It wasn’t their first time in zero G. In the Space Station they had usually been driven to hide themselves away in some module or other — sometimes a Soyuz, in fact — to find privacy. Sex in space, they had found, was a matter of engineering ingenuity, of anchoring and leverage points, and of some athletic ability. Both partners had to work at it; it was no use relying on Earth’s sticky gravity to pull you down.

Of course there was the usual problem of fluid imbalance. Arkady’s body fluids had pooled above his waist; he didn’t have the hydraulic surplus down below he was used to. But as usual, she discovered to her pleasure, testosterone overcame microgravity.

And this time it was more delicious than ever for Geena: to float here inside the metal walls of this little egg in space, a hundred thousand miles of vacuum all around her, but with Arkady’s strong warmth inside her, his mouth pressed against hers, like two blobs of the primeval ocean come together here, defying the void—

“Holy cow.”

They broke, swearing. Geena grabbed coveralls out of the air — they turned out to be Arkady’s — and held them before her.

It was Henry, of course; his head protruded out of the descent module’s hatch, upside down, his hair tousled with sleep.

“Oh, God,” Geena said.

Henry shook his head. “The fucking ship was shaking. I thought we had a leak.” He looked from one to the other, as they scrambled into their clothes. “So. The two of you. East meets west; astronaut athletics. Of course. How come I didn’t see it before?”

“Henry, I’m sorry—”

“Do what you want. I’ve no hold over you.” And he ducked back into the orbital module, slamming the hatch behind him.

After that, the silences grew very long. Three people tucked into that confined place couldn’t have got further apart or communicated less, Geena thought; it was like the solution to some geometrical theorem.

Two days and seven hours out, all of two hundred thousand miles from Earth, they went over the hill.

They had climbed past the point of gravitational equilibrium, and entered the Moon’s sphere of influence. Up to now they had been slowing down, like a stone thrown up from the surface of the Earth; but from now on they would accelerate, all the way down to the Moon.

Henry marked the moment, watched as the timer ticked past the nominated mark. Of course he felt nothing, no sense of speed or acceleration; he was inside the same old enclosed submarine, and there was no marker post here, or anywhere else.

But they’d clambered all the way out of Earth’s gravity well. Somehow it didn’t seem right, that such a gigantic milestone should pass unmarked. But it did.