“Acknowledged. GOLEM, Eisenbraun is fatigued. Do you have any objections to ending this briefing at this time?”

“No objections.”

I headed quickly for the exit, my nerves rattled with the suspicion that the computer may have been testing me—using my responses and tactics in our conversation to reconfigure and evolve its solution strands. Clearly, I had to watch what I said.

The steel doors opened. Before exiting the lab I turned back to the computer’s liquid environment. “GOLEM, which stateroom belongs to Andria Saxon?”

“Andria Saxon has been assigned to Stateroom Two.”

*   *   *

The note was taped outside the door.

Ike:

The computer will allow you entry into my quarters. Shifts run from six to six, allowing for twenty minute breaks at twelve. Sleep until the 5:45 P.M., then report to your first post, which can be found on your duty roster on the h-pad inside.

—Andie

I crumpled the note and entered the stateroom, the automated door hissing closed behind me.

“Nice.”

The suite was surprisingly spacious, divided in half between a living room and kitchen area, with the bedroom and bath concealed behind a door on my right. The furnishings were modern, the sofa, chairs, and kitchen table all mounted on rollers that could be locked in or released from various settings on the imitation beech-wood deck. Adorning the far wall on my left were bookshelves lined with books and micro-discs and a flat-screen television wired to a MD player.

For some reason, the sofa and chairs were facing the curtained forward wall, not the television. Pressing a control, I opened the drapes, revealing a ten-foot-high curved aero glass wall and the Ross Sea, which appeared dark, save for rotating beacons that cut swaths of blue light through the blackness.

“Very nice.” I entered the bedroom where the view continued before a queen-size bed, built-in drawers, and a recessed bathroom equipped with a shower, sink, and toilet.

On the bed was a new h-pad still wrapped in cellophane and an orange jumpsuit—more prison uniform than astronaut apparel. My duffel bag had been left on the floor by the bed. Bastards had no doubt searched it.

Stripping off the remains of my snow gear, I rinsed off the day’s residue with a quick shower, then climbed—decidedly naked—into Andria’s bed. Unwrapping the h-pad, I accessed the ship’s layout, automatically uploading the information into ABE’s memory chip.

My built-in chronometer told me it was 13:43, time enough for a five-hour snooze. I searched the duty roster, located my day one assignment in the arboretum, then I rolled onto my left side and closed my eyes.

Chapter 10

10

We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.

—PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, in a speech to a joint session of Congress, September 9, 2009

“Attention, Professor Eisenbraun. Night shift begins in fifteen minutes.”