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she listened in silence to an internal prompt, opened a file, and pushed it forward.
    “These yours?”
    “Yes.” Janeed recognized her own test answers, to both the standardized question set and the free-form invitation to pick a subject and work it through. She had taken a chance, reviewing the growth of the economy of the Jovian moons since first colonization, then using that to make projections on Saturn and Uranus system development.
    She expected at least a comment, but Dr. Bloom merely grunted, picked up a second file, and laid it in front of Sebastian.
    “And this is yours?”
    He peered, as though he had never seen the file in his life, then nodded. “Yep. That’s mine.”
    Sebastian nodded. Janeed winced, she hoped invisibly. It was the standard question set, and a quick glance was enough to show that at least half had been left blank.
    “How about these?”
    This time it was half a dozen sheets. They showed not writing or numbers but drawings, black-and-white sketches with the unfinished look of something done at high speed. They were—Janeed ought to have guessed it—cloud formations, whorls and bars and herringbone patterns, mixed together with no apparent logic.
    Sebastian took his time, stared, and at last said, “Yep. Didn’t have time to finish this one.” He pointed at a swirl like the image of a moving hurricane, spinning off smaller whorls from its trailing edge.
    “They resemble storms on the face of the planet Saturn. Did you base what you drew on something you had seen?”
    “Yep. There’s a regular vid feed, images from Mars and Jupiter and Saturn. I watch them. Uranus, too, though there’s nothing to see there.”
    “You mean no cloud patterns.”
    “Smooth as a billiard ball.”
    “But you didn’t just copy these from the latest video feed.”
    Sebastian frowned. “No. Didn’t copy them.”
    “So where did you get them? I assume that you took the tests under controlled conditions.”
    “We did.” Jan was not being spoken to, but she couldn’t keep quiet. “No one could come or go, no one could look at what anybody else was doing.”
    Valnia Bloom ignored her. “Where did you get these drawings, Mr. Birch?”
    Sebastian cleared his throat. “Well, I seen Saturn pictures on the vid feed. And these ones, I like dreamed , the way you do when drawing goes good.”
    If Janeed’s wince had been invisible before, she was sure it wasn’t now. Fortunately, Dr. Valnia Bloom seemed to be taking no interest at all in what Janeed did—until she raised her head and speared both Sebastian and Janeed with a single glance.
    “Your application was a rather unusual one. You are both over thirty, much older than our norm. Also, you asked to be considered as a team, but not singly.”
    Jan nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “And that is still your position?”
    Jan nodded again and glared at Sebastian, who said, “Yep.”
    “Very well. So be it.” Dr. Bloom collected the files and stood up. “That will be all.”
    “Thank you.” The words stuck in Janeed’s throat, and she had to swallow and start over. “Thank you for letting us try. Will we be allowed to try again?”
    “I think not.” Maybe Dr. Valnia Bloom was a sadist, or maybe she had been trained not to show feelings, because she had an odd little smile on her face. “There will be no second try.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “However, as I understand it, you are both required to give two weeks notice for service with General Minerals. I suggest that you do so immediately. Two and a half weeks from now there will be places reserved for you on a passenger shuttle. Once in a micro-gravity environment you will undergo complete physical examinations, after which a high-acceleration transit vessel will take you to Ganymede. Formal indoctrination will begin there.”
    She was heading up the steep ladder that led back to the main platform. Halfway up, she ducked her head and turned to where Janeed and Sebastian sat stunned at the little