The air was cool and clean, the sky bright enough for him to make out the worn old hills. There were a few stars in the sky, but the hills didn’t reflect them.
He heard a movement behind him. Turning, he saw Marlene.
«Did I wake you?»
«I’m a very light sleeper,» she said.
«Sorry, I didn’t mean—»
«No, I’m glad you did.» She shook her head slightly, and for the first time Lee noticed the sweep and softness of her hair. The light was too dim to make out its color, but he remembered it as chestnut.
«Besides,» she whispered, «I’ve been longing to get outside without being in one of those damned suits.»
He helped her down from the fender, and they walked a little way from the skimmer.
«Can we see the sun?» she asked, looking skyward.
«I’m not sure, I think maybe … there.» He pointed to a second-magnitude star, shining alone in the grayish sky.
«Where, which one?»
He took her by the shoulder with one hand so that she could see where he was pointing.
«Oh yes, I see it.»
She turned, and she was in his arms, and he kissed her. He held onto her as though there was nothing else in the universe.
If any of the others suspected that Lee and Marlene had spent the night outside, they didn’t mention it. All six of them took their regular pre-breakfast checks in the medical booth, and by the time they were finished eating in the cramped galley the computer had registered a safe green for each of them.
Lee slid out from the galley’s folding table and made his way forward. Grote was slouched in the driver’s seat, his lanky frame a geometry of knees and elbows. He was studying the viewscreen map.
«Looking for a pass through these hills for our vehicle,» he said absently, his eyes on the slowly-moving photomap.
«Why take the skimmer?» Lee asked, sitting on the chair beside him. «We can cross these hills in the powersuits.»
Grote cocked an eye at him. «You’re really set on getting to the coast, aren’t you?»
«Aren’t you?»
That brought a grin. «How much do you think we ought to carry with us?»
They split the team into three groups. Chien and Charnovsky stayed with the car; Marlene and Doris would go with Lee and Grote to look at the flora and fauna (if any) on the shore side of the hills, Lee and the engineer carried a pair of TV camera packs with them, to set up close to the shoreline.
«Beware of the natives,» Charnovsky’s voice grated in Lee’s earphones as they walked away from the skimmer. «They might swoop down on you with bows and arrows!» His laughter showed what he thought of Lee’s worries.
Climbing the hills wasn’t as bad as Lee had thought it would be. The powersuit did most of the work, and the glassy rock was not smooth enough to cause real troubles with footing. It was hot though, even with the suit’s cooling equipment turned up full bore. Sirius blazed overhead, and the rocks beat glare and heat back into their faces as they climbed.
It took most of the day to get over the crest of the hills. But finally with Sirius edging toward the horizon behind them, Lee saw the water.
The sea spread to the farther horizon, cool and blue, with long gentle swells that steepened into surf as they ran up toward the land. And the land was green here: shrubs and mossy-looking plants were patchily sprinkled around.
«Look! Right here!» Doris’ voice.
Lee swiveled his head and saw her clumsily sinking to her knees, like an armor-plated elephant getting down ponderously from a circus trick. She knelt beside a fern-like plant. They all walked over and helped her to photograph it, snip a leaf from it, probe its root system.
«Might as well stop here tonight,» Grote said. «I’ll take the first watch.»
«Can’t we set the scanners to give an alarm if anything approaches?» Marlene asked. «There’s nothing here dangerous enough to—»
«I want one of us awake at all times,» Grote said firmly. «And nobody outside of his suits.»
«There’s no place like home,» Doris muttered. «But after a while even your own smell gets to you.»
The women laid down, locking the suits into roughly reclining positions. To Lee they looked like oversized beetles that had gotten stuck on their backs. It didn’t look possible for them to ever get up again. Then another thought struck him, and he chuckled to himself. Super chastity belts.
He sat down, cranked the suit’s torso section back to a comfortable reclining angle, and tried to doze off. He was dreaming of the towers on Titan again when Grote’s voice in his earphones woke him.
«Is it my turn?» he asked groggily.
«Not yet. But turn off your transmitter. You were groaning in your sleep. Don’t want to wake up the women, do you?»
Lee took the second watch and simply stayed awake until daybreak without bothering any of the others. They began marching toward the sea.
The hills descended only slightly into a rolling plateau that went on until they reached the bluffs that overlooked the sea. A few hundred feet down was a narrow strip of beach, with the breakers surging in.
«This is as far as we go,» Grote said.
The women spent the morning collecting plant samples. Marlene found a few insects and grew more excited over them than Doris had been about the shrubbery. Lee and Grote walked along the edge of the cliffs looking for a good place to set up their cameras.
«You’re sure this is the area where they were seen?» Lee asked.
Walking alongside him, the engineer turned his head inside his plastic helmet. Lee could see he was edgy too.
«I know how to read a map.»
«Sorry, I’m just anxious—»
«So am I.»
They walked until Sirius was almost directly overhead, without seeing anything except the tireless sea, the beach, and the spongy-looking plants that huddled close to the ground.
«Not even a damned tree,» Grote grumbled.
They turned back and headed for the spot where they had left the women. Far up the beach, Lee saw a tiny dark spot.
«What’s that?»
Grote stared for a few moments. «Probably a rock.» But he touched a button on the chest of his suit.
Lee did the same, and an electro-optical viewpiece slid down in front of his eyes. Turning a dial on the suit’s control panel, he tried to focus on the spot. It wavered in the heat currents of the early afternoon, blurred and uncertain. Then it seemed to jump out of view.
Lee punched the button and the lens slid away from his eyes. «It’s moving!» he shouted, and started to run.
He heard Grote’s heavy breathing as the engineer followed him, and they both nearly flew in their power suits along the edge of the cliffs.
It was a man! No, not one, Lee saw, but two of them walking along the beach, their feet in the foaming water.
«Get down you bloody fool,» he heard Grote shrilling at him.
He dove headlong, bounced, cracked the back of his head against the helmet’s plastic, then banged his chin on the soft inner lining of the collar.
«Don’t want them to see, do you?» Grote was whispering now.
«They can’t hear us, for God’s sake,» Lee said into his suit radiophone.
They wormed their way to the cliff’s edge again and watched. The two men seemed to be dressed in black. Or are they black-skinned and naked? Lee wondered.
After a hurried council, they unslung one of the video cameras and its power unit, set it up right there, turned it on and then backed away from the edge of the cliff. Then they ran as hard as they could, staying out of sight of the beach, with the remaining camera. They passed the startled women and breathlessly shouted out their find. The women dropped their work and started running after them.