The Jupiter Theft

“They’ll miss Earth itself by a wide margin both times,” Jameson continued. “Even so, there’ll be gravitational effects, but they’ll be mild.”

“A slight increase in our normal earthquake activity,” Ruiz said sardonically. “Some bad weather. No more than a few hundred thousand people killed. A fractional adjustment in Earth’s orbit, of interest chiefly to astronomers and farmers.”

Jameson took Maggie by the shoulders. “But if we do anything to delay the Cygnans—by a month, a week, maybe even a few days—they’ll have to find a new exit slot. And that time, Earth might not be so lucky.”

“We’re going to squeak by,” Ruiz said bleakly. “But it might interest you to know that a difference of a month would get us brushed by Jupiter’s radiation belt, among other things. Of course, at a distance like that, death by radiation would be academic. Gravitational effects would do the job—break up the crust, scour the continents with the oceans, and tumble us toward the sun.”

“If Jupiter still has a radiation belt,” Maybury said shyly.

“Oh, it’ll still be there. There’ll still be a forty-thousand-mile ball of metallic hydrogen inside to generate a magnetic field. And the wind from the Sun will be a lot stronger.”

Jameson said, “So you see, Maggie, we don’t want to precipitate anything. Like it or not, we leave with the Cygnans.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “We’ll have plenty of time later to think about how to take over the ship, all eighty or ninety of us.”

She shook off his grip. “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “But it’s not up to the two of you to make that kind of decision. Captain Boyle’s in charge.”

“And Captain Hsieh,” he reminded her.

She flushed. “And we ought to put it in his hands.”

Jameson was losing patience with Maggie. He’d had a lot of practice at it on Earth and during the trip out. “I thought you were the one who was always lecturing me about being a good little Guvie robot, kowtowing to authority! Maybe you got through to me, Maggie! This is too important to take chances with. Dr. Ruiz and I are taking the responsibility.”

Maggie’s manner softened. “All right,” she said. “But Boyle’s not one of those brainless government stonewallahs. Maybe he’s all spit and polish, but he’s human. You can trust him.”

“I trust him. I trusted him with my life. But I’m not going to lay this one in his lap.”

“Tod—”

“There are too many crazies in the command structure. Did you hear what Yao asked me about the nukes? My God, what if they got it into their heads to try to take some kind of action against the Cygnans? They couldn’t succeed, of course, but they might get the Cygnans annoyed with Homo sapiens. One little fly-by with that drive of theirs on, and they could cook the whole. Earth down to the bottom of the lithosphere.”

Ruiz said, “If they succeed in getting one of their bombs off, it would be worse. They couldn’t destroy a whole ship, of course—it’s thirty miles between components. But they could kill a couple of million Cygnans and damage one of the ships. It would take them months to repair damage, transfer population. Delay the Cygnans’ departure.” He shrugged. “Good-bye Earth.”

“So you see, Maggie,” Jameson said, “it’s up to us.”

“No,” Ruiz said. He looked straight at Maggie. “It’s up to Mizz MacInnes.”

Maggie bit her lip. “I can’t help thinking about all these people.” She waved a thin arm at the scattered figures on the artificial landscape. “Condemned to spend the rest of their lives as exhibits in a … a menagerie. Without even a chance to have any say about it.”

“I know, Maggie,” Jameson said.

“Think about fourteen billion people on Earth without any say in it, M-Maggie,” Maybury said in a very small voice.

Maggie was silent. “We’re being very arrogant about all this, aren’t we,” she said finally.

“Yes,” said Jameson.

She gave him one of the blinding smiles that made him love her. “God help the four of us if our cagemates ever find out,” she said.

After the Cygnans turned the sky off, Jameson and Maggie lay side by side on their strawlike bedding for a long time without speaking, holding hands across the intervening space but otherwise not touching. They were a little apart from the others, in a shallow angle where one of the terrace shelves bent around the outer wall of the enclosure. The people who were still moving around tacitly gave them a wide berth, as they did all the other scattered couples. It was dim but not dark, with a pale luminescence that was a fair imitation of starlight. The Cygnans had instituted a terrestrial day-night cycle here. Some hundred yards away, somebody had built a small fire, probably with dried vines, and there was a small group around it softly singing folk songs. Somewhere in the dimness Jameson heard a woman moan as if in pain.

“Some of them are pretty shameless about it,” Maggie said. “Klein and that Smitty girl from the bomb crew. As soon as the lights are out—bang! Ugh, disgusting! I’ll say this for your friend Ruiz and his little assistant—nobody’s ever caught them at it.”

“Maggie!