"But you still haven't told me why you came in here."

"To find you. I figured that if an Amnesty-bearer was on his way to Mars, there was big trouble. And I think I know what the trouble is, but I need some of the answers you can give me.""They were cubes," I reminded Snow. "And not immensely large ones, either. Remember, the scout ship is not one of Command's larger models; mass proportions of the smaller ships dictate that much. However, by the time Anders had gotten into space with the ship and had enough ease and time to check the rear, those cubes would have melted down to slivers and chips of ice which, to someone not looking for just that sort of thing, would pass unremarked."Snow stared at me, her eyes wide with the horror of what I was implying. "Then someone dumped fifteen boys out of the ship into Martian wilderness!"I nodded sadly. "That's the way it looks.""But why?" She asked, bewildered. "There are no criminals, no enemy spies, no lawbreakers amidst the ranks of fifteen Space Scouts!"I shrugged. "It could be some madman's idea of a joke; or perhaps there is something about Mars that does not like human beings, hence gravity in unusual fluxuation, or Martian viruses. We've always had to be on our guard when landing on strange planets."Snow nodded in understanding, and was silent for a minute while she weighed the situation. Finally, she looked up at me, her gaze steady. "What do you intend to do now?"I sighed, the weight of responsibility heavy upon me. "I have to go back to Command and determine our course of action. We may need to mount a search party, or send out another scout ship to investigate further."Snow's eyes glittered with determination. "Then I'm coming with you.""You can't," I said flatly. "It's too dangerous.""I don't care," she said, her voice fierce. "My brother is out there, somewhere on Mars, and I'm not going to sit idly by while he's in danger. I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not."I could see the resolve in her eyes, and I knew there was no changing her mind. With a heavy heart, I nodded. "Fine. But stay close to me and do as I say, understand?"Snow smiled, relief flooding her features. "Thank you. I won't let you down, I promise."And with that, we set off towards Command, the fate of the missing Space Scouts weighing heavily on our minds."Not," I said, "with the efficiency of the temperature control system. Sharp deviations from comfortable levels in a spaceship can be disastrous. So the thermostat in the ship is set for a rigid fifty-five degrees, and it's built to keep the interior heat at that level. Put fifteen-hundred pounds of ice on board, and the heat in the rack cabin goes up, trying to get the temperature back to its correct level. The ice, 

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