radiation gauge from his pack. Then they went in toreport to Snow Supervisor Morley Wilson, known affectionately to hissubordinates as "The Scourge."
The leather-textured face of the senior engineer turned up at them asthey entered the office. Wilson's face was tanned and weather-beatenby the sun, wind and snows of a thousand mountains and it was rumouredthat when he went up for annual physical examination, the lab merelyran pollution tests on the ice water that flowed in his veins insteadof blood.
"I didn't expect you two back so soon," he said with a scowl. "What'sthe matter? Couldn't you get to the gauge?"
Alec laid the faulty device on Wildon's desk. "No trouble, boss. Justspeedy work by your best juniors."
Wilson snorted. "You must have had the chopper land you on the ridgein spite of orders." He reached for the gauge. Troy and Alec exchangedsmiles. The old man had received a full report of the conditions inthe Sawtooths together with a check on their activities at least anhour ago. He knew what they had to contend with to switch thegauge--and he knew they knew he was just barking.
"Another one of the transmitters shot again," he muttered. Wilsonpunched the intercom on his desk. "Shiver," he called, "get up hereand get this radiation gauge you said was so good."
In the communications repair section three levels underground, thesenior comm tech snapped out a fast "yessir" and bolted for the door.
"What did you leave up there?" Wilson asked.
"We put a CS gauge thirty feet from the survey point," Troy said. "Itwas working fine and it's on a flat shelf with virtually the same packand strata formation this one came out of."
"What's it look like up there," Wilson asked. The supervisor wasnearing the end of forty years of service with Snow Hydrology and inhis early days, the last vestiges of the crude "man-on-the-spot"surveys were still in operation.
Despite loud and emphatic defense and reliance on the new and complextechniques of electronic measurements, he still felt the need to feelthe texture of the snows himself and to observe with his own eyes thesweep of the snow pack molded against the shoulder of a towering crag.Chained to the desk by responsibility, he used the eyes of his juniorengineers and surveyors to keep a semblance of the "seat of the pants"technique of forecasting that he had lived with and lived by.
"The pack is good," Alec reported, "and what we saw of the southslopes is holding well. It was snowing from the time we got into thearea until we pulled out this morning, so we didn't really get a longsighting. But what we saw looked fine."
The old man nodded with satisfaction. "You two go get out of thatfield gear and then report back here in an hour. We've got a staffconference and I want you two in on it." He dismissed them with a waveof his hand and went back to the reports piled on his desk.
In the locker room, Troy and Alec peeled out of the snowsuits andchanged into street clothes. "I wonder what's in the wind," Troy askedthoughtfully. "Must be something big enough to bug the old man intobrain-picking, otherwise he'd never stoop to juniors before making adecision."
"Probably just wants to set up next summer's vacation schedule," Alecgrunted as he bent over to slip on his shoes. "You can bet that if itwere something important, he'd never be concerned with the opinions ofthe likes of us."
* * * * *
An hour later they walked back into the supervisor's office to find itjammed with the heads of all sections together with leading techs andjunior engineers. "Go next door and grab yourselves a couple ofchairs," Wilson barked, "and then get back in here."
When the full staff was assembled, Wilson stood up and faced thegroup.
"This won't take too long," he began, "but it's a problem that I wantall of you to be considering during the next fifteen days because wehave to come up with a reasonable solution to the problem--justanother one that's been dumped in our laps."
He pressed a button on his desk and a mural, three-dimensionaltypographical map of the five-state Region Six flashed on the wallbehind him. Across the top of the map was a line of illuminatednumerical panels that shifted in values before their eyes, changingwith the factor information constantly being fed into the computers.These were the constant monitoring reports from the regional computerson snow pack, moisture content, streamflow, water consumption andother that formulated the equations that the forecasters and rationcontrollers user in determining water supply allocations.
Hundreds of multi-colored lights on the map indicated industrial,municipal, domestic and agricultural water use facilities.
"We've been asked to assist in the critical situation in Region Five,"Wilson continued. "Region Five included California, Nevada, Arizonaand Utah. As you've seen from the combined western forecasts, snowpack has been much below normal this year in Region Five and has forthe past three years. We've been piping a lot of water down the lineand so far, they've been able to meet demands. But a new factor hasentered.
"For the past three years, again as many of you are aware, SpaceDepartment has been gearing for the start of Venus Colony. I'm notexpert in this field but from what friends of mine who are closelyassociated with the project tell me, there's a big difference inbuilding a vehicle to carry a survey and exploration team and thetechnology involved in building both vehicles and life-supportequipment for a colony operation. All of which leads up to the currentproblem.
"Our friends in Space have now firmed up the specialized equipmentthey want and the quantities. Prototype of all of this gear have beenbuilt and tested, mostly fabricated by the Southern California Spaceand Electronics Complex. Now they're ready to go into production. Butthe fly in the ointment is that it calls for five new productionunits.
"With the Southern Cal Complex operating under water deficits plustransmission costs for the past three years and with no improvement insight, they just don't have the water to handle five more majorindustrial units. Their population census is also up again. This meansthe units will have to be located somewhere else, possibly only untilthe production schedule is completed; possibly on a permanent basis ifVenus Colony pans out. The trained manpower pool is in Southern CalComplex and it will have to be displaced to wherever the units arelocated."
* * * * *
Wilson paused for a moment and looked around the room.
"I can see that you're way ahead of me. And you're right. We've beenasked to make a projection to determine if we can handle them inRegion Six, preferably in the Portland-Seattle Industrial Complex ornear thereto."
He indicated a stack of bound manuscripts on his desk. "These arecopies of the full prospectus of the proposed units; power output,equipment, manpower, water absorption, water return, domestic andmunicipal demands, et cetera, for the project.
"I want each of you to take a copy, study it in the light of yourspecialty, and then submit your recommendations to your department andsection chiefs within the next ten days. The departmental andsectional reports will be consolidated for my study and then we'llmake our report to Washington.
"But let me give you this parting thought to keep foremost in yourconsideration. In all probability, whether we agree to it or not,we're going to get stuck with the units. We have the most dependablewater recharge in the nation and we have the physical space for theunits. Dislocating and trying to relocate just the people involved inthis project is a monumental thing in itself and would be a virtualimpossibility east of the Mississippi. You can bet your last cent thatthis was all taken into account before Washington ever politelysuggested that we review the situation and give our opinion.
"I don't think they give a damn about our opinions. They just want tosee how lavishly they can operate with what we offer. So bear that inmind for my information. I need to know as close to the absolute lastdrop of moisture where this is going to put us and where we have toshut down and cut corners throughout the Region to accommodate the newindustry.
"Now we're not going to get this solved or anything else done by mytalking about it. Get out of here and back to work. You've got
tendays to come up with the answer and you can expect to be saddled withthe additional production units within one hundred twenty days. That'sall gentlemen except to say that, as occurred when I asked you twoyears ago for a similar projection for the laser unit complex, I willnot accept any solutions calling for a pogrom of all Anglo whiteProtestants between the ages of six and sixty."
The meeting broke up in laughter as the engineers crowded up to thedesk to pick up copies of the prospectus.
Troy and Alec fell into step with Jordan Plumber, their section chief.
"One thing you have to admire in the old man," Alec commented,