Following the Printers
Pennsylvania Reclamation Project, Oakmont–Verona–Plum
May 22, 2440, 6:18 AM
“Chicken-fried steak.”
D’vann K’var examined the plate.
“Made from chicken?”
“Bison,” the cook said.
“Then why is it called chicken-fried steak?”
“Because we fry it like chicken.”
D’vann considered that.
“Your language is extraordinary.”
“Wait until you try chicken-fried chicken.”
Behind him, R’alen laughed.
“That sounds redundant,” D’vann said.
The cook added gravy.
“Tell me that after breakfast.”
The forest bison taken the previous day had supplied supper, and the kitchen had plenty left to work with. This morning it appeared as tenderized steaks beneath crisp breading, with eggs, potatoes and biscuits.
D’vann carried his plate to S’rethi’s table. She moved her coffee to make room without looking away from the site display.
“Anything interesting?”
“The second residential row is keeping its interval.”
Printing had begun at noon yesterday on the first row of residential blocks. Four hours later, work had started on the next residential row, separated from the first by a row of park blocks.
On the display, yellow house blocks surrounded an orange apartment block near the middle of the row. Green blocks ran along either side. Brown marked land reserved for light industry and related uses.
On the ground, the unplanted park rows gave printers room to operate and provided access and staging space for the crews following them.
D’vann enlarged the production schedule.
“They’ve moved on?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
They were bringing the house blocks through comparable stages rather than completing one block before beginning another. Until the installation workforce caught up, there was little reason to hold structural equipment in place.
R’alen joined them.
“Cal Mercer has the Leta teams assigned. Frank wants to meet before they start.”
“Qualifications matched to the work?”
“Yes. Two experienced workers and four trainees in each initial group.”
S’rethi moved the display to the top green row.
“These parks first.”
D’vann examined the access markings.
“The delivery turn crosses that path.”
“It does.”
He looked at her.
“You’ve already found another place for it.”
“Two possibilities.”
“Show Frank both.”
She passed him the display and began eating.
D’vann cut through the breading, took a bite and looked back toward the serving counter.
R’alen smiled.
“Well?”
“I understand the gravy.”
8:42 AM
Cal Mercer stood inside a newly printed house with Frank, Kate Red Hawk and the first group of Leta workers.
“Same design,” Cal said. “Same equipment positions. If you find something that needs changing, bring it back before six teams invent six different solutions.”
One of the Leta installers indicated a service opening.
“We need this checked before the unit goes in. We lost time on the first houses because everyone thought the next crew would do it.”
Kate added the check to the assignment sheet.
“And keep that access clear until testing?”
“Exactly. The cabinet crew can work on the other side.”
Frank looked through the doorway at the waiting trainees.
“Show them the whole sequence once. Then let them do it.”
Most already knew the tools and the underlying systems. Some had maintained equipment aboard ship; others had worked in construction before leaving V’ren. They needed familiarity with these houses, the human equipment going into them and the order in which the work had to happen.
Leta had provided that experience.
Three house designs had remained when printing began there on May 17. By the following day, the ease of fitting them out had reduced the selection to one. Move-in-ready homes had opened on May 20.
Here, the same service positions would repeat through the residential blocks.
A trainee examined the mounting marks for an HVAC unit while the instructor held it clear.
“Adhesive?”
“Ready.”
“Show me where it goes first.”
The trainee checked the marks, shifted one slightly and explained the correction.
The instructor nodded.
“Now we can put it in.”
Beyond the doorway, another group was working through the power-box installation. Farther along, a crew waited for its turn to check the street connections.
Frank watched long enough to see the trainee take over, then turned to Cal.
“Tomorrow?”
“One experienced worker takes two from today’s group and adds another beginner. The other does the same.”
“Provided they’re ready.”
“Provided they’re ready.”
Frank nodded and headed toward the apartment block.
10:26 AM
Ella Murphy had opened the distribution drawings across two displays in the apartment’s released basement work area.
A V’ren electrician stood beside her, comparing the human equipment schedule with the supply arrangement.
“This section stays on the specified human voltage,” Ella said. “The conversion belongs here. If somebody moves it farther downstream, they’ll have to change everything feeding these panels.”
He checked the drawing.
“The installation crew has the earlier revision.”
“Then get it off their tablets.”
Frank arrived as she marked the affected section.
“Problem?”
“Caught before installation.”
She explained it without looking up. Frank listened, asked two questions and approved the corrected sequence.
The Columbia guild hall had put her forward because the assignment required an industrial electrician comfortable integrating unfamiliar power systems with human equipment. It had also been described as a limited-contact position.
Frank had used her on short jobs before. He knew what she could do.
He had never shared a camp with her.
“Send that revision to Cal,” he said. “He needs to know which work stays with your crew.”
“I already copied him.”
“Good.”
He left her checking the next section.
By the time Kate came through with a delivery list, Ella had finished the technical explanation and found another subject.
“Did you see what they’re saying about L’tani?”
“Some of it.”
“They’re saying she knew exactly what she was doing.”
Kate checked the panel identifiers against her list.
Ella leaned against the worktable.
“And now everyone is supposed to stop asking because Matt says it’s private.”
“Where do you want these delivered?”
Ella pointed toward the dry storage area.
“Over there. Not against that wall.”
Kate marked it.
“My great-grandmother was a Boone Marmaduke,” Ella continued. “Littleton, Hart and Whetherall on the other branches. My mother was a Chakrobarty. Both my parents were citizens.”
Kate waited while a carrier passed behind them.
“Then two hundred people arrive from another planet and he sponsors the lot.”
“I need Frank’s signature on this.”
“He was just here.”
“I’ll catch him.”
Kate took the list and went looking for him. Ella watched her leave, then turned back to the electrician, who was still studying the revised drawing.
11:54 AM
Cal found D’vann watching a trainee check a completed installation.
“How are they doing?” D’vann asked.
“Good. Most of the questions are about arrangement and sequence.”
The trainee called his instructor over before closing the access panel.
Cal pointed.
“That’s what I want. Ask while we can still see it.”
The instructor examined the connection, had the trainee explain the check and signed off the work.
“Another house?” D’vann asked.
“Another house,” Cal agreed.
“And the other tasks?”
“We’ll expand them as the areas become available. Equipment installation, fixtures, doors, cabinets. We aren’t keeping everyone on the first thing they learn.”
D’vann glanced at the personnel list.
“Keep a record of what each person can lead.”
“Frank’s already asked for it.”
A carrier rolled past with components for the next group. Its driver slowed at the junction, found the amended route and continued through the park row.
D’vann watched it turn.
“S’rethi will be pleased.”
“About the crews?”
“The delivery route.”
Cal smiled.
“She found you this morning, too?”
12:26 PM
Jeff Whetherall’s tablet chimed while he was eating lunch.
He opened the message and grinned.
Kate put her cup beside his plate.
“What has Squirrel done now?”
“Sat still.”
“That must have taken some organizing.”
He turned the screen.
Jelk Carr sat on a park bench with the baby in his arms. Kdas Tall sat at the other end, their two older daughters between them. The adults wore brown shirts; all three girls wore checked dresses.
Jelk looked considerably more rested than he had before leaving camp.
Kate checked her own messages.
“He sent it to me, too.”
“Good-looking family.”
“The oldest looks like him.”
“She wants to meet Moose.”
“Then you’d better behave.”
“I’m excellent with children.”
Kate enlarged the photograph.
“Six, three and six months?”
Jeff nodded.
“Kdas is still doing her English and interface training aboard the Kalnareth. He says she’s got questions about what she can continue here.”
“She’ll find somebody to ask.”
Jeff began typing.
“What are you telling him?”
“That he looks better.”
“Tell them we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
“I’m getting there.”
The photograph passed around the table. Someone asked which one had given Jelk the most trouble getting ready. Someone else wanted to know whether all three girls had inherited their father’s patience with machinery.
S’rethi studied the picture when Kate showed her.
“Are they coming on his shuttle?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Good. They’ll have time to settle before he goes back on shift.”
Ella arrived as Jeff recovered his tablet.
“His bondmate’s pretty.”
“She is,” Jeff said.
“How long have they been together?”
He glanced at Kate.
“Don’t think I’ve asked.”
Ella sat down with her lunch.
“Everyone’s pairing off so quickly here that you forget some of them brought families.”
Jeff opened Jelk’s message again and finished his reply.
2:38 PM
The first park in the top green row was beginning to separate itself from the construction ground.
Its permanent edges had been marked, materials moved elsewhere and tested soil spread over the first planting areas.
S’rethi walked the access route with Frank and Kate.
“The turn’s moved,” Frank said.
“For now,” Kate added. “We’ll need to show the incoming crews.”
“We’ll put it in their arrival briefing.”
S’rethi stopped where the path would enter the residential row.
“Keep this approach clear. Families shouldn’t have to go around a delivery stack to reach the park.”
Frank checked the clearance.
“That’s workable.”
Below the camp, the reclamation unit continued processing river muck and the camp waste stream. Clean water and usable soil came out steadily. Harmful material was gasified or vitrified and held for further shipboard processing.
Some of the soil was already coming up to the planting crews.
Beyond the engineered ground, fractured limestone separated the sitios. In one sheltered stretch of rubble, the small Wonder Foam pond and watercourse remained under observation.
A worker with a backpack sprayer was extending a short section of the channel.
Kate watched him adjust the application as he approached the edge.
“Still holding?”
“So far.”
“Any change in the flow?”
“Nothing since this morning.”
S’rethi crouched beside the shallow pool, examined the edge and rose.
“Keep recording it.”
The worker nodded and returned to the channel.
4:51 PM
Cal brought the accommodation allocation to the operations hut.
“Two additional bunkhouse shuttles,” he told Frank. “Same general conversion as the one here.”
“Arrival?”
“In time for the workforce increase.”
About four hundred additional personnel were expected by May 26: installation crews, apartment trades, landscaping, transport, maintenance and the people needed to support them.
Kate examined the interior arrangement.
Two decks of zippered sleeping compartments gave each worker a berth. Kitchens and shared recreation and living areas occupied the remaining space.
“Where are their tools going?”
Cal enlarged the storage allocation.
Kate looked at it, then at Frank.
“We should settle that before they arrive.”
“I’ll have the crew leads send inventories.”
“Otherwise they’ll sleep with half the workshop.”
Frank smiled.
“Some will anyway.”
The apartment schedule remained open beside the accommodation plan. All ten blocks were due ready by June 4, when the first sitio was scheduled to go active. Leta’s apartments would follow on June 8. The projects had different priorities, and the specialist crews were being assigned accordingly.
Ella appeared in the doorway with a revised electrical schedule.
“I need these people kept on apartment integration.”
Frank read the names.
“How long?”
“Through this section. Moving them now just means teaching the same sequence twice.”
He compared the work allocation and nodded.
“Keep them. Send Cal the update.”
“I have.”
Outside, the house printers continued along the residential rows.
Kate left the hut and found Jeff near the cooking area.
“What is it tonight?”
“Burgers.”
“Same bison?”
He nodded.
She watched the cook turn a line of patties.
“You’ve been supervising?”
“Only recently.”
“Try not to eat the inspection sample before supper.”
