Mining the Oort by Frederik Pohl Read Free Book Online Page A

liquid in it. He swallowed it down anyway and managed to say, "Good wine," appreciatively.
    "It's really a pity," Annetta was saying warmly to him, "that we won't be seeing each other much, Dekker. My father's going to take us home, you know, as soon as we see the comet impact is going all right."
    "Home to Earth, that is," Evan supplied, grinning as he refilled Dekker's glass. "You've never been there, I suppose? No, of course not. You really should, if you ever can, I mean. Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Rio—Earth is just wonderful, Dekker. The scenery! The culture! The women! Here, let me fresh your drink up a little."
    "I think Dekker would rather have a soft drink," Annetta said worriedly.
    "Why do you think that?" Dekker demanded. "No, I like to drink this wine very much." And in fact he discovered that he did—not for the taste, of course, because who could enjoy swallowing weak vinegar?—but it did warm him up in pleasant ways.
    It wasn't just the wine, either. People more mature than Dekker DeWoe found intoxication in moving in the society of their betters. It was fascinating to Dekker to watch the Earthies dealing with each other—always smiling, but always, he thought, serious and even—what would you call it?—yes, punishing behind the smiles. And what things they said! He caught bits and pieces of phrases and discussions, no more comprehensible to him than ancient Etruscan: What were "double-dip securities"? Or "self-licky debentures"? Or "off-planet taxfrees"? And always there was Annetta, worriedly keeping an eye on him as Evan, grinning sardonically, kept refilling Dekker's glass, making conversation, always patronizing. "Pity you've never been in a spaceship; it's so broadening. Three weeks en route, with the whole universe spread out before your eyes—"
    "I bet," Dekker said belligerently, swallowing a sip of the wine, "you've never been in an airship."
    "A what?" the Earthie asked tolerantly, one eyebrow raised.
    "A dirigible airship. We use them all the time—for mass lifting, you know. They're hot-air. You cruise over the Valles Marineris for the mines, say, and you're looking right down into the crevasses—"
    Annetta appeared from nowhere. "Here, let me take that for you," she said, tugging the glass from his hand with a glare at Evan. "Dirigible, you say? That sounds really fun, Dekker."
    "It is," Dekker affirmed, and went on describing the raptures of lighter-than-air flight on Mars—well, not really out of his own personal experience, of course, but they didn't have to know that; he'd seen it often enough in the virtuals, and it had been just as his mother had described it to him.
    "So you have virts," the girl, Ina, said. "Virtuals," she added helpfully, when he looked surprised.
    He blinked at her. She seemed a nice enough girl, short and squat, but too nice for that snot, Evan. "Did I say anything about virtuals?" he asked, trying to remember.
    "Of course they have virtuals, Ina," Evan said, his hand on her shoulder. "Only sight and sound, of course. On Earth," he informed Dekker, "we have full-sensory virts. Of course—" He gave Dekker an unexpected wink and poke in the ribs. "—they're not very convincing unless you dope up a little first."
    "Dope up? You mean like this wine stuff?"
    Evan laughed. "Oh, a lot better than that. I mean serious dope."
    "Oh," Dekker said. "I know. I saw it in the plays, but it's against the law."
    "Of course it's against the law. Who ever lets that stop him?"
    Dekker looked around to see what Annetta Cauchy thought of that, but the girl had disappeared. He did see his nearly empty wine glass on the table where she had left it. He picked it up and drank the remains while he thought over what it meant to deliberately break laws. That struck him as preposterous. What were laws for, if they were broken?
    But the Earth boy was still pressing him. As he refilled Dekker's glass he said, "What about games?"
    "Well, of course we have games. All kinds of games.