The Flag on Gorbachev Crater

5. The Race

“I have to fly out to Los Angeles, in California, from time to time,” Beckwith explained to az-Zahra one evening at supper. “I have a very important client there, the United States Space Agency.”

“I know name, S.A.,” she acknowledged. “From holo screen. Big race to moon of Jupiter, Ganymede. Our ship, Kennedy, left Moon this morning, many days late. Say S.A. much worried, may lose race.”

Worried indeed, he thought. And so am I!

“But why Ganymede so importante?” she asked.

“It’s the best candidate of any of the Jovian moons for colonizing,” explained Beckwith. “It’s big, bigger than the planet Mercury. It’s about fifty-fifty rock and water. The water is mostly ice, but underground some is probably in liquid form, due to heat from radioactivity in the rocky core. Whoever wins can recover oxygen from the water by electrolysis.”

He wasn’t surprised when she held up a hand. “ ‘El… ecktro… ?’ ”

He smiled. “Az-Zahra, Ganymede es una luna de gran valor. Por eso, los barcos de muchos naciones van alli ahora con gran velocidad. El primo a poner su bandera allí, gana la carrera y todo Ganymede.” Ganymede is a very valuable moon. The first country that puts its flag on Gorbachev Crater on Ganymede wins the race and the whole moon.

An hour later they took the elevator down to street level. “Come,” he said. He took her by the hand and led her toward the back entrance of the building. “Let us go outside for a little while, into the garden. It is especially pretty at night.”

Outside, in the light of stars and a quarter moon, they walked down terrace steps to a bench facing a fountain bordered by hedges. Here they sat together and for a while watched the noisy moonlight antics of the splashing waters.

She looked up at the stars for a few minutes, craning her neck back and forth. Then she pointed. “Jupiter?”

He studied the twinkling point of light. “Why yes, I believe it is.”

“Far away?”

“Very far.”

“Ships take long time?”

“It depends on what you mean by a long time. Time in flight for the fastest ships is about ninety days. That may seem like a long time, but you have to compare it to the very first flights, sixty or seventy years ago—the Pioneers and Voyagers. The fastest required nineteen months. Of course, they had little or no additional chemical thrust, once they blasted off from Earth.”

“Russians will win?” she said.

“Perhaps. For us to put a man there first we’d need your magic carpet.” As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn’t: It could be taken as a declaration that he doubted her story.

She wrapped her arms around her chest as though suddenly feeling the chill. In a very low voice, she said, “You do not believe me, Sidi?”

Oh hell, he thought. “I believe you, az-Zahra,” he said lamely. “And it’s getting cold. We’d better go in.”