Stolen Worlds by Bob Blink

Author:Bob Blink [Blink, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Backside of the Moon

Six Days Out from Shackleton

Major Morales had hoped they would make better time. Looking at the map on the iPad and the distance they had to cover, they would do well to make it to their destination by the end of the eighth day. If anything slowed them down, they will have failed their mission. Overall they were tired, gritty, tense and bored, all at the same time.

At least they were in the sun. That helped a lot. The daily chore of switching tanks for the power cell was no longer required, although they still had to change out the oxygen tank twice a day. The moonbuggy was equipped with two of the twelve hour tanks, so that when one ran dry, the other automatically picked up. That meant a quick change out wasn't absolutely required, but it was prudent not to leave an empty tank in place too long, so that meant two trips outside each day. The windows were being run with a healthy tint to block the brightness of the constant sun.

They were finally wearing the lighter suits, and for two of the three buggies the occupants ran with their helmets off, but close at hand. Buggie #2 had run into a deep patch of dust and gotten stuck a couple of days back. The resulting effort to get it moving again had several unfortunate consequences. Enough of the abrasive and sticky stuff had gotten inside the vehicle that the communications antenna pointing system had frozen up and was no longer functional, leaving them with two vehicles capable of contacting the base. Even worse, Paul Cameron had been exposed to a substantial quantity of the stuff and now had badly irritated eyes and a perpetual cough with some internal bleeding of the lungs that he coughed up. His breathing was ragged, and the wide spectrum antibiotic that base had suggested he use hadn't done anything to improve his condition thus far. With the inside of their vehicle filled with a bit too much of the powdery dust, Steve Reed, the other occupant had chosen to wear his helmet full time for fear of becoming similarly afflicted.

It was almost time to switch drivers when disaster struck. Major Morales had been driving, four hour shifts which he was beginning to believe were too long, but anything shorter meant more trips outside.

"Look out!" Boyd shouted, and pointed to the pothole in the darkened area that Morales had believed was just another shadow. As the sun was moving toward the horizon they were getting longer and darker shadows that made close attention to their path more critical.

The warning call came just a bit too late. The right wheel of their moonbuggie slammed into the rocky opening causing the vehicle to tip and bottom out on that side. Momentum caused it to keep moving forward momentarily, but the worrisome crunch of bending metal accompanied the sudden, jolting stop that ended forward motion.

"Shit!" Morales cursed.

He tried to back the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.