Battle on Mercury by Lester del Rey

Author:Lester del Rey [del Rey, Lester]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Sci-Fi
Publisher: John C. Winston Co.
Published: 1953-02-01T21:00:00+00:00

Charlie was looking worried when Dick awoke on the morning of the third day, and it wasn’t hard to tell why. There was a bumping sound mixed with the other noises of the tractor, and a faint jarring mixed with the feel of its motion. Charlie was going slower.

Dick started to take the controls, but the old man pushed him away. “No, I’d better keep her. Had the same thing happen before. Might just keep going till we hit Twilight, and might pop off any minute. If she goes, we’d better be set to work like beavers.”

“What is it?” Dick asked. “One of the wheels the tracks run on?”

The old man looked at him with suddenly renewed respect. “That’s it—got a gear missing, must have broke off back there in the last bad spot. If it was just the one gear tooth, it’ll be rough, but we’ll keep going. And if it’s a weakened wheel, and other teeth go—well, you better do a little praying. It sure isn’t any fun trying to weld them things back.”

The next hour was one of worry, but the gear seemed to be holding up, if not exactly smoothly. Charlie had just begun to relax when there was a wrenching, and the tractor suddenly spun around, one track frozen and the other twisting the whole machine around.

The old man cut power and applied the brake to the other track almost at once, bringing it to a halt. For a second he sat there quietly. Then he reached out and picked up his suit.

“We re going to have to look for the pieces, I betcha,” he said sourly. “The way that went, it probably sprayed itself in six hunks. And if there’s one thing I’d hate worsen having to weld on teeth, it’s having to build up and cut out a new wheel from scrap.”

They climbed down and inspected the machine. Charlie was right. The gear had broken completely, and was missing. It had left only the bearing on which it turned.

“Could be quite a ways back,” Charlie said. “When they pop out, sometimes the momentum of the track holds it up for a while. Felt like that this time.”

They began searching, while Johnny drew closer to the tractor and seemed to watch them unhappily. By the time they had gone back a hundred feet, Dick began to abandon hope, but Charlie kept on, looking from side to side. Dick shook his head and followed the older man’s example.

Suddenly Charlie moved forward quickly, and scooped up something from the hot ground. It was almost half of a gear wheel, broken across the bearing. “Yep. See. Right here is where that tooth broke off—weakened the gear at the same time. Well, if we find the rest, we may get it fixed.” Dick went on searching, and it was his turn Almost straight ahead of him lay the other part, driven into the ground.

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