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in the colony. Now it was packed with what seemed like half the population of Marsport.
    Sean spotted Jenny and hurried to her. “You okay?” he asked.
    She had been crying. “No! They won’t let me check on Lake Ares!” She balled her fists. “It’s not a major risk for a blowout, but if that dome loses heat, everything in the lake will die!”
    “It’ll be all right,” Sean said. “We lost—”
    “Attention, please! Attention!” It was Dr. Simak, her voice amplified and her image appearing on every viewscreen. “We have just experienced a major quake. I am happy to report that we’ve had no fatalities, and the injuries we’ve heard about are not life threatening. However, we have had a major blowout in the dome of Greenhouse Seven, meaning we’ve definitely lost ten percent of our projected winter crops. Until further notice, no one is to enter a reddoor area. We have to check out all surface-access connections to make sure they are secure. Our water supply appears to be unaffected, though we may have to do some pipeline repair.”
    The murmurs of concern were rising on every side. As if aware of that, Amanda said loudly, “Our core domes seem to have come through without major damage, although air leaks have been identified intwo hangars and some primary corridors. Emergency repairs on these are already under way, but the coming weeks will require a thorough inspection of all domes, and if weak areas turn up, they’ll have to be repaired and strengthened. If ever we’ve had to pull together, we’ll have to do so now.”
    “What if we have another quake?” someone shouted.
    Amanda glanced up from her notes, and Sean realized that two-way communication was on. Amanda said, “I don’t know who asked that—someone in Town Hall wanted to know what happens if there’s another quake, for those of you listening to this elsewhere. The engineers have already thought of that possibility. We are looking into fallback positions and emergency shelters in case seismic activity continues. I’ll let you know more as I learn more, but in the meantime”—her voice almost broke—“in the meantime, realize that we are all in this together. Let’s get to work, people.”
    Lake Ares was all right. Nineteen people had broken bones, contusions, and cuts. Greenhouses 1-6 restored power in time to prevent losses; dome 7 was a total loss, but 8-10 had suffered only partial losses, and that was due mainly to the cold. Reports came in by the hour.
    This time, the seismologists said, the epicenter of the quake had been much closer—closer and to the south of the colony. “Looks like an actual quake this time, one caused by the movement of fault lines,” Chris told everyone. “There’s an ancient geyser field twenty kilometers south-southwest of Marsport. We see some outgassing going on there—not water vapor, but carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and some other gases. Our best guess is that a deep pocket of magma has shifted very slightly, sending heat up through some of the fault lines. We’re hoping that the situation has reached a point of stability now.”
    “Yeah,” Mickey said grimly. “Let’s hope so. We’ll, I guess that scrubs our field trip.”
    Roger Smith frowned at him. “You lost your mind, Mick? It’s more important now than ever! Look, when they first began to build Marsport, before they had the first steel factory set up, before they could even
think
about building a dome, you know where the explorers lived? In lava tubes, that’s where! They’ve got natural insulation; you can make them airtight; you can live there indefinitely.”
    “You make it sound like a vacation home,” Alex said with a grin. “Not a bomb shelter.”
    Sean frowned. He did not remember it, but he had been told that when his parents died, they had been in a shelter—and that was where the rescue officers had found Sean, the only living person there.
    Alex continued. “But I guess you’re right. If we can use any of