“The ship will be ready — only we aren’t going to have any men to go in her. At the present rate of washout there won’t be a single man qualified. Yourself included.”
Tony shifted uncomfortably under his gaze as the colonel continued.
“This training program has always been my baby. Dreamed it up and kept bugging the Pentagon until it was finally adopted. We knew we could build a ship that would get to Mars and back, operated by fully automated controls that would fly her under any degree of gravity or free fall. But we needed men who could walk out on the surface of the planet and explore it — or the whole thing would be so much wasted effort.
“The ship and the robot pilot could be tested under simulated flight condition, and the bugs worked out. It was my suggestion, which was adopted, that the men who are to go in the ship should be shaken down in the same way. Two pressure chambers were built, simulated trainers that duplicated Mars in every detail we could imagine. We have been running two-man teams through these chambers for eighteen months now, trying to train them to man the real ship out there.
“I’m not going to tell you how many men we started with, or how many have been casualties because of the necessary realism of the chambers. I’ll tell you this much though-we haven’t had one successful simulated expedition in all that time. And every man who has broken down or `died,’ like your partner Morley, has been eliminated.
“There are only four possible men left, yourself included. If we don’t get one successful two-man team out of you four, the entire program is a washout.”
Tony sat frozen, the dead cigar between his fingers. He knew that the pressure had been on for some months now, that Colonel Stegham had been growling around like a gut-shot bear. The colonel’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“Psych division has been after me for what they think is a basic weakness of the program. Their feeling is that because it is a training program the men always have it in the back of their minds that it’s not for real. They can always be pulled out of a tight hole. Like Morley was, at the last moment. After the results we have had I am beginning to agree with Psych.
“There are four men left and I am going to run one more exercise for each two-man group. This final exercise will be a full dress rehearsal — this time we’re playing for keeps.”
“I don’t understand, Colonel ….”
“It’s simple.” Stegham accented his words with a bang of his fist on the desk. “We’re not going to help or pull anyone out no matter how much they need it. This is battle training with live ammunition. We’re going to throw everything at you that we can think of — and you are going to have to take it. If you tear your suit this time, why you are going to die in the Martian vacuum just a few feet from all the air in the world.”
His voice softened just a bit when he dismissed Tony.
“I wish there was some other way to do it, but we have no choice now. We have to get a crew for that ship next month and this is the only way to be sure.”
Tony had a three-day pass. He was drunk the first day, hungover sick the second-and boiling mad on the third. Every man on the project was a volunteer so adding deadly realism was carrying the thing too far. He could get out any time he wanted, though he knew what he would look like then. There was only one thing to do: go along with the whole stupid idea. He would do what they wanted and go through with it. And when he had finished the exercise, he looked forward to hitting the colonel right on the end of his big bulbous nose.
He joined his new partner, Hal Mendoza, when he went for his medical. They had met casually at the training lecture before the simulated training began. They shook hands reservedly now, each eyeing the other with a view to future possibilities. It took two men to make a team and either one could be the cause of death for the other.
Mendoza was almost the physical opposite of Tony, tall and wiry, while Tony was as squat and solid as a tank. Tony’s relaxed, almost casual manner was matched by the other man’s seemingly tense nerves. Hal chewed nicotine continuously and would obviously have preferred to go back to chain-smoking. His eyes were never still. Tony forgot his momentary worry with an effort. Hal would have to be good to get this far in the program. He would probably calm down once the exercise was under way.
The medic took Tony next and began the detailed examination.
“What’s this?” the medical officer asked Tony as he probed with a swab at his cheek.
“Ouch,” Tony said. “Razor cut, my hand slipped while I was shaving.”
The doctor scowled and painted on antiseptic, then slapped on a square of gauze.
“Watch all skin openings,” he warned. “They make ideal entry routes for bacteria. Never know what you might find on Mars.”
Tony started to protest, then let it die in his throat. What was the use of explaining that the real trip — if and when it ever came off — would take 260 days. Any cuts would be well healed in that time, even in frozen sleep.
As always after the medical, they climbed into their flight suits and walked over to the testing building. On the way Tony stopped at the barracks and dug out his chess set and well thumbed deck of cards. The access door was open in the thick wall of Building Two and they stepped through into the dummy Mars ship. After the medics had strapped them to the bunks the simulated frozen-sleep shots put them under.
Coming to was accompanied by the usual nausea and weakness. No realism spared. On a sudden impulse Tony staggered to the latrine mirror and blinked at his red-eyed, smooth-shaven reflection. He tore the bandage off his cheek and his fingers touched the open cut with the still congealed drop of blood at the bottom. A relaxed sigh slipped out. He had the recurrent bad dream that some day one of these training trips would really be a flight to Mars. Logic told him that the bureaucrats would never forgo the pleasure and publicity of a big send-off. Yet the doubt, like all illogical ones, persisted. At the beginning of each training flight, he had to abolish it again.
The nausea came back with a swoop and he forced it down. This was one exercise where he couldn’t waste time. The ship had to be checked. Hal was sitting up on his bunk waving a limp hand. Tony waved back.
At that moment, the emergency communication speaker crackled into life. At first, there was just the rustle of activity in the control office, then the training officer’s voice cut through the background noise.
“Lieutenant Bannerman — you awake yet?”
Tony fumbled the mike out of its clip and reported. “Here, sir.”
Then the endless seconds of waiting as the radio signal crossed the depths of space to Earth, was received and answered.
“Just a second, Tony,” the officer said. He mumbled to someone at one side of the mike, then came back on. “There’s been some trouble with one of the bleeder valves in the chamber; the pressure is above Mars norm. Hold the exercise until we pump her back down.”
“Yes, sir,” Tony said, then killed the mike so he and Hal could groan about the so-called efficiency of the training squad. It was only a few minutes before the speaker came back to life.
“Okay, pressure on the button. Carry on as before.”
Tony made an obscene gesture at the unseen man behind the voice and walked over to the single port. He cranked at the handle that moved the crash shield out of the way.
“Well, at least it’s a quiet Mars for a change,” he said after the ruddy light had streamed in. Hal came up and looked over his shoulder.
“Praise Stegham for that,” he said. “The last one, where I lost my partner, was wind all the time. From the shape of those dunes it looks like the atmosphere never moves at all.”
They stared glumly at the familiar red landscape and dark sky for a long moment, then Tony turned to the controls while Hal cracked out the atmosphere suits.