Jake looked down at the older man’s owlish face. I’m lonely here, he realized.

Cardwell gripped Jake’s elbow and led him toward the row of French doors at the far side of the auditorium.

“Where’s Mrs. Cee?” Jake asked as he reluctantly allowed Cardwell to steer him.

“Oh, Alice is chatting with some old friends. She won’t miss us for a few minutes.”

Before Jake could ask where they were going, Cardwell opened one of the glass doors. They stepped out onto the balcony, into the dark November night. It was cloudy and a chill breeze was blowing. Jake turned up his jacket collar.

“God must hate astronomers,” Jake complained, leaning on the balcony’s rail as he looked up at the sky. “All these cloudy nights.”

Cardwell chuckled softly. “That’s why astronomers have to move off the ground and get into orbit.”

“I guess,” Jake conceded.

“You could help to make that happen. In Washington.”

“You think I should go, Lev?”

Cardwell seemed totally unaffected by the cold. He stood beside Jake at the balcony’s rail, wearing nothing more than his usual gray suit and bow tie.

“I think you have to go, Jake,” Cardwell said softly. “I think it will be good for you and good for Senator Tomlinson.”

“Maybe.”

“Pushing for MHD won’t be easy,” Cardwell added. “It’s not a sure thing. The energy lobby has a lot of inertia built into it.”

“Yeah.”

“And there are all the other science issues: global warming, stem cell research, health … you’ll have your hands full.”

Nodding, Jake said, “You know, Tomlinson could be a real force in Washington. We need a senator who works for scientific progress.”

“And the senator needs a science advisor who’ll help him get things accomplished.”

Suddenly Jake blurted, “I guess I don’t have anything to keep me here. Not really. It’s not like I’m Mr. Popularity or anything.”

“You can work with your grad students on the Mars probe,” Cardwell suggested. “What with e-mail and all, you don’t have to be on campus to work with them. You don’t have to be in the same state.”

“It’s not that easy, Lev.”

“I know. I understand. But you can do it, Jake. I know you can.”

Jake said nothing. His mind was churning, whirling. He got a mental image of a clothes dryer, with all the ideas and possibilities of the future tumbling over each other, spinning, stirring.

Cardwell pointed out toward the horizon. “Look!”

The clouds had parted and Jake saw a single ruddy point of light hanging in the night sky, a steady glowing light staring at him.

“Mars,” he breathed.

Cardwell said softly, “Tomlinson could be in the Senate for a long time, Jake. Long enough to get human explorers to Mars. If he has the right science advice.”

Jake grinned down at his mentor. “MHD’s not enough for you, huh?”