"That burn is designated OAM-1," Peter continued. "The next burn occurs at the top of that orbit, seventy-one minutes later. The purpose of the burn is to change the inclination of our orbit from Padrugoi's 28.5-degree inclination to the Earth to the Moon's fivedegree inclination-so that we are in line with the Moon.

"That burn is designated OIM-2, orbital inclination maneuver two," Peter went on. He could feel Xiang's approval. He didn't dare reach for Johnny's yet. "Seventy-one minutes after that we will be back at our closest point to the Earth-"

"Where will Padrugoi be then?" Johnny asked quickly.

Peter had his answer ready. He'd done his homework. "Padrugoi will be at the same alt.i.tude but two hundred and twenty degrees away from us."

"Why?"

"Because our elliptical orbit takes longer to complete than Padrugoi's circular orbit. Padrugoi will have made a full orbit and nearly two-thirds of its next one before we're back down to the same alt.i.tude," Peter answered smoothly. He took a deep breath and continued. "At that point-if all systems are go-we will initiate our translunar orbit insertion and head out to the Moon. That burn will be TLI-3. Just short of five days from now-by 36.5 minutes-we will be on the far side of the Moon and initiate our lunar landing insertion burn, designated LLI-4. At that point, barring some short maneuvering burns to handle the effects of lunar ma.s.s concentrations, we'll be locked in for a landing at First Base fifty-nine minutes later."

"And how much fuel will be required?" Johnny asked, continuing the interrogation.

Peter refused to be rattled. The admiral had lectured him on fuel requirements often enough.

"Our propellant to payload ratio is 2.00," Peter said, "but because we also want to take the Limo with us, we have to provide fuel for it, too. So the total propellant ratio is 2.2l."

"And how much fuel should we have on board?"

Peter sensed a trick question. "Our fuel is liquid hydrogen, which we burn with liquid oxygen. We burn twice the volume of hydrogen as we do oxygen. Limo-34 Limo-34 in its current configuration ma.s.ses 2,203.5 kilograms, and our payload including crew and pa.s.sengers ma.s.ses 11,004 kilograms. Total final ma.s.s at First Base will be 13,207.5 kilograms. Or 13.2 metric tonnes. That will require 3,246 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and 25,968 kilograms of liquid oxygen." in its current configuration ma.s.ses 2,203.5 kilograms, and our payload including crew and pa.s.sengers ma.s.ses 11,004 kilograms. Total final ma.s.s at First Base will be 13,207.5 kilograms. Or 13.2 metric tonnes. That will require 3,246 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and 25,968 kilograms of liquid oxygen."

He glanced at his display "But we are carrying a ten percent fuel reserve that changes the fuel loading to 50.1 metric tonnes."

"What's Limo stand for?"

Peter grinned. "Lunar insertion, Moon orbit, sir."

Johnny allowed the silence that followed to stretch out uncomfortably but Peter knew he'd answered correctly and fully. "Sir, we are in position for OAM-1."

"Roger," Johnny said, "initiate OAM-1."

"Aye, sir," Peter said, aware that he had pa.s.sed the test. "Departure, this is Limo-34, Limo-34, we are go for OAM-1." we are go for OAM-1."

"Limo-34, OAM-1 at your discretion," Padrugoi Departure responded. OAM-1 at your discretion," Padrugoi Departure responded.

Peter let Limo-34's Limo-34's remaining five computers start OAM-1. remaining five computers start OAM-1.

When the shuttle's three main rocket engines fired off with a gentle kick, Peter added, "OAM-1 ."

"Roger, OAM-1 for Limo-34," Limo-34," Padrugoi Departure confirmed. Padrugoi Departure confirmed.

As soon as the engines shut down, Departure radioed back. "Our computers have you in the green on that burn, Limo-34 Limo-34."

Peter checked the shuttle's computers. He frowned, ran diagnostics on MPU Five, and said, "Computer five is voting against the solution, sir."

Johnny had followed Peter's diagnostics on his control panels. "I see."

Xiang Liu snorted. "That's why we carry six computers on board. They're always going down."

"Sir," Peter said, remembering his drills, "flight rules state that we report when we fall below five voting computers."

"If we tell them, Peter, we won't be going anywhere," Johnny replied at his drollest.

"Let me see if I can jog it back on-line," Lieutenant Liu offered. "And I'll look at MPU Two while I'm at it." He got out of his seat, graceful in free fall as he pulled himself over to the MPU control rack and started pulling off access panels.

"Good idea, Mr. Liu," Johnny agreed.

Peter was still uncomfortable. "Sir, I was told that there were no old, bold pilots."

Johnny snorted at Peter's re-rendering of the old saw: There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots.

"Mr. Reidinger," Johnny said, "we have seventy-one minutes until OIM-2. If we can't get one of the computers back by then, we'll abort the mission. In the meantime, I want you to stand watch while Mr. Liu and I troubleshoot these wonders of electronics provided to the s.p.a.ce station by the lowest bidder."

"Probably Russia," the copilot murmured, but only Peter heard him.

Xiang Liu managed to get MPU Five back on-line after jiggering with it for some minutes.

"Okay, now we'll be go for OIM-2," Johnny told Peter. "I'm going to head aft and suss out the rest of the crew and the pa.s.sengers."

Before he gave permission to unclip safety harnesses, Johnny gave the usual reminders about the hazards of free fall, the procedures to take in the event of nausea, and the action-reaction phenomenon. He advised the newbies to keep one hand on something. Anything a luminous pale blue was safe to grab. Peter quickly recognized who had traveled in s.p.a.ce before. The noncoms floated gracefully up and away from the safety seats; two of the j.a.panese army officers moved with equal facility and were encouraging their tentative and nervous comrade. The solar heating engineers, all civilians, were very cautious about moving at all: obviously the matter of action-reaction had been emphasized in their briefing for this journey.

Johnny checked readouts with the copilot and then a.s.signed watches. Sergeant Bat Singh and Corporal Gopal Ahn were getting crew pay on this leg of the journey and Peter was to get experience. Then Johnny called a coffee break.

"This your first time in s.p.a.ce, Reidinger?" one of the noncoms asked, watching Peter glide easily toward the galley while evading the clumsier movements of the engineers.

"I've done some EVA," Peter replied modestly, grinning. "Great feeling, being weightless."

"Not that you carry much," the sergeant remarked, eyeing Peter's light frame. Bat Singh had ma.s.sive shoulders, a heavy torso, and arms disproportionately long for his height.

"Wrestler?" Peter asked.

Bat Singh shrugged and nodded, pleased by the guess.

Just then one of the engineers vomited. Liu hurriedly slapped the access panel back over the control rack to prevent any further accidents occurring with the ship's computers.

"There's always one," Singh remarked in an undertone that only Peter was near enough to hear as the sergeant pushed off the side of the cabin to get a spew-bag.

The sicker was strapped into his bunk in the sleeping area where he was a.s.sured he would recover.

"What if I don't?" he asked anxiously as he was a.s.sisted aft.

"I haven't heard of anyone who hasn't," Bat Singh replied genially. "Not if you pa.s.sed phobics."

Peter was relieved of his watch by Xiang Liu who told him with a certain amount of disgust, "Those computers are always going down and I'm sick of babying 'em. Why don't you take a break? You did real good, Mister Mister Reidinger." He grinned as he gave the thumbsup of approval. "You can come back up for OIM-2." Reidinger." He grinned as he gave the thumbsup of approval. "You can come back up for OIM-2."

"Yes, sir," Peter said, happily floating toward the rear of the cabin.

The pa.s.sengers were all grouped around the ports, looking at Earth. Peter found himself following the Earth's geography and referencing the list of gestalt-capable generators at the same time. Let's see, he said to himself. Dhaka had the Ehrain Station, then Hong Kong, Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland, Midway, Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego all at once, followed by Denver, Dallas, Jerhattan, Miami, and Buenos Aires. Then there were no big stations until Europe. Peter hadn't worked with many but he'd seen pictures of the huge installation built by the CERN people in Geneva.

He did know that the nice people at the Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire had been the first to put together gestalt circuitry. They They were trying to understand how psychic powers worked in the physical world, so the gestalt was more of a scientific curiosity than a practicality for them. Peter remembered hearing Rhyssa comment once about how the CERN and FermiLab physicists were vying for the very small amount of research time the Eastern Parapsychic Center allotted for telekinetics. If Professor Gadriel had not had some minor telekinetic ability, that vital research might never have been as enthusiastically pursued. And Gadriel was always trying to get complete use-energy readings for his investigations-like those that Peter and Johnny had been generating for their Padrugoi contract. Peter made a note to contact the professor and see about giving him copies of the data. were trying to understand how psychic powers worked in the physical world, so the gestalt was more of a scientific curiosity than a practicality for them. Peter remembered hearing Rhyssa comment once about how the CERN and FermiLab physicists were vying for the very small amount of research time the Eastern Parapsychic Center allotted for telekinetics. If Professor Gadriel had not had some minor telekinetic ability, that vital research might never have been as enthusiastically pursued. And Gadriel was always trying to get complete use-energy readings for his investigations-like those that Peter and Johnny had been generating for their Padrugoi contract. Peter made a note to contact the professor and see about giving him copies of the data.

It seemed like five minutes, not the sixty-five that had really pa.s.sed, when Johnny hailed Peter back to the c.o.c.kpit.

"I think you've had enough excitement for your first flight," Johnny said. "I just want you to observe the next couple of burns."

Peter grinned. "That's fine with me, sir." He strapped himself back into the engineer's seat and walked through the OIM-2 preburn checklist.

In his mind, Peter called up the carefully memorized schematics of the Limo's construction. Limo-34 Limo-34, part of the three-oh series, was the fourth of its cla.s.s completely a.s.sembled at Padrugoi. The Limo one-oh series had been mostly a.s.sembled on Earth, with only bolt-together occurring in orbit. The Limo two-oh series crafts were about 70 percent complete when brought up from Earth.

Because they had never had to be lifted from Earth as nearly completed craft, the Limo three-ohs looked the least like a traditional s.p.a.cecraft than anything since the Lunar Module of ancient Apollo days. For all of that, Limo three-oh still bore a striking resemblance of plan to the US s.p.a.ce Shuttle-but stretched.

The long cargo compartment was almost exactly twice the length of the old s.p.a.ce Shuttle's cargo compartment because it was constructed from the original s.p.a.ce Shuttle tool-and-die set. There were no wings because they were not needed; Limo was never intended to reenter the Earth's atmosphere. At the rear of the lengthened cargo bays, where the wings might have been mounted, there were instead the s.p.a.cecraft's fuel tanks. Stubby landing pads were located under the fuel tanks-with the forward pair sticking out from the front of the crew compartment. Instead of the black heat tiles and white heatresistant felt covering, the Limo gleamed all over with protective gold Mylar covering. The forward compartment was a modified version of the s.p.a.ce Shuttle shirtsleeve crew section-nearly half again the length-and there were three EVA airlocks.

The Limo didn't require the three huge s.p.a.ce Shuttle Main Engines and that, right there, saved a lot of ma.s.s. For its engines, Limo-34 Limo-34 had two OMS kits...o...b..tal ManeuveringSystems-at the rear and a series of maneuvering thrusters on the ship's nose. The OMS kits were another s.p.a.ce Shuttle hand-me-down and included both the large 26.7-kilo Newton thrusters and a series of smaller maneuvering ones. And the Limo did not need a tail. Instead, the designers had mounted an antenna array in the same spot. As a safety precaution, the Limo designers had made the entire rear section of the Limo-tanks, antennae, OMS, and all-to be ejectable. had two OMS kits...o...b..tal ManeuveringSystems-at the rear and a series of maneuvering thrusters on the ship's nose. The OMS kits were another s.p.a.ce Shuttle hand-me-down and included both the large 26.7-kilo Newton thrusters and a series of smaller maneuvering ones. And the Limo did not need a tail. Instead, the designers had mounted an antenna array in the same spot. As a safety precaution, the Limo designers had made the entire rear section of the Limo-tanks, antennae, OMS, and all-to be ejectable.

"Of course," as Lieutenant Liu had remarked to Peter when he had explained this feature months ago during his training, "all you'd have left then is enough life support to keep you alive until you could get to the life pods and enough maneuvering thrusters to stop the ship from tumbling. If you were lucky."

Peter didn't need Xiang Liu to tell him that any crew that had to jettison their propulsion system was quite obviously not not lucky. lucky.

While the first burn, OAM- 1, had required only 76 percent of full power for just a little over a second-and a thrust of a bit more than a tenth of standard gravity, OIM-2 would require the Limo's two main engines to use 95 percent of full power for nearly two seconds-but again at the same thrust.

The burn went perfectly. Except that MPU Five and One both went out.

"What is it with these things?" Liu muttered angrily under his breath, as he pulled the two failed units off-line and opened the access panel to them. It took him the better part of half an hour before he got MPU One back on-line. He spent the next thirty minutes working with Bat Singh as they tried to troubleshoot MPU Five.

"Computers report high oxygen readings," Peter told Johnny.

"Accept their change," Johnny said. "They reported the same problem about half an hour ago and I took their advice. We're feeling no pain, are we?"

Peter had to agree. He yawned. Maybe the stress of the mission was beginning to get to him.

"Liu, Singh, cover up that access panel and get into position. We're coming up on TLI-3," Johnny ordered. "After that we'll coast on up to good ol' Luna for five days and drop ourselves in on Colonel Watari." He switched on the Limo's intercom and called the pa.s.sengers. "Everyone strapped in back there?"

When he got no response, Johnny sent Sergeant Singh back to check up. The sergeant came back in a few minutes with a big grin on his face. He yawned hugely for a moment, then excused himself. "Sorry, sir. Everyone back there is all netted into their bunks and asleep."

"Can't blame them," Johnny said. "Pa.s.sengers usually crash about now-although they tend to gawk down at Earth until TLI."

"Three minutes until TLI-3," Lieutenant Liu reported.

Peter checked his engineering panel again. "Computers are reporting that the oxygen levels have crept back up."

Johnny yawned and nodded. "I see it. I'm correcting it."

Oxygen levels were very special in s.p.a.ce. The Limo's environmental control system regulated oxygen by partial pressure. On Earth, while total air pressure was one standard atmosphere, oxygen made up only 21 percent of the air and so the partial pressure was 21 percent of one standard atmosphere. In s.p.a.ce, rather than building s.p.a.cecraft capable of handling Earth's standard atmosphere, a lower pressure was used with a correspondingly higher percentage of oxygen so that astronauts could have the same amount of oxygen.

Fires consumed oxygen when they burned and a fire in pure oxygen could burn much hotter and faster than the same fire in a standard atmosphere. Until the Apollo 1 Apollo 1 disaster-when one such disastrous pure-oxygen fire in the Apollo capsule had claimed the lives of three astronauts-the United States had used a pure-oxygen system. Afterward, to avoid such disasters, the US switched to a mix of oxygen with just enough nitrogen to prevent explosive fires. disaster-when one such disastrous pure-oxygen fire in the Apollo capsule had claimed the lives of three astronauts-the United States had used a pure-oxygen system. Afterward, to avoid such disasters, the US switched to a mix of oxygen with just enough nitrogen to prevent explosive fires.

If the oxygen pressure got too high, it could cause euphoria and loss of concentration as well as damage to nerves, especially eyes. If the oxygen pressure got too low, the astronauts could be asphyxiated.

s.p.a.ceflight was still a tricky and expensive proposition. Because of that, any s.p.a.cecraft on any flight was subject to intense scrutiny. Since the days of the US s.p.a.ce Shuttle, there had been ways to keep in contact with ground stations regardless of the shuttle's position above Earth, and in modern times, those methods had been considerably improved. Tracking Data Relay Satellites, or TDRSs, ringed Earth and provided continuous telemetry and communication between s.p.a.cecraft, Padrugoi, and Earth.

Limo-34, by virtue of its crew and mission, was subject to even more scrutiny than most.

Commander Sakai had made special arrangements to get a data feed to his console and had monitored all the problems the Limo had experienced.

While he had followed many Limos in their flights to the Moon, there was something about this one that bothered him. He couldn't put his finger on it, at least not enough to call it to General Greene's attention or suggest to Admiral Coetzer that the mission be scrubbed, but there was something. He scratched his head, trying to make sense of it.

"You know, we're being watched," Johnny said with a laugh.

"Watched like a hawk."

Lieutenant Liu nodded. "All the time. Corning up on TLI in thirty seconds."

"Committing TLI parameters to the computer," Johnny said. "Now all we have to do is sit back and relax." He turned to Peter. "Pretty soon you'll be able to walk around the old Apollo 12 Apollo 12 site. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump from First Base, you know." site. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump from First Base, you know."

Peter spent a moment recalling pictures of the Apollo 12 Memorial Park. He had enlargements up on the board in his room. He'd watched the tour videos, too. He felt a thrill as he imagined being being there himself: the kid who'd never once thought he'd get out of the d.a.m.ned hospital bed. You never knew, did you? there himself: the kid who'd never once thought he'd get out of the d.a.m.ned hospital bed. You never knew, did you?

"You know," Bat Singh said to no one in particular, startling Peter with almost his exact thoughts. "Either I could use some sleep myself or I could use a beer."

RHYSSA! Amalda Vaden's sharp cry jolted Rhyssa out of a deep sleep. Amalda Vaden's sharp cry jolted Rhyssa out of a deep sleep. Something's wrong. With Peter. Something's wrong. With Peter.

In the Eastern Parapsychic Center alarms blared suddenly, alerting everyone on duty.

What is it? Rhyssa demanded of both Mallie Vaden and Budworth, the watch officer. Rhyssa demanded of both Mallie Vaden and Budworth, the watch officer.

The precogs! They've got something, Budworth replied. I've got five corroborations, all strong. I've got five corroborations, all strong.

What? Rhyssa shot back, willing Mallie, the strongest precog that she had set on watch for anything involving Peter, to answer. Rhyssa shot back, willing Mallie, the strongest precog that she had set on watch for anything involving Peter, to answer.

Fire in the sky. They all see a huge fire in the sky, said Budworth. said Budworth.

So did I, and there was a profound sorrow in Mallie's mental tone. and there was a profound sorrow in Mallie's mental tone.

Fire in the sky? Peter? Oh my G.o.d! Peter! Fire in the sky!

Confounded by Limo-34's Limo-34's telemetry, Commander Sakai leaned back in his chair, stretched, and indulged in a good yawn. He forced his mouth shut halfway through and arched out of the chair, punching up telemetry, Commander Sakai leaned back in his chair, stretched, and indulged in a good yawn. He forced his mouth shut halfway through and arched out of the chair, punching up Limo-34's Limo-34's frequency. frequency.

"Limo-34, Limo-34, declare an emergency," he yelled into his headset. declare an emergency," he yelled into his headset.

"Oxygen levels are going back up again." Johnny swore as he did a final scan of the control panels just before the computers commenced the TLI-3 b.u.m. "That can't be right."

"Well, the computers all agree," the copilot replied, "the levels are too low."

"They don't feel low," Johnny said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

Peter yawned again, his cheeks tingling.

"Limo-34, Limo-34, declare an emergency," the voice of Commander Sakai blared over their headsets. declare an emergency," the voice of Commander Sakai blared over their headsets.