“When?”
“During one of your wet spells.”
“Those were millions of years ago, my cores show.”
“So? These guys were waiting around down in their vent.”
She could see Marc’s frown through his helmet plate. “So over time, why didn’t they just get rid of this ability, this talent for living on a warmer surface?”
“Two reasons. A very slow mutation rate underground on Mars, plus it’s an ability pretty close to what they need to make a go of it in the vent,” she said. “It also happens to be what they need to break out.”
“Pretty clever,” he said.
“Makes you wonder what they’re doing at the other end.”
“The other end of the vent?” He blinked. “You still want to do that? After what you’ve been through with this stuff? That’s twice now it’s almost gotten you.”
She grinned. “Guess I’m just a biological fool, but yes. I’ve been thinking about what you said down there in the vent—that Mars is a cooler planet, so the temperate region below ground could extend a lot farther down. Ten klicks deep, all the way over the surface of the planet, right? That’s a lot of space to evolve in.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I wonder how we can ever get a look at it?”
Viktor’s voice came over comm. “Time to end idle scientist talk, be crew members. Take your positions. Start the live vid coverage.”
“Yes sir!” she sent with a chuckle.
Julia started the running commentary for the live-action vid they would squirt to Earth. She tried to keep matters light for Earthside, but the unspoken mood on the spot was grim. Their lives were riding on the plume of scalding exhaust about to come out. She fidgeted with the microcams—Earthside wanted four viewpoints, supposedly for engineering evaluation, but mostly to sell spectacular footage, she was sure.
Her thoughts drifted briefly. Home! The call of it was an ache in the heart. “The cool green hills of Earth,” a song had said.
Leaving Mars…
Viktor sent, “Checks completed.”
“Let’s go,” Raoul called in a husky whisper.
“Start up,” Viktor said in a matter-of-fact voice she did not believe for a moment.
Sudden exhaust. The slender shape rose on a column of milky steam. The methane-oxygen burn looked smooth and powerful and her heart thudded as the ship rose into a ruddy sky.
“Max pump speed,” Viktor called. “Throttled flow.”
Fuel feed was choked down. They did not want to push it high into the sky, wasting fuel. It handled nicely, standing on its spewing spire as Viktor called out flow speeds and made it hover. Then drift sideways. Up. Then back.
“All nominal,” Viktor said, clipped and tight.
“Control A-sixteen and B-fourteen integrated,” Raoul answered. “Let’s set her down.”
“Coming off from max—”
“Got three seventy eight on—”
Down they came through the ruddy sky, settling—
And a loud thump smacked into Julia’s helmet, before she saw anything. The entire nozzle assembly was askew, the ship lurching in air. Ratcheting bangs rolled toward her.
It set down at a tipsy angle, spewing fumes, blowing sand over the damp smear that marked the takeoff.
Again, as if in a dream, she was running across the rocky ground, feet crunching, her shouts echoing in her helmet along with all the others, tinny over the comm.
PART IV
MARS NEEDS WOMEN
27
JANUARY 29, 2018
ONCE AGAIN SHE WAS SWIMMING IN THE ADELAIDE COMMUNITY POOL. Her dad was there, slim, young, and fit, her mom limping slightly from the accident, as she would for the rest of her life. She and Bill were racing across the pool. She dove below the lane separator, as her instructor yelled, “Blow bubbles when you go under the rope.”
But something was wrong. She had no air left, and the surface was so far away…
She awoke, clutching her chest, heart pounding. It took several long seconds to realize she was breathing after all.
Viktor stirred beside her. “Time to get up already?” His voice was curiously flat.
