"You know, sometimes you can hear the wind even through the skin of the ship," commented Roger.
For two days the cadets of the Polaris unit had been held prisoner in the power deck while the violence of the New Sahara sandstorm raged around them outside the ship. For a thousand square miles the desert was a black cloud of churning sand, sweeping across the surface of Mars like a giant shroud.
After many attempts to repair a small generator, Astro finally succeeded, only to discover that he had no means of running the unit. His plan was to relieve the rapidly weakening emergency batteries with a more steady source of power.
While Astro occupied himself repairing the generator, Tom and Roger had slept, but after the first day, when sleep would no longer come, they resorted to playing checkers with washers and nuts on a board scratched on the deck.
"Think it's going to let up soon?" asked Roger.
"They've been known to last for a week or more," said Astro.
"Wonder if Strong has discovered we're missing?" mused Roger.
"Sure he has," replied Tom. "He's a real spaceman. Can smell out trouble like a telemetered alarm system."
Astro got up and stretched. "I'll bet we're out of this five hours after the sand settles down."
The big Venusian walked to the side of the power deck and pressed his ear against the hull, listening for the sound of the wind.