“Stop it,” Tim said.
“C’mon, give it a try. It’s fun,” Winnie replied.
“You’re wasting electricity.”
“It’s not a waste if it’s for the health and safety of the crew. I’m the crew, and this keeps me from going crazy,” Winnie smiled.
“I don’t think there’s an activity that’s going to bring you back from crazy.” Tim sighed. “All right, what are the rules?”
“Okay, you fling a wrench and try to get it as close as you can to base of the radio tower. Outside the fence is one point, inside the fence is two points, and if it stays on the platform under the tower it’s three.”
“How many throws?”
“Six.”
“Why six?” Tim asked.
“You want more?” Winnie replied.
“No, I just wondered how you came up with six.”
“It’s how many toes I have on my left foot. You want to change the number of turns?”
“No, it’s fine. I just wondered.” Tim stood to eyeball the radio tower half a mile away, then turned to the monitor with camera footage blinking through the security camera feeds. “Do you really have six toes?”
“No,” Winnie said. “I have seven, but six is my lucky number.”
“Hilarious. Let me see the controls,” Tim said.
A joystick and a keyboard with some toggles controlled the action of a mechanical arm fixed to a remote-controlled ATV parked next to the repair shed. The arm, the ATV, and even the wrenches were made of aluminum due to the intense magnetic pull of the planet, which was a nearly solid ball of iron.
Scientists theorized the planet had a molten core causing the off-the-chart magnetism. The first technicians sent there died when the planet grabbed onto the metal in their cavity fillings, pinning them to the ground. The next crew found them a year later pulled underground with only their boots showing.
The planet served as a fuel station for passing ships. A steel BB welded to the top of an aluminum spring with coils as thick as a wine barrel used the planet’s magnetic power to compress the coil nearly flat thus generating electricity. The planet was carpeted with spring generators feeding to a central power station. Thousands of drones hovered around the planet, each with a mile-long aluminum cable. When a ship arrived, the drones formed a chain all the way up to the ship and like a reverse lightning bolt electricity flowed up to the waiting crew.
***
Tim worked the joystick as the mechanical arm flung a wrench like a one-way boomerang. It struck the side of the radio tower and bounced to a stop outside the fence.
“Let’s check the instant replay,” Winnie said. She tapped on a keyboard and footage from the security cameras showed the impact of the wrench, the slight vibration of the camera, a new dent in the side of the tower, and the low-gravity bounces of the wrench. “Nice effort for a first timer. Watch and learn, grandma.”
The two continued, each getting a little better with each throw. Winnie took the controls, a devilish look on her face. “Time for some math.” She tossed the wrench in a mighty arc higher than some of the drones. The wrench whizzed like a bullet from the sky, hitting inside the fence and bouncing around until settling on the platform.
“Yes! Three points!” Winnie cheered. “It should be more than three since it was such a miracle throw.”
“Ah, it was just dumb luck. Let me try,” Tim said. He worked the controls, flinging a wrench at an angle even steeper than Winnie had.
“Nice one,” Winnie said. “Hey, turn on the drone cameras to see if we can track it.” On the monitors they watched the silvery tool rocket upward and come almost to a standstill as it started its return to the ground. On the way down it crashed into a drone, breaking it in half. A mile-long cable fell like an oversized noodle, smashing into and toppling dozens of spring generators. Listing to one side, the uneven load on the springs caused them to snap, releasing aluminum shrapnel in a wave of destruction that quickly destroyed almost every generator on the planet. The radio tower was spared, protected by the fence.
Winnie and Tim looked at the destruction in silence. Finally, Winnie spoke. “Best two out of three?”