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he said, “Some other time.” The control team up at Jupiter V heard it clearly. It’s the kind of line you stick on a T-shirt . . .
    â€œBut in a way he has a point. About Jupiter anyhow. His mission in the Kon-Tiki was heroic, but he only scratched the surface. The planet’s full of structure—we think. Literally anything might be found down there. Jupiter is an ocean of mystery. And since he got back from Jupiter he’s already been seeking funding for follow-up missions. One reason he’s showing his face here, I think.”
    Dhoni nodded. “But all this is a denial of his personal reality. How can we help him?”
    â€œDamned if I know. Damned if I care, right now.”

6
    When he returned to Springer’s presentation, Falcon observed that nobody in the audience had even noticed that the pioneer of the clouds of Jupiter had gone briefly AWOL. Again he seethed with unreasonable resentment.
    It didn’t help that Matt Springer had a good story to tell. As if to rub that home, as Springer concluded his narrative a final image of Grandpa Seth—valiant at the controls of his doomed Apollo craft—remained frozen. Falcon was impressed at Springer’s skill as he milked the moment, before an audience that just happened to include the World President.
    Finally he spoke again. “Well, you know the rest. My ancestor was honoured with a ceremony at Arlington. Robert Kennedy beat Richard Nixon to the presidency, and in January 1969 made the Icarus incident a keynote of his inaugural speech . . .”
    A crude recording of RFK at the presidential podium was shown. Falcon knew the speech word for word: “A decade earlier and we would not have had the spacefaring capabilities that have saved us . . . Now it is incumbent upon us not to let this capacity wither . . . On the contrary, we must move out beyond the fragile Earth and into space, further and wider . . .”
    â€œAnd,” Springer commented with a grin, “Kennedy was wise enough tostress how well America and the Soviet Union had worked together on the Icarus project.”
    â€œThis episode has proven we are better united than divided, and more than that, we can be united around common goals . . .”
    Springer said, “Right there, in that passage, you had the foundation of the unity movements that led to the World Government. So Frank Borman led the first Apollo Moon landing in December 1971. The 1970s were the decade of Apollo, as RFK’s administration reflected the public gratitude to NASA by pouring in money: multiple missions, flights to the lunar poles and the far side, the beginnings of a permanent base in Clavius Crater. And then the first steps beyond the Moon.”
    More images, of Soviet-American landings on Mars in the 1980s.
    â€œSince then we’ve seen a remarkable century of progress. Resources from space helped us over hurdles—fuel depletion, climate problems—that might otherwise have tripped us. The first World President was inaugurated in 2060, to a recording of the Hendrix anthem—but I lived in Bermuda for ten years, and they always said the main benefit of hosting the planet’s capital city has been first call on the Global Weather Secretariat for hurricane protection.”
    Polite laughter.
    â€œAnd as for Seth’s descendants . . .” He brought up an image of his own mission patch. It was a variant on the family crest, which showed a leaping springbok, the Springers being an old Dutch family with rich offshoots in South Africa. Now that springbok leapt among Pluto’s moons. Springer smiled modestly in response to a ripple of applause.
    â€œAnd in a way it all stemmed,” Springer said, “from Grandpa Seth’s hero­ism. Anyhow, as the New Year approaches—according to Houston time, which is the only clock that counts for an astronaut—I move, with