She looked around. “It really is getting dark now.”

“Yes.”

But he hesitated.

He walked to an outcrop of basalt near the pool, picked up a loose lump of rock, and hit the outcrop. He frowned at the result.

She said, “What’s wrong?”

“Did you hear that?”

“One rock hitting another? Flintstone chic—”

“The pitch was low. Basement rock will ring with a high pitch. This boulder is loose.” So something is breaking up the basement here.

Not good, he thought. Not good at all.

He walked carefully around the puddle. “I wouldn’t tread in that thing if I were you.”

“Why not?”

“You were saying about dinner…”

“No. You were saying about dinner.”

They worked their way down the hill, arguing. Henry stumbled occasionally in the deepening dark; each time he patted his jeans pocket to make sure his sample was safe.

Behind them, the puddle glowed softly in the wan Moonlight. Where it stirred, the rock flour rustled.

8

Towards the end of Geena’s eight-hour shift as capcom for Station, a problem came up with a seat liner for one of the Soyuz escape craft.

Because the seats in Soyuz were moulded to fit an individual astronaut or cosmonaut, liners had to be stored for every crew member on Station at any moment. But one of the Russian crew who had just been carried to Station, on board Space Shuttle Endeavour, was complaining that when she tried to install her seat liner into the Soyuz it didn’t fit her. So the ground controllers, in Moscow and Houston, had gotten into a wrangle about what the cosmonaut’s home vehicle was, and Geena found herself on the voice loops to Station trying to explain — in English and Russian — the home vehicle rules.

She read,” ‘The home vehicle for Shuttle-Station crew members is defined as follows. The home vehicle for Americans launched on the Shuttle is the Shuttle. The home vehicle for Americans on Station becomes the Shuttle immediately after the hatches are opened between Station and Shuttle. The home vehicle for cosmonauts launched on the Shuttle becomes the Soyuz, and becomes the Shuttle for cosmonauts on Station after — one — the seat liners are installed for the Station crew in the Soyuz, and — two — the Station crew are briefed on emergency procedures…’ ”

Traditionally, the Americans tried to use Russian, while the Russians replied in English It was slow and painfully clumsy, but it did seem as if less mistakes got made that way.

The Russian Interface Officer, a heavy-set woman from New York, was at her side, checking the agreed English-Russian translations of technical terms and acronyms.