He thought he could hear Coyote laughing, out on the frigid, bleak red desert of Mars. Laughing at him.
“L/AV LANDING IN FIVE MINUTES.” The PA system broke into his thoughts.
Almost reluctantly Jamie got up from his chair and walked toward the small crowd shifting restlessly near the main airlock. What can I say to them? he asked himself. Nothing, he realized. They’ve made their choice. They’re running away.
He spotted Kalman Torok among the others, looking edgy, running a hand through his dark hair.
Walking up to him, Jamie put on a smile and stuck out his hand. “Good luck in Budapest,” he said softly.
Torok looked mildly surprised. “Thank you, Dr. Waterman. I hope I can come back here after I get this legal tangle straightened out.”
Jamie nodded, not trusting himself to say more. He went from one person to another, shaking hands, smiling tightly, holding back the urge to plead with them to stay. We couldn’t afford to keep them all, he knew. We couldn’t feed them or pay their salaries.
Still, he felt betrayed. It’s not their fault, he told himself as he went through the little group. It’s mine. I should have paid more attention to the funding problems. I should have worked closer with Dex and the board in Boston. I’ve been sleepwalking the past few years while the program’s been strangled.
He saw Carter Carleton in the crowd, standing beside Doreen McManus. They both looked grim, almost angry.
Carleton’s morning had begun badly and went downhill from there.
When he awoke, Doreen was already up and dressed in a freshly cleaned set of coral pink coveralls.
“Your flight suit?” he asked, putting as much sarcasm into the words as he could.
She frowned at him. “I’m leaving, Carter. Let’s not make our last morning together a battle.”
“No,” he said, swinging his legs off the bed. “Of course not.”
Once he was finished in the lavatory and came back into the bedroom she was gone. He dressed swiftly and strode out toward the cafeteria, looking for her. Good tactics, he thought. Get out in public where we won’t make a scene. She’s a smart little bitch.
But she was sitting alone at a table for two, off in a far corner of the cafeteria. Only about half the tables were occupied; most people had already taken their breakfasts. Carleton poured himself a mug of coffee from the one urn that was working, then went and sat across the table from her.
“You’re really going through with this?” He wanted to sound firm, accusatory. It sounded almost pleading.
She put down her spoon and looked at him squarely-. “I’ve got to go, Carter.”
“But why? I still don’t understand why.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”
Leaning closer to her, he whispered, “Is it because I haven’t said I love you? All right, I love you. Does that make you feel better?”
“Not really.” She turned her attention to her fruit salad again.
Carleton grasped her wrist hard enough to make her drop the spoon. “What the hell do you want from me?” he snarled.
“Nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all.”
“I need you, goddammit!”
Doreen took a breath. Then, “Carter, you don’t need me. You just want some compliant woman to go to bed with you.”
“No, it’s more than that.”
She dropped her eyes for a moment, then looked at him again. “Carter, I accessed the files of your hearing at the university.”
“Those files were sealed!”
“You know better than that. It didn’t take much to hack into them.”
“That’s private information,” he growled.
“And you don’t think enough of me to share it,” said Doreen, almost sadly.
“It’s… painful.”
“They said you abused that girl. There are pictures of her bruised and battered.”
“I didn’t do it. You’ve got to believe that.”
“I’d like to.”
“So that’s why you’re leaving? You’re afraid I’ll batter you?”
Strangely, she smiled. “No, Carter. I’m not afraid of you.”
“Then what?”
“Carter, you don’t care about me. You don’t care about my ideas, my work. You don’t care about anything but yourself!”
“That’s not true,” he muttered.
“Yes, I’m afraid it is,” she said. “Don’t you understand? Can’t you see it?”
He felt totally confused and more than a little angry. “You’ll have to explain it to me,” he said.
Doreen’s eyes seemed to be searching him, seeking something that wasn’t there.
At last she said, “Our relationship has been all one way, Carter. I give and you take. I know you’re trying to protect yourself, that you’ve been terribly hurt and you’re frightened of exposing yourself to more pain—”
“What do you think you’re doing to me now?”
She reached across the table and put her slender hand on his. “I know it hurts. It hurts me, too. Did you ever think of that?”
He pulled away and got to his feet. “Come on,” he said coldly. “I’ll walk you to the airlock.”
Tithonium Base: Arrival
The L/AV landed with a thump that almost chipped Monsignor DiNardo’s clenched teeth.
“Sorry ’bout that,” came the pilot’s voice over the intercom speaker. “Damn retros hiccupped.”
Somewhat shakily DiNardo unstrapped and got to his feet. The four other passengers also got out of their seats, grinning expectantly, chattering to one another. The other astronaut clambered down the ladder and strode past him, toward the hatch, muttering, “Any landing you can walk away from…” His grin looked slightly forced.
It took a few minutes for the access tube to connect to the L/AV’s airlock. When the astronaut finally pushed the hatch open, he gestured DiNardo through. Age before beauty, the priest thought, with a glance at the four younger arrivals.
Jamie Waterman was standing in the tube, smiling warmly at DiNardo.
“Welcome to Mars,” he said, extending his hand.
DiNardo felt his own face beaming back at Waterman. He took the proffered hand and squeezed it firmly. “I am happy to be here, at last.”
There was a crowd at the other end of the access tube, just inside the dome’s main airlock. For a moment DiNardo thought they were there to welcome him, then he quickly realized—with a flush of embarrassment—that they were the men and women who were departing, taking the L/AV back up to orbital rendezvous with the torch ship that would carry them back to Earth.
Jamie introduced DiNardo to Dr. Chang, who bowed stiffly and offered formal words of welcome to Tithonium Base to the new arrivals. They were silent now, a little awed as they looked around al the big dome that would be their home for the next year or more.
A pair of experienced hands took the newcomers in tow and led them toward their assigned quarters. But Chang pulled DiNardo away from them.
“I look forward to working with such a distinguished geologist,” the mission director said, unsmiling, dead serious. “I assume you have a program of research in mind.”
DiNardo glanced at Jamie, then made an Italian shrug. “I haven’t had time to organize my plans, Dr. Chang. This has all happened so quickly. I would be glad to follow your direction and help in whatever way I can.”
Chang’s impassive face thawed a little. He dipped his chin slightly, then said, “We must discuss our ongoing operations, then. I will be most interested in your comments and suggestions.”
“Thank you,” said DiNardo, unconsciously bowing back to the mission director.