“Don’t be. They were following orders. I’m afraid to ask, son. Anyone hurt? Maybe dead?”
“No deaths, sir. Not one.”
“And-and the water? Any left?”
Long said, with an effort at nonchalance, “Enough.”
“In that case, get home as fast as you can. Don’t take any chances, of course.”
“There’s trouble, then.”
“Fair to middling. When will you come down?”
“Two days. Can you hold out that long?”
“I’ll hold out.”
Forty hours later Mars had grown to a ruddy-orange ball that filled the ports and they were in the final planet-landing spiral.