The getaway special Read Online Free PDF Page B

auto industry in the stock market and lost."
    Carl reddened, and Judy wondered if he was one of those people. He didn't let it derail his argument, though. He dismissed it with a wave of his hand and said, "You got lucky. This time there's a lot more at stake."
    He glanced reproachfully at Judy as well. Before Allen could respond, she said, "Don't look at me that way. There's careful dissemination and there's suppression. The military wanted full suppression, and there's no way I'd go along with that."
    "You don't know what they wanted," Carl said.
    "Wanna bet?"
    Allen said, "Look, you're both missing the point. Humanity isn't some homogeneous mass that reacts like this or like that when something happens to it. It's a bunch of individual people, living individual lives. Trying to manipulate their reactions to something is ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous; it's fascist."
    "Oh, so now I'm a fascist Luddite?" Carl glanced out the windows, then back at Allen, who turned back to his computer and tapped another instruction into the program that analyzed the data from their previous jumps.
    "That's what it sounds like to me," he replied.
    Carl snorted contemptuously and reached for a handhold to pull himself closer to Allen. "Listen here, mister physicist. I'm probably a bigger proponent of freedom and technology than you are. That's why this business has me so upset; I can see what's going to happen to the space program from here on out."
    "Why should you be upset?" Allen asked.
    "Because it's going to die, that's why! People aren't going to spend money on space stations and orbiting colonies when they can zip off to Alpha Centauri on a wish and a prayer."
    "Hmmm," Allen said, scratching his chin. "I never looked at it quite that way, but even so, I really don't think—"
    "That's the problem! You really don't think. You're so hot for glory that you can't be bothered to consider—"
    "Carl."
    He glanced over at Judy, and the look in his eyes made her glad he was clear across the flight deck from her. Still, she didn't want him around Allen anymore, either.
    "I want you to inventory the consumables. We don't know how long we're going to be out here, so we need to figure out how long we can stretch it before we run out of food and air." Allen turned toward her. "Don't worry, I'll get us back before we run out of anything. I'm just about to start the calibration runs."
    "And then how long before we can get back into the right orbit for a rescue mission, and how long before they can send a rescue mission?" Judy asked him. "No, we're going to start conserving now, while it will do the most good."
    "I—"
    "Save it, Allen. Carl, go below and do the inventory."
    Carl looked as if he wanted to protest, but apparently he wasn't ready to add mutiny to the list of troubles he imagined awaiting him back on Earth. "Aye aye, Captain," he said sarcastically, but he shoved away from Allen and pulled himself headfirst through the hatchway in the floor. When he was gone, Allen said, "I meant it; the calibration shouldn't take more than another couple of hours, and once I've done that I could put us back in orbit in no time. Of course, as long as we're out here, we could just as easily do a grand tour of the planets."
    They could, couldn't they? See the whole solar system in one mission. Somewhat reluctantly, Judy said, "I don't know if that's such a good idea."
    "You too?"
    She unbuckled her seatbelt and floated closer to him. "I don't know what to think. I think Carl's overreacting, but he does have a point. We may be moving too fast here. It could be too much for people to adapt to all at once."
    "We've already demonstrated what we can do," Allen said. "The question now is whether we take advantage of it ourselves or let someone else."
    "That may be a good enough reason to slow down. Leave something for the next people to do. We don't want to look greedy." She looked at his notebook computer Velcroed to the workstation. The lettering was nearly