Doug pushed himself a few centimeters closer. A chunk of the rock floor just in front of his helmet gave way and plummeted down into silent darkness.

"Grab it!"

"Leave me alone…"

With gritted teeth Doug slid closer and wrapped his fingers around Gordette's wrist just as the edge collapsed into shards and fell away.

Through his suit Doug could feel the vibrations of the servo motors in his glove as they tightened on Gordette's wrist. The man's whole weight dangled from Doug's hand. It felt as if his arm were being wrenched out of its shoulder socket.

"That's… a helluva grip… you got," Gordette grunted.

Doug could feel Gordette's body swaying as it hung in the deep black emptiness. Pain burned through his arm and shoulder. The exoskeleton would keep his fingers clamped on Gordette's wrist, he knew. Good thing we're on the Moon, Doug thought. With his spacesuit and all he'd yank my arm right out of my shoulder on Earth.

For moments that stretched like years Doug lay there, flat on his belly, with Gordette hanging in his hand.

"Lemme go…' Gordette panted. "Lemme die…"

"If you go," Doug said grimly, fiercely, "I go with you. We're in this together, Bam."

"You… crazy…"

Doug tried to worm his way back, away from the brittle, crumbling edge of the abyss. Gordette could do nothing to help, even if he wanted to.

Got to haul him out of there, Doug told himself. Got to get him on solid ground before he runs out of air.

But it was almost impossible to edge his way backward with Gordette's dead weight dangling from his outstretched arm. Grunting, teeth gritted, eyes stinging with sweat, Doug inched back along the glassy rock. It was painfully, agonizingly slow. He felt woozy, head spinning.

"What're y'all doing down… oh my God!" Edith's voice.

Doug couldn't see her, didn't know how she had gotten there. But she sounded like an angel to him.

"Edith! Where's the tractor?"

"Right here," she said, her voice anxious, high. "I rode out on it."

"Great! Get the tow cable. Quick!"

It seemed to take an eternity and a half for Edith to find the tow cable and then clamber down into the rille behind Doug and tie it to one of the attachment rings on his backpack. She used the cable to climb out again, then went up to the tractor.

"Use the winch," Doug called to her. "Controls are on the dashboard."

Edith stared at the dashboard but couldn't figure out which of the toggles or keypads tan the winch. Instead, she revved up the engines and started backing away, slowly.

"Easy—easy," Doug's voice crackled in her earphones. "He's in a fabric suit."

Edith thought of all the rodeos she had seen, with cowboys guiding their tough little ponies in steer-roping competitions. Just ease on back, she said silently to the tractor. That's it, honey, nice and slow and easy.