muscles, the almost nonexistent air drag, and the feeble Martian gravity.
There was enough oxygen in the canopy to keep me alive for some time, I supposed, but if I cracked the lid to go retrieve the battery, I’d lose it. Lakshmi took off running in the opposite direction from where she’d thrown the excimer pack, and Rory hesitated, trying to decide whether to go after the battery or after her. I guess he decided it was more important to get my air circulating again, and he ran toward the rear.
A movement to the right caught my eye. It was Ernie Gargalian, making a beeline for his airplane. He wasn’t running, but he was walking fast, his arms working back and forth at his sides as he did so. He’d clearly decided to get away, and, in good Simon Weingarten fashion, apparently was content to maroon his partner here at the Alpha Deposit.
FORTY-THREE
Lakshmi, having apparently noticed what Ernie was up to, took off after him, presumably with an eye on the plane’s passenger seat.
The bootleg Pickover hadn’t seen precisely where Lakshmi tossed the excimer pack, and he was now searching around for it. With the buggy’s power off and my fishbowl radio wrecked, I couldn’t give him verbal instructions, although if he would just look back at me, I could at least point in the right direction.
I swiveled my head again to the front. Ernie was standing beside the plane now, turning it around by pulling on the tip of its port wing.
Blondie suddenly picked Reiko up and cradled her in bent arms. Reiko’s body was limp; it reminded me of the poster for Forbidden Planet with Robby the robot holding Altaira. Blondie began running, carrying Reiko. The Amazonian transfer clearly had her sights set on the airplane, too, doubtless realizing it would be the quickest way to get the injured Reiko to the dome.
I turned the other way, and Rory finally looked back at me. I pointed emphatically, and he at last started looking in the right spot. Excimer packs don’t get warm, so I guess his infrared vision was of no help, but—
Finally! He scooped the pack up and jogged back toward the buggy. Lakshmi had left the battery-compartment door open, but it took Rory a while to get the pack seated properly—one of the leads must have gotten bent. When he finally got it in place, I hit the power switch, and the dashboard indicators came to life. I then put my foot on the accelerator. I didn’t want to ram the plane, but I could at least prevent Ernie from immediately taking off. I drove directly into the middle of the bit of open terrain he and I had used as a landing strip. Ernie had finished rotating the airplane to his satisfaction but now saw that I was in his way.
Blondie had covered most of the distance to the plane already, and Lakshmi had arrived at it. Ernie and Lakshmi started arguing, both gesticulating wildly. But the lady did have the rifle, and after a moment, he waved a hand resignedly at the cockpit, and she clambered into the rear passenger seat.
Ernie was getting in, too, although that took some doing in his eggplant suit. When he was aboard, the teardrop-shaped canopy slid shut over him and Lakshmi, and he started revving his engines; I could see the turbines spinning to life. I moved the buggy even closer, blocking him in. But he seemed willing to try taking off anyway—and, who knows, carbon nanofibers are pretty much indestructible; maybe the plane could survive ramming into the buggy.
The blonde goddess still had a few dozen meters to go. I couldn’t imagine all the bouncing up and down was good for Reiko. The transfer bent down and gently laid Reiko on the ground again. She then did precisely what Ernie had done earlier: she grabbed the tip of the port wing and started rotating the airplane, turning it to face some nasty boulders. The two people aboard probably doubled the weight of the craft, but Blondie seemed to have no trouble with the task. Ernie might have thought his plane could take plowing into a buggy, but he had to realize that having a transfer hanging off the wing would screw up the aerodynamics that were already chancy in this meager atmosphere. He cut the engine and, rather than have Blondie rip the canopy open, he cracked the seal himself and let it slide to the rear.