Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (62 page)

“Our water supply also comes from
the Sabatier, via a heated storage tank, and is piped into the kitchen and
utility rooms, both of which have gas and electric water heaters that operate
on demand. Wastewater and effluent are piped into a mini-sewage treatment
plant. The water is recycled and solid waste is either incinerated or, once we
get the greenhouse set up, dumped into a compost pile. We’ll also be monitoring
CO
₂
removal capacity by our garden in the greenhouse. But that’s
just experimental, we’re not depending on it.”

“That’s amazing. What if your
Sabatier breaks?”

“We have two of them, and ample
spare parts. We also have a third unit in the Genesis, our mobile habitat,
though it’s somewhat smaller.”

Brad glanced at Jeff and shook his
head. “This is incredible. And you’ve done all this in just three years?”

Jeff smiled. “Uh huh.”

“Why hasn’t NASA done this?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. You’d have
to ask them.”

* * *

Jeff
finished piling charcoal in the barbeque then dumped a couple pounds of hickory
chips in a bucket of water.

“This is some barbeque,” said Brad.

“Thanks. I had it built when we put
in the pool, hot tub and deck. We don’t use it much. Mostly we just barbeque on
the gas grill in the kitchen. It’s a lot easier, but this tastes better.”

“So the pool wasn’t here when you
bought the place?”

“No. I had all this done about two
months after I moved in.”

“It’s really spectacular. Is all
this stonework – the deck, the pool stonework, the barbeque – native stone?”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah. One of the
great aspects of Hunt’s architecture with this house is that it almost seems to
just grow out of the site’s rocky texture. So we tried to blend this addition
into the house, as well as Olmsted’s landscaping, in the same manner. So, yeah,
all the stone comes from a local quarry.”

“It is incredible, and what a
view.”

“Thanks. Yeah, we sure enjoy it.”

“So tell me, what’s it like living
under the same roof with five very good looking women?”

Jeff chuckled. “Well, it’s not what
you think. I dunno, sometimes it’s like having five wives, other times like
five sisters, and sometimes like five teenage daughters. All depends.”

Brad laughed.

“No, we all get along pretty well,
we have to. There’s the occasional disagreement, and subsequent catfight, but
those are pretty rare. After more than three years we all understand one
another, and we all keep pretty busy. It’s a big job and there’s a lot to do.
It keeps us busy seven-days-a-week and there’s not much time for a, uh, family
life. We get out and kick up our heels now and then, but not nearly as often as
we’d like.”

“Cat fights?” Brad grinned. “What
are those like?”

“Oh, they’re nothing special.
Usually just a glare and raised voice. But they’re brief and end peacefully.
Everybody knows they’re non-productive. There was only one that I recall that
got really ugly. And even it was pretty damn brief.”

Brad chuckled. “What happened?”

“Oh, it was about a year and a half
ago. We’d been working way too hard, and too long without a break and, well,
tempers flared. Abby got on Gabe about something. Crap, I don’t even remember
what it was. But she seriously got in Gabe’s face and that was a bad idea.
Abby’s not a small woman and she’s feisty and fit as hell, but she’s no match
for Gabe. Gabe hauled off and decked her with a right cross that would’ve made
George Foreman smile. Put her head through a wall and knocked her out cold.”

“Jesus!”

“Yeah, Gabe’s not only big, she’s
strong. If you ever get a chance to see her in a bathing suit, take a look at
her arms and shoulders. There is some serious strength there. I wouldn’t want
to take her on. We all have individual training routines that Sue has designed
for us to both keep us in shape and prepare us for the mission. And, the
routines are a combination of things that we like to do and things that Sue
feels each of us need. And as strange as it may seem, Gabe likes to lift
weights.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Hell, she can bench press
more than I can.” Jeff heard music coming from the great room and frowned. “Uh
oh.”

“What?”

“Um, that music. It’s one of Abby’s
favorite songs.”

Brad shook his head. “I don’t
recognize it.”

“It’s
Kiss from a Rose
by
Seal. I think Abby has every recording of it ever made. This one’s by an all-female
horn quartet called Genghis Barbie. I like it but…”

“What?”

“It usually means she’s headed for
the hot tub.”

“And?”

“I don’t think she owns a bathing
suit.”

Brad chuckled. “You’ve noticed.”

Jeff glanced at him. “You too?”

“Uh huh. The first time she went
swimming at the villa, Diane and I were sitting in the pavilion and Abby just
sauntered out, took off her robe, dropped it in a chair next to me, and stood
there stark naked, sipping a glass of wine. Thought I was gonna have a heart
attack.”

Jeff laughed. “I know the feeling.”

Brad shook his head. “Funny thing
was, Diane was completely nonchalant about it. No big deal.”

“Abby is a free spirit, that’s for
sure.”

“Yes she is.”

At that moment Abby and Diane
emerged from the back doors, wearing bathrobes, their hair tied up in buns, and
headed for the hot tub, about twelve feet from the barbeque. Both dropped their
bathrobes in chairs and stepped naked into the hot tub. Abby said, without
looking at Jeff and Brad, “Don’t stare.”

Jeff shook his head and swallowed
hard. “Oh lord.”

Brad said, “Who’s staring? We’re
just admiring the view.”

Diane grinned, sheepishly, and Abby
rolled her eyes.

Jeff turned to Brad. “Come on
inside, I’ll buy you a drink.”

“I could use one… and maybe a cold
shower.”

“Wuss.”

“You need to cut me some slack, I
only live with one woman.”

Jeff laughed. “You need to work on
your organizational skills.”

At the door they encountered
Chrissie, carrying a tray with two bottles of wine and half a dozen glasses;
Susan, carrying a stack of towels; and Gabe and Heidi, all likewise attired in
bathrobes, and apparently heading for the hot tub.

Jeff and Brad stepped aside and
watched them parade by. Jeff raised his eyebrows and gave Gabe a questioning
smile.

She smiled softly and shook her
head. “You wish.”

He wrinkled his nose in a grin.
“Damn.”

Inside, Brad said, “This is getting
more interesting by the minute.”

“Yeah.”

“What was that about?”

“Oh, Gabe’s modest, she’ll be
wearing a swimsuit. Sue and Chrissie probably not. Heidi? I have no idea. I
don’t think I’ve ever seen her in the tub or pool here.”

They both peeked out the door. Sue,
Chrissie… and Heidi were all naked. Gabe, as expected, was wearing a bikini top
and shorts.

Brad sighed and shook his head.
“Well, five out of six ain’t bad. And, uh, I see what you mean about Gabe.
Damn.”

Jeff chuckled. “Yeah. Sure beats
watching baseball on TV, doesn’t it?”

Brad stared, wide-eyed. “You can
say that again. Wow. For such a diminutive little thing, Susan is quite the
exotic beauty.”

“Yeah, she sure is. I see Diane’s
not particularly bashful.”

“Nope. The first time Abby stripped
down I instinctively glanced away and she told me to look at her. Said if I’d
seen her mother, I’d pretty much seen her. She’s right. I guess Diane feels the
reverse is true.”

Jeff nodded. “They do look a lot
alike… from head to toe.”

“Yeah.”

“Diane is also rather well toned.”

“Uh huh, she swims for about an
hour every day.”

“Good for her.” Jeff headed for the
main floor room in the east tower, and the bar. “What’ll you have to drink?”

Brad took a seat at the bar and
stared out the windows at the hot tub. “Oh, I don’t care, just so it’s highly
flammable.”

Jeff grinned and nodded. “Alright,
coming right up.” He poured two tall glasses of Smithwick’s Irish red ale and
two shots of Wild Turkey 101.

Brad smiled. “Boilermakers. That’ll
do.”

Jeff dropped a shot glass in the
ale and quickly downed about half. “Depth charge.”

Brad chuckled and followed suit.
“Ah, that’s better. So, Chateaubriand and… what was it?”

“Lobster Thermidor.”

“Wow. You guys always eat like
this?”

“No, but we do eat pretty well.
Sue, Abby and Chrissie are all very good cooks. Gabe, uh, not so much.”

“Abby has told us a little about
her. Sounds very bright. She has a Ph.D. from Caltech?”

Jeff nodded and sipped. “Yeah, so does
Heidi.”

“In what?”

“Gabe’s is in Aeronautics with a
minor in Applied Physics, Heidi’s is Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics.
Gabe also has a masters from MIT in Nuclear Science and Engineering with an
emphasis in applied plasma physics.”

“Jesus! That is one incredible
woman.”

“Yeah. Makes you feel kind of
stupid, doesn’t it?”

“Sure does. And she plays the
piano?”

“Uh huh, very well. Could be a
concert pianist if she wanted to be. If you close your eyes while listening to
her play, you’d swear you were listening to an old recording of Rachmaninoff.
She’s got large hands and, with that upper body strength, great power. And
there’s more.”

“What?”

“She played competitive chess in
college, and she’s pretty damn good.”

Brad shook his head. “Good grief.
What kind of mind does it take to do all that?”

“Well, one like Gabe’s. She has an
IQ of over 200 and eidetic memory, and she can do calculus in her head. In
fact, her IQ is so high it can’t accurately be measured because she aces all
the tests. On the other hand, she’s wound pretty tight. Not really surprising
for someone like her, though she’s a lot better today than when she first came
to work for me.”

Brad stared out the window. “That’s
incredible.”

“You play chess?”

“Yeah.”

“You should play her. You’ll lose, but it’ll be an
education. She doesn’t take prisoners.”

Brad chuckled. “You ever beat her?”

Jeff smiled and shook his head.
“No. In fact I don’t know of anyone that has. I keep hoping to find somebody
that can, so I can see how it’s done. I think if I could ever get her into an
endgame I might have a chance at a stalemate. She’s not terribly creative,
though she certainly has her moments, but her openings are so good – and she
knows them all – that by the time we get to the middlegame I’m always on defense,
and desperate. And of course the other problem is that she can anticipate so
well. She’s always six, eight, ten moves ahead of me, so I’m forever playing
catch-up.”

Brad smiled and
nodded, then stared out the windows for a moment.
“Jeff,
can I ask you kind of a, I dunno, delicate question?”

“Sure, you can ask. Won’t guarantee
I’ll answer it.”

“Yeah, gotcha. Well, I understand
that part of the reason… maybe that’s wrong… not, reason, but, uh, part of what
you’re going to be doing is to try and answer some of the many unanswered
questions about living in space and on another planet?”

“Right. There’s certainly a lot of
exploration, experimentation, observation, and data recording in the flight
plan.”

“Yeah, well, as a sci-fi novelist I’ve
written about a lot of stuff, space stuff, but much of it is just guesswork.”

“Uh huh. I read one of your books.
Liked it a lot. Wish I had that kind of technology. I hope to read more of your
stuff – and Diane’s – during the trip when I have a little more time.” He
sipped his beer and raised an eyebrow. “What’s on your mind, Brad?”

“Um, specifically… uh, sex in
space.”

Jeff smiled. “Ah. Yeah, okay, what
about it?”

Brad cringed and smiled,
sheepishly. “Um, do you have any plans to definitively study the subject?”

Jeff laughed. “Uh, the short answer
to that would be no, no plans. On the other hand, we’re gonna be gone for two
and half years, out of which nearly fourteen months will be in space. A lot can
happen during that time. So, hell, I dunno. Um, if it does, will we be taking
detailed notes and recording data, and writing a definitive scientific paper on
the subject when we get back?” He shook his head and smiled. “Probably not. I
imagine if, uh… we, whoever ‘we’ might be, get around to that, it’ll fall under
the heading of don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“Have you talked about it?”

“Yeah, sure. It’s come up in
conversation a couple times, usually in a humorous context. But like I said, we
haven’t made any plans. Why do you ask?”

Brad shrugged. “Curiosity.”

“Well, admittedly, we’re a little
curious too. But, there’s a lot that we’re planning, and some other things that
we’re just gonna leave out of the flight plan and see what happens. This would
be one of those items.”

Brad nodded. “Would you want to?”

Jeff laughed again. “Look out the
window. Of course I would. Hell, I’m not dead yet. But don’t get the wrong idea
about us, particularly Gabe, Abby, Sue and myself. Yeah, they’re out there
naked in the hot tub right now, well, all except Gabe, but even she might be if
you weren’t here. She actually allowed me to see her in one of her dainty
little semi-transparent Victoria’s Secret nighties not too long ago. That was a
first.” He nodded toward the hot tub. “But this is just blowing off steam.
Obviously, living and working this close together over the past few years,
we’ve gotten to know one another pretty well and, uh, yeah, we’re kind of
casual about a few things, and take some liberties here and there. But the fact
remains, they’re still my employees, and we’ve worked pretty hard to maintain a
professional relationship.” He glanced out the window and grinned. “At least,
most of the time.”