One Way To Mars

Chapter 17

Foreman collected up the jars ofdope he'd prepared earlier and carried them to the pool. Already fullof smoke, he handed them out. None declined.

'The GenMoP uses the pool?'Mitchum asked, as Monkley jumped in.

'The water's filteredconstantly,' said Foreman. 'You don't mind do you?'

Mitchum shrugged. 'It's just thatI thought Chimps didn't like water much.'

'I threatened him with sleepingin the airlock if he didn't take a regular bath. That's right, isn'tit, Monkley?'

'Monkley,' he said, helpinghimself to a jar and having a smoke.

'I bet the I S F would love tosee one of their billion dollar babies getting stoned,' said Debbie.

Foreman was having troublekeeping eye contact with the ladies. “Keep calm. Foreman.” 'Heknows when to stop. He usually has a smoke then curls up asleep. So.What does bring you here if it wasn't rescuing us?'

'Drilling,' said Mitchum. 'Itturns out when we sent down the first bore, we got close, but nocigar. We struck water, like the geologists said we would, but wewere off a little way. We hit a kind of shelf. We got water of sortsout of it, but the mineral content is higher than we'd like, and thepressure is lower than we hoped for.'

'Everything seems okay to me,'said Foreman, smoking and averting his eyes from Susan's amplebreasts, bobbing up and down so delightfully on the surface of thepool.

'It's okay,' said Debbie, 'Butthe filters are getting clogged too fast. Without somebody to changethem regularly, the reservoir would be a slimy mess in no time. Adeeper bore in the right place will give us more pressure and cleanerwater to start with.'

'Makes sense. How long will thattake?'

Mitchum said, 'A couple of weekswe think. It depends what we hit. The formations are all over theplace. Some of it is like pure iron. This is pretty good dope, Andy.'

'My old college pals taught me athing or two about curing it. Beats me how we all managed to pass theexams.'

'And now you look after thishandsome fellow,' said Debbie.

'Oooh!' said Monkley, his eyesbeginning to roll around in his head. 'Happy.'

'Okay, Monkley,' said Foreman,taking the jar off him. 'Time for bed, pal.'

Monkley stretched and yawned,kissed Debbie on her cheek and climbed out of the pool anddisappeared into the jungle.

'Will he be alright?' Joe asked.

'He'll curl up in a treesomewhere.'

'I don't know about you lot,'said Susan, 'But I'm off to bed.'

'Yeah,' said Mitchum. 'We've anearly start in the morning.'

Seven naked people got out of thepool. Foreman tried hard not to show his appreciation of the femaleform and gathered up the jars. He took those to the kitchen and putthem safe for the dope to burn itself out. When he reached hisbedroom, he found somebody had beaten him to it.

'Susan. Sorry. I usually sleephere, but it's no bother. I'll bunk down somewhere else.'

'I'll be disappointed if you do,Andy.'

'Oooh!'