Solar Express by L. E. Modesitt Jr. Page B

had the feeling that the next few days would be long, and that was all she needed after the sleep she’d lost during the last lunar day, both to the repairs, the subsequent cleanup, and making sure that the station was as clean and in as good a condition as possible for the Noram inspectors.

 
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    T HE T IMES OF I NDIA
    30 M ARCH 2114
    (D ELHI ) “India will not brook interference with its Dyaus Improvement Project.” Those were the key words from Prime Minister Narahaj Ravindra yesterday, after the Sinese Minister for Space made a statement suggesting that two space elevators were more than sufficient for the world. The Sinese minister had also suggested that greater priority should be placed on regional environmental remediation, especially after the recent tropical cyclone that destroyed another five percent of the coastal lands of Bangladesh.
    In response, Ravindra went on to say, “If necessary, India will place its Indra scramjet missiles on immediate alert.”
    The Indra has a range of over fifteen thousand kilometers at a speed of between Mach 10 and Mach 16, approximately twenty thousand kph, depending on altitude, and can be programmed to strike within a ten-meter square, allowing a combination of high speed and surgical precision. The Prime Minister’s statement was read by many as a thinly veiled suggestion that India would not hesitate in targeting heads of states if any action was taken against extension of the partial space elevator currently used by India …
    Noram President Dyana Yates weighed in on the controversy by stating, “Noram believes that peaceful national economic and technical goals should not be constrained by political or military considerations.” Regretfully, that was one of her more unambiguous statements, even as tensions between the Sinese bloc and the nations of southern Asia have risen in recent months …

 
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    D AEDALUS B ASE
    31 M ARCH 2114
    On Friday evening, after Alayna had eaten, she finished giving the Noram inspectors the internal tour of the station, including the control center, where they questioned Marcel far more than Alayna. The questions she answered were largely about her background and about the staffing of COFAR.
    Saturday morning, she did fix breakfast for everyone, hoping to keep the edge out of Geoffrey Hart’s voice and questions. By keeping busy, she also avoided questions. After they finished eating, and she cleaned up, before the “free time” on the solar and optical array, she had the three suit up. Then, once the “free” block began, no longer quite free, because the system was collecting her data and observations, she put the inspectors on the roller with her, Perez beside her, and the other two in the cargo bin, and eased the roller out of the upper service lock and out along one of the rows of antennas.
    â€œThere are dipole antennas embedded in the polyimide film. Each fifty meter length of film can be replaced…”
    â€œHow often is that required?” asked Hart, his voice still sounding harsh through the double link.
    â€œWhenever there’s damage. I had to replace two lengths about a week ago, during the last lunar night. A micro-meteorite burst damaged both. There have been something like twenty lengths replaced over the last thirty years. It doesn’t happen that often.”
    â€œThere’s no atmosphere to shield you,” Deveau said evenly. “That seems like a low number of repairs.”
    â€œThat’s true, but the antenna film isn’t that wide, and there’s much more open space between the antenna rows than what the film takes up. Plus, the film is used as a separator and base for the small embedded dipole antennas so that some meteorite strikes may hit the film without causing damage to the antennae. We’re also in a crater, and that stops some of the low angle meteors.”
    â€œHow wide is the film? A meter?”
    â€œA