The MESA, the Modularized Equipment Storage Assembly, was a panel on the descent stage, to the left of the ladder. York reached out and opened a latch; the panel swung down like a drawbridge, bearing a TV camera.

“Ralph, the MESA came down all right.”

“I copy that, Natalie. I’m turning the TV on now.”

The lens of the camera was dark, clean, watchful; she saw the camera swivel as Ralph worked its servomotors, focusing on her. She felt absurdly self-conscious.

Gershon said, “I’m waiting for the TV. Man, I’m getting a picture. There’s a great deal of contrast in it — it’s just splashes of color — and currently the damn thing’s upside-down. But I can see a fair amount of detail and — I’ve got it, it’s corrected itself. Natalie, I can see you at the top of the ladder.”

York nodded to the camera. But they can’t see my face behind this visor. She waved.

She made her way down the ladder, rung by rung. They were big steps, and in the stiff suit she found the best way to go was to let herself drop from step to step.

The last rung was three feet from the ground, and she pushed herself away from the ladder and let herself fall. Her descent was distinctly slow-motion; it took nearly a second, she guessed, to cover that last yard. On Earth, it would have taken half that.

Her blue boots came to rest on the white metal of the descent stage’s three-foot-wide footpad. It was still so dark in the shadow of Challenger, that it was actually quite difficult to see.

She held on to the ladder with her fat-gloved hands, and tried to step back up to the ladder’s bottom rung. She had to make sure she could get back home. But the suit was too stiff, and she couldn’t lift her feet that high.

“Fucking dumb design.”

“Hot mike at this time, EV1,” Gershon said blandly.

She gave up trying to make the step. She bent down a little and jumped. Her knees were stiff, inside the suit, and all her mobility came from her toes and ankles. The Martian gravity pulled her back, but feebly, and she overshot the bottom rung. She fell against the ladder with a clatter, but she managed to get her feet hooked over the rung.

Breathless, she dropped back to the footpad again.

She looked past the pad to the Martian surface.