Moonrise

“Plumbing’s different,” Kilьfer said. But he reached for Rhee’s suit, hanging next to his.

“We won’t be out long enough for that to matter,” Rhee said. Then she added, “Will we?”

Kilьfer almost laughed.

Is he dead? Doug wondered. Bre

Maybe it’s just a coma, Doug told himself. The radiation hasn’t killed me, why should it kill him?

But he had to admit that he felt very sick. His head was spi

Doug didn’t realize he had drifted into sleep until a sudden voice jerked him awake.

“Bre

Someone was rolling the canister of nanomachines out of the way.

“Under here,” Doug called weakly. “We’re underneath the hopper.”

Someone pulled him by the arms. “Careful,” he heard. “Don’t rip his suit.” Bianca’s voice? Doug couldn’t be sure.

“Bre

“Like you don’t”

Doug felt himself carried a short distance and then laid down on his side. He fought back the nausea that burned up into his throat. Don’t vomit, he commanded himself. Not inside the helmet. “Strap him down, I’ll go get Bre

“Can you carry him by yourself?”

“If I need help I’ll holler.”

“Vidcam,” Doug said weakly. “Make certain the vidcam’s in my pocket.”

“Don’t worry about that now.” Definitely Bianca’s voice, he thought.

“No, it’s important Our legal claim. Got to have it. Otherwise Yamagata…’ He had to pause for breath.

“It’s okay,” Bianca said. “The vidcam’s there in your thigh pouch.”

“You take it,” Doug gasped. “Hang onto it Take care of it.”

She pulled the vidcam out of his thigh pouch and held it up so he could see it. “I’ve got it I’ll take care of it. Now relax, Doug.”

Relax. The word seemed to echo in Doug’s mind. Relax. Relax. There’s nothing more that you can do. You’ve done everything you could. It’s up to them now. Up to them.

The sudden pressure of takeoff startled him out of his drowsiness. Doug realized he was strapped down like a patient on a surgical table. And then the long, falling emptiness as the hopper descended back to their base camp. Got to tell them about the Yamagata team, Doug thought We’ve got to rescue them. They’re hurt. Got to tell them about it.

But the falling sensation overpowered every thought in his head and Doug held himself as rigidly as possible, forcing himself not to give in to the nausea burning up into his throat The only thing he could see was the flank of the mountain, twinkling like crystal in the sunlight gleaming so brightly that it hurt his eyes and he had to squeeze them shut.

Weight returned. We’ve landed, Doug knew. Darkness all around him. He was being lifted again, moved.

“We’re down,” Bianca’s voice said tenderly. “We’ll have you in the shelter and out of your suit in a few minutes.”

“Barf bag,” Doug mumbled.

“What is it?” He sensed Bianca bending low over him, as if that would improve their suit-to-suit radio link. “What do you need?”

“Barf bags,” he repeated, raising his voice as loud as he could. “Plenty of them.”

Joa

“He’s taken a massive radiation dose,” Greg was saying. “The data they’re transmitting from his medical sensors aren’t good.”

Greg continued speaking, but Joa

She saw Greg stop in midsentence to hear what she was saying. “I expected as much,” he said. “Ji

“Good,” said Joa

Even in the minuscule screen she could see the displeasure on Greg’s face. “There’s nothing you can do to help him.”

Nothing you can do.The words echoed in Joa

Misunderstanding her silence, Greg said, “We’re doing everything possible.”

“I’m already on my way to the rocket port,” Joa

When her words reached him, Greg nodded wearily. “I’m not really surprised, even though I think it’s a waste of your time.”

Joa

His face brightened a little. But only a little.

Joa

“Greg, I’ve got to end this call,” she said. “I’ve been trying to reach Kris Cardenas all morning and she’s finally returning my calls.”

It seemed to Doug that he spent a thousand hours or more weaving between consciousness and a restless feverish sleep that brought him neither rest nor relief from the waves of pain and nausea that were washing through him.

But it couldn’t have been all that long, because when he opened his eyes he saw Bianca Rhee still bending over lьm. And she was still in her spacesuit; only the helmet i was gone.

“How’s Bre

“He’s dead,” said Rhee.

Killifer’s face appeared beside her, unshaven, dark circles beneath the eyes. “Poor bastard strangled on his own puke while the two of you were laying under the hopper.”

“Oh no.” Doug gagged on the bile burning up into his throat again. Rhee grabbed a vomit bag and pushed it into Doug’s hand. He retched miserably.

When he lay back on the bunk again, his eyes were watery and he felt as if every molecule of strength had been drained out of him.

“Bre

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Killifer said dourly. “You took a helluva dose out there.”

“I would have died if Bre

“You might still die, kid,” said Killifer. “You’re not out of the woods yet”

Doug gri

Killifer walked away.

Does he blame me for Bre

“What Yamagata people?”

“The men in the lander… on the other side of the mountain.”

Rhee shook her head. “Don’t worry about them. You’ve made the claim to the mountaintop. I’ve got your vidcam.”

“No… you don’t understand.” Doug tried to raise his head but the effort left him dizzy, exhausted. “They crashed. They’re hurt. They need help.”

Rhee’s eyes widened. “They crashed?”

“We talked to them. They need medical help.”

“Wait,” Rhee said. I’ll tell Killifer.”

She disappeared from Doug’s sight. He lay on the bunk, too weak to do anything else.

Bianca returned with Killifer, who looked more a

“What’s this about the Yamagata team?”

Doug told him. Killifer eyed him suspiciously. “You sure about this? Maybe you were delirious out there and dreamed it up.”

“I’m sure,” Doug said, too weary to get angry.

“Well,” Killifer groused, “they’ve probably re-established communications with their own base. Let the Japs take care of their own; we’ve got enough on our hands.”

“No,” Doug protested. “Go get them.”

Glaring, Killifer said, “Get real, kid. Why should we help the competition?”

Trying to pull together enough strength to get a whole sentence out, Doug said, “Because… if we rescue them… it wipes out any hope Yamagata might have… of making a claim… to any part of this region.”