The next morning, after the Morgen Tide songs and prayers, they started the cleanup. The newsies watched for a while, but when nothing but bent metal and melted wire was all they found, they lost interest. Jim was getting a cool one as he watched the last one depart in a grounder, “Good riddance.”
“Actually, it’s what I hoped would happen.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Bore ‘em ta tears, so they’ll leave us be.”
“Ohhh, yeah, I see that.” He finished his drink and hopped into the huey to get another load.
As the days of digging and hauling progressed, they made sure that every other trip to pick up wreckage. The next pass would be made over the river. Little Jim’s delicate touch lowered the giant magnet right to the level of the water. When he hit the power into the magnet, stones of all shapes and sizes leaped out of the water to attach to the magnet. They started at the fish ponds, the edge of the alluvial flow of stones, and headed into the suns chasing their future.
When the magnet was full, Jim would hold a low position over Zeer’s open wagon hauler. He cut the power to the magnet and the stones dropped into the wagon. While waiting, Zeer recovered the wagon with a tarp. Then, he would drive farther up river. There was little danger now that half of his brother’s fleet was destroyed on Tara and the other half was destroyed yesterday in space.
The scrap metal and fragments of ships from the fields were recycled in the Namu Dan foundries for local use. Zeer drove the hauler that was filled with Verdollium. Dirt was dug out of the crash sites to ensure that no radiation or toxins would be left behind. It was replaced by clean fill from the vast Far Reaches beyond the edge of the valley. All this hauling of dirt back and forth covered for the one load of dirt that never seemed to get dumped or refilled. The first load was driven into a new metalloid shed on the edge of the nest.
Inside, the load was dumped into a swirling pool of water. The water soon carried away the loose dirt and gravel leaving pale green stones attached to a magnetized grid. The dirt was put back into the trailor of the long hauller and everyone headed for town. This process would be repeated every day until the project was done.
This dirt exchange played into the overall plan. Uncleaned, the stones just looked like a load of dirt. Over the next two weeks the damage and wreckage from the fourteen crash sites was repaired and the farmers were encouraged to replant the affected areas.
Tristan had been busy terraforming another building on the edge of the Empra’s palais. The whirlpool stone cleaner was moved into that building. At the end of each day, Zeer’s long hauler was driven into that building, and he and the Empra alone dumped the truck and cleaned every stone. By the end of the moon, just from pits and areas around the Ssarrian nest, nearly a ton of Verdollium was placed into special vaults under the Empra’s palais.