Firstborn(Time Odyssey 3) - By Arthur C. Clarke Page 0,46

if anything changes

We gun for home, Libby said. It will be just as we rehearsed. Three kilometers to closest approach. Edna?

Yes, Libby? History is watching. Oh, Jesus, John muttered.
PART 2 JOURNEYS 23: THE PIT
The four base crew, plus Bisesa, Myra, and Alexei, sat in a circle on chairs and upturned boxes in Can Two, the Hotel Mars-Astoria. Paula, it seemed, was sleeping off the journey.

And here at the Martian north pole, under a hood of carbon dioxide snow, about as remote and secure a place as you could find in the solar system, Bisesa was told the truth at last.

It seemed a relief to Alexei as he finally revealed what various Spacer factions had discovered through various routes: that something unknown and menacing was sliding through the inner solar system. Theyre calling it a Q-bomb. Best guess remains that it is a Firstborn artifact, here to do us harm. The navy have launched some kind of mission to take it out. They may even succeed. But if not

You have a plan of your own. Thats right. Bisesa looked around the ring of faces, all of them so much younger than her and Myrabut then,

Spacers were young by definition. This is covert. Youre obviously some kind of faction. Running around, hiding from the Earth cops. Having fun, are you? Do you have a leader?

Yes, Alexei said.

Who?

We cant tell you that. Not yet. Nobody here.

And you brought me here because of something you found under the ice.

Thats right.

Then show me.

Grendel Speth, astrobiologist and doctor, faced Bisesa. You only just arrived. Youre sure you dont need to rest?

Bisesa stood. Ive been resting for nineteen years, and traveling for weeks. Lets go. One by one the others stood, following her lead.

To reach the Pit, they would have to suit up.

They went back to Can Six, and then down another flight of steps to a small dome on the ice. Here Bisesa, Myra, and Alexei had to strip out of their coveralls. Knowing the Martian night-winter was only meters away, Bisesa felt illogically cold in her bare skin.

Doctor Grendel gave her a brisk physical check. Aside from having your system systematically ruined in a Hibernaculum for two decades, youre doing fine.

Thanks.

Bisesas skin was briskly oiled. She had to don a bio-vest, a rather prickly waistcoat that clung to her bare skin, providing an interface to the biometric systems that would monitor her bodys performance during this jaunt. Then she put on an undersuit, bright green and clinging, with a helmet, boots, and gloves and a small backpack. This was a complete spacesuit in itself, Grendel told her, effectively pressurized by the tension of its elastic fabric, and would keep her alive for minutes, maybe an hour if there were an emergency, like a module breach.

But this undersuit was only the innermost layer in a double spacesuit design. She was going to have to climb into one of those Captain Ahab external suits.

She was walked to a small hatchway in the dome wall, which led to her outer suit, fixed to the exterior of the dome. She was helped into the suit legs first, then her arms into the sleeves, then her torso and head. Her visor was opaque. The suit was made of rigid sections; it was like climbing into a suit of armor. But the suit seemed to help her by adjusting itself this way and that as she wriggled into it; she heard the hum of servo motors. The trickiest part was getting her helmeted head through the hatch without banging it, and then interfacing it with the larger helmet structure of the oversuit.

Grendel called, How are you feeling? These things arent custom-made. Fine. How do I get out of it?

The suit will tell you when you need to know.

At last Grendel snapped closed the panel at the back. The suit popped off the dome wall, and Bisesa staggered a little.

Her visor cleared. Framed by Martian winter dark, all she could see was the round, helmeted face of the support engineer, whose name was

Hanse, he said, smiling. Just checking your suits functioning properly. When you get into the rhythm of this youll learn to check mine; we work on a buddy system...Suit Five? Whats your status?

A soft male voice spoke in Bisesas ear. Nominal, Hanse, as you can see from my output. Bisesa? Go ahead. I'm here to assist you during your extravehicular activity in any way I can. Hanse said, I know the suit design must seem a little odd, Bisesa. Its