“I’ve only made eight grams of Astrophage so far, and I’m supposed to just give away two grams of it? Two grams may not seem like much, but it’s ninety-five billion Astrophage cells.”

“It is for a good cause, my friend!” said Dimitri. “I promise you will like it. Come, come!”

He led Stratt and me through to the main lab. The center was dominated by a huge cylindrical vacuum chamber. The chamber was open and three technicians mounted something to a table inside.

Dimitri said something in Russian to them. They said something back. He said some other thing and pointed to me. They smiled and made happy Russian sounds.

Then Stratt said something stern in Russian.

“Sorry,” said Dimitri. “English only for now, my friends! For the American!”

“Hello, American!” said one of the technicians. “I am speak of English for you! You have fuel?”

I gripped my sample container tighter. “I have some fuel….”

Stratt looked at me the way I look at stubborn students in my class. “Hand it over, Dr. Grace.”

“You know, my breeder doubles Astrophage population over time, right? Taking away two grams now is like taking away four grams next month.”

She pulled the container out of my hands and handed it to Dimitri.

He held the small metal vial up and admired it. “This is a good day. I have looked forward to this day. Dr. Grace, please let me show you my spin drive!”

He gestured for me to follow and bounced up the stairs into the vacuum chamber. The technicians exited one at a time to make room for us.

“All is attached,” said one of them. “Checklist is done. Ready for test.”

“Good, good,” Dimitri said. “Dr. Grace, Ms.Stratt. Come, come!”

He led Stratt and me into the vacuum chamber. A thick, shiny metal plate leaned against one wall. The middle of the chamber had a round table with some kind of device resting on it.

“This is spin drive.” Dimitri beamed.

It wasn’t much to look at. It was a couple of feet across, mostly circular, but with one side of it cut flat. Sensors and wires came out from apertures all over the place.

Dimitri lifted the top casing off to reveal the innards. Things got more complicated. Inside was a clear triangle on a rotor. Dimitri gave it a little spin. “See? Spin. Spin drive.”

“How’s it work?” I asked.

He pointed to the triangle. “This is the revolver—high-tensile-strength transparent polycarbonate. And this” —he pointed to a nook between the revolver and the outer casing—“is where fuel comes in. IR emitter inside that part of revolver emits small amount of light with 4.26 and 18.31 microns wavelength—that is wavelengths which attract Astrophage. Astrophage go to that revolver face. But not too hard. Astrophage thrust is based on strength of IR light. Dim light make weak thrust. But enough to make Astrophage stick to surface.”