I leaned forward into the slope, concentrating on just putting one foot in front of the other. Every time I took a step I felt my feet sinking into the fine gravel, heard the crunch from the pebbles. The sound was high-pitched, a result of it being filtered through the thin atmosphere and the layers of my environment suit. Above it all I could hear my own laboured breathing, my heart pounding my blood through my veins. I would have to rest soon and let my body recover.

Another step, then another. My muscles ached from the build up of lactic acid and fatigue poisons; my joints were stiff from the hours of climbing. I raised my head to look for a place to rest. Somewhere flat enough to stand level. A boulder I could lean against. However, all I could see was the grey mist swirling around me and the brown gravel around me vanishing into the fog. The rover with my supplies was just behind me, keeping pace with me like a loyal dog. A sudden fit of coughing seized me, forcing me to bend double.

"Hey! Eagle One, this is Eagle Base. Do you copy?" My headphones crackled into life, then subsided into the sine-wave hum of an open channel.

I braced myself, pulled myself upright and took a deep breath. "Eagle Base from Eagle One. Copy. It's just this climb getting to me."

There was a pause as the signal made its lightspeed crawl up to the orbital module, to base camp and then back again. "Roger that, Eagle One. How's the suit holding out?"

I chinned the switches on the collar of the helmet, activating the heads-up-display. I had turned it off because I found the colours distracting and the compass useless. After all, there was only one way to go for me. Up. Any other way was the wrong way. Besides, if anything did happen, the suit would warn me. I looked at the status bars. They were all green or orange; none were red. "All good here."

"Telemetry shows that your see-oh-two levels are elevated. You're burning through that rebreather, Eagle One."

"Ha." I took a deep gulp of cold, sweet air. "You try hauling your ass up this slope without breathing heavy."

There was a chuckle in my ears. "Roger that, Eagle One. Do you want to know how far you've got to go?"

"No thank you Eagle Base. I just need to know that the suit won't give up on me before I hit that summit."

"Eagle One, you are still go for summit. All you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other."

"Come here and say that!"

"No way. This is all you, Eagle One. Eagle Base out." My headphones went quiet, leaving me alone in the mist and silence. Then I started walking again.