eigs.

Twelve steps later, I decided this was about as far as we could go.

I stopped, slipped out of the geiger harness, and lowered myself
ponderously to the ground. "What'samatter, Ron?" Val asked sleepily.
"Something wrong?"

"No, baby," I said, putting out a hand and taking hers. "I think we
ought to rest a little before we go any further. It's been a long, hard
day."

It didn't take much to persuade her. She slid down beside me, curled up,
and in a moment she was fast asleep, sprawled out on the sands.

_Poor kid_, I thought. Maybe we shouldn't have come to Mars after all.
But, I reminded myself, _someone_ had to do the job.

A second thought appeared, but I squelched it:

Why the hell me?

I looked down at Valerie's sleeping form, and thought of our warm,
comfortable little home on Earth. It wasn't much, but people in love
don't need very fancy surroundings.

I watched her, sleeping peacefully, a wayward lock of her soft blonde
hair trailing down over one eyebrow, and it seemed hard to believe that
we'd exchanged Earth and all it held for us for the raw, untamed
struggle that was Mars. But I knew I'd do it again, if I had the chance.
It's because we wanted to keep what we had. Heroes? Hell, no. We just
liked our comforts, and wanted to keep them. Which took a little work.

* * * * *

_Time to get moving._ But then Val stirred and rolled over in her sleep,
and I didn't have the heart to wake her. I sat there, holding her,
staring out over the desert, watching the wind whip the sand up into
weird shapes.

The Geig Corps preferred married couples, working in teams. That's what
had finally decided it for us--we were a good team. We had no ties on
Earth that couldn't be broken without much difficulty. So we
volunteered.

_And here we are._ Heroes. The wind blasted a mass of sand into my face,
and I felt it tinkle against the oxymask.

I glanced at the suit-chronometer. Getting late. I decided once again to
wake Val. But she was tired. And I was tired too, tired from our
wearying journey across the empty desert.

I started to shake Val. But I never finished. It would be _so_ nice just
to lean back and nuzzle up to her, down in the sand. So nice. I yawned,
and stretched back.

* * * * *

I awoke with a sudden startled shiver, and realized angrily I had let
myself doze off. "Come on, Val," I said savagely, and started to rise to
my feet.