Free Portal-eARC by Eric Flint, Ryk E Spoor

“but the excavation equipment was supposed to be brought down from Odin after the lander had verified the site, and the space for it was taken up by a lot of the additional supplies the General had us load up to make it a viable lifeboat.”
    “Yes,” Anthony said. “We are lucky, I think, that these shelters stayed on board.”
    “All right, Maddie, you’ll have to set the first holddowns,” Helen said, seeing that they had the fifteen meter long, ten meter wide structure spread out fairly well. “I think we can stretch it out a bit after you get a couple in place to keep it from sliding all over.”
    “On it,” Madeline said. To set something down well into the steel-hard ice required something more complex and forceful than the standard tent stake, and that was why it was Maddie’s job; the hold-down units were a combination of shaped-charge and spike, blowing a small hole into the ice and inserting a long spike which then extended anchor points.
    “So to finish answering your question,” A.J. continued, “These are more self-contained—though they need some power run to them from Munin or some other source—and designed for much more extreme environments. There’s a big difference between operating in even a relatively thin atmosphere like Mars and going to hard vacuum, and sitting on ice that’s cold enough to liquify air is another major difference. You’ve got a lot of specialized LTP aerogel insulation in the floor, carbonan-reinforced puncture-resistant layered synthetic walls—interior and exterior—plus a lot of built-in amenities. Well, ‘amenities’ by the Spartan standards of the Outer System; we don’t have a Jacuzzi in any of these. But there’s power, air filtration and renewal, temperature control, all the stuff to make it liveable…and give us a lot more space while we’re here.”
    Helen cut in the private channel. “Which I am so looking forward to. ”
    She saw A.J. grin and wink in her VRD. “I want to lay claim to our own hab unit again. And I know Maddie and Joe want theirs back…” he glanced sideways and she could guess where he was looking. “And it’s hard for Horst and Jackie when there’s like no privacy at all!”
    Ain’t that the truth, she thought. The two married couples in the group had established and assumed relationships, and the rest of the “castaways of Europa” had assumed and arranged—without, as far as Helen could call, even being asked directly—for occasional hours of privacy for those two pairs.
    As Horst and Jackie had pretty much just begun the dance back…Good Lord , a year and a half ago…during Odin ’s visit to Ceres, and had minimal chance for privacy since, no such automatic arrangements had materialized. It wasn’t beyond the pale that another couple might materialize within their midst, either; Helen had no idea of the preferences or interests of the others from Odin , but—as Madeline had once mentioned to her—with two other women and (counting the General) seven other men in a highly emotionally-charged environment, she’d be surprised to see nothing else happening.
    Besides, even without the romantic pairings, there was plenty of reason to want a few hours away from anyone else.
    Maddie arrived next to her. “Stand very still.” The smaller spacesuited figure bent down, did something with her hands; Helen felt a sharp shock or vibration through the soles of her boots, and a moment later Madeline straightened up. “Okay, let go.”
    The material tried to pull back but the spike held firm. “All right, then. Let’s all get the rest of them stretched out and set at intervals. Watch for the indicator tags.”
    “You mean the square over the hold-downs?” Anthony asked. “It looks just gray and has not changed ever since we started working.”
    “That’s because we haven’t had any part of it anchored,” Madeline answered. “The indicators sense tension and extension along the length in two dimensions. When