Chapter 8

Excellent. Nobody had reserved the laundry unit until afternoon. Kevin could start his laundry at his convenience.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Randy, surprising Kevin who was admittedly not one hundred percent awake yet. “I should’ve seen this sooner.”

“Seen what sooner?”

“The valve problems didn’t start until after we sent the bots down to 87211 Avicenna.”

Kevin couldn’t keep track of which Kuiper Belt Object was which. It didn’t help that most of them werereferred to solely by number, but even the names blurred together around the twelfth chunk of rock. At least they did for the non-geologically inclined. “And, therefore?”

“That’s the one where we found traces of an unknown mineral. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“It could,” retorted Kevin, because he couldn’t think of anything more intelligent to say. Then he realized he didn’t sound intelligent at all. He sounded like an uncooperative first-grader, so he quickly added, “But it’s worth looking into.”