around for a few hours, then come back to a nice cozy little office. You don’t know this planet.”
“Well, here I am. Show me.”
He shook his head and again moved around to the opposite side.
I gave up and leaned back against the curved wall. My muscles ached from the unaccustomed workout, but the cool Martian soil behind the plastic felt good against my throbbing head.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I woke stiff and cold to the sounds of Jack rummaging through supplies in Nellie’s larder. I sat up with a groan. He tossed me a nutrition bar and a water bag.
“It’s morning and the radiation warning’s over. We’re leaving.”
We emerged under a sky thick with brilliant stars. I almost made a nasty comment about it not being morning, but was stunned into silence. One couldn’t see anything like this through Earth’s atmosphere, even out in the mountains and at the base, work and safety lights diminished the brilliance. Man always had to leave the cities to see the stars. That hadn’t changed.
Jack ignored me and watched Nellie struggle from her hole like some cybernetic land crab. My helmet prevented me from looking up for very long. I wished I could remove it and see that sky without the reflections and scratches of my faceplate, to feel the soft breezes and smell the air, but we never could. Someday humans might feel the Martian wind on their faces, but it wouldn’t be me or Jack and it wouldn’t be the same Mars.
Dawn came quickly in the thin atmosphere and while I watched, the stars faded and the black-and-gray landscape bloomed purple and orange. I’d seen two Martian sunrises outside the base, and both had been in passing while loading trucks for field excursions. Never had I taken the time to actually experience dawn on our new world. Not like this.
“Thanks, Jack,” I said. “If you show me nothing else, that sunrise was worth the trip.”
“It’s always been here.”
Once the anemic white sun peeked over the hills, we started east, this time slowly enough for me to keep up.
A few hours later, after Nellie had once again topped off her oxygen tanks, we descended a long grade into a deep, narrow canyon. The wind picked up, showering us with blowing sand and the occasional dust devil. I marveled at the simple beauty of the untouched stone surrounding us. The canyon walls were painted by purple shadows, but where the sun struck the sides, bright bloody reds and sandy whites sprang into stark and sudden brilliance.
We rounded some rocks and Jack stopped. I stopped too. Ten or twelve black twisted shapes stood alone in the middle of the broad canyon floor. The largest stood over ten feet tall, with arms stretching toward us and others reaching to the sky. My pulse raced and I made myself move forward. They were black stone. Some were pitted, porous and a few polished to an almost mirror finish. I could see that some of their lengths had been recently uncovered, evidence of Jack’s previous visits.
“Basalt ? With the surrounding soft stone eroded away ? ”
“Maybe they’re Martians,” Jack said.
“They do look like tormented souls, frozen in their misery. The lava must’ve squeezed though some tight spaces, fast and under extreme pressure to form that way.”
“Odd, isn’t it ? ” he said.
His tone made me turn to look. He was staring down into a shallow depression between the figures, then turned toward me. His haunted expression made a chill crawl up my back. For the first time in my life, Jack frightened me.
“I found something, Malcolm. Something important.”
I stared at him, surprised and waiting, but he didn’t elaborate. “Well ? What did you find ? ”
“I’m trying to decide if I want to show you or not,” he said.
That stunned me. Did Jack’s distrust cut that deep ? But even if it did, how could anyone find something important on Mars and not share it with the rest of humanity ?
“What the hell does that mean ? ” I said.
“Right now,
“Well, here I am. Show me.”
He shook his head and again moved around to the opposite side.
I gave up and leaned back against the curved wall. My muscles ached from the unaccustomed workout, but the cool Martian soil behind the plastic felt good against my throbbing head.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I woke stiff and cold to the sounds of Jack rummaging through supplies in Nellie’s larder. I sat up with a groan. He tossed me a nutrition bar and a water bag.
“It’s morning and the radiation warning’s over. We’re leaving.”
We emerged under a sky thick with brilliant stars. I almost made a nasty comment about it not being morning, but was stunned into silence. One couldn’t see anything like this through Earth’s atmosphere, even out in the mountains and at the base, work and safety lights diminished the brilliance. Man always had to leave the cities to see the stars. That hadn’t changed.
Jack ignored me and watched Nellie struggle from her hole like some cybernetic land crab. My helmet prevented me from looking up for very long. I wished I could remove it and see that sky without the reflections and scratches of my faceplate, to feel the soft breezes and smell the air, but we never could. Someday humans might feel the Martian wind on their faces, but it wouldn’t be me or Jack and it wouldn’t be the same Mars.
Dawn came quickly in the thin atmosphere and while I watched, the stars faded and the black-and-gray landscape bloomed purple and orange. I’d seen two Martian sunrises outside the base, and both had been in passing while loading trucks for field excursions. Never had I taken the time to actually experience dawn on our new world. Not like this.
“Thanks, Jack,” I said. “If you show me nothing else, that sunrise was worth the trip.”
“It’s always been here.”
Once the anemic white sun peeked over the hills, we started east, this time slowly enough for me to keep up.
A few hours later, after Nellie had once again topped off her oxygen tanks, we descended a long grade into a deep, narrow canyon. The wind picked up, showering us with blowing sand and the occasional dust devil. I marveled at the simple beauty of the untouched stone surrounding us. The canyon walls were painted by purple shadows, but where the sun struck the sides, bright bloody reds and sandy whites sprang into stark and sudden brilliance.
We rounded some rocks and Jack stopped. I stopped too. Ten or twelve black twisted shapes stood alone in the middle of the broad canyon floor. The largest stood over ten feet tall, with arms stretching toward us and others reaching to the sky. My pulse raced and I made myself move forward. They were black stone. Some were pitted, porous and a few polished to an almost mirror finish. I could see that some of their lengths had been recently uncovered, evidence of Jack’s previous visits.
“Basalt ? With the surrounding soft stone eroded away ? ”
“Maybe they’re Martians,” Jack said.
“They do look like tormented souls, frozen in their misery. The lava must’ve squeezed though some tight spaces, fast and under extreme pressure to form that way.”
“Odd, isn’t it ? ” he said.
His tone made me turn to look. He was staring down into a shallow depression between the figures, then turned toward me. His haunted expression made a chill crawl up my back. For the first time in my life, Jack frightened me.
“I found something, Malcolm. Something important.”
I stared at him, surprised and waiting, but he didn’t elaborate. “Well ? What did you find ? ”
“I’m trying to decide if I want to show you or not,” he said.
That stunned me. Did Jack’s distrust cut that deep ? But even if it did, how could anyone find something important on Mars and not share it with the rest of humanity ?
“What the hell does that mean ? ” I said.
“Right now,
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