Moonrise by Ben Bova

Author:Ben Bova [Bova, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: General, Science Fiction, Fiction, Sagas, Adventure, Science Fiction - General, Fiction - Science Fiction, Space Opera, High Tech, Science Fiction - High Tech, Lunar bases, Bova, Ben - Prose & Criticism, Lunar bases - Fiction
ISBN: 9780380973026
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 1996-11-30T09:00:00+00:00

'I didn't know that liquor was allowed in the base,' he said.

'It isn't,' Anson replied.

'Do you mean to tell me that there's no alcohol in those drinks? Nobody's popping pills or snorting anything?'

'What I'm telling you,' Anson said firmly, 'is that company regulations do not allow alcohol or any other substances that impair judgment or reflexes. We're even careful with aspirin up here.'

Greg smirked at her. 'Sure. And if I tested a random sampling of your employees' blood levels-'

'It doesn't work that way,' she snapped. 'Not here. We judge people by their performance, not by some numbers set down in a book of regulations.'

'So you wait for somebody to kill himself. And the people around him.'

'Not at all.' Anson's voice was calm, reasoned, but benestit it there was stainless steel. 'We live and work very close to one another. If somebody sees that someone is too - out of it, let's say - to do his job, then they don't let that person start working.'

'They report him sick?'

'They send him back to his quarters. Or her. They call for a replacement.'

'And that's all?'

'We pay for performance here. If a person needs a replacement more than twice in a three-month span, we send him back Earthside.'

'Or her?'

'Or her,' Anson agreed. 'It happens now and then, but not often enough to be a real problem.'

'And that's the way I'm supposed to handle the situation? No matter what the company regulations say?'

Anson made a small shrug. 'That's the way things have been handled here for years. If you want to change it, that's your prerogative. You'll have to do your job in your own way, of course.'

'Of course,' Greg said. 'But your way has been working fine, is that it?'

Anson smiled prettily. 'Don't fix it if it ain't broke.'

MOONBASE

The party showed not the slightest sign of slowing down. Greg watched, a stranger among the revelers, feeling like a pale and vapid ghost, almost invisible, noticed by the others just enough to make them feel uneasy and move away from him. Even Anson got tired of him and danced off with one of the younger men.

Terribly self-conscious and ill at ease, Greg made his way through the partying throng to the main exit from The Cave. Stepping through the airtight door into the empty tunnel outside was like stepping from bedlam into blissfully peaceful silence. It felt cooler out in the tunnel, easier to breathe.

Greg thought for a moment, then strode toward the control center. Make certain it's really adequately manned, he told himself. Check on the status of the radiation storm, maybe talk with the astronomers back at Tucson.

The control center was quiet. The big electronic map of the base glowed in the darkened room just as it had before the flare erupted. All three positions at the U-shaped set of comm consoles were occupied. Several of the screens were badly streaked with interference, others were altogether blank. But the three communications technicians were at their jobs, sober and quietly intense.

The woman in the middle chair turned and saw Greg standing over her.

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