Oakmont–Verona–Plum Development Site, Pennsylvania
May 18, 2440, 6:18 AM
“Well, we’ve got three towns.”
D’vann K’var looked up from his breakfast.
“Already?”
“The placement calculations finished overnight,” R’alen said. “The first sitio is ready for marking.”
S’rethi reached for her coffee.
“Survey cutoff?”
“Five this morning. New returns are still being incorporated.”
R’alen transferred the model to the main display.
Three squares appeared across the broken Pennsylvania landscape, each three kilometers on a side. The computer had positioned them among the surveyed terrain, leaving expanses of fractured limestone between the proposed settlements.
The first square was highlighted.
D’vann set down his fork.
“That’s a considerable improvement over what we were looking at yesterday.”
“Yesterday you were looking at a hole in the ground,” T’ira said.
“Several holes.”
“Some of them very large.”
“I was trying to be optimistic.”
“You’re welcome to continue.”
S’rethi enlarged the geological overlay.
The first nine-square-kilometer site had been selected from the ground already cleared for construction. More than forty square kilometers remained under active survey, with rovers examining subsurface conditions and aerial drones measuring the changing surface.
The eastern restrictions were still in place. Nothing about the new settlement positions required lifting them prematurely.
“Show me the elevation,” she said.
R’alen opened the cross section.
“Street datum, eight hundred forty feet.”
“And the lower base?”
“Approximately eight meters below it,” T’ira answered. “About eight hundred fourteen feet.”
An elongated depression ran through the ground assigned to the apartment buildings.
D’vann leaned forward.
“There are our garages.”
R’alen highlighted the planned structures.
Ten apartment blocks occupied the relevant section of the grid. Their two-level garages needed sufficient depth beneath the street surface, and the existing low ground provided much of that space without requiring the builders to fill the depression and excavate it afterward.
D’vann rotated the model.
“Somebody has finally found a useful feature of Pennsylvania.”
S’rethi smiled.
“Several, actually.”
“Name another.”
“Competent bedrock.”
“Romantic.”
“You asked.”
He examined the garage approaches.
“Can we keep access open while the surrounding foundation advances?”
“Already in the placement sequence,” R’alen said. “The equipment works around the depression. The approaches are included in the model.”
“And the excavation?”
“We don’t need to excavate a great deal of what isn’t there.”
D’vann nodded.
“A very sensible building technique.”
S’rethi traced the underlying strata.
“The ground beneath the released sections supports the design. These other areas remain under investigation.”
“Will they interfere with today’s work?” D’vann asked.
“No.”
“Tomorrow’s?”
“Not unless you decide to build somewhere I haven’t released.”
“I shall attempt to restrain myself.”
“An excellent beginning.”
T’ira brought up the foundation placement drawing.
The twenty-five-by-twenty-five arrangement established 625 blocks within the three-kilometer square. Streets, sidewalks, service routes, drainage, parks, and building positions followed a repeatable geometry.
The foundation itself was an integrated engineered surface, not 625 independent projects. The same construction system could accommodate the required differences in building loads, services, and elevations within the standardized plan.
D’vann examined the routes for the foam equipment.
“Once the initial placement begins, I want the delivery access maintained. Particularly beside the apartments.”
R’alen highlighted the relevant movements.
“Already arranged.”
“What about the equipment leaving the completed sections?”
“Separate paths. We aren’t sending a printer back through a foundation it just finished.”
“Very good.”
T’ira watched her father.
“Would you like him to show you the same drawing again?”
“I might.”
“He’s already shown it to you twice.”
“Then I ought to understand it.”
“An encouraging possibility.”
S’rethi laughed into her coffee.
The family had worked together long enough that no one found the exchange unusual.
R’alen closed the cross section and opened the morning assignments.
“Marking crews can start as soon as you release the final reference points. Wonder Foam placement is scheduled for this afternoon.”
“Not this morning?” D’vann asked.
“Not unless you want the foundation to begin before the markers have finished.”
“I merely wanted to establish that we were moving forward.”
“We are.”
“Good. I prefer moving forward.”
T’ira glanced at the geological reports.
“The filling shuttles are moving forward too.”
That brought up a different display.
The underground cavity responsible for swallowing eighteen survey rovers remained under treatment. Deliveries of Wonder Foam components had continued overnight, with measurements tracking the material as it expanded through the fractured ground.
Some of the six stabilization sites had improved substantially. Others required further filling.
The eastern restricted area remained closed to heavy grading equipment.
S’rethi read the latest results.
“Maintain the established sequence. Don’t interrupt a working operation merely because we’re beginning the sitio foundation.”
T’ira acknowledged the instruction.
D’vann returned to his breakfast.
“Three towns, then.”
“Three construction sites,” R’alen said.
“Three future towns.”
“Three sitios.”
D’vann regarded his son.
“Are you planning to correct every ordinary word I use today?”
“No. Only when you confuse it with a construction specification.”
“Then I shall be very careful not to give the towns any specifications.”
S’rethi shook her head.
“They’ll have plenty of those whether you call them towns or not.”
There was no municipal organization to settle, no future town administration to appoint, and no reason for the engineers to concern themselves with those matters.
Their assignment was to build places where people could live.
What arrangements the people eventually made to govern them was a question neither Matt nor the Trust had begun answering.
D’vann had rather enough to do without answering it for them.
6:31 AM
Frank Bakkal arrived carrying an enormous cup of coffee and a plate from the new kitchen.
D’vann turned toward him.
“Good morning.”
“Morning. You people always start this early?”
“We’ve been awake for some time.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Frank pulled a chair closer to the display.
He owned a substantial construction business in Missouri and had spent much of the previous day getting eight Quonset frames erected while making absolutely certain the first finished building was the kitchen.
This morning he had breakfast prepared indoors instead of somewhere in a shuttle galley.
He considered that progress.
“What are we looking at?”
“Three towns,” D’vann answered.
“Good.”
R’alen smiled.
“Three sitios.”
Frank looked at him.
“I’m from Missouri. If it’s got houses and people, I’m allowed to call it a town.”
D’vann raised his coffee.
“Thank you.”
Frank studied the cross section.
“Eight meters between the lower foundation and the streets?”
“Approximately,” S’rethi said.
“And you’re keeping that depression for the garages.”
“Yes.”
“That saves moving a hell of a lot of material.”
“We have rather more material than we know what to do with,” D’vann said.
Frank looked at the surrounding limestone.
“Not exactly a shortage.”
He took a bite of breakfast.
“How’s the hole that ate the rovers?”
“Still receiving fill,” S’rethi said. “The measurements are improving.”
“Anywhere near where we’re starting?”
“No. The restrictions are clearly marked, and the foundation work stays within the released ground.”
“Good.”
He changed displays to the Quonset work.
“We’ve got crews on the seven unfinished buildings. Shells, service connections, insulation, HVAC, interior fittings. The kitchen’s done, so nobody has an excuse to keep stopping work to ask about it.”
“Did that happen frequently yesterday?” D’vann asked innocently.
Frank looked at him over his coffee.
“Frequently enough.”
“How soon can we use the maintenance workshop?”
“Depends on which part of it you’re asking about. We can get working space into service before every shelf and table is in place. Kate’s organized the sequence.”
“That’s what I wanted,” D’vann said. “The drone tenders have been using whatever space we can give them.”
“Then they’ll get a proper place to work.”
“And the offices?”
“Following behind the shops. We’re not going to finish every room at once, but we can make them useful as the connections and fit-out are accepted.”
S’rethi looked toward the kitchen.
“Your staff appears satisfied with yesterday’s achievement.”
“Cooks are happy,” Frank answered. “Workers are happy. I even got a good breakfast. I’d call that a successful building.”
“More successful than the other seven?”
“The other seven aren’t cooking eggs.”
D’vann laughed.
Frank turned back to the foundation display.
“When do you start putting this down?”
“Marking this morning,” R’alen said. “Placement this afternoon.”
Frank nodded.
“Good. Then I’ll keep my people out of the way of the markers.”
“That would be appreciated.”
“And if anybody needs another load of lumber from Leta, tell Kate. She’s keeping track of it.”
“Your project manager seems to have a remarkable number of responsibilities,” D’vann said.
“That’s why I’ve kept her around for twelve years.”
“An excellent employee?”
“One of the best. And she’s going to remind me in about ten minutes that I’m supposed to be somewhere else.”
As if summoned, Frank’s tablet sounded.
He looked at it.
“Eight minutes.”
S’rethi smiled.
“Very efficient.”
“Don’t tell her. She’ll get worse.”
He finished his coffee and stood.
“Let me know when you start pouring your magic rock.”
“Placing,” S’rethi corrected.
Frank grinned.
“See? Everybody’s got a word for it.”
7:02 AM
The first marker crews moved across the prepared ground.
From the T-24’s engineering displays, each verified reference appeared against the survey model. The crews used laser references checked against the established topographic and geological control points.
Beyond the approved working area, other equipment continued its own assignments. Radar rovers investigated the subsurface. Grading equipment remained active in released sectors. Boats worked the Allegheny, and the Wonder Foam pumping shuttles continued their deliveries to the stabilization sites.
Construction did not stop because one group was beginning a new operation.
R’alen enlarged the first markers.
“References agree.”
T’ira checked them against the current survey.
“No geological conflicts.”
S’rethi reviewed the release.
“Proceed.”
D’vann stood beside her.
“You know, when we first arrived, this was a forest full of hills.”
“It remains a landscape with hills.”
“Fewer of them.”
“Considerably fewer.”
“And today we’re beginning a town.”
“The foundation of a town.”
“Which is the beginning.”
She looked at him.
“Come along. We ought to see it from somewhere besides this workstation.”
He smiled.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
They left R’alen and T’ira with the displays and stepped out into the morning.
Across the pale limestone, the marker crews were fixing the first permanent geometry of the settlement.
Nine square kilometers of planned streets and buildings did not yet look like a town.
But for the first time, the ground was beginning to tell the builders exactly where one would stand.
