delay caused by the signal to travel from Venus to Earth
would have made control of the vehicle on the Venesian
surface tricky at the best of times.  Trent had 'touched
down' near the base of Ishtah Terra, the highest mountain
range on the planet.  He had by now approached the
foothills and was cast into the dark shadows of the
mountain range.

"Image intensifier on...  That looks better, but pretty
indistinct."

Kay shifted to look at the intensified image on-screen.

"Can you make out any shapes which could be cravasses in
the rock?"

"Not at this range!  Wait.  There's something ahead.  Not
very distinct. See it? Grid D72."

"Could be something.  Head in closer."

She tried to increase the intensity of the image by trying
a closer scan. The image on-screen flickered and faded
away.

"Is the link still up?  We've lost the image here!"