Oakmont–Verona–Plum Development Site, Pennsylvania
May 20, 2440, 12:25 PM
Water entered the new channel below the spring.
The first flow gathered against the lined limestone and followed the slope toward the collection basin.
D’vann K’var watched from beside the basin while S’rethi Y’ulen monitored the route.
T’ira recorded the measurements.
“We’re getting the flow through the upper section.”
Vdek Rval moved along the installation, examining the places where the water slowed or turbulence showed heavier flow pressure.
At the first bend, about fifty feet from the spring and two feet below it, the flow spread wider than intended. He noted that the south side would need to be raised.
Farther down, water collected behind the edge of the channel where it brushed against rocks jutting into the current. An eddy would form here, forcing the water under or around the formation before it approached the basin.
Vdek made his notes.
“The bend needs more depth. I can reshape the approach without changing the outlet,” Vdek told D’vann.
S’rethi examined the second location.
“Do that after we’ve observed the overflow.”
The basin continued filling. Vdek scanned the area he had coated and matched it to the water flow, letting the tablet handle the human measurement conversions.
“This says that pool is about 20 cubic meters and will require three hours to fill,” Vdek said.
He looked around at all the shattered ground he was going to be allowed to turn into beautiful water features and, if he was lucky enough, some whitewater recreation areas.
He had seen those on YouTube during his first week on Earth and wondered what sort of fortune he could have made on V’ren designing that kind of entertainment in the middle of a city desperate for something novel.
2:56 PM
The second test began.
Vdek had deepened the bend and reshaped the approach to the basin.
Water followed the corrected channel, entered the basin, and rose to the overflow.
This time there was no accumulation behind the lining.
T’ira compared the readings with the first test.
“The flow is reaching the lower connection. Your thoughts, Vdek?”
Vdek checked the lower outlet.
“I will want a much bigger pool here. We have several small trickles along the slope there,” he said, pointing along five hundred feet of higher ground. “I want to capture them today and then decide how to landscape the area later. If we don’t, there could be issues in a heavy rain.”
D’vann looked through his binoculars at the whole stretch.
“How long will it take to fill, and can we get the drainage on the eastern side of the sitio operational and connected before then?”
“It will take days to fill.”
3:17 PM
The successful test changed the next stage of landscape planning.
T’ira brought up all the other emerging springs and those that had already stopped. She hadn’t thought to send that information to Vdek.
She had started a geological engineering apprenticeship with her mother when she was fourteen and had even completed two years of engineering training at the university in Tw’shen when they had been back in the system, rather than breaking ground on the ugly rock circling the red dwarf five light-years away.
She sighed and sent the data.
She was good at geology. She was less good at the paperwork part of her current job. As a highborn, though, she knew that she was expected to know this and to do it right the first time.
If you were useless, you had no business calling yourself highborn.
She went back to the map and the springs.
Several had suitable connections to the planned drainage. Others required longer channels or collection basins to accommodate their locations and flow rates.
The groundwater observations were continuing to change. They would change a lot more the next time it rained.
So she needed to get with it, as Roland would tell her.
