Sand Doom Read online

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  SAND DOOM

  BY MURRAY LEINSTER

  Illustrated by Freas

  +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | _The problem was as neat a circle as one could ask for; | | without repair parts, they couldn't bring in the ship that | | carried the repair parts!_ | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

  Bordman knew there was something wrong when the throbbing, acutelyuncomfortable vibration of rocket blasts shook the ship. Rockets werestrictly emergency devices, these days, so when they were used there wasobviously an emergency.

  He sat still. He had been reading, in the passenger lounge of the_Warlock_--a very small lounge indeed--but as a senior Colonial Surveyofficer he was well-traveled enough to know when things did not goright. He looked up from the bookscreen, waiting. Nobody came to explainthe eccentricity of a spaceship using rockets. It would have beenimmediate, on a regular liner, but the _Warlock_ was practically atramp. This trip it carried just two passengers. Passenger service wasnot yet authorized to the planet ahead, and would not be until Bordmanhad made the report he was on his way to compile. At the moment, though,the rockets blasted, and stopped, and blasted again. There was somethingdefinitely wrong.

  The _Warlock's_ other passenger came out of her cabin. She lookedsurprised. She was Aletha Redfeather, an unusually lovely Amerind.It was extraordinary that a girl could be so self-sufficient on atedious space-voyage, and Bordman approved of her. She was making thejourney to Xosa II as a representative of the Amerind HistoricalSociety, but she'd brought her own bookreels and some elaboratefancywork which--woman-fashion--she used to occupy her hands. Shehadn't been at all a nuisance. Now she tilted her head on one sideas she looked inquiringly at Bordman.

  "I'm wondering, too," he told her, just as an especially sustained andviolent shuddering of rocket-impulsion made his chair legs thutter onthe floor.

  There was a long period of stillness. Then another violent but muchshorter blast. A shorter one still. Presently there was a half-secondblast which must have been from a single rocket tube because of the mildshaking it produced. After that there was nothing at all.

  Bordman frowned to himself. He'd been anticipating groundfall within amatter of hours, certainly. He'd just gone through his specbookcarefully and re-familiarized himself with the work he was to survey onXosa II. It was a perfectly commonplace minerals-planet development, andhe'd expected to clear it FE--fully established--and probably TP and NQratings as well, indicating that tourists were permitted and noquarantine was necessary. Considering the aridity of the planet, nobacteriological dangers could be expected to exist, and if touristswanted to view its monstrous deserts and infernolike windsculptures--why they should be welcome.

  But the ship had used rocket drive in the planet's near vicinity.Emergency. Which was ridiculous. This was a perfectly routine sort ofvoyage. Its purpose was the delivery of heavy equipment--specifically asmelter--and a senior Colonial Survey officer to report the completionof primary development.

  Aletha waited, as if for more rocket blasts. Presently she smiled atsome thought that had occurred to her.

  "If this were an adventure tape," she said humorously, "the loudspeakerwould now announce that the ship had established itself in an orbitaround the strange, uncharted planet first sighted three days ago, andthat volunteers were wanted for a boat landing."

  Bordman demanded impatiently:

  "Do you bother with adventure tapes? They're nonsense! A pure waste oftime!"

  Aletha smiled again.

  "My ancestors," she told him, "used to hold tribal dances and makemedicine and boast about how many scalps they'd taken and how they didit. It was satisfying--and educational for the young. Adolescents becamefamiliar with the idea of what we nowadays call adventure. They werepartly ready for it when it came. I suspect your ancestors used to telleach other stories about hunting mammoths and such. So I think it wouldbe fun to hear that we were in orbit and that a boat landing was inorder."

  Bordman grunted. There were no longer adventures. The universe wassettled; civilized. Of course there were still frontier planets--Xosa IIwas one--but pioneers had only hardships. Not adventures.

  * * * * *

  The ship-phone speaker clicked. It said curtly:

  "_Notice. We have arrived at Xosa II and have established an orbit aboutit. A landing will be made by boat._"

  Bordman's mouth dropped open.

  "What the devil's this?" he demanded.

  "Adventure, maybe," said Aletha. Her eyes crinkled very pleasantly whenshe smiled. She wore the modern Amerind dress--a sign of pride in theancestry which now implied such diverse occupations as interstellarsteel construction and animal husbandry and llano-planet colonization."If it were adventure, as the only girl on this ship I'd have to be inthe landing party, lest the tedium of orbital waiting make the"--hersmile widened to a grin--"the pent-up restlessness of trouble-makers inthe crew----"

  The ship-phone clicked again.

  "_Mr. Bordman. Miss Redfeather. According to advices from the ground,the ship may have to stay in orbit for a considerable time. You willaccordingly be landed by boat. Will you make yourselves ready, please,and report to the boat-blister?_" The voice paused and added, "_Handluggage only, please._"

  Aletha's eyes brightened. Bordman felt the shocked incredulity of a manaccustomed to routine when routine is impossibly broken. Of coursesurvey ships made boat landings from orbit, and colony ships let downrobot hulls by rocket when there was as yet no landing grid for thehandling of a ship. But never before in his experience had an ordinaryfreighter, on a routine voyage to a colony ready for its finaldegree-of-completion survey, ever landed anybody by boat.

  "This is ridiculous!" said Bordman, fuming.

  "Maybe it's adventure," said Aletha. "I'll pack."

  She disappeared into her cabin. Bordman hesitated. Then he went into hisown. The colony on Xosa II had been established two years ago. Minimumcomfort conditions had been realized within six months. A temporarylanding grid for light supply ships was up within a year. It hadpermitted stock-piling, and it had been taken down to be rebuilt as apermanent grid with every possible contingency provided for. The eightmonths since the last ship landing was more than enough for the buildingof the gigantic, spidery, half-mile-high structure which would handlethis planet's interstellar commerce. There was no excuse for anemergency! A boat landing was nonsensical!

  But he surveyed the contents of his cabin. Most of the cargo of the_Warlock_ was smelter equipment which was to complete the outfitting ofthe colony. It was to be unloaded first. By the time the ship's holdswere wholly empty, the smelter would be operating. The ship would waitfor a full cargo of pig metal. Bordman had expected to live in thiscabin while he worked on the survey he'd come to make, and to leaveagain with the ship.

  Now he was to go aground by boat. He fretted. The only emergencyequipment he could possibly need was a heat-suit. He doubted the urgencyof that. But he packed some clothing for indoors, and then defiantlyincluded his specbook and the volumes of definitive data to whichspecifications for structures and colonial establishments alwaysreferred. He'd get to work on his report immediately he landed.

  He went out of the passenger's lounge to the boat-blister. An engineer'slegs projected from the boat port. The engineer withdrew, with a stripof tape from the boat's computer. He compared it dourly with a similarstrip from the ship's figurebox. Bordman consciously acted according tothe best traditions of passengers.

  "What's the trouble?" he asked.

  "We can't land," said t
he engineer shortly.

  He went away--according to the tradition by which ships' crews arealways scornful of passengers.

  * * * * *

  Bordman scowled. Then Aletha came, carrying a not-too-heavy bag. Bordmanput it in the boat, disapproving of the crampedness of the craft. Butthis wasn't a lifeboat. It was a landing boat. A lifeboat had Lawlordrive and could travel light-years, but in the place of rockets androcket fuel it had air-purifiers and water-recovery units andfood-stores. It couldn't land without a landing grid aground, but itcould get to a civilized planet. This landing boat could land without agrid, but its air wouldn't last long.

  "Whatever's the matter," said Bordman darkly, "it's incompetencesomewhere!"

  But he couldn't figure it out. This was a cargo ship. Cargo