"And that's just the asteroids," Rioz went on. "From Mars to Jupiter is three hundred thirty million miles, and to Saturn it's seven hundred million. How can anyone handle that kind of distance? Suppose you hit standard velocity or, to make it even, say you get up to a good two hundred kilomiles an hour. It would take you - let's see, allowing time for acceleration and deceleration - about six or seven months to get to Jupiter and nearly a year to get to Saturn. Of course, you could hike the speed to a million miles an hour, theoretically, but where would you get the water to do that?"
"Gee," said a small voice attached to a smutty nose and round eyes, "Saturn!"
Dora whirled in her chair. "Peter, march right back into your room!"
"Aw, Ma."
"Don't 'Aw Ma' me." She began to get out of the chair, and Peter scuttled away.
Swenson said, "Say, Dora, why don't you keep him company for a while? It's hard to keep his mind on homework if we're all out here talking."
Dora sniffed obstinately and stayed put, "I'll sit right here until I find out what Ted Long is thinking of. I tell you right now I don't like the sound of it."
Swenson said nervously, "Well, never mind Jupiter and Saturn. I'm sure Ted isn't figuring on that. But what about Vesta? We could make it in ten or twelve weeks there and the same back. And two hundred miles in diameter. That's four million cubic miles of ice!"
"So what?" said Rioz. "What do we do on Vesta? Quarry the ice? Set up mining machinery? Say, do you know how long that would take?"
Long said, "I'm talking about Saturn, not Vesta."
Rioz addressed an unseen audience. "I tell him seven hundred million miles and he keeps on talking."
"All right," said Long, "suppose you tell me how you know we can only stay in space six months, Mario?"
"It's common knowledge, damn it."
"Because it's in the Handbook of Space Flight. It's data compiled by Earth scientists from experience with Earth pilots and spacemen. You're still thinking Grounder style. You won't think the Martian way."
"A Martian may be a Martian, but he's still a man."
"But how can you be so blind? How many times have you fellows been out for over six months without a break?"
Rioz said, "That's different."
"Because you're Martians? Because you're professional Scavengers?"
"No. Because we're not on a flight. We can put back for Mars any time we want to."
"But you don't want to. That's my point. Earthmen have tremendous ships with libraries of films, with a crew of fifteen plus passengers. Still, they can only stay out six months maximum. Martian Scavengers have a two-room ship with only one partner. But we can stick it out more than six months."
Dora said, "I suppose you want to stay in a ship for a year and go to Saturn."
"Why not, Dora?" said Long. "We can do it. Don't you see we can? Earthmen can't. They've got a real world. They've got open sky and fresh food, all the air and water they want. Getting into a ship is a terrible change for them. More than six months is too much for them for that very reason. Martians are been living on a ship our entire lives.
"That's all Mars is - a ship. It's just a big ship forty-five hundred miles across with one tiny room in it occupied by fifty thousand people. It's closed in like a ship. We breathe packaged air and drink packaged water, which we repurify over and over. We eat the same food rations we eat aboard ship. When we get into a ship, it's the same thing we've known all our lives. We can stand it for a lot more than a year if we have to."
Dora said, "Dick, too?"
"We all can."
"Well, Dick can't. It's all very well for you, Ted Long, and this shell stealer here, this Mario, to talk about jaunting off for a year. You're not married. Dick is. He has a wife and he has a child and that's enough for him. He can just get a regular job right here on Mars. Why, my goodness, suppose you go to Saturn and find there's no water there. How'll you get back? Even if you had water left, you'd be out of food. It's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of."
"No. Now listen," said Long tightly. "I've thought this thing out. I've