you wanted a bed buddy, all you had to do was ask me. You didn’t need to go hunting up the skirt of some groundsider.”
She leaned in close, her lips darting to find his. For a moment Patrick considered giving in. It had been a hell of a day, and he could sure use some way to vent some steam. But that wasn’t the relationship he and Amy had. And it wasn’t the relationship he wanted with her. Besides, the person he really wanted to be kissing was Carmen. Making do with Amy wouldn’t be fair to any of them. Gently, he pushed her away. Her tongue darted against his lips insistently for another second, but then she backed off. She was still sitting on his lap, but her arms were no longer wrapped around him. Her eyes were wide open, staring at him.
“Shit. You care about that girl, don’t you?” she asked, stunned. Slowly, she uncoiled h
erself from his lap. “Oh shit, Pat. You are so in it deep. You have no idea.”
Amy stood up, still babbling things that Patrick simply didn’t understand. In it deep? He was willing to admit to himself that he did care about Carmen – more than was safe, maybe. But how did that make him in it deep? She was shaking her head, her eyes still wide.
“Oh, Pat. I am so sorry,” she said. She grabbed her beer from his desk and downed the rest of it in a single gulp. “I thought I could save you the heartache, but…”
Amy turned to go, opened the door, stepped halfway out, and turned back.
“How did you fall in love with her so fast?” she asked.
And then she was gone before he could say a word, out his door and down the hall, leaving him gaping. In love? Him? He’d had dates. Hell, everyone went out and had a little downtime party time when they were on Earth, it was only natural. But love? That was something for groundsiders, or for those people lucky enough to find someone they could partner off with on the moon base. Which didn’t happen often. And if you married someone while you were out here, the moment either person got a transfer, both halves of the couple were straight back to Earth. The powers that be didn’t want to be responsible for splitting up families. So most people who wanted a long space career stayed single, these days.
Love wasn’t something he’d ever looked for. Or thought much about. He loved the moon. He loved his work here. He loved flying the shuttle back and forth between his birthplace and his home. But finding a person to love? Crazy talk.
And yet, when he touched his feelings about Carmen, he could feel the intense emotions around their far-too-short time in the shelter together. That was sex. He could recognize that. But he touched pain, too – pain at the thought of losing her, pain at the thought of not seeing her face again. In his experience, love meant pain. Joy, too. Sure. But you knew it was love when it hurt.
Which meant Amy was probably right, as usual.
But what the hell did that mean for him? Carmen wasn’t going to be staying out here. She and her father’s team would solve the mystery of the virus, and then they’d be going home again. And he certainly planned to stay out in space for as long as he was allowed to. He had no real interest in going back to Earth to stay, not anytime soon, anyway. There was still too much to do out here, too much to explore and see.
His computer beeped at him to say it was done collating his data, reminding him that he’d been working on some of those things when Amy had barged in. Amy! What had she been about? He typed commands into his keyboard to call up the raw data in a plotted form that was easy to understand. She’d never jumped him like that before. Why now? Was she jealous of Carmen? And what was she talking about right before she left?
The plotted data popped on his screen. He reached up, slid some spreadsheets aside, and pressed a button for another format. What the hell was that? He was seeing some astonishing readings. His fingers went back to the keyboard, flying over the keys. He needed to go back to the raw data, to verify it. Rows and columns appeared on his screen and he scrolled through them carefully. Everything checked out.
He went to the video feed the little robots had sent back. It was scratchy, and not the best quality. But he couldn’t deny what he was seeing. They’d found it. His little bots had found the lunar holy grail. It was right there, in the same deep crater he’d used as a shelter for him and Carmen.
Water ice. And not just a little bit, either. It looked like there was a damned glacier at the bottom of that crater. Tons of ice. Enough to supply that small city Carmen had been joking about. Water was one of the only resources they had never had enough of out there, and it was something they needed for anything they wanted to do. But now, they had more water ice that he’d dared dream existed here – and this was just from one lucky crater! Where there was one, there were bound to be others, too.
Life on the moon was about to change in a huge way. He jumped up from his seat, excited. He ought to go tell someone. The whole team should know – this was huge! This was life changing for all of them.
Patrick thought of running off to tell Carmen. She’d love to hear about it – probably be as excited as he was. The city – her idea – might happen after all. Imagine this place with hundreds of people here. Or maybe they’d leave this place intact, and build a new site closer to the crater with the water. Hard to say which would work better. They’d need to do feasibility studies, and see if the ice was really pure all the way through, and – lots of work.
Only fair to tell everyone at once. They all had a stake in this. He tapped his earpiece. “Control, this is Patrick.”
“Control here,” came the reply.
“Who’s this?” Patrick asked.
“Jacob, sir. What’s up?”
One of the new guys, Patrick recalled. The one who’d been hurt when he and Carmen went outside to fix the electricity. “Jacob, can you retransmit for me? I want to go out over the PA system to everyone in the base.”
“Got it, sir. You’re live.”
Patrick took a deep breath. This might be one of the most important things he was ever able to announce. He stood up. Somehow, that seemed appropriate.
“Base, this is Pat. I’m thrilled to announce that one of the research outposts has found a crater with copious water ice. We’ll need to do physical inspection to be sure of the amount, but preliminary data says we’re looking at tens of thousands of tons of the stuff. Staff leaders meet in the conference room in one hour for a strategy meeting. I’ll get the kitchen to bring up coffee. This is probably going to be a doozy of a meeting.”
He took another breath, and then went on. “To all of you – congratulations! This is a defining moment in our mission here. I want to thank each of you for all the work that has led to our success.”
Patrick clicked off his radio. His door was still open, and through it he could hear the reaction to his words. The shouts, the whoops, the clapping – all made it down the hall to his office just fine. He sat back down in his chair, feeling more satisfied than he had in a long while.
Now to inform Earth. He wasn’t sure what they’d recommend. There were plans in place for what to do when they found ice. They’d known all along that they would some water ice here. But he didn’t think anyone had guessed there would be so much, so close together and easy to extract. This was going to turn some head on Earth, for sure. He got to work typing his report.
9
CARMEN WAS exhausted. First the excitement of earlier in the Hopper – had it really only been this morning? Since getting back to the lab, there’d been nonstop effort. Her eyes burned from looking at things under a microscope. But the job was done. The rats had been inoculated. Now they had to wait five days, to see if the vaccine worked. The animals needed time to build antibodies against the virus.
A vaccine was only half of the solution, though. Ideally, they needed a cure as well. That was proving more than challenging. So far, nothing was stopping the virus. None of the normal antiviral drugs were having any effect at all. It didn’t make sense to her. They’d tested a broad range of drugs on the virus, but it shrugged off everything they hit it with. Something ought to have at least some effect on the damned thing!
She was trying a different tactic, now. Working a relatively quiet corner of the lab, she was using a fairly simple set of tests to break down the virus into its component parts. That had been done before, of course. But she was going to go a step further. Once the analysis was complete, she’d have the entire structure of the virus and it’s DNA genome mapped. She could then compare both to the database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information – which had similar data on thousands of known viruses.
If she knew what viruses this bug was most like, then she would have a better shot at figuring out which course of treatment might be most effective. It seemed like a logical step. She was surprised no one else had tried it yet, in fact. The virus had been sequenced a few times already. But no one had published a paper
discussing which other viral structures it was similar to.
The thing had to have come from somewhere. Once she knew where, then she was pretty sure she could figure out how to kill it.
“That’s a dead end,” her father said.
She looked up from her work and glanced over her shoulder. He was standing there, watching her progress. How long had he been there?
“Why?” she asked. “It seems the obvious thing to do.”
“And it’s been done,” her father replied. “But there were…problems.”
He had Carmen’s entire attention now. She turned her chair around to face him. “What sort of problems?”
“Here,” he said. “This is a classified document I am sending you, Carmen.” He tapped the tablet in his hand a few times.
She waved her hands around the room. “Half of what we’re working on here is classified information.”
“Not like this. It’s the virus. It’s why the problem has been so hard to solve.”
She frowned at him, but picked up her own tablet to read what he’d sent. The email opened easily enough, and she popped the attached paper open. It was a classified report detailing the same study she’d been trying to do. And the results were more than surprising. Carmen opened her mouth to say something but closed it again as she continued scanning the paper. By the time she was done skimming the text, her jaw had dropped.
“That’s impossible,” she said.
“That is what I thought when I read it,” her father replied. “Nonetheless, it is true.”
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