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threat. The Space Board will simply rent the Indo-Asian facilities on Ganymede we need.”
    “I’m just saying you’d better start now to recruit topnotch Asians for your team. Our prickly friends aren’t going to be happy if they see a lot of European faces peering into their backyard—which is how they think of the Jovian moons.”
    “Some of us European faces are Asians, Web. New Delhi is still my official address. I don’t see it becoming a problem.”
“No, I suppose it won’t.” Webster studied Falcon, and his thoughts were transparent. Falcon’s argument for Jupiter sounded logical, but there was more to it. Jupiter was lord of the solar system; Falcon was fired by no lesser challenge.
    “Besides,” Falcon continued, “Jupiter is a major scientific scandal. It’s been more than a century since its radio storms were discovered, but we still don’t know what causes them. And the Great Red Spot is as big a mystery as ever, unless you’re one of those who believes that chaos theory is the answer to every unanswerable question. That’s why I think the Indo-Asians will be delighted to support us. Do you know how many probes they’ve dropped into that atmosphere?”
“A couple of hundred, I believe.”
    “That’s just in the last fifty years. If you count back to Galileo, three hundred and twenty-six probes have penetrated Jupiter—about a quarter of them total failures. We’ve learned a hell of a lot, but we’ve barely scratched the planet. Do you realize how big it is, Web?”
“More than ten times the size of Earth.”
     
“Yes, yes—but do you know what that really means?”
     
Webster smiled. “Why don’t you tell me, Howard?”
     
Four planetary globes stood against the wall of Webster’s office, representing the settled terrestrial planets and Earth’s moon. Falcon pointed to the globe of Earth.
     
“Look at India—how small it seems. Well, if you skinned Earth and spread it out on the surface of Jupiter, oceans and all, it would look about as big as India does here.”
    There was a long silence while Webster contemplated the equation: Jupiter is to Earth as Earth is to India. He stood up and went to the globe of Earth. “You deliberately chose the best possible example, didn’t you, Howard?”
Falcon moved to face him. “Hardly seems like nine years ago, does it, Web? But it is. We did those initial tests three years before the Queen ’s first and last flight.”
     
“You were still a lieutenant.”
     
“That I was.”
     
“And you wanted to let me preview the grand experiment—a three day drift across the northern plains of India. Great view of the Himalayas, you said. Perfectly safe, you promised. Said it would get me out of the office and teach me what the whole thing was all about.”
     
“Were you disappointed?”
    “You know the answer to that.” Webster’s grin split his round, freckled face. “Next to my first trip to the moon, it was the most memorable experience of my life. And you were right—perfectly safe. Quite uneventful.”
    Falcon’s mask seemed to soften with the memory. “I planned it to be beautiful, Web. The lift off from Srinagar just before dawn, because I always loved the way that big silver bubble would suddenly brighten with the first light of the sun. . . .”
    “Total silence,” Webster said. “That’s what made the first impression on me. None of this blowtorch roar from the burners, like those ancient propane-fueled hot-air balloons. It was impressive enough that you’d managed to package a fusion reactor in a hundred-kilogram bottle, Howard, but that it was silent as well—hanging there right over our heads in the mouth of the envelope, zapping away ten times a second—you must know what a miracle-in-action that seemed.”
    “When I think about flying over India I still remember the village sounds,” Falcon said. “The dogs barking, the people shouting and looking up at us, the bells ringing. You could always hear it,