Rob Beauvais met me just east of the gift shop. Rob was a third-level command officer on the Enterprise for this trip. If he had been on duty during the landing, he would have had to stay with the captain and the ship until it was formally turned over to the ground crew. Instead, was walking down the hill away from the administration building. I was pleased by that, since it meant that I would be able to pump him for more information about the trip and about the freighter now filling the Land Station's parking lot.
"The reactor never did quite stabilize," Rob told me. "We had to keep a monitor in the engineering section for the entire trip. Every once in a while the control circuits would short out or something would happen that our technician would have to patch up."
"You mean that you never shut it down? It's been running to whole trip?" I asked.
"Well, it hasn't exactly been operating," Rob said. "It's just that the reactors would start up every few days and we'd have to shut them down again. I guess the towing must have put enough extra strain on the ship to cause the breakdowns."
"I wonder if we should have all these people around then." I was already becoming alarmed. If the reactor controls were in such bad shape to begin with, what had the repeated starting and stopping of the reaction done to the old ship? "Maybe we should be clearing out some non-essential personnel."
"I don't think we have to do that," Rob said, "at least not yet. After all the ship made it to the surface."
"That's true," I admitted. "I suppose that if it can stand being landed under tow it isn't likely to blow up now."
"Besides," Rob argued, "Kirk is reporting to the Land Commander. It isn't something we have to worry about."
I looked over to the freighter. It certainly looked innocuous enough; there were no overt signs of any dark menace growing inside the ceramic hull. Perhaps, I thought, I was being overly anxious about a dead ship. Already the technicians were beginning to swarm over the old hull, checking every inch of it. Besides, I knew that the authorities were never pleased to have the tourists, boaters, and campus pleasure seekers too often alarmed, or too early. So, not without some misgivings, I agreed that we shouldn't raise the alarm yet. Needing to relieve myself, I set off into the gift shop.
This gift shop is a rather unusual institution. It began as a simple tourist stop just uphill from the boat ramp. The first rooms are still devoted to selling gimmicks and snacks, and that is where Rob waited for me. But as the gift shop is also the first building one reaches coming up from the beach – and is now also connected underground to the gymnasium building – the back of the gift shop has evolved into bathrooms, showers, and changing rooms. There are lockers and even a few large tubs in the overgown and labyrinthine bathrooms of this "gift shop". On a pleasant afternoon like this, they were well used.
When I returned, Rob and I went outside. I looked over at the freighter again and was startled at what I saw. The tail of the reactor section was beginning to glow faintly – not enough for any but practiced eyes to see – and the technicians were moving over the old craft with more desperation than confidence. I stopped and stared at the subtle color blushing the white protective ceramic skin.
"It isn't fixed yet, is it?" I said quietly. There was no need for Rob to answer. We both saw that the danger was severe. We headed toward the ship. When we were almost to the cordon line, we met two other officers.
"I think we'd better clear the campus," said one.
"Can we get them out of the way?" asked the other.
"Not far enough," I said, "but if we get some earth between them and the reactor if should help."
We quickly divided up the campus area to sound the alarm. Rob and I went to the southwest end of campus (where the shore cut back and narrowed tha campus). I worked the shoreward buildings While Rob worked inland. The others took the north and west ends.
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