Pennsylvania Reclamation Project, Oakmont–Verona–Plum
May 22, 2440, 6:37 PM
“Forest bison again?”
“Same animal,” the cook said.
D’vann accepted the bun.
“Roast, chicken-fried steak and now hamburgers.”
“Big animal. Cheese?”
“Certainly.”
“Pickles?”
“Yes.”
“Onions?”
“I intend to try the complete arrangement.”
The cook handed it over.
S’rethi watched him take his first bite when he reached the table.
“Well?”
He finished chewing.
“I approve.”
Jeff sat down with two.
Kate glanced at his plate.
“Both inspected?”
“Working on it.”
Cal and Frank arrived together, still discussing the incoming crews. Frank set his plate down before Cal could reopen the schedule.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“I only need two minutes.”
“You needed two minutes twenty minutes ago.”
Cal put the tablet away.
R’alen leaned across to see the photograph Kate had opened.
“Jelk?”
“And his family.”
Cal looked.
“That’s a happy man.”
“He needed the trip,” Jeff said.
S’rethi studied the children again.
“Tomorrow will be a busy day for them.”
“We’ll meet the shuttle,” Kate said.
Jeff nodded.
“Already told him.”
6:58 PM
Ella joined them carrying her supper and a tablet.
“Have you seen the latest relationship coverage?”
“Whose?” Cal asked.
“Matt and T’mari.”
Jeff reached for his drink.
“What have they done now?”
“The Freehold put out the time of the first girlfriend question.”
Ella found the statement.
“May fifth. Three-oh-nine in the afternoon.”
D’vann looked up.
“That soon?”
“The briefing ended at three-eleven. Memes by three-fourteen.”
Frank laughed.
“They gave the memes a time?”
“Apparently.”
R’alen leaned closer.
“What was the question?”
Ella read it.
“Can you confirm whether the hot green woman who walked down the ramp is your new girlfriend?”
D’vann stopped chewing.
S’rethi looked at him.
“Swallow first.”
He did.
“Was that before they knew her name?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Jeff said.
Kate looked at the accompanying photographs.
“The Saturday Target pictures again.”
“Along with the park ones,” Ella said. “Then the bodega that night, donuts Sunday morning, and all the pizza and beer delivered Sunday evening.”
“Somebody had a good weekend,” Frank said.
“There was quite a lot delivered.”
“We’ve just turned a bison into three meals,” Cal said. “I’m not judging anyone’s catering.”
Ella scrolled to Matt’s reply about arranging the shopping trip for hundreds of news vendors.
“He’s enjoying it.”
“Some of it,” Kate said.
S’rethi studied T’mari’s clothing.
“She looks comfortable.”
“The shirt has its own admirers,” Ella said. “Apparently Columbia has adopted her.”
“Has anyone asked whether she likes the shirt?” R’alen asked.
“Thousands of people.”
“Has she answered?”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
He returned to his supper.
7:14 PM
“The family story is getting more attention now,” Ella said.
D’vann glanced at her tablet.
“L’tani?”
“EarthNow says the people who disclosed it aren’t accusing Matt of doing anything wrong.”
“No,” S’rethi said.
“They say L’tani broke custom and he won’t do anything about it.”
“They object to how it was handled.”
Ella looked toward her.
“So it happened?”
“The report is about a disagreement over the response.”
“But they aren’t inventing the custom?”
“No.”
Ella sat back, satisfied enough to keep going.
“That’s what I thought. Everyone keeps making it sound as though there’s nothing to discuss.”
At the adjoining table, a V’ren installer turned in his seat.
“There is plenty to discuss. People have been discussing it for days.”
“Not with us.”
“Some of them gave interviews.”
R’alen found the article.
“Four of them in this one.”
He passed his tablet to Cal, who read the opening.
“Mall Kerr?”
“She knows L’tani,” R’alen said.
Ella nodded.
“She says she likes her. That doesn’t answer anything.”
“It answers whether she likes her,” Frank said absently, reaching for the onions.
Ella continued down her own copy.
“The captain says a custom was broken.”
“T’raskal C’arr,” D’vann said.
“And he thinks one of the families is stirring it up because they lost status themselves.”
“He suspects resentment,” S’rethi said. “That is his opinion.”
The installer nodded.
“I’ve heard that argument before.”
“About this?”
“About families insisting other families should suffer what they suffered.”
Ella looked around the table.
“Well, people do notice when the rules seem different for different people.”
No one answered immediately.
Cal kept reading.
“This engineer is quite open about his own household.”
“O’pal Y’eli,” R’alen said.
“He expects trouble?”
“He understands there may be consequences.”
“And he’s proceeding anyway.”
“Yes.”
Cal handed the tablet back.
“I can understand that.”
Ella tapped her screen.
“So some people face consequences, and others get protected.”
S’rethi folded her napkin beside her plate.
“People can disapprove of L’tani. They can disapprove of O’pal. Neither has to make a private account of their lives available to everyone who disapproves.”
“But you do know what happened.”
S’rethi took a drink.
At the next table, someone asked whether the burgers were still coming off the grill. Jeff raised his hand toward the cook, then looked at Frank.
“You want another?”
Frank considered it.
“Half.”
“I’m not bringing half a burger.”
“Then bring one and we’ll negotiate.”
7:32 PM
Ella was still reading when Jeff returned.
“W’ren says people can discuss their opinions privately, but leaking it was shameful.”
D’vann nodded.
“Her statement is quite clear.”
“She also brings up land ownership and defamation. That’s a fairly heavy response to gossip.”
Frank opened the mustard.
“Making an accusation publicly can be more than gossip.”
“Depending on who you accuse.”
“Depending on what you say,” Cal said.
The installer at the next table shook his head.
“The anonymous accounts wanted a public judgment without putting their own names beside it.”
“Some people have reasons not to use their names,” Ella said.
“Certainly.”
He turned back to his companions.
Ella found the later statement.
“And now caste has no legal standing.”
“Still has no legal standing,” S’rethi said.
Ella looked up.
“Since the Great Uprising,” S’rethi continued. “That part has not changed.”
“But people can lose status.”
“Yes.”
“And that can affect their lives.”
“Very much.”
Frank looked between them.
“Family recognition, introductions, who will associate with whom?”
“Among other things,” D’vann said.
Frank nodded.
“I’ve met human families that can make a marriage miserable without any help from the law.”
That drew a quiet laugh from farther down the table.
Ella rested her tablet against her cup.
“Then it isn’t meaningless.”
“No,” S’rethi said.
For a moment, Ella seemed content to have secured that much agreement.
Then she leaned forward.
“But what was L’tani actually expected to do afterward?”
R’alen gathered two empty plates.
“Anyone finished?”
Cal handed him his.
Ella waited, then looked toward the adjoining table for another listener.
7:49 PM
The Captain’s Mast notice came up when one of the workers mentioned T’rell K’eth’s account.
“Six months aboard ship,” Ella said. “Basic rations and waste processing.”
“Useful work,” Frank said.
“Not what he expected to be doing.”
“Probably not.”
Cal read the notice she passed him.
“Assigned officer. Still under the captain.”
“Even when he’s off the ship,” R’alen said.
Ella drew a line beneath the screen with one finger.
“So he gets punished, and L’tani doesn’t.”
D’vann looked at the notice.
“K’rem disciplined one of his officers. This is his command’s action.”
“And Matt had nothing to do with it?”
“That is what the notice says.”
Ella took back the tablet.
“Convenient.”
Frank glanced at the time, then at Cal.
“Before you disappear tonight, I need the garage-door crew arrival confirmed.”
“I’ll check.”
The conversation moved with them for a few minutes.
Ella remained seated, reading.
8:03 PM
A worker at the adjoining table asked whether the new settlements would all belong to Matt.
“The land?” Jeff asked.
“Yes.”
“He owns this site.”
“And the Trust leases it,” Cal said.
The worker frowned.
“So are the houses ours?”
Frank pulled his chair around.
“That depends on what you mean by ours. You need the actual occupancy and ownership terms. The land title isn’t the whole agreement.”
“I mean whether someone can tell my family to leave.”
“Then read that part before you sign,” Frank said. “Ask whoever is explaining the agreement to show you the clause.”
Kate nodded.
“And keep your copy.”
Ella looked up.
“That’s what I’ve been saying. Everyone is acting as though they’ve already been given everything.”
The worker turned toward her.
“I was asking about the contract.”
“I know.”
He looked back at Frank.
“Who will explain it?”
“We’ll get the right person to do it. I’m building the apartments.”
D’vann added the question to his tablet.
“We should arrange that before the first families are assigned permanent homes.”
S’rethi nodded.
“For everyone who wants to attend.”
Ella began talking about her family’s connection to the Freehold. Kate listened while stacking the empty plates. When Ella reached the newly sponsored citizens, Kate carried the dishes to the collection point.
The worker who had asked about housing stayed to speak with D’vann.
8:17 PM
Cal found the public tour announcement while checking his messages.
“Several weeks,” he said. “That’s a long time to be traveling with a youth delegation.”
Jeff leaned back.
“They’ll enjoy it.”
“Until they’re tired.”
“They’ll still enjoy it.”
R’alen looked over his shoulder.
“The Mexico visit includes Lucha Libre.”
“What is that?” D’vann asked.
Jeff smiled.
Kate returned in time to see it.
“You’ve given him a subject.”
While Jeff explained masks and wrestling, Ella brought up Matt’s responses to the tour commentary.
“People in Boston are asking about coastal infrastructure.”
“Is he doing something there?” Frank asked.
“He says Boston hasn’t asked. They’re attending the All Star Game and visiting universities.”
“Then that answers it.”
“People see what’s happening here,” Cal said. “Of course they’re going to ask.”
S’rethi nodded.
“Particularly if they’ve been waiting a long time for something at home.”
Ella played the public livestream.
Matt introduced himself, invited people to follow the journey and warned that he was likely to tell them their local problems were not his to fix.
Frank listened through the end.
“He could have said that more pleasantly.”
Jeff laughed.
“He could.”
“The part about recruitment will get attention,” Cal said.
“It already has,” R’alen replied.
Ella paused the recording.
“Nobody seems to know why he was in Marshall.”
“Who?” Frank asked.
“Matt. With T’mari. Around the Old Shirt Factory Mall.”
Kate sat down again.
“There’s plenty to do there.”
“But nobody knows what they went for.”
Frank shrugged.
“Maybe somebody does.”
Ella looked at him, but he was checking Cal’s newly arrived crew confirmation.
8:36 PM
Most of the tables had begun to empty.
Ella had moved to another group, where someone was willing to discuss the latest photographs. Kate heard her mention her apartment manager and the first night after arrival.
Jeff’s tablet chimed.
“Jelk?”
He nodded and turned it toward her.
The girls were looking forward to meeting them. Kdas had questions about the camp and her training. Jelk wanted to know where they should go after landing.
“Tell him we’ll be there,” Kate said.
“I already told him.”
“Tell him again. He’s bringing three children. He’s allowed to check.”
Jeff typed.
Across the camp, work lights marked the released sections of the first sitio. A carrier moved through the park row, slower now among the evening crews.
S’rethi stopped beside them.
“Did he give you an arrival time?”
“Not yet.”
“Send it when he does.”
Kate looked toward the dark outline of the houses.
“Going to inspect the park again?”
“In the morning.”
Jeff sent the message.
Then he looked at the photograph one more time before putting the tablet away.
