Valentina went with James and Andrew to the Birch rover, and then the abbreviated caravan headed away from the crevasse at maximum speed before the ice could claim another victim.

     It was very cramped in the outfitting room as they took off their surface suits. Andrew then got dressed in his normal indoor clothes, but James and Val remained unclothed while the others checked them for frostbite. It turned out that they had come through the ordeal almost unharmed, though, and after Susan had put a few spots of thermal cream on their frostnipped spots she gave Val a plain white visitors coverall to put on when the cream had done its work.

     The worst injuries had been suffered by those who'd only watched the daring rescue. Susan x-rayed Andrew's hand and found that he'd broken one of the small bones of his right ring finger. She splinted it to his middle finger to protect it while it healed. Andrew then removed Susan's bandage to examine her head wound and found a nasty cut that required a few staples to hold it together.

     On the intercom, though, they were shocked to learn that Izindaba, Lungelo's daughter, had suffered a deep gash in her leg that had required a tourniquet to keep her from bleeding to death. While the others had been focusing their attentions on James and Val, Lungelo and Halona had been performing emergency surgery to repair her torn artery under the direction of the autopilot's medical expert system.

     "We have to turn back," said Philip firmly, his face glaring out from the video screen. He'd called Andrew the moment he'd heard the news. "She needs the hospital."

     "The hospital's a week's drive away, even if we were able to maintain maximum speed the whole way," replied Andrew. "The most common post surgery complications, if there are any, will show up long before we get there."

     "A deep vein thrombosis can strike weeks after the surgery," Philip replied. "If that happens, her chances of survival are much higher if she's in the hospital with proper doctors to look after her."

     "We have drugs that vastly reduce the chances of her throwing off a clot," pointed out Andrew. "These rovers are designed to be out of contact with the city for weeks at a time. We have supplies and equipment for virtually any situation. Also, if we turn back, we'd have to cross the fracture zone again. We'd be putting her in more danger, and the rest of us as well."

     "Are you sure you're not motivated by concern for your reputation?"

     "Not at all!" Andrew shot back angrily. "I would never put my reputation ahead of another person's safety."

     "If we turned back now, that would be two failures on your record," said Philip, leaning forward to glare into the monitor screen. "You and your family have already suffered because of your first humiliation."

     "That has nothing to do with it. That has no influence on my decision."

     "Are you sure? To go back in triumph with the dysprosium would make you a hero. Maybe you think that the safety of one young woman..."

     "You've seen for yourself how dangerous the fracture zone is," said Andrew, his face reddening with his growing anger. "I almost lost my son. Val did lose her husband. How many people might we lose if we cross it again?"

     "Ice-quakes happen about once every twenty years on average. The chances of us being caught in another..."

     "The ice will be unstable for months before it settles down. The crevasse closed after the quake, not during it. It's bad enough that we'll have to cross it when we've got the dysprosium, but at least then the ice should have stabilised, to an extent. I won't risk another crossing so soon after a quake."

     "Not even to protect an innocent young woman?"

     "I'm doing this to protect that innocent young woman, and the rest of us as well."

     "The Inyosi's should be the ones to decide. It's their daughter."

      "I am the leader of this expedition," Andrew reminded him. "I make the decisions."

     Philip stared in amazement. "Well, look who's suddenly decided to grow some balls. Tell me then, leader. What'll you do if Lungelo and I take our two rovers back and leave you to go on alone? What'll you do then?"

     "You'll only have four bridge segments between you," said Andrew. "If you come across a crevasse wider than that, and you will, you'll be forced to turn back, find another route. It might take you months to get back."

     "True," Philip conceded. "Our chances would be much better of we all went back together." He leaved back in his chair in an attempt to look calm and reasonable. "Come on, Andrew, you know it makes sense. You're a good, decent man. You want to give Izindaba her best chance."

     "We're going on," said Andrew firmly. "You go back if you want. Like you said, I can't stop you, but this rover is going on, with or without you."

     Philip glared at him, but then he nodded. "As you said, just two rovers could take months to get back," he said. "I guess we're going on, with you. I just hope you can live with yourself if anything happens to that young woman."

     He leaned forward to turn off the camera and the screen went dark. Andrew collapsed back in his chair, feeling like some inflatable toy that had sprung a leak. He gave a sigh of weariness and misery. "What do you think?" he asked Susan, who was sitting to one side, out of sight of the camera. "Am I doing the right thing?"

     "I'm not a doctor..." she began.

     "Dammit, Susan! I'm not a doctor either. Neither is Phil. Neither are any of the Inyosi's. This isn't a medical question, it can't be. None of us are qualified. It's a moral question. Am I doing the right thing?"

     Susan sighed. "One young woman versus the future of the human race. Izindaba may be fine. These expert systems are amazing, as good as a real doctor, they say. A couple of years ago Sam Viper performed an appendectomy on his brother despite never having so much as bandaged a cut before. Two years later Tom's as fine and healthy as if a proper surgeon had performed the procedure." Andrew nodded gratefully.

     "On the other hand," Susan continued, "Lungelo and Halona had to repaired a torn artery well enough to restore the circulation in their daughter's leg. I read somewhere that the femoral artery is about ten millimetres thick at its widest point. Chances are it was considerably thinner where it was torn. Maybe about the size of a drinking straw, and they sewed it together!  Imagine the size of the stitches they'd have had to use. What are the chances they got it right? The repaired section might be too narrow, limiting the blood supply to the leg. They might have failed to seal the join, leaving it with a leak."

     "They'll be monitoring her blood pressure," said Andrew, his doubts returning. "If there's a leak, they'll know. And it's easy to check that the leg's getting adequate blood. If there's a problem, they'd have let me know. If they thought I was putting her life in danger, they'd be threatening to murder me unless we turn back."

     "Sounds like you're happy with your decision," said Susan, watching him closely.

     "I'm not happy," said Andrew, rising from the chair to pace back and forth across the small room. "I'm not happy that Izindaba's life may be in danger because of me. I'm not happy that Li's dead on a mission I'm leading and I'm not happy that my son had to risk his life because I hurt my bloody hand!" He tried to clench his fist but the pain prevented it. "No, I am not happy. I'm not happy at all. All I want is a little reassurance that I'm doing the right thing."

     "I was just spelling out the pros and cons," said Susan, her eyes widening with alarm.

     "I am well aware of the pros and cons," glowered Andrew. He came to a stop and stared at the wall as if the answer was written there. He turned to face her. "What would you have done if you'd been in my place?"

     "I'm not in your place..."

     "Dammit Susan!" He caught himself at the look of fear that appeared on his wife's face. He ran over and knelt before her, taking her hands in his own. "Sorry! I'm sorry, Susan. I just need to know that I'm doing the right thing. I need to know."

     "You're doing the right thing," said Susan. "We lost a man and a rover crossing the fracture zone. Who knows how many we might lose on the way back? It's not Izindaba verses the rest of the human race. It's Izindaba verses you and me and James and David and Jasmine. And Philip and Joe and the others. What if Izindaba herself is killed in an accident while we're taking her back to the city? It's not a moral question. It's a balance of risks. Going on means the least risk to the most people. That's why you're doing the right thing."

     Andrew gave her hands another squeeze, then stood. "Thanks," he said. "I already knew it, but I needed to hear someone else say it, you know?"

     Susan smiled at him. "And now you've made your decision, stop second guessing yourself and set your mind to the tasks ahead. We've still got a long way to go."

     That was easier said than done, though, and Andrew felt that he had to talk to the Inyosi's to explain himself to them. When his call was answered, though, Philip's face appeared on the screen alongside that of Lungelo, in separate windows. The two men had been talking over a video link, it seemed, and the rover's communication system had automatically turned it into a conference call.

     "Sorry if I'm interrupting," he said as both men turned to look at him.

     "Not at all," said Lungelo, giving a tired smile. Andrew could only guess what the stress of the surgery had cost them. "Philip was merely asking after Izzy."

     "I was concerned by what the rigors of the journey might do to her," Philip added. "If we go on."

     "So far as we can tell from the satellite images, there's nothing but smooth ice ahead of us until we reach America Terra Borealis," said Andrew. "The rigors of going forward should be much less than going back."

     "But getting further from the hospital with every mile," said Philip.

     "Philip, my friend," said Lungelo, smiling. "I appreciate your concern, but as far as we can tell Izzy is out of danger. Her leg is getting plenty of blood and there's no sign of any internal bleeding. So long as she rests, she should be back on her feet within a few days, although it'll be a lot longer than that before she's completely back to normal."

     "Good job Halona loves her embroidery," said Andrew. "All that practice with very small stitches must have been handy."

     "Oh, we didn't stitch it," said Lungelo with a laugh. "We couldn't have. Our hands were shaking too much. We glued the artery back together. There was some surgical glue in the medical storebox. The tutorial video showed us what to do and the autopilot talked us through it. It turned out to be a remarkably simple procedure."

     "Glue!" said Andrew in surprise, looking aside at Susan. She gave a silent laugh. "I don't think we've ever looked in the medical storebox," Andrew continued. "Not since we were first issued with it, anyway. I've got no idea what's in it."

     "Maybe we should familiarise ourselves with it," Susan suggested.

     "Good idea," said Philip. "Especially when we're so far away from help. We are truly on our own out here. Even more so than the astronauts. If anything else happens, we have no-one to help us but each other and no resources other than those we are carrying with us." The others nodded soberly.

     "So," Philip continued, looking at Lungelo. "You're sure you're happy about going on?"

     "Izzy gives every indication of making a good recovery," said Lungelo, "but I wouldn't want to take her back across the fracture zone in her present condition. By the time we have the dysprosium she should be as strong and healthy as the rest of us, but until then she needs rest and smooth driving."

     "Then I'll try to make sure she gets it," said Andrew.

     Philip echoed the sentiment and signed off, leaving Lungelo's face to fill the monitor screen. "I understand you also suffered an injury," he said. "Nothing serious, I hope."

     Andrew lifted his bandaged hand to show the other man. "Just a broken finger bone," he said, and he went on to tell the other man all about it.