Brightside Crossing. Nourse Alan Edward

with the libration. The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around.

      The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations.

      Sanderson did. He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like.

      Stone was a youngster – hardly twenty-five, I’d say – but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy.

      It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it – they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test.

      We dug right in. With plenty of funds – tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around – our equipment was new and good. Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges.

      The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?”

      “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know.

      “He’ll be joining us. He’s a good man – got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. “You’ve probably heard of him.”

      I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?”

      “Maybe. He’s lucky and skillful. Where do you draw the line? We’ll need plenty of both.”

      “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked.