“Halt,” Janos Tabori interrupted with a friendly smile. “The arcana of the early robotic exploration of the solar system is not on the agenda for today’s postmortem.” He looked down the table at Borzov. “Skipper, my shoulder is hurting, my stomach is empty, and the excitement of today’s exercise has left me exhausted. All this talk is wonderful, but if there’s no more specific business would it be out of line to suggest an early end to this meeting so that we will have adequate time, for once, to pack our bags?”

Admiral Heilmann leaned forward on the table. “Cosmonaut Tabori, General Borzov is in charge of the crew meetings. It is up to him to determine —

The Soviet commander waved his arm at Heilmann. “Enough, Otto, I think that Janos is right. It has been a long day at the end of an extremely busy seventeen days of activity. This conversation will be better when we are all fresh.”

Borzov stood up. “All right, we will break for now. The shuttles will leave for the airport right after dinner.” The crew started preparing to leave. “During your short rest period,” Borzov said as an afterthought, “I want all of you to think about where we are in the schedule. We have left only two more weeks of simulations here at the training center before the break for the end-of-the-year holiday. Immediately thereafter we begin the intensive prelaunch activities. This next set of exercises is our last chance to get it right. I expect each of you to return fully prepared for the remaining work — and recommitted to the importance of this mission.”

4

THE GREAT CHAOS