"You, on the other hand, look quite the opposite. I never told you how beautiful you are. I never even thought to say it, but it's true."
"We're talking about you at the moment."
"I wish we wouldn't. You're much more interesting."
She smiled and said nothing.
"They sent you away because of me, Janda. If I had known that's what they would do, I would have changed things."
"How? By pretending not to be my friend? By avoiding me? By being formal around me and treating me like a mere acquaintance? That would have been worse."
"These aren't your thoughts," he told her. "They're mine, projected on to you. You're only saying what my mind is telling you to say."
"But you knew my thoughts, Vico. You always did. The only reason why you didn't know that I loved you was because I didn't know it myself. But I did."
"Don't use the past tense," he said. "That means it's over."
He awoke. Alone. Everything was where it always was. The instruments. The equipment. The air tanks. He forced himself to eat. He drank water and took vitamins. He did the resistance exercises and was shocked to learn how weak he was. He checked the instruments. He had seven weeks to get back to health. He drank more water and did another rep of leg exercises.
*
There was traffic all around Luna, but the LUG system in Victor's quickship took over the flight controls long before he reached the mass of ships. Freighters, courier ships, passenger vessels moving back and forth to Earth, newer corporate mining ships heading out toward the Asteroid Belt, many of which were emblazoned with the Juke Limited corporate logo.
The quickship had decelerated hours ago, and now that he was here and close, he found the LUG system's docking speed maddeningly slow. Soon other quickships were gathering around him, coming in from all quarters, all being lugged toward the same destination; where exactly, Victor had no idea.
He could see Earth but he was greatly disappointed since he had expected it to be much closer. It was night on the planet's surface, and there were millions of lights twinkling below the atmosphere. All of those people, he thought, and none of them know what's coming. Or maybe they did know. Maybe word had gotten through. Victor hoped that was true. That would mean his work was done.
The settlements and industries of Luna constituted the tiniest part of the moon's surface. Victor had seen pictures, but they had been taken from space, so he expected a small outpost. When the moon rotated as the quickships approached, and the city of Imbrium came into view, Victor gaped in wonder. Factories, smelting plants, huge industrial complexes with so many lights and pipes and buildings that they seemed to be their very own cities. Then Imbrium proper came into view to his right. Buildings and lights and glass-topped walkways. It was more human-built structure than he had ever seen.
He could feel his body getting heavier. Gravity was seizing him. The quickships around him organized themselves into a line, all of them loaded with huge cargos of cylinders. Victor's eyes followed the line in front of him, and he saw that the LUG system was taking the quickships to a massive complex beyond the city.
Then suddenly his quickship deviated from the others and changed course, flying down toward a hangar with a ceiling at least a hundred meters high. The quickship's engines died. It drifted into the hangar. There were damaged quickships everywhere in various stages of repair, but there were no workers that he could see. Robot arms extended and grabbed the quickship. His forward motion stopped, and Victor was thrown against his restraining harness. The pain took his breath away, and he was certain he had cracked a few ribs. He coughed, trying to get his wind back. The ship rotated ninety degrees, with the nose pointed upward. Victor was on his back. The robot arms lifted him quickly and hooked the ship onto a long rack of quickships hanging by their noses ten meters off the ground. The robot arms released him and went elsewhere.
All was quiet. The ship swung lightly on the rack, an odd sensation caused by gravity that Victor had never experienced. He waited, but no one came for him. He unharnessed himself, still wincing from the pain in his chest. His body felt heavy. He climbed out of the seat and looked out the window. He was too high off the ground. He didn't trust the strength of his legs in partial gravity with a drop like that. He scanned the warehouse floor, looking for people. There were none. Everything was automated. A quickship suddenly slid onto the rack in front of him, pushing him farther into the rack, partially blocking his view. The robot arms were packing him in here. He needed to get out.
He tried the hatch. He couldn't open it. The other quickship was packed in too tightly. He went to the radio and tried a frequency. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"
Again, the sound of his own voice frightened him. It was hoarse and crackly and barely above a whisper. No one responded. He heard only static. He tried another frequency. Still nothing. Then he tried another and got chatter. Men talking, giving numbers and data; Victor didn't understand it. He interrupted them. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"
The chatter stopped. There was a pause. "Who is this?"
"My name is Victor Delgado. I'm a free miner from the Kuiper Belt. I'm stuck in a warehouse of some kind."
"Get off this frequency."
"Please. I need help. I have information th
at needs to get to Earth."
"Sanjay, I got someone on the frequency who won't get off."
A different voice--deeper, commanding, with an accent Victor didn't recognize. "I don't know who you are, mate, but this is a restricted frequency. Now get the hell off before I have you tossed."
"Please. I need to speak to someone in charge. All of Earth is in danger." The words sounded trite, even to him.
"You're the one in danger, mate. Marcus, triangulate that signal and find this prankster. I want this ash trash off my frequency."
Victor stayed on the frequency, but didn't say more. Let them triangulate it. Let them find him.