She watched the Earth First cops begin a search. Hudson would have his papers in order, of course assuming the cops even recognized the spacecraft. Presently they drifted back. Still the desert roared and black smoke drifted, and still there were no arrests.

Now the cops got back into their van; the teens argued, then got in, too. The van drove off. Minutes later, the Green car followed.

How the hell did they work that?

And where did it leave Captain Lee Arteria?

Sanity check: they were still liquefying hydrogen and oxygen. They had come to see Phoenix … possibly they'd had contingency plans, but they'd come to see Phoenix first, and what they saw must have looked like a working spacecraft. Crazy amateurs… but they had Gary Hudson to tell them whether Phoenix was in any way crippled, and they'd judged Hudson sane.

They were planning to launch.

They were still gathering. The grandest gathering of pro-technology buffs ever to pour jet-engine roar and hot kerosene exhaust into clean desert air was still gathering. Fuel and oxydizer, the stranded dipper pilots as passengers, maybe Hudson himself as pilot… what else did they need? Cargo? That's what the fans were up to, all that weird stuff!Cargo for the space habitats! There had been a lot of stuff, boxes, paper bags, at least one cooler. Course programming: they must have that solved. Copies of the programs stored away. So. What else would they need to launch?

Lee Arteria smiled. Yes!

BILLINGS, TELL COLONEL MURPHY THAT WE'RE ABOUT

TO MAKE THE MOST IMPORTANT ARREST OF THE DECADE.

BOTH SPACEMEN PLUS THE WHOLE NETWORK THAT SMUGGLED THEM ACROSS THE COUNTRY. USAF AND OSI WILL GET EVERY BIT OF THE CREDIT.

TELL HIM TO HANG ON FOR THREE MORE DAYS AND WE'RE SET. THIS WILL GET HIM A BRIGADIER'S STARS. NOT TO MENTION PROMOTIONS FOR YOU AND ME.

ARTERIA

They only turned on the lights in the hangar when they had to, and never at night. The lighted windows must be visible for tens of miles. It was near dusk, and the daylight through the windows was dimming, but Harry Czescu and Bob Needleton continued to move cargo. "Sarge" Workman helped for awhile, but he was the only jet mechanic they had, and they needed him to keep the turbo expander working properly. Gordon joined them, got tired and quit.

Nothing was large, nothing was heavy. They climbed about within the cabin space, tethering everything with lightweight nylon cord. Heavier stuff on the bottom, then sturdy metal cages. Guinea pigs and guinea hens and rabbits expressed anxiety in their diverse fashions.

"Make sure you don't cover up the front of the cage," Bob said. They need air."

"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs…"

A net would cover everything once it was all in place. The paper in the cages would come out just before they closed up the Phoenix. Or maybe not. The cages stank, but after all, organics were organics…

Another load in place. Back out, and down to ground level. Harry lit a cigarette. He was just about the only one on Thunder Ridge who smoked. He took two puffs and inched off the end, put the butt back in the package. "OK, do we want to glue the mat in now? Or wait?"

Bob didn't answer.

"Lighten up, Pins. Nobody thinks--" Harry looked up. "Hi, Sherry, C.C. Alex, they brought you an exercise mat."

"Hi, Harry." C.C. rubbed his hands together briskly. "Okay. What can we give up? Alex, those mice are gengineered to produce juvenile growth hormones. That'd let the Angels grow their bones back, right?"

"That's what I'm told," Alex said.

"You need the seeds a lot, the guinea pigs and guinea hens and rabbits not as much. The diet supplements, of course. No bull semen, to bowdlerize a phrase. Sausage packed in dry ice?"

"Sausage, no. Eat it before we take off, if it's that good and won't keep. Dry ice, hell no. Carbon we want, but oxygen comes almost free from lunar rock. Did anyone think of sending lamp black?"

C.C. ran his eyes down the list. "I don't think so. I'll see what we can get when. How badly do you want these metals? And the honeycomb blocks? They re heavy."

"It's not really my department, C.C."

"Alex, you and Gordon are the only ones who can make these choices. And five passengers… Where the hell is Gordon?"

Alex waved toward the shadows where he had seen Gordon with Jenny Trout. "I told him we needed him, but--"

Bob Needleton said, "I confess I do not see why the fifth wheel has to be me." His ears and nose were noticeably pink.

Alex said, "Gordon. Sherrine. Hudson. Me. You. Shall I take the exercise mat?"

Bob was having trouble pulling the words out. "We pulled you off the Ice. The rest are gone. There's only me and Sherrine left--"

Alex said, "Hold it."

"Hold it, my foot. You and Sherrine have been--"

"You wanted to know, Bob. Sherrine had the right to know. Sherrine has to go into space because I slept with the Commander's wife."

Needleton gaped, then, grinned. "We-ell. That's a better story than I expected."

'Well, it's true. Sherrine doesn't go, the Station Commander says he won't pick me up. Maybe you can live with that, but I won't volunteer to stay. I won't."

Bob looked at Sherrine. "All right--"

"He already told me."

"I didn't ask, Sherry. But why not six? Gordon's got a woman, too. What are we going to give up for Barbara? Dammit, where the hell is Gordon?"

Two voices echoed oddly, as if the entire hangar space had answered--"

"Wanted fan on Chthon and Sparta and the Hub's ten million stars,

Wanted fan for singing silly in a thousand spaceport bars.

If it's what we really want, we'll build a starship when we can;

If I could just make orbit then I'd be a wanted fan."

"Enough of this," Alex said. "Excuse me." He walked toward were Jenny and Gordon were leafing through notes, nodding, singing:

"Wanted fan for building spacecraft, wanted fan for dipping air,

Sending microwave transmissions, building habitats up there.

Oh the glacier caught us last time; next time we'll try to land!

And when Ice is conquered, it will be by wanted fans!"

Jenny said "Gordon, that's nice. A little premature, maybe, hi, Alex, even a little overoptimistic--"

"Hi, Jenny. Gordon, we're deciding your fate while you play. This is how you came here in the first place, remember?"

"And this is why I stay," Gordon said. "That verse I wrote for you, Alex. And when the stars are conquered, it will be by wanted fans!"

Alex became aware that the others had followed him. He said, "Gordon?"

"I am stilyagin, Alex. Nothing has changed. But there is room for poets here, and novelists, and I can always catch the next flight with Hudson's wife. My voice is needed here. I stay. Four seats, four passengers. Tell my family I kiss them from below. No, let me word that again," he said, while Sherrine and Bob and Gary Hudson looked at each other. "Wait, now--"

Sherrine took Alex's arm and led him into the shadows. She said, "Do you see what I see?"

"Oh, sure. If the Phoenix went up missing me and Gordon, it'd be a disaster. Lonny couldn't be voted dog catcher. So you don't have to come, but why don't you come anyway? Please?"

Sherrine smiled. "Okay."

"Stop toying with my affections and give me a straight answer."

"I'll come if I have to sit in your lap. Now we need to finish loading. Alex, didn't you say you didn't want the plastic corn?"

"Yeah. I appreciate the work that went into getting it, but we don't need plastic that much and we've got better use for the soil, and it doesn't even breed!"