The Rock Rats

CHAPTER 8

“Don’t you see, Lars?” Amanda said eagerly. “We could go home! To Earth! You could go back to your studies and get your doctorate.”

Fuchs was sitting on the edge of their bed, his thin slash of a mouth turned down grimly, Amanda beside him. Together they had watched Diane Verwoerd’s full message offering him ten million international dollars for his supply service and its facilities on Ceres. “It’s a bribe,” he growled.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, darling. Ten million inter-national dollars! Think of it! Ten million, free and clear, just like that!” She snapped her fingers. “For nothing more than signing your name.”

“And getting out of Ceres.”

“And returning to Earth. We could go to London, or Geneva, if you prefer.”

“It’s a bribe,” he repeated stubbornly.

Amanda took both his big, callused hands in hers. “Lars, darling, we can go back to Earth and live comfortably wherever you choose. We can begin a new life together.”

He said nothing, simply stared at the blanked wallscreen as if he were looking down the muzzle of a gun. “Lars, we could have children.”

That stirred him. He turned his head to look into her eyes. “I want to have a baby, Lars. Your baby. We can’t do that here, you know that.”

He nodded bleakly. “The gravity…” he muttered.

“If we lived on Earth, we could lead normal lives. We could raise a family.”

“The frozen zygotes are waiting for us at Selene,” he said.

She slid her arms around his neck. “We won’t need them, Lars. Not if we live on Earth like normal people.”

He started to pull her to him, but then something crossed his face. His expression changed; he looked almost as if he were in pain.

“They want us to leave Ceres.”

“And you want to stay?” Amanda had meant it to be joking; lighthearted. But it sounded bitter, almost like nagging, even to her.

“The prospectors. The miners,” he said, almost whispering. “All the others rock rats out here… our friends, our neighbors.”

“What of them?”

“We’d have to leave them.”

“We’ll make new friends. They’ll understand.”

He pulled away from her and got to his feet. “But we’ll be leaving them to him, to Humphries.”

“What of it?”

“Once we’re out of his way, once he’s bought us out, he’ll be the only source for supplies in the entire Belt. No one else would dare to compete against him.”

“Astro might. Pancho—”

“He’s on Astro’s board of directors. Sooner or later he’ll take control of Astro, too. He’ll control everything! And everybody.”

Amanda had known all along that her husband would stick on this point. She had tried to keep it out of her mind, but there it was, in the open, standing between them.

“Lars,” she said slowly, picking her words with care, “whatever feelings Martin may have once had for me are long gone, I’m certain. There is no need to view this as a competition between you and he.”

He walked away from her, paced the little room in six strides and then turned back toward her, a barrel-chested bear of a man dressed in faded dark gray coveralls, his broad heavy-featured face glowering with distrust.

“But it is a competition, Amanda. Between Humphries Space Systems and Helvetia Limited. Between him and Astro, actually. We’re caught in the middle of it, whether we like it or not.”

“But we can get out of it,” she said. “You can take me back to Earth and we’ll be rid of Humphries and Astro and the rock rats for good.”

He strode to the bed and dropped to his knees before her. “I want to take you back home, dearest. I know how much you want to be away from here, how brave you’ve been to stay here with me—”

“I love you, Lars,” she said, reaching out to tousle his dark hair. “I want to be with you wherever you are.”

He sighed heavily. “Then we must remain here. At least for a little while longer.”

“But why…?”

“Because of them. The rock rats. Our neighbors and friends here on Ceres. We can’t leave them to Humphries.”

Amanda felt her eyes misting over. “We can’t let this opportunity pass us by, Lars. Please, please accept their offer.”

He started to shake his head stubbornly, but then he noticed the tears in her eyes. He got to his feet and sat heavily beside her again on the edge of the bed.

“Amanda, dearest, I can’t turn my back on all the people here. They trust me. They need me.”

“I need you, too, Lars,” Amanda said. “We’ve been out here for five years. I haven’t complained once, have I?”

“No, you haven’t,” he admitted. “You’ve been very wonderful.”

“I’m asking you now, Lars. I’m begging you. Please accept this offer and take me back home.”

He stared into her glistening eyes for long, silent moments.

She could see that he was thinking, searching for some way to do what she wanted without feeling that he had betrayed the other rock rats in the Belt.

At last he said, “Let me talk to Pancho.”

“Pancho? Why?”

“To see if Astro will make a similar offer.”

“And if they won’t?”

With obvious, painful reluctance, Fuchs said, “Then we’ll accept Humphries’s offer.”

“You will?”

He nodded, smiling sadly. “Yes, I’ll take his money and leave the Belt and bring you home to Earth.”