“The Sun’s going down for a while,” said Alexios.
“How long?”
Alexios had memorized the day’s solar schedule. “Fifty-eight minutes, twelve seconds.”
“A whole hour?” Molina’s voice whined like a disappointed child’s.
“Just about.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do down in this hole in the dark for an hour? You should have told me about this!”
“I thought you knew.”
“I can’t see fucking shit down here!”
“You have the helmet lamp.”
“Big help. It’s like trying to find your way across the Rocky Mountains with a flashlight.”
“Have you found anything?”
“No,” Molina snapped. “And I won’t, at this rate.”
You won’t at any rate, Alexios replied silently. Aloud, he asked, “Do you want to come back to the tractor?”
A long silence. Alexios could picture Molina angrily weighing the alternatives in his mind.
“No, dammit. I’ll wait here until the frigging Sun comes up again.”
“I’ll move the tractor down to your location.”
“Good. Do that.”
With no atmosphere to dilute their brightness, the stars provided adequate light for Alexios to reel up the winch’s cable, disassemble the rig and pack it all back onto the tractor’s rear deck. Then he drove carefully along the rim of the crevasse to the spot where Molina sat, waiting and fuming, for enough sunlight to resume his search. A waste of time, Alexios knew. Victor won’t find what he’s looking for.
By the time he had drilled the holes in the ground for the rig’s supporting frame and set the winch in place, the Sun was rising above the bare, too-near horizon once again. This time it would remain up for weeks.
Even through the heavy tinting of his visor Alexios had to squint at its powerful glare. The Sun was tremendous, huge, a mighty presence looming above him.
The hours dragged on. Alexios listened to Molina panting and grumbling as he searched for rocks that might harbor biomarkers.
“Christ, it’s hot,” the astrobiologist complained.
Alexios flicked a glance at the outside temperature readout on the tractor’s control panel. “It’s only three- eighty Celsius. A cool morning on Mercury.”
“I’m broiling inside this damned suit.”
“You’d broil a lot faster outside the suit,” Alexios bantered.
“There’s nothing here. I’m going farther up the gully.”
“Check your suit’s coolant systems. If the levels are down in the yellow region of the display, you should come back.”
“It’s still in the green.”
Alexios called up the suit monitoring program and saw that Molina’s coolant systems were on the edge of the yellow warning region. He’s got about an hour left before they’ll dip into the red, he estimated.
Nearly an hour later, Alexios called, “Time to come back, Dr. Molina.”
“Not yet. There’s a bunch of rocks up ahead. I want to take a look at them.”
“Safety regulations, sir,” Alexios said firmly. “Your life-support systems are going critical.”
“I can see the readouts as well as you can,” Molina replied testily. “I’ve got a good hour or more before they reach the red line, and even then there’s a considerable safety margin built in.”
“Dr. Molina, the safety regulations must be followed. They were formulated for your protection.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just let me take a look at—hey! Damn! Ow!”
“What happened?” Alexios snapped, genuinely alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m okay. I fell down, that’s all. Tripped over a crack in the ground.”
“Oh.”
Alexios heard grunting, then swearing, then quick, heavy breathing. The sound of panic.
“Christ, I can’t get up!”
“What?”
“I can’t lift myself up! I’m down on my left side and I can’t get enough leverage in this goddamned suit to push myself up onto my feet again.”
Alexios could picture his predicament. The suit’s servomotors were designed to assist the wearer’s normal arm and leg movements. Basically they were designed to allow a normal human being’s muscle power to move the suit’s heavy sleeves and leggings. Little more. Molina was down on the ground, trying to lift the combined weight of his body plus the suit back into a standing position. Even in Mercury’s light gravity, the servos were unequal to the task.
“Can you sit up?” he asked into his helmet mike.
A grunt, then an exasperated sigh. “No. This damned iron maiden you’ve got me in doesn’t bend much at the middle.”
Alexios thought swiftly. He can last about two more hours in the suit, maybe three. I can leave him there and let him broil in his own juices. He left me when I needed him; why should I save his life? It’s not my fault—he
Base control wasn’t on the suit-to-suit frequency. The suit radios could be picked up by the commsats, of course, but you had to plug into the commsat frequency and Victor didn’t know that. He rushed out here without learning all the necessary procedures, Alexios thought. He depended on me to handle the details.
Just as I depended on him to help me when I needed it. And he walked away from me. He took Lara and left me to the wolves.
Inside his helmet, Alexios smiled grimly. He remembered Poe’s old story, “The Cask of Amontillado.” What were Fortunato’s last words? “
“Hey!” Molina called. “I really need some help here.”
“I’m sure you do,” Alexios said calmly.
And he pictured himself bringing the sad news back to the base. Telling Yamagata how the noted astrobiologist had killed himself out on the surface of Mercury, nobly searching for evidence of life. I tried to help him, Alexios saw himself explaining, but by the time I reached him he was gone. He just pushed it too far. I warned him, but he paid no attention to the safety regs.
Then I’ll have to tell his widow. Lara, your husband is dead. No, I couldn’t say it like that. Not so abruptly, so brutally. Lara, I’m afraid I have very bad news for you…
He could see the shock in her soft gold-flecked eyes. The pain.
“I’m really stuck here,” Molina called, a hint of desperation in his voice. “I need you to help me. What are you doing up there?”
Alexios heard himself say, “I’m coming down. It’ll take a few minutes. Hang in there.”
“Well for Christ’s sake don’t dawdle! I’m sloshing in my own sweat inside this frigging suit.”
Alexios smiled again. You’re not helping yourself, Victor. You’re not making it easier for me to come to your aid.
But he pushed the door of the tractor’s cab open and jumped to the ground, almost hoping that he’d snap an ankle or twist a knee and be unable to save Victor’s self-centered butt. Angry with himself, furious with Victor, irritated at the world in general, Alexios marched to the winch and wrapped the cable around both his gloved hands. Slowly he began lowering himself down the steep side of the gully.
“What are you doing?” Molina demanded. “Are you coming?”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Alexios said between gritted teeth.
I’ll save your ass, Victor, he thought. I’ll save your body. I won’t let you die. I’ll bring you back and let you destroy yourself. That’s just as good as killing you. Better, even. Destroy yourself, Victor. With my help.
