Free The Martian Viking by Tim Sullivan Page A

was a settlement there."
    "It's new. In fact, we're carrying a lot of building materials so they can add onto the compound. It's really only half constructed at this point."
    "This is all news to me." Johnsmith said.
    "Conglom security," Hi explained. "Extremely hush-hush.""Where is Elysium, exactly?"
    "Northwest quadrant, a few hundred miles above the equator."
    "What's the weather like there?" Johnsmith asked.
    "Just like the rest of Mars," Hi said. "Cold, most of the time. In the summer, though, it can get up to thirty or forty degrees."
    "Not bad," Johnsmith said. "It might even seem like a relief after all the time I've spent sweltering away in that old city back on Earth."
    The cheerful glimmer left Hi's brown eyes. "For awhile, maybe," he said, "but Mars is no picnic, even at the equator."
    Johnsmith nodded. He hadn't really believed that he would have much fun on Mars, but now he was sure of it. He only hoped that the library and onees might keep him sane.
     
    The rounded fullness of Mars became more evident in the following days. It no longer resembled a flat disc, and the vague shapes of craters and mountains began to emerge from the orange world's shifting landscapes.
    Johnsmith felt an exhilarating sense of adventure in spite of himself, as he gazed out the port at Mars.
    "You know," he said to Alderdice, "I don't think I really appreciated that we're going to live on another planet—not up until now."
    "I know what you mean," Alderdice said, in an almost reverential tone. "It may only be half the size of Earth, but it's big enough. A whole world."
    "Nothing on it," Felicia said, floating up behind them. "Just a frozen desert."
    "There's a lot on it," Johnsmith argued. "Geologically, it's very interesting."
    "I didn't know you like rocks," she replied sarcastically. "I thought onees were all you're interested in."
    For some reason, her attitude bothered Johnsmith. He always felt that Felicia could be very nice, if she would just try once in a while. But she didn't seem eager to make the effort. What was worse, she always seemed to single him out for her caustic comments. He failed to understand why she was so nasty to him, but he guessed that there was really nothing he could do but ignore her taunts. This seemed to annoy Felicia even more than if he'd fought with her.
    But human interaction was nearly forgotten as they went into orbit around Mars. Wonder and fear were commingled so thoroughly that Johnsmith began to think these two seemingly disparate emotions might be the same thing, after all.
    It was a terrible and yet joyous thing to be drawn to an alien world. They could feel the force of its mass exerting itself on their bodies. And this time they would not resist gravity, as they had upon leaving Earth. This time they would descend to the bosom of the red planet, and Johnsmith, Felicia, and Alderdice would never go home again.
    Alderdice, who had grown a beard in recent weeks, looked at Johnsmith. "Might as well go lie down for the landing," he said.
    "Yeah."
    Captain Hi spoke over the intercom. "We're going to start coming down in a minute. Strap yourselves in."
    They drifted toward their reclining seats, Johnsmith attempting to give Felicia a hand. She slapped his fingers and pushed herself back to her chair unassisted. In a few minutes they were strapped in, waiting to land.
    "Here we go," Hi's voice said from the cockpit.
    The ship shuddered as the retro-rockets were fired. The gravity well of Mars put a strain on the fuselage that made the metal groan and creak inside the cabin. Johnsmith gritted his teeth, afraid that the entire ship might come apart and fling them like so much flotsam into eternal orbit around Mars.
    The engines thundered, and Johnsmith felt himself getting heavier as the ship came ever closer to the Martian surface. A few minutes later, he felt the ship settle and the engines abruptly cut off.
    They were on Mars. It hardly seemed possible, but they were really on Mars.
    "Jesus,"