Trial by Ice by Casey Calouette

missing: Berry and his crew.
    “Where do we stand?” William asked.
    Crow ran a hand through his growing stubble. “We’ve found a lot of useful things.”
    “We’re welding some pontoons onto a piece of decking.” Xinhu’s eyes glowed with excitement.
    “Supplies? Food?” William asked.
    Vito shook his head. “Not really.”
    “Someone help me up, please. I’d like to see this boat. And I really have to use the bathroom.”
    Vito and Crow helped him hobble outside.
    The snow was completely gone, showing mostly bare gravel. The second tent was a few hundred meters away. On the beach basked a set of large fuel tanks with a section of perforated alloy decking on top. Assorted sheeting, pillars, tubes, and struts lay on the beach above the high tide line.
    Further down the beach lay a second craft. It was smaller and cruder. Lashings of power wire and plastic tubing held the tanks together. William had a hunch what had happened.
    Vito noticed him looking at the other craft. “There was a bit of a legal battle.”
    “Legal battle?” William asked. He slid his arms off his supporters and stood gently on both legs.
    “Always a lawyer somewhere,” Sebastien replied as he walked out of the tent and rummaged through a collected debris pile.
    “Grue and James are both contractors, signed on to the ship. So they decided no ship, no valid contract,” Vito said.
    “What about Berry and Nur?” William asked. It wasn’t unheard of for civilians to leave when the terms weren’t satisfactory. But this was different, it wasn’t like the ship was stuck in repairs.
    “Deserters,” Crow spat.
    “What do they want?” William asked.
    “They want to talk to you about it,” Vito replied.
    “But I’ve been unconscious for what, two weeks?”
    “Exactly,” Crow said.
    “I’m not walking into that mess just yet,” William said. He needed to get a crutch and think for a bit.
     
    * * *
     
    The trio slowly moved down the beach to the large shape of the boat. It was tied down with heavy conducting cable and rested on a set of metallic tubing. Xinhu was looking away while a pure white light danced behind. Sebastien dropped a handful of black rods on the ground and walked back onto the rise.
    “How are we welding?” William asked with a thin smile.
    “We’ve got the reactor, Xinhu was able to scrounge up some alloy rods and we’ve been arc welding. I tried. It’s tough to do,” Vito said.
    “They wanted to weld, too, but they don’t know how.” Crow looked down the shore to the smaller craft.
    William looked down the rocky beach. “No bodies.”
    “We moved them away,” Crow said.
    “How long?” William called out to Xinhu.
    Xinhu had his eyes focused away from the camp with his head tilted as if listening to the weld. Behind him the arc crackled and sizzled like tearing paper. His hand twitched and moved down the alloy beam as he caressed the arc into a stream of cohesiveness.
    William stood and waited for the crackling to stop before yelling again. Xinhu dropped the rod and walked closer. His eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot.
    “How long?” William asked again.
    Xinhu raised his hands before dropping them to his sides. “A few days, we get the mast up and then string the wires. Maybe another hard day to weld on lashing loops for the gear…” He looked back to the craft.
    Vito pointed to the tents. “We’re going to use the tent as a sail.”
    William nodded as he kept his eyes on the tent farther down the beach. There wasn’t any activity yet.
    “How can I help?” William asked.
    “Get some rest for now, you’re in no shape to scrounge for supplies,” Vito said.
    William smirked. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
    “Just like you judged that gangrene, yes?”
    William sighed and looked to the tent. “Shall we grab a bite?”
    He spent the day helping sort through the debris that was brought in. Any device or piece of equipment that seemed to possibly function came into the camp.
    Among