Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Yeah, in the First Dome.” Half unconsciously, Ewen had spoken the words with capital letters, and MacAran thought how human a trait it was to establish location and orientation at once. Three days they had been here and already this first shelter was the First Dome, and the field shelter for the wounded was the Hospital.

There were no seats inside the plastic dome, but some canvas groundsheets and empty supply boxes had been set around and someone had brought a folding chair down for Captain Leicester. Next to him, Camilla Del Rey sat on a box with a lapboard and notebook on her knees; a tall, slender, dark-haired girl with a long, jagged cut across her cheek, mended with plastic clips. She was wrapped in the warm fatigue uniform of a crewmember, but she had shucked the heavy parka-like top and wore only a thin, clinging cotton shirt beneath it. MacAran shifted his eyes from her, quickly–damn it, what was she up to, sitting around in what amounted to her underwear in front of half the crew! At a time like this it wasn’t decent… then, looking at the girl’s drawn and wounded face, he absolved her. She was hot–it was hot is here now–and she was, after all, on duty, and had a right to be comfortable.

If anyone’s out of line it’s me, eyeing a girl like this at a time like this… .

Stress. That’s all it is. There are too damn many things it’s not safe to remember or think about… .

Captain Leicester raised his gray head. He looks like death, MacAran thought, probably he hasn’t slept since the crash either. He asked the Del Rey girl, “Is that everyone?”

“I think so” the Captain said, “Ladies, gentlemen. We won’t waste time on formalities, and for the duration of this emergency the protocols of etiquette are suspended. Since my recording officer is in the hospital, Officer Del Rey has kindly agreed to act as communications recorder for this meeting. First of all; I have called you together, a representative from every group, so that each of you can speak to your crews with authority about what is happening and we can minimize the growth of rumors and uninformed gossip about our position. And anywhere that more than twenty-five people are gathered, as I remember from my Pensacola days, rumors and gossip start up. So let’s get your information here, and not rely on what somebody told someone else’s best friend a few hours ago and what somebody else heard in the mess room–all right? Engineering; let’s begin with you. What’s the situation with the drives?”

The Chief Engineer–his name was Patrick, but MacAran didn’t know him personally–stood up. He was a lanky gaunt man who resembled the folk hero Lincoln. “Bad.” he said laconically. “I’m not saying they can’t be fixed, but the whole drive room is a shambles. Give us a week to sort it out, and we can estimate how long it will take to fix the drives. Once the mess is cleared away, I’d say three weeks to a month. But I’d hate to have my year’s salary depend on how close I came inside that estimate.”

Leicester said’ “But it can be fixed? It’s not hopelessly wrecked?”

“I wouldn’t think so.” Patrick said. “hell, it better not be! We may need to prospect for fuels, but with the big converter that’s no problem, any kind of hydrocarbon will do–even cellulose. That’s for energy-conversion in the life-support system, of course; the drive itself works on anti-matter implosions.” He became more technical, but before MacAran got too hopelessly lost, Leicester stopped him.

“Save it, Chief. The important thing is, you’re saying it can be fixed, preliminary estimated lime three to six weeks. Officer Del Rey, what’s the status on the bridge?”

“Mechanics are in there now, Captain, they’re using cutting torches to get out the crumpled metal. The computer cobsole is a mess, but the main banks are all right, and so is the library system.”

“What’s the worst damage there?”

“We’ll need new seats and straps all through the bridge cabin–the mechanics can handle that. And of course we’ll have to re-program our destination from the new location, but once we find out exactly where we are, that should be simple enough from the Navigation systems.”

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