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the sprawling lights of Logan Airport. The driver cocked his head toward his passenger behind the bulletproof glass. “Which airline you going to?” he asked.
    â€œPan Am,” the man in the back seat replied. “Domestic terminal.”
    â€œPan Am domestic,” the driver repeated, swerving into the appropriate lane. His passenger had been silent the entire trip out of Boston, but there was still no reason why he couldn’t get a little talk out of him now. “Where you headed?”
    â€œThe Moon,” his passenger quietly responded.
    â€œWhat?” The driver wasn’t sure he had heard him correctly.
    The man in the back seat looked away from the window. “Monterey,” he said. “Little vacation.”
    â€œOh yeah,” replied the driver. “Monterey. Hear it’s nice down there. Hope you enjoy your vacation.”
    â€œThanks,” said Jeremy Schneider. “I’m sure I will.”

PART TWO
    Return to the Moon

Getting There Is Half the Fun (Interview.2)
    Ray Carroll: Skycorp LTV co-pilot, U.S.S . Michael Collins:
    There’s an old saying up there—you only fly to the Moon once. Now, that’s technically not true, because even back in Apollo days, there were some of the old NASA flyboys—Gene Cernan, Jim Lovell, John Young—who made it to the Moon twice during the program. And since been I’ve assigned to the Collins , which has been about two years now, I’ve made the round trip at least once a month, which means that I’ve been to the Moon and back at least … ( shrugs ) What, at least thirty-six times now? That’s not even a record. Hell, I lost count long time ago.…
    What they really mean is that, once you’re on the Moon, you’re there to stay until your contract runs out and you’re ready to go home. There’s practical reasons for that, of course. It costs too much to get a person to the Moon to let him take a vacation back home. Last time I checked, Skycorp’s overhead to send one person there is approximately two hundred fifty [dollars] per pound, which means that it costs the company about forty-five grand to send an average-size adult male to Descartes Station. That’s a lot cheaper than when NASA ran the railroad, but still not cheap. The company doesn’t want to spend that kind of money twice, so there’s no contract-guaranteed vacations to Earth. Even the people who work in the Earth-orbital operations, like the powersat beamjacks, finally got ASWI to stipulate a one-week vacation for the guys who signed two-year contracts. But not the moondogs. On the Moon, you’re there for keeps till the job is over or unless you’re fired.
    The second reason you don’t go back is because it takes time for the body to acclimate, coming and going. The new workers tend to blunder around a lot in their first week or two at Descartes, so they also need time to readjust to normal gravity once they return to Earth. Now, I keep up on my exercise between flights, working out on the treadmill and the rowing machine to keep my heart and muscles copacetic, because one-sixth gravity is a pernicious thing, but even then I’ve got my mandatory retirement coming up in three months and, hell, I’m only thirty-five and I spend most of my time in Cocoa Beach. But if you’re a moondog … well, like I said, it can wear you out easy if you’re not careful.
    So that’s an old saw that means something, y’know, if you’re a moondog. Doesn’t mean shit if you’re a pilot … ( laughs ) But I gotta tell you, since you happened to ask, Mr. Steele … you don’t want to fly to the Moon. Not in my ship, at least.
    It takes three days to get from the Cape to Descartes Station, and for the most part, it’s a pretty boring trip. I mean, I love it when I read stuff about the euphoric glory of spaceflight … hope you’re not like one of those