Season of Passage, The (28 page)

'Send up another flare,' Jim advised. 'Let's get a better look at where you are.'

'A moment,' Bil said. 'I want to examine this coast.' He sounded as if he were climbing out of Hummingbird, and then walking.

Then she heard a second pair of feet, coming quickly.

'Bil !' Jim shouted. 'Watch your back!'

'Professor,' Bil said, a note of surprise in his voice. Then his voice became pure surprise as he let out a shocked cry. 'Oh!'

They heard a loud splash, a horrible choking sound. Then silence...

Hummingbird's picture went dead.

'Wil iam!' Jessica cried.

They cal ed for five minutes before any of them would admit that they had lost the commander. In the control room of the Hawk, Lauren bowed her

head. 'I should never have woken that corpse up,' she said.

TWENTY-ONE

The flashing red light on the airlock turned a steady green. The door slid open. Jim trudged inside and plopped down on a chair. Lauren helped

Jessica remove her helmet. Jessica did not look upset, or sad, or alive.

'Oh, Jessie,' Lauren cried. 'I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have let him go. He was always too brave. We'l do something. We'l think of something.'

Jessica's face was blank. 'What, Lauren? What wil we do?'

They looked to Jim, their new commander, their wizard. Lauren prayed that he would find the magic that would make everything al right. 'Let's get

out of these suits,' he said. 'We'l talk in the living area.'

Later, they gathered at Jim's feet. He wanted to know if there was any word from Houston.

Gary snickered. 'They're in conference. They'l be in conference two years from now, at the next Martian conjunction.'

Jim took a deep breath. Salt crusted his parched lips. 'We have Bil 's last orders. We're supposed to leave without him.'

'We can't leave Wil iam,' Jessica mumbled. 'No.'

Lauren spoke bitterly. 'To hel with his last order.'

'What do you say, Gary?' Jim asked quietly.

Gary stood and paced the floor. 'He was my commander. He gave me an order. I always fol ow orders.' Gary stopped and pounded the wal . 'Hel , I

don't want to leave Bil . But what does it matter what any of us want? Hummingbird is gone. I sure can't swim three miles in a pressure suit.'

'It would be dangerous,' Jim said to himself.

'What?' Lauren asked.

Jim smiled faintly. 'I always wanted to be a sailor.'

'A boat?' Lauren asked. 'How could we build a boat?'

'I've given the matter some thought,' Jim said. 'Actual y, we don't have to build a boat. We already have one. The jeep. Al we have to do is drive it

down there, pop the engine out, and lower it over the side.'

Gary was skeptical. 'It would sink.'

'No,' Jim said. 'I've worked it out mathematical y. The wheels wil displace enough water to float four people.'

'It'l leak,' Gary said 'The bowl of the jeep isn't watertight.'

'It wil only leak in two places,' Jim said. 'At the steering wheel shaft and at the accelerator pedal. We'l patch those two places.'

'What wil we use to propel it?' Gary asked.

'Our shovels,' Jim said. 'They can be used as paddles.'

Gary thought for a moment. 'It might work.'

Lauren sprang to her feet. 'Let's start now.'

'Wait,' Jim said.

'What is it?' Lauren asked.

'Our original question,' Jim said. 'We've al brushed it aside. Should we go after Bil ? Or better yet, what happened to him?'

'Ivan attacked him,' Jessica said bitterly. Life had returned to her face with Jim's suggestion of a boat.

Jim nodded. 'Yes. But how did Ivan overcome him?

Bil 's a strong man. Plus he carried a laser rifle.'

'Ivan snuck up on him from behind,' Lauren said. 'It sounded like he pushed him in the water.'

'What of it?' Jim said. 'A momentary drenching shouldn't have harmed Bil 's suit or his laser. He should stil have been able to fend for himself.'

'What are you thinking?' Gary asked. 'Many things,' Jim said. 'Why did Ivan do it? Supposedly he was leading us to the rest of his crew. I never

believed that, nor did Bil . How could any of them have survived outside the confines of their ship? At best I thought he might know where their

bodies were. But I had other reasons to doubt Ivan. He walked and acted like a zombie, yet at the same time there was a shrewd intel igence about

him. Look at what he accomplished. Without saying a word, he tricked us al into letting him accompany Bil -alone - to a spot I believe he was

anxious to return to. Then he successful y overcame Bil . Some zombie. But why did he do it? I keep coming back to that.' 'He's insane,' Lauren

said. 'He's a monster,' Jessica said. 'Maybe he just hates blacks,' Gary said. Jim rubbed his tired eyes. 'Something inside me keeps warning me to

stop and think, to put al these pieces together so that they make sense. I feel I must do this before it's too late.' He looked at Jessica. 'I'm sorry,

Jessie - it's probably too late already. The chances are Bil is dead.'

Lauren rubbed Jessica's shoulders. 'We'l work on the boat with the assumption that he's stil alive,' Lauren said. 'We'l work as fast as we can.'

'If the boat idea does work,' Gary said. 'We'l be prowling around down there in the dark with a lunatic lurking nearby. He'l probably have Bil 's laser.'

'It's something to keep in mind,' Jim said. He stood slowly. 'I guess the bottom line is that we won't go home without him. Gary, notify Mark and

Houston of our plans. We'l work on the boat immediately.'

'What if Houston objects?' Gary asked.

'Let them object,' Jim said. 'It won't bother me.'

Jessica began to cough. 'I need water,' she whispered.

Lauren went into the basement and returned with their final one-gal on jug. She let Jessica drink about ten ounces before taking the bottle away.

She handed the water to Jim. 'Your turn,' she said.

'Maybe later,' he said. 'I'm feeling pretty good right now.'

Lauren shoved the jug in his face. 'Drink ten ounces right now. That's a medical order.'

Jim took the water after a moment's hesitation. Lauren knew he was close to dehydration. Outside the porthole, the sky had cleared, and Olympus

Mons's ful majesty stood uncloaked. Stars twinkled around its broad caldera like jewels in a king's crown.

'I keep thinking of al those cubic miles of water underneath that volcano,' Jim said. 'And then I think about how thirsty I am.'

Lauren nodded. 'That's bad.'

Jim screwed the top back on the water jug. 'I think it might be part of the plan,' he said.

They ended up dismembering the jeep after they had driven it to the canal. Jim figured it would save them time and energy. He was right about how

simple it was to modify the vehicle, much to Gary's surprise. The most difficult part was unscrewing the engine and lifting it out. Here the low Martian

gravity came to their aid. They used more of the same metal sheets they had used to patch the hul of the Hawk to plug around the jeep's gas pedal

and steering column. Gary took less than twenty minutes to weld the metal in place. One thing for sure, Jim said: they weren't going to be able to fix

the jeep again so that it drove on land. If the modifications went better than they hoped, lowering the jeep down to the water proved to be a bitch.

The Hawk's stores contained an excel ent set of pul eys and ropes. Unfortunately, they had difficulty fastening the equipment to the smooth black

floor of the cave. The material was not simply hard; it was next to impenetrable. Studying the area around the Russian's spike, Jim figured they had

melted the ground in order to put it in. He decided to do likewise to secure their pul eys. Watching the ground turn red and soften under the fierce

green laser of the welding gun, Lauren couldn't free herself of the idea that the ground was real y composed of an intel igently formulated alien al oy.

Jim said it was as hard as anything he had ever seen.

Final y they were in a position to lower their makeshift boat, and Gary's muscles came in handy, never mind the low gravity. It was two hundred feet

to the water, and they al sighed with relief when the jeep didn't sink.

'Of course, it wil be worse if it sinks when we're in it,' Jim said.

Houston had not approved or disapproved of their plan, but Houston had made one thing plain, and Jim had agreed. Under no circumstances was

Gary to accompany them on the rescue attempt. He was the only one who could fly the Hawk now that Bil was missing. In fact, Jim and Houston

didn't want Lauren to come, either, but she had insisted. Jessica was a fine biochemist but Lauren didn't think she'd be of much help to Jim in the

event Ivan came after them.

The Hawk also carried a lengthy rope ladder in its stores.

Jim and Jessica climbed down to the boat first; it appeared to support them without strain. Final y it was Lauren's turn. Gary gave her a goodbye

hug.

'If you see the bastard, shoot first and ask questions later,' he said.

'Are you talking about Ivan or Bil ?' she said.

He swatted her on the butt. 'Keep your head low, Doc'

Lauren started down the ladder, knowing that if she slipped, she would probably die in the icy waters of the canal. She tried imagining she was in

the forest in Wyoming near Terry's cabin, climbing out of a green pine tree into the blue lake. Those days seemed centuries ago.

'Ten more rungs and you're down, Lauren,' Jim said a minute later, shining a light at her feet.

Lauren stepped careful y onto the wobbly craft and quickly dropped to her knees. They distributed their weight about the boat and Jessica handed

her a shovel to paddle with. 'How long wil it take us to go three miles, Jim?' she asked.

'It depends on which way the wind is blowing,' he said.

After some experimenting, they decided that only two should paddle at one time. Because Jim was showing signs of fatigue, Lauren suggested she

and Jessica take the first shift. Lauren was pleasantly surprised to find how easily the boat moved once they got going. The calmness of the water

helped. Lauren and Jessica slipped into a steady rhythm, keeping the raft close to the wal of the canal lest they accidently reverse their direction.

Time flowed by, measured in strokes.

'Hold,' Jim said suddenly, after about forty minutes. Lauren relaxed, glad for the break. Her right biceps was beginning to cramp. 'Stil there, Gary?'

Jim asked.

'Yes,' Gary said. 'Have you reached the end of the tunnel?'

'Yes. Now al we have to do is cross over to the island.' Jim paused. 'How are you sitting, Gary?'

'Huh?'

'Sit with your back to one of the wal s so you can see in both directions at once,' Jim said.

'Why?' Gary asked.

'I don't want anyone to be able to sneak up on you,' Jim said.

'Now you're making me paranoid,' Gary said, his voice uneasy. 'Hey, your signal's getting dim.'

'It's the same pattern as before,' Jim muttered. 'When we reach the island, we'l probably lose contact altogether. When you think you've waited long

enough...'

'Understood,' Gary said.

Jim reached for a paddle. 'Let me give one of you girls a break.'

'I want to keep paddling,' Jessica said.

'We're a team,' Lauren said. 'We're training for the Martian Olympics. You take it easy.'

'Sure?' Jim asked.

'Sure,' Lauren said. 'What now?'

Jim dimmed their lamp. 'Ordinarily I would send up a flare, but surprise might be a strong element in our favor. Of course, that means we might miss

the island altogether and get lost in the dark. Try to paddle as evenly as possible so that we go as straight as possible.'

The last half mile seemed to take far longer than the previous mile. Lauren found it difficult to reach forward on her stroke; she kept expecting to see

Ivan's face grinning at her from beneath the water. Eventual y, though, without warning, they bumped against a sharp-edged four-foot natural wal .

They hauled themselves onto the desolate beach and secured the raft. The ground was similar to the floor of the tunnel, and for the short distance

they could

see with their lights, it was also flat. Regrettably, Hummingbird was nowhere to be seen. They didn't know whether to head to the right or the left, or

straight ahead. Plus, Gary was no longer answering their cal s. And on top of everything else, they realized that one of them had to stay behind and

guard the raft. Lauren volunteered.

Jim and Jessica went to the right and hugged the coast, searching for Hummingbird as a starting point. Lauren kil ed her light and sat down in a

night so black she could have been in a buried coffin. She kept her back to the water, and had her vocals turned to maximum reception, straining to

hear even the faintest sound of approaching feet.

After approximately fifteen minutes, Jim's voice whispered over her headset. They had found Hummingbird, undamaged and deserted. They were

starting inland. Jim said he would spot the ground every hundred feet with phosphorescent paint. Lauren wished them good luck.

More time passed. Lauren's legs began to stiffen. She stood and walked back and forth on the empty beach, stretching. She knew it was

psychological, but the darkness seemed to be getting thicker, crowding down upon her. She even began to have trouble breathing, and had to

check her suit monitors every few seconds to convince herself she was not running out of oxygen. Jim spoke again in her headset, and this time she

jumped. They had found hil s, he said, and ponds of water, and dangerous crevasses. But no Bil . The interference must indeed be radiating from

the island. She could scarcely hear him. She told him to be careful.

It was a shame they were not able to fol ow her advice. Only a few minutes later, Jim was on the radio again. Jessica had fal en into a gul y and hit