Pegasus In Space

Let's say to ascertain if offenders resident on the Station have set up an illegal network. And discern if there is any real antipathy to psychics there.

Oh. Rhyssa had to admit those excuses were legitimate. She paused. Only we'll have to make our own way upstation. Our kinetics are all on the Moon.

Leave that detail to me, Rhyssa, Boris replied. Only don't tell Madlyn we're coming.

She's not indiscreet, Boris, Rhyssa reminded him. Especially about parapsychic business.

She's in love, was Boris's unequivocal reply.

Clearance to Padrugoi Station was not a problem with the documentation Rhyssa, Dorotea, and Amariyah were able to produce, especially with Admiral Coetzer's official sanction. They went as a family group, grandmother, mother, and daughter. Amariyah was bubbling with excitement at going to see the Padrugoi hydroponic facilities. Rhyssa arranged for Ping Yung, the empathic specialist already on Padrugoi, to show her the extensive gardens. The girl chattered away on the trip up with Rhyssa and Dorotea. Dorotea held Rhyssa's hand, physically and mentally, during the rocket flight.

I never thought I'd be doing this, Dorotea said, several times. I'm too old to travel perpendicular to the Earth. I'm too old to go this fast anywhere.

I feel much the same way, Rhyssa agreed, though she rather enjoyed the tremendous power in the shuttle's rockets as they took off. Boris Roznine, seated three rows down and frowning at whatever files he was reading, had paid them no attention. Neither did Cass Cutler, traveling as his aide, nor Lieutenant Ranjit Youssef, who successfully looked his role as a menial worker, bound for six months' work upstation. He was at the very back of the thirty-passenger vehicle. Both Cutler and Youssef had encountered Albert Ponce aka Flimflam before, although he was unlikely to recognize them.

Dorotea managed a little smile when she felt both Cutler and Youssef trying to soothe her fears and apprehensions.

I'm not afraid, people, nor am I apprehensive. I just don't like this mode of travel. I like solid earth beneath my feet, she told them. I am also not a crowd person.

She felt Cass's amusement while Ranjit discreetly withdrew his encouraging thoughts. Cass's unique parapsychic ability was crowd control, generally used to prevent a large mass of people from turning into a riot by subtly broadcasting neutralizing reassurances. Cass was subtle enough so that even Dorotea could not tell if she had stopped emanating.

The initial ten minutes of the flight featured a tri-d about Padrugoi Station, including the history of the internationally sponsored construction. (The White-Coat Mutiny was not part of the spiel.) More important, the program explained what visitors could and could not do, should and should not expect, and how to react to an emergency. By then, Padrugoi was visible on the forward screens and grew rapidly to dominate the view as the shuttle seemed to inch closer.

Since her trip to Padrugoi for the Inauguration had been by Johnny's teleport, Rhyssa hadn't seen Padrugoi in all its complexity. She was as astounded by the view as those seeing it for the first time. She tried to take it all in, especially the cargo nets, flashing with buoy lights where Peter and Johnny had reduced disaster to calamity, the corner she could glimpse at this angle of the construction yard, and the dry dock surrounding the Arrakis. Amariyah wanted to know what all the little lights were.

"People working in space suits. The lights are their jetpacks, moving them about in weightless space," Rhyssa told her.

"Like Peter does."

"Like Peter does." Did the girl really understand what Peter did?

"Will I be able to go out in a space suit with a jetpack when I come up to Padrugoi to work?" Amariyah asked.

"You won't need to go out into space. The hydroponic gardens are inside the Station," Dorotea replied with a sigh of relief.

"When will I get to see them? Are we nearly there?"

"Almost," Rhyssa said placidly. She'd forgotten how convenient it was to have telekinetic transportation. Instantaneously. Going by shuttle, she was able to appreciate the distance separating Earth and Padrugoi.

Amariyah had to have everything explained to her: the nets, the gigs towing construction units or cargo containers, where the larger freighters were unloading cargo. Rhyssa wondered if the Station was ever quiet. "Day" had no meaning on Padrugoi and it probably took all twenty-four hours and its vast crew to keep it, running.