 What is the worst consequence of the Geiger being off scale?
The light from the star that died when the meteor was created fell on Earth before the first lungfish ventured from the sea. It drilled a small, neat hole through the casing of the steam turbine, and volitized upon striking the blades. Portions of the turbine also volitized; idling at eight thousand RPM, it became unstable. The shaft tried to tie itself into a knot, and the blades, damaged and undamaged were spit through the casing. The turbine again reached a stable state, that is, stopped. The shadow line between day and night could be seen from the Moon to be drifting across Australia. Evans, who had no watch, thought of the time as a quarter after Australia. The chromite petered out in a month and a half, and he was lucky to break even. His drinking water—kept separate from the water in the reactor—might conceivably last just as long. But his oxygen was too carefully measured; there was a four-day reserve. Four days reserve—plus one is five—plus sixteen days normal supply equals twenty-one days to live. And the boiler, of course, had emptied itself through the hole in the turbine. By the light of this, he reinspected the steam system, and found about three gallons of water frozen in the condenser. The condenser, like all condensers, was a device to convert steam into water, so that it could be reused in the boiler. This one had a tank and coils of tubing in the center of a curved reflector that was positioned to radiate the heat of the steam into the cold darkness of space. When the meteor pierced the turbine, the water in the condenser began to boil. This boiling lowered the temperature, and the condenser demonstrated its efficiency by quickly freezing the water in the tank. Evans sealed the turbine from the rest of the steam system by closing the shut-off valves. If there was any water in the boiler, it would operate the engine that drove the generator. Then, if the pump wasn't blocked by ice, it would return the water to the boiler. Carefully he poured a cup of his drinking water into a pipe that led to the boiler, and resealed the pipe. The water that he had poured into the boiler quickly turned into steam, and the steam turned the generator briefly. This was to allow the air-conditioning system to function properly, and to prevent air loss in case of the highly improbable meteor damage.
 Authorities will be forced to make more strict limitations when it comes to water
 The moon and Earth will enter a war fought over natural elements  Evans will die before he is discovered by a rescue team  Authorities will be forced to make more strict limitations when it comes to water  The entire Survey will be fired and forced to compete over prospecting jobs