But harenodynamics was a way of forcing the Moon to help after all. If it could be made to work, it could provide a way of landing that would need just ten per cent of the fuel of a conventional landing.

The trouble was, nobody had ever tested the idea, even on Earth, let alone the Moon. And Soyuz wasn’t built for it anyhow; there was a consensus that you’d need significant advances in a number of material technologies to make the technique reliable, if it was possible at all.

And besides, all pilots who looked at the papers hated the whole idea. If it was ever applied at all, surely it would be only for unmanned cargo drones.

But — as Arkady had immediately realized when he heard Henry’s request — in the current circumstance, there was really no choice at all.

He would go through with this because he had faith in Henry, and because he trusted Geena; her relationship with Henry had finished unhappily, but she would not select a fool.

And besides, as far as he could see, it was only Henry who had fully understood the implications of the Moonseed infestation from the beginning, and so Arkady must do what was necessary to implement his plans.

But on Earth, arguments raged on.

There were hardly any scientists who were prepared to validate Henry’s grand proposal. The Americans” greatest concern seemed to be allowing a Russian access to their prized weaponry.

The Russian authorities were rather more focused on the humanity of it. TsUP at Korolyov at first flatly refused Arkady permission to proceed with this scheme. Breaking with custom, his personal physician was brought on the loop to try to persuade him to return to Earth. If he came home, perhaps some alternative plan could be found — for instance, perhaps an unmanned missile could deliver a nuclear weapon as Henry desired.

But Arkady knew that could only cause delay. And it was self-evident that launches of any kind might soon become impossible from the surface of Earth; already many facilities at Canaveral had been destroyed in terrorist actions, and were in any event under threat from tsunamis. This might be the only chance.

In an attempt to persuade Arkady to desist, they even flew in his sister to TsUP, and had her talk to him on the ground-to-air loop.

It was never easy, Arkady had found, to talk to family and friends from space. Life in space — even on a routine Earth-orbit mission — was rather like a commercial airline pilot’s: hours of tedium, punctuated by moments of extreme terror. If you tried to describe the tedium, it was simply dull; if you talked about the terror, you sounded melodramatic — worse, you might finish up frightening the person who cared about you enough to call you.

It made for awkward conversation.

But his sister knew him, and was wise. Nor would she play the part demanded of her by TsUP.