FORTY-TWO

Brooklyn skipped angrily. “If he thinks he can just go an’ leave everyone behind–”

“His whip, babe.” Demarco had come along for Brooklyn’s cool-down walk on the Moon’s surface. “Designed got the keys and know how to fly it away.”

“Then we take the damned thing.”

The older man stopped short. “You gonna start an’ win a war against an advanced species with unknown tech? Dump them outta they homes and fly off wit it? Don’t seem likely, babe.”

“Best idea you got is crawl into a cave and die.”

“Prometheus says there might be a way to make a force field round Venus. We go back, take him and Toploski to that control center she used to turn on the lights, an’ see what they can do.”

“Leaving five billion people on Earth. Maybe half a million on the Moon, couple million on Mars, maybe, an’ I don’t know how many in the Belt.” Brooklyn swallowed hard. “How’s that gonna feel when you’re sitting behind your force field?”

“You the one wanna cram us all into your leaky ol’ boat an’ ‘fly like hell’. How’d you feel looking in the rearview and seeing everyone burning up behind?”

“Guilty as hell.”

“You don’t think most-a the Designed would, too? You been buddy-buddy with a jellyfish for seven years. How would Float feel leaving you behind? Jellies, Designed… they people just like us. Give Prome Dome a chance to figure hisself out and don’t do anything stupid. Hard for you, I know.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you back.” He bounced on his heels. “Never been on the Moon before. Wanna race?”

“Liable to fall down a ravine and die.”

“Always death with you. Dying here, dying there. Sun’s exploding, everyone’s gonna die. Lighten the hell up, man.” He pointed. “Last one to that rock thing’s an asshole!”

Brooklyn and the Asshole He’d Had to Save from Falling into a Ravine made it back in time for lunch.

“Got it all worked out,” Demarco said. “We head for De Milo post haste. On the way, Andy calls in her DLF pals an’ they meet us there. We get a force field workin’, then Prometheus can go on to the Artiplanet and do what he’s gotta do.”

“If a force field proves unviable within a week of our arrival on Venus,” Prometheus said, “I want transport to the Artiplanet regardless.”

Demarco agreed.

“If we can get a force field going, I want to make it public,” Milk said. “Anyone wants to come to Venus, they can.”

“Still can’t believe we’re even talking ‘bout this.” Brooklyn put his head in his hands. “It’s like somethin’ in one of Demarco’s damned stories.”

“The Plot to End the World.” Demarco spread his hands like he was opening a curtain. “Issue twelve of Astounding Stories. With you, babe. ’Bout all I can do not to hide in the corner an’ rock myself to sleep. But I been living in a cave under the surface of Venus for nearly thirty years, after bein’ kidnapped and poked at by disembodied brains, and I’m drinking shitty screwdrivers on the Moon.

“My threshold for ‘what the fuck?’ pretty damn high by now.”

They loaded all the coffee and anything else useful on the Victory while Brooklyn shut down the bolt hole. He might never see the place again but wanted everything to work if he did. He made it to the ship’s cockpit in time to finish the pre-launch checklist.

“Om,” Brooklyn tapped the computer mic. “I need you stop being a rock for a second.”

“I’m here,” Om said without noticeable delay. “More time has gone by than I expected.”

“It’s just flyin’ on by.” He sketched out the situation for the AI. “We need to get to De Milo, fastest route, no fuel spared.” They’d loaded up the rest of the Type 3 fuel, ready to burn as long and hard as need be.

Om charted the course. “I’ve amended our simulation to include asteroids and comets. Perhaps you would like to try it sometime.”

“Love ta, but let’s figure out this explodin’ Sun thing first.”

After launch, Andy took a turn at the comm system, sending messages to her ships hidden in the Belt. “Two ships will meet us at Venus. The other is headed directly to the Artiplanet to see what’s happening there.”

“Be awkward showin’ up for a ride and them not opening the door,” Demarco said.

“The ship’s captain offered an even more awkward prospect,” she said. “What if they’ve already left?”

Late that night, Brooklyn sat alone in the Victory’s kitchen, working through a pot of Professor Yarrow’s special mushroom tea.

It was doing the job. It was difficult to interact with the Purple Lady when he was stone sober. Alcohol made it easier, but the tea really opened the gates.

“This is what you were tellin’ me about, ain’t it?” he said.

“I think so. It seems like something set now. A certainty.” She was wearing a cocktail dress. “As much as anything is.”

A guitar wail was coming from somewhere over her right shoulder. Something sad and lonely. Brooklyn blinked owlishly. The only thing behind her was a decidedly unmusical sink, but strange things happened when she was around.

“Will you make it?”

“Survive, you mean?” She didn’t wait for his nod. “I expect so. I’m in so many places now. If you could see an eighth of the things I’m watching at this moment, your mind would break.”

“Will we?”

She spread her hands helplessly. “Even if I knew, I don’t know what telling you would accomplish. What would you do if I said ‘yes’?”

“Ask you how.”

“But I don’t know how, and I wouldn’t want to mislead you. What would you do if I said ‘no’?”

“Accept it.”

“Really?”

He smirked. “Prob’ly not.”