The Dope on Mars Page 2
_April 1, 1961_
I've skipped over the last 177 days or so, because there's nothing muchnew. I brought some books with me on the trip, books that I'd alwaysmeant to read and never had the time. So now I know all about _VanityFair_, _Pride and Prejudice_, _War and Peace_, _Gone with the Wind_, and_Babbitt_.
They didn't take as long as I thought they would, except for _VanityFair_. It must have been a riot when it first came out. I mean, allthose sly digs at the aristocracy, with copious interpolations by Mr.Thackeray in case you didn't get it when he'd pulled a particularly goodgag. Some fun.
And only 78 days to go.
* * * * *
_June 1, 1961_
Only 17 days to go. I saw Mars on the screen today. It seems to bedescending from overhead, but Pat says that that's the "torque" doingit. Actually, it's we who are coming in sideways.
We've all grown beards, too. Pat said it was against regulations, butwhat the hell. We have a contest. Longest whiskers on landing gets aprize.
I asked Pat what the prize was and he told me to go to hell.
* * * * *
_June 18, 1961_
Mars has the whole screen filled. Looks like Death Valley. No sign ofcanals, but Pat says that's because of the dust storm down below. It'snice to have a "down below" again. We're going to land, so I have to goto my bunk. It's all foam rubber, nylon braid supports and magnesiumtubing. Might as well be cement for all the good it did me at takeoff.Earth seems awfully far away.
* * * * *
_June 19, 1961_
Well, we're down. We have to wear gas masks with oxygen hook-ups. Krogersays the air is breathable, but thin, and it has too much dust in it tobe any fun to inhale. He's all for going out and looking for lichen, butPat says he's got to set up camp, then get instructions from Earth. Sowe just have to wait. The air is very cold, but the Sun is hot as hellwhen it hits you. The sky is a blinding pink, or maybe more of a palefuchsia. Kroger says it's the dust. The sand underfoot is kind ofrose-colored, and not really gritty. The particles are round and smooth.
No lichen so far. Kroger says maybe in the canals, if there are anycanals. Lloyd wants to play chess again.
Jones won the beard contest. Pat gave him a cigar he'd smuggled on board(no smoking was allowed on the ship), and Jones threw it away. Hedoesn't smoke.
* * * * *
_June 20, 1961_
Got lost today. Pat told me not to go too far from camp, so, when Itook a stroll, I made sure every so often that I could still see therocket behind me. Walked for maybe an hour; then the oxygen gauge gotpast the halfway mark, so I started back toward the rocket. After maybeten steps, the rocket disappeared. One minute it was standing there,tall and silvery, the next instant it was gone.
Turned on my radio pack and got hold of Pat. Told him what happened, andhe told Kroger. Kroger said I had been following a mirage, to step backa bit. I did, and I could see the ship again. Kroger said to try andwalk toward where the ship seemed to be, even when it wasn't in view,and meantime they'd come out after me in the jeep, following myfootprints.
Started walking back, and the ship vanished again. It reappeared,disappeared, but I kept going. Finally saw the real ship, and Lloyd andJones waving their arms at me. They were shouting through their masks,but I couldn't hear them. The air is too thin to carry sound well.
All at once, something gleamed in their hands, and they started shootingat me with their rifles. That's when I heard the noise behind me. I wastoo scared to turn around, but finally Jones and Lloyd came runningover, and I got up enough nerve to look. There was nothing there, but onthe sand, paralleling mine, were footprints. At least I think they werefootprints. Twice as long as mine, and three times as wide, but kind offeatureless because the sand's loose and dry. They doubled back onthemselves, spaced considerably farther apart.
"What was it?" I asked Lloyd when he got to me.
"Damned if I know," he said. "It was red and scaly, and I think it had atail. It was two heads taller than you." He shuddered. "Ran off when wefired."
"Where," said Jones, "are Pat and Kroger?"
I didn't know. I hadn't seen them, nor the jeep, on my trip back. So wefollowed the wheel tracks for a while, and they veered off from my trailand followed another, very much like the one that had been parallelingmine when Jones and Lloyd had taken a shot at the scaly thing.
"We'd better get them on the radio," said Jones, turning back toward theship.
There wasn't anything on the radio but static.
Pat and Kroger haven't come back yet, either.
* * * * *
_June 21, 1961_
We're not alone here. More of the scaly things have come toward thecamp, but a few rifle shots send them away. They hop like kangaroos whenthey're startled. Their attitudes aren't menacing, but their appearanceis. And Jones says, "Who knows what's 'menacing' in an alien?"
We're going to look for Kroger and Pat today. Jones says we'd betterbefore another windstorm blows away the jeep tracks. Fortunately, thejeep has a leaky oil pan, so we always have the smears to follow, unlessthey get covered up, too. We're taking extra oxygen, shells, and rifles.Food, too, of course. And we're locking up the ship.
* * * * *
It's later, now. We found the jeep, but no Kroger or Pat. Lots of thosebig tracks nearby. We're taking the jeep to follow the aliens' tracks.There's some moss around here, on reddish brown rocks that stick upthrough the sand, just on the shady side, though. Kroger must be happyto have found his lichen.
The trail ended at the brink of a deep crevice in the ground. Seems tobe an earthquake-type split in solid rock, with the sand sifting overthis and the far edge like pink silk cataracts. The bottom is in theshade and can't be seen. The crack seems to extend to our left and rightas far as we can look.
There looks like a trail down the inside of the crevice, but the Sun'ssetting, so we're waiting till tomorrow to go down.
Going down was Jones' idea, not mine.
* * * * *
_June 22, 1961_
Well, we're at the bottom, and there's water here, a shallow streamabout thirty feet wide that runs along the center of the canal (we'vedecided we're in a canal). No sign of Pat or Kroger yet, but the sandhere is hard-packed and damp, and there are normal-size footprintsmingled with the alien ones, sharp and clear. The aliens seem to havesix or seven toes. It varies from print to print. And they're barefoot,too, or else they have the damnedest-looking shoes in creation.
The constant shower of sand near the cliff walls is annoying, but it'ssandless (shower-wise) near the stream, so we're following thefootprints along the bank. Also, the air's better down here. Still thin,but not so bad as on the surface. We're going without masks to saveoxygen for the return trip (Jones assures me there'll _be_ a returntrip), and the air's only a little bit sandy, but handkerchiefs overnose and mouth solve this.
We look like desperadoes, what with the rifles and covered faces. I saidas much to Lloyd and he told me to shut up. Moss all over the cliffwalls. Swell luck for Kroger.
* * * * *
We've found Kroger and Pat, with the help of the aliens. Or maybe Ishould call them the Martians. Either way, it's better than what Jonescalls them.
They took away our rifles and brought us right to Kroger and Pat,without our even asking. Jones is mad at the way they got the rifles soeasily. When we came upon them (a group of maybe ten, huddling behind aboulder in ambush), he fired, but the shots either bounced off th
eirscales or stuck in their thick hides. Anyway, they took the rifles awayand threw them into the stream, and picked us all up and took us into ahole in the cliff wall. The hole went on practically forever, but itdidn't get dark. Kroger tells me that there are phosphorescent bacterialiving in the mold on the walls. The air has a fresh-dug-grave smell,but it's richer in oxygen than even at the stream.
We're in a small cave that is just off a bigger cave where lots oftunnels come together. I can't remember which one we came in through,and neither can anyone else. Jones asked me what the hell I kept writingin the diary for, did I want to make it a gift to Martian archeologists?But I said where there's life there's hope, and now he won't talk to me.I congratulated Kroger on the lichen I'd seen, but he just said a