all the way back to New Klondike for help. “Given how long it took to get here,” I continued, “and even allowing for Rory possibly not having taken the most direct route out, I’d guess it’d take days to walk home.” In this gravity, even in the suit, I could easily manage it—and I suspected Lakshmi was in good enough shape to do it, as well. Except for one thing: I looked at the air gauge built into my suit’s inner left sleeve. “I’ve got five hours left.”
Lakshmi was still bound with the lasso. I rotated her arm in a way that probably wasn’t pleasant and read her gauge. “And she’s got three.” I didn’t add, but I certainly thought, Which means if I take her tanks, I’ve got a total of eight. I looked at Pickover. “We should head out.”
“You’re not abandoning me here!” Lakshmi exclaimed.
I turned to her. “Why not? You were prepared to kill me, and you just tried to kill Dr. Pickover.”
“Not kill him, just disable him—with damage that would be easy to repair.”
“Well, tell you what, sweetheart: you can start walking; you, at least, should more or less know the way.”
“I’m new to Mars; you know that. Darren was navigating. I honestly don’t have a clue which way to go.”
“If you ask him nicely, Rory might point you in the right direction.”
He was looking down at his chest, probing the holes in it with his fingers, and—
And, no, actually, he was probing the holes she’d made in his work shirt. I hadn’t paid much attention to it until now, but it was a somewhat tattered flannel number sporting a light and dark gray plaid and pockets over both breasts. Above his left breast was a logo showing what I was pleased with myself for recognizing as a trilobite, and beneath that, some words that were too small for me to read.
“This was my lucky shirt,” he said. “Got it when I was doing field-work at the Burgess Shale; I brought it all the way from Earth.” He looked at her. “And you wrecked it.”
The upper hole was merely a rip; the lower one was now badly stained by oil.
Lakshmi took on a desperate tone. “Please, tell me which way to head.”
“It doesn’t make any difference,” I said. “You won’t get anywhere near the dome before your air runs out. At least if you stay here, we’ll know where your body is, and can come back and give you a decent burial.”
“You bastard,” said Lakshmi.
“I’m just telling you the truth.”
Rory looked around, getting his bearings. “That way,” he said, pointing in a direction somewhat more northerly than what I would have guessed but not so much so that I doubted his word. “Walk that way.”
“Thank you,” she said to Rory. Then, to me: “You’re going to die, too, Lomax. Yes, you’ve got more air than I do—but it’s still nowhere near enough.”
I smiled. “It wouldn’t be if I were going to walk it. But I’m not.”
“You expect a rescue?” She looked relieved. “Then I’m waiting right here with you.”
“Oh, no. I’m heading out, too. But Rory’s going to carry me.”
“I am?” said Pickover.
“You are. Bend over a bit.”
He did so, putting his hands on his knees. I climbed onto his back piggyback style. It was easy for him to take the weight—the combination of low gravity and a transfer’s strength. “And you’re going to run,” I said. I thought about digging in my heels as if they were spurs and yelling, “Giddyap,” but I didn’t think the paleontologist would appreciate that. So instead I simply said, “Let’s go.”
Lakshmi looked furious, but Pickover did indeed start running, leaving her behind. It took Pickover a hundred meters to find the right gait with me on his back, but he finally did. The horizon went up and down as he ran along, his powerful legs sailing from one footfall to the next. Holding on to him wasn’t difficult. The miles and miles of miles and miles shifted one by one from being in front of us to behind us, and soon enough Lakshmi’s cursing faded away as we moved out of radio range.
TWENTY
Dr. Pickover and I reached the vicinity of New Klondike by mid afternoon. To his credit, Rory had taken a straight path all the way back, with no attempt to disguise the route. Polarizing the fishbowl at night had rendered me almost blind, but here in broad daylight it just made looking out at the world comfortable—so