water was dubbed the "Space Dump" and crowds of teen-agers were already
flocking in to dance and frolic. A pattern of living began to take form
out of the dead dust of the star satellite. Several of the colonists who
had lost everything aboard the crashed ships were made civilian
officials in charge of the water, sanitation, and power departments.

The three cadets worked harder than they had ever worked before. Once,
when the jet barge needed to be refueled, Vidac had ordered them to
salvage the remaining reactant from the crashed ships and they worked
forty-eight hours in lead-lined suits transferring the reactant fuel to
the jet barge.

In addition, Roger was now hard at work building a communications center
and a network all over the satellite. Communicators were placed at
intervals of ten miles, so that any stranded colonist was within walking
distance of help.

The four hundred ships that had crashed had been loaded mostly with
farming equipment, and the seriousness of the situation was discussed at
great length by Logan and other farmer colonists. Vidac had tried to
salvage some of the more basic tools needed in farming the dusty
satellite soil, but nothing had come of it. Three to five years had to
pass before the radioactivity would be harmless.

"We'll have to farm with chemicals," announced Vidac finally to a
meeting of the farmers. "I know that chemical crops are not as tasteful
as naturals, but they are larger, more abundant, and nourishing." He
paused and looked at the men. "However, even chemicals are not the whole
answer."