The splintership Solar Wind was sitting nose-up on its docking cradle. When not in use, the small ship was kept in hangar nineteen along with the other vessels of its research cluster. To minimize the amount of floor space it took up, the splintership was positioned on its end, with the thrusters pointed firmly at the deck.

Standing near the base of the ship were Modulas and Kinet. Since the hangar was currently pressurized, Kinet was carrying his helmet under his lower left arm instead of wearing it. As always, Modulas sat in the control section of his robotic suit. The control section, or "egg" as it was more usually called, was practically a ship's cabin in itself. It had all the same life support systems and computers. The only difference was the action unit it sat in.

Usually that action unit was the robotlike walking suit that Modulas wore now. But the egg could be removed and placed in a number of other units, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the big pluses to the walking suit was that the arms and legs it possessed were many times stronger than flesh and blood could hope to be. And, since each joint was driven by its own electrical motor, they never got tired or sore. He just had to be careful not to run out of power and to keep the systems in good shape. This combination of strength and tirelessness allowed Modulas to perform a lot of routine maintenance tasks on the splintership without having to resort to heavy equipment. The downside was that he wasn't very good with delicate jobs that required a fine sense of touch. Fortunately, Kinet, with his four agile hands, could more than make up for that difficulty. Together they made a good team.

Modulas: "So what's next on our list?"

Kinet: "Landing gear. There's been a kind of very high pitched buzzing sound the last couple of times we deployed the landing legs. You might not have noticed it through your exterior microphones. I can barely register it, and I've got these." He waggled his long mobile ears. Like other Animites, he could hear much higher frequencies than any other known intelligent species.

Modulas: "That's going to be a real hassle. The rear legs are easy enough to get at, but we'll have to lower the ship if you want to really go over the nose gear. And that means getting permission from hangar control."

Kinet: "I know, but that buzz has got me worried."

Modulas: "Well, if you insist. But let's start with the rear systems and hope that's where the problem is. Why don't I climb up to the control cabin and run out the gear while you have a listen down here?"

Kinet: "Suits me."

A few minutes later, Modulas heard Kinet's voice crackling over the cabin speakers.

Kinet: "Nope. I don't hear a thing."

Modulas: "Too bad. But I can't say I'm surprised. It's practically a rule of engineering that the part that's hardest to replace is always the one that needs fixing. Why don't you plug the diagnostics computer into those legs and run a full check while I argue with hangar control? We might as well check the rear systems out while they're open."

Kinet: "Can do."

The full set of tests took an hour to run, and they showed that the back legs were fully operational. By that time, Modulas had finally gotten hangar control's permission to move the splintership onto the launch floor and set it on its feet. The two aliens had also switched positions. Since Kinet was the pilot, he sat at the controls for the movement phase, something he had done hundreds of times. And Modulas, as the engineering officer, rode on the outside.

When the Solar Wind reached the open area of the hangar, in front of the exterior doors, it was time to go to work. Normally when a splintership arrived in the launch area, a computer-controlled magnetic crane lowered it onto its landing gear. But since the two aliens wanted to be able to run the front landing leg in and out to check for problems, they had to do something slightly different. Safety systems on the landing gear wouldn't allow the leg to be retracted when the ship's weight was resting on it. Instead, the ship had to be lowered almost to launch position and then held in place there while a hull-metal stand was placed under the nose. It worked something like a car jackstand.

Using his egg as a radio control rig, Modulas slowly swung the crane out over the Solar Wind, lowering the powerful electromagnet until it was in position to grab hold. Then, with the flick of a switch, Modulas powered up the magnet. There was a loud clanging noise as the surface of the magnet locked onto the hull of the Solar Wind. Then, just like a magnetic crane in an Earth junkyard lifting a wrecked car, the powerful machine raised the splintership out of its landing cradle.

For a moment the Solar Wind hung there in mid air, its landing legs all fully extended, before Modulas began carefully lowering it to the deck. When it was a few meters above the ground, he angled the ship so that its back legs touched down. Then he put the device on hold while he wheeled the huge jack to stand under the nose of the ship. This was a risky maneuver that normally would have been done by a robot. But the Wandering Star was still a long way from being fully repaired, and hangar control hadn't been willing to pull a maintenance robot from duty elsewhere.

Modulas had the stand almost in place when the hangar lights suddenly flickered and blinked off for a moment. With all of the work being performed on the Wandering Star, there was a heavy demand for electricity. More power was needed than the damaged generating plant of the huge scientific research ship could always supply. The flicker had been caused by a split second of power loss. At any other time that might not have been a problem. Unfortunately, the multi-ton bulk of the Solar Wind was suspended by a magnetic crane. An electromagnetic crane. The power to the magnet was only off for a brief second, but that was enough. The nose of the ship dropped, and Modulas was underneath.

Modulas: "Ohhh thraaaaaax!" This scream was followed by a dull thud.

Modulas' voice crackling over the com sounded terribly loud in Kinet's ears. But the silence following the exclamation seemed even louder. The drop had startled Kinet but that was it. What it might have done to Modulas, though... Kinet ripped off the safety harness holding him in the pilot's chair, and belted for the airlock, which was positioned at the back of the ship.

Since the hangar was currently filled with air, Kinet hit the emergency override that opened both of the airlock's doors simultaneously. The harsh bray of a buzzer started thrashing the air. Kinet bypassed the slowly extending ramp and dropped straight to the ground. Landing on all sixes, he took off for the front of the ship like a rocket. An Animite using his four arms as extra legs could really move.

At first, he couldn't see Modulas at all. The huge jackstand lay on its side next to the landing gear, blocking his view forward. Then he noticed a twisted chunk of metal extending from underneath the pad of the forward landing leg. It was the foot of Modulas' walking suit. The sight drove Kinet even faster. He was moving so fast that he had to catch hold of the corner of the jack with two hands in order to stop, like a rollerblader grabbing onto a traffic sign.

On the other side of the jack, Modulas' suit lay on its side. The first thing Kinet saw was the right knee of the suit. It was directly under the landing leg, and flatter than a used toothpaste tube. The tiny motors that drove the joint had been reduced to a tangle of copper wire and magnet fragments. From there Kinet's eyes slowly made their way up the torso of the suit. He was almost afraid to look at the egg, but that was the critical part; as long as the life support systems were intact, there was a good chance that Modulas hadn't been killed.

Kinet looked up, and breathed a sigh of relief. The heavy armored glass of the egg was unbroken. In fact, Modulas was standing on the tilted inner surface of the egg trying to climb back into his seat. It looked like he was going to be all right. A moment later the small glowing alien managed to pull himself up into the control chair, and his voice could be heard over the suit's speakers.

Modulas: "Thrax. Thrax. Thrax." Then he seemed to notice Kinet's presence for the first time, and his glow strengthened into a strong blush. "Oops. Sorry about that. I didn't know anyone was listening."

Kinet: "That's all right, but I don't speak Structarian. What was that you were saying?"

Modulas: "Uhh... Drat. It means drat."

Kinet: "Ohhh. Of course it does. Are you okay?"

Modulas: "I think so. I'm feeling a little bruised, and the suit is going to need a new leg at the very least, but aside from that I'm not too bad. In fact, when you consider that a spaceship just fell on me, I'm great!"

Kinet: "What do you want me to do? Should I get the ship off of you first? Or what?"

Modulas: "Actually, I think it would be safer to leave it where it is until I'm out from underneath. If you could get my hovercraft action unit out here, I'll transfer my egg and then we can see about freeing the walking suit."

Kinet: "Let's do that then."

So that he wouldn't have to leave his friend, Kinet used his com to call Teract and have her get the hover unit. Soon afterwards, Teract and Stas arrived with the suit. Using the powerful arms of the action unit, Modulas lifted himself into the new suit. Then, even though he insisted he was fine, Stas took him down to the infirmary for a thorough check up. Kinet and Teract would have gone with them, but Modulas insisted that they finish the job on the landing gear.

Modulas: "It's cost us too much already to quit now." He pointed at the wreckage of his walking suit for emphasis. "It took me an hour just to get permission to haul the ship out here. I don't want that time to go to waste. Besides, I keep telling you that I'm perfectly all right."

There were a couple of patches on his skin where the glow had changed to a sort of sickly green, which suggested to his friends that maybe he wasn't as well as he claimed, but they agreed to humor him. If anything was seriously wrong, Stas could call them down.

Once Modulas was safely on his way, Kinet reattached the crane and lifted the ship. Then a maintenance robot, which hangar control had now decided was a priority, replaced the jackstand. Then, after shutting off the airlock alarm, Teract ran the landing leg in and out while Kinet listened to the machinery. The buzz was still there. It turned out that a nut had worked its way partially loose from a bolt, so that when the landing gear was operated, the bolt rocked rapidly back and forth in its sleeve. The vibration from this was what was causing the noise. Kinet told Modulas all about it when he visited him at the infirmary that evening.

The medtechs had agreed that the little Structarian was basically unhurt, but they insisted on keeping him overnight for observation anyway. In the morning he would be allowed to return to duty.