This is a novelette from Leinster's Med Ship series, which features Calhoun, an intergalactic Flying Doctor and his pet tormal Murgatroyd. The Med Service flies around the galaxy visiting isolated space colonies. Calhoun finds himself landing on a planet colonised by a mining company, but then abandoned. It's an ice world on which there are few isolated settlements which distrust each other. The story is interesting for the mention of the geo-engineering performed to make the planet habitable ( )