"You may not know it, but we lost our last G-boat when we pulled that unsuccessful attack on Phobos early this year. We do have an old spaceship, riding in a polar orbit, that Marscorp doesn't know about, but no way to get up to it. Our job is to capture a Marscorp G-boat, get to that spaceship, capture The Egg and tow it into an Earthward orbit."

"The Egg?" repeated Stein, a dark, chubby fellow. "You mean that ovoid space station of Marscorp's with the antennae sticking out all over it? I've seen that thing floating up there. I always wondered why we didn't blast it."

"Not important enough," said Jonner. "It's an experimental laboratory that amplifies the magnetic field of Mars, and they've been experimenting with it as an auxiliary power station. But neither side is bothered by any lack of power from the atomic energy sources on Mars."

Tyruss appeared annoyed at this.

"Tell me something, Jonner," he demanded. "If it wasn't important enough to blast when we had the ships to do it, why is it important enough for us to capture now?"

"I don't know," said Jonner. "Those are our orders. Now, we leave the groundcars here and go on foot to Marsport. Check equipment, everyone."

"Say," commented Farlan after a moment, "I don't seem to have any sunburn lotion."

"You can have mine," said Aron, laughing. "This far from the sun, I haven't been sunburned yet, and don't expect to be."

"Haven't been on Mars a year yet, have you?" suggested Tyruss.

"No," admitted Aron. "I came from Earth with the last space fleet and escaped in a lifeboat. Why?"

"There's an Earth-sun conjunction coming up. Every time the Earth swings between Mars and the sun, everybody on Mars gets a bad sunburn. When it comes, you better cover yourself with lotion, because clothes don't protect you and even if you're in a city, the domes and house roofs are transparent to pick up the sun's heat."

"We have enough among us," said Jonner. "Besides, if our mission goes off on schedule, we'll be back at base by the time the Earth-sun conjunction starts. Let's head for Marsport."

The six men crouched in the concealing canal sage near the edge of Marsport, the spaceport outside 

 Prev. P 3/17 next