BOUNDARY(134)

"Have we got enough to get to Target 37?"



"Not a chance."





A.J. examined the telltales and had his systems run calculations. "Figuring that I have to make sure Thoat is fully charged up and then use some of the fuel to get out of the bay, I figure . . . Maybe thirty kilometers range; thirty-five, max. We got no more than a tenth full."



"How long will that keep us if we stay right here?"



"Generating power, keeping the heat going, refreshing the air . . . A couple of weeks, I guess. Hard to say, exactly."



"And when can we expect some kind of rescue attempt?"



"I really don't know. Joe? That's more up your alley."



"Not for several months, at the earliest. They might be able to get us some supplies with one or two orbital drops—if they can figure out how to cobble something together. But let's ask Nike. Gupta and Jackie are the ones who'd really know."



"Well, that's just bloody perfect," Bruce grumbled. He called Hathaway and explained the situation.



Jackie broke in. "We might be able to put together a lander using one of Nike's engines."



"A NERVA rocket lander? I suppose it might work. But you aren't getting that done any too quickly."



"Alas, no, Major Irwin," came Gupta's voice. "Even though we are well equipped for an expedition such as ours, creating a new vessel of that sort will take considerable effort. It was not planned for some time yet, and we shall be forced to improvise. A month, perhaps."



"No way we're lasting a month," A.J. said bluntly.



"We'll see if we can get at least some fuel down to you," Hathaway said. "I'm not sure, but there must be a way."



"Perhaps," Gupta mused. "Perhaps if we were to remove one of the auxiliary drives from the habitat ring, and—"





Something was nagging at Joe. Something he'd forgotten, something . . .



Could it be?



He tied into the system, bringing up the precise position of the crash. There. Closer than he'd thought, and just to the south.



"Yes! Pirate!"





A.J. felt his jaw drop as he realized what Joe was suggesting.



"You're kidding." He called up information he hadn't looked at in well over two years. "I will be completely damned. You're right, Joe! We practically ran Pirate over."



Hathaway's voice was incredulous. "Are you telling me that the same lander unit that originally dropped off the Faeries is in your vicinity, and might have fuel on board?"



"About thirty klicks from where we're sitting, Captain. We landed Pirate in Melas Chasma, after it dropped off the Faeries. Talk about a lucky coincidence!"



"I doubt if it was a coincidence," Joe said, his voice sounding distracted. A.J. knew the engineer was already starting to work through the practical aspects of their situation. "The Bemmies probably put their base there for the same reason we chose the site. Valles Marineris is the most spectacular area on Mars, except for maybe Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Plateau. Tricky to set down in, though—and Melas Chasma provides some of the few good landing areas in it."



That made sense. "And then all the stuff blew up after we found Bemmie on Phobos," A.J. mused, "and Ares got diverted into the Nike project. We just left Pirate waiting for takeoff. So she has never flown! If things held together, most of her fuel should still be there— and there was enough to take Pirate all the way back to Earth."



"There won't be that much left by now, A.J.," Joe cautioned, but he looked almost smug as he said it. A.J. could tell, from the expression, that his friend was finishing up his calculations and was pleased by the results. "Ares had to cut a lot of corners, with our budget—and one of the corners we cut was the fuel tanks. They were adequate for the purpose, but since we weren't planning to leave Pirate on the surface for very long, we didn't bother taking expensive measures to make sure they'd handle long-term storage under Martian conditions. By now, I'm pretty sure a lot of that fuel will be gone. Still—"



He looked up finally. "There's got to be enough left for what we need. If we take the hookup ends from here, I think . . . Yeah, we can adapt the connectors. All we've got to is get there, and we can fill up Thoat no problem. More than full, probably a couple of loads."



"I'll see if I can wake Pirate up," A.J. said.



"No. That's my job. You guys figure out how to get Thoat out of the lander. With my leg the way it is, I can't help with that anyway."





While the others started on that task, Joe called up the comm protocols, hooked to one of the satellites.