Mars

MARS ORBIT

Li Chengdu frowned at the display screen. He was in the command module of the Mars 2 spacecraft, sitting at the monitoring station behind the two pilots’ seats. Tolbukhin and the American astronaut, Burt Klein, had turned their seats around to make a little conference circle.

Dr. Yang sat next to Li, pointing at the two lists displayed side by side on the screen.

“You see? Waterman and Brumado accomplished only half their scheduled tasks for the EVA.”

Yang’s fingernail was long and red and carefully manicured. Li wondered why the physician bothered to lacquer her nails. She was not an especially good-looking woman, he thought, rather plain in fact, with a pug nose and overly thick lips. Her figure was nondescript. Yet she adorned her tan coveralls with a bright gold-mesh belt and she wore a necklace and several bracelets that clashed together like miniature cymbals whenever she moved her hands. Her mouse-brown hair had been recently clipped; she wore it in bangs that came down almost to her eyebrows. And her face was made up with lipstick and eye shadow, no less.

Has she decked herself out for me? Li wondered. Or is she trying to impress our dashing cosmonaut and astronaut? Li sighed to himself. As long as she doesn’t make any problems for me I won’t interfere. But he found himself wondering if her toenails were lacquered, also.

“Their performance seems to be seriously degraded,” Yang said, softly but insistently.

Li roused himself from his conjectures about her sex life. “They had a strenuous journey down to the canyon floor. Perhaps they need more rest.”

Burt Klein agreed. “You can’t expect them to stick to that schedule Waterman set up. It’s too crowded; there’s not enough time to do everything he wants done.”

“Perhaps,” said Dr. Yang. She leaned close enough to Li to work the computer keyboard. She was wearing perfume. Jasmine blossoms?

A set of colored curves sprang up on the display screen.

“These represent the performance parameters of all the surface personnel, based on their own reports of tasks accomplished,” Yang said. “You can see that everyone’s performance is degrading.”

Li fingered his moustache. “Yes, I see.”

“Such a drop-off is normal,” Tolbukhin said. “The same thing happens to personnel on the moon’s surface and even aboard the space stations.”

Yang nodded curtly, but she said, “They have been on the surface for five weeks and some drop-off in performance is to be expected, yes. But please look at how steeply these curves go down.”

“Hm,” said Li.

“The big decline started only a few days ago. If their performance continues to degrade at this steep rate they will all be helpless by the end of this week!”

Tolbukhin’s snort told them what he thought of her fears. But Klein shifted in his seat uneasily.

For the first time Li felt troubled. “Might this be an artifact of the computer program? A coincidence, perhaps?”

Yang’s painted face took on a stubborn hardness. “That is not possible. I used the standard evaluation program. The personnel here in orbit do not show the same deterioration; nothing like it.”

“Hm,” Li said again.

“Something is definitely wrong.”

“More than the usual fatigue factors?” Klein asked.

“Much worse.”

“What do you think it could be?”

Yang shrugged her slight shoulders. “It might be psychological. Or it might be physical. Or a combination of both.”

Tolbukhin laughed at her. “You cover all the possibilities, and as a result you tell us nothing of value.”

Li cast a sharply disapproving glance at the cosmonaut. Then he asked Dr. Yang, “Have you checked the physiological profiles that Dr. Reed has been sending up?”

“Yes. That was the first thing I did. They all look normal enough. The surface team is in good health.”

“And the psychological reports?”

“They seem normal also, although it is easier to mask a problem there than with the physical examinations.”

“Have you spoken to Dr. Reed about this?”

“Not yet. The mission regulations clearly state that I am required to inform you of this problem before contacting anyone on the surface team.”

“Ah, yes. The regulations. Well, let us both speak with Dr. Reed. Immediately.”

Tolbukhin raised a skeptical eyebrow. Klein looked worried.