The flitter--an air sled intended to hold three men and supplies for
exploring trips on strange-worlds--was first stripped of all
non-essentials until what remained was not much more than the pilot's
seat and the motor. Then they labored to build up a shielding of the
tough radiation dulling alloy which was used to line rocket tubes. And
they could only praise the foresight of Stotz who carried such a full
supply of spare parts and tools. It was a task over which they often
despaired, and Ali improvised frantically, performing weird adjustments
of engineering structure. He was still unsatisfied when they had done.
"She'll fly," he admitted. "And she's the best we can do. But it'll
depend a lot on how far she has to go over 'hot' country. Which way do we
head her?"
Rip had been busy with a map of Terra--a small thing he had discovered in
one of the travel recordings carried for crew entertainment.
"The Big Burn covers three quarters of this continent. There's no use
going north--the devastated area extends into the arctic regions. I'd say
west--there's some fringe settlements on the sea coast and we need to
contact a frontier territory.
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