“Well,” Tom started to answer, but turned to Sally. “Do you want to tell him?”
“OK. Can you keep a secret?” she asked with a devilish twinkle in her eyes.
His curiosity piqued, Brandon replied, “Of course.”
Sally snagged her arm through Tom’s, “I’m pregnant and Tom and I have decided to stay on Mars, living together in sin!” Brandon started and nearly choked, his hand going to his throat as he gasped and coughed. Tom also had a stunned look on his face indicating that this was not the same information he was anticipating her to announce. “Hey, I’m kidding! Gees-Louise, you guys are so gullible,” she ribbed the pair, then went on.
“No, you were right about the stones being a form of diamond. The one Tom is holding is about 2200 carats. I think we should re-negotiate our contracts to be… oh, I don’t know, perhaps about a tenth of one percent, as a finder’s fee. We’ll come out way ahead of the piddling amount they are planning to pay us,” she said referring to the five-to-seven plus million they would each receive. Sally stopped, astounded. “Did you hear what I just said? Who would of thunk it, as my grandmother used to say.”
Pausing to regain his composure, but still gazing intently at Sally, Tom inserted, “And, we’re going to EVA to the bottom of the crater and conduct soundings to see if we can determine where the heck they came from. The debate is whether they came up from within Mars, volcanically, or hitched a ride with a meteor or comet. Care to make a wager?” he invited, waving the glittering rock lazily before his friend’s face.
“No way,” Brandon stated, with a snort. “I’m not about to bet on anything having to do with geology, especially with a pair of crazy geologists.”