The Season Of Passage Part 22

'You and Gary will remain at the Hawk,' Bill said. 'Jim and Jessie will be stationed here. I will go up the ca.n.a.l.'

'Alone?' Jim asked.

'No,' Bill said. 'I will take Zossima here, since he's the only guide we have.'

'Do you think that's wise?' Jim asked.

'No,' Bill said. 'But I want the risks to be mine alone.

With relays, and a booster here, I should be able to remain in constant contact.' Bill gestured to Ivan. 'Lauren, if Zossima insists on staying here until we return, then you had better give him your lamp and an extra oxygen tank. His equipment is adaptable to ours. It was made in the United States. We will start back now.'

Ivan had sat down at the edge of the cliff so that his feet dangled into the void. He appeared to be quite content to remain behind. As Lauren handed him her equipment, he bowed slightly in her direction and said something inside his helmet that she didn't catch. It wasn't Russian, though, she was sure of that. It didn't even sound like words humans normally made, no matter where they came from.

Lori.

Lauren took a step back and Ivan bowed once more. He grinned and showed her all his yellow teeth. She noticed then how red his lips were, how bloodshot his eyes looked. They were like a couple of rotting strawberries staring through veined slots.

Lauren left him quickly. She swore she was never coming down here again.

TWENTY.

Houston approved their plan to explore the 'ca.n.a.l.' Lauren found it interesting how they had all settled on the word. There was no reason to think the waterway was anything more than a natural formation. Jim said Lowell's drawings were coming back to haunt them. Gary was reading The Martian Chronicles again.

Houston did not want the public to know of the ca.n.a.l or Ivan, at least for now. Lauren had a feeling they would never know.

At present Lauren sat in the Hawk's control room with Gary. It was cloudy outside, as usual. It was difficult to tell where the sun was, but their clocks said it was going to set soon. On their viewing screens, Bill was giving his wife and Jim final instructions. They sounded oddly familiar. If he did not return in six hours, he said, they were to return to the Hawk and leave Mars. No rescue was to be attempted. Lauren and Gary watched as Bill climbed into the front seat of Hummingbird beside Ivan. He carried a laser.

'Why is he so fanatical about us leaving at the first sign of trouble?' Lauren asked.

Gary leaned back in his chair. He wore a royal blue sweatsuit that went well with his curly black hair. 'You forget Bill's a colonel in the United States Air Force,' he said. 'He's just afraid of a Communist plot.'

'I'm serious, Gary.'

He yawned. 'So am I.'

'There's more to it than national security. Jim's full of foreboding hints, too. I keep thinking they know something we don't.' Lauren shook her head. 'You have to see that Ivan. He's so weird. Bill and Jim are very suspicious of him.'

Gary was unimpressed. 'You're the doctor, Lori. Both of them are probably concerned that Ivan's contracted a new disease that he's anxious to share with us.'

'If that's true,' Lauren said, 'then the disease appears to have helped keep Ivan alive.'

'Why haven't you examined him yet?' Gary asked.

'When? I had to chase after him right after I met him. Then he refused to return to the s.h.i.+p.'

Hummingbird lifted from the floor of the cave and floated over the icy waters. Lauren activated a monitor that relayed the reception from the craft's forward camera back to the Hawk. Slowly Bill dropped Hummingbird near to the water, using the surface to create a trapped air cus.h.i.+on, and thus save fuel. The ca.n.a.l swam with tiny waves beneath the force of the jets. Bill put Hummingbird in first gear and the s.h.i.+p moved forward. A powerful wide-angle searchlight illuminated his path. Curved black walls drifted by. Bill upped his speed.

'How is she handling over the water?' Jim asked from his position at the edge of the cliff.

'Smooth,' Bill said.

'Watch your fuel,' Jim cautioned.

Gary nudged Lauren's side. 'Here we are thirsty, and we've a ca.n.a.l full of water to drink,' he said.

'Don't even talk about it,' Lauren said. 'It will just tempt us. We still need to get a sample to examine.' She paused. 'I shouldn't have drunk so much when I returned.'

'Don't sweat it, Doc,' Gary said. 'No pun intended. I'm not feeling too dry. But I'm worried about Jim. He hardly drank a thing. I think he wants us to take his share.'

'I didn't know that,' Lauren said.

'Martyrs,' Gary said. 'They turn up on s.p.a.ce expeditions all the time.'

'Hey, Gary?' Lauren said. 'You read up on the Russian crew. What do you remember about Ivan Zossima?'

He shrugged. 'Ask Friend. He probably knows what Ivan's favorite ice cream is.'

'Friend, give me a visual on Ivan Zossima,' Lauren said. 'Screen F. Cut the audio. We should have checked on him right away, Gary.'

[Yes, Lauren.]

"There's a lot of things we're not doing,' Gary muttered.

Lauren studied the screen.

[Zossima, Ivan Gregory: 1970-? Russian cosmonaut. Born in Volgograd. Only child. Received elementary education at Lock, where he won distinguished honors. Entered the University of Volgograd in 1988 and was awarded a B.S. in physics in 1992, an M.S. in aeronautics in 1995. Entered the Russian Academy for Cosmonaut Training in 1996. Is best known as second in command of Project Gorbachev, the first manned expedition to Mars. Believed to have perished on the Martian surface in 2002. Detailed summary follows:]

'Wait, Friend,' Lauren said, glancing back at the screen that was hooked into Hummingbird's forward camera. The walls of the ca.n.a.l had not changed, nor had the water. Bill had upped his speed to fifty miles an hour. 'Give me a visual on the subjects Ivan studied while at Volgograd University,' she said.

[Yes, Lauren. 1988: Psychology, Russian Literature, Physics, Calculus, Chemistry, English 1.]

'Stop,' Lauren said. 'Did he study English as a foreign language?'

[Yes, Lauren.]

'For how many semesters?'

[Four, Lauren.]

'Based on the records of his performance in those courses, would you say he could speak English?'

[Yes, Lauren. But not fluently.]

'Does he have any record of psychological difficulties?'

[No, Lauren.]

'They don't send people to Mars who are nuts,' Gary said.

'You heard what Friend said about his English courses,' Lauren said.

'I had four semesters of German in college, and the only thing I can remember is how to ask someone if they're sick. Bist du krank? Ivan probably just forgot most of what he learned.'

'I wonder,' Lauren said. She opened a line to Jim. 'This is Lauren.'

'Bill doesn't seem to be getting anywhere,' Jim said. 'It's incredible - the symmetry of the walls. What can I do for you, Lauren?'

'I've been checking up on Ivan Zossima,' she said. 'It seems he took four semesters of English while in college.'

Jim considered. 'Interesting. Did you hear that, Bill?'

'That's interesting,' Bill said. His voice sounded distant. But then a note of excitement entered it. 'Can all of you see this?' Bill asked.

Lauren's eyes flew back to the screen. The scenery was changing, in a big way.

'Wow,' Gary gasped.

The ca.n.a.l's walls had come to an abrupt end. Bill revolved the forward camera around the s.p.a.ce and revealed nothing, absolutely nothing. He had entered a gigantic cavern.

'Do you see a sh.o.r.e in the distance?' Jim asked.

'No,' Bill said. 'Nor a ceiling.' He panned the camera back the way he had come, down the ca.n.a.l, which resembled an endless archway.

'Right now would be a very easy time to get lost,' Jim warned.

'I'm holding my position,' Bill said. 'But my guide is urging me forward. I'm sending up a flare.'

Bill aimed his camera into the heart of the void. Seconds went by. Suddenly a white star took birth in the void, and Lauren faintly glimpsed a distant island. Yet she saw no enclosing walls, no ceiling. Soon the flare exhausted itself, and went out in the black water. Night returned. Fortunately Friend had frozen their brief glimpse at its moment of greatest resolution. Lauren studied a secondary screen. The island looked like a barren Pacific atoll that had been transplanted to the far side of the moon.

'What is the distance to that land ma.s.s, Friend?' Bill asked.

[1.782 miles, Bill.]

'Professor?' Bill said.

'What can I say?' Jim replied. 'Be careful.'

Hummingbird flew forward. Several minutes pa.s.sed. Vague outlines of a lonely sh.o.r.e began to emerge in the beam of Bill's searchlight. But when he was on the verge of reaching the land, the picture went fuzzy.

'Stop,' Jim ordered.

Bill did so. 'What is it?'

'We're losing the picture,' Jim said.

'What about my voice?' Bill asked.

'It's a bit lower, but still clear,' Jim said.

'Could the many miles of the ca.n.a.l be responsible for the interference?' Bill asked.

'I think the island is to blame,' Jim said. 'If it is an island. The interference came very suddenly. How is your compa.s.s?'

'Spinning,' Bill said.

'Magnetic,' Jim muttered.

'I'll proceed slowly,' Bill said.

'Be careful,' Jessica whispered.

Their video reception quickly worsened. Lauren strained for details. She saw a low natural wall separating the water from a relatively flat beach. Bill landed Hummingbird on the beach. The picture became so bad it was next to useless.

'Send up another flare,' Jim advised. 'Let's get a better look at where you are.'

'A moment,' Bill said. 'I want to examine this coast.' He sounded as if he were climbing out of Hummingbird, and then walking.

Then she heard a second pair of feet, coming quickly.

'Bill!' Jim shouted. 'Watch your back!'

'Professor,' Bill said, a note of surprise in his voice. Then his voice became pure surprise as he let out a shocked cry. 'Oh!'

They heard a loud splash, a horrible choking sound. Then silence...

Hummingbird's picture went dead.

'William!' Jessica cried.

They called for five minutes before any of them would admit that they had lost the commander. In the control room of the Hawk, Lauren bowed her head. 'I should never have woken that corpse up,' she said.

TWENTY-ONE.

The flas.h.i.+ng red light on the airlock turned a steady green. The door slid open. Jim trudged inside and plopped down on a chair. Lauren helped Jessica remove her helmet. Jessica did not look upset, or sad, or alive.

'Oh, Jessie,' Lauren cried. 'I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have let him go. He was always too brave. We'll do something. We'll think of something.'