The Hell Planet by E. C. Tubb

Author:E. C. Tubb [TUBB, E. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2015-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

They moved like glistening, squat-bodied insects through a hell of utter desolation, creeping with whining engines over jagged rock and skirting gaping chasms, hesitating as they climbed slippery masses of frozen gas, slewing and skidding as they crawled over the bleak, airless, frigid contortions of the mysterious night side.

Lee sat in the observation seat and stared grimly through the vision port.

“This is bad.” Weston thinned his lips as he gripped the steering levers. “I’ve never been so deep before, and it’s getting worse all the time.” He glanced at the grim-faced commander. “Think we should try a different route?”

“No.” Lee twisted in his seat and jerked his head at Blain. “Radio the others and have them come up to join us.”

“Yes sir.” The radio operator muttered into his instruments and Weston halted the vehicle with a falling hum from the powerful electric motors.

“I’ll wait until we unite. This is no territory to cross alone.”

Lee nodded, hating to admit the truth of what the captain said, and yet finding it impossible to deny. At first the going had been easy, the grey plain of the Twilight Belt slowly merging at the edge of the libration area into the jagged desolation of the night side. He had left one of the crawlers there, perched on a high outcrop of rock, waiting with its extended antenna for any messages to be relayed to the distant Station.

A second vehicle had been left further on, again perched as high as possible, the slender whip of the radio antenna just high enough for it to keep in contact with the base crawler. The other three had then plunged into the unknown, passing the known limits of exploration, driving deep into the frozen hell of the night side, feeling their way by the cold light of the burning stars and the beamless glare from their own searchlights.

But progress was slow.

Lee thought about it as he waited for the other two crawlers to follow their guide tracks and join the lead vehicle. Somewhere ahead of them the wrecked vessel waited, the essential component in its hold, lost amid the tangle of splintered rocks and glistening ice. Men might be there too, injured perhaps, helpless to do anything but wait for rescue. Lee swallowed as he imagined his brother, trapped perhaps, dying, staring with hopeless eyes towards the star-lit horizon, waiting for the rescue he must know would be coming.

And which, perhaps, would arrive too late.

Light sparkled from the crystalline surface of the surrounding plain, harsh, shadowless light glaring from the powerful searchlights of the other vehicles as they drew alongside.

“Contact the captains and ask them to come aboard,” ordered Lee tiredly. He stared at Weston. “We can’t carry on like this, progress is too slow, and there must be a better and faster way.”

“There is. We—”

“Save it for when the others are here,” interrupted Lee emotionlessly. “Blain, you had better get some food ready. No sense in wasting more time than we have to and we can eat as we talk.

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