by Atlas
the marker came rolling heavily to their feet. They froze in silence, trying not to point their rays at the darkness where the cryotropus vanished. Then, they stepped ahead as one and squatted beside the orange cube.
“He returned it!” Loktev sang happily, feeling the crumpled jacket of the instrument. “Returned at my request! We must find him.” He jumped to his feet, hit his helmet on the ceiling and gasped with vexation.
Toivo put the freezer on his back, turned the cube into the right position and went clicking the buttons. “Did you switch it off?”
“No,” Loktev replied after a pause in his former, depressed voice. “Just dropped it down and drove away.”
The navigation map flashed on the inside of his visor, hung for a while and faded, but it was enough for Toivo to remember the picture. “The battery’s dead,” he said with annoyance and looked at Loktev who stood still, peering into the hole where the cryotropus vanished. “I remembered the direction.” Toivo said loudly for him to hear. “Over there.” He had to shift the ray several times from the torpid figure to the dark opening before Loktev stepped ahead.
Soon Toivo lost count of time but did not switch on the indication. At times the marker map appeared again, each such occasion being briefer and rarer. When, losing all hope, he rather sensed than saw a faint light ahead, he moved Loktev aside and hurried there. We found her.
For the next quarter of an hour, they did not say a word. Breathing hoarsely, they hurriedly removed the blockage, bumping into each other and stumbling in the narrow well until they saw a flash of the spacesuit. Groaning with strain, the two of them pulled the body out and collapsed beside it, completely out of strength.
Morgan came to with a moan. Toivo moved closer to her and supported her shoulders. “We’re here. Don’t be afraid. We’re here. Everything will be all right now.”
He lit her crushed legs and quickly removed the ray. Loktev gave a soft sob at the opposite wall. Toivo silently shook his fist at him. Then, with caution, he raised her maimed body a bit, clasped to his chest and started to lull, trying to put at least a little bit of warmth in it.
“I’m cold,” Morgan complained, swallowing her tears.
“Never mind, dear. The cold will drive your pain away so you can sleep.” He lulled her like a child, paying no notice to the alarm light of the regeneration system. “We’ll fall asleep together. When we wake, it’ll be warm, and no pain at all.”
Loktev cried, no longer hiding his tears. Toivo thought melancholically he did not even know their first names. A small stream of debris was still running down from above, pebbles clicked, flying far to the sides. Then some large thing shielded the light, but he did not even look up at it, repeating to himself like a spell: We’re still human.
