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the high-delta-V orbital ferry they had boarded at Equatorial Station.
 See what? Pavel asked, moving to float directly behind Lisa. She thought he hovered closer than was
necessary, but decided not to make an issue of it. After all, they would be cooped up together for the
next several weeks.
 PoleStar! Where is it?
 Right in front of you, Pavel replied. As he spoke, he pointed over her shoulder.  See the dimly glowing
patch?
She strained her eyes, and sure enough, a patch of - something - seemed to be obscuring the blackness
of space. It was remarkably difficult to focus her eyes on the spot, however.
The ferry s pilot had announced that they were bound for PoleStar shortly after leaving Equatorial
Station, and while the information had answered one of Lisa s questions, it had generated several others.
PoleStar had begun life toward the end of the last century as a power satellite. A giant orbiting mirror, it
had focused sunlight on a generator to produce electricity. The electricity, in turn, had been transformed
into microwaves and beamed down to a rectenna on the ground, where it was reconverted and
distributed on the power grid. The project had produced a considerable number of kilowatt-hours, but
never any profits. After a decade of losing money, the SolSat One Corporation had filed for bankruptcy.
The power generators, habitat, and orbiting mirror had been moved out of geosynchronous orbit to free
up the valuable parking slot they occupied. Years later, the big mirror and its accompanying habitat had
been purchased by speculators who planned to change the orbit of the satellite. They reasoned that if
they could place the mirror into a highly elliptical polar orbit, with its apogee above the North Pole, they
would be able to provide several hours of illumination each day through the long northern winter.
On paper, at least, the scheme had appeared a sure moneymaker. Unfortunately, the new owners had
grossly underestimated the cost of changing the big powersat s orbital plane from equatorial orientation to
polar. They had also failed to foresee the problems associated with municipalities and other regional
administrations signing up for their service. Since the mirror, renamed PoleStar, cast its light on subscriber
and non-subscriber alike, people had little incentive to pay for the six hours of half-light they received
each day. Eventually, PoleStar had gone bankrupt and was taken over by the weather directorate to be
run as a public service.
 I see it, Lisa said as she gazed at the faintly luminous patch in the sky.
 That s the big mirror, Pavel replied.  Naturally, the habitat module is still too small to see at this range.
 But why isn t it glowing like at home?
 Because we aren t in the sunbeam. All we see reflecting back to us from the mirror is the blackness of
space. A mirror in space is practically invisible.
 I believe it.
Fifteen minutes later, they passed into the beam of light that was currently illuminating the Alaskan night.
The transition was dramatic. One moment there was nothing to see. The next, a second sun appeared in
the sky in front of them. This one, too, was a glowing yellow billiard ball, but with a difference. The
second sun was too bright to look at directly, but as Lisa observed it with peripheral vision, she had the
impression that it changed shape as it slowly drifted across the surface of the orbiting mirror.
She asked Pavel about it. He explained that the mirror was a sheet of thin reflective film stretched out
across a framework of gossamer braces nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter. It was the largest (and
most fragile) artifact humanity had ever constructed. When it had been an orbiting power station, the
mirror had been much more concave than at present, in order to concentrate the heat of the sun on a
collector satellite. The current shape was nearly flat; curved just enough to ensure that the light beam was
focused on whatever area of the Earth they were illuminating.
Beyond the reflective sheet of the mirror was the tiny spherical habitat module. They watched it grow
slowly larger as the second sun continued to keep pace with them. By the time they crossed out of the
beam, the habitat had grown a bulge on one side. It took several minutes before the bulge resolved itself
into a second globe half the size of the habitat.
 It s a survey ship! Lisa exclaimed.  I wonder which one.
 Magellan, was Pavel s only reply.
#
Lisa observed that docking with a non-rotating structure in space is child s play compared to the
maneuvers required to approach any of the rotating stations. The only maneuver came at the last moment
as the dumbbell shaped ferry slewed sideways to present its dorsal airlock to the large airlock at the
habitat module s  equator. Their arrival was announced by a series ofthunks as the station grappled
them in.
There followed a general popping of ears as the orbital craft s pilot bled his atmosphere down to match
that of the 40-year-old habitat. Lisa Arden and Dieter Pavel made their way with their luggage to the
airlock antechamber. They hung back until the round hatch swung inward. Beyond was a short tunnel
filled with equipment and truncated by a lighted circle some four meters away. Lisa caught a glimpse of
someone s lower torso and legs for a moment before Dieter Pavel cut off her view as he pulled himself
forward and disappeared headfirst into the tunnel.
She waited for Pavel to clear and then followed him. She found a welcoming committee at the other end [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]