"Do you know how to tell if this planet even has a molten core?"

"There were geological probes in some of the cargo bays. If any of those are intact, we can send 'em straight on down and two hours later we'll get a report on all sorts of things. Maybe even a map of useful ore veins if we're lucky. We've still got plenty of chances and options, you know."

"God, how are you so optimistic and cheerful?"

"Well, it's either wallow in doom, or keep trying things. And I hate wallowing."

Today's finds while carefully exploring the crash site:

An area of elevated radioactivity in a shallow valley! Lots of the dust from the nuclear module must have settled here. The team's rover slid down a slope with incredibly bad timing, taking half an hour to get back out. They rush home and through decontamination, already showing signs of radiation poisoning. Four more patients join Dr. Montero's radiation watch.

A cargo bay containing one of the Aurora's orbital shuttles! On a quick examination, it appears to be mostly intact, but one corner of the bay is kind of crumpled and lots of things fell over, so it will definitely need a thorough examination before any attempts to fly. They leave it for later.

And...

The precious reactor module. They've found it. Beyond a small ridge that hid it from vision in the crash site itself, with only smaller pieces of debris nearby. A careful, thorough check reveals no signs of radioactivity, and then Nina Guzman is called on video to examine the interior. It looks all intact, she reluctantly admits.

The rover assigned to brightward exploration has discovered a long, clear part of the glacier, almost a hundred kilometers of obstacle-free space following a ridge. They went slow and careful, marking the path and dropping occasional beacons as they went, and eventually turned back when everyone was getting too tired to safely continue.

We're getting that reactor module NOW.

What about my anti-radiation medicine?

What about my small arms armory?

What about salvaging food and materials from the crash site, just to play devil's advocate?

What about salvaging parts for wind turbines?

Power is life; They'll have all sorts of additional options with proper electricity and heat, even if they also have new problems. They can run the vehicles more, recover more modules. They can let people use power for nonessential purposes if any ends up spare. They'll even be able to power the mining module. Unless the reactor is fantastically unsafe, careful monitoring and rotation of those who work to minimize the negative impacts will have to do.

They have two working transport vehicles. The first one will fetch the reactor module today, then they'll do a very thorough double-check on it. Tomorrow, it gets assembled and turned on. The second transport vehicle can salvage the armory; They don't actually know where the hospital module ended up yet, wind turbines will hopefully be obviated, and the rest of the wreckage isn't going anywhere.

"What should we call this place, anyway?"

"...Call what?"

"The colony. It needs a name. Even if we ended up not at all where we expected to."

"...I've got nothing."

"Svalbard."

"...Niflheim?"

"Isn't Niflheim some sort of Norse hell?"

Mary shakes her head. "Not quite. Home of the frost giants."

"Pluto or Charon, as a reference to a tidally locked dwarf planet around Sol?"

"Charon is the boatman that ferries the dead. I don't want our home's name to mean death. Pluto at least was also a god of wealth."

"Does it have to be from mythology? I don't know anything about that stuff. Svalbard has that seed vault, it's tough but hopeful."

"Perhaps we could take public submissions and hold a vote. It might give everyone who's not a senior officer some sense of control or direction, if nothing else."

"...Sure, why not. One day to submit names, then we throw out duplicates and obvious bullshit or bait, then pick as many as you like on a forum vote on Exodus-Net."

"Well, if that's settled, we all have a lot of work to do, as senior officers."

He stands up and beelines for the exit without waiting for a confirmation.