Chapter Twenty-seven
When Knight awoke, Loren was in their kitchen making breakfast for many. He told him Nev and Blade had gone to get drive cover supplies and there were several, who thought they were only going to take short naps, in beds. Knight said they didn't have that many beds. Loren pointed to the back patio.
"It's a town meeting?"
"Four napping were noticed fast. Ponce Caelton's wife knew where they were. Chief Dennon called Nev with a warning. Mike had your comm on forward to us. Nev and Blade still woke up as soon as I started breakfast."
"Nev always hears the tea brewer. Blade hears any unusual step."
"That's when they came out. Elise is covering the town office, I think."
"It looks like it. How did you keep the drive clear?"
"Not me. Chief Dennon said keep off until you get it covered, so you could get to the campus."
"Comm connect Old White Workhorse. Good morning."
"Good morning. We're close."
"I've got an idea and we've got a full patio."
"That's why the patio is what's full."
"They'll probably be gone by the time we finish the drive."
"After breakfast, Blade."
"Yes, Loren."
"Knight, if they're not, we'll disappear."
"What about work?"
"What's most important?"
"It's all part of it, Nev. It's all got to be too fast. It's what 'Hammer' said."
"I thought the trigger was 'precipitate,' Knight."
"It was and we are, Blade."
"Got it."
"Breakfast ready."
"Coming in, Loren. Comm out."
The 'neighborhood crew' arrived for breakfast and to help install everything Nev had decided to build. The drive cover would recess into the ground. So would the enclosure that would cover the area from the house to over the front walk.
After Nev told Knight the plan, he said he now understood why he'd expected their guests to be gone before they finished. Blade told him Nev had decided an enclosure would be less 'view blocker' and encourage more use of the front door and the viewroom. Nev added it also gave Blade some room to play in the front yard. Knight smiled and nodded. Blade groaned.
With all of them working, it didn't take long. It was all simple installation. When they finished, Blade turned the heater on in the front enclosure, took the back seats out of Knight's car and left. Knight said he obviously had an idea about the "play room." Nev walked into the house and opened the windows to the "new room to speed warming."
Blade came back, unloaded plants and left. he came back, unloaded containers and left. They'd all gotten too curious to wait and were exploring containers when he returned.
Blade 'directed' and they dug, planted, filled and installed things. In a very short time, the new enclosure became a "blooming paradise." Everyone knew they weren't done. Blade had made four more trips, while they worked, then left again. When he returned, there was an MH following him. Blade had decided to 'greenscape' the viewrooms.
They were no longer part of the path to any of them when they finished. Each had a low brewer bar with containers of tea and cups that coordinated with the big pillows. They had plants and flowing water "from ceiling to floor" and invited people to brew a pot of tea and use a pillow nest, to sit and look out between cascades of green.
They weren't carefree. Water would have to be added, but the tanks in the brewer bars were large enough to make several pots of tea and the plant water systems wouldn't require filling often, either. The last container opened had a crystal water pitcher for every house. If someone carried water that wasn't needed, the pitchers would be pretty sitting on the brewer bars. As they walked back to the house, Nev told Blade he'd been sure he'd find a way to "enhance" the appearance of the house year-round, and worked at being sure.
"I had to, Nev. We both ached a little the whole time we were figuring out how to do all this stuff. We ached some when we made this walk because we'd kill the grass here."
"You did?"
"Of course, Knight. We were changing the image of home and it's precious to us too."
"I wish you'd told me that."
"You thought it was just you?!"
"I thought resenting it the whole time we built it was sort of childish, Nev."
"Knight, I wish you were ever childish. Once in a great while, you're 'nineteen' and it makes both of us feel good."
"Like last night."
"When I nearly suffocated you, or when I realized you were both in my bed got excited?"
"Yes."
"Yes. I deserved it. She's a very special friend, but not my best friend or my true love. I wasn't ready for the love affair to be over, but it was just shorter than I wanted it to be. Now I realize it was probably a good thing. She was working to remember you two are my forever loves and I was so damn secure I didn't need to. I'll call her, because I do love her, but I'm looking forward to laughing at myself for being jealous when she finds her forever love."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
"I love you three? Perfect timing. Here they come. Let's sit at the table and watch expressions."
"Touralee! And blue velvet. Millipinks?"
"You have a good nose, Andrea."
"Obviously right out this window. Move over, Nev, I want to watch faces too."
"She doesn't miss anything, Blade."
"I've noticed that, Nev."
"Several of us have been anticipating seeing what you were doing, Blade. We knew it was taking far too long… You did the viewroom, too."
"We had too much help not to get done too soon."
"You did them all?"
"We weren't using them as viewrooms. Working on them, to make them places to sit and look at the view, should take them out of the mental part-of-the-path niche."
"We were working on 'mental niche,' too, Blade. Going over the pass is an excursion to most of us. It's a natural boundary, but we tend to think of it as a border."
"I do. Even flying out, it's no longer in our homeland. It was such a relief to get back across it every time we left, it's going to take a while, I think."
"So do we, Nev, but we think BNU away games will aid. Precipitate?"
"We put off talking about it. You escaped before the discussion of what was discussed at the door?"
"I always try to get to the door before Trulia and Juro get to it, Nev. Both of them do it about half the time, right in front of it. Dorn will get them moving. Watch. He'll get them both discussing, get them turned, half back-half sidle through and they'll follow. He does it so smoothly, most people don't realize it's a technique. His father-in-law is a door-discusser too."
By the time Dorn had gotten the "door discussers" through two doors, Knight, Nev and Blade were laughing. Lillen got to a chair and giggled. She'd seen it. When everyone else was out, Kail and Larry burst into laughter. Dorn had 'discussed' them down the drive into the cold air. They went to cars quickly once he had. Carler and Milla came out of the bedroom.
"We were too tickled not to laugh and too close not to be obvious."
"Carler got us down the hall. I was snickering against his side."
"Comm connect Dornbuggy. You got Carler and Milla. They took an escape route to giggle."
"Forty-two years practice getting my father-in-law to his car, Kail. Trulia and Juro don't always do it. He does. I almost didn't make it without laughing. Sort of backing up like I was, I saw a lot of faces when they came out the door. I know how fast those boys work. What else did they do?"
"The viewrooms. We're looking forward to Larry seeing them. Kendra put his favorite tea in a container in one of them."
"I shall talk to you later. I have a tea to find, so I know which to tell her I like, and be surprised my favorite tea is there."
"I suspect you'll know without finding the tea."
"Probably, Kail,
but I'll check, and appreciate the hint."
"He's got happy-marriage figured out, Kail."
"Yes, Dorn, he does. We'll see you two this evening. Comm out."
"This evening?"
"Dinner at their house, Lillen."
"He complained it's their turn."
"Exactly. I need to get home, get changed and get to work."
"Case's dad called and said they're sipping tea, watching and smiling. Financial Aid is running smoothly, so is Housing, and Bressler is delighted with the processing programs Dandy adapted and sent. They're open and beginning to get enrollments. They said the student center is the noisiest it's ever been, and they'll be publishing the class schedule and opening enrollment during the term from now on. The professors are excited. They're learning what the students hope courses will cover, especially in some of the more esoteric types. You do need to accept a donation though."
"What donation, Nev?"
"Two hours per day and four days overtime. The crew decided they want to make a contribution, and still surprise everyone."
"I had a feeling 'fifteen days' was probably going to be twelve or thirteen, when Tatton said it. One day, after two off, just didn't sound like our crew."
"We're including us, Kail. We're about to get more done than possible in several ways. The campus, the housing projects and other things are going to happen too fast. We haven't heard from the Defense Minister."
"Comm connect, Lodestar, Government Center, Department of Defense, Office of the Defense Minister."
"Good afternoon, Chancellor. I've been waiting for you to call. I was sure you were still working on things up there when you weren't in your office, so I told your comm not to forward."
"We were, though more how to deal with the feeling the pass is a border that's rather strong here."
"It would be odd if it wasn't. I agree. They're going to view us as a threat, and already see us as having committed illegal acts. You have a plan of action?"
"We told them to get the recap out fast and far, so thirty-four worlds bound by treaty have time to get off the wrong side. We know the Chief Justice can move fast. We just don't think they can stop it, though they may be able to pull two worlds out of the mire. If the attitude had permeated the cultures, there wouldn't be as many suits as there are."
"Agreed. There had to be some reason they were so surprised we weren't dull, but they didn't realize what it was either."
"The nothing-ever-happens-there quadrant. Do what you can to get people to move so fast it makes them dizzy watching. The real planners have indicated we're going to West Side them."
"I have experience with the term. The Freedom party clobbered the Rights party on the Fratlin Island issue. Rights had just begun assembling data and Freedom slammed sixteen megs of analysis supporting their position into record. This department is the one with an office in the corner no one expects to need to notice."
"True, but they put the best they could find in it in case they did."
"Thank you. I'm as displeased as everyone else it needs to be noticed, or I wouldn't have taken the job. It begins with?"
"A demo of what the new tech can really do. It was already a West-Side-them plan, but PISA seems a rather minor target now. I don't know more than that yet, but I'm putting on running shoes."
"I'll tell congress they're appropriate session apparel. I wish I hadn't needed to ask for a time to address them. The Prime Minister is wishing too. Time to call and say our real planners are at work. Five hundred forty-eight?"
"I doubt they've called them all yet, but I'm sure they'll all be ready when the call comes."
"So am I. Got to go, but at least I have 'West Side' to give them. It will make them feel as much better as it did me."
"A West Side?"
"Dad, if very nice housing for a couple thousand can be built in eighteen workdays with one magic trowel, how many spaceships can be built day and night using many?"
"Did you just feel 'duh' too, Kail?"
"Yes, Lillen, I did."
"Good. I was trying to decide if I was getting slow or needed more nap. I clearly remember two days in the same clothes because I was too busy to change. I don't need the memory of ick refreshed further."
"I thoroughly agree, Andrea. Kail?"
"Ick. See you boys later."
As soon as Andrea, Kail and Lillen left, Knight went to his room and sat down at his comp. Nev and Blade watched a few moments, then went to their rooms and got on theirs. Danny 'came in' from her house. Case and Stats walked in the front door and went to the spare bedroom comps. Ronnie came in from her house and Dawn and Drand joined from theirs. None were truly surprised when Deely and her grad students 'came in' from the university. As they worked with the neighborhood team, they tightened theirs. Nev didn't realize he was managing both, but everyone else did.
They built a plan and designed equipment to do it. Applications were discovered, as they needed ways to accomplish things, and tech was designed to use them. Mike and Loren complained about "people all over," as they delivered dinner to everyone in the neighborhood, then at the university. By then, Day, Elise and Dandy were working with them. Deely 'reached around the world' and Keeva and Evva were added. Nev managed and Deely learned. So did one of her students.
They were finishing when Mike and Loren delivered food the third time. It was very early breakfast, a few minutes after four their time. At five oh two, Deely sent twenty-nine patent applications and Dandy sent seventeen program copyright registrations in the name of BNU. Five designs and three programs weren't submitted. They were sent to the Defense Minister.
Keeva and Evva confirmed they had Loren's recommended meals. Several in Teal Valley noted their days and nights were in agreement with Evva's, as they sought beds. By ten, all were at work on regular jobs. That night, they went to bed early. By morning they were well-rested and ready to begin the series of long days the defense plan required. Others were already assembling materials.
The message system was once again in use. One group was at work on the piece only mentioned on it. They were using four new pieces of tech to dig a tunnel, support and line it, from the mine to Nev, Knight and Blade's house. Other groups were building the vehicle that would use the tunnel and the lift that would raise the section of the now-enclosed side patio. With the new equipment, it wasn't going to take long.
Deely's team sent five more patent apps, then messaged all universities the "recommended standard physics lab equipment and instruction manual" were on the infonet on Fourday. The tunnel was completed that afternoon and the lift installed that evening.
They would still move 'big stuff,' in and out of other mine adits, but the howling wind was already closing the access from Teal Valley. Snow was drifting to a depth of meters in front of the adit. On Fiveday morning, the very fast closed car, which carried six, was waiting in the tunnel, when they took the lift down. Knight, Nev and Blade used it to reach the central cavern of the mine and sent it back. Case and Stats arrived in it a short time later. It was so quick, it wasn't necessary to wait for a full load, even if others were right behind.
The mine had become a Defense Department facility, though the department didn't know anything about it except they had one, and someone would pick up supplies requisitioned. The Defense Minister told the congressional appropriations committee, "just leave them at," was a very effective method of assuring a secret facility remained secret. They agreed, submitted a rather small budget request to congress and blanket-approved requisitions.
On Nineday of the tenday after Winter Carnival closing, Tellerlock Construction completed the landscaping around all buildings and vacated the campus. Construction domes for the student housing projects had been in place several days, so snow was gone and ground was thawed and dry. The only equipment not moved to them was the crane. If it had been needed, domes could not have been used.
On Tenday, five additional
magic trowels appeared in the domes. On Oneday morning roads were poured and foundation prep begun. By noon, foundations were being zapped into existence and two of the twelve tankers were already on the way back to be refilled. After lunch, first-story construction began. By the end of the day, second-story work was underway on several of the housing association buildings.
Crews had chosen jobs and three hundred thirty-two were moving from building to building, as they completed their piece. The crews weren't donating overtime, but the additional magic trowels reduced the workdays needed.
Knight, Nev, Blade and the others from the neighborhood went to the mine each evening. On Fourday, when they weren't working on the housing projects, they went early in the morning.
On Sixday morning, a secure government warehouse, in Richland, had four trailers in it. The trailers, which had been left loaded with requisitioned materials, had the equipment they'd been used to create on them. They were taken to a huge construction hangar near Shimmer Lake.
The government owned a great deal of flat land in the area and the town had a lot of available houses and apts. It was a nice place to live. The old prison guards, their companions and entertainment suppliers were gone. There weren't nearly as many guards needed for the humanely run, and low-inmate-population, prisons and their families were nice, too.
By Eightday, Tatton Tellerlock was sure both projects would be complete within fifteen total workdays and the hangar was becoming a spaceship construction facility. The drive going in the ships wasn't vastly faster, but it was enough more efficient to reduce long journeys by days and the cost per day by eleven-point two one two percent.
That evening, Knight, Nev, Blade, Case and Stats walked out of the docking arm on the portal and went to work. The portal was currently empty of ships and the staff had been given two days' leave, while construction was in progress. Danny, Ronnie, Dawn, Drand, Elise and Day were in the mine building equipment. When most was done, they followed carts through the doorway, then pushed back the empty ones they found in corridors.
Danny walked into the portal main computer room and downlinked to BNU. She and Dandy had about seven hours of direct-link time to work. Both had satchels of food and drink prepared for them by Loren.
None of them left that night, but they did stop work to sleep at one. There were still many empty cabins and one trip back was all anyone wanted to make. In the morning, hundreds came out of the docking arm and carts began to move through it both directions in a steady stream. That night, people went to bed when someone noticed they were "too tired to think straight," then went back to work when they awakened.
Seven minutes before the shuttle with the crew was due to arrive, six twenty-seven Teal Valley time on Oneday, the last cart was pushed through the doorway and Knight, Nev and Blade followed. The portal upgrade and remodel was complete. The Portal Chief of Staff called the Portal and Spaceport Administrator.
"We're not sure we're the same place!"
"What?"
"The shuttle 'entered the environment.' We got a message to stay in it until the 'warming field' was off and gravity reached full. We then got one that they were and air temp in the bay was optimum for humans. We just walked out, across the floor that had assembled under us and into a 'boarding lounge.' New carpet, new colors, new interior configuration, new power system, new shops 'available for lease.' There's a hotel with the health club with a big spa. There are two smaller ones, too, all remodeled with new kitchen equipment. Our cabins have everything right where we left it, but the carpet, counters, appliances and furniture under our things is different. Everything is right where I left it in my office, but the office is a different shape and the desk around things in the drawers is new."
"Now you know what the minister meant when he said the portal was going to get a West Side."
"I've got no record of any of it in the comp, but it's been reprogrammed, and that has us awed. Oh, did I mention the three new docking arms and four additional decks?"
"What?!"
"There's an atrium with enough plants in it to make the whole place smell fresh, fountains, walks, grass and lovely little shops and cafés around it. Plants everywhere, no care required. The maintenance program does it all, including running mowers and pruner. We have solar arrays and power storage towers. The air-holding field wraps the whole thing. I have a list of 'shield commands' that I can implement to stop an object or beam hitting us. Wait! There's a comp flimsy with the text note in my teacup. 'Happy new home. The five hundred forty-eight.' Fazin, I'm not really functional."
"I understand. I'm watching an LH with two haulers following it resurface the spaceport. Traffic control says they're being 'reprogrammed.' The LH and haulers have government emblems on them. Kaffer, Department of Defense emblems."
"Oh, shit."
"You've got shields. I'm going to find out what we're getting, and who wants to lease space on the portal. Comm out. Comm connect Defense Minister."
"Hello, Fazin. We're getting ready for lots of company. Most will be extremely friendly. We just patented a better ship drive."
"We waited until Transspace left?"
"Not really, but empty was convenient up there. Down here, we'll have to request all five ships move. They'll have company in three days. Our first will be finished. We're building some shuttles capable of moving everything needed to install new drives up to the three new construction bays. We'll be ready to lease those in four days."
"Who not-friendly is coming?"
"We really hope no one, but our four nearest neighbors are very sick and it's contagious, carried by lawsuits and treaties. There are twenty-nine new patents no one else seems to have noticed. This time from BNU, out of their physics department. They had 'undisclosed aid,' but they did do it."
"The portal remodel was done by the five hundred forty-eight?"
"Yes. It was needed and they volunteered. Fazin, the object is make every world, that isn't sick, sure we're great friends to have, and the four that are, need treatment. Changing anything there is immoral and innovation is illegal. I'm not kidding. Business sued business into stagnation and the culture became aberrant. It began on Jaden, while this world was in the second stage settlement, with a business that saw a way to use a human rights judgment to keep a competitor from putting a 'new and better' product on the market. The Interplanetary Supreme Court is trying to find a way to end it, but the last message was we may be the only ones who can. They're concentrating on stopping the spread and getting other worlds out of treaties. We definitely want that done first. The four worlds don't move fast, but they move as a unit. We think fast and move in unity, very different."
"Yes, it is. It really was the five hundred forty-eight?"
"Yes, it was. Those most abused by the former government came together again to begin the defense of us all. We don't really know anything about them, except they're completely trustworthy and damn smart."
"How the hell did they get there?"
"Fazin, the only person I tell everything I know is the Prime Minister, and there are things she doesn't ask."
"We do have things we don't share with everyone."
"We think someone may be about to declare war on us."
"I'll be looking for a new ship."
"It will definitely be noticeable. It's going to look like it's made of glass."
"What?!"
"It's the best material. It can't be opaqued and colorbond won't stick, but the Transportation Department decided drapes were only necessary in living quarters areas. It is obvious there something between you and space or they'd have put in interior walls. They haven't decided if they're needed on field-wall shuttles. They considered doing a few field-wall ships, but the engineers said there wasn't enough reduction in the cost of moving mass to be worth it on anything smaller than the portal. Comm out."
Fourteen work days after they were begun, on Twoday, of the fourth tenday after W
inter Carnival, the two student housing projects were completed. On Fourday, the BNU Stadium was used for the first time. The first event was the showing of the recording of the reconfiguration, that made the field seating for an additional twelve thousand with the stage in the center, on the big monitors. The stadium was capacity-plus and people were watching the broadcast all over the world. The occasion was the farewell to the campus crew and dedication of the campus of BNU.
Every person who'd worked on it was there. Those who'd come to it as OJT's would be called individually, the section number with their sword given and their vids and "medal of service" awarded. Each would also receive a work helmet and toolbelt, with the university logo and "We are Teal Magic, Campus Construction Crew; The First Sword Team." on them. They were on the medal which hung from a 'formal dress,' wide teal and gold ribbon. Larry was Master of Ceremonies.
The Chair of the Bressler Board of Regents stepped up to make the dedication, then very obviously laid her datpad facedown on the podium.
"I worked on the right thing to say for days. When I stepped up here, I realized it wasn't right. This campus, this university, is 'from the heart' and reflects the beautiful souls of you all. I dedicate this campus of Bressler Northwest University to the spirit of the people of this region, to the dreams they join together to make come true, to their joy in its creation, and to the task for which it was built, to give every person in this region, and all who choose to come here, the opportunity to obtain higher education. Throw open the door to learning! This dream is yours!"
The tens of thousands in the Stadium surged to their feet and the roar of their cheer thundered against the wall fields and back. It wasn't an echo because the field wasn't solid, but the sound of the concerted shout of joy was too great to just dissipate. Deely smiled widely, as she listened to the roar. The physics lab was receiving very interesting data from the sensors around the campus.
When the cheering finally died down, the BNU Board of Regents was introduced. Carler, Dorn, the Mayor of Dawn Ridge, the school superintendent of White Peak, Jaril Ressen, the president of the Forest Growers Association, the only physician in Mount Fortress and finally the chair, Andrea Pimberly.
"My family said, 'Someday, a university right there. Someday, someone will say it's time to build one.' We know why it took so long. Record your memories of the long wait and the joy of this day in the hearts of your children. Soon, there will be thousands. No one is better qualified to teach them the joy of learning than you are. You've dreamed and waited a very long time. Great-great-great-grandfather, you were right. It's someday! Look what we built!"
Larry smiled and waited. Everyone knew what was coming next, but they didn't know how it was going to be done. Then the image of the uncleared land appeared on the big monitors. It faded into Andrea on the concert stage in West Side Park announcing she was donating it, then the land being cleared.
Lambert and Morelli were next, then Kail at the first town council meeting he attended. Tatton Tellerlock signing the contract and then the original design of the campus was 'swept away' and replaced by the new.
The campus construction 'flowed across the land,' short vignettes showed each of Tellerlock's employees and the subcontractors working with OJT's at the point in construction they were recorded, until it reached the Stadium, and the image of each trainee using the magic trowel.
"Section One: Bensel Earlakner, certified in lift installation. Section Two: Lori Macleigh, certified matrix technician. Section Three: Wendon Wolsoski, licensed crane operator. Section Four: Becker Sanchez, certified in lift installation. Section Five: Lopel Mowanda, greenscaping specialist. Section Six: Genner Hagedorn, interior construction specialist. Section Seven: Honson Latham, certified in plumbing construction. Section Eight: Lola Ristonna, certified matrix technician, certified in lift installation, licensed crane operator, wind generation system specialist, technology programming specialist, nicknamed 'Blazer Lo.' Section Nine: Carson Llewlyn, licensed crane operator, construction schedule planning specialist, Tellerlock Team Method specialist and major contributor to its development."
The show was of each as he or she touched the pad to bring a section into existence. The expressions on faces were wonderful. At fifty, an image of the stadium to that point was shown with "The first BNU Sword Team; Modern Construction Technology Experienced; Tellerlock Team Method trained crew chiefs; Comm Code: I-need-a-sword," in teal and gold text overlay. The crowd cheered.
Larry announced magic trowel construction units were now available from CVV Advance Technologies in Vairdslea, campus construction materials and supplier lists were available from the Builders Association Information Office and the campus design, with materials specifications, was on the BNU infonet site. The text faded and he called, "Section Fifty-one."
Danny had changed Larry's employment history and done a few other things when Bressler's Board of Regents named him Vice-chancellor. The chair had told the board if any of them mentioned he was one of the five hundred forty-eight, she'd strangle them personally. All the others had volunteered to help her strangle anyone who did. He had an odd-job past suitable for Doctor of Sociology under the regime of the gov that hadn't wanted it taught.
It didn't bother him at all to be on worldwide news. There was no record of what had been done or who had done it twenty-seven years before, and Lawrence Cartier was on all his university records. He'd personally contacted everyone he'd actually met at Roundin Lake and apologized for "fibbing." They'd laughed and said they wouldn't tell that, but they'd like to brag they'd met him. All were getting autographed dat-cube copies of his about-to-be published reference work.
CVV had gotten into full production ten days before, after the Defense Minister had called and said, "Move it!" They went from almost out of warehouse space to store units to backorders in under an hour. The people knew the Department of Defense was busy, and the word passed was "Work fast."
They watched the broadcast from BNU and redefined "fast." The Defense Minister was sitting among the special guests. It was a very clear message. "Like this." No one had started new large construction projects with old methods, but there weren't many of those. That day, architects scrapped house and apt complex plans. Builders were suddenly ready for the ideas they'd been playing with.
The CEO of GGN was sent an image of the Defense Minister at the dedication, got on comm and the Board of Directors approved a power generation system a pair of their engineers had designed "for fun." Around the world of Liberty Gem, people watched the dedication, looked at images of the upgraded portal and enlarged spaceport and got moving.