L'Gem

  Chapter Twenty

  Knight, Nev and Blade were called at eleven seventeen, the next day, to move sculptures. When they got to the sculpture garden, they were the only things in it and walls were being taken down from around them. Even the planted hedges were gone, but another type was going in. So was a spa. Tate was working on building an enclosure for it. He had a little diamond in his ear. Nev looked in the door of the house, when he picked up straps. Keerse was inside running their extractor.

  "This happened very fast."

  "We had two neighborhoods working, Nev, Essa directing both. This neighborhood moved the solarium. Mike, Loren and Elise did furniture sorting early. Keerse selected some from their leftovers. The rest is going to other homes now. None of us needed to make anything on it and everyone knew who 'ought' to get newer. Currently, we're all leasing, until you get time to rework contracts. When you get those moved, Silky will be a very happy man. Essa's already building a play yard beside the house and all the art just moved to the same spot on a bit bigger walls in that one. Essa knew it would."

  "He loved this house."

  "Still does, but the word 'child' made that one even more right. He bought the play-yard equipment, nursery furniture and child-size furniture for the family room, this morning."

  "A happy man. The path?"

  "Danny, with the aid of Day and many, moved it to go around the sculpture garden. Doors were changed. She obviously plans to share a cat with Case and Stats. We like our new neighbors, and our old neighbors like them too."

  "You really surprised us, Tate."

  "I surprised me. The only ones not surprised were Keerse and Devy. My condo already has a tenant waiting. He can afford it now and his two roommates are waiting to spread out some and party at his place. Waco got a nice promotion and raise."

  "Congratulate him for us. Web time. I'm glad you're over here."

  "So am I. It became right for us when Knight found this for you. We're just sure you're the best examples and copying is a real good habit."

  Nev thought about it while he webbed sculptures and realized the living room of 'Elise's' house really was slightly larger 'the same.' Even the walls and carpet were the same tones. As he worked, he began to feel the rightness of having Silky, Essa and Jace in 'his' neighborhood. When they got the sculptures in place, they sat in the sculpture garden and ate the lunch Mike brought them. He sighed in contentment and Knight and Blade burst into laughter. Five blocks really had been 'too far away.'

  They worked until twenty that evening, then finished that project the next at twenty twenty-eight. They did two maintenance jobs in the morning and began the second project at thirteen nineteen. Case, Stats and Drand did three maintenance contracts and began their second project at fourteen forty-eight. Knight, Nev and Blade finished two short projects and their other rental contracts in four days. Case, Stats and Drand's second was larger.

  The election was scheduled to be held in seventeen days and two political conventions were in progress, but no ships had arrived and the patents hadn't been found. The Design Academy nomination committee arrived two days into Knight, Nev and Blade's fourth project. Case, Stats and Drand finished a short project and began their fourth the next morning.

  Both companies had begun fifth projects, two days later, when they suddenly got a flood of aid. 'Everyone in the neighborhood,' except Plimmer and Danny's black kitten, Bop, arrived at one or the other to help finish two big projects fast. Danny gave Knight, Nev and Blade an update.

  "The Design Academy committee put you both in five categories, the most ever, not all the same, seven total. The pro golf-tour selection committee is on the course and raving. The park has twenty-six city mayors and planners wandering through it. The sculpture garden had six art museum curators in it. Custom Vehicle News called for an appointment to see the flyers. The Design Academy passed the plans for the U to the Association of Architects and Builders. The patents were found. An interplanetary news service ship arrived at the portal three minutes into the news frenzy. Bressler is in 'full stall mode.' Yes, the patents are theirs. Yes, they knew about the redesign incorporating the patents. Yes, it was all done quietly, so they didn't overshadow the election. Yes, the proceeds from the patents will be used to complete funding of building the campus and an advanced physics program, then for facilities expansion there and scholarships at both. No, they're not saying who. The who did not choose the one hundred fifty-eight-year-old option of co-patenting with the university, and anonymous is anonymous. They're doing their best to keep the news crews circling there, until we can get this done and get you home at normal quitting time for the U crews. You there and Case, Stats and Drand with one more shorty before they are is Larry's best attention-spread plan. Lambert and Morelli are doing 'Of course it was redesigned. New methods, increased funding and incorporation of advanced programs required it.' They aren't denying they got the specs for the new patented tech first, and a little in advance of patent apps. They consider the reason obvious. Our little studs are wide-spread enough through the region, they're being noted as a 'cultural solution whose time had come.' The revision to make taxes simpler and lower for nontraditional families is being proposed as the 'trigger' for adoption, and it's spreading as fast as people can run to jewelers with printouts of size and placement."

  "Naturally, the news ship got here just as the pot boiled over."

  "Any info on interplanetary reaction to the exiles?"

  "Bance said the planetary news crews will be getting casual, while they're mutually on the big news, Knight, but he suspects we've got a perception problem, probably screams of abduction, theft, inhumane treatment and anything else they could think of to scream. He said the perception will change as fast as cam ops can talk while getting in position, reporters and editors will get the real story organized and out in a hurry and they're going to really wish they'd kept their mouths shut before it's over, but we may have to deal with the interplanetary courts first. Since we don't even know if we're members of anything out there, or really what they've been doing for the last thirty years, they ought to get the real image of just how walled-in we were. Those news crews are going to get a lot of 'Where the hell were you while the gov here was packaging us for sale as slaves?' The obvious peacefulness and total, 'Of course we helped get rid of them,' of the people will be noticed. We were evidently totally boring and not worth a glance. A way-out-there-and-who-cares entire world. New worlds and everything else interesting were the other direction."

  "Ooh, steam."

  "Bance, Jace and Silky scald at two meters, Blade. It's a little ship and came here after covering an 'interesting' planetary soccer championship game. They hadn't even noticed our money wasn't on the currency exchange. The mining corps were as oblivious to the branches out here as the branch managers expected. We hadn't been important producers for eighty years. The news crews expected an agrarian society. According to all their information, Gradelode was a low pop, low-tech iconoclastic world of little farms and big mines. Our cars have tech they've never seen. They aren't better, but they're different."

  "The tech wasn't more profitable than stealing from the people, or they would have."

  "I'm sure they would have, Blade. This one is really unusual."

  "Lots of color was a design request. We looked over the inside of the house before we started. Fem Bainer did it herself and it's great. Some rooms are vibrant and some muted, depending on their function. She has a lot of green inside in colored planters and pots, so we're carrying that out here. She told us to put hers after shorter projects because it would be 'big and different.' It was fun figuring out what to give her, but we don't mind the construction help at all."

  "We were sure you wouldn't, Nev. Here, bright red; over there, dusky pink?"

  "Shading from vibrant to muted between the two doors from rooms done vibrant and muted. This will have several retracting partitions that w
ill make it comfortable for the size and type of group. Only the one from there to there will totally enclose an area and there's a sub roof for that, very sound-damping. That door is from the family room and their fifteen-year-old son plans lots of loud big parties between now and when he finishes U. This is designed to hold more people than Nev's parents'. He's the main reason."

  "We have more space to use, but masses of teens will be moving around in a big part of it. Figuring out how to keep them from running into lights, tromping plants, falling over rails and down steps, while still making it all fit together and with the house decor wasn't easy, but it was fun."

  "It's going to be spectacular, Blade, and it's going to be done when the design-loving masses get here. It'll really help pull some of the attention away from the family places."

  "We may be increasing the size of their son's party invitation list, because they were sure it should. This is the biggest house and yard in the north central part of town, a block north of the historical district, two blocks from the park, pool and golf course one way and the secondary school the other. There's no doubt they'll use it all. Andrea said their social calendar looks like an ambitious salesperson's appointment schedule."

  "Ponce Caelton is raving about the job Case, Stats and Drand did on their house and already sending party invitations, Nev."

  "Dad asked Dorn about social occasion schedules. The hotels will actually make more. Catering pays and sorry-booked doesn't. Last year, several New Year parties were in temporarily emptied equipment sheds. There wasn't enough big stuff to make it pay for the hotels or town to fund construction, but private entertainment space was badly needed."

  "And the social schedule just got busier, especially in the luncheon and banquet listings. Drand reeled off a list of fundraisers that are annual traditional, into our personal calendars. They dovetail with Teal Valley's because Bressler jackets are sold at Merrill's.

  "We have more than half the neighborhood."

  "Case, Stats and Drand actually have more help. The intent is get them done fast, so they can get here. You were expecting to still be working here when the rain comes or the roof and wall assemblies wouldn't have been installed first."

  "About five days."

  "Uh, oh, do we need more help to get your done by seventeen?"

  "I doubt it. Case said they only expected to be three on theirs and maybe get the fourth started the third day. It's a just-like. It won't be, but it's close enough in size and shape to make the design and construction process simpler. You're on this, Blade. We'll start getting partition assemblies built."

  "I'll start on the fountains after this, Knight."

  "Good."

  "Two on bonders here! These planters are part of the support structure, Danny. That's why I'm working on them now. Because of the kids, this thing is going to be extremely solid and somewhat padded."

  "I noticed some materials were springy and corners are few in number."

  "We told them we wanted to spend more and why. They were very pleased to approve. We're going to use some of these materials fairly often. Some we'll use only when necessary. I think we'll still get more requests for primarily transparent than color, because of the lighting effects, but this place is going to give some people 'bright' ideas. It's also going to kick some always-use-the-same-thing designers and builders in the ass, before they start screaming, 'You can't do that,' about the U. Lambert and Morelli expect to hear a lot of yells. Design innovation is desirable, but don't change anything. Learning to use new stuff costs big companies training hours and raises bid prices. That's why most really new ideas come out of small ones. Morelli on why it'll be shocking but not surprising."

  "Tellerlock's OJT's made it going-to-train-anyway reasonable."

  "Appearing. They just plain wanted to kick ass and take next year's design award. Only built can be nominated, or they'd been in there for the original design, I think."

  "It was excellent. The new one is mouth-drop-open astounding."

  "We learned a lot from them. They built us all into an architectural design team in a very short time."

  "That I noticed fast. Here come the bonders, Mike and Loren."

  "Terrific. I'm going to lay out the five like this, start on the fountains, then lay out the next bunch. You decide when to move to more complex stuff."

  "Probably soon. Knight and Nev just covered an area with circuits."

  "Lots of partitions."

  They finished at seventeen thirty-eight. The Bainers had caterers filling the family room with food before they got all the people and equipment out. Mike and Loren were teased about changing jobs in the middle of a shift, as they went through. Loren said it had taken him a half-hour to remember he was using a bonder and he'd have stirred it several times if there'd been a spoon nearby. Elise said she'd moved a multi-wrench out of his reach fast and reminded Mike the bonder wasn't a sauté pan at fifteen-second intervals, for a while. The catering crew laughed and warned them hotels were filling fast.

  At twenty-two thirty, Knight, Nev and Blade went up to the mine. Sixty-three people were already there. They finished the roof and wall field projectors at two sixteen. They went home. Others invisibly transported the projectors and nine other less complex pieces of equipment to the campus construction site. When Knight, Nev and Blade went to work at seven thirty the next morning. Tatton walked over as soon as he saw them, grinning widely.

  "Here's a datpad with the plan. We need those things installed before the rain hits."

  "We need Drand and Dawn to do some of these connections."

  "Dawn's coming at thirteen. Drand doesn't expect to be much later. We'll try to have all the ground vents installed by then. We're moving fast. The OJT's are great."

  "Some may recognize me."

  "If they do, you'll be the only one they tell, Blade. There's heavy expectation about four of your reservations will come up in the six days between the two weather systems, Nev. Cambi and Chal said they'll make sure you don't get lunch or dinner two places at once, when I called and said I'll let whoever run for them and hope I'm leading the pack."

  "None yet, so they're going to stack up."

  "It happens about two years out of ten, and it's usually a real good year when it does."

  "I'll get everyone working in at least once."

  "I suspected you were planning on it when you said sixty. We'll work a little on 'appreciate is for wine; it's just plain taste good' and you think 'saving it for truly appreciate' should be dumped in the cycler. Paying in advance will help. They won't get hiccups looking at the price. They're so surprised to be paid decent, I had trouble not growling all day payday. And they're smart, careful and good."

  "If you weren't smart, careful and good, it was unlikely you'd survive long enough to have kids."

  "It was a more harsh environment than I could have imagined, but I see it in them, and work not to growl. Be careful talking to Harmon. I doubt she cooled down overnight. She learned they expected to start paying for their housing as soon as they got paid. She impressed them all with her extensive vocabulary, while I got on the comm and yelled be specific on what 'provided for program duration' means. The OJT coordinator yelled, 'Pock! Comm out!' I'm one of the first on-location employers. That was my third yell. The coordinator and I have a someday date for an actual conversation. That's your crane. That trac has everything else you should need on or behind. It'll make the hill. Personal comm code is 'dammit Tat.' I'm subcontractor contact on this stuff. If you need, yell for delivery. Don't run back. There's a kid learning the entire equipment and materials list getting things to people. If you get those set up, I think Dawn and Drand can get roof connections made before it rains."

  "They think so, or Drand would be here. Nev check out the crane. Blade, trac. I'll take the LH. Are you ready to get power generation started?"

  "We should have eight generators installed in two hours. Shellet
-Hollison said they'll have eight more here tonight and the other sixteen in two batches over six days. I may not believe those little things can power everything after they're doing it."

  "There will be a lot of airflow through the vents. Once we get the whole system charged, they could turn on everything on the campus and run it for ten days with negligible reduction in the system level, but the eight will run this and your equipment direct with no problem."

  "Ventilation, power generation and heating all in one."

  "It's been around millennia, Tat, but broadcast and solar didn't take fans, so no one upgraded it when tech and storage improved. The new power stores and the venting system just made it real silly to buy power."

  "In at the bottom and out of the top, silent invisible and a gentle warm breeze."

  "Not invisible, but you have to get close to see a ten-cen vent in the ground."

  "And they'll be in discreet little spots all over campus. The crew running the trenchers call themselves 'lawn lumpers.' The ducts aren't much bigger than their burrows. They'll have them all laid in about two days. It sure is an interesting way to do a project. Do all the land prep and put in every system going to every building, and the sprinklers, first, literally from the ground up. Huge projects like this were usually done in chunks over several years. This one's going to flow across the land and be finished in one. When I get these kids trained well enough they don't need someone close to ask questions, I'll get more. I'd enjoy coming in so far under projected time, the whole region would giggle, and everyone would know just how big the gov lies about them were. Ready?"

  "Nev?!"

  "Ready!"

  "Blade?!"

  "Ready!"

  "We'll be back when these are up. Here, Loren made. Eat those midmorning. You'll notice the work he put into packing them with brain and body fuel."

  Tatton checked the intake vents, all under a lip on the outside of the one-point five meter high white wall that ran across the front of the campus land. He found where the vents were covered and smiled. The kids installing the little fans, and heat units behind them, were definitely going to be done in an hour. Like everything else in the plan, the wall had been fast and simple. Every vent narrowed to an aperture in a pipe below the ground. The pipes were already prepped for fan, heaters and conduit.

  Generators would be housed in the pedestal bases of fountains. The thirty-two fountains were in place and plumbed.

  The approved campus colors were teal, of course, and gold. In the center of the shallow gold-veined teal pools atop the pedestals of the same color, were thick torchier-crowned teal columns. Cascading gold 'dishes' were mounted on a wide band of gold that spiraled around them. Each column was ten meters tall and sixty cens in diameter. Each was also a 'power stick.' Only the fields required a great deal of power, and they didn't require eight generators. In a few days, Drand would have the system connected. As soon as he did, all power not required to maintain steady-state would go to charge the columns.

  The eight outflow vents on the back of the campus were translucent columns. Their intakes were just openings a half meter below where the 'roof' would be. Their outflow was a second set of columns. They were more carefully constructed. Their tops curved forward and widened. Their openings were wind-shielded and they would blow down on the roof and east, dissipating the warm air. Their placement and shape were to prevent warm air reaching the forested mountainside behind them. Sensors already on trees within it would warn if design alone was not enough. A warning would be very surprising, but no chance the warm air would impact the forest would be taken. It wasn't close and a wind toward it shouldn't carry warmth that far, but it would be watched.

  The contour and shape of the field could be set as a projector was built. It couldn't be changed, unless the projector was rebuilt. That had allowed them to follow the shape of the land, not make a box within the boundaries of the property. It had been that which had required Knight, Blade and Nev.

  They'd taught several the method, but building the shape of the field to fit the ground to a depth of one cen, choosing trees to leave out and trees to go in and determining how far around each to go on three sides had not been easy. They'd worked on it many evenings.

  The wall field was a complete enclosure, a dome, though the bottom followed the rise and fall of the land and the top was flat. It only required one projector but it had to be above and behind it and the roof field couldn't be between. The roof couldn't have a steep overhang in that one place. It had to be wider. That meant it would keep moisture from a wide area. The solution was a steep hill.

  It was the back wall of the campus. The vent columns were near the base and the projectors would be near the top, but getting up there took a trac with more than usual tenacity.

  They got the hole dug and Knight held onto the trencher down the hill. They got the conduit in the projector column connected to that in the trench and set the column very precisely, filled the hole and checked the precision of the alignment again. The projector mounts couldn't be moved. If the column wasn't set correctly, they had seven minutes to turn it and it would take all three of them.

  They whooped, covered the orange garliner with dirt, tamped it, added more dirt, then replaced the sod and pounded a low ridge of quick bio-degrading material into the ground above it. It would protect the sod from runoff until it was again part of the mat that held the soil on the hill. It would also feed it as it deteriorated.

  Knight and Nev filled the trench. They tamped, added dirt, heavily seeded and pounded ridges about every third meter down the hill. Blade drove the trac down, then began seeding and pounding ridges across its tracks. Knight rode the crane up with an armload of ridges and began pounding ridges across, down from the top. They were a forest agra development, specifically for the purpose of deepening and thickening the root mat. It was scheduled maintenance, every three years.

  Nev used it to deliver more ridges to Blade, placed some about where Knight would need them, checked the plan and began digging a conduit trench from the base of the hill to the grid of conduit being laid across the campus. Before long, he met lawn lumpers coming from the other direction. He handed over the trencher. The one running a trencher began digging a cross-trench. The one to whom he'd given his measured the distance along the path of the cross-trencher, then began digging going east. The laying, filling and seeding crew weren't far behind the trenchers.

  Nev watched a moment and smiled. The entire campus would be wired and plumbed in a very short time. He walked back to the crane and delivered the last of the ridges to Knight and Blade, then attached the work platform. He backed the LH into position, put the platform right on the tailgate, then moved the projectors to the center of it. They were neither small nor light.

  When they got them mounted, they would have one more thing to do, wrap the column with grower's mesh, plant darkthorn and wrap its tendrils around the mesh, up the column. It wouldn't spread across the hill or onto the projectors. It had to have something to grasp and neither ground nor projector mounts provided it.

  It would keep anything from climbing the column. In spring, it had deep-throated blue blossoms the pollinators loved, but nothing landed on it. They had gloves and gauntlets to work with it. It was native to the region and forest farmers used it to keep small animals and bark beetles out of fruit trees, and its berries were a more attractive lunch to avians. The mesh was sized for it.

  In the wild, it grew in several types of bushes, protecting them from two creatures that ate twig buds as fast as they appeared. It didn't become too dense and heavy for bushes because it broke off old growth and fell, making room for new growth and adding nutrients to the soil as it decomposed.

  It took Knight and Blade a great deal longer to wrap the blackthorn tendrils than it did to mount the projectors. By the time they finished, the lawn lumpers were halfway back up the campus and they were hungry. They drove the crane, trac
and LH back to the east end of the campus and got their lunch out of the back of Knight's car. Everyone else was heading for the big tables that had their lunch on them. Tatton sat down on the ground beside their car with them at eleven fifty-three.

  "The fans and heaters are all in. The lawn lumpers are going to finish tomorrow, probably well before quitting time. We'll be ready to hook up everything as the generators come in. I got a bunch of delivery times. Not all were pleasing. We're going to put roads in first. We've got one little company that's having to wait for a piece of equipment from a big one. They're having a quality control problem and won't ship until they track it down and make sure the equipment won't break down in the middle of a job. From the sound of it, the tracking may go back about four companies before they find the problem, but they're working on it."

  "It won't hurt to do roads, walks and even parking lots first. You could put in fountains, bushes and benches first. Do everything except right around where the buildings are going in if you want."

  "I know, Blade, but I'm not teaching these kids to build doing the landscaping, and that's almost all we've done. I'm also not making good use of your time."

  "We can do a couple other projects and come back, but I understand the frustration of not being able to teach the OJT's what they're really here to learn. And yours. I'm sure you'd want to yell you're a builder not a landscaper well before it was done."

  "Some of it's anticipation of using the new materials and methods, Knight. Worked them all out and haven't gotten to try them. It's always exciting to see what you're building go up anyway. There's Drand, early."

  "Hi! Case and Stats don't need me after lunch! The whole thing will be done about fifteen thirty!"

  "That's fast! What happened?"

  "Stats suggested two design changes, Nev. They loved them and they made it much simpler to do. It'll make it far less just-like and fit their entertainment style better. He was talking about a party plan and Stats saw a way to make it more just-for-you. Pleased customers."

  "Had lunch yet?"

  "Munched on the way, Tat, too hungry to wait until I got here. You're ready for me?"

  "We've got the generators in and the fans hooked up. All we need for those is you to hook them to a control matrix. The whole campus will be ready to connect tomorrow, but about six days before all the generators are here."

  "A piece that goes on the bottom is stuck, with unknown send date."

  "I wondered why he sounded disgusted when that's so fast, Blade."

  The hookup of the system was laid out, but it wasn't simple. The matrix controls had to be programmed and there was a great deal of computation involved. Dawn got there at twelve fifty-one and it began to go much faster. One did hook, test, unhook, hook, test while the other ran computations and constructed the program. They were done at thirteen twenty-two and the generators switched on. There wasn't a great deal of air moving through the system, but it was enough. Drand grinned and turned on the projectors.

  "There will actually be more power in the system with those power-eating monsters running. I suggest you leave them on until all the generators are here and we're ready to connect the main matrix."

  "There's no real reason to turn it off at this point, is there?"

  "Not really, Dawn. We're not done with ducting and vents, but those are going in with everything else being laid. The kids will notice it's blowing harder in their faces when they connect, but it won't be difficult to get the vent caps on. I'm about to be wasting your time."

  "Please don't take our excuse to tell people we aren't available for a while, Tat. We've got all the people who desperately needed entertainment space done. Andrea said so. We'd be delighted to landscape and go home at seventeen for a while. Oh, and have days off. Maybe play a little golf, swim in the pool…"

  "Get back to doing regular workouts, Nev."

  "Ow, it's going to hurt to start, Blade, but I've been counting days we didn't have time too."

  "Anybody wanting to stick their noses through the field, do it now! It's on!"

  Harman ran for the front wall and the OJT's whooped and followed. Bance, Jace and Silky, on the road, knew the field was on by the people lined up moving their faces back and forth, working to get their noses in position to block airflow into them. Jace stopped quick and got an image, changed places with Bance and they drove in the entry with the windows down to feel it. Jace got out smoothly, went around the front and Bance got out.

  "There was a slight chill as the warm air around our bodies was replaced, but it's summer and I doubt it will be noticed by anyone walking through in winter. Flyer parking will not be on the campus itself because of the cap shield. 'Cap' is a good word for that one. It's not flat or snow would lay on it. It's convex. It doesn't need to be more. Any slope at all will cause snow to slide off because there's nothing to grip it. 'Slick 'is an inappropriate term because it implies a surface and there isn't one. In thirty-seven minutes, it will begin to rain, but we won't get wet. We would if the cap shield wasn't on. Everything but air passes through the wall field. However air flows beneath it, and will be warmed in winter, before it's vented all around and through the campus. This is Tatton Tellerlock, owner of Tellerlock Construction. Tat, how many vents?"

  "One thousand two hundred eighty."

  "That's a lot, but it's a big campus. Will people feel the heated air?"

  "If they stand right over a vent, they'll notice a slight warm breeze coming up, but not much. The airflow through each intake vent is split, and each outflow vent is bigger than the duct to it. The campus will have a gentle breeze through it, but because the outflow is at the west end. Now, that's for a reason. Wind can come from any direction, but here, it's seldom east. The vent towers at the rear of the campus point east, so the wind doesn't blow warm air into the winter-adapted forest. It's also higher back there. Warm air rises, so the vents will keep it from getting too hot here too. The vents aren't really necessary for there to be enough breathable air in here. With as much green as this will have, there's more danger of there being too much oxygen than too much carbon dioxide, but they give us temperature control and power."

  "Power?"

  "Wind power. The incoming air spins fans and they drive generators. When fully charged, the system could power the whole campus and Teal Valley for half-a-season, before it needed a recharge. It's fifteen hundred-year-old tech with the materials of today increasing it's efficiency vastly."

  "You haven't started a building yet."

  "We were supposed to, but we've got the type of can't-ship-yet tie-up every builder dreads and expects. Here, there's a great deal we can do while we wait. The first thing done was the small amount of reshaping of the land needed, and removal of big trees that wouldn't survive without winter. The whole campus power, plumbing and vent system will be done in a couple days, then we can do everything from roads to landscaping, if we still have to wait."

  "For what?"

  "The foundation materials. If it was anything else, we could start. We'll prep for foundations for every building on the campus if it takes that long, but it shouldn't. A lot of good people are hunting down a quality problem, and I don't expect to be running a grass seeder."

  "Is the foundation problem due to the materials?"

  "No, we'd be waiting if we'd ordered plastine. I won't say who, because it might sound like they're not a good company, but a big tech manufacturer yelled, 'don't ship,' until they found out why some recently produced usual equipment failed. It could go all the way back to a circuit-etcher in someone else's company that's not cutting deep enough or a micrometer too wide. They'll find it before I'm scattering grass seed, I really hope."

  "There's good grass here."

  "We aren't going to remove it, but we'll seed with a better type suited for the purpose. Because it is, it'll eventually take over. The whole campus has already been power raked, so is prepped for it."

&nbs
p; "Ridges of dirt everywhere."

  "Power, water and vents everywhere. In a few days, every brown lump will flatten and be covered in grass. The sprinklers are going in right along with the rest of it."

  "An odd way to start a big building project?"

  "Very, but we'll never tear up the place to hook up a new building. Everything to do it is already there."

  "It's really moving fast?"

  "Yes, and the OJT's are why. I've never seen better workers, and you don't have to explain anything twice. I very highly recommend participation in the program to every employer in any business. The gov lied. We all knew it. I've seen the biggest lie they told was about people in the sub districts. They knew they were capable of learning and doing anything. They just didn't want anyone hiring them because they planned to sell them. The ones planning to buy them weren't worried they couldn't handle high-tech equipment. Slave labor doing skilled worker jobs, very profitable. That newscrew probably doesn't believe it. It may be only we can describe it. People other places couldn't look at anything but their feet, or they'd be beaten, raped, imprisoned, usually all three. We watched what we said on comm, didn't give them excuses to come here and assured we were more profitable if left alone. It was all anyone could do, until every sane person on this world was ready to take it apart themselves, knew everyone else was, and was just waiting for someone to say, 'Now.' We got more than that or we'd have still been fighting in the streets, but we'd have fought, man, woman and child to the last one, once it began."

  "Perhaps that's what they don't understand, that we were ready to sacrifice our lives to free our world and were spared death and destruction."

  "They probably don't understand that if IS hadn't been in such confusion they didn't supply their troopers, and we hadn't made sure they didn't have an excuse, they'd have just killed ten or fifteen thousand up here, in an attempt to scare the rest of the world into precisely following orders, either. They couldn't have won the war they started, but they had all the weapons and couldn't see wars are fought by people, not weapons. They'd have lost either way, but I'm really grateful we're not in mourning for tens of thousands."

  "We all are, Tat. It wasn't a bloodless revolution, but only the most vile of our abusers died and there's no one mourning them."

  "Maybe we should tell the newscrew every person on this world would donate to cover the cost of trials. Exile isn't really satisfying. It would really tie up traffic in Lodestar, when every sane person on Gradelode showed up to say they want to testify, but if that's what they want, they can come back."

  "We'll remind people to carpool, if they do. Bance Neardon, Channel Forty-eight, on the future campus of Bressler Northwest University. They renamed it this morning, Tat. They'd had to repeat it for reporters so many times it was driving them crazy, and then the reporters shortened it for broadcast after saying it once."

  "I wish they'd left agriculture in it."

  "It's the BNU College of Agriculture, College of Physical Science, College of… The accreditation rating and status rose as soon as they put 'College' instead of Department' or 'School' in front. They're reworking that campus too. They're trying to develop a way to not split the pool of best professors for each field between the two, and make it obvious where the top grad students belong. There will still be many Departments on both, but the highly-developed programs, with the best they can get to teach, will be specified as being in the college of."

  "I knew a lot did it, but not it got them rated higher."

  "It won't stay if it's not proven, but Bressler's got enough prestige to get it to start. You all look pleased."

  "It's because were sitting down, Bance. We all remembered how."

  "I'd been wondering if you would, Drand. I'm sorry to suggest Tat send you west to work, preferably on big equipment."

  "The swarm is right behind you."

  "All coming to watch the rain not fall, Dawn, and find them. Case and Stats got a crew fast, Vass Bainer is hanging onto some. Carler and Milla have some. Kail has some. Lillen has some. Morelli has some. The golf pro, Abra, has some. They're all talking about anything that sounds remotely like the subject to keep them from overrunning Case and Stats, but they can't hold them when it gets close to time to rain."

  "Want to build a road?"

  "Sounds lovely, Tat."

  "You can cut right to where the lawn lumpers are on the main, Knight. You're chief on the subcontract, whatever you decide it is. If you want to use the crane to install fountains, that's contract."

  "Thanks."

  "A walk layer is real loud, Knight, and there are two."

  "Good point, Blade."

  "Tat, if you want some of the OJT's to learn this stuff…"

  "Another good reason to leave you alone, Nev, and I definitely do."

  "I'll set fountains with a crane, and teach whoever you send out to use it."

  "Perfect! Harmon!"

  Case and Stats got there ahead of the swarm and ran for equipment. Their OJT's didn't get left behind. The lawn lumpers were proving the trenchers could operate at specification maximum. They'd been asked if they wanted old-timers to take over. They'd said they wanted to finish the job, but it was obvious they intended to do it fast and get in on the heavy equipment training. Tat's regular crew weren't being left out, of course, but they had fewer OJT's than they'd had and they were teaching those to use other things. They were beginning two more foundation preps.

  Tat smiled widely. Nev had come up with exactly the type of training and missing-material solution he'd been trying to figure out, since he'd learned they were going to be stalled. He was sitting on the tailgate of his LH, writing a training subcontract on the comp on his lap, and the only one in the area of the construction site 'base,' when the first of the "swarm" came in. Dawn had run for it and Bance, Silky and Jace had followed the big equipment west. He glanced up, waved and smiled and went back to work. Lunchtime was over, and he was sure one of the spokespeople would be there before long. Kail was the next arrival and drove over to him.

  "Drand called. It's great."

  "I'd been going in circles of 'what the hell do I do with forty-eight, four, eighteen and six,' when Nev came up with it."

  "That's my boy. Very busy construction site, obviously."

  "Tied up on one thing can't stop work. They're getting a lot done and getting the kids ready to do the main piece. I'm subcontracting the two companies to help train, and it'll say so as soon as I finish this. Lunch ended at thirteen, abruptly."

  "That bunch is moving fast."

  "I've moved up the estimate on how soon they'll have power, water, sewer and heat ducts done for the whole campus every day since they started, but I didn't expect to do it twice today. You know I'm dodging the swarm. Did my spiel for the news at lunch."

  "I'll remind them not to interrupt training sessions, but they'll probably wander."

  "Just let them know we keep track of time in minutes and 'just a few minutes' interruption of six to eight is steep enough the accountant looks for who to send the bill. I might not worry about it, but the OJT's record how long they're on the toilet. You had one of those bars Loren made?"

  "Yes, and felt it."

  "I want one hundred fifty of them, or some other he does for everybody, twice per work day. Look at those kids. They're going to need something by fifteen and I know what we've got isn't enough. I learned it's not even enough for me this morning, so I want for my regular crew too."

  "He said they aren't expensive to make. I'll figure out some way he won't be doing it at night and charging eight credits an hour, because I said add labor. He's not a dietitian or a chef, yet."

  "Get a calorie count on them. I've got a couple with slow enough metabolisms they watch. If they split one, there are a couple of real fast-burners who won't argue if Harmon slaps a bar and a half in their hands."

  "I'll probably get a nutritional analysis. Here they all come. See
you later."

  Since the wind was blowing from the west, and he was near the west end, Knight ran for the hill to see if rain was blowing into the place the roof didn't have an overhang. His trainees couldn't keep up, but they followed. So did Bance, Jace and Silky. It wasn't a wide area, but it had to be wider than the projector. He explained what he was checking and why, then grinned when Bance got a 'from here to here' and stood in the middle of it. Knight motioned his trainees back to watch.

  "I'll do a pan down to him, Silky. Bance start with 'what's this.' Five second image, Silky, and…"

  "Those are the field projectors. The lower one is the wall and upper the cap. In this place, the cap can't overhang. The wall field can't project through it. The projectors are on that steep hill because it blocks the wall here. It's not as good as the cap overhang. I can feel a little coming through right here, but I'm not getting wet. This storm was described as being, 'like it read optimum test parameters.' Jace, give them a good image of the grass right here. There are a few visible water droplets, and it's a damp, but this is as 'bad' as it can get. Bigger or smaller drops, more or less wind, snow or hail, none would make this place more wet. The combination of the mountain, trees, hill and the cap that extends over just a bit, shelter this a great deal. Something it's interesting to note is that it's only the other field that the wall field projection can't penetrate. A blizzard or a solid object wouldn't affect it, but it can't project through another field. It's very wet out there. Right here, and only here, a drop falls occasionally. Bance Neardon, Channel Forty-eight News, on the west end of the future campus of Bressler Northwest University in Teal Valley. Wrap it."

  "Full identifier every time?"

  "Hammison said any and every chunk could be picked up by others, Knight. This one more likely than most, but there are a lot of people much more interested in what they're doing than the rain not coming in."

  "It's more important."

  "Yes, it is."

  "You both mean that."

  "Abram, no thing is as important as people. The whole mess we had on this world was because people who value things above people got control of it. That's what greed is."

  "Gov propaganda was intended to make everyone think of people in specific areas in other terms than people. Subsidized, addicts, economic indebted, any word but 'people' was used and promoted. It was terribly successful. Tatton says, 'OJT's,' but he also says, 'kids,' and far more often. Some of you aren't kids, but that's people-plus to him, and to most. The gov called children in the subsidized districts 'sub-adults' or 'minors,' not kids or children."

  "Been talking to Doc Larry?"

  "You've been busy, Knight. You know I go nuts if I haven't asked somebody a question in two hours. Better run for it. Some of those designers walk fast."

  "Yipe!"

  It was the designers who saw the shape of the campus. They walked around trees and saw branches didn't penetrate the wall and had room to grow, though some would need to be pruned at intervals. They looked through rain past a tree and saw another dry area.

  The designers watched fountains being set. They weren't alike and each was chosen for its location. Another crew were preparing pools and building fountain bases. Sidewalks were broad and straight, but there were narrow footpaths being laid, where a few people would take a shortcut and make one over time.

  Seventeen types of trees and bushes were being planted. They checked. Trees that required winter to survive had already been removed, holes filled or other trees planted and all the pools dug out. Nine caught Tanton with a cup of tea in one hand and a biscuit in the other.

  "There wasn't much to do to the land. We rounded a couple hills, filled a few dents and smoothed some lumps."

  "There's a group using a construction crane to move fountains one person could lift. I know it's training, but why those?"

  "A heavy load is easier. It takes a lot more precise control to position something that light. After they learn on the fountains, most of which wouldn't break if they hit a tree or were dropped, they'll be able to control big loads, which could take out a hunk of what we've already built if they swung into it, or cost a great deal to replace if something was dropped and cracked. My break's over. I'm about to stuff a biscuit in my mouth, wash it down and get back to work. Now that I've got everyone here I need to train the kids, I have a schedule to work out, so those not being specifically trained will still get familiar with all the equipment. The next batch of OJT's will be setting benches with a crane. Of course, I'm going to ask for more. They're fantastic and every builder on the planet will be looking for someone with experience with new methods, materials and technology very soon."

  "Where are you getting the new tech?"

  "So far, right over there the day it's needed. No manufacturer licenses have been sold yet, so it's probably lab produced prototype. Where the lab is and who's in it, I don't know, but I sure wish everybody else was as on-time with delivery."

  Late that afternoon, Tatton got a delivery date on the foundation material. The quality control problem had been found. He was very pleased. The timing was perfect. It was going to arrive the day everything else was done and all the OJT's were ready to build.

  He called the OJT program coordinator. They had a nice conversation and worked out when and how many would be sent in each batch, until he had all three hundred he wanted. He was sure they'd find a way to train or familiarize all of them with all the equipment before the project was done, "impossibly early."