Daley (boxing in the air): No way. I got enough energy to whip six of you into shape.

Taban: Lucky us. (shaking foil packet to activate heating process) Ugh. Smells like maple sausage again.

Daley: Hey, don’t bitch. I know it’s all the same to you richies on Mars, but any real meat back on Earth was a luxury. Comeback wiped out all the livestock. Hell, we were lucky to even get SPAM on Solstice Morning.

Taban: You know, Daley, I’ve been meaning to say—

Daley: What? You don’t eat meat on Mars, either? Think it’s inhumane to make animals suffer? Even the brain-free ones? I’ll take your sausage, if that’s the case.

Taban: No, I—

Daley (checking wrist console): You know what, tell me outside. I’m going to suit up and check the drill real quick. Hurry up.

[Daley exits the room. The cockpit’s door seals shut behind him. About three minutes later, there’s the sound of the ship’s airlock opening.]

Taban (speaking quietly as he looks into his foil packet): Does he seem . . . manic, to you?

HARE: USER Daley’s behavior seems to be more animated than usual.

Taban: You keep track of our biometrics, don’t you? Is he sleeping?

HARE: USER Daley’s delta waves indicate that he sleeps fitfully, for an average of three hours a night.

Taban: So . . . no. That’s not good.

HARE: Affirmative.

Taban: Hey.

HARE: I’m sorry. I mean ‘yes.’

Taban (chewing): Okay. So he’s staying up most of the night. But where’s he getting all that energy from? And why is he staying up?

HARE: I’m sorry. I am unable to answer your query at this point in time.

Taban: I know. I’m just talking out loud.

HARE: I see.

Taban: He thinks I’m from Mars. I guess I don’t blame him—the tattoo and all.

HARE (processors whirring): You are not from Mars?

Taban: No. I’m Earth-born, actually—just like him. I only moved to Mars about ten years ago.

HARE: Why did you leave?

Taban: Earth or Mars?

HARE (processors whirring): . . .

Taban: Actually, same answer for both. It’s a long story. (rising, crumpling packet up) Let’s go outside.

[The HARE scuttles after Taban, who heads to the airlock and enters his exo-armor suit. They find Daley outside, examining the ship’s drill and the hole it’s bored into the ice. The air is now utterly still and clear; there is no wind.]

Taban (looking into the hole): Ice, ice, and more ice. Nice.

Daley (kicking the edge of the hole): I really thought there would be something else down there. The drill went down almost one thousand feet. The surface of this damn place is frozen solid.

Taban: Or it’s all just ice, down to the core.