Red Planet Run by Dana Stabenow Page B

gravity itself, and at the same time remain connected to us long enough to ensure that that same gravity had firmly captured the Kayak.
    The designers had saved on Delta-vee by making the command module a one-holer; I would have felt better if Crip had had at bare minimum a co-pilot. My subconscious reached out for a yoke, a throttle, a brake lever, rudder pedals—anything to make believe I was in even partial control of our descent.
    I wasn’t worried at all.
    There was no sound from the other side of the craft, so I didn’t know if the twins were worried or not. At this point, they would have cheerfully ripped their tongues out at the roots before they would have told me one way or another. I thought back to the scene around the galley table four weeks before.
    · · ·
     
    “How am I supposed to study astronomy from inside a balloon that is itself inside the distorting influence of a planetary atmosphere?” Paddy demanded. “I won’t have access to a telescope or star charts or Sam or anything else I really need!”
    “You know perfectly well that Mars’ atmosphere is barely worthy of the name,” I told her, “and we won’t be inside the balloon, we’ll be inside the gondola. As for the telescope and the charts, we each get a personal freight allowance. I’m sure you can find a telescope to fit within that allowance, and if you go over I’m willing to give you some of mine. As for Sam’s classes, if you ask I’m sure he’ll be glad to set up a course schedule for you. We can load it into the computer and your education will suffer no significant interruption. Pass the rice, please.”
    “And what about me?” Sean demanded. “I suppose Mars is just lousy with arable acreage and irrigation ditches? I suppose I write my botany thesis on the seven different species of Martian winter wheat?”
    “You’ll be too busy tending to our grocery list to do much writing. Your thesis will have to wait, and,” I added evenly, “considering where the study of botany and hydroponics has led you lately, a brief hiatus at this time seems appropriate.” If not imperative.
    They didn’t even have the grace to look ashamed. “You want to go to Mars, go!” Paddy cried.
    “Yeah, unlike you, Mom, we have lives here, not on Mars.”
    “You will shortly,” I said.
    “It’s not fair! I’m not going!”
    “I’m not either!”
    “Yes, you are.”
    “Mom!”
    “Why?” Sean said angrily. “Why do we have to go, too?”
    I chewed and swallowed, deliberately taking my time. “Because I say you’re going, and because I’m bigger, older, and tougher than you are, which means I can make it stick. We’re going to Mars. We’re leaving at the end of the month. Start packing.”
    For a moment I thought Paddy was going to throw her glass at me. For a moment I thought Sean was going to upend the entire table in my lap. If I’d known my announcement was going to start World War IV, I might have reconsidered.
    Mother cut across the ominous silence. “My very dears, why all this fuss? You are going to enjoy yourselves thoroughly, I assure you. Imagine, a whole new world to discover and explore. You’ll get to see the tallest volcano and the longest planetary rift valley in the System, you’ll have the ruins of the ancients to wander through.” She examined a lumpia closely for flaws. “Although, lacking the education and expertise of, say, someone of my background, you will naturally enough be unable to understand and appreciate them as they should be understood and appreciated.”
    “Why don’t you go with her, then,” Paddy muttered.
    “Perhaps because I was not invited, dear,” Mother replied in her most excruciatingly affable tone.
    “Natasha,” Crip said.
    She raised an eyebrow. “Is it possible, Crippen dear, that you are about to instruct me as to my behavior?” She smiled at him.
    Crip shot me a look that said clearly, You’re on your own, Star, and buried his face in his plate.
    “Star, just tell