Firstborn(Time Odyssey 3) - By Arthur C. Clarke Page 0,47

all about PPP.

PPP?

Planetary protection protocols. We never bring our suits inside the terrestrial hab modules; we never mix environments. Protecting Mars and Earth life from each other.

Even though they are kissing cousins.

Theyre the worst. And also there is the question of dust. Mars dust is rusty and toxic and full of peroxides, very corrosive. Best to keep it out of the habs, and our lungs. We must keep the suit seals brushed free of dust, in fact, or it becomes harder to make them, and you dont want to be stuck out here. Ill show you how later.

The doctors face came swimming into view behind her own visor. Youre doing good, Bisesa. Try moving around.

Bisesa raised her arms and lowered them; there was a whir of servos, and the suit felt as light as a feather. It feels odd not to be able to lower my arms all the way. Or to be able to scratch my face. Thatll pass, I guess.

I can scratch your face for you if

Ill let you know, Suit Five. She looked around. The ground was flat and white, the sky a smoggy dark. The station modules were somber masses looming over her, with equipment and stores heaped up against their stilts, and vehicles parked up: those two rovers with snowplow blades, even what looked like snowmobiles. Discovery was long gone, driving itself back to Lowell.

Alexei, Myra, the whole station crew, everybody at Wells but Paula was here, in their green spacesuits and with illuminated faces, all looking at her. The snow kept falling, big fat flakes, from a lid of gray cloud. I'm at the pole of Mars. Good God. She raised her hand and flexed her gloved fingers.

Yuri approached Bisesa. We have a short walk to make. Just a few hundred meters. The drilling rig is positioned away from the habs for safety, and for planetary protection. Just walk normally, and youll be fine. Please. Walk with me. Myra, you too.

Bisesa tried it. One step after another, she walked as easily as she had since she was three years old. The suit was obviously helping her. Yuri walked between Myra and Bisesa. The others went ahead.

Drilling engineer Hanse Critchfield had ROUGHNECK printed on the back of his life support pack, with a cartoon of a gushing oil well. His suit looked heftier than the others. Perhaps it was a super-powered version, designed for the heavy work of the drilling rig.

The Martian snowflakes pattered against Bisesas visor, but sublimated immediately, leaving the faintest of stains.

I can assist you any way you require, by the way, said Suit Five.

I'm sure you can.

I am managing your data transfer and your consumables. Also I have sophisticated processing functions. For instance if you are interested in the geology I can process your field of view and highlight exceptions of interest: unusual rock or ice types, unconformities.

I don't think that will be necessary today.

I wish you would explore my physical functions. You may know that under Martian gravity walking is actually more energy-efficient than running. If you like I can stress selected muscle groups as you walk, thus providing an overall workout

Oh, shut up, Suit Five, you bore, Yuri snapped. Bisesa, I apologize. Our electronic companions are marvels. But they can get in the way, cant they? Especially when one is surrounded by such wonder.

Myra looked around at the dismal plain of rock-hard ice, the scattered snowflakes falling through the beams of her helmet lights. She said skeptically, Wonder?

Yes, wonderfor a glaciologist anyhow. I just wish I lived in a universe peaceful enough to indulge my passion without distraction.

They approached the largest structure on the ice. It was a hemispherical dome more than twenty meters tall, Bisesa guessed. She could see a ribbed structure under flaccid panels; it was a tent, supported by the ribs, not inflated. Yet it had airlocks of fabric, through which they had to pass in turn.

This was the drilling rig, Hanse Critchfields baby, and he helped Bisesa bend to get through the lock. These are PPP barriers, not really airlocks. In fact we keep a slight negative pressure in here; if we get a leak the air is sucked in, not blown out. We have to protect any deep life we dig out of our boreholeseven from other sorts of life we might find at other layers. And we have to protect it from us, and vice versa. He spoke with a comical mix of what sounded like a Dutch accent with southern United States,