Runaway World

Balance of Risks

     Valentina went with James and Andrew to the Birch rover, and then the abbreviated caravan headed away from the crevasse at maximum speed before the ice could claim another victim.

     It was very cramped in the outfitting room as they took off their surface suits. Andrew then got dressed in his normal indoor clothes, but James and Val remained unclothed while the others checked them for frostbite. It turned out that they had come through the ordeal almost unharmed, though, and after Susan had put a few spots of thermal cream on their frostnipped spots she gave Val a plain white visitors coverall to put on when the cream had done its work.

     The worst injuries had been suffered by those who'd only watched the daring rescue. Susan x-rayed Andrew's hand and found that he'd broken one of the small bones of his right ring finger. She splinted it to his middle finger to protect it while it healed. Andrew then removed Susan's bandage to examine her head wound and found a nasty cut that required a few staples to hold it together.

     On the intercom, though, they were shocked to learn that Izindaba, Lungelo's daughter, had suffered a deep gash in her leg that had required a tourniquet to keep her from bleeding to death. While the others had been focusing their attentions on James and Val, Lungelo and Halona had been performing emergency surgery to repair her torn artery under the direction of the autopilot's medical expert system.

     "We have to turn back," said Philip firmly, his face glaring out from the video screen. He'd called Andrew the moment he'd heard the news. "She needs the hospital."

     "The hospital's a week's drive away, even if we were able to maintain maximum speed the whole way," replied Andrew. "The most common post surgery complications, if there are any, will show up long before we get there."

     "A deep vein thrombosis can strike weeks after the surgery," Philip replied. "If that happens, her chances of survival are much higher if she's in the hospital with proper doctors to look after her."

     "We have drugs that vastly reduce the chances of her throwing off a clot," pointed out Andrew. "These rovers are designed to be out of contact with the city for weeks at a time. We have supplies and equipment for virtually any situation. Also, if we turn back, we'd have to cross the fracture zone again. We'd be putting her in more danger, and the rest of us as well."

     "Are you sure you're not motivated by concern for your reputation?"

     "Not at all!" Andrew shot back angrily. "I would never put my reputation ahead of another person's safety."

     "If we turned back now, that would be two failures on your record," said Philip, leaning forward to glare into the monitor screen. "You and your family have already suffered because of your first humiliation."

     "That has nothing to do with it. That has no influence on my decision."

     "Are you sure? To go back in triumph with the dysprosium would make you a hero. Maybe you think that the safety of one young woman..."

     "You've seen for yourself how dangerous the fracture zone is," said Andrew, his face reddening with his growing anger. "I almost lost my son. Val did lose her husband. How many people might we lose if we cross it again?"

     "Ice-quakes happen about once every twenty years on average. The chances of us being caught in another..."

     "The ice will be unstable for months before it settles down. The crevasse closed after the quake, not during it. It's bad enough that we'll have to cross it when we've got the dysprosium, but at least then the ice should have stabilised, to an extent. I won't risk another crossing so soon after a quake."