"Not telling. It's a surprise present for Helen. Don't forget what day it is that Care Package'll be bouncing down to you." There was a slight pause. "Uh, A.J., you didn't forget, did you?"
They were all in the rover, listening. A.J. suddenly realized that Helen's eyes were on him.
Very, very beady eyes.
Fortunately, A.J. pulled back from the brink of disaster. "Of course not!" He turned and gave Helen his most winning smile. "Happy birthday, darling."
Her return smile was a very cool sort of thing. "I think he was saved by the bell, Jackie."
They heard a feminine-sounding snort coming over the radio. Then: "Anyway, I'm not telling since you don't need to know yet. You'll find out in three days."
"Just try to aim it well, please," Helen said. "We don't want it to bounce so far that Thoat can't reach it."
"We'll do our best," Hathaway answered. "But you'd rather have to hike a bit than have this thing bounce on top of you, I can guarantee it. It sure 'nuff ain't going to be light."
"Point. Well, let's all keep our fingers crossed, Captain."
"I'm crossing everything I got two of," Hathaway assured her.
The ion drive was not meant for speed, of course, so despite the low orbit of Phobos it was not the next day, nor the next, but the day after that when all six of the crash survivors assembled to look for the first sign of what might be their relief, and quite possibly salvation. Food was every bit as short on Mars as trees were.
Helen stared into the bright pinkish sky, trying to calculate where Care Package would first appear. Since she was facing west, and Care Package was due to make its crash-landing somewhat to the south, that would be to her left and . . .
She realized suddenly that she was being silly and instructed her HUD to display the location in the sky where she ought to be looking.
"Cheating, eh?" A.J.'s voice came.
"Are you saying you're actually not using a gadget to do your work for you, Mr. Baker?" Madeline asked.
"Only some of my work. I'm trying to figure out the angles based on the images from above. I like testing my gut instincts sometimes."
"We'll see how well you do, then."
"This is Nike, Mars Base One. Care Package is steady on reentry now, and should become visible to you very soon. So far all shows green."
"Understood, Nike. We're all hoping."
"There!" Helen felt a touch of pride that she'd spotted it first. A tiny black dot, barely visible in the pinkish haze, moving toward them, far to the west and slightly south. It grew bigger as they watched.
Much bigger.
"That sucker's getting kinda close . . . " Joe muttered.
"You said you didn't want it too far away," Jackie said in their ears.
"Well, yeah, but too close and she may bounce right into Thoat Canyon. We'll have a hell of a time getting it then!"
"Have faith, Dr. Buckley, have faith," came Gupta's sonorous voice. "We have checked our calculations most carefully."
Care Package screamed down to Mars—literally screamed, from the sound produced by the aeroshell—only a few kilometers to the west and south of Thoat. Barely a hundred meters up, Care Package blew the remaining portion of her aeroshell and released the parachute, revealing the balloonlike airbags surrounding the precious cargo. Her first impact blasted black and red sands high into the thin air with a smacking sound incongruously soft and distant and then kicked her, spinning, back into the air, rising fifty, sixty meters before arcing back down, to hit again, and bounce, and hit and bounce again.
"Jesus, is she going to stop?" A.J. asked nervously. "She's heading right for the edge!"
"That would suck," Joe said bluntly.
The bounces were getting shallower and quicker, even in Mars' feeble gravity. Suddenly, Care Package wasn't so much bouncing as rolling, throwing dust aside as it slowed itself through friction with the previously untouched sands. Helen held her breath as Care Package continued its journey, slowing, slowing, until it rolled to a stop a kilometer and a half to the south and slightly east of Mars Base One, no more than two hundred meters from the edge of Thoat Canyon.
"Yeah!" she heard herself shout involuntarily. "Package delivered safely!"
"Now that," Jackie said with satisfaction, "is a landing."
"Bah," A.J. said. "I betcha we bounced farther. And we didn't have balloons, either."
Helen's birthday present was there, too, just as Jackie had promised.
"Oh, swell," Helen complained. "'Some assembly required.'"