Oakmont–Verona–Plum Development Site, Pennsylvania
May 19, 2440, 6:17 AM
“Well, His Lordship is just going to have to live with it.”
D’vann K’var looked up from his breakfast.
“Live with what?”
“The elevation.”
S’rethi enlarged the three sitio locations.
The first remained at eight hundred forty feet above sea level. The second, south and slightly southeast, stood fifteen meters higher. The third lay north of the second and considerably farther east, another twenty meters above it.
D’vann read the figures.
“About nine hundred fifty-five feet for the third.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted everything below nine hundred.”
“And the eastern ground offers a sounder, more practical site at nine hundred fifty-five.”
R’alen opened the comparison.
“Lowering it would require substantially more grading. The alternatives also introduce additional subsurface work.”
D’vann examined the rejected placements.
“Then we send him this.”
“I’m not proposing to bury the difference in a progress report.”
“I meant the comparison.”
S’rethi glanced at him.
“Oh.”
“He hired engineers. We should give him the engineering.”
She attached the model to the morning report.
Each sitio retained its own three-kilometer footprint and standard grid. Roads and the intervening landscape would accommodate the changes in elevation. There was no reason to manufacture one enormous plain across all twenty-seven square kilometers.
“Anything else?” D’vann asked.
S’ira brought up the hydrological observations.
“Water.”
6:34 AM
Several new flows appeared across the terrain model.
Some were little more than seeps. Others emerged from fractured limestone and had already established channels through the loose material.
D’vann watched an aerial recording of water falling from an exposed rock face.
“That wasn’t there yesterday.”
“Not at that outlet,” S’ira said.
The stabilization work was changing the underground drainage. Wonder Foam filled passages through which groundwater had moved for centuries. The water was finding other routes.
“Any beneath the released construction sections?” he asked.
“Nothing requiring a general stop,” S’rethi said. “We’re updating the restrictions and drainage plans as the returns arrive.”
The human construction supervisor joined them with his breakfast.
“What have we found?”
“Waterfalls,” D’vann said.
The man stopped chewing.
“Well, that’s better than another hole.”
“Some may be temporary,” S’rethi said. “We need sustained-flow measurements and water testing.”
The supervisor studied the images.
“Could make some nice parkland.”
“At least three possible landscaped drops,” S’ira said. “The planners are examining the outlets.”
“Keep the useful ones outside the structural foundations,” D’vann said. “Give them routes before the roads make the choices for us.”
S’rethi nodded.
“And nobody seals a spring merely because they want a dry working surface. Refer it to survey.”
The supervisor looked at the higher eastern sitio.
“Didn’t Matt want that lower?”
“He did.”
“Send him the waterfall pictures with the bad news.”
D’vann smiled.
“We were considering that.”
7:26 AM
Ella Murphy waited until the V’ren utility workers had gone ahead into the maintenance building.
“Did you read the citizenship response?” she asked the human technician beside her.
“Which one?”
“The two hundred nineteen.”
He checked the connection labels.
“Some of it.”
“My great-grandmother was a Boone Marmaduke.”
He looked up.
“All right.”
“And another was a Littleton. Another a Hart. Another a Whetherall. My grandmother married a Chakrobarty. My mother was a Chakrobarty.”
“You’ve got plenty of family.”
“That’s my point.”
She shifted her tablet under her arm.
“I’ve lived here my whole life. My people have been here for generations. Then he hands citizenship to more than two hundred people he’s barely met.”
“They cared for his family.”
“So have a lot of people.”
The technician returned to his labels.
“He recognized what they did.”
“He’s never done anything like that before.”
“No.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“I’ve got a connection to finish.”
Ella watched him bend over the work.
“I’m not the only one thinking it.”
“Then you’ll have somebody else to discuss it with.”
8:41 AM
Matt’s response arrived while S’rethi was reviewing a newly marked drainage corridor.
She opened it, then called D’vann over.
He read beside her.
“The elevation is no big deal. You’ll end up with more frost pockets, though, so keep that in mind when you place gardens and orchards.
“Waterfalls are cool. Can you build fish ponds?
“You’re the on-site engineers, and you have to live there. Your neighbors will know who built the city.”
D’vann read the last sentence again.
“Well.”
“Yes.”
“He’s not arguing about the fifty-five feet.”
“No.”
“He’s asking for fish.”
“And reminding us who will hear the complaints.”
D’vann looked back at the model.
“Ponds give us another use for suitable flow.”
“Once we establish what flow we have.”
He nodded.
S’rethi sent the response to S’ira and the planning stations.
“Add the frost-pocket consideration to the landscape review. Examine pond locations with the drainage options.”
“And tell him?”
“That we’re investigating them.”
D’vann smiled.
“Perhaps include a picture.”
9:38 AM
One of the V’ren workers was checking a service point when Ella joined her.
“You know L’tani T’all?”
“I know who she is.”
“Everyone says that.”
The woman continued checking the installation.
“I wondered whether you’d heard anything more.”
“About what?”
“Matt.”
The woman looked at her.
“You asked about L’tani.”
“About the two of them.”
“I have no information for you.”
“That isn’t quite what I asked.”
“It is my answer.”
Ella glanced toward the next work area.
“I’m only trying to understand. There are couples everywhere now.”
The woman returned to her work.
“My apartment manager is in one,” Ella continued. “Eric Garcia. Tell Rarz. By all accounts, they were sleeping together the first night.”
“Were they?”
“That’s what I heard.”
“Then perhaps you should ask them.”
“He has children.”
The woman checked the service point against her display.
Ella waited.
“Doesn’t that make it more complicated?”
“I wouldn’t know his arrangements.”
“It happened very quickly.”
“Ella, I need to finish this.”
10:52 AM
Jeff Whetherall was carrying equipment into the maintenance space when Ella caught up with him.
“You must have an opinion.”
“Usually.”
“About the citizenship.”
He set down his load.
“What about it?”
She gave him the family names.
Boone Marmaduke. Littleton. Hart. Whetherall. Chakrobarty.
Jeff listened.
“And?”
“All that history, and apparently strangers get recognized first.”
“They’d done something he wanted to recognize.”
“We keep coming back to that.”
“It’s the reason he gave.”
“Two hundred nineteen people, Jeff.”
“I read the number.”
“He’s never sponsored people like that.”
“No.”
“So why now?”
“Because they’re the people who did it now.”
Ella folded her arms.
“You don’t think family ought to count?”
“Who’s your Whetherall great-grandmother?”
She told him.
He nodded, placing the branch.
“Thought so.”
“Then you understand.”
“I understand who you’re related to.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“No,” Jeff said. “I gathered.”
He picked up the next piece of equipment.
“Give me room, will you?”
11:47 AM
The morning’s revised water map reached D’vann with several construction notes attached.
He and R’alen worked through the access routes while S’rethi reviewed the spring observations. The first sitio’s foundation placement continued. Preparation advanced at the second within the cleared boundaries.
The new outlets had complicated several local decisions without overturning the wider sequence.
D’vann marked one route for adjustment.
“Keep equipment access on this side until we’ve settled the channel.”
R’alen transferred the change.
“And this proposed pond?”
“An option. Don’t let it become a promise.”
S’rethi looked over.
“Thank you.”
He smiled.
“I do listen occasionally.”
12:36 PM
At lunch, Ella found Kate Red Hawk beside two workers who had helped fit out Blackwater 17.
“What do you know about Gith Dral?”
Kate looked up.
“She’s the activities director.”
“I read that.”
“Then you know what I know.”
“You know Fallon.”
“Yes.”
“He wouldn’t leave my daughter alone.”
The two workers glanced at Ella.
Kate put down her cup.
“When?”
“Oh, it went on and on. Always trying to get involved with her.”
“When, Ella?”
“Before he started going around with this girl.”
“That doesn’t tell us when.”
Ella waved the question aside.
“I know what he’s like.”
Kate watched her for a moment.
“He’s nineteen now.”
“I know how old he is.”
“Then you can tell the story with the dates.”
Ella looked toward the others.
“You don’t have to defend everything he does.”
“I asked when it happened.”
One of the workers checked the time and stood.
“I’m going back.”
The other went with her.
Kate remained long enough to finish her drink.
Ella shook her head.
“You’d think I wasn’t allowed to know people.”
“You’re allowed,” Kate said. “Try telling people which version you remember.”
1:58 PM
Ella approached a V’ren worker outside one of the personnel huts.
“What about the girl seeing the Boston general’s son?”
The worker looked puzzled.
“Which girl?”
“Mall. Kevin.”
“I’ve read the reports.”
“No status at all, apparently. And his family is practically royalty in Boston.”
“What did you want to know?”
“How that works.”
“They would be better people to ask.”
“Would her family object?”
“I don’t know her family.”
“What about Krieger Littleton and Sira Rell?”
The worker’s expression changed.
“What about them?”
“He seems to change his interests rather often.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“He was dating my cousin Nyla Chakrobarty.”
Kate, coming out through the doorway, stopped.
“They weren’t dating.”
Ella turned.
“They were always together.”
“School activities.”
“I know my own cousin.”
“She’s your third cousin, Ella. And spending time together doesn’t mean they were dating.”
“You don’t know everything that happens.”
“No. That’s why I don’t tell people I do.”
Ella looked back toward the V’ren worker, but she had already returned inside.
Kate followed her.
3:14 PM
S’rethi received a question about an emerging flow near a proposed service route.
She reviewed the imagery with S’ira, then moved the restriction boundary to include the new outlet.
“Keep observing it. We need the route clear of the channel.”
“The placement crews have the update.”
“Good.”
D’vann sent the revised access plan a few minutes later.
Beyond the first sitio, the water continued finding paths through the broken stone. Some streams were diminishing as the filling progressed. Others held their flow.
The waterfall pictures remained on the planning display, now accompanied by possible pond locations.
4:23 PM
Ella was talking to two human workers near the equipment staging area.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed to live here. That’s different.”
“We know,” one said. “Residence and citizenship.”
“Exactly. And citizenship ought to mean something.”
“It does.”
“Then you understand why I’m disgusted.”
The woman looked at her.
“No. I understand the distinction.”
“My mother was a Chakrobarty.”
“You told me this morning.”
“And my great-grandmother—”
“You told me those too.”
Ella stopped.
The woman picked up her tablet.
“I haven’t got anything else to add.”
Her coworker followed her toward the maintenance hut.
For a moment, Ella stood alone beside the staging racks.
Then she saw another familiar face approaching.
“Did you read that response about the two hundred nineteen?”
5:46 PM
The late-afternoon review was brief.
Foundation placement had advanced within the approved sections. The second sitio’s preparation continued. Survey teams were tracking the altered drainage, and the landscape model now reserved possible space for ponds without committing to flows they had not yet established.
S’rethi accepted the report.
D’vann closed his display.
“Food?”
“Yes.”
They stepped out toward the supper tables.
Kate was already there, sitting beside Jeff and the V’ren drone operator.
Ella approached with her tablet.
“Did either of you hear—”
“Sit down, Squirrel,” Jeff said, moving a chair for the operator.
Kate pulled the remaining chair beside her clear for S’rethi.
D’vann fetched another.
Ella looked along the table, then toward a group gathering farther down the row.
She went to join them.
Kate watched her go.
“She’s had a busy day,” Jeff said.
“Yes,” Kate answered. “She has.”
S’rethi sat down.
Behind them, machinery continued working across the first sitio. Ahead, plates were being passed along the tables, and people were choosing where to spend their evening.
