Season of Passage, The (20 page)

that we're supposed to fol ow.'

'What about the chocolate in the hot chocolate?' Jessica asked. 'Doesn't it have caffeine in it?'

Lauren lowered her voice. 'It's real y carob.'

Jessica laughed. 'My grandpapa used to drink twenty cups of coffee every day. He took it scalding hot, with a tablespoon of sugar. He lived to be

ninety-seven.'

'A great and wise man, no doubt,' Jim said.

'You are not helping me,' Lauren complained to Jessica.

Jessica leaned over and whispered in her ear. 'Make Jim his coffee. He'l just sneak down here in the middle of the night and drink it, anyway. Then

he won't be able to sleep.'

'I heard cookies dilute the effect of caffeine,' Jim said.

Lauren snorted. 'Now we know what kil ed the Russians. They landed on Mars and ate al their desserts at once in celebration and died of

hypoglycemia.' She opened the lid on Jim's instant coffee jar. She'd had it out anyway. She put one - just one - teaspoon into a cup and added

boiling water.

'Make it strong,' Jim cal ed.

Lauren put in another teaspoon.

'I want some, too,' Gary said. 'I hate hot chocolate. It gives me pimples.'

Lauren scowled and tossed Gary's hot chocolate down the disposal chute. While she fixed another cup of coffee, Jessica began to sniff the air like

a bloodhound.

'My, that smel s good,' Jessica said, and sighed. 'When I was a little girl, my mom used to make a fresh pot of coffee

every morning. It would take the chil right out of your bones.'

'Jesus Mars Christ,' Lauren muttered.

Later, they gathered in the living area, each with a cup of strong coffee in hand, including Lauren. She sat next to a porthole, searching the bleak

western horizon for signs of Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons. It was supposed to rise shortly.

Gary had reached over on the couch and poked her in the side with his big toe.

'Don't do that!' she snapped.

He set his book face down on his chest and asked, 'Is it up yet?'

'You should know,' she said.

'What?' Gary asked.

'I haven't seen it,' Lauren said. She turned away from the window and removed the foot Gary had generously dropped in her lap. 'I must be looking

in the wrong part of the sky.'

'Watch southwest,' Jim said, bent over a picture of a rock he'd photographed earlier under a microscope. 'Phobos comes up fast.'

'Have you made any discoveries with the samples we col ected today, Professor?' Bil asked Jim. Jessica sat beside her husband on the other

couch, brushing her hair.

Jim put an Oreo cookie in his mouth and took a sip of his coffee. 'No discoveries,' he said, chewing. 'Just greater confirmation and refinement of

the theories we have been forming about Mars since the Viking series. There was water here once. Not too recently, but not that long ago, either. I'd

say between one and two mil ion years ago.'

'Explain,' Bil said.

'The planet's river beds were carved by water,' Jim said. 'Mars may be a volcanic planet, but no lava, no matter how

thin and runny, could have cut the ravines we have here. Of course, that's not news. Since the Vikings everybody's figured that Mars possessed

surface water at one time. When that time was has always been the question. After studying these rocks and this soil, I feel the effects of erosion on

Mars have been severely underestimated. The air here is thin, but we've already recorded winds as high as fifty miles an hour, far higher than we

anticipated, and plenty high enough to make dust airborne. Do you al see my point? The ravines I studied today are relatively sharp edged. They

couldn't have been subject to erosion for too long. That means the water that dug the ravines must have been here as recently as a couple of mil ion

years ago. I'd say there was stil water here when the human race was getting started.'

'You're saying there were canals here, then?' Lauren asked, poking fun at him.

Jim smiled. 'If you want to cal them that.'

Lauren reminded herself why water could not exist in the liquid phase on Mars. In the thin atmosphere, it would immediately vaporize or freeze. It

snowed on Mars, but it never rained.

'But Jim,' Lauren said, 'that means the atmosphere was at least ten times thicker then. What could have blown it away?'

Jim pul ed the two halves of another Oreo apart and began to lick the icing. 'I wonder,' he said.

'What if Mars came into conjunction with the Sun?' Bil said. 'When the axis of the planet was tilted at such an angle that both poles were facing the

sun at a relatively similar angle. In such a case, the layer of frozen carbon dioxide that covers the ice water at the poles could evaporate. That would

cause the atmosphere to undergo a considerable rise in density. Is that not possible, Professor?'

Jim nodded. 'Possible. However, I've always favored intense volcanic activity fil ing the atmosphere with dust and causing the greenhouse effect,

and in turn raising the temperature. No conjunction to the sun would melt the ice water at the poles. Only the carbon dioxide would melt.'

'But those are theories on how the atmosphere could become dense,' Lauren said. 'How did Mars lose its air in the first place?'

Jim shrugged. 'Some cosmic catastrophe perhaps.'

[Message from Houston.]

'What classification?' Bil asked.

[Class F, Bil .]

That meant it was from a friend or relative. Lauren hoped it was Jennifer, and that she had final y joined Terry in Houston. Lauren worried about her,

even though she was sure Daniel's family were fine people. Lauren worried about cosmic catastrophes.

'Who is it?' Lauren asked.

[Kathy Johnson, Lauren.]

Gary howled. 'My woman.'

'Use my screen,' Jim said. He erased the photo of his Martian rock. 'I'm through for the night.'

'Great,' Gary said, getting up quickly. 'On screen six Friend.'

[Yes, Gary.]

Kathy came on the screen, cute as ever, and started talking to a stoned, smiling Gary. Lauren continued her search out the porthole for Phobos,

and pretended not to listen. Suddenly Gary howled again, this time in irritation.

'Damnit,' Gary said, his face crumpling. 'It's Lorraine.' He slapped his knee. 'She had me fooled for a minute. She was talking like Kathy. But listen

to her now!'

'It was very hairy,' Lorraine was saying. 'I didn't know what to do. I've never seen a loaded cannon with

ammunition like that. He tried to pin me, and I tried to squirm away. But Gary, I'm sorry, I guess I just didn't try hard enough. He had me greased.

Somehow he slipped inside. Do you forgive me?'

Lauren would have thought no one could laugh harder than she was laughing if Jessica hadn't been in the same room with her. The two of them

doubled up and fel off their respective couches. Jim's cheeks looked as if they were ready to burst; he was trying to restrain himself. Bil was

another matter. In a ridiculously even tone, he said, 'If you don't want to listen to the young lady, Major, have Friend break the connection.'

'Turn that bitch off, Friend!' Gary shouted.

[Which bitch is that, Gary?]

Gary pointed at Lorraine. 'Her!'

[You mean the young lady on screen six, Gary?]

'Yes!'

[I apologize for the delay, Gary. I did not know the young lady was a female animal or a vicious or immoral woman, and could thus be classified as a

bitch.]

The screen went blank. But they weren't through yet.

'The rest of you shut up!' Gary yel ed, turning red.

'Oh, my!' Lauren gasped from her place on the floor, clutching her sides.' "He had me greased"!'

' "I'd never seen a cannon loaded with ammunition like that"!' Jessica cried, choking on her laughter. 'Oh, Gary! You sure know how to pick them!'

Gary appealed to Jim. 'Would you tel these tramps that this is no laughing matter?'

Jim started to speak. But then he slapped his leg and burst into giggles. Lauren threw a cushion and hit Gary in the head. Even Bil began to

chuckle. Final y, in the end, Gary began to laugh with them.

T could have sworn it was Kathy at first,' Gary said, when

they began to sober up. 'Hey, Friend. Put the bitch back on. But leave the audio off. I can look at her and pretend she's Kathy.'

[Yes, Gary. The bitch on screen six.]

'No, look at this,' Lauren exclaimed, jumping back to the porthole. A dul elongated light outside the portal had caught her eye. It was rising too fast

to be a star, and it was too big. The group gathered at her back and stared out into the night, where the temperature would have kil ed them in a

minute without protection. Phobos inched steadily into the sky, and it seemed to Lauren a good omen that the moon appeared just at the end of

their laughter.

Yet the night deepened, a night as long as Earth's, but darker and more silent. More empty.

Lauren awoke from a troubled sleep to find her arms moving in the air above her head. She'd been having a nightmare, and had been trying to push

something away. Quickly she brought her arms back to her sides and glanced to the other bed where Jessica lay snoring peaceful y. Try as she

might, Lauren could not remember any other details from her nightmare, except that something heaving and repulsive had been trying to climb on

top of her, and that it had been smothering her.

Lauren sat up and swal owed, wondering at the foul taste in her mouth. It was as if she had eaten spoiled meat for dinner. She considered going

down to the basement for a glass of water. She felt dry.

Instead, she got up and crossed to the porthole. The alien darkness drew her, although she couldn't see a thing. She looked for a few seconds and

then climbed back into bed. A few minutes later, though, she was at the porthole again, watching and waiting. Stil , there was nothing there. She

leaned her nose against the glass. The chil of the contact

made her whole body shiver. She felt suddenly alone, terribly alone.

'Jenny,' she whispered. 'Jenny.'

In time Lauren returned to her bed and fel asleep.

The footprints that had crossed in front of the Rover were gone. But the Rover's high-gain antenna had been snapped off its extension arm. It hung

like a broken arm as they drove up to the probe in their jeep.

Lauren fingered the trigger on her laser rifle. Two miles in the distance she could see the Hawk, sleek and sharp in the afternoon sun. Bil and Jim

climbed out of the jeep and stood nearby. Lauren had a headache. She'd slept very badly.

'Where do you think they went?' she asked.

Jim walked over in front of the Rover and knelt where the footprints had been photographed years before. 'I think a Martian brushed them away,' he

said.

'Seriously,' Lauren said.

'The wind. I told you it's been much stronger than we anticipated.'

'You think it's the wind that made the prints, don't you?' Lauren climbed down from the jeep, stil holding the laser.

Jim smiled. 'Remember, I'm the one who saw canals.'

'What are your plans, Professor?' Bil asked.

Jim kicked the sand at his feet. It was primarily composed of hydrate ferric oxide. Indeed, the planet's once respectable water and oxygen supply -

if they listened to Jim - was not chemical y bound in the soil.

'I would like to brush away the dust in the area where the footprints were photographed,' Jim said. 'If there are holes where the prints used to be,

then we can be fairly certain they were created by the wind.'

'Do you wish to start on that today?' Bil asked.

'It could take me more than a day. But, yes, we may as wel get going on it.'

'What equipment wil you need?' Bil asked.

'The same equipment I was using to dig yesterday. It's back at the Hawk.'

'I was thinking that you should instal the seismometer first,' Bil said.

'Fine,' Jim said. 'This can wait. We should stick to our program. But while we are here, I want the Rover photographed from every direction at a

distance of fifty feet. I also want to examine the Rover itself.'

'Very wel , Professor,' Bil said, removing a camera from the front seat of the jeep. 'I'l take the pictures.' He walked off.

'Come, Lauren,' Jim said. 'Let's inspect this 'nineties masterpiece.'

The Rover had been driving straight for a low hil when it stopped. Its oversized wheels appeared unharmed, and the ground immediately in front of

it was as close to uncluttered as Mars got. Its cameras were filthy with dust. Stil , it was the snapped antenna that held their attention.

'Wel , did a monster do this or not?' Lauren asked.

Jim tugged unsuccessful y on the snapped arm, trying to break it free. 'I don't know,' he said.

'What about the wind?'

'It should be too thin to snap metal like this,' Jim said.

Lauren shifted the laser rifle's strap on her shoulder. She noticed they were in the patch of Bil 's picture-taking. 'Let's move to the side,' she said,

gesturing. 'I always feel self-conscious in front of a camera.'

'Why do you say that?' Jim asked, his voice oddly alert.

'We're in the way. You said you wanted the Rover photographed from every angle.'

'No, Lauren. Why did you say you felt self-conscious in

front of a camera? I've seen you on TV. You could be an actress.'

The question caught her off guard. She had been looking back over her shoulder. She had done the same often during the entire drive to the Rover.

It was fine to keep an eye out, but she realized she was being paranoid. Yet she felt suddenly defensive about her actions.

'It's natural to feel you're being watched when you're in front of a camera,' she said.

'Watched? Do you feel like you're being watched?'