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flames, flames duller than her flaming hair.
    "Not so long. Three boxes of matches might last a local year if we used only one a day. We don't exactly have a chemical-processing industry here." Nylan picked up a plastic bucket, checking the scrapes on the gray material, then began to walk toward the stream.
    "Does he sleep?" Saryn limped toward the fire that Ayrlyn fed, leaning heavily on the rough staff that allowed her to avoid putting too much weight on the hardened foam cast around her broken right leg.
    "Neither he nor the captain seem to need much." Ayrlyn yawned.
    "Where's the captain?"
    "In number two with Merrin, sorting through the grow-paks," answered the engineer, returning with a full bucket of water. "She wants to get started on laying out fields and planting."
    "We've been down less than an eight-day, and she wants us to be field hands?" asked Saryn.
    "What about Gerlich? Where's he gone?" inquired Ayrlyn.
    "He's got the one bow and the arrows-out hunting. He claims there's something like a wild boar out there." Nylan gave a short laugh.
    Saryn shook her head.
    The captain and the junior officer emerged from the shell of lander two and walked toward the fire. Mertin ducked to avoid the line of smoke that seemed almost to seek his face.
    From lander four emerged Fierral. The red-haired marine commander and the two ships' officers converged on the fire, stopping well back.
    "Why the fire?" asked Fierral. "We've still got firm cells."
    "Cooking. We're saving the cells for things we can't duplicate locally," answered Ryba.
    "Such as?"
    Two more marines eased up toward the fire.
    "Powering the combat laser, if we need to." Ryba adjusted the makeshift hairband to keep the short and thick black hair totally away from her face.
    Nylan emptied half the water into the kettle and swung it out over the fire on the makeshift crane. He frowned as he set aside the bucket.
    "You don't approve, Ser Engineer?"
    "I hope we can avoid that. The combat laser gobbles power. The more power we can use for constructive purposes the better."
    "I take it you have some ideas?"
    Nylan stood. "I've been studying the geology. There's something that looks like black marble, except it's not. It's tougher, but it's not as hard as granite, and I hope it cuts more easily-with a laser."
    "Houses?" asked Saryn.
    The silver-haired man shook his head. "A tower, something like that. It makes more sense. That's what I staked out-good solid footings there."
    "How long 'fore we start building something, ser?" asked one of the younger marines standing behind Ayrlyn.
    "That's not the first priority," snapped Ryba. "The lander shells are fine for now. What we need to get in the ground is food. We also need to survey the forest and the meadow here to see what's likely to be edible, while we still have the analyzer and some power."
    Nylan nodded.
    "And... we'll still need timber of some sort to roof, floor, and brace the engineer's tower."
    "We might not need planks except for flooring and bracing," Nylan volunteered. "There's a dark gray slate that splits into sheets pretty easily."
    "Good ... I think."
    "What's in the emergency grow-paks?" Saryn leaned back on the flat stone, stretching out the leg with the cast.
    "Maize, although I don't know about whether the stream will supply enough water ... potatoes that ought to do well in a cold climate, some high-protein beans."
    "Get the potatoes in first," suggested Nylan.
    "Potatoes?" asked Mertin, stepping up beside Ryba.
    "They grow just about anywhere, and we could exist on them with only a few supplements. The ground seems all right." The engineer poured the rest of the water from the bucket into the pot. "They keep better than some of the other plants, although you could dry and grind the maize into a flour, I think."
    "Seems?" asked Saryn.
    Nylan shrugged. "It might take generations to determine if all the trace elements are there, but I'd bet they are."
    Ryba looked at him.
    "If it's not perfectly