at the rear they set a salvaged engine unit. for steering, they rigged a boom shaft to warp the runners right or left. for cargo, they piled the sled with full containers, ration boxes, the foil tent, what instruments they could detach and carry, armfuls of heat-tools, a crowbar, a hatchet, a few other items.
moving back from the finished work, one of them stumbled against the other. instantly the two puffy, soot-black shapes were crouched, gloved fists up, fierce in the system's duskiest corner.
then the moment passed. warily, helmets turned toward each other, they went back in the half-stripped wreck.
in the still airtight control room, lighted by one bulb, their officer stirred on his bedstrip. his tunic had been pulled off, his broken left arm and collarbone set and splinted. under a fillet of bandage, his gaunt young face looked pale, but he had his wits back.
"the appropriate question," he said, "is 'what happened?'"
the two men were removing their helmets. "conked and crashed, sir," said jenks, the smaller one, uncovering a sallow, hollow-cheeked face.
lieutenant wofforth sat up, supporting himself on his sound arm. "how long have i been out?"
"maybe forty hours, sir. delirious. corbett and me did the best we could. take it easy, sir," he said as wofforth began to get up. "lie back. we've done what emergency plan six says—bolted a sled together and coupled on a sound engine unit for power."
"quite a haul back to base," said wofforth, almost cheerfully. his eyes were bright, as though he savored the idea. "about halfway around pluto. we'd better start now, or they'll get tired of waiting."
"they've gone, sir," corbett growled before jenks could gesture him to silence. he was beefy, slit-eyed. "we saw the jets going sunward this morning."
wofforth winced. "gone," he said. "that's right. i didn't stop to think. you said forty hours.... they couldn't wait that long. we're past opposition already, getting farther away all the time. they had to go, or they wouldn't have made it."
he stood up uncertainly and reached for his ripped tunic. corbett stepped over and helped him slide his uninjured arm into the right sleeve, then to fasten and drape the tunic over his splinted left arm and shoulder.
"we'll just have to get back to base camp and wait," said wofforth grimly.
"sir," said jenks, "our radio is gone. i tried to patch it up, but it was gone. when they didn't get a signal, they must have thought—"
"nonsense!" wofforth broke in. "they'll have left us supplies. they couldn't wait, signal or none. our job is to get back, and stick it out there until they come for us."
he sat at the control and began to write in the log book. corbett and jenks drifted together at the other end of the room.
"you meat-head," snarled jenks under his breath. "you knew he took the berth to pluto because the first mate was a lady—lya stromminger."
"he had to know they were gone," protested corbett, equally fierce.
"not flat like you gave it. he came here to be with her. now she's jetted away without him. how does a man feel when a woman's done that—"
"stop blathering, you two, and help me into my suit," called wofforth, rising again. "we're going to rev up that sled engine and get out of here!"
