Where the deeply carved Valles Marineris meets the dense rock of the Tharsis Bulge the badlands of the Noctis Labyrinthus spreads its fractured pattern of canyons. From orbit above Mars it almost looks as if the great rip in the ground was stopped and shattered by the uplifted bulge the way a battering ram might splinter against an iron door.
"We are deciding on the route for the first traverse," Vosnesensky said as Jamie sat down in front of the display screen.
Jamie looked at the four fliers. Vosnesensky seemed brooding and melancholy, as usual. Mironov was smiling the way a man does when he is bored or embarrassed. Connors was studying the map display intently, as if trying to memorize it. Paul Abell had a puzzled, quizzical expression on his pop-eyed face.
Tapping a fingernail against the screen, Jamie said, "I’d like to arrive here, at this point."
Abell said, "That’s not exactly where Father DiNardo indicated in his mission plan, is it?"
"Not quite. I’ve been thinking about this traverse all during our flight here. This spot here is a branching point. I can look at three canyons from there." Leaning forward enough to reach the keyboard, Jamie punched up an enlargement of the region. "You see? There’s slumping here; a landslide. And clear fracture lines…"
"Yes, yes," said Vosnesensky impatiently. "That is permissible. We can get you to that point."
"Good."
"I have decided to drive the rover myself," Vosnesensky said.
Jamie glanced at Connors. The American did not seem surprised. Jamie realized that he had been keeping his eyes focused on the display screen because he was angry. The astronaut’s lips were pressed together in a grim tight line.
"I thought the mission plan called for Pete to drive the rover."
"I have changed the plan," Vosnesensky said flatly.
"Why?"
"This is no reflection on Pete. He will still command one of the other traverses and fly the soarplane."
"But why change the mission plan?" Jamie insisted.
Mironov’s smile had gradually dwindled. He said, "This has nothing to do with politics, I assure you."
Which immediately made Jamie think that it was entirely due to national pride and competition. Or at least some form of rivalry between the Russians and the Americans.
Connors finally spoke up. "It’s cool, Jamie. We talked it over. Mike just wants to take the first traverse himself." Forcing a humorless grin, the astronaut added, "It’s part of Mike’s god complex. He’s afraid something’ll go wrong if he’s not there running the show himself."
Mikhail Vosnesensky made himself smile back at Connors. "I have no intention of flying the soarplane. You may have that honor entirely to yourself."
Connors nodded and turned back toward the display screen.
Jamie asked, "Do we start the traverse as scheduled?"
"In two days, yes."
"The only change," Mironov said, "is to substitute Mikhail Andreivitch as your chauffeur."
"Does Dr. Li know about this?" Jamie asked.
"He will be informed. I do not expect him to object," Vosnesensky said.
With a shrug, Jamie said, "Well, I guess it’s okay then."
Mironov got to his feet and Vosnesensky lumbered up from his chair a fraction of a second after him. For a wild moment Jamie got the impression that Mironov was in charge, not Vosnesensky. Vaguely he recalled that the Russians used to have political officers among their men who worked at subsidiary jobs but were actually the real bosses.
As the two Russians walked away, Connors said earnestly, "Listen, Jamie, the last thing I want is for a Soviet-American rivalry to break out here."
"But why’d he do it?" Jamie asked.
Leaning his forearms on his knees, Connors answered, "I think he really has a god complex. He thinks that if he’s in charge nothing will go wrong. It’s the first overland traverse and he’s nervous about it."
Abell looked skeptical but said nothing.
"You don’t mind being bumped?" Jamie asked.
Connors leaned back again, away from him. "Sure I mind! Shit, who wouldn’t mind? But like the man said, there’ll be other traverses. Let him take the first one; it’s okay. I’ll do the soarplane flying; he can’t talk me out of that."
Abell grunted. "So our friend Mike gets to play god, but he lets you be the angel."
Connors tapped Abell on the shoulder and got up from his chair. Abell left with him. Jamie sat alone in front of the display screen, caring less about who drove the damned rover than he did about what they would find when they reached the intersection of those three canyons.
Finally he flicked the display off and got to his feet. Scanning the dome’s interior, he saw that the women were still at the biology bench, but they were talking among themselves now, no longer bent over the equipment. The music had ended; the dome was quiet. Joanna looked tired.
Jamie approached them slowly, but they did not seem to notice him. They sat in the spindly Martian-gravity chairs earnestly talking among themselves.
"How’s it going?"
Turning in her chair, Ilona gave him a bitter scowl. "It’s inorganic."
"You were right," said Joanna. "It is nothing more than oxidized copper."
Even the normally cheerful Monique seemed downcast. "No organic material at all, neither in the rock itself nor in the soil samples. No long-chain molecules."
Jamie stood evenly balanced on the balls of his feet, as if ready to fight or flee, depending on the circumstances. They can give me the rock now, so I can determine its age and how long it’s been sitting on the surface.
"But there’s water," he heard himself say.
"Yes, permafrost," said Ilona. "Starting at about one meter below the surface."
Monique shook her head. "The water is frozen, not liquid. That makes it difficult to use for biological reactions."
"The soil is loaded with superoxides, as well," Ilona added. "Living cells cannot exist in such a corrosive environment."
"Terrestrial living cells," Jamie said. "This is Mars."
Ilona smiled thinly. "I can’t imagine any kind of living cells existing in a pit of rusty iron."
"Anaerobic bacteria do so on Earth," Monique said.
"Without access to water?"
"Ah, yes, there is that."
Jamie looked into Joanna’s eyes. He saw more than fatigue there; she looked defeated. Like a woman who had hacked her way through a jungle only to find that she had gone in a circle and was back where she had started.
"Well, it was just our first shot out there," he said. "None of us expected to find even copper, did we?"
Monique brightened. "There must be organic materials somewhere in the soil! After all, the unmanned probes brought back rocks that bore organics."
"The surface has been bombarded by meteorites for eons," said Ilona, as if trying to convince herself. "Some of those meteorites had to be carbonaceous chondrites!"
Nodding, Jamie agreed. "Maybe the impact sites of chondritic meteorites are centers where life processes began."
"If the organics in the meteorite are not destroyed by the heat of the impact," Joanna nearly whispered.