“But they didn’t find out about it until they were deep in the Belt,” Stavenger said. George added, “And now they’re sailing into a fookin’ radiation storm without a shield.”

“This could become a murder,” Stavenger said. “Four murders.”

Cardenas bit her lip and nodded.

“And Humphries was behind this scheme,” Stavenger said. It was a statement, not a question.

“He wanted Randolph’s mission to fail.”

“Why?”

“Ask him.”

“He’s a major investor in the project. Why would he want it to fail?”

“Ask him,” she repeated.

“I intend to,” said Stavenger. “He’s already on his way here.” As if on cue, Stavenger’s phone chimed. “Mr. Humphries here to see you,” said the phone’s synthesized voice.

“Send him in,” Stavenger said, touching the stud on the rim of his desk that opened the door.

George stood aside, clearly glowering through his beard as Humphries walked in. Humphries looked at Cardenas, half turned in her chair, then at Stavenger. With a slight shrug he took the other chair in front of the desk. “What’s this all about?” he asked casually as he sat down. “What’s going on?”

“It’s about attempted murder,” Stavenger said.

“Murder?”

“Four people are caught in a solar storm out in the Belt without a working radiation shield.”

“Dan Randolph, you mean.” Humphries almost smiled. “That’s just like him, barging ahead like a bull in a china shop.”

Stavenger bristled. “You didn’t get Dr. Cardenas here to seed Randolph’s ship with gobblers?”

“Gobblers?”

“Nanomachines. Disassemblers.”

Humphries glanced at Cardenas, then said to Stavenger, “I asked Dr. Cardenas if there was any way that Randolph’s ship could be… er; disabled slightly. Just enough to get him to turn back and abort his flight to the Belt.” Cardenas started to reply, but Stavenger said heatedly, “If they die — if any one of them dies — I’ll have you arraigned for premeditated murder.” Humphries actually smiled at Stavenger. “That’s so far-fetched it’s ludicrous.”

“Is it?”

“I had Randolph’s ship sabotaged so he would abort his flight and come back to Selene. I admit to that. Any sane man would have turned around and headed for home as soon as he found the sabotage. But not Randolph! He pushed on anyway, knowing that his radiation shield was damaged. That’s his decision, not mine. If there’s a crime in this, it’s Randolph committing suicide and taking his crew with him.”

Stavenger barely held on to his composure. His fists clenched, he asked through gritted teeth, “And just why did you want to sabotage his ship?”

“So the stock in Astro Corporation would drop, why else? It was a business decision.”

“Business.”

“Yes, business. I want Astro; the lower its stock, the easier for me to buy it up. Dr. Cardenas here wanted her grandchildren. I offered to get her together with them in exchange for a pinch of nanomachines.”

“Gobblers,” Stavenger said.

“They weren’t programmed to harm anyone,” Cardenas protested. “They were specifically set to attack the copper compound of the superconductor, nothing more.”

“My father was killed by gobblers,” Stavenger said, his voice as cold and sharp as an icepick. “Murdered.”

“That’s ancient history,” Humphries scoffed. “Please don’t bring your family baggage into this.”

Visibly restraining himself, Stavenger stared at Humphries for a long, silent moment. Electricity crackled through the office. George decided that if Stavenger came around the desk and started beating up on Humphries, he would keep the door closed and prevent anyone from coming to the bastard’s aid. At last Stavenger seemed to win his inner struggle. He took a shuddering breath, then said in a low, seething voice, “I’m turning this matter over to Selene’s legal department. Neither of you will be allowed to leave Selene until their investigation is finished.”

“You’re going to put us on trial?” Cardenas asked.

“If it were up to me,” Stavenger said, “I’d put the two of you into leaky spacesuits and drive you out into the middle of Mare Nubium and leave you there.” Humphries laughed. “I’m glad you’re not a judge. And, by the way, Selene has no capital punishment, does it?”

“Not yet,” Stavenger growled. “But if we get a few more people like you here, we’ll probably change our laws on that point.”

Humphries got to his feet. “You can threaten all you like, but I don’t think your courts will take this as personally as you are.”

With that, he strode to the door. George stepped aside and let him open it for himself. He noticed that there was a thin sheen of perspiration on Humphries’s upper lip as he left the office.

The instant the door closed again, Cardenas broke into sobs. Half doubled over in her chair, she buried her face in her hands.

Stavenger’s icy composure melted. “Kris… how could you do it? How could you let him…” He stopped and shook his head.

Without looking up at him, Cardenas said in a tear-choked voice, “I was angry, Doug. Angrier than you can know. Angrier than I myself knew.”

“Angry? At Randolph?”

“No. At them. The crazies who let this greenhouse cliff ruin the world. The fanatics who’ve exiled us, who won’t let me come to Earth to see my children, my grandchildren. And they won’t come here, not even for a visit. I wanted to punish them, get even with them.”

“By killing Randolph?”

“Dan’s trying to help them,” she said, looking up at him at last, her face streaked with tears. “I don’t want them helped! They made this mess. They shut me out of their lives. Let them stew in their own juices! They deserve whatever they get.” Stavenger shook his head, bewildered. He handed Cardenas a tissue and she dabbed at her reddened eyes.

“I’m going to recommend that you be placed under house arrest, Kris. You’ll be able to go anywhere in Selene except the nanotech lab.” She nodded wordlessly.

“And Humphries?” George asked, still standing by the door. “Same thing, I suppose. But he’s right, the smug slimebag. We don’t have capital punishment; we don’t even have a jail here in Selene.”

“House arrest for him would be a lark,” George said.

Stavenger looked disgusted. But then his chin came up and his eyes brightened.

“Unless we take it out on his wallet.”

“Huh?”

With a slow smile spreading across his youthful face, Stavenger said, “If he’s found guilty of murder, or even attempted murder, maybe the court can divest him of his share of Starpower and keep him from taking over Astro Corporation.” George huffed. “I’d rather punch his ribs in.”

“So would I,” Stavenger admitted. “But I think he’d rather have his ribs punched in than to have to give up Astro and Starpower.”

HAVEN

“There it is,” Pancho sang out. “How’s that for navigation?”

Dan crouched slightly behind the command chair and peered through the window. The asteroid was visible to their naked eyes now against the distant glow of the Sun’s zodiacal light, a dumbbell-shaped dark mass tumbling slowly end over end. Fuchs stood beside Dan, his hands on the back of Amanda’s chair.

“It’s two bodies in contact,” he said. “Like Castallia and several others.”

“Looks like a peanut,” said Dan.

“A peanut made of rock,” Pancho said.

“No, no,” Fuchs corrected, “a peanut made up of thousands of little stones, chondrules, that are barely holding together in their very weak mutual gravitational attraction.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Look, you can see craters on the surface.”

Dan strained his eyes. How in hell can he see craters on that black slug in this dim lighting?

“They have no rims,” Fuchs went on, talking fast in his excitement. “Smaller objects have collided with the asteroid but they don’t make impact craters as they would on a solid body. They simply burrow into the loose rubble.”