 What happened to Wyatt and Carpenter?
Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were.
 They died when a rock slide crushed their vehicle while they were attempting the Brightside Crossing.
 They died when a rock slide crushed their vehicle while they were attempting the Brightside Crossing.  They crossed the Brightside at aphelion.  They disappeared after their ship set off for Mercury. They were on a mission to cross the Brightside.  They disappeared when they attempted to cross the Brightside at perihelion.