“FAA will get over it,” Tyler said. “And it’s not that Glatun are small. It’s that this ship wasn’t designed for Rangora.”

  It took Tyler and Dr. Chu about ten minutes to get everything stowed on top of the other passengers.

  “And that way I don’t have stuff piled on me,” Tyler said, grinning. He commed the door closed and checked the telltales. “I think the little blinky lights are just so the passengers that are in the know don’t get nervous. But we are…locked tight. And…liftoff. Manchester FAA, Monkey Paw Four. Request change of flight plan, direct ascent to geosynchronous, return trip to Huntsville FAA control…Roger, FAA. Thank you.”

  “No problems?” Nathan asked.

  “Manchester FAA is getting used to spaceships,” Tyler said. “It’s the bureaucrats in D.C. that see their phony baloney jobs on the line that don’t like us.”

  “The FAA is a pretty important group,” Asaro said. “And I know you don’t like NASA but it really was the only game in town if you wanted to be in a manned program.”

  “And now it’s not,” Tyler said. “Which means that NASA is looking at becoming very extremely redundant very extremely fast. Which nobody likes but bureaucrats hate more than most. To most people in a bureaucracy, the main thing is that they’ve got a steady paycheck, because who ever lays off a bureaucrat? Well, NASA if it had any sense at all. And the FAA is having to adjust, fast, to new conditions. One thing that they’re realizing is that they’re going to have to automate to a much greater degree to handle space traffic. And they’ve been lobbying Congress for forever for upgrades, I’ll admit. But most of the stuff they’re pitching looks exactly like what it, in fact, is: pork payoffs to contractors so that FAA administrators can then get cushy jobs when they finish their twenty years. Not going to argue this one while I’m picking my way through the satellite belt. So, Steve, does a ‘Doctor’ go with that name? You were introduced as Mister.”

  “I didn’t want to throw you any more than being with NASA would,” Steve said. “So, yes, it’s Dr. Asaro. Also, until recently, Major Asaro.”

  “Air Force?” Nathan asked, trying to shift some of the packages. He was pretty hard to see under the boxes.

  “Bite your tongue,” Steve said. “Marines.”

  “So Doctor Major Steve ‘Astro’ Asaro,” Tyler said. “We’ve got plenty of names to choose from. Doctor of…?”

  “Aeronautical engineering,” Astro said. “And astronomy. And physics. Master’s in electrical and mechanical. I thought I recognized Dr. Chu. I had his astrophysics for physics majors course many a year ago.”

  “You got an A,” Dr. Chu said. “I was being nice, though. I knew you wanted to be an astronaut. You really rated more of an A minus.”

  “With your engineering background maybe you should be the ship’s engineer instead of pilot,” Tyler said. “Okay, since we have about five minutes alone. Nathan and Bryan already know the dirty details. We’ll be returning to Huntsville after dropping this stuff off. So if you want to abort you can abort in Huntsville and no harm done. The Monkey Business is five hundred years old. It’s not quite ready for the scrapyard but it’s close. It was what I could afford. And I made sure it was serviced before we left Glatun. But it’s not a nice new space shuttle or the ISS. It’s a workhorse that has been running around the galaxy since before the Spanish landed in the New World. Our first mission is to launch some mirrors. We’re going to just park them in Near Earth Orbit because they’re destined for out-system. Then we’re going to go check Icarus and figure out what’s happening with the smelting. The answer is something funky according to Nathan.”

  “Best if we check it with the Glatun systems,” Nathan said. “I’m not sure, Dr. Houseley’s not sure and we haven’t been sure if we should contact someone like… Well, Dr. Chu, come to think of it.”

  “I’m a specialist in oxygen production in Mira Variables,” Dr. Chu said. “I’m just along for the ride. And to cook.”

  “Anyway,” Tyler said. “If anybody wants to abort after you see the ship, you’re welcome. I only want people who really want to be here.”

  “I’m actually having a bit of trouble with the concept,” Steve said. “The last time I was in space, the ride up was like being repeatedly hit by a trip-hammer.”

  “Welcome to a new day,” Tyler said. “And…we’re…almost docked. Hang on a bit. Diw! The lock won’t seal… Yeah, I know it sealed when I left. I’m going to undock. Get one of the bots to check the seal rings… This is the sort of thing I was talking about. It’s not quite baling wire and chewing gum but it’s got about two billion little issues that crop up all the time.”

  “Try that pretty new shuttle that’s older than I am and gets practically rebuilt after every mission,” Steve said. “You don’t want to know for problems.”

  “Hang on,” Tyler said. “Yeah, I’ll try it.” There was a clang. “That’s got it. What was it…? I hate intermittent failures, too. Especially when they’re of docking seals. And…we’re home.”

  “We sure it’s good?” Nathan asked in a muffled tone.

  “Get used to answers like ‘We’ll know when we open the door,’” Tyler said. “Fortunately, we can close it really fast.” Tyler opened the inner air-lock door and listened. “Any whistling?”

  “You’re joking, right?” Steve said.

  “Nope,” Tyler said. “And inner door opening…And we didn’t lose a gram of air so we’re good. Everybody out!”

  “As soon as I can move,” Nathan said.

  “Be careful,” Tyler grabbed two boxes off of Nathan. “There’s a small patch of microgravity right at the join. You can step over it but it feels sort of funny and if you’re not careful you trip.”

  FIVE

  “It does look sort of worn,” Dr. Foster said as he followed Tyler down a passageway. It was also big. The interior corridors weren’t wide or tall but there were a lot of them. They hadn’t gotten a look at the exterior but he could tell it was a pretty sizeable ship.

  “And the galley,” Tyler said as a hatch withdrew. “Most of the hatches are memory metal. One of about a thousand things we don’t understand. At least not well.”

  The galley was the size of a good-sized restaurant’s kitchen.

  “This is more than I expected,” Dr. Chu said, looking around. “Are the big doors the freezers?”

  “One is a standard pantry,” Tyler said, walking over and comming the door open. The interior was packed with cases. “This is the pantry. You’ll notice it doesn’t have the little yellow and blue lights over it. Blue is good, yellow is bad. The ones with the yellow and blue lights are stabilizers. They, somehow, prevent degradation. They’re cool rooms but not freezers. About 20 C normally. But even if they get hotter the stuff doesn’t degrade, and besides meat and such like, I’ve got them filled with tasty vegetables and fruits.”

  “Good,” Dr. Chu said, walking over to one of the stabilizer rooms. “And how do I know the stabilizer isn’t on? Because I don’t want to be stabilized. The blue light?”

  “The field turns off if you open the door,” Tyler said, comming for the door to open. The room was filled mostly with piled packages of pre-cut meat. It was vaguely disturbing that they weren’t frozen. “And it really will turn off. The door latch has the power circuit built in. The problem isn’t getting them to turn off. It’s keeping them on.”

  “I see,” Dr. Chu said. “And how do I open the doors?”

  “Monkey Business, please give Dr. Chu access privileges to all food areas, bunking and common areas by verbal command. Drs. Foster, Bell and Asaro are authorized access to common areas and bunking.”

  “Yes, sir,” the ship replied.

  “AI?” Dr. Foster asked as he set his cases down.

  “No,” Tyler said. “Just a very smart computer. It works similar to an AI, but it can’t figure things out. If it’s not in its programmed responses it has to consult a sophont. Access time through the hypernet with one of the Gorku AIs came with the lease so we shouldn’t have to help it figure out much. Gorku also will tow us home, to Glalkod mind you, if the ship breaks down and it’s something we can’t fix. Or send a repair ship if it’s more feasible. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t buy it. Anyway, can you work with this?”

  “All electric ranges,” Dr. Chu said, looking around. “I really doubt I’ll need the microwave. Isn’t that a GE?”

  “I had it retrofitted,” Tyler said.

  “This will do very well,” Dr. Chu said. “Far more than I’d expected, frankly. I was expecting a tiny little galley the size of the inside of the Paw.”

  “The Monkey Business can control up to forty tugs,” Tyler said, shrugging. “And a maintenance, mining and repair crew of up to a hundred. There are also cookbots but they’re not programmed very well for humans.”

  “This will do very well,” Dr. Chu said. “Perhaps we should get the rest of the materials out of the Paw and I can set up.”

  “Works,” Tyler said. “And Nathan would probably appreciate that. Or you can come fly down to Huntsville.”

  “I do not wish to quit if that is what you mean,” Dr. Chu said.

  “Not at all,” Tyler said. “But since I was working through my plants, which have an ocular portion so I was watching what was going on, I forgot to turn on the vision plates in the Paw. I appreciate your dedication, but how would you like to see Earth, and the ship, from space?”

  “I can set up later,” Dr. Chu said. “Let’s get the Paw unloaded, shall we?”

  * * *

  “So, it’s got vision screens?” Nathan said. He’d never even gotten out of his seat. “That’s nice to know. Where?”

  “Everywhere,” Tyler said. “Monkey, Paw Four undocking…Roger…Yes, I’ll bring maple syrup. And…we have the vision blocks on.”

  “Holy hanna!” Dr. Foster said.

  The vision blocks of the Paw were installed prior to the development of standard ocular implants and designed so that a crewman on the Paw could maneuver it in the often complex environment of asteroid mining. He, she or it might have to back up, spin or otherwise maneuver with a clear “view.”

  So they were everywhere. It was as if the seats were sitting in space.

  “Now that’s a view,” Asaro said.

  “I think I’ve peed myself,” Nathan said in a muffled tone. “An’ I don’ wanna breathe.”

  The Earth was laid out “above” the ship with the Monkey Business blocking most of the rest of the view. But to either side was a glorious star field.

  “We’re not in vacuum,” Tyler said. “You’d know if we were in vacuum. I’m given to understand it smarts.”

  “I was having a hard time with scale,” Bryan said. “That’s the air lock we were docked to.”

  “Roger,” Tyler said. “Big, ain’t she?”

  “Immense,” Steve said. “Huge doesn’t cover it.”

  The ship stretched seemingly forever, with the air lock they had used a tiny door that became smaller and smaller as Tyler backed away from the ship.

  “She’s not really all that big,” Tyler said. “Four hundred and twenty feet long. That’s about thirty-nine stories. It’s easier to think in terms of skyscrapers for things like this.”

  “Good point,” Steve said, nodding. “It does work.”

  “Most of the aft third is engines and power plants,” Tyler said, scooting the Paw around so that the crew could get a look at their new home. “The forward two-fifths is a smelter and bulk storage. The middle bit is crew quarters, life-support and command centers. So it’s a big ship but with a full crew complement it’s still rather cramped. And compared to some it’s not all that big. But it’s more than big enough for us. Dr. Chu? Comments?”

  “I am absorbing myself in rapturous glory,” Dr. Chu replied. “Space in all its infinite wonder. Are there…Is there anywhere in the ship with a similar view?”

  “Not quite,” Tyler said. “There are some ports, and your bunk has a screen which you can set to various views. But you can ride in the Paws from time to time if you really want. As long as I can get my me fun.”

  “No problem,” Dr. Chu said. “I’m a master of the noodle in all its forms. They rather remind me of space-time theory.”

  * * *

  “So, where are we going to store the mirrors?” Astro asked as Tyler hovered the Paw over the parking lot of AMTAC.

  The mirrors had been trundled out with forklifts and were now scattered around the parking lot, looking just a bit forlorn.

  “We’re not,” Tyler said, looking over his shoulder. “I’m going to pick them up with a tractor bubble. The bubble will act as a shield against any damage. I’m just having to be sure to get the mirrors and not the ground under them. There…got it. I just needed to find a good structural point to pick them up off the ground so I could bubble them.”

  Steve watched as first one mirror, then two, then the whole group of twenty-three were picked up. There were twenty VLA mirrors, simple circles of nickel with a satpak on the back, and three BDA mirrors. Those were larger and more complex glass and nickel hexagons with cooling systems. But they all were hovering, spread out in formation, in a couple of minutes.

  “This is so very cool,” Nathan said. “This would be a six-month evolution with NASA.”

  “Six-year,” Steve said. “Working for NASA just means I know their problems better. But at the level we’re working on, just to be able to get people to space safely has huge issues. With this system, completely different story.”

  “So we’re meeting specifications?” Tyler asked as they started to ascend.

  “So far I’ve got no issues,” Astro said. “Quite the opposite. I think with the Paws around we should ground every rocket on Earth for our own good. Rockets are very big explosions waiting to happen. If the Paw just breaks, it’s going to be nothing but a big chunk of metal falling. And there is a lot of the world for it to fall on that’s empty. Meteors do it all the time and there hasn’t been anyone seriously injured since Tunguska. Of course, if it breaks just a bit in orbit and comes down at orbital speeds…Then you’ve got a KEW on your hands.”

  “And it will take a while to come down,” Tyler said. “Even if the other Paws are out system, there’s probably enough time for them to come in and grapple it.”

  “A point which had escaped me,” Steve admitted. “I’m still trying to catch up to the technology. But since I can’t see what you’re doing I need to get some more detailed information, on the control and management systems. How, exactly, are you controlling the Paw?”

  “Heh,” Tyler said. “Some of it is intuitive but that takes a lot of explanation. First, you need to understand the plants.”

  “Okay,” Steve said. “Go.”

  “The neurological implants integrate with the brain,” Tyler said. “So when you go looking for a piece of information it searches not just for what you’ve explicated but also your back-thoughts of what you really want. Sort of like a very detailed and intuitive query system. I went looking for information on meteors when I was setting all this stuff up. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but I looked through all the major online databases. And I couldn’t find one damned meteor that I liked. You with me?”

  “Yes,” Steve said.

  “Well, when I did the same thing using the hypernet from Glalkod, which can interact with our internet, by the way, I got a hit on Connie right away.”

  “Connie?” Steve asked.

  “6178 1986 DA,” Nathan replied. They were at about 40,000 feet and he was reveling in the view. “Two point one kilometer nickel iron asteroid. Apollo.” The last meaning that its orbit was mostly outside of Earth’s but crossed it. They also generally stayed inside the asteroid belt ranging from outside the orbit of Mars to inside the orbit of Earth. Aten asteroids were mostly inside Earth’s, but entered Earth’s orbit or crossed it. Apohele were those that stayed mostly in Earth’s orbit. None of the classifications were precise. There were “Aten” asteroids that crossed the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

  “Okay,” Steve said.

  “Which Dr. Bell knew off the top of his head,” Tyler said. “But with the plants I’ve got pretty much everything his memory would draw upon and a pretty good sorting system. They use their internal memory, organic memory and a combination of intuitive processing and software to arrive at the answer you’re looking for. But they aren’t, per se, creative. They just give you access to a host of information. You have to be able to use it.”

  “I’m with you so far,” the astronaut said. “How does that relate to flying the Paw?”

  “I don’t really fly it,” Tyler said. “What I do is look for flight-paths. Then a combination of my plants and the processors on the Monkey Business sort through all the possible combinations using all available data to find a clear spot. You know what the orbital belt is like. So does the Monkey. Then I’m given a bunch of potential flight-paths. I generally pick the one at the top. But it’s not exactly the safest or the fastest or whatever. It’s an intuitive pick.”

  “I’d prefer you use the safest,” Steve pointed out. “I’d really prefer you don’t conflict a billion-dollar satellite.”

  “I won’t,” Tyler said. “I’m not a hot-rod in this thing and the Monkey knows it. That’s part of the algorithm. But…I don’t want to take all day coming down and I really like watching North America and South America over Eurasia and Africa. Since we’re going straight up from Huntsville to a ship over Brazil, that seems like the straight route. But it might be really crowded up there at the moment. So the ship has to maneuver.”

  “Which we’ve been doing while you were talking,” Nathan said. “It was making me nervous since you didn’t seem to be paying attention.”

  “I’m paying more than you think,” Tyler said. “When you guys get plants you’ll understand. But mostly I’m letting the Monkey fly the Paw. Getting back to the point. The absolute safest might be a polar insertion, then down over Russia…”

  “Which would have some security issues,” Dr. Foster pointed out.