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Chapters (65)
  1. Annotation
  2. Moonseedby Stephen Baxter
  3. DRAMATIS PERSONAE
  4. PART IBIG WHACK
  5. PART IIARD TOR
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. PART IIIEARTH
  24. 1
  25. 2
  26. 3
  27. 4
  28. 5
  29. 6
  30. 7
  31. 8
  32. 9
  33. 10
  34. 11
  35. 12
  36. 13
  37. 14
  38. 15
  39. 16
  40. 17
  41. 18
  42. 19
  43. 20
  44. 21
  45. 22
  46. 23
  47. 24
  48. 25
  49. 26
  50. PART IVMOON
  51. 1
  52. 2
  53. 3
  54. 4
  55. 5
  56. 6
  57. PART VBOTTLENECK
  58. 1
  59. 2
  60. 3
  61. 4
  62. 5
  63. 6
  64. PART VINADEZHDA
  65. AFTERWORD

For a while I’m not sure if I cared if it ended or not. But now I’ve met you. And —

“What?”

His voice was hesitant. Do you think we could have had a future together?

“Hell, I don’t know.” She laughed. “I suppose it’s possible.” She thought it through more carefully. “Yes. It’s possible. We would have had some incandescent arguments.”

I’m sorry I walked out on you, the way I did.

She took a breath. “I understand.”

The truth of it was, she did understand. It was as he’d said. All any of us can do is our best, by each other, by whatever duty we perceive.

It tore me apart.

“But you can’t expect a mother to see it your way. Right then I’d have mobilized the resources of the planet to unite me with Jack if I could, for one more day, and to hell with the rest.”

I understand. Anyhow, that’s the reason.

“What?”

The reason I care. It’s you, Jane. You, and Jack, and even Ted and Mike, damn it. It’s you. It took me a while to figure it out… The world can end, but not if it takes you.

Henry’s voice, accent enhanced by the phone’s tiny speaker, was a dry whisper, from a million miles away. Dust blowing across the dry bottom of one of those lunar seas, she thought.

“For Christ’s sake, Henry,” she said, “you’re the nearest thing to a hero I’ve got. If you feel like that come up with a better option.”

I don’t feel like much of a hero.

“Listen,” she whispered. “Here’s something to protect you. I see the Moon, / The Moon sees me, / God bless the priest / That christened me… / I see the Moon, / The Moon sees me, / God bless the Moon, / God bless me.”

Pretty.

“Yeah. Now you try it.”

The words came drifting back to her. I see the Moon, / The Moon sees me…

9

As it turned out, Frank Turtle responded quickly, and, using some of the material from his failed return-to-the-Moon pitch, Geena and Frank worked up a convincing-looking presentation within a few days.

They had Jays and others dry-run them, and then they presented to Harry Maddicott, JSC director. He sat, sleek and replete with lunch, as Geena and Frank worked through the spiel tag-team style. But Maddicott was more supportive than Geena had expected. He advised them to take it to at least one more center before going to the NASA Administrator, however.