Chapter 36 – The Surface
The ice rig rumbled over the barren Mercurian surface. The utterly black sky and the blindingly bright land made a sharp contrast. It strained Dale's eyes, and he couldn't look at it for more than a few seconds at a time, even with the window's filters engaged. The enormous wheels churned up dust and gravel, adding more solid matter to the surface-bounded exosphere kicked up by the solar wind.
“How are we doing, Cole?” Zack asked, never taking his eyes from the “road.”
“I think we'll make it.” Cole studied the numbers on the supervisor's display. “This thing doesn't have enough juice to do any mining, but there's enough to keep us trucking all the way to the heavy-industry airlock.”
“Radiation?”
“Hard to say. The reactor's shielding should still be good. The s
