Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [162]
The first night had seen a hard freeze that killed most of the crops and plants; each night afterward, the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees colder than the previous low. On the fourth night, trees had shattered. The wind speed picked up, and icy blizzards scoured colony buildings that had not been designed for arctic temperatures.
The townspeople worked around the clock, fully aware of their danger. Their expressions were weary and frightened, but though they were under tremendous strain, the people followed Davlin’s instructions. He just prayed his idea would work.
It hurt to see all of the massive equipment once used for reclaiming agricultural land, plowing fields, and mining minerals now turned to the express purpose of digging deep tunnels and hollowing out shielded warrens beneath the crust, where the settlers might just be able to survive the incredible deep freeze that was setting in.
But they couldn’t survive for long.
After studying all available construction materials, Davlin had instantly dismissed the possibility of building insulated shelters on the surface. Once the sun itself went dark, the deep cold of space would set in. Given time and extensive resources, a few ingenious Roamers might have been able to construct structures hardy enough to survive indefinitely, but Crenna was a peaceful, tame world. Mayor Ruis and his settlers had never prepared for this.
Even people without any construction experience put in their best efforts, shoring up tunnel shafts as the excavators burrowed deeper. Davlin could not make accurate calculations as to how far underground they would need to hide. He simply had them dig as deep as time permitted and then provision the chambers where they could huddle together against the oncoming instant ice age. Food supplies were taken from every outlying home and brought to communal underground warehouses. Mayor Ruis busied himself directing the aboveground activities and inventorying the rations.
Most important, generators were installed and fuel stockpiled, everything from small batteries to large thermal furnaces. Air recirculation tubing was laid down in the tunnels, and CO2scrubbers were installed. Some of the frightened colonists didn’t quite understand the need, assuming that if they had ventilation shafts they could always draw in air from the outside. They didn’t even think about what would happen once Crenna’s atmosphere itself froze solid.
Davlin wasn’t sure he could maintain morale, but he did have to keep them working.
On the surface, inside a cold and sheltered hangar, Davlin worked alone on the small ship. As part of his silver-beret background, he had taken emergency training in mechanics and starship operation. This task seemed even more hopeless than the rest of their activities, but survival hinged on his ability to get away from Crenna and summon help. He couldn’t allow himself to consider failure.
Outside, in the past three days, the temperature had dropped a full hundred degrees. The sky was always dark now, murky with twilight and faint flickers of sunshine that spat out from the injured sun.
The sudden and drastic climate shifts precipitated roaring storms and convulsions in the atmosphere. Most of the colonists were underground at the work site now. Few tried to stay up on the surface. Davlin himself was bundled in his warmest undergarments, a thick parka, and insulated gloves. Though they cost him dexterity, they kept his fingers from freezing and falling off.
Distressingly little ekti remained in the engines of this sightseeing craft, and he spent all day stripping away unnecessary mass, improving the efficiency of the conversion reactors, and increasing the throughput of the Ildiran stardrive, hoping to squeeze out