Wildcatter

“One landing may be a justifiable risk, but two is tempting fate. If it crashes the second time, you’ll be stranded down there forever.”

Or the first time, ditto. He swallowed and tried yet again to explain that a single grab sample would be very unlikely to provide reliable data on the planet’s pharmaceutical potential. A dozen varied samples gathered over a visit of several hours would be a million times more valuable. He didn’t mention that Control had now confirmed seeing a storm surge reach as far inland as the Apple site. The good news was the sea would have brought in samples for him to pick up. The bad news was that next time it might collect him for its own use.

Hanna was as stubborn as a squeaky floorboard, but she could recognize when she had met her match. “Why are you doing this, Seth?”

“For money.”

“Money to do what, Seth? Buy women? Big houses? You think those will make you happy?”

“Haven’t thought about happy,” he admitted. Happiness was doing crazy things, so he was happier now than he had ever been. “I’m doing this because I signed a contract. I gave my word. It looks dangerous, yes, but it’s doable and while I don’t go to church every week, I do regard my word as sacred.”

“You squeezed more money out of JC.”

“Yes, but if he’d balked and called me on it, I’d have gone down anyway.” He wondered if that might even be true.

“What comes after, Seth?”

“More of the same? You come with me on my next jaunt?”

The Big Nothing was notoriously addictive. Few wildcatters ever readjusted to life downside when they got back. Even those who struck it rich on their first voyage often went back out again to hunt for bigger dreams, for El Dorado or the Fountain of Youth, the jackpot beyond the rainbow. He could, of course, ask Hanna why she was back in space, having made a small fortune on her first trip out. He didn’t. Nor did he explain to her that danger gave him a thrill in his groin.

Hanna sighed. She was a very pretty woman.

“I shall pray for you, Seth.”

“Don’t you always?”

She bristled. “Pray for your safe return, I mean. I always pray that you will see the error of your lecherous ways.”

Lecherous? He? Seth Broderick? He was behaving like any healthy male animal would in the presence of mature mating partners. He was tempted to suggest she go and exchange notes with Reese about sexual peculiarities.

* * *

Golden Hind orbited Cacafuego in less than an hour. It rarely passed directly over Sombrero, but the unmanned probes' limited sensing ability contributed some data. Control was gradually building up a picture of tide and weather patterns.

As the forecasts became less erratic-they would never be truly reliable-Seth kept perfecting his plans. He could hope for a minimum stay downside of three hours, but he must allow for eight or nine as more likely. That was half a day for Cacafuego’s nineteen-hour rotation. If the weather turned nasty all bets were off, but he would die of thirst or infection before he starved. His K333 suit would protect him from heat stroke, and the climate was not as extreme at that latitude as it was at the poles.

The main reason for choosing Apple, of course, was that Galactic had chosen it, and their fleet would have had more advanced remote scanning equipment than Golden Hind did. Apple had one of the cryptic “villages” and Maria was offering fifty-fifty odds that there was a pool of open water beside the wrecked shuttle. Pools were always promising collection sites.

The team conferred and chose alternative target sites: Banana, Cherry, and Damson, all selected more because they lay along an extension of the likely flight path to Apple, than because they seemed any better. Cherry offered another of the strange “villages”. Banana and Damson lay in the lea of mountain ranges, which might provide some shelter from storms.

Seth spent hours in the prospector’s storeroom, deciding what he must take with him, adding and subtracting gadgets and equipment. Nobody bothered him there, but the choices did. How many spare breathing filters? He must take a stun gun in case he saw some small fauna that he could capture. Was taking the blazer as well worth the extra weight? In the end he decided to leave out the blazer. Golden Hind’s telescope should detect any animal life larger than a small pony and had not done so. A stun gun would stop anything smaller than that. How much drinking water? How many samples would he be able to carry?

* * *

Maria cornered him in the showers that evening while he was cleaning his teeth.

“Seth? Lover boy?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her image in the mirror, admiring the way her nipples stretching the thin fabric. She idled fingers down his bare back.

“Apart from JC,” she said, “everyone aboard is totally opposed to what you’re planning: Jordan, Hanna, Reese, and me.”

“Whittington’s cool. I promised you’ll feed her double while I’m gone.”