Hanratty cleared his throat. “Thanks again, Ron. We’ll get you somebody to check on Carla. Give me a shout if you need anything else, okay?”
Ayres had spent enough time in the Marines to know when he was being dismissed, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He walked out of the room stiff-backed and shut the door behind him with a bang.
The room was silent for a moment, then Hanratty spun in his chair to face Keene. “Gerald, give us a read on the situation.”
Keene shifted his weight. “Twenty-six people were involved with the episode in the galley. The rest of the crew was aware of the failures, of course. Two of the staff have a history of severe claustrophobia. Both required the help of others to recover, even after power was restored. Only a handful of people—most of whom are in this room—would have felt any measure of control as the situation deteriorated.”
“What does that mean, in a nutshell?” Deb asked.
“A nutshell.” Keene snorted. “In a nutshell , Deb, everyone on base is freaked out. If we have another significant power failure, people are going to be stealing snowcats out of the VMF so they can take the road back to McMurdo.”
“Is there anything we can do to help restore confidence, get morale back up?” Hanratty asked. As Keene’s face twisted in anticipation of delivering a sarcastic comeback, he added, “Constructive suggestions.”
The psychologist got his face and his retort under control. “The most obvious step is that the station manager should make a general announcement about what happened and why, to calm nerves by reasserting control of the situation.”
“All right.”
“While you do that, I could work behind the scenes. The Beck Anxiety Inventory is a quick way to take a group’s temperature. And I can pull in a few of the real problem cases, like those claustrophobes, and work with them more intensively—”
“Negative,” Hanratty said. It was his turn to look down at his shoes.
“What?” Keene looked surprised. “Why?”
“You’re the authority, of course. But—no offense, Gerald—it seems to me that, if the base psychologist distributes an anxiety questionnaire, we’ll end up with exactly the effect we don’t want. It would be like asking someone who’s afraid of drowning if they packed a life preserver before getting on a boat. Prudent, but not necessarily the best move.”
“What do you suggest?” Taylor asked.
“I’ll prepare an announcement about the failure, as per Gerald’s suggestion, tell everyone we’re checking those systems and we’ll get to the bottom of it, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, Deb, let’s make a big show of it. Get Jennings to check pipes and lines. Taylor, find Leroy—I don’t care if he’s part of the ice wall down below, let’s get him working and visible so people see him fixing the electrical. Gerald, spread yourself around, ask your questions, but don’t press too hard. Take temperatures, as you called it, but don’t be obvious.”
“You’re asking the base psychologist to casually join conversations without raising anyone’s suspicions?”
“Yes. Just sit and listen if nothing else.” Hanratty turned his attention to Taylor. “Same for you, Taylor. Keep your ear to the ground, report back to me.”
“Do you want me to short-circuit any doomsday talk or anyone bad-mouthing admin?”
“No. I think it would have the same effect as the base shrink telling people not to worry. But if they want to talk themselves into a tizzy, let ’em talk. I’d rather know who’s vulnerable than have them hide their thoughts.”
Taylor looked doubtful, but nodded. Hanratty looked around the room. “Okay, any questions?”
Deb started to speak, then hesitated. Hanratty raised an eyebrow and she plunged into her question. “Jack, we still don’t know why the electrical went down or why it came back online.”
“Correct,” he said, nodding.
“So . . . what are we actually doing ? Reassuring personnel is nice, but we may have a hell of a problem here, with no idea how to fix it or if it’ll happen again.”
“Deb, I know that this episode has shaken all of us, but I trust that the system is stable. We’ll diagnose the problem soon enough. I think the important thing is to keep a strong outward face on things. We don’t want the crew to get spooked any more than they are.”
“It won’t matter how spooked they are if the heat goes out again,” she pressed.
“It’ll be fine, Deb,” Hanratty said, his tone final. “Trust me.”
She stared at him for a moment, as if debating whether to argue, then let it go.
“No more questions? Okay, let’s get to work, then.”
Deb and Taylor shuffled out of the room. Keene appeared to join them, then held back. He made sure the other two had left the outer office, then looked at Hanratty. “Is this the best way to go about things?”
“There’s only one way to know, and that’s to do it. If we coddle them now, how will they act in a true crisis? ‘That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.’”
Keene’s laughter came out as a high-pitched bark. “The man who said that wound up in an insane asylum.”