Free Labyrinth of Night by Allen Steele

to placate the major, and Oeljanov responding in phrases punctuated by the only commonplace Russian word Jessup understood: nyet…nyet…nyet…
    Have it your way, you stubborn bastard.
    Cydonia Base was a small installation; nothing in it was more than a few steps from anywhere else. Jessup walked down the access corridor until he found Module Two, the command center at the opposite end of the habitat. Shutting the hatch behind him, he immediately ordered the duty officer to radio the Shinseiki, using a priority frequency which the ship’s command crew was monitoring. A set of code-numbers established the validity of his contact and a few seconds later captain Omori’s voice came over the comlink.
    ‘Yes, Dr. Jessup? How did your meeting go?’
    ‘No go,’ Jessup replied tersely. ‘Go with Steeple Chase, code Romeo Delta two-triple-one. Repeat, Steeple Chase, code Romeo Delta two-triple-one. Please affirm, over.’
    A short pause. Then Colonel Aldiss’ voice came over the comlink. ‘We copy that, Cydonia Command. Steeple Chase, code Romeo Delta two-triple-one, affirmative. We are go, repeat go, with code November Tango three-zero-nine, shall we dance?’
    ‘Affirmative, code November Tango three-zero-nine,’ Jessup replied, completing the chain. ‘Kick it out, Steeple Chase.’
    ‘Will do, Cydonia Command. Falcon Team is on the case. Over and out.’
    Jessup signed off and settled down in a chair to watch a bank of TV monitors above the console. Fifteen minutes, if everything went according to plan.
    Now, if only Oeljanov did not wise up before then…

Excerpt from ‘Benjamin Cassidy—The Rolling Stone Interview’, Rolling Stone, November 16 (2028)
    You started out with The Working Blues…
    That’s right. Jaime, Les and Amad, plus a couple of session people we hired for studio work on the two albums we did, Flashpoint and Big House. Good bunch of guys, great musicians.
    So why did you break up the band and start playing solo?
    Because I didn’t want to pay ’em. I’m cheap that way. (Laughs.) Naw, that isn’t it. The Working Blues was a hot ensemble and we were making money, enough to get by at least, but I just decided after a while, y’know, just to cut loose, see if I could get the blues back to…back to one guy and his guitar, just that. Not to make those guys sound bad, but I began to wonder if a backup band was necessary. It’s like, y’know, how John Mayall went for years without a drummer in his Blues-breakers ensembles because he considered a percussion section to be adding just a lot of noise. After a while, I began to wonder if we were overpowering the blues with all this extra stuff, so (draws a finger across his throat) phfft! I decided to get rid of the band. But I still respect and admire those guys. In fact, I’m going to be sitting in on the sessions for Jaime’s next album, so this time he gets a chance to fire me from his band. (Laughs.) I bet he does, too, just to get back.
    Jaime and Amad have both claimed that your cocaine addiction caused the group to split apart. Sounds like we’ve got two different stories…
    Well, no, there’s not two different stories. They’re just two parts of the same tale. Yeah, I was hooked on the stuff, there’s no denying that. It got bad enough that, when we were touring with the Cambodians, I was mainlining every time before we went onstage. First they’d hand me the syringe, then they’d give me my guitar. ‘Okay, Ben, go this way. Don’t fall over anything, now.’ And after the gig they’d put me on a couch in the dressing room and have someone check up on me to make sure I wouldn’t OD. I knew I was sick and they knew it, too, so while I was in the clinics and the halfway houses, getting clean and deciding that maybe I should try it solo, they decided that they were fed up with my bullshit. So it was a mutual parting of the ways. I don’t hold any grudges and I don’t think they do, either.
    You once said, ‘Being a junkie is