She tried to seem relaxed, to smile, to meet their eyes. All she got back were cold stares. But as she spoke about her work, she grew in confidence; some of her awe rubbed away. The men were just that: men. Even Joe Muldoon. And, looking at them that way, she became aware that three of them, at least, were discreetly checking her out, glancing at her chest, and following the line of her legs.

She was asked follow-up questions. Then Jones asked what criteria she would use to select a Mars landing site. Another loaded question, but she was getting more confident. She smiled at the panel, from one end of the long table to the other.

“My goal, obviously, will be a successful science program on the first mission,” she said. “And the scientific worth of a site will be a key criterion. But it’s also obvious that the first landing is going to be extremely difficult. So we must primarily choose a site which will enable the crew to land in safety.” She rattled through a brief checklist: the site ought to be on a smooth, unbroken plain, with no highlands nearby to interfere with the final landing approach, and the winds should be low, and the season should be chosen to minimize the prospect of dust storms, and so forth.

“We need to get a scientist on Mars. But a dead scientist on Mars wouldn’t do anybody any good.”

That actually got a smile. As well it might; it was a deliberate echo of Deke Slayton’s famous justification of his policy of keeping scientists off the early Apollo missions. It was all part of the message she was cumulating for them, in word, gesture, and subtext. I’m a scientist, and a good one, with very relevant experience. But I’m prepared to help you guys achieve your own dreams. More than that — you need me, in order to achieve those dreams.

Now, tougher questions started to hit her.

“Doctor York, would you submit to a two-year journey to Mars?”

“I… Sure. I’d want a reasonable chance of success. But I would love to go, for scientific reasons. And I feel I could maybe articulate the experience better than—”

“Is that a yes or a no, Doctor?”

“Huh?”

“I asked you a question. Would you take the trip to Mars?”

“I guess so. Yes.”

“Doctor York. Suppose I tell you that the chances of surviving the trip are one in two. Do you go?”

“You can’t know that. The statistics are so uncertain, the analyses—”

“Assume I know it. Do you go?”

“One in two?” Tell the truth, Natalie. “Absolutely not. I might accept, say, one in twenty, if it could be demonstrated.”

“One in ten?”

“If it could be demonstrated.”

“How are you going to balance your two careers, as an astronaut and a scientist? Won’t there be incompatibilities?”