Don’t stop to celebrate, he thought. Not yet.
The site had been chosen from space, the nearest spot that looked safe without being close enough to endanger Shaughnessy should something go wrong. The boat slewed into vertical alignment, landing jacks extended, dust whirled up, impact thudded. The hull began to tilt. The jack on that side lengthened itself to compensate, and the boat stood stable.
Nansen unharnessed and squirmed his way downward, aft, to the vehicle bay. He could have walked the rest of the distance, but Shaughnessy might need carrying. For a few minutes he was busy donning his equipment. He already wore the gloves, boots, and hooded coverall that protected him from ultraviolet. He slipped on his backpack, with its air tank and other gear, snugged goggles and breathmask over his face, opened the inner lock valve, and pushed the little groundrover through. The chamber expanded to accommodate them, barely. The valve closed, Nansen’s fingers directed the outer valve to move aside. A certain amount of interior air was lost in the local atmosphere. He gave the rover a shove to send it trundling down the ramp that had deployed. On the ground, he climbed to the control seat and drove.
Strange, he thought, as often before, how half-familiar the scene was. The Solar System, where he had trained, held more foreignness than this, from red-brown Martian deserts under pale-red skies to the grandeur of Saturn’s rings. Here he weighed about the same as on Earth, the horizon was about as far off, a sun that looked much like Sol stood in a blue heaven, the breeze was just comfortably warm, sand gritted under wheels and dust eddied lazily over their tracks. But the oxygen-poor air would choke him, and everywhere around stretched barrenness.
The thought was equally old in him: Well, why should we ever have expected more? Life on Earth took three billion years to venture from the seas to the land. Our giant Moon, a cosmic freak, may well have hastened that by the tides it raised. Give this life here a few more geological ages. Yes, of course it was disappointing not to find woods and flowers and big, fine animals. But we knew the odds were against it. Meanwhile, what a dragon’s hoard of scientific treasure we’re winning.
Steering by inertial compass, he topped a ridge and saw the fallen aircraft. Although it had dug itself half a meter into gravel, the composite body showed small damage. Impact had doubtless smashed most things inside. Nansen’s gaze strained. Shaughnessy —
Yes, there, tiny across a kilometer but on his feet! Nansen’s heart sprang. The rover rumbled downhill.
Shaughnessy staggered to meet him. Nansen stopped and dismounted. They fell into one another’s arms.
“Are you all right?” Nansen gasped.
“Barely, barely. It’s foul my air has gotten. Let me hook up.” Shaughnessy plugged into the large tank on the vehicle.
Weight penalty or no, Nansen thought, backpack units ought to include recyclers, the same as on spacesuits. Yet who could have foreseen? Every interstellar expedition was a leap into mystery. Oh, yes, you could send robots ahead, as had been done at first, but then you’d wait too long for less news than humans would bring.
“Ah-h-h!” Shaughnessy sighed. “Like the breeze off a clover meadow. Or so it feels by our modest standards hereabouts. My father thanks you, my mother thanks you, my sister thanks you, my brother thanks you, and I thank you.”
The crew seldom spoke of kinfolk. When they returned home, the crossing would take a few days of their time — and a quarter century would have passed on Earth. You didn’t want to dwell on what time might have done meanwhile. Nansen forgave the tactlessness. He was too glad that his friend lived.
Anxiety: “Are you well otherwise, Mike?”
“I am. I did take a tumble on landing, which split my transceiver apart. We need a design more robust. Otherwise just bruises, not like my poor liver. I’m afraid my fellow airmen will have fewer missions in future, Rico, for I’ll be claiming my share of them.”
“They’ll get enough other work to keep them out of mischief. So will you.” The groundside teams were turning up more surprises than they could handle. All extra help would be jubilantly welcomed. “Have you any Idea what caused this?”