A Beginning

(I've based this scene on a re-imagining of a scene from the story of Ernest Shackleton, and the loss of the Endurance, brought into the present day)

"We're fucked!" said The Boss glancing around the group. He seemed to pause at each face, and each person felt they were addressed individually.

"So that we are all clear on the situation, and no-one is in any doubt: the ship's fucked, the comms are fucked, and, as far as I can tell, the greater part of the stores and the equipment are fucked as well." He paused for breath and surveyed the faces watching him expectantly.

"There is no prospect of completing our mission, so that's it. We might as well go home!" There was no whisper from his audience. They waited for the next statement.
"We may be fucked, but we're not finished! If we're to get home, then I need to know in detail what our situation really is." He paused and began handing pieces of paper around.

"I'm giving you a list of what I want you to do. All the pages are the same. You can see what I want you to do, and you can see what everyone else is doing too. Basically, it's all the same. I need to know what the situation really is. What resources do we have? What is broken? What is fixable and what is beyond repair? Concentrate on your own task, but don't hinder other people with theirs. If we are going to succeed, then we will succeed together. You can see that I will be busy too. Off you go. I'll see you back here in 3 hours." There was a brief murmur and they turned away.

(And this bit owes something to some of the lines from Aidan Dooley's "Travels with Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer")

"And you ask 'why on earth are you going back?' But you've never been there, so how could you understand? First of all, there's the silence, when for the first time in your life you can really hear yourself think. But it isn't always silent, oh no! Sometimes there are sounds which I cannot describe and you would not believe, even if I could. And then there's the smell. I've never experienced anything like it. Not unpleasant, but different. I know you won't understand that either, but it's true."