He wouldn't be grinning if he knew what they knew, Lanya thought.
In the Greggor workshop, out away from the house, Virgil and Lanya worked diligently on the ship. A launching rig jutted up out of a pronounced dip in the red Martian sand a quarter of a mile away. Fascinating blueprints, over which Virgil pored learnedly whenever Lanya happened to look at him, littered the shop. Their father's shop equipment was switched on every afternoon to assist in the work. After five months the ship, with rocket engines already installed, was nearing completion.
Lanya's confidence in the venture had been on the wane lately. Before it had been only an exhilarating idea, safely remote in the future. But now, as the ship actually grew before her eyes, it was losing its secure vagueness. It was becoming terrifyingly real.
"Do you think we ought to do it?" she asked sheepishly and hopefully. She trembled at the derision in her brother's voice.
"Girls!" he said. "Always afraid of everything."
"I am not afraid!" Lanya protested indignantly. "I just wondered if we ought. Maybe father will buy us an aircraft this year."
"Huh! Fat chance! He's so darn busy all the time he doesn't even realize that we're probably the only kids on Mars who haven't a plane. Even Book, the poorest guy at the Institute, got a copter for his birthday last month." He frowned as he always did when talking about how unfairly he had been treated. "We'll show 'em! We'll be the envy of all Mars with this ship." His face lit up in a grin and he gloated, "Muuck thinks that new atom-powered cruiser of his is the best jalopy going, just because it can range in outer space. He's getting a temporary space-pilot's license this year and all he does is brag. Wait'll he sees this job! We'll make his cruiser look sick, Lanya!" He was apparently carried away by the vision.
Lanya was none too excited about the prospect of excelling Muuck's cruiser. "But, Virgil. You haven't a license. How can we make Earth if we can't even leave Mars?"
Virgil scoffed, "They have to catch us first! Besides, they hardly ever stop you, unless you mess up traffic patterns."