Clayton went over the instrument panel, making sure that all the Brute's special gadgets were in working order. In a moment, he heard Nerishev's voice coming in over the radio.
"I'm opening the door."
"Right."
The heavy door slid back and Clayton drove the Brute outside.
The station had been set up on a wide, empty plain. Mountains would have offered some protection from the wind, but the mountains on Carella were in a constant restless state of building up and breaking down. The plain presented dangers of its own, however. To avert the worst of those dangers, a field of stout steel posts had been planted around the station. The closely packed posts pointed outward, like ancient tank traps, and served the same purpose.
Clayton drove the Brute down one of the narrow, winding channels that led through the field of posts. He emerged, located the pipeline, and started along it. On a small screen above his head, a white line flashed into view. The line would show any break or obstruction in the pipeline.
A wide, rocky, monotonous desert stretched before him. An occasional low bush came into sight. The wind was directly behind him, blanketed by the sound of the diesel.
He glanced at the windspeed indicator. The wind of Carella was blowing at 92 miles an hour.
He drove steadily along, humming to himself under his breath. From time to time, he heard a crash. Pebbles, propelled by the hurricane wind, were cannonading against the Brute. They shattered harmlessly against the thick armor.
"Everything all right?" Nerishev asked over the radio.
"Fine," Clayton said.
In the distance, he saw a Carellan land ship. It was about forty feet long, he judged, and narrow in the beam, skimming rapidly on crude wooden rollers. The ship's sails were made from one of the few leaf-bearing shrubs on the planet.
The Carellans waved their tentacles as they went past. They seemed to be heading toward the station.
Clayton turned his attention back to the pipeline. He was beginning to hear the wind now, above the roar of the diesel. The windspeed indicator showed that the wind had risen to 97 miles an hour.
Somberly he stared through the sand-pocked slit-window. In the far distance were jagged cliffs, seen dimly through the dust-blown air. More pebbles ricocheted off his hull and the sound rang hollowly through his vehicle. He glimpsed another Carellan land ship, then three more. They were tacking stubbornly into the wind.
It struck Clayton that a lot of Carellans were moving toward the station. He signaled to Nerishev on the radio.
"How are you doing?" Nerishev asked.
"I'm close to the spring and no break yet," Clayton reported. "Looks like a lot of Carellans heading your way."
"I know. Six ships are moored in the lee of the shed and more are coming."
"We've never had any trouble with the natives before," Clayton said slowly. "What does this look like?"
"They've brought food with them. It might be a celebration."
"Maybe. Watch yourself."
"Don't worry. You take care and hurry —"
"I've found the break! Speak to you later."
The break showed on the screen, glowing white. Peering out the port, Clayton saw where a boulder had rolled across the pipeline, crushing it, and rolled on.
He brought the truck to a stop on the windward side of the pipe. It was blowing 113 miles an hour. Clayton slid out of the truck, carrying several lengths of pipe, some patches, a blowtorch and a bag of tools. They were all tied to him and he was secured to the Brute by a strong nylon rope.
Outside, the wind was deafening. It thundered and roared like breaking surf. He adjusted his mask for more oxygen and went to work.
Two hours later, he had completed a fifteen-minute repair job. His clothing was shredded and his air extractor was completely clogged with dust.
He climbed back into the Brute, sealed the port and lay on the floor, resting. The truck was starting to tremble in the wind gusts. Clayton ignored it.
"Hello? Hello?" Nerishev called over the radio.
Wearily, Clayton climbed back into the driver's seat and acknowledged.
"Hurry back now, Clayton! No time to rest! The wind's up to 138! I think a storm is coming!"
A storm on Carella was something Clayton didn't even want to think about. They had experienced only one in eight months. During it, the winds had gone over 160 miles an hour.
He nosed the truck around and started back, driving directly into the wind. At full throttle, he found he was making very little progress. Three miles an hour was all the heavy diesel would do against the pressure of a 138-mile wind.
He stared ahead through the slit-window. The wind, outlined by long streamers of dust and sand, seemed to be coming straight at him, funneled out of an infinitely wide sky to the tiny point of his window. Windborne rocks sailed at him, grew large, immense, and shattered against his window. He couldn't stop himself from ducking each time one came.
The heavy engine was beginning to labor and miss.
"Oh, baby," Clayton breathed, "don't quit now. Not now. Get Papa home. Then quit. Please!"
He figured he was about ten miles from the station, which lay directly upwind.
He heard a sound like an avalanche plummeting down a mountainside. It was made by a boulder the size of a house. Too big for the wind to lift, it was rolling at him from windward, digging a furrow in the rocky ground as it came.
Clayton twisted the steering wheel. The engine labored, and with infinite slowness the truck crept out of the boulder's path. Shaking, Clayton watched the boulder bearing down. With one hand, he pounded on the instrument panel.
"Move, baby, move!"
Booming hollowly, the boulder rolled past at a good thirty miles an hour.
"Too close," Clayton said to himself. He tried to turn the Brute back into the wind, toward the station. The Brute wouldn't do it.
The diesel labored and whined, trying to turn the big truck into the wind. And the wind, like a solid gray wall, pushed the truck away.
The windspeed indicator stood at 159 miles an hour.
"How are you doing?" Nerishev asked over the radio.
"Just great! Leave me alone, I'm busy."
Clayton set his brakes, unstrapped and raced back to the engine. He adjusted timing and mixture, and hurried back to the controls.
"Hey, Nerishev! That engine's going to conk out!"
It was a full second before Nerishev answered. Then, very calmly, he asked, "What's wrong with it?"
"Sand!" Clayton said. "Particles driven at 159 miles an hour — sand's in the bearings, injectors, everything. I'm going to make all the distance I can."
"And then?"
"Then I'll try to sail her back," Clayton said. "I just hope the mast will take it."
He turned his attention to the controls. At windspeeds like this, the truck had to be handled like a ship at sea. Clayton picked up speed with the wind on his quarter, then came about and slammed into the wind.
The Brute made it this time and crossed over onto the other tack.
It was the best he could do, Clayton decided. His windward distance would have to be made by tacking. He edged toward the eye of the wind. But at full throttle, the diesel couldn't bring him much closer than forty degrees.
For an hour, the Brute forged ahead, tacking back and forth across the wind, covering three miles in order to make two. Miraculously, the engine kept on running. Clayton blessed the manufacturer and begged the diesel to hold out a little while longer.
Through a blinding screen of sand, he saw another Carellan land ship. It was reefed down and heeled precariously over. But it forged steadily to windward and soon outdistanced him.
Lucky natives, Clayton thought — 165 miles of wind was a sailing breeze to them!
The station, a gray half-sphere, came into sight ahead.
"I'm going to make it!" Clayton shouted. "Break out the rum, Nerishev, old man! Papa's getting drunk tonight!"