Oakmont–Verona–Plum Development Site, Pennsylvania
May 17, 2440, 6:00 AM
“We lost eighteen rovers overnight.”
S’rethi K’var looked up from the geological display.
“Where?”
“All in the same hole,” S’ira replied.
D’vann turned from his construction workstation.
“Eighteen?”
“The ground collapsed beneath the survey group. Straight down more than three hundred feet.”
“Well, that settles whether there’s a void beneath that section.”
S’ira transferred the recording to the main display.
A broad section of fractured limestone dropped away. The rovers disappeared with it, swallowed by falling rubble. Dust erupted from the opening as the aerial drones repositioned.
D’vann studied the overlapping views.
“Three hundred feet?”
“More than three hundred. That’s as far as we’ve established.”
S’rethi opened the geological cross section. The surface collapse exposed only part of an extensive underground cavity. Its boundaries were still being measured.
The afternoon’s bombardment had disturbed the rock above it. The rovers had discovered how little support remained.
“How far along is the filling?” she asked.
“The first injection began almost immediately afterward. Deliveries have continued at approximately one per hour.”
S’ira brought up the stabilization report.
Six locations appeared across the site.
“Nearly one hundred thousand cubic meters of expanded fill across these six locations over the last six hours. Expansion is continuing.”
Some operations were filling abandoned workings. Others were stabilizing fractured ground. The cavity that had swallowed the rovers was receiving repeated deliveries while the surveys tracked where the material spread.
S’rethi examined the returns.
“Keep the eastern restriction in place.”
S’ira acknowledged it.
D’vann looked back at the collapse recording.
“At least we found it before putting people and grading equipment there.”
“That was the intention.”
“I assume losing the rovers wasn’t.”
“No.”
“I’ll ask your daughter to stop doing that.”
S’ira kept her eyes on her workstation.
“I’ll inform the rovers, Father.”
The Wonder Foam was coming from Missouri.
The pumping shuttles were not part of the local fleet. Their thirty-three-minute flight brought them directly to the filling sites, where they could deliver material without landing on the broken ground.
Each T-24 carried pumping equipment and four containerized components. Injection took twenty minutes. At an expansion ratio of one to two hundred fifty, a relatively small delivered volume could occupy an enormous cavity.
The difficulty was placing it correctly.
S’rethi followed the lower fill through the survey model. Material was still expanding beneath the collapsed section. Further deliveries would build on it as the measurements established what the void required.
Above it, the surface remained closed to heavy equipment.
Beyond the habitation shuttle, more than forty square kilometers of pulverized Pennsylvania lay under continuous survey. Aerial drones mapped the exposed slopes while radar rovers examined the ground beneath them. Hundreds of boats continued working along the Allegheny.
The overnight operations had given the engineers enough information to begin physical work in selected areas.
D’vann changed the main display.
“Now, the first T-38.”
6:08 AM
A shelf of exposed bedrock appeared on the riverfront survey.
“We have an installation site,” D’vann said. “Thirty feet back from the river, twenty-two feet above the present water level.”
S’rethi enlarged the subsurface data.
Competent bedrock. No substantial voids beneath it. No need to wait for the inland filling operations.
The shelf required a Wonder Foam platform to establish the installation surface, but little other ground preparation.
“That’s remarkably convenient.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it.”
She worked through the geological returns.
“No extensive filling. No abandoned mine underneath.”
“Precisely.”
“Are you certain this is still Pennsylvania?”
He laughed and opened the platform layout.
The first fusion plant would stand beside the riverfront operations, separate from the reclamation machinery it would help power. Its installation could proceed while grading and stabilization continued farther inland.
S’rethi compared the platform position with the survey boundaries.
“The geological survey supports it. You’re cleared.”
D’vann transferred the approval to the installation plan.
“Good. We’ll start there.”
On another display, a T-24 approached the cavity.
It maneuvered above the opening and began injection. The shuttle needed neither an access road nor ground capable of supporting a procession of loaded vehicles.
D’vann watched the flow indicators.
“Think how long this would take with conventional fill.”
“Assuming you could get it into the appropriate places.”
“And get the delivery equipment out again.”
S’rethi nodded.
The foam disappeared into the depths. The survey continued measuring its expansion.
6:19 AM
R’alen joined them from his construction workstation.
“The grading crews are ready. Two routes have been adjusted around subsurface restrictions. The southern operations are unaffected.”
D’vann checked the revised plan.
“And the western sections?”
“Ready within the approved boundaries.”
S’ira brought up the geological restrictions.
“The eastern sector remains under survey. Filling continues, but no heavy grading equipment yet.”
“Agreed,” D’vann said.
He reviewed the routes once more, then looked toward S’rethi.
“Riverfront platform, grading in the cleared sectors, and continued stabilization at the six sites.”
She nodded.
“Survey updates will follow as they come in.”
R’alen waited at his station.
D’vann returned the approved plan.
“Start with the cleared ground.”
Outside, the first grading equipment moved into the shattered Pennsylvania landscape.
