Free Red Planet Run by Dana Stabenow Page B

original station as well, get it all done with at once.”
    “Is Terranova going to sit still for a slowdown in World production?” Maggie asked. “Or, God forbid, an interruption in ore delivery, while Outpost adds on?”
    I looked at Helen, who everyone seemed to have forgotten was there. “We’ll start it up and tell them about it after, the way we usually do,” I said. “We’re on the spot, we know what’s needed. If the work on Outpost begins to interfere with World production or ore shipment, hire on temps.”
    “With what?”
    “With what we always hire them on with.” Simon made a gesture that vaguely indicated a geodome down the rim from us. “A walk in Central Park.” He hooked a thumb in the opposite direction. “A kilo of Outpost Kona Coffee.” He waved his hands in the air in an all-inclusive gesture. “Free membership in the Outpost library.”
    “Free?” I said with revulsion.
    “Get John some of that long rice, Star,” Charlie purred. “I don’t think he’s tried it yet.” She leaned around me. “Doesn’t Star look nice in blue, John? That shade matches her eyes perfectly, don’t you think?”
    “Pretty good all right,” John, who was no dummy, said through stiff lips.
    “The League of Saint Joseph’s talking strike,” Ari said desperately.
    Simon swore. “We just gave those damn riggers their third raise in eighteen months. What do they want, blood?”
    “I think they want to stay home and have us mail them their checks.”
    The evening was almost saved when Charlie brought out coffee and the chocolate cheese mousse. She must have spent the last week down in the galley. The mousse was topped with whipped cream and a piece of bittersweet chocolate. When the first spoonful slid over my tongue, my irritation began to fade, and with the last bite I relaxed. Charlie might live to see morning after all.
    Whereupon Charlie batted her eyelashes at John, whose expression indicated he was hoping for a massive explosive decompression event anywhere on Outpost, preferably within the next thirty seconds. “I don’t know if I happened to mention it, John, but the twins are staying here tonight.”
    Charlie was saved only from certain death by the door sliding back and a breathless Renee Rothschild erupting into the room. “Star!”
    Her alarm pulled me to my feet. “What?” Visions of the carnage at Dock 4 ran through my head. “What’s wrong?”
    She paused, panting. “Brother Moses is down at Piazzi City, calling for your head.”
    I looked at her, around the room. “So what else is new?”
    There were a few chuckles, but Renee wasn’t smiling. “It’s not funny, Star; they’ve got weapons on their sleds and they’re rounding up as many crazies as they can get to come up here and kill you!”
    Blankly, I said, “Why?”
    She looked me straight in the eye and said earnestly, “He’s green, and he says you did it.”
    Surely I hadn’t heard right. “He’s what?”
    She lost patience with me. “He’s green! Brother Moses is green!”
    I stared at her. She was dead serious. I couldn’t help it, I started to laugh.
    “No, Star, I mean he’s really green —skin, teeth, beard, and everything in between—and Nora at Maggie’s says everything in between, if you know what she means.” She added, “It might just be reflection, but I think the whites of his eyes are going next. Everyone who’s eaten or drunk anything on 55Pandora during the past week, all of them are turning green. Brother Moses says it has to be you trying to discredit his congregation. He says this has to be how you’re getting back at him for the Save the Rocks League’s interference with the latest ore shipments.”
    I gaped at her stupidly and she grabbed me and shook me. “Star, I’m telling you Brother Moses is down there arming for Armageddon! You’ve got to do something!”
    Somewhere deep inside, a penny rolled down a chute and dropped with a firm, solid click into the right slot.