Chapter Three

Captain Richard Michaels looked back at the four men who had the worst job in the Space Service. Mars 97 had an eight-man crew, but only half of them would set foot on the Red Planet. The other four would stay up here, two hundred miles up. They were vital to the mission, they'd be relaying instructions, acting as back-up, monitoring the information from the unmanned probes. They'd never be able to tell their grandchildren that they'd walked on Mars as part of this mission. The crew had drawn lots a year ago to see who'd have which duty. Since then, the unlucky four had been resigned to this moment, when their colleagues would leave them to walk on an alien world. It hadn't made it any more palatable, and there had been the odd tense moment on the four month trip out. Singh, Campbell, McGowan and Lewis would be staying. He, Andi McCray, Bob Haigh and Claudia would be going down to the surface.

That had been the plan right up until this morning, when Claudia had fallen ill. She'd eaten something that disagreed with her - quite an achievement in such a regulated environment. She'd been confined to quarters since then, with only Singh allowed to see her. Everything about the mission was carefully balanced: one crew member ill for a day wasn't too bad, but if she had a bug that another crewman caught then they might have to abort the mission.

Five hours to go, and Michaels had been forced to decide which of the other four was coming down.

Singh had been the calmest. He'd always been the most rational of the crew - agreeing to cut his hair and shave his beard to be an astronaut, despite his religious beliefs. He'd accepted the result of the ballot without reservation, and was able to put the whole thing into perspective - he was still an astronaut, after all. But it couldn't be him - as the only one with full medical training he was needed up here to monitor Claudia. Campbell had been the worst: three months ago he'd been a serious cause for concern - his 'jokes' on the subject of the landing party had continued long after he'd been asked to stop, and he'd undermined morale.

But he was the one, his record more than made that clear. He'd confirmed the choice with London, and told the crew two hours ago, when everyone was too busy to get angry or disappointed.

The face of Richard Michaels filled the huge video screen. The crowd at the National Space Museum cheered.