Sand Doom

Murray Leinster was the pen name of American SF writer William Fitzgerald Jenkins. Jenkins served in the US Army and the Committee of Public Information in World War I and the Office of War Information during World War II. Publishing his first story in 1916, he went on to publish fifteen hundred short stories and articles, as well as writing fourteen movie and hundreds of radio and television scripts. His work inspired the TV series "Land of the Giants" and "Time Tunnel," and he won the Hugo, Retro-Hugo, and Liberty Awards.

"Sand Doom," published in "Astounding Science Fiction" in 1946, is part of Leinster's "Colonial Survey" series. Bordman, a Colonial Survey officer, en route to the new world of Nosa II to certify it as open for visitation, and Aletha Redfeather, a representative of the Amerind Historical Society, find themselves stuck on the planet with a circular problem. They need repair parts -- but without them, they can't bring in the ship that "carries" the repair parts.