comfortable in their ship and send teleoperated rovers to snoop around the surface for them.”
“Virtual reality is a powerful tool,” Alexios goaded. Standing in front of him, bending over so that their noses nearly touched, Molina cried, “They won’t allow me to use their VR system! I let them examine my rocks but they won’t let me touch their equipment! It’s not fair!”
Alexios slowly rose to his feet, forcing Molina to back off a few steps. “And that’s why you’ve come to me.”
“You have tractors sitting here at the base doing nothing. Let me borrow one. I’ve got to get out there and find more specimens.”
Alexios’s oddly irregular face slowly curled into a lopsided smile. “It’s against safety regulations for anyone to go out on a tractor alone.”
Molina’s already-flushed face turned darker. Before he could say anything, though, Alexios added, “So I’ll go out with you.”
“You will?” Molina seemed about to jump for joy.
With a self-deprecating little shrug, Alexios said, “I have little else to do, thanks to the IAA.”
He could have said, Thanks to you, but Molina never thought of that possibility.
Instead he asked, “When? How soon?”
“As soon as you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now!”
In truth, it took more than a day for Molina to be ready. He shuttled back up to Himawari to gather the equipment he wanted, and by then it was time for dinner. So he spent the night aboard Yamagata’s torch ship with his wife. Alexios slept in his quarters alone, trying not to think of Molina in bed with Lara. He slept very little, and when he did his dreams were monstrous.
Molina arrived at the base early the next morning, with four crates of equipment. Alexios hid his amusement and walked him to the garage where the base’s tractors were housed. A baggage cart trundled behind them on spongy little wheels, faithfully following the miniature beacon Alexios had clipped to his belt.
The garage was empty and quiet. “Mr. Yamagata came in here just once since the IAA embargoed us,” Alexios said, his voice echoing off the steel ribs of the curving walls. “He wasn’t happy to see all this equipment sitting idle.”
Molina said nothing. The tractors were simple and rugged, with springy-looking oversized metal wheels and a glassteel bubble up front where the driver and passengers sat. The two men loaded Molina’s equipment into the cargo deck in back, then closed the heavy cermet hatch.
“I’ll get into my suit now,” said Molina.
Alexios could see dark stains of perspiration on his coveralls. It couldn’t be from the exertion of lifting those crates in this light gravity, he thought. Victor must be nervous. Or maybe he’s afraid of going outside again.
He went with Molina and suited up also.
“But you won’t have to leave the tractor,” Molina objected as a team of technicians began to help them into the bulky suits.
“Unless you get into trouble,” said Alexios.
“Oh.”
“You wouldn’t want to wait a half hour or more while I wiggled myself into this outfit.”
“No, I imagine not.”
At last they were both ready, the cumbersome, heavily insulated suits fully sealed and checked out by the technicians.
Alexios called base control with his suit radio. “Dr. Molina and I are going out on tractor number four. We will go beyond your camera range.”
The controller’s voice sounded bored. “Copy you’ll go over the horizon. Sunup in one hour, seventeen minutes.”
A flotilla of miniature surveillance satellites hugged the planet in low orbits, so every square meter of Mercury’s surface was constantly covered by at least two of the minisats. They provided continuous communications links and precise location data.
“Sun in one seventeen,” Alexios acknowledged.
“You are clear for excursion,” said the controller.
It wasn’t easy to climb up into the tractor’s cab in the awkward suits, despite the low gravity. Alexios heard Molina grunt and
“Virtual reality is a powerful tool,” Alexios goaded. Standing in front of him, bending over so that their noses nearly touched, Molina cried, “They won’t allow me to use their VR system! I let them examine my rocks but they won’t let me touch their equipment! It’s not fair!”
Alexios slowly rose to his feet, forcing Molina to back off a few steps. “And that’s why you’ve come to me.”
“You have tractors sitting here at the base doing nothing. Let me borrow one. I’ve got to get out there and find more specimens.”
Alexios’s oddly irregular face slowly curled into a lopsided smile. “It’s against safety regulations for anyone to go out on a tractor alone.”
Molina’s already-flushed face turned darker. Before he could say anything, though, Alexios added, “So I’ll go out with you.”
“You will?” Molina seemed about to jump for joy.
With a self-deprecating little shrug, Alexios said, “I have little else to do, thanks to the IAA.”
He could have said, Thanks to you, but Molina never thought of that possibility.
Instead he asked, “When? How soon?”
“As soon as you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now!”
In truth, it took more than a day for Molina to be ready. He shuttled back up to Himawari to gather the equipment he wanted, and by then it was time for dinner. So he spent the night aboard Yamagata’s torch ship with his wife. Alexios slept in his quarters alone, trying not to think of Molina in bed with Lara. He slept very little, and when he did his dreams were monstrous.
Molina arrived at the base early the next morning, with four crates of equipment. Alexios hid his amusement and walked him to the garage where the base’s tractors were housed. A baggage cart trundled behind them on spongy little wheels, faithfully following the miniature beacon Alexios had clipped to his belt.
The garage was empty and quiet. “Mr. Yamagata came in here just once since the IAA embargoed us,” Alexios said, his voice echoing off the steel ribs of the curving walls. “He wasn’t happy to see all this equipment sitting idle.”
Molina said nothing. The tractors were simple and rugged, with springy-looking oversized metal wheels and a glassteel bubble up front where the driver and passengers sat. The two men loaded Molina’s equipment into the cargo deck in back, then closed the heavy cermet hatch.
“I’ll get into my suit now,” said Molina.
Alexios could see dark stains of perspiration on his coveralls. It couldn’t be from the exertion of lifting those crates in this light gravity, he thought. Victor must be nervous. Or maybe he’s afraid of going outside again.
He went with Molina and suited up also.
“But you won’t have to leave the tractor,” Molina objected as a team of technicians began to help them into the bulky suits.
“Unless you get into trouble,” said Alexios.
“Oh.”
“You wouldn’t want to wait a half hour or more while I wiggled myself into this outfit.”
“No, I imagine not.”
At last they were both ready, the cumbersome, heavily insulated suits fully sealed and checked out by the technicians.
Alexios called base control with his suit radio. “Dr. Molina and I are going out on tractor number four. We will go beyond your camera range.”
The controller’s voice sounded bored. “Copy you’ll go over the horizon. Sunup in one hour, seventeen minutes.”
A flotilla of miniature surveillance satellites hugged the planet in low orbits, so every square meter of Mercury’s surface was constantly covered by at least two of the minisats. They provided continuous communications links and precise location data.
“Sun in one seventeen,” Alexios acknowledged.
“You are clear for excursion,” said the controller.
It wasn’t easy to climb up into the tractor’s cab in the awkward suits, despite the low gravity. Alexios heard Molina grunt and
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