The Season of Passage Read online

  She was looking at the cave's big brother. The walls were smooth black; they rounded up in a half circle from a perfectly flat floor. Only this floor was quarter of a mile across, and the tunnel appeared to stretch forever in both directions. As the flare fell lower and began to die, Lauren saw a sight that filled her with a wonder she had never before experienced.

  'He saw canals, there is no doubt.'

  The floor was a perfectly still sheet of water.

  The flare fizzled in a puff of steam and went out. For a long time they said nothing. Ivan pointed to the right, up along the massive waterway.

  'Our friend here seems bent on leading us further,' Bill said finally. He looked over the edge. 'I think it's a good two-hundred-foot drop to that water. What is your opinion, Jim?'

  Jim knelt at the edge of the cliff. 'The Russians must have explored this canal.' He pulled up a piece of rope that was fastened to the cliff wall with a metal spike. A faint splash sounded from the water far below. 'The way we just came is wide enough for Hummingbird. The drop would make no difference.'

  Bill nodded. 'So I was thinking. Lauren?'

  'The atmospheric pressure has increased, but not enough to allow water to exist in its liquid phase.'

  'Professor?' Bill said.

  Jim shook his head. 'It's close. It's just a little off, like everything else on this planet. The water could contain something that increases its cohesiveness.'

  Bill addressed Ivan, who continued to point up the canal. 'Is your commander that way?' he asked.

  Ivan nodded.

  'Incredible,' Jim whispered. He dropped the rope and climbed to his feet.

  'What is it?' Lauren asked. 'I thought he understood some English.'

  'No,' Jim said. 'It's incredible that he heard Bill. We have our radios off. Ivan has no vocals.'

  'He could have read his lips,' Lauren said.

  'First he acts like a mindless zombie,' Bill said sarcastically. 'And now he's reading our lips.'

  'The air pressure is much higher,' Lauren said. 'He might have been able to hear us without vocals.'

  'It's possible,' Jim said, unconvinced.

  'He's always nodding,' Lauren protested.

  Bill yelled at Ivan. 'Can you hear me?'

  Ivan gave no reaction.

  'See,' Lauren said. 'He was just nodding at whatever you said.'

  'Maybe,' Bill said slowly. 'Or maybe he just hears what he wants to hear. I don't like anybody who lies in a freezing ship in his underwear for two years. Before we go chasing

  up this canal, Friend is going to have a little talk with Ivan. Did you hear that, Mr Zossima?'

  Ivan gave no reaction. Bill took his arm. 'Come along,' Bill said.

  Ivan shook free. He pointed back up the canal. Bill pointed in the direction of the plateau. He grabbed Ivan's arm a second time. The Russian pulled sharply away.

  'Strong devil,' Bill muttered. He aimed the laser at Ivan. Ivan grinned. Bill averted the rifle and fired at the water. A blinding bolt of ruby light cracked the air, followed by a black geyser of gushing steam. The noise echoed into the bowels of Mars.

  "The water must be deep,' Jim observed. 'The energy of your laser appears to have been absorbed solely through steam. The shot didn't penetrate to the bedrock.'

  Bill turned his weapon back on the Russian. Ivan stopped smiling. He remained stubborn, however, and refused to return with them. Finally Jim intervened.

  'Violence won't help us, Bill,' he said. 'If he wants to stay, let him stay. We need Hummingbird anyway.'

  Bill nodded reluctantly. 'Very well. Ivan's interrogation will wait. Since our program revolves around discovering the fate of the Russians, we will return with Hummingbird. But we will establish a series of relays starting from the mouth of the cave so that the exploration of this canal can be monitored from the Hawk.'

  'Who's going up the canal?' Lauren asked.

  'You and Gary will remain at the Hawk,' Bill said. 'Jim and Jessie will be stationed here. I will go up the canal.'

  'Alone?' Jim asked.

  'No,' Bill said. 'I will take Zossima here, since he's the only guide we have.'

  'Do you think that's wise?' Jim asked.

  'No,' Bill said. 'But I want the risks to be mine alone.

  With relays, and a booster here, I should be able to remain in constant contact.' Bill gestured to Ivan. 'Lauren, if Zossima insists on staying here until we return, then you had better give him your lamp and an extra oxygen tank. His equipment is adaptable to ours. It was made in the United States. We will start back now.'

  Ivan had sat down at the edge of the cliff so that his feet dangled into the void. He appeared to be quite content to remain behind. As Lauren handed him her equipment, he bowed slightly in her direction and said something inside his helmet that she didn't catch. It wasn't Russian, though, she was sure of that. It didn't even sound like words humans normally made, no matter where they came from.

  Lori.

  Lauren took a step back and Ivan bowed once more. He grinned and showed her all his yellow teeth. She noticed then how red his lips were, how bloodshot his eyes looked. They were like a couple of rotting strawberries staring through veined slots.

  Lauren left him quickly. She swore she was never coming down here again.

  TWENTY

  Houston approved their plan to explore the 'canal.' Lauren found it interesting how they had all settled on the word. There was no reason to think the waterway was anything more than a natural formation. Jim said Lowell's drawings were coming back to haunt them. Gary was reading The Martian Chronicles again.

  Houston did not want the public to know of the canal or Ivan, at least for now. Lauren had a feeling they would never know.

  At present Lauren sat in the Hawk's control room with Gary. It was cloudy outside, as usual. It was difficult to tell where the sun was, but their clocks said it was going to set soon. On their viewing screens, Bill was giving his wife and Jim final instructions. They sounded oddly familiar. If he did not return in six hours, he said, they were to return to the Hawk and leave Mars. No rescue was to be attempted. Lauren and Gary watched as Bill climbed into the front seat of Hummingbird beside Ivan. He carried a laser.

  'Why is he so fanatical about us leaving at the first sign of trouble?' Lauren asked.

  Gary leaned back in his chair. He wore a royal blue sweatsuit that went well with his curly black hair. 'You forget Bill's a colonel in the United States Air Force,' he said. 'He's just afraid of a Communist plot.'

  'I'm serious, Gary.'

  He yawned. 'So am I.'

  'There's more to it than national security. Jim's full of foreboding hints, too. I keep thinking they know something we don't.' Lauren shook her head. 'You have to see that Ivan. He's so weird. Bill and Jim are very suspicious of him.'

  Gary was unimpressed. 'You're the doctor, Lori. Both of them are probably concerned that Ivan's contracted a new disease that he's anxious to share with us.'

  'If that's true,' Lauren said, 'then the disease appears to have helped keep Ivan alive.'

  'Why haven't you examined him yet?' Gary asked.

  'When? I had to chase after him right after I met him. Then he refused to return to the ship.'

  Hummingbird lifted from the floor of the cave and floated over the icy waters. Lauren activated a monitor that relayed the reception from the craft's forward camera back to the Hawk. Slowly Bill dropped Hummingbird near to the water, using the surface to create a trapped air cushion, and thus save fuel. The canal swam with tiny waves beneath the force of the jets. Bill put Hummingbird in first gear and the ship moved forward. A powerful wide-angle searchlight illuminated his path. Curved black walls drifted by. Bill upped his speed.

  'How is she handling over the water?' Jim asked from his position at the edge of the cliff.

  'Smooth,' Bill said.

  'Watch your fuel,' Jim cautioned.

  Gary nudged Lauren's side. 'Here we are thirsty, and we've a canal full of water to drink,' he sai
d.

  'Don't even talk about it,' Lauren said. 'It will just tempt us. We still need to get a sample to examine.' She paused. 'I

  shouldn't have drunk so much when I returned.'

  'Don't sweat it, Doc,' Gary said. 'No pun intended. I'm not feeling too dry. But I'm worried about Jim. He hardly drank a thing. I think he wants us to take his share.'

  'I didn't know that,' Lauren said.

  'Martyrs,' Gary said. 'They turn up on space expeditions all the time.'

  'Hey, Gary?' Lauren said. 'You read up on the Russian crew. What do you remember about Ivan Zossima?'

  He shrugged. 'Ask Friend. He probably knows what Ivan's favorite ice cream is.'

  'Friend, give me a visual on Ivan Zossima,' Lauren said. 'Screen F. Cut the audio. We should have checked on him right away, Gary.'

  [Yes, Lauren.]

  "There's a lot of things we're not doing,' Gary muttered.

  Lauren studied the screen.

  [Zossima, Ivan Gregory: 1970-? Russian cosmonaut. Born in Volgograd. Only child. Received elementary education at Lock, where he won distinguished honors. Entered the University of Volgograd in 1988 and was awarded a B.S. in physics in 1992, an M.S. in aeronautics in 1995. Entered the Russian Academy for Cosmonaut Training in 1996. Is best known as second in command of Project Gorbachev, the first manned expedition to Mars. Believed to have perished on the Martian surface in 2002. Detailed summary follows:]

  'Wait, Friend,' Lauren said, glancing back at the screen that was hooked into Hummingbird's forward camera. The walls of the canal had not changed, nor had the water. Bill had upped his speed to fifty miles an hour. 'Give me a visual on the subjects Ivan studied while at Volgograd University,' she said.

  [Yes, Lauren. 1988: Psychology, Russian Literature,

  Physics, Calculus, Chemistry, English 1.]

  'Stop,' Lauren said. 'Did he study English as a foreign language?'

  [Yes, Lauren.]

  'For how many semesters?'

  [Four, Lauren.]

  'Based on the records of his performance in those courses, would you say he could speak English?'

  [Yes, Lauren. But not fluently.]

  'Does he have any record of psychological difficulties?'

  [No, Lauren.]

  'They don't send people to Mars who are nuts,' Gary said.

  'You heard what Friend said about his English courses,' Lauren said.

  'I had four semesters of German in college, and the only thing I can remember is how to ask someone if they're sick. Bist du krank? Ivan probably just forgot most of what he learned.'

  'I wonder,' Lauren said. She opened a line to Jim. 'This is Lauren.'

  'Bill doesn't seem to be getting anywhere,' Jim said. 'It's incredible - the symmetry of the walls. What can I do for you, Lauren?'

  'I've been checking up on Ivan Zossima,' she said. 'It seems he took four semesters of English while in college.'

  Jim considered. 'Interesting. Did you hear that, Bill?'

  'That's interesting,' Bill said. His voice sounded distant. But then a note of excitement entered it. 'Can all of you see this?' Bill asked.

  Lauren's eyes flew back to the screen. The scenery was changing, in a big way.

  'Wow,' Gary gasped.

  The canal's walls had come to an abrupt end. Bill

  revolved the forward camera around the space and revealed nothing, absolutely nothing. He had entered a gigantic cavern.

  'Do you see a shore in the distance?' Jim asked.

  'No,' Bill said. 'Nor a ceiling.' He panned the camera back the way he had come, down the canal, which resembled an endless archway.

  'Right now would be a very easy time to get lost,' Jim warned.

  'I'm holding my position,' Bill said. 'But my guide is urging me forward. I'm sending up a flare.'

  Bill aimed his camera into the heart of the void. Seconds went by. Suddenly a white star took birth in the void, and Lauren faintly glimpsed a distant island. Yet she saw no enclosing walls, no ceiling. Soon the flare exhausted itself, and went out in the black water. Night returned. Fortunately Friend had frozen their brief glimpse at its moment of greatest resolution. Lauren studied a secondary screen. The island looked like a barren Pacific atoll that had been transplanted to the far side of the moon.

  'What is the distance to that land mass, Friend?' Bill asked.

  [1.782 miles, Bill.]

  'Professor?' Bill said.

  'What can I say?' Jim replied. 'Be careful.'

  Hummingbird flew forward. Several minutes passed. Vague outlines of a lonely shore began to emerge in the beam of Bill's searchlight. But when he was on the verge of reaching the land, the picture went fuzzy.

  'Stop,' Jim ordered.

  Bill did so. 'What is it?'

  'We're losing the picture,' Jim said.

  'What about my voice?' Bill asked.

  'It's a bit lower, but still clear,' Jim said.

  'Could the many miles of the canal be responsible for the interference?' Bill asked.

  'I think the island is to blame,' Jim said. 'If it is an island. The interference came very suddenly. How is your compass?'

  'Spinning,' Bill said.

  'Magnetic,' Jim muttered.

  'I'll proceed slowly,' Bill said.

  'Be careful,' Jessica whispered.

  Their video reception quickly worsened. Lauren strained for details. She saw a low natural wall separating the water from a relatively flat beach. Bill landed Hummingbird on the beach. The picture became so bad it was next to useless.

  'Send up another flare,' Jim advised. 'Let's get a better look at where you are.'

  'A moment,' Bill said. 'I want to examine this coast.' He sounded as if he were climbing out of Hummingbird, and then walking.

  Then she heard a second pair of feet, coming quickly.

  'Bill!' Jim shouted. 'Watch your back!'

  'Professor,' Bill said, a note of surprise in his voice. Then his voice became pure surprise as he let out a shocked cry. 'Oh!'

  They heard a loud splash, a horrible choking sound. Then silence...

  Hummingbird's picture went dead.

  'William!' Jessica cried.

  They called for five minutes before any of them would admit that they had lost the commander. In the control room of the Hawk, Lauren bowed her head. 'I should never have woken that corpse up,' she said.

  TWENTY-ONE

  The flashing red light on the airlock turned a steady green. The door slid open. Jim trudged inside and plopped down on a chair. Lauren helped Jessica remove her helmet. Jessica did not look upset, or sad, or alive.

  'Oh, Jessie,' Lauren cried. 'I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have let him go. He was always too brave. We'll do something. We'll think of something.'

  Jessica's face was blank. 'What, Lauren? What will we do?'

  They looked to Jim, their new commander, their wizard. Lauren prayed that he would find the magic that would make everything all right. 'Let's get out of these suits,' he said. 'We'll talk in the living area.'

  Later, they gathered at Jim's feet. He wanted to know if there was any word from Houston.

  Gary snickered. 'They're in conference. They'll be in conference two years from now, at the next Martian conjunction.'

  Jim took a deep breath. Salt crusted his parched lips. 'We have Bill's last orders. We're supposed to leave without him.'

  'We can't leave William,' Jessica mumbled. 'No.'

  Lauren spoke bitterly. 'To hell with his last order.'

  'What do you say, Gary?' Jim asked quietly.

  Gary stood and paced the floor. 'He was my commander. He gave me an order. I always follow orders.' Gary stopped and pounded the wall. 'Hell, I don't want to leave Bill. But what does it matter what any of us want? Hummingbird is gone. I sure can't swim three miles in a pressure suit.'

  'It would be dangerous,' Jim said to himself.

  'What?' Lauren asked.

  Jim smiled faintly. 'I always wanted to be a sailor.'

  'A boat?' Laure
n asked. 'How could we build a boat?'

  'I've given the matter some thought,' Jim said. 'Actually, we don't have to build a boat. We already have one. The jeep. All we have to do is drive it down there, pop the engine out, and lower it over the side.'

  Gary was skeptical. 'It would sink.'

  'No,' Jim said. 'I've worked it out mathematically. The wheels will displace enough water to float four people.'

  'It'll leak,' Gary said 'The bowl of the jeep isn't watertight.'

  'It will only leak in two places,' Jim said. 'At the steering wheel shaft and at the accelerator pedal. We'll patch those two places.'

  'What will we use to propel it?' Gary asked.

  'Our shovels,' Jim said. 'They can be used as paddles.'

  Gary thought for a moment. 'It might work.'

  Lauren sprang to her feet. 'Let's start now.'

  'Wait,' Jim said.

  'What is it?' Lauren asked.

  'Our original question,' Jim said. 'We've all brushed it aside. Should we go after Bill? Or better yet, what happened to him?'

  'Ivan attacked him,' Jessica said bitterly. Life had returned to her face with Jim's suggestion of a boat.

  Jim nodded. 'Yes. But how did Ivan overcome him?

  Bill's a strong man. Plus he carried a laser rifle.'

  'Ivan snuck up on him from behind,' Lauren said. 'It sounded like he pushed him in the water.'

  'What of it?' Jim said. 'A momentary drenching shouldn't have harmed Bill's suit or his laser. He should still have been able to fend for himself.' 'What are you thinking?' Gary asked. 'Many things,' Jim said. 'Why did Ivan do it? Supposedly he was leading us to the rest of his crew. I never believed that, nor did Bill. How could any of them have survived outside the confines of their ship? At best I thought he might know where their bodies were. But I had other reasons to doubt Ivan. He walked and acted like a zombie, yet at the same time there was a shrewd intelligence about him. Look at what he accomplished. Without saying a word, he tricked us all into letting him accompany Bill -alone - to a spot I believe he was anxious to return to. Then he successfully overcame Bill. Some zombie. But why did he do it? I keep coming back to that.' 'He's insane,' Lauren said. 'He's a monster,' Jessica said. 'Maybe he just hates blacks,' Gary said. Jim rubbed his tired eyes. 'Something inside me keeps warning me to stop and think, to put all these pieces together so that they make sense. I feel I must do this before it's too late.' He looked at Jessica. 'I'm sorry, Jessie - it's probably too late already. The chances are Bill is dead.'