more than once. He
received no satisfactory answer.

The Recreation Center was a two-acre park that lay beneath the plastic
dome of Mars City. Above them they could see swift-moving Phobos and
distant Deimos among the other stars that powdered the night. In the
park around them, colonists rode the amusement machines, canoed along
the canal that twisted through the park or sipped refreshment at
scattered tables. A dozen or more sat, like Jonner and Deveet, around
the edge of the tiny lake, fishing.

Deveet's line tightened. He pulled in a streamlined, flapping object
from which the light glistened wetly.

"Good catch," complimented Jonner. "That's worth a full credit."

Deveet unhooked his catch and laid it on the bank beside him. It was a
metal fish: live fish were unknown on Mars. They paid for the privilege
of fishing for a certain time and any fish caught were "sold" back to
the management at a fixed price, depending on size, to be put back into
the lake.

"You're pretty good at it," said Jonner. "That's your third tonight."

"It's all in the speed at which you reel in your line," explained
Deveet. "The fish move at pre-set speeds. They're made to turn and catch
a hook that moves across their path at a slightly slower speed than
they're swimming. The management changes the speeds once a week to keep
the fishermen from getting too expert."

"You can't beat the management," chuckled Jonner. "But if it's a matter
of matching orbital speeds to make contact, I ought to do pretty well
when I get the hang of it."

He cocked an eye up toward the transparent dome. Phobos had moved across
the sky into Capricorn since he last saw her. His memory automatically
ticked off the satellite's orbital speed: 1.32 miles a second; speed in
relation to planetary motion....

Why go over that again? One had to have fuel first. Meanwhile, the
_Radiant Hope_ lay idle on Phobos and its crew whiled away the hours at
the space station inside the moon, their feet spinning faster than their
heads ... no, that wasn't true on Phobos, because it didn't have a spin
to impart artificial gravity, like the space stations around Earth.

He sat up suddenly. Deveet looked at him in surprise. Jonner's lips
moved silently for a moment, then he got to his feet.

"Where can we use a radiophone?" he asked.

"One in my office," said Deveet, standing up.

"Let's go. Quick, before Phobos sets."

They turned in their rods, Deveet collecting the cred