Mercury Read Online Free Page B

then wrapped himself in a silk kimono of midnight blue. By then he had worked up the courage to call his son, back at corporate headquarters in New Kyoto.
    Earth was on the other side of the Sun at the moment, and his call had to be relayed through one of the communications satellites in solar orbit. Transmission lag time, according to the data bar across the bottom of Yamagata’s wall screen, would be eleven minutes.
    A two-way conversation will be impossible, Yamagata realized as he put the call through on his private, scrambled channel. I’ll talk and Nobu will listen; then we’ll reverse the process.
    It still startled him to see his son’s image. Nobuhiko Yamagata was physically almost exactly the same age as his father, because of the years Saito had spent in cryonic suspension, immersed in liquid nitrogen, waiting to be revived, cured of his cancer to begin life again.
    ‘Father,’ said Nobu, dipping his head in a respectful bow. ‘I trust you had a good journey and are safely in orbit at Mercury.’ Before Saito could reply, Nobu added jokingly, ‘And I hope you brought your sunblock lotion.’
    Sai rocked back with laughter in his contoured easy chair. ‘Sunblock lotion indeed! I didn’t come out here for a tan, you know.
    He knew it would take eleven minutes for his words to reach Nobu, and another eleven for his son’s reply. So Saito immediately launched into a description of his visit to Goethe base on Mercury and the problem with the solar panels on the powersats.
    He ended with, “This Alexios person claims he has sent the data to your experts. I am anxious to hear what they think about it.”
    And then he waited. Yamagata got up from his chair, went to the bar and poured himself a stiff Glenlivet, knocked it back and felt the smooth heat of the whisky spread through him. He paced around his compartment, admired the holograms of ancient landscapes that decorated the walls, and tried not to look at his wristwatch.
    I know how to pass the time, he said to himself. Sliding into his desk chair, he opened a new window on the wall display and called up the ship’s personnel files. Scanning through the names and pictures of the pilots aboard took several minutes. Ah! He smiled, pleased. There she is: Birgitta Sundsvall. I was right, she’s Swedish. Unmarried. Good. Employee since…
    He reviewed her entire dossier. There were several photographs of the woman in it, and Yamagata was staring at them when his son’s voice broke into his reverie.
    “Alexios has transmitted the data on the solar cells’ degradation, Father,” Nobuhiko replied at last.
    Yamagata immediately wiped the personnel file from the screen, as if his son could see it all the way back on Earth.
    Nobu went on, “This appears to be quite a serious problem. My analysts tell me that the decrease in power output efficiency almost completely wipes out any advantage of generating the power from Mercury orbit.”
    Yamagata knew it would be pointless to interrupt, and allowed his son to continue, “If this analysis stands up, your Mercury project will have to be written off, Father. The costs of operating from Mercury are simply too high. You might as well keep the sunsats in Earth orbit, all things considered.”
    “But have we considered all things?” Yamagata snapped. “I can’t believe that this problem will stop us. We did analyses of cell degradation before we started this project. Why are the actual figures so much worse than our predictions?”
    Yamagata realized he was getting angry. He took a deep breath, tried to remember a mantra that would calm him.
    “Please call me,” he said to his son, “when your people have more definite answers to my questions.” Then he cut off the connection and the wall screen went blank.
    Technically, the Mercury project was not being funded by Yamagata Corporation. Saito had officially retired from the corporation soon after he’d been revived from his long cryonic sleep. Instead, once he