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that happened on Mars, that makes you uniquely qualified.”
    “Guess I can’t argue with that, sir.”
    Nathan laughed. “You’ll do fine,” he assured her. “Just remember to put your helmet on before you go outside. The rest is cake.”
    “What’s the drill?” Pitch asked.
    “Simple tag ’em and bag ’em.” Nathan handed the pilot a console card, programmed with the search parameters he’d downloaded off the core construct. “Good news is the search area is limited to the summit crater. Bad news is that we’re still talking about fifty-four hundred square kilometers.”
    “In the heart of Olympus Mons?” Kellean interjected. “What do you think you’re going to find down there?”
    “I’ll let you know as soon as I see it.”
    The three of them crossed the flight deck to where their transport waited. Several crewmen swarmed around the craft, releasing the docking clamps and fuel hoses, making the final preparations that would make her ready for launch. Unlike Almacantar , the lander had an aerodynamic design—her sleek lines and contours spreading out across a symmetrical delta wing, with space inside for cargo storage and a crew pod on the forward end of the fuselage. A series of miniature rocket clusters allowed the craft to maneuver in the vacuum of space; in atmosphere, the sweeping wing surface provided enough area to keep it aloft.
    Pitch was the first one inside, climbing up a ladder into the belly of the ship. He expertly squeezed through the confines of the small cockpit, strapping himself in behind the controls. Going down his preflight checklist, he disconnected the lander from external power and engaged the fuel cells. A steady, electrical thrum began to reverberate through the deck as Kellean poked her head in and took the seat next to him.
    “Ever set down in a volcano before?” she asked.
    “Nope,” Pitch replied casually. “Better keep your hand on the yoke—just to be on the safe side.”
    Nathan was the last on board, taking a detour into the avionics bay. There, he made some adjustments to the lander’s guidance system, and established a real-time link to Almacantar ’s computer core. From then on, whatever they encountered would instantly be relayed back to the crawler for analysis and comparison with the readings he had taken earlier. If it found a match, the directional data would appear as a blip on the navigational display—a beacon that would take them straight to the source.
    Nathan closed up the console, then ascended into the cockpit with the others. He took the navigator’s seat in back and powered up the virtual displays. Encased in imaging mist, he tested the interface and immersed himself in the sweetness of action and reaction.
    “Skids up,” he said.

     

    Almacantar ’s belly opened, spilling light into the black abyss. Floating free, the lander drifted past the landing bay doors and into open space, trailing ice crystals that glowed like cinders in her wake. Tiny blue plumes appeared at her wingtips as Pitch fired the maneuvering thrusters, taking the lander to a safe operational distance away from her mother ship. The pilot then ran a beauty pass, flying down Almacantar ’s full length, following the long train of cargo modules she towed all the way from Earth. Against the stark backdrop of Mars, the ungainly vessel appeared almost majestic.
    “Base, this is Ghostrider, ” Pitch signaled. “Request nav and comm check.”
    “Roger, Ghostrider, ” came the disembodied reply. “You’re five by five, on the scope and transmitting loud and clear. How’s the view out there?”
    “It’s incredible,” Kellean said, her eyes fixed on the cockpit glass and inspecting every detail of Almacantar ’s cargo hull. Heavy lifters jutted from the ventral side of each module, dormant engines waiting to be fired for their descent to the Martian surface. Then, as the ship passed out of view, there was Mars itself: a mosaic of brown and red, streaked with