“Failed in last ten seconds,” Viktor said sourly.
“Else things’d be much rougher, guys. This way, that ERV arrives, you pump your methane and oxy over to it. We’ll send a good pump for sure…”
Axelrod’s voice trailed away and he gazed off-camera. “And I… I’m doing what I can for you here. Talking to Airbus. Now, this is the main point, so listen up.” He turned to face the camera, again in command. “I don’t want you talking to the Airbus crew there. Not now. We’re negotiating with their people here. I’m trying to find a good angle on this for you all. Gotta see if they can take one person back. Maybe. Beyond that, I can’t say. So that’s the word—no talking.”
There was some more meandering monologue, but Julia got up and went into her study. She and Viktor had a code, to retire to the study when the world got to be too much. He sat and listened while she fled. She sat on the narrow seat in the small room and let the tears come that had been waiting there for her for days, since the greenhouse blowout. Even last night she had not been able to let them out, but now, all alone, they rushed forth. Delayed shock. Her medical training reasserted itself. Physician, heal thyself.
They went on for a long time. She knew it would be harder on the other three. They couldn’t even cry.
When she came out another face was on the screen. Not Axelrod, not some member of the Earthside tech team, but… Chen.
“We expect to be there within two hours,” he was saying. The view was from a handheld camera, showing the background of the Airbus control room. “To be of what help we can.”
Marc said, “Sure didn’t take them long.”
“Or us,” Viktor said. “To break Axelrod’s rule.”
“You’re going to talk to them?” Raoul asked. “Those bastards?”
Viktor’s smile was more like a thin gash across his face. “We have negotiations of our own to make, that I am sure.”
28
JANUARY 29, 2018
SHE HAD KNOWN HIM AS MENTOR, AS COLLEAGUE, AND NOW AS HE CAME from the lock, as rival. Victorious rival, as his thin smile announced.
“I am sorry to come on such an occasion,” Chen said with a formality that seemed fitting, despite the smile.
“We welcome any assistance,” Viktor said, ushering in Chen and Gerda and Claudine. “Thank you.”
They had made cocoa. Mars always chilled you, and coming in to a hot cup of milky reception had become a ritual often observed among the four of them, to mark a distant journey come to an end. Marc, not Julia, had thought of offering it.
Julia had noticed that usually the first thing their crew did after returning to the hab, especially after getting some food, was to turn and look out, “through” the large flatscreen. When not in receiving mode for messages from Earth, it reverted to one of the three external cameras. Safety protocols called for cycling among these three, but Marc had reprogrammed them so that the view outward toward the ERV had the most screen time.
All seven now stood before this view. The ERV was slumped slightly to the side as a result of the last landing. Panels were off, exposing a tangle of plumbing. Even in midday glare, the vista seemed somehow forlorn.
Nobody said anything at first. Then Chen broke the silence with, “Unfortunate. The fuel is intact?”
“Yes,” Viktor said. The two captains stood together. “I got it back down when the pressure on line two dropped. Did not damage the main tanks.”
Chen nodded and turned away. “You have a very pleasant place.”
The Airbus Three, as media had dubbed them, spent a few moments reconnoitering the hab, with Raoul as guide. They noted with skill the design features and compromises the four crew had imposed on the basic design that had lifted off from Canaveral a thousand years ago. They admired most the space. The hab was the size of a New York condo at best, but still more than half again larger than the Airbus living quarters.
Which quickly developed to be the point of the visit. They sat around the social table, the guests getting the seats with Viktor.
“We are sorry for the accidental failure of your test,” Gerda said.
“At least no one was hurt,” Claudine added. Viktor said, “Starvation will be at least slower.”
A tense pause, then, “Surely not that,” Claudine said.
“We can take one more crew member,” Chen said gravely.
“That is all?” Viktor blinked in surprise.
“It is not a matter of payload, you understand.”
“We have a good food reserve—”
“We do not have the room.” Chen nodded toward Marc. “As he can confirm.”
“Yeah, there’s sure not much,” Marc grudgingly agreed. “We all saw that. Big limitation is in the systems. The one I trained with, it was rated for a crew of four. The air and water filtration systems, everything.”
“We have higher shielding needs,” Chen said, “for the reactor.”
“It limits the payload mass,” Gerda said.
Viktor nodded. “I appreciate your limitations. We are all here living close to knife edge.”
“There are severe constraints upon our mission,” Gerda said, apparently trying to be helpful.
“Management?” Viktor said.
Chen smiled again. “It is amusing to find ourselves, the entire human presence on another world, carrying out the dictates of people who are on the other side of the solar system.”
“We are in command here,” Viktor said, “you and me.”
