Free Building Harlequin’s Moon by Larry Niven, Brenda Cooper Page A

Harry silently took care of Andrew’s plot as well as his own. He looked haunted. He didn’t spend much time with the girls, but he smiled at Rachel when Ursula wasn’t around, and sometimes they sat and talked or watched the clouds together.
    The days cooled. Harlequin’s dark ruby glow didn’t diminish, but Apollo’s light no longer reflected back from the gas giant, and at night Aldrin was turned away fromboth Apollo and Harlequin. Against the rich black sky Rachel could see twice the stars of high summer. She and Ursula made games of naming stars and constellations far into the night. Twice they passed through meteor showers, and streaks of light flamed the sky, some bright enough to illuminate Ursula’s fine hair.
    One night, when Harlequin eclipsed Apollo completely and the stars felt closer and thicker than ever, Harry joined them. Ursula excused herself. Rachel stayed, and she and Harry lay on their backs looking at the sky.
    “I talked to Andrew,” Harry said unexpectedly. “He was in town for a few hours today. He’s been out with an Earth Born planting crew. Told me he hated it. They treat him badly.”
    “Yeah, well, maybe he’s acting badly,” Rachel said.
    “I asked why he tore up your test planting.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He said he’s in love with you.”
    Rachel shivered, pulling her knees in over her torso, wrapping her arms around them. “That’s love? He destroyed my plot, got himself in trouble, and didn’t even fix it afterward.”
    “Remember the tree he stuck up on the tool shed?”
    “Of course. I could have failed over that. I was so mad at him I wanted to hit him.”
    Harry sat up and looked down at her. “He thought you’d think it was cool. I mean, really, he said, why not grow trees on buildings?”
    “He’s not stupid. He knew it was my final exam.”
    “He wanted attention.”
    “Well, then he doesn’t understand me at all. I try to do a good job, but I stay inside the rules. It’s important.”
    “Shhhhh . . . your voice sounds funny. Don’t get mad. It wasn’t me.”
    “I know,” she said. “But still, couldn’t he see how important that tree was to the design?”
    “I could see it,” Harry said. A long silence. “I like you too.”
    “But . . . but . . .”
    “Look at the stars. Doesn’t that design look like the ships the Council comes down to us on?”
    She followed his pointing finger with her eyes. “That one? The bright star to the left, and follow it up—”
    “Yes . . . you see it.”
    They stayed out and named star systems for hours, shivering, not touching.

C HAPTER 7
E RIKA’S F OLLY
    T HREE DAYS BEFORE Mid-Winter Week, Gabriel and Ali flew Harry, Rachel, Ursula, and a younger student, Gloria, to the second biggest crater on Selene. It was Gloria’s first flight, and her blue eyes were wide and wet and her lip quivered as they left the ground. Rachel chattered about the Hammered Sea and took her hand, distracting her from her fears.
    “Why’d you name it Erika’s Folly?” Harry asked.
    A wide grin split Gabriel’s face. “She missed. Her aim was off . . . bad arithmetic. She was trying to out-calculate Astronaut. There wasn’t supposed to be a huge crater here.”
    Ali laughed. “It’s a pretty mistake.”
    “I had to change the original plan for the collider path.” Gabriel was still smiling.
    Erika’s Folly sloped gently into a wide sea. Rocks protruded from the water and decorated the inner and outer sides of the crater—jumbled piles that had fallen from thesky during the rain of rocks and fire that built the world. A large promontory of rock flowed down from a break in the crater wall; it looked like someone had stepped on the upward rim and pushed piles of stones down. The crater was a quarter of the width of the Hammered Sea, but Rachel thought it might still take a full day to walk from rim to rim. The middle sea would have to be skirted, and piles of boulders on the lakeshore would be hard to