Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Psychological fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Morrow sat there, apparently thinking. "So I'm curious, Bronson. You've
already flaunted the law by taking this ship, killing Orlan. You've
admitted you have THE CALL. Certainly you'd be no worse off if you went
to Mars. You might find out something interesting. So there could be a
chance for you. Go on to Mars if you like. I'll wait here five days.
I'll fix the log and the reports, and arrange it so it will appear that
there was an accident on Venus. If you're not back in five days, I'll
stop off at Venus, load a cargo, return to Earth."
Bronson stared, then said, "And if I do come back, what then?"
"I'll rig up a story about Orlan. Too much radiation on Venus. That's
happened a few times before. Officially you'll not be responsible for
Orlan's death. And if you get away from Mars, you can do as you like.
Stay if you want to. Or return to Earth with the rocket, and take a
chance on it being discovered that you have THE CALL, or being able to
conceal it. That's your business. All I ask of you, Bronson, is your
word that you'll come back here in five days if you can. And satisfy my
curiosity."
Later Morrow said, "Good luck, Bronson. Whatever good luck will mean to
you."
Bronson thought about that as he dropped the small grav-sled toward
Mars' surface. Anticipation became anxiety, fear mixed with excitement,
as the sled circled the planet a number of times for purposes of
observation.
_What will good luck mean to me?_
The memory of his experience during THE CALL came back after he spotted
the big metal dome in the deep valley and landed behind a low rise of
red hills. He lay there bottled up inside the narrow, gun-like barrel
of the sled, his helmeted head tight up against the instrument panel.
A metal dome, like the monstrous bald head of a giant buried to the
eyebrows. He had seen no other sign of habitation, no structures of
anything, only barren sea-bottoms and high naked crags. The dome might
be all that was left of what the traders had built here before the
Blowup.
Funny, he didn't feel anything like THE CALL now. He felt nothing but
fear.
Red dust sprayed up around as he crawled out of the sled. He readjusted
his oxygen mask, threw the electronic rifle over his shoulder, and
finally reached the top of the ridge and looked down at the dome. It
had a gray quiet quality. His throat was tense and his chest ached as
he got down on his stomach to watch.
No movement. No sound. A kind of panic hit him, and impulsively,
he started to twist around, not wanting to return to the sled
particularly, but just wanting to see it, feel a comfort with it.
The sled was gone.
Sweat ran down his face. It loosened a nervous flush along his back
which prickled painfully. No sled. He blinked several times, still no
sled. There hadn't been any sound. He would have heard it take off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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