Free Nemesis by Isaac Asimov Page B

these things.”
    (Marlene thought: Because I’m only fifteen, and you’re used to thinking I’m a child.)
    Aloud, she said, “You learn a lot watching people.”
    “Yes, but remember what I told you. Control the watching.”
    (Never.) “So Mr. Pitt persuaded you.”
    “He made me see there’d be no harm in waiting awhile.”
    “And you weren’t even curious to study Nemesis and see exactly where it was going? You would have to be.”
    “I was, but it’s not as easy as you think. The Observatory is in constant use. You have to wait your turn to use the instruments. Even if I’m the head, I can’t use them freely. Then, too, when someone does use them, there’s no secret about it. We know what it’s being used for and why. There was very little chance I would be able to develop a really detailed spectrum of Nemesis and of the Sun, or to use the Observatory computer on the necessary calculations, without people knowing at once what I was doing. I suspect that Pitt had a few people in the Observatory watching me, too. If I had stepped out of line, he would have known at once.”
    “He couldn’t do anything to you about it, could he?”
    “He couldn’t have me shot for treason if that’s what you mean—not that he’d dream of doing such a thing—but he could relieve me of my Observatory duties and put me to work in the farms. I wouldn’t want that. It wasn’t long after I’d had that little talk with Pitt that we discovered that Nemesis had a planet—or a companion star. To this day, we’re not sure what to call it. They were only separated by a distance of four million kilometers and the companion object didn’t radiate in visible light at all.”
    “You’re talking about Megas, aren’t you, Mother?”
    “Yes, I am. It’s an old word meaning ‘big’ and, for a planet, it’s very big, considerably bigger than the Solar System’s largest planet, Jupiter. But it’s very small for a star. Some think of Megas as a brown dwarf.” She broke off and eyed her daughter narrowly, as though suddenly uncertain as to her capacity to absorb matters. “Do you know what a brown dwarf is, Molly?”
    “Marlene is my name, Mother.”
    Insigna flushed slightly. “Yes. I’m sorry if I forget now and then. I can’t help it, you know. I had a very dear little girl once whose name was Molly.”
    “I know. And next time I’m six, you can call me Molly all you want.”
    Insigna laughed. “Do you know what a brown dwarf is, Marlene?”
    “Yes, I do, Mother. A brown dwarf is a small starlike body, with too little mass to develop the temperatures and pressures to bring about hydrogen fusion in its interior, but enough mass to bring about secondary reactions that keep it warm.”
    “That’s right. Not bad. Megas is on the borderline. It’s either a very warm planet or a very dim brown dwarf. It gives off no visible light, but emits richly in the infrared. It’s not quite like anything we’ve ever studied. It was the first extrasolar planetary body—that is, the first planet outside the Solar System—that we have been able to study in detail, and the Observatory was totally immersed in it. I wouldn’t have had a chance to work on Nemesis’ motion even if I had wanted to, and, to tell you the truth, I forgot about it for a time. I was as interested in Megas as everyone else was, you see?”
    “Um,” said Marlene.
    “It turned out it was the only sizable planetary body circling Nemesis, but it was enough. It was five times the mass—”
    “I know, Mother. It’s five times the mass of Jupiter, and one thirtieth the mass of Nemesis. The computer taught me that long ago.”
    “Of course, dear. And it’s no more habitable than Jupiter is; less, if anything. That was disappointing at first, even though we didn’t really expect to find a habitable planet circling a red dwarf star. If a planet were close enough to a star like Nemesis to keep water liquid, tidal influences would force it to face one side