Special Effects: Red Earth

Tucker didn't smile. He detested Stubbs's humour. He hated the way the large, round-bellied man joked about everything.

"Well I guess that's about enough resting," said Stubbs getting back to his feet "Time to have a look around."

Tucker slipped out of the shade and followed Stubbs.

They were in a wide, grassy space. It was a beautiful gap of freedom, with the jungle clumbed and massed like like clouds on every side. Perhaps the soil was not no good at this point? Perhaps that was why there was a clearing here? Martian soil was like that. Patchy. Inconsistent. The mapping and testing had only just started before the Disaster so nobody really knew what the whole planet looked like. Only small areas had been described in detail.

Stubbs pulled a small spade from his pack and dug a hole. He lifted a handful of soil up and crumbled it between his fingers.

"Good," he said, "But how deep?"

He dug down as far as the handle would reach and spread the soil with his hands.

"Very good," he said.

Tucker stood silently behind him. Watching. Listening.

"What do you think?" Stubbs asked.

"It will do," said Tucker.

Stubbs kicked the loose soil back into the hole and walked on. He stopped again at the edge of the jungle and scanned the whole area, and then he scribbled some figures on a pad.

'This used to be the Ulysses canyon," he said, ''Over there. And north, that way, is the Plymouth Range. This bump on the planet hasn't got a name ... any ideas?"

"No," said Tucker, as if even that one word was an effort.

"How about Stubbsville?"

Tucker showed no expression in his face. No mirth, no distaste.

"Don't like it eh? OK we'll try something else. How about Tuckerville. You could be famous. The co-founder of the new land."