"I—I think so. It was so different that I couldn't understand all its reactions."
It was night when they edged out through the narrow opening, but Klev was awake and watching. His jaw dropped in astonishment as Sue told of their journey, of how she had actually touched the water-vora.
"Martians can't swim, Nick," she explained.
"How soon?" he wanted to know.
"An hour or two," she said after conferring with Klev. "But he's not sure. This has never happened before in all the history of Mars."
After a while Nick crept up to the rim of the rocky bowl, shivering as the cold, sand-laden wind whipped his exposed face. Both moons were below the horizon, leaving the desert in darkness relieved only by the stars and the lights of Central Camp.
Phobos rose rapidly in the west, throwing long, distorted shadows over the red sands. And as the shadows grew shorter Nick thought he detected something. He rested his eyes and looked again. Yes, it was there, a darker, glimmering patch in a low spot a mile or so to the east.
"Sue," he called excitedly. "It's starting."
Quickly she was beside him, looking where he pointed.
The patch of wet sand and standing water had grown to several hundred yards across when the orange flare of one of the night patrols flashed up from Central Camp. From several miles away the pilot sighted the unusual patch in the desert and swung to investigate.