green lights stretched off into the distance, as if they were driving down a runway. As the rover rolled closer Bisesa saw that the lights were on poles maybe four meters high, perhaps to keep above the snow. Glancing back, she saw that looking the other way the lights were bright whiteso, in the murk of a Martian blizzard, you could always tell if you were heading toward or away from the base.
The structures that loomed out of the dark, lifted up off the ground on stilts, were not domes but flattened pie-shapes, round above and below. They were colored bright green, and huddled close together, interlinked by short tunnels. Bisesa saw that these big hab modules were in fact mounted on wheels, and had been tied down to the ice by cables fixed to pitons. They were like monstrous caravans, she thought.
As the rover neared the station, the walls of dry ice snow thinned away, until the rover was driving over an ice surface almost clear of snow but covered with an open black mesh. Heating elements, perhaps, designed to keep off the dry ice. The rover nuzzled up to a low dome at the foot of one of the stilts. Two station vehicles were already parked here, heavy-looking, smaller than the rover from Lowell.
Paula led them through the hatch, and Bisesa found herself facing a staircase, roofed over with blue-green plastic, that evidently led up to the nearest of the stilted habs. Alexeis suitcase couldnt climb the stairs and had to be hauled up on a plastic rope.
At the top of the stairs, the station crew were waiting for the newcomers. There were four of them, two women, two men, Mars-spindly in the limbs though a little heavy in the belly. All were pretty young, Bisesa guessed, none older than forty. Their coveralls were clean but well-patched, and they all smelled faintly greasy. None of them had cheek ident tattoos.
They stared at Bisesa, and stood a little too close together.
One burly twenty-five-year-old came forward and shook Bisesas hand. Youll have to forgive us. We dont get too many visitors up here. He had a big, blotchy drinkers nose, grimy black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a mass of curly beard. His accent was indistinct, like American but laced with longer European vowels.
Youre Yuri, right? You were on the ice bike.
Yes. We exchanged a wave. Yuri ORourke. Resident glaciologist, climatologist, what have you. Briskly he introduced the rest of the base crew: Ellie von Devender, a physicist, Grendel Speth, a doctor-biologist, and Hanse Critchfield, an engineer responsible for power, transport, and essential systems, but also a specialist in the drilling rig, the bases main scientific function. Although we all multitask, Yuri said. Were all trained paramedics, for instance...
Ellie von Devender approached Bisesa. The physicist was maybe thirty, stocky in her jumpsuit, with her hair tightly pulled back. She wore thick-rimmed spectacles, an affectation that hid her eyes and made her look hostile.
Bisesa said curiously, I guess I would have expected a glaciologist, a biologist. But a physicist?
Ellie said, The glaciology is the reason the base is here, along with Grendel and her wet lab. I am the reason youre here, Ms. Dutt.
Yuri clapped Bisesa on the shoulder. Come see the place. He led them briskly through the hab. This is what we call Can Six, he said. The EVA port...
Can Six was a bubble of fabric, the walls colored a bright sea-green with an eye-deceiving wave pattern. It had a honeycomb floor that straddled its interior at the widest point, and looking down Bisesa could see stores stacked up in the underfloor space. There were no spacesuits in evidence, but there were odd hatches in the walls that might have led to externally-mounted suits, like the rovers. Equipment was stacked up here, what looked like spare parts and other gear for the rovers, and also a small science lab, and a medical area, a single bed surrounded by equipment, sealed off from the rest by a zippered plastic curtain. It was dark, and felt cold and dusty, as if not much used.
Yuri hurried them through a small airlock to another module: Can Five, science, he said. Here there was another, more comprehensive lab suite, and a larger hospital area, and what looked like a small gym. It was brighter, with glowing panels plastered to walls that seemed to be decorated with scenes of mountains and rivers.
Bisesa murmured to Myra, Why two lab suites, two medical bays?
Myra shrugged.