Alexei kept up a steady stream of chatter. Maybe his mind really was that peripatetic, spinning from thought to thought like a dervish. And maybe he was doing it deliberately to keep us from thinking what a stupid thing we were about to do. In all likelihood, we were going to end up as a bunch of fried mummies, baking on the Lunar plain. I wondered what kind of weird life‑forms would evolve in our sealed and abandoned bubble suits. What would future Lunar explorers find growing here in the blazing sun? Flesh‑eating fungi? Vacuum‑breathing mold? Something dreadful, no doubt–especially Grottius Stinkoworsis.
I shuddered. It turned into a shiver. A whole bunch of shivers. I was cold. I could see my breath. "Uh–Alexei?"
"Yes, yes, I know. We are just waiting for Douglas to chill. Ha‑ha, I make joke there. Old‑fashioned slang. Never mind. Douglas and Robert mass more than everyone else. They generate more body heat. It will take longer for them to chill out. We want temperature in bubble suit to be almost freezing. Below would be better, but we do not want to risk frostbite either. We are almost there. Please be patient. Douglas? Are you ready? Mikhail?Charles? Hokay. There is no more time for chattering–except teeth, perhaps. When I say we go, everyone follow me. Don't fall down. Just keep going, no matter what. Remember to pace yourself. We are not racing. We are bouncing like before, only faster. Everybody ready? Get set? Go!"
And with that, he was off–a black stick figure racing into the light, carrying his bubble suit over his shoulder. Douglas followed immediately after. I hesitated for half a heartbeat–then plunged ahead. Mickey called, "I'm right behind you!"
We bounced into the light and it was like coming out of a tunnel. The sun slammed sideways into us like a wall of radiance. It was blinding. It dazzled and glared and my eyes started watering almost immediately. But I knew that part of it was just that my eyes hadn't adjusted yet. I found my rhythm and kept going. Hop with the left foot, hop with the right–I skipped steadily after Alexei and Douglas, bouncing high with every step.
We would have been floating through the air–if there had been air, but there wasn't; so we bumbled gracefully through space–bouncing across the land like gossamer hippopotami.
Everything was still too bright, the sideways glare etched every rock and boulder in sandpaper detail, the plains looked painful–but I wasn't hot in the bubble suit. Not yet. I was still shivering from the prolonged cold of the long Lunar shadows. I was almost impatient for the suit to start warming up. So far, this wasn't too bad. But we had a long way to go, and the sun's heat would be cumulative.
Behind me, I could hear Mickey counting off checkpoints. We passed the first one and I realized I wasn't shivering anymore, but the bubble suit still felt cold. Maybe it was just the exertion that was warming me up. I glanced back. The line of shadow had receded into the distance. A little farther and it would be over the horizon. That would be the worst–when we were out of sight of shadow.
Despite the long shadows, there was little refuge out here. The boulders were too small, their shadows were stretched out thin and insignificant. The light came in at us from the side, like the flame of a giant torch. All around us, the surreal landscape glowed; we pushed headlong into a world of dazzling glare. The inside of the bubble flashed and sparkled with rogue reflections. I was getting comfortably warm.
I maintained my pace, occasionally glancing back to see if Mickey was keeping up. He was close behind me. Ahead, Douglas was maintaining a steady pace, even burdened as he was with Stinky. Even farther ahead, I could see the flashing black figure of Alexei bounding through the sunlight. He wasn't having a problem with this, he'd already done it twice–once across, then back again when he'd heard us following him. His Scuba suit was refrigerated. He could go farther than any of us.
We passed the second checkpoint, still pounding across the silvery white dust, and I began to feel optimistic about making it. Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as I feared. All I had to do was keep Alexei and Douglas in sight. Just keep bouncing. Watch out for the boulders. Pay intention. And try not to notice the cold drop of sweat running down my side–
It was getting warmer out here. It was getting warmer inhere. Inside the bubble. Not uncomfortable yet, but …
I glanced back. Mickey was still close behind me. "Pay intention, Chigger!"
It wasn't Mickey I was worried about. It was the distance to shadow. Every bounce forward was also a bounce farther from darkness. And I had no idea how far we still had to go to get to the shadows on the other side. We were heading deeper into the heart of brightness. I began to worry. I wasn't hot yet, but–I was thinking about hot.The cumulative heat was building up.
I began to worry that Alexei had miscalculated. He had the refrigerated suit. We didn't. What if we were like the swimmer who swims too far out and has no strength left for getting back. What if the heat in our bubbles became intolerable before we got to the other side? What if we were getting too far out into the light to reach anyshade safely? What if we could only get mostof the way across, but not the last half klick? What if we couldn't make the last hundred meters? What if we couldn't make the last tenmeters–?
Ohell. What if we couldn't even get halfwayto safety? What if we had already passed the point of safe return? What if we were already doomed? What if we were already burning up and didn't know it?
" Shut up!"
"Huh?" said Mickey, right behind me. "I didn't say anything."
"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the little voices. Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
"Chigger, are you all right?"
Oh great. Now he was thinking I was going crazy–
I looked at my numbers. "I'm fine."
These bubble suits weren't designed for this. They were meant for emergencies. All this stuff, it was supposed to be used for keeping folks alive until the rescue boat could get to them–nobody ever intended these things for Lunar exploration. Not for long‑distance hikes across the Lunar surface. Not like this. Alexei had told us not to worry, it was part of the design specification because who knew what might be needed in an emergency, but just because a bubble suit candoesn't mean it should.And besides … what if Alexei was lying about the suits? Then what?
But why would he lie to us? What was the point in that? Did he want to kill us? How would he benefit from that? Well, there was a thought …
We passed the next checkpoint. I'd lost count. I had no idea what Alexei and Mickey were using as checkpoints. I couldn't tell one rock from another anymore. I wasn't warm anymore. I was hot, the sweat was running down my body. I'd skip into space–lifting up high to see the glowing landscape ahead of us, then each time as I'd float back down, the droplets would go coursing down my underarms in warm sluggish trails that made me think of snails–and then I'd bounce down onto the silvery floor of sparkling light and the droplets would splatter off, into my already‑clammy jumpsuit. With each hop and skip, the damp material plastered itself against me like a used towel. Everything was wet and smelly with sweat.