Mars

"Thanks," Jamie muttered to his freshly shaved image in the lav’s metal mirror. "I needed that." The face that looked back at him was gaunt, red eyed, with hollows beneath the high cheekbones. You’re turning into a paleface, Jamie said to it.

Joa

"There won’t be a media conference until the ante

He got the impression that the astronaut was too weak, too much in pain, to argue. Jamie himself felt ragged, and tired. The night’s sleep had done nothing to restore his strength. The achy feeling that had assailed him for two days now was worse; every muscle in his body felt strained.

Morning mists hovered as they stepped out from the airlock. Tendrils of cold gray fog drifted by, slowly as departing spirits. Where does the moisture come from? Jamie asked himself again. It’s being replenished every day. It evaporates when the sun touches it, and then more mist forms the next morning. How? Why?

Co

The rover was piled almost roof high with sand on its windward side, nearly buried in dust so fine and loose that it blew up in powdery clouds when the two hard-suited men stepped in it.

"Good thing the hatch is on the sheltered side," Jamie said.

"I don’t think the sand’s heavy enough to keep the hatch closed," Co

Maybe, Jamie said to himself.

Co

"Just what I thought," Jamie heard in his earphones as he waited at the ladder’s base. "Goddamn dust wormed its way under the gasket seal… oh shit, I can’t believe I did that!"

"What? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just dumb, that’s all. I tried to blow the dust out of the gasket."

Co

"Fogged up the faceplate real nice."

"Turn up the blower."

"Already have. It’s clearing up."

Co

Over the suit radios, they asked Joa

"Vosnesensky says the news conference will start in another hour, if we can be ready by then," she reported.

"No sweat," said Co

Jamie grunted to himself. In fact, he was perspiring heavily inside his suit and was certain that Co

"You go in now," the astronaut said to Jamie. "I’ll go around the other side and dig out one of the wheels, see if we can get away without digging out the others."

"I can help."

"Naw, it’s okay. This stuff is so fluffy you can blow it away with a whisk broom. If I need help I’ll ask you. Maybe we’ll have a digging party after the media conference, all four of us."

"You’re sure you’ll be okay out here?"

"I’m no hero, Jamie. If I need help I’ll yell, don’t worry."

Reluctantly Jamie went back inside. It took much longer than usual to vacuum the dust off his suit. Leaving his helmet in the airlock, he tramped the length of the command module to the cockpit. Joa

Klein gri

Jamie mumbled an acknowledgment, then turned to the voice link with Co

"Great," said Co

Looking from Joa

Dr. Li came on the screen and began giving instructions about the news conference that would begin within the hour. He asked Jamie to bring Co

Jamie saw that Joa

Making his way back toward the airlock in the bulky hard suit, Jamie passed Ilona. She sat on one of the benches, looking exhausted. She too had put on makeup and had even wrapped a bright flowered scarf around her coverall collar. But she still looked terribly pale and weak.

Jamie tried to be cheerful. "Ready to be famous?"

She smiled faintly. No amount of makeup could hide the strain in her face, the redness of her eyes. But maybe she could get past the cameras okay. The big story today is supposed to be the discovery of life on Mars, not our physical condition.

The two-way transmission lag between Earth and Mars was now more than twenty-five minutes, so a live give-and-take interview was impossible. Instead, the media reporters and the mission controllers had worked out a different protocol. Twelve reporters had been selected from the swarms that had descended on Kaliningrad, Houston, Washington, and other capitals the instant the news of life on Mars had been released. Each of the twelve was in a different location on Earth. Each would ask a question, to be answered by one of the Mars explorers. There would be no follow-on questions. Alberto Brumado, in Washington, would fill in the time between question and answer with commentary and chat among the mission controllers, project administrators, and politicians assembled in Kaliningrad and elsewhere.

Many politicians had come to place themselves before the cameras, eager to bask in the glow of the great discovery and allow the world’s media to interview them on global TV.

Jamie wondered if Edith would be among the questioners. Not likely, he decided. She’s just started with the network; she’s not high enough on their ladder for this.

The two women sat in the cockpit seats, with Jamie and Co

Vosnesensky was at the comm screen in the dome, Dr. Li up in orbit. The people on Earth could speak with any of the units of the Mars expedition that they wished to converse with.

Brumado came on the screen before the conference officially began. He congratulated his daughter, and Joa

He’s probably too excited to even notice, Jamie thought. Maybe we’re all too worked up about how lousy we feel. If it doesn’t show on television, how bad can it really be?