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Article Excerpt
IT WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS place on the asteroid.
"Why don't we just go back?" Wolverton asked.
"Because we can't," Nozaki said. "The sun's coming up."
"Yeah, but we've got insulated suits."
"Not enough."
This wasn't the best day to be base camp security chief, Nozaki thought. They stood next to the rover, watching the searing dawn advance across the curved horizon. The rover had died on them, and Nozaki had worked on it as long as she could. The dawn was too close. They had to get moving.
"But we can't go the other way," Wolverton said. "It's suicide."
"It's the only chance we've got. We'll die for sure if we go back on foot through that hell."
"What about the samples?" Wolverton asked, looking mournfully at the labeled rocks in the rover's boot. He was a geo-areologist who'd just been assigned to base camp. He had been a loner since he got to LGC-1, and playing nursemaid to him on this field trip had made Nozaki understand why. "I spent all this time collecting them."
"They're not going anywhere, but we are."
The red giant Gamma Crucis was burning up the landscape right in front of them. They'd been caught too far away from base camp at dawn, and now their only hope was to stay ahead of the sunlight.
"We can't walk the entire surface and get back to base before the next dawn," Wolverton said, despair in his voice.
"We've got to try," Nozaki replied. "Maybe we better save our breath and walk."
They turned and started moving away from the dawn.
Ahead of them was the asteroid's dark, barren landscape. It curved abruptly into nowhere. Clustered stars seemed close enough to touch, but they provided no light on the surface. It was like stepping into the abyss.
"Why can't we talk to, base?" Wolverton said, ignoring Nozaki's broad hint that he should shut up.
"The sun's radiation is interfering, and we're over the horizon," Nozaki explained. "With the flyby down, there's nothing to bounce the signal off."
"There's no chance they can hear us?"
"Maybe they're picking us up intermittently, but we're not getting anything from them, so I doubt it."
"If they do hear us, they'll send the flyby, won't they?"
"I don't think they can." She was getting impatient with Wolverton. "I doubt they've got it fixed by now. The rover's probably gone out for the same reason, an unusually large burst of radiation from GC's hydrogen shell. We're just going to have to hoof it."
"Oh, God," Wolverton moaned.
"Walk!" Nozaki said.
Her stern tone seemed to sober the panicky Wolverton. He glanced at her through his visor, but he didn't say anything.
Nozaki quickened her pace so that Wolverton would do the same.
They had a long way to go. But with the light gravity, it was the equivalent of only a few kilometers, and they could make it if they were determined enough. Each stride took them ten to twelve meters. At first it had been a disorientating sensation, almost like flying. It had been fun. Tonight it was a survival necessity.
After half an hour or so, Nozaki ventured a look back at the encroaching sunrise. She saw that they were keeping ahead of it, maybe even gaining some ground. That was good, but they weren't all that tired yet. They would have to run and leap for many more hours before they would reach base camp.
A little over two hours passed before they came to the mound.
"That's not supposed to be here," Wolverton said.
This time Nozaki didn't shush him, because he was right. What was this thing they'd landed on with their last jump?
"It looks like gravel," Nozaki said. She saw the mound's shadow looming to cut off the star field.
"But this asteroid's supposed to be as round and smooth as a ball bearing."
"Yeah." Nozaki took a breath and leaped forward, landing about halfway toward the top of the mound.
A moment later, Wolverton came down a few feet from her, his knees bending under the light impact of his landing. He was only a vague shadow in the dark, but Nozaki was glad to know he was keeping up with her.
It was shaped as if the ground had been dug up and banked.
"This is all we need," Nozaki said. "Hills to slow us down."
Wolverton didn't comment. He jumped and landed on the mound's rounded summit.
Nozaki followed. She didn't get quite as far as Wolverton, and when she took a few steps forward, she was very pleased that she hadn't gone farther.
"It's not a mound," she said.
It was a crater, and they were standing on the rim.
"It's big," said Wolverton. "Very big."
He was right. It was impossible to see just how big, but the concave slope descended into darkness so steeply that Nozaki suspected it might be several kilometers in diameter.
"Now what?" Wolverton asked.
Nozaki looked behind her. She could see the merciless sunrise coming.
"Now we jump," she said.
"Can't we go around it?"
"There's no time."
Wolverton turned to see for himself.
"Well, I'm not going to lack for something to drink," Wolverton said. "I just emptied my bladder."
"Good," Nozaki said. She did the same, counting on the liquid processor to distill her urine and extract the water for drinking later. If it failed, she would die of thirst. "You're going to need it."
"No sense standing around here," Wolverton said.
He jumped into the crater. Nozaki was surprised that he'd had the nerve to go first. Wolverton was adapting pretty well after his initially fearful reaction.
She followed him, leaping into the crater. For a few seconds she could see starlight, but then she fell into the rim's shadow.
There was no light at all. She seemed to be sailing in a void, and it felt as if she'd never come down. But at last she did, landing softly and rolling down the inside rim of the crater. She couldn't see Wolverton but she could hear him grunting and panting.
It seemed as if she would roll down that slope forever.
But at last the incline graduated into a more level surface and she stopped. She lay on her side, trying to catch her breath for a moment. She wondered if she'd been hurt during the ascent, but she felt no pain.
"Wolverton?" she said.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"I think so. You?"
"I'm fine." She got to her knees and looked around. There was nothing but blackness. Only if she looked up could she see anything, and then only stars. She got to her feet.
"We can't be very far from each other," she said. "I don't want to waste the batteries, but I'm going to turn on the beacon lamp on my helmet so you can see me. Stay alert now. Ready?"
"Uh-huh."
She pressed the tab on her wrist console and a beam of light stabbed out from over her head to illuminate the scree on the crater floor.
"See the light?"
"I can't see anything else."
"Move in this direction then," Nozaki said. "I'll turn on the lamp every thirty seconds or so to make sure you don't lose your way."
"Right."
She shut off the light and waited a little while before turning it on again. She couldn't see Wolverton.
"I'm turning it on again," she said. She made a quick sweep to see if she could pick Wolverton out of the landscape. Not yet. "Can you see me?"
"Yeah, getting closer," Wolverton said, his breathing a bit labored as he moved toward her.
"Okay." Nozaki shut the light off again and waited.
After a few seconds, she said, "Did you hear me that time, Wolverton?"
No answer.
"Wolverton?"
Still no answer.
Nozaki pressed the button and turned on the helmet beam again. She turned slowly, making a three hundred and sixty degree sweep of the crater bottom. Nothing but gravel.
"Wolverton?"
Silence.
"Wolverton, where are you?"
He couldn't be gone. Either his radio was out or he was incapacitated in some way. She had to find him, and find him fast.
She turned around again, even more slowly, moving her head up and down to capture more of the crater bottom in her field of vision. There was nothing there but dirt, as far as she could see.
If she'd known which direction he was coming from in the first place, she might have known which way to turn. But she had no idea where Wolverton had landed, and she had no idea where she was in relation to the crater's rim.
"Wait a minute," she said, taking a deep breath.
She shut off the beam and turned around slowly once again. The crater rim was closer on one side. That must have been where they'd jumped from. Unless ... No, it had to be. She hadn't rolled up the opposing slope. It stood to reason that she was closer to the jumping-off point than the far rim. That narrowed her search field significantly. Wolverton couldn't have rolled much farther than she had. It was possible that he hadn't rolled as far. But he couldn't be all that distant.
Then why couldn't she see him?
She flashed the beam to her left and swiveled. Nothing.
Now she turned to her right and mirrored the same motion. Still nothing.
Wolverton had vanished.
But that was impossible. She shut off the light and stood alone in the dark, thinking. Was it impossible? This crater was impossible. LGC-1 had been thoroughly mapped from space before base camp had been built. There was no crater. This hole was too big to miss. And now Wolverton was gone. Just what was going on here?
She had to think this through. She had only so much time before the sun came over that rim. She could either search for Wolverton or head for the far rim before the heat baked her right through her pressure suit. She wished that it was made of refrigerated lead and...
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