Free Wildcatter by Dave Duncan Page A

it.”
    Hanna smiled. “I know you are. Now come along. We saved some chili for you.”
    He straightened his legs, but continued to float. “Wait. You’re rooming with JC just now.”
    Green eyes glinted. “Platonically, of course.”
    He couldn’t resist the opening: “You mean he’s impotent?”
    “No, I do not! Don’t you ever think of anything else but lust?”
    “I just spent ten hours without doing so, and the strain is telling. I’m told that in JC’s stateroom there is a table with a thick top but no drawer.”
    She waited, studying him. “And?”
    “I suspect a secret drawer. I’d like to know what’s in it.”
    “You want me to spy for you?”
    “Yes, please.”
    “I wouldn’t dream of it. What do you think he’s got in there?”
    “Weapons.”
    “No.” Hanna pushed out of the chair and floated over to the door. “Come to supper…”
    He caught her arm. “First tell me what he does have hidden in there.”
    “Porn,” she said, turning away to hide her blush. “And stiffener.”
     
    * * *
     
    There was plenty of chili left. Seth took the whole pot plus a spoon and went into the control room. Everyone else was there, gathered around the console table. Above their dirty dishes floated Cacafuego, ballooned to about two meters. Half lit, half dark.
    He was greeted with welcoming smiles from all except Reese, who despised people who ate out of cooking pots, which was probably why Seth was doing it.
    “Hanna tells us you can land on the planet!” JC boomed.
    Seth nodded with his mouth full and sat down. He didn’t mention how risky it would be. Maria filled up her empty glass with red wine and pushed it over to him.
    Between mouthfuls of chili he said, “What’s new?”
    “It’s mid-July in the northern hemisphere,” she said. “Roughly, it is. We’re calling that side north; it’s pretty arbitrary in this system. But the axis is still pointing almost directly at the star, so the other hemisphere is in darkness.”
    “Overall it’s a hot world,” Jordan said. “Permanent ice on most equatorial landmasses; a lot more ice in the southern hemisphere, but that’s seasonal. That big island near the north pole—JC’s named it Greenland—is reading more than fifty degrees Celsius in the shade.”
    Reese next: “And the only shade is under trees, if there are any trees. Unending sunshine for about half the year; humidity close to a hundred percent. Oh, the biota that baby must have!”
    Jordan called for a map. The globe projection became cartographic, with green, brown, or white lands in a uniform blue ocean, names in black. Clouds and the day-night distinction vanished. About a third of the southern hemisphere had not yet been visible to Golden Hind’s sensors, and remained blank. Most of the world was ocean, more than Seth would have expected—he would have to ask Maria about that. Small equatorial ice caps were starkly obvious.
    Voices began arguing about landing sites, gloating over the prospect like children in a toy store. They were all assuming that the shuttle could meet its design parameters, going downside twice, visiting four sites each time. Seth knew otherwise.
    He must catch some sleep before he was due on watch. He finished the last of the chili, drained the wine, and began collecting plates. When he tried to take Reese’s glass, the astrobiologist grabbed it away from him and pulled the bottle to safety too.
    “This happens to be a perfect Feigned 2223 Chateau Lavoir classic Bordeaux! It cost hours of simulation. It is to be sipped and savored, not swigged like some ghastly cola.” Even Reese was rarely so bitchy. The knowledge that he might have to go downside on an allegedly killer planet must be working on his nerves.
    Seth shrugged. “It all comes out of the recycler. I pissed it four days ago.” He was letting the sneers get to him, but in his case that was due to excitement, not fear. The difference was quite obvious, at least to