"This is your last round trip, isn't it? Your two years are up."
"It was up last trip. I re-contracted."
Mendel grinned. "Member of the club now, huh? I thought you'd do that. Welcome aboard."
Blair shrugged self-consciously. "You know how it is," he said. "Every time I go back, Earth gets a little heavier. Besides, I like the soft life."
"You want it really soft," Mendel told him, "you put in for station duty. All we do is float around and around, draw our pay, and look at the pretty scenery."
"If that boy Ricks blows up," Blair said, "we'll both have plenty to do. I'm going to rack out, I'll see you later."
"See you, nursemaid."
Blair took the elevator down to the outer ring, and went to his cubicle in Section Two, next to the one occupied by Ricks, across the corridor from Standish and Miller. He stretched out on his bed and half-dozed, as his body gradually got reoriented to quarter-gravity.
Twenty minutes later, the meteor hit.