“I've always just found it a bit odd that a company ship on mission that's likely to take three years at least would set aside one of its executive suites for an independent newspaperman. What's the benefit?”
"Oy, Monty! I've been looking high and low for you." Rosemary Wells was just coming around the bend of the dimly-lit corridor as Lamont emerged from the observation deck. "Let's get a cup of something hot and—say, now, are you alright?"
Lamont stopped in front of the medic, whose round green eyes were scrutinizing him with an expression of concern. "You're making sort of a funny face," she prodded.
"I can't be sure," Lamont said slowly, "but I think that Ed may have just given me a compliment."
Rosemary snorted and took his arm, leading him along the corridor in the direction of the ship's aft. "This I've got to hear," she ordered.
"I came to see him because I had an idea about gaining access to the closed-off portion of the tower," Lamont explained as he walked with her.
"And he liked it?"
"No, he hated it and said it was stupid."
Rosemary barked a laugh. "Sounds like Ed."
"Yes," Lamont agreed. "But after that, he said something that, viewed from a certain angle, could be construed as a compliment." He paused, looking over Rosemary's head out the long window beside them. The ghostly blue of the gas giant glowed through the thick transparent composite, casting complex shadows against the opposite side of the corridor. "Or at least," he concluded, "not an insult."
"What did he say?" Rosemary asked.
"He said that I'm doing my job well," Lamont replied.
Rosemary looked at him curiously. "Actually, what is your job?"
Lamont looked at the medic with a wounded expression. "Oh, nice. Thanks for that."
She gave him a gap-toothed grin and nudged him with the arm that was still crooked in his. "Don't take it like that, mate," she entreated. "I'm glad you're here. I've always just found it a bit odd that a company ship on mission that's likely to take three years at least would set aside one of its executive suites for an independent newspaperman. What's the benefit?"
"There you are, going on about the suite again," Lamont sighed. "Look, I didn't ask for it. Do you want to swap places? I can sleep standing up. I've done it."
"You're changing the subject," Rosemary scolded him.
Lamont slowed his pace, momentarily losing himself in thought. How could he explain his situation? Any exposition could lead to untold numbers of uncomfortable questions. "It's a bit of a long story," he finally dodged. "For one thing, I convinced United Space that the full success of the mission depended on the public getting an unbiased account of it when we get home."
"So you get another guaranteed best seller, and United Space gets…gets…" Rosemary's brow furrowed as she struggled to articulate her thought.
"United Space gets what it gets," Lamont said, his tone firm. "But whatever I write, it will be free and independent, not propaganda. And they need that because it's what makes us different from the other blokes."
"Oh!" Rosemary's eyes brightened as she caught on to what he was saying. "You mean the East. The Scientific Society."
Is that why the Scientific Society isn't a secret in this version? They are the Communist equivalent to United Space?
Also, this just occurred to me, but this chapter is called "Ziggurat", which is a structure similar to a pyramid right? But the entire plot is around a tower.
What's up with that?