Colin studied the colony site off in the distance. The Columbia's four pods were already in place at the site, the Europa's hydroponics and passenger pods were down, and Colin could see the ground crew installing radio beacons and smoke flares at the next pod's planned location. The factory pod of the Europa would be brought down today, and the last pod should be down by early tomorrow. Then the move of the colonists and the equipment from the temporary site would begin. As each pod was brought down the accuracy of the landing became more critical because of the spacing of the other pods, but this didn't overly worry Colin. Each of the previous pod landings had been well within the planned margin of error and had, in fact, been off center by less than 10 meters; a tribute to Captain Schumacher and the training of his skilled landing crew. But still, he'd be glad when this was over and some of the ever present tension could be released. What he needed was a hot bath and a good night's sleep, something he hadn't experienced since the landing process began. Captain Schumacher, in the control room of the factory pod of the Europa, was busy running the crew through the preparations for the landing. The room was cramped, much smaller than that of the passenger pods which had been used for overall flight control during the journey from Earth. The only use of this pod's control room was for the separation from the Europa's spokes and control of the retro and landing engines during the descent, and except for maintenance checks it had been unused since the expedition began. However, each of the 17 team members had well assigned tasks and could concentrate on their own individual assignments. "Does everything check out OK, Jeremy?" Captain Schumacher asked his first officer, Jeremy Temple. "Looks fine," Jeremy responded. "We had to replace one of the engine firing solenoids, but except for that everything appears in A-1 shape. We're in the final countdown stage now. If we plan to bring it down on this orbit we'll have to separate in the next 11 minutes and begin retro firing in a little over 27 minutes." "Go for it," Captain Schumacher responded. "I'll go over the monitor data and give you a final go ahead or hold in 5 minutes." On the planet Colin sat at the small circular table in the office building a distance from the landing area with Carter Armstrong and John Bachman. Colin liked and respected Carter, and felt he might be more suited to colony leadership than Colin's current second in command, John Bachman. Colin had never really felt confidence in Bachman, partly because he felt John was overly self centered. Competent, yes, no one could question that, but John seemed to lack the people skills needed to get his ideas across without becoming overbearing. Colin knew Bachman felt he, himself, could provide a more forceful leadership to the colony than Colin could, and sometimes in his lower moments Colin tended to agree. It was hard to make life and death decisions regarding other people, and that was something whoever led the colony had to be prepared to make. Commander Hata sat at the primary monitor concentrating on the screen that compared the actual to planned landing path and monitored the status of the pod's rocket and control systems. The pod had just completed firing of the retro rockets to slow its speed and begin its descent to the surface. Nothing was visible as yet on the viewing screen, but the first visual sighting should be within 15 minutes at the most. Watching the view screen intently, looking for the first appearance of the pod, Colin could feel the tension in the room, and felt a trickle of perspiration down his back. No matter how often this landing procedure was performed it was a tense situation. "There it is," said Carter, pointing to the upper left corner of the screen. "Right on time and on target." Slowly the glowing pod increased in size as it approached the center of the screen. Suddenly the pod appeared engulfed in flames as it fired its landing rockets, appearing as a fireball as its downward progress slowed, and seconds later the roar of the engines reached the watching group. "Elevation 500 meters," Commander Hata said, "and all's well." They watched as the pod slowed and the ground appeared at the bottom of the viewing screen. "Trouble," said Commander Hata, "they've lost one of the landing engines." After a pause, "two engines out, 350 meters." Another pause, and "250 meters and off target. It's tilting toward the Columbia's hydroponics pod." The screen became obscured by the rising cloud of dust, appearing a brilliant orange from the landing rockets illuminating the cloud like a giant fireball. "Elevation 150 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters, it's down," Commander Hata said mechanically, "it hit. It looks like it hit the side of the Columbia's hydroponics pod." The light from the landing rockets disappeared, leaving the screen obscured by the dense dust cloud, until a dim glow began at the center of the screen. "Fire," Hata said quietly. The screen brightened, and several seconds later an enormous explosion rocked the dome. The screen went blank. Colin and the others appeared frozen in place. He shook himself, rubbing his eyes, and asked in a voice tense with shock. "How bad is it, Yasu? Is anything left?" The answer came back, "bad. Both pods are almost certainly a total loss from the explosion, if not from the collision; and I wouldn't be surprised if the other pods have some damage." Wearily rising from his chair, Colin followed the others out of the dome. . . .
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