Hide and seek by Paul Preuss

Author:Paul Preuss [Preuss, Paul]
Format: epub
Tags: Read, Scifi, Paul Preuss
ISBN: 9780380753468
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 1989-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

XI

What satellite sensors could not know with certainty was the condition of the ground beneath the visible surface of Mars. And so, two days out, driving blind in a windstorm, the track having already vanished in the blowing dust, the marstruck plunged into an enormous sinkhole of decayed permafrost.

The tractor went straight in and automatically decoupled from the trailers behind it, leaving the first of the two flatbeds dangling half over the edge of the hole, its cargo of pipe threatening to spill forward. Meanwhile, nimble as a gymnast, the big computer-stabilized tractor had landed on an uneven ledge of ice with its forward treads. Lydia and Blake found themselves staring down from their safety harness into depths of dirty ice.

The dashboard lit up yellow in front of her, and Lydia hit the switches that powered the turbines down and put the tractor’s systems on battery.

“We’ve got a problem,” she said.

“If you say so.”

For the first time in two days she looked him in the eye, both of them hanging there in their harnesses, and he thought she came very close to smiling. They sealed their pressure suits and climbed out of the cab and up the sides of the slanted tractor to the edge of the hole. The wind at the surface wasn’t quite strong enough to knock them off their feet. They couldn’t see each other very well in the blowing dust, but they had the commlink between their suits, and Lydia was good at giving orders.

“Forward tool locker, your side. Slide the shackle left and down. Inside on the left you’ll find a dozen rock bolts, about a meter long. Yellow barrels with red tags.” “I see ’em.” “Take out three. Mount one forward of the sinkhole on your side. I’ll do the same on mine. Then we’ll put two out to the sides and two aft. Try to find good rock, sandstone. Otherwise, sound ice.”

“Will do.” Blake was as good at following orders as Lydia was at giving them, particularly when they made excellent sense.

They found solid rock forward of the tractor, and prepared to sink the explosive anchors.

“Have you used these?” she asked.

“Looks easy.”

“Easy to blow your head off.”

“I’ll be careful.” He ripped off the tag, pulled the pin, and stepped away. Seconds later the recoilless charge spewed fire and sank the steel shaft deep into the stone. On her side of the truck Lydia was doing the same. With the forward bolts in place, they looked for dependable anchorage to the sides and rear. They had to go farther for it, but when they found good rock they were still within range of the truck’s winch cables.

“What’s the plan?” Blake asked. “Cable sling. We’re going to lift the whole thing out of the hole till it’s hanging on the cables, then let it pull itself forward on the cables until it gets its treads on the ground. Computer knows this trick pretty well–we’ve done it a few times already–it will keep the tension adjusted.”

“All by itself?”

“More or less.

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