Hasdrubal still seemed somewhat dazed by Jamie’s idea. “A million-year experiment. There’s never been anything like it.”
“Yes there has,” Jamie replied. “You and me, all of us, all the life on Earth.”
“And Mars, too, I guess,” the biologist admitted.
“But now we can do a controlled experiment.”
“And take notes.” Hasdrubal laughed, a little shakily.
They had reached the cafeteria.
Chang gestured to the nearest table. “A proper ceremony is in order,” he said. “Please wait here.”
The mission director hurried back toward his office.
“What’s he up to?” Jamie wondered.
Carleton said, “I bet I know.”
Chang reemerged a moment later, carrying a slim green bottle in one chubby hand.
“Rice wine,” he explained once he reached their table. “From my home province.”
They drank a toast to the new project: Chang, Carleton, Hasdrubal and Jamie. To the future. To the million-year experiment.
Then Carleton got to his feet.
“Going to excavation?” Chang asked, an almost amiable smile on his chunky face.
“In a while,” the anthropologist said. “First I’m going to put in a call to Selene. We’re going to need a nanotechnology expert to oversee building the domes over the craters. I know just the right person.”
As he hurried off toward his quarters, they heard Carleton almost singing, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.…”
It was a long and exhilarating day. Chang actually laughed as he cancelled the evacuation flight. Carleton and his crew went out to the dig with renewed spirit. Hasdrubal gathered most of the biologists and began planning the first steps of what they all called the million-year experiment.
As darkness fell and the dome’s transparent windows went opaque, Jamie stood by the entrance of his office cubicle and listened to the hum of activity. The cafeteria was filling up. People were laughing and joking. The overhead speakers blared up-tempo pop tunes.
He and Vijay had dinner with Hasdrubal and Zeke Larkin.
“I asked Carleton about blowing out new craters,” Larkin said over his plate of soymeat. “He’s the local expert on explosives.”
“And?” Jamie prodded.
“He said he’d help us all he could.”
Hasdrubal chuckled. “Maybe he’s hopin’ you’ll blow your head off.”
Larkin grinned back at him. “Yeah. Maybe so.”
“The important thing,” Jamie pointed out, “is that you can work together on this.”
“That we will do,” Hasdrubal said firmly.
All through dinner Vijay said very little, and as she and Jamie walked back to their quarters he asked, “Anything wrong? You’ve been a quiet little mouse all evening.”
“You had a lot to say,” she countered.
“Guess I did,” he admitted.
Vijay slid her arm into his. “You’ve done it, Jamie. You’ve found the right path.”
The memory of his grandfather flickered through Jamie’s awareness. This village don’t exist yet, Al had told him in his dream. But it will, Jamie said to himself. We’ll bring it to life.
“I don’t know if it’s the right path,” Jamie replied to Vijay, “but I think it’s a path that we can all follow. A path that will lead to where we want to go.”
“Even if it takes a million years?” she teased.
“Even if takes longer,” he said, totally serious.
“The important thing is, you’re going to keep the operation going,” she said. “You’re going to make it better than ever.”
Jamie nodded. “At least we’ll be able to stay on Mars.”
“People will be on Mars all the time.”
“Even tourists,” he said.
“You’ll handle them. You’ll put them to work, won’t you?”
“That’s the plan.”
Later, as they were undressing for bed, Jamie came to a realization. “You know, all through dinner you were looking at me in a kind of funny way.”
Vijay’s brows rose questioningly.
“It wasn’t just that you were quiet most of the time. You had this funny expression on your face.”
As she slipped her naked body under the sheet Vijay asked, “A funny expression?”
“Funny as in strange.” Jamie sat on the edge of the bed, then stretched out beside her and pulled up the sheet. He switched off the light. Vijay cuddled her body against his.
“What kind of expression?” she whispered into his ear.
He turned toward her, and in the darkness he answered, “I don’t know. Kind of like you knew something I didn’t. Kind of like you had a secret.”
“I don’t have any secrets from you, love.”
“I know. It’s weird, isn’t it?”
For a moment Vijay said nothing. They lay together, bodies pressed tight.
Then, “We’ll be staying on Mars permanently, won’t we, Jamie?”
“Looks that way.”
“I’ve been talking it over with Nari. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have another baby.”
“Another…? What? Here on Mars?”
Vijay laughed softly in the darkness. “Think of it as a biology experiment; a nine-month experiment.”
“That’s some experiment,” Jamie muttered. “It’s a big decision, Vijay. Are you sure—”
“I was sure when we left New Mexico, love. I just had to wait until you got everything sorted out in your head. And now you have, so… why not?”
“At our age?”
“That’s no problem.”
“But… on Mars?”
“Children have been born on the Moon. It’s perfectly natural.”
“But—”
“Nari will take good care of me. I’ll be fine and we’ll have a healthy child. It’ll be good publicity for Dex to use.”
Despite himself, Jamie laughed. “A publicity stunt.”
“A baby. Our baby. It’s time we did it.”
“A nine-month experiment.”
She nuzzled her cheek against his. “Mars forever,” Vijay whispered.
“Forever,” he whispered back.
EPILOGUE: Depew, Florida
Bucky Winters sat at the old wooden desk in the bedroom he shared with his two older brothers. They were both out somewhere, so he had the room to himself for a change.
On the screen of his notebook computer was an image of the writing that the Martians had chiseled into a wall of the buildings they had left behind. And superimposed over the strange symbols were words:
[We are] the People. The People [live] under Father Sun. Father Sun [is] life. Father Sun [makes] the crops [grow]. Father Sun [is] Life…
He stared at the screen as the words scrolled past his goggling eyes.
They wrote those words! Bucky marveled. There really were Martians and they built villages and wrote prayers. There are scientists on Mars exploring the planet, digging up the old villages, translating the Martian writing.
Trembling with excitement, Bucky got up from the wobbly desk chair and went to the window. He slid it open and crawled out onto the porch roof. Moonlit clouds were drifting across the stars, silvery against the black of night. The stars twinkled and blinked as the clouds drifted past them.
His tongue between his teeth, Bucky looked toward the southwest, hoping that the clouds weren’t so thick that they covered…
There it isl Mars, shining red and steady against the infinity of space. Bucky stared at it, thinking:
I’m going to get all As in high school. I’ll take whatever classes they want me to take and study Mars here at home; I won’t let anybody at school know about it. I won’t say a word to anybody, not even Mom and Dad. I’ll get the best marks anybody can get all through high school and win a scholarship to college. I’ll study astronomy in college and when I graduate I’ll go to Mars. I’ll help them explore. I’ll get there no matter what.