Starquake.pdf

"We will need to have a new power generator up and operating by then," said Steel-Slicer. "Call the
senior engineering staff up to the control deck. I will want your senior officers there, too. Place four
spacers at the outer rail as lookouts. We are far from any city, but we did pass over someone on the way
in." The crew deck on Eagle was compact, so it was not long before the senior staff gathered.
"Now that we are on the crust, we spacers are out of a job until you engineers get this gravity catapult
reactivated and bring down a ship for us to fly," said Steel-Sheer. "With Cliff-Web gone, I am going to
assume the responsibility for management of the engineering contingent. I want Captain Otis-Elevator to
assume responsibility for the spacer contingent. Unless one of the spacers has a technical ability that the
engineers can use, their job is support, security, and interaction with the Egg cheela. It is a long way from
flying about in ultrasophisticated spacecraft to preparing food and interacting with barbarians, but the
sooner the engineers can rebuild technology in this Bright-Afflicted spot, the sooner we can be back into
space."
"We are all in this together," Otis-Elevator said. "My spacers will do anything that needs to be done."
"It would help if we didn't have to use any energy for the food generators," said Steel-Slicer. "I noticed
that we scattered a herd of animals as we landed. If you can form a food-gathering crew and find a few
of those animals to feed us, your crew would not only help our energy crisis but be real heroes to a
hungry group of engineers."
"We will return shortly." Otis-Elevator lead his senior officers off.
"Our first task will be to get power," Steel-Slicer told the engineers. "Who is in charge of the miniature
power plant?"
"I am," answered Engineer Power-Pack. "My team is loading the parts on the elevator now."
"I will go down with them," said Steel-Slicer. "What else will you need?"
"A mass separator and a monopole generator," said Power-Pack. "We will need hundreds of meters of
high-strength pipe to reach the neutron-rich magma below the crust."
"They will be ready when you need them," Engineer Delta-Mass assured him. "Guaranteed leakless."
"I think managing a Web Construction Company project is going to be the easiest job I ever had,"
Steel-Slicer said. "Let's ripple treads."
"The elevator seems to be moving very slowly," said Steel-Slicer. "Is it because of the weight of the
power plant parts?"
"No," said Power-Pack. "Cliff-Web programmed the elevator controls for maximum energy extraction
rather than maxi-
mum safe descent speed. As we offload Eagle, the elevator motors will recharge the energy
accumulators. Cliff-Web always liked to find ways of lowering the cost of projects."
"In this case, he may have saved our hides," said Steel-Slicer. "He certainly was a remarkable engineer."
"Yes, he was," Power-Pack agreed. The elevator deck remained silent for the rest of the ride down.