Titans of Chaos

Here we saw a slight circular depression, about half a mile wide, like a crater from an ancientmeteor, weathered by years of sandstorms. Rocks of red, red-gray, rose, and dirty gray littered theground; streamers of orange dust tiger-striped the pebbles and the permafrost of dry ice. In themiddle of the depression was the lander. It looked like a circular coffee table, about four feetacross, on which some coffee drinkers had left squares of white and black metal, stubby cylinders,hoops of foil-covered steel, hourglasses of dim ceramic, radio dishes, a camera on a tall mast, anda telescoping arm on a gimbal. To the left and right of the coffee table were expanded fansshaped like glassy black stop signs. Hemispheres and cones of orange and black huddledunderneath the coffee table, visible between the leg struts. The legs were tipped with wide pads, asone might see on the heel of a crutch. It was kind of surprising how crude the machine looked, allwrapped in tinfoil. It was sitting in the middle of a radiating flower of scorch marks made by itslanding rockets.

Victor radioed me. "The UHF antenna is active. These signals reach to an orbiter package, nofarther."

I said, "There must be a stronger broadcaster on the satellite. Let's land in front of the cameraand hoist the Union Jack."

When we passed over the rim of the crater, suddenly the air got very thick and very warm. It waslike running face-first into a hot towel. The lander shimmered like a heat mirage and vanished.

At that same moment, the fourth dimension collapsed around me, and I forgot what it looked like.

I was only a yard or so off the cold rocky soil. I landed heavily, however, taken by surprise whenmy 3-D girl-body winked into reality around me. In addition to my lucky aviatrix cap and longscarf, my three-dimensional cross-section was wearing my riding boots, jodhpurs, and leathercoat, which provided enough padding that I was not injured as I fell.

On hands and knees, I looked up as Victor clanged heavily to the ground also, a statue withoutexpression or motion, and did not get up. Dead? I hoped not.