Mercury Read Online Free

cubicles and larger spaces. Goethe base was staffed with a mere two dozen engineers and technicians, yet it seemed as if hundreds of men and women had been packed into its crowded confines.
    ‘We decided to establish the base here on the surface of the planet,’ Alexios explained as they walked down a row of humming consoles. Yamagata felt sweaty, almost disgusted at the closeness of all these strangers, their foreignness, their body odors. Most of them were Europeans or Americans, he saw; a few were obviously African or perhaps African-American. None of them paid the slightest attention to him. They were all bent over their consoles, intent on their tasks.
    ‘The original plan was for the base to be in orbit,’ Yamagata said.
    Alexios smiled diplomatically. ‘Economics. The great tyrant that dictates our every move.’
    Remembering the lessons in tolerance the lamas had pressed upon him, Yamagata was trying to keep the revulsion from showing on his face. He smelled stale food and something that reminded him of burned-out electrical insulation.
    Continuing as if none of this bothered him in the slightest, Alexios explained, ‘We ran the numbers a half-dozen times. If we’d kept the base in orbit we’d have to bring supplies to it constantly. Raised the costs too high. Here on the surface we have access to local water ice and plenty of silicon, metals, almost all the resources we need, including oxygen that we bake out of the rocks. Plenty of solar energy, of course. So I decided to plant the base here, on the ground.’
    ‘You decided?’ Yamagata snapped.
    ‘I’m an independent contractor, Mr. Yamagata. These people are my employees, not yours.’
    ‘Ah yes,’ Yamagata said, recovering his composure. ‘Of course.’
    ‘Naturally, I want to do the best job possible for you. That includes keeping the project’s costs as low as I can.’
    ‘As I recall it, you were the lowest bidder of all the engineering firms that we considered, by a considerable margin.’
    ‘Frankly,’ Alexios said, smiling slightly, ‘I deliberately underbid the job. I’m losing money here.’
    Yamagata’s brows rose in surprise.
    ‘I’m fairly well off. I can afford a whim now and then.’
    ‘A whim? To come to Mercury?’
    ‘To work with the great Saito Yamagata.’
    Yamagata searched Alexios’ strangely asymmetrical face. The man seemed to be completely serious; not a trace of sarcasm. He dipped his chin slightly in acknowledgement of the compliment. They had come to the end of the row of consoles. Yamagata saw a metal door in the thin partition before them, with the name D. ALEXIOS stenciled on it. Beneath it was a smeared area where someone had tried to wipe out a graffito, but it was still faintly legible: He who must be obeyed .
    It was somewhat cooler inside Alexios’ office, and a good deal quieter. Acoustic insulation, Yamagata realized gratefully, kneading his throbbing temples as he sat in a stiff little chair. Alexios pulled up a similar chair and sat next to him, much closer than Yamagata would have preferred. The man’s unbalanced face disturbed him.
    ‘You need a drink,’ Alexios said, peering intently into Yamagata’s perspiring face. ‘Tea, perhaps? Or something stronger?’
    ‘Water would be quite welcome, especially if it’s cold.’ Yamagata could feel his coveralls sticking to his sweaty ribs.
    The office was tiny, barely big enough for a quartet of the spartan little chairs. There was no desk, no other furniture at all except for a small bare table and a squat cubicle refrigerator of brushed aluminum. Alexios went to it and pulled out an unmarked ceramic flask.
    Handing it to Yamagata, he said, ‘Local product. Mercurian water, straight from the ice cache nearby.’
    Yamagata hesitated.
    With a crooked grin, Alexios added, ‘We’ve run it through the purifiers, of course, although we left a certain amount of carbonation in it.’
    Yamagata took a cautious sip. It was cold, sparkling, and