Mercury Read Free Page B

it will rise again for seventy-three minutes before setting for the night.’
    Yamagata saw the clear displeasure on the pilot’s face. The man said nothing to his co-pilot, though. Instead, he pointed toward a rounded hillock of stony rubble.
    ‘There’s the base,’ he informed Yamagata. ‘Dante’s Inferno.’
    Yamagata said, ‘They are sending out the access tube.’
    A jointed tube was inching toward them across the uneven ground on metal wheels, reminding Yamagata of a caterpillar groping its way along the stalk of a plant on its many feet. He felt the shuttle rock slightly as the face of the tube thumped against the craft’s airlock.
    The pilot watched the display on his panel, lights flicking on and off, a string of alphanumerics scrolling across the screen. He touched a corner of the screen with one finger and a visual image came up, with more numbers and a trio of green blinking lights.
    ‘Access tube mated with airlock,’ he announced, reverting to the clipped jargon of his profession. To the co-pilot he commanded, ‘Check it and confirm integrity.’
    She got up from her chair wordlessly and brushed past Yamagata to head back to the airlock. He appreciated the brief touch of her soft body, the hint of flowery perfume. What would she do if I asked her to remain here at the base with me? Yamagata wondered. A European. And very independent in her manner. But I have a dinner appointment with my two guests, he reminded himself. Still, the thought lingered.
    After a few silent moments, the pilot rose from his chair and walked a courteous three steps behind Yamagata to the airlock’s inner hatch. The co-pilot stepped through from the opposite direction, a slight smile curving her generous lips.
    ‘Integrity confirmed,’ she said, almost carelessly. ‘The tube is airtight and the cooling system is operational.’
    Yamagata saw that the outer airlock hatch was open, as well, and the access tube stretched beyond it. He politely thanked the two pilots and headed down the tube. Despite her insouciance, at least the co-pilot had the sense to bow properly. The tube was big enough for him to stand without stooping. The flooring felt slightly springy underfoot. It curved gently to the left; within a few paces he could no longer see the two pilots standing at the shuttle’s hatch.
    Then he saw the hatch to the base, which was closed. Someone had scrawled a graffito in blood-red above the curved top of the hatch: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it .
    Yamagata grunted at that. As he reached out his hand to tap the electronic panel that controlled the hatch, it swung open without his aid.
    A lean, pale-skinned man with dark hair that curled over his ears stood on the other side of the hatch, wearing not the coveralls Yamagata expected, but a loose-fitting white shirt with flowing long sleeves that were fastened tightly at his wrists and a pair of dark baggy trousers stuffed into gleamingly-polished calf-length boots. A wide leather belt cinched his narrow, flat middle.
    He smiled politely and extended his hand to Yamagata. ‘Welcome to Goethe base, Mr. Yamagata. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have you here. I am Dante Alexios.’
    Yamagata accepted his hand. His grip was firm, his smile gracious. Yet there was something wrong with his face. The two sides of it seemed slightly mismatched, almost as if two separate halves had been grafted together by an incompetent surgeon. Even his smile was slightly lopsided; it made him appear mocking, almost, rather than friendly.
    And his eyes. Dante Alexios’ dark brown eyes burned with some deep inner fury, Yamagata saw.
    Dante’s Inferno indeed, he thought.

Sunpower Foundation

    Alexios showed Yamagata through the cramped, steamy base. It was small, built for efficiency, not human comfort. Little more than an oversized bubble of honeycomb metal covered with rubble from Mercury’s surface to protect it from the heat and radiation, its inside was partitioned into