Rocket to Luna

“Well, look, don’t worry about the Old Man. I’ll explain everything that happened. When he hears the true story...”

Forbes stopped speaking and pulled the wheel all the way over to his right.

“What’s the matter?” Ted asked, his brows pulling together.

“I don’t know,” Forbes said slowly. “She seems to be pulling to the left.”

“Maybe we hit a bump.”

“No, she’s still doing it.”

They drove on in silence, Forbes trying to keep the tractor on a steady course as the wheel kept pulling to the left. He threw all his weight to the right, moving his gloved hands over the wheel, trying to maintain control.

There was a sudden jolt, and the wheel went lax in his hands. He turned it, and the tractor kept bearing straight ahead, not responding at all to the controls. Quickly, Forbes reached out and cut the engine.

“Something snapped — that’s for sure,” he said.

Ted hopped out of the open cab and dropped to the ground. “What do you suppose it is?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Can you help me down?”

“Sure.” Ted reached up for Forbes, gathering him into his arms and swinging him out of the cab of the tractor. He put him down, and Forbes stood on one foot, his injured foot raised, holding to Ted’s shoulder for support.

“I’ll have to go underneath it,” Forbes said.

He hopped closer to the tractor, caught at the metal door for support. He dropped to his knees then and stuck his head under the body of the vehicle. He sprawled out flat on his back, his legs sticking out like an open pair of scissors.

“Don’t foul your oxygen lines,” Ted warned.

“I won’t.”

Forbes was silent for a moment as he studied the underside of the machine. “Sure complicated,” he said.

“Do you see what’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’m trying to figure this mess out. I’ve never seen so many wires in my life.”

“We’d better hurry,” Ted said. “The Sun...”

“It’s beginning to make a little sense now,” Forbes said. “Just give me a few minutes.”

Ted waited impatiently, thinking of the Sun and thinking of what would happen if they were caught outside when the Sun rose.

“Well, for crying out loud,” Forbes said.

“What is it?”

“A nut the size of a quarter. Must have got loose with all this jostling. This’ll be a snap to fix.”

Ted breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“There should be some tools up in the cab. Want to bring me some wrenches?”

“Sure.” Ted climbed up into the cab and rummaged around until he found a bundle of wrenches wrapped in a canvas packet. He leaped to the ground and stooped down near Forbes’s legs.

“Here they are,” he said.

“You’d better bring them to me,” Forbes replied. “I don’t want to lose sight of this nut. So darned many of them under here.”

Ted crawled under the tractor, crouching low to make sure his oxygen tank cleared the wires and jutting bolts. He lay down beside Forbes and handed the lieutenant the packet of wrenches.

“Thanks.” Forbes pulled the ties on the canvas and unrolled the packet. Ted stared up at the complicated arrangement of wires, rods, nuts, bolts, pipes.

Finally, Forbes held up a wrench. “This one should do it.” He reached up and applied the wrench to the nut. “Nope, too small.”

He began rummaging around among the wrenches again.

“Are you sure you can fix it?” Ted asked.

“Why, sure. Just have to tighten that nut, that’s all. Here, this one looks like the right size.”

He reached out with the wrench, capturing the nut in its open jaws. “Yep, that does it.”

Ted watched as Forbes pulled back on the wrench, his arms working toward his body.

Forbes grunted and said, “Seems to be stuck.”

“Are you sure that’s the right wrench?”

“Yes, it’s just the nut. Seems to be on the threads lopsided. It’ll need a little pressure, that’s all.”

“We’d better hurry,” Ted said again.

Forbes wiggled around on the ground, getting himself in position. “There. Now one good pull and we should loosen it. After that, it’ll be smooth sailing.”

Forbes reached out for the nut again, gripping it with the head of the wrench. He made sure the nut was gripped firmly, and then he yanked his arms back.

Like a fragile matchstick in the hands of a weight lifter, the wrench suddenly snapped in two!

Chapter 16 Second Chance

Forbes stared at the wrench as if it had slapped him across the face. “It... it just... broke,” he said, surprise raising his voice.

“The cold,” Ted said. “The cold made it brittle, and when you pulled on it...”

Forbes regained his composure immediately. “That’s all right. We’ve got other wrenches.”

He spread the packet on his chest and picked up the wrenches one at a time, holding them alongside the head of the broken wrench. The wrench had snapped close to the head, leaving the open jaws on a short, two-inch stump, hardly enough to grip firmly.

Forbes kept comparing the wrenches while Ted watched. He was beginning to get a little uneasy. They were wasting precious time, and the Sun was probably already up on the Western rim.

“None of these are any good.” Forbes said.

“They’re no good?” Ted asked, realizing how foolish he sounded.