'City of Fresno'

[jemhouston]

Great leadership

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #127

A day and a half later, 'Cwm Fahr' made a preliminary close pass of the on-coming 'bright' asteroid, deep-sweeping a swathe with Radar at multiple frequencies. We took station to sunward, let the Tug's excellent sensor suite accumulate data as the lumpy, 87 kilometre object turned 'below'.

Silicates, silicates, silicates. The generic 'asteroidal' grey, its texture a palimpsest of bolide strikes, was again overlain by multiple brighter loops and swirls of now-familiar size and form. After a day, Olwyn piloted 'Cwm Fahr' almost to the surface. I went out in 'Big Mac', collected some representative samples.

There were no 'Grossly Distressed' traces we might strip-mine, so we set course for the next candidate. 75 kilometre, lumpier, visibly triaxial, else much the same. Then a 105 kilometre, some-what rounder. A 92 kilometre, a 120 kilometre, a 115 kilometre...

My carefully documented 'Rockery' duly expanded.

Even with careful 'Mini-Max' routeing, took us a while to catch up with the next 'bright' asteroid we'd flagged. This 'Odd Bod' looked rather different to those we'd studied earlier. In fact, its 'brightness' seemed limited to one hemi-sphere. This, we soon realised, was the region that had survived a subsequent, cataclysmic impact. Though the asteroid was still about 50 kilometres across, at least a third of the original, perhaps much more, had been smashed, smitten, smote away. The remaining 'bleme' was bigger in proportion than 'Stickney Crater' on Mars' Phobos. Some 'ejecta recovery' clearly followed: Too little to mask the vast scar, enough to more or less trample, distress wide swathes of most bright patches. Enough survived, however, that we could probably fill a dozen cargo pods...

We exchanged nods. Yes, yes, we'd wait for a formal 'okay' from 'Fresno', but this might be 'pay-dirt'.

We were now two full light-hours in-system from 'Fresno'. Five long hours along, came terse reply, 'Looking good, discussion begun. Continue upload latest data, please.' A few minutes later, another message, 'Will need more time to discuss: Stay Safe !'

My log showed it took until well after noon the next day, 'Fresno-time', before their 'okay' came.

Olwyn took 'Cwm Fahr' down to the surface. There, the Rock Tug's Field Poles and ice-slicer turrets provided bolide protection while I went out in 'Big Mac' and carefully collected a grid of samples. Beyond subsequent study of the mega-impact's 'over-turn', this also established optimal excavation depth. My 'Rockery' extended, we got down to business.

As the part-asteroid had minimal gravity, so much dust and gravel would go flying that I was very glad I could watch from 'indoors'. At the Tug's stern, the cargo pod's big end-hatch swung open. The mantis grapple swapped its space-crate 'grab' for a clam-shell 'scoop.' It began at the left edge of our planned forty metre width glean zone. Half a cubic metre at a time, it scraped a patch of surface to optimal depth. Raised to the cargo pod's maw, it opened. The rim-ring of small 'Pump' poles sent material flying to the other end. A nearer axial scoop followed, a third, a fourth.

After these, the mantis grapple swung slightly right. Four axial scoops, then shift right. Four axial scoops, then shift right. This continued until the frontage was cleared. Then the Tug and its cargo pod shifted forward by a dozen metres, revealing a fresh area. Again, the scoop began at the left edge of our glean zone, slowly, slowly worked across to the right...

Yes, the Tuggers had set up a 'Macro', but that had to be supervised lest some 'Murphy Mishap' bit. Nearly four slow 'watches' along, the material no longer flew into the cargo pod. Based on the excavated material's reduced density, plus mass estimates from both the mantis grapple's telemetry and iterative Tug moves, the pod was 'Topping Out'.

Sure, we could probably coax a few more tonnes aboard, but enough was enough: We had a full dozen kilo-tonnes. It was time to return to 'Fresno'.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #128

'Cwm Fahr' had come a long, long way from 'Kieffer', zig-zagging clear across the 'Inner System'. Sadly, along our more direct return route, effectively sampling a different sector, the Tug's sensors still reported only 'Generic' or 'Bright' Silicate asteroids. There was not a single 'Iron' or 'Stony Iron', nor even hint there-of. Yes, this was disappointing, very disappointing. Perhaps such were too small to notice ? Still, we'd accumulated a lot of orbital data to supplement Fresno's distant scans. Importantly, we had precise orbital parameters for 'Odd Bod', referenced to easily spotted 'Kieffer' and 'Marsette'. Even with time dilation / compression effects of FTL, should 'Fresno' return for a later glean, we could readily find 'Odd Bod' again.

Although the wide, wide asteroid belt was much sparser than 'congested', its population of 'small-ish' stuff still restricted our speed. Had we flown faster, there was just too much in the nasty mass range between 'Timely spotted by Radar' and 'Readily Repelled by Tug Fields'. So, we patiently 'Stood' and logged our Bridge watches. We did maintenance to be sure, to be sure. A few sessions of Geology coaching exhausted our Silicates' limited variety.

Slowly, slowly, as 'Kieffer' loomed large, 'Cwm Fahr' adjusted course towards 'Anchorage' and 'Fresno'. Our laser-comm data-rate steadily rose. By the time 'Fresno' resolved, we'd up-loaded all our data. Ben, who had the watch, carefully delivered our laden cargo pod to 'Engineering Country'. Then, we headed for our berthing drum's docking leg. Connected, secured, confirmed, the lock opened. A nubile blur flew through. One precise bounce, then Ms. Betrys was hugging her parents like an amiable anaconda. Anne-Marie followed at a more considered pace, grinning widely. Our hug was epic. When we came up for air, I realised she was wearing a whiff of perfume. Perfume ? Yes, it was her favourite, but now priceless.

"Jake," she stated, "Sorry, you have a reception committee: Try not to squirm..."

I did not understand until we 'locked through' to the docking leg. That was crowded, but, as Anne-Marie raised my left hand, the arrayed Luthiers struck up enthusiastically, stilling the applause. Back aboard 'Fresno', my Comm-augment again had full access to the Library. Still, took me a couple of bewildered seconds to identify, confirm my un-wanted 'play-in'.

The theme from 'Rocky' ??

Oh, dear...

Yes, I had to endure it, plus the Luthiers' progressively 'jazzed' ornamentation, derivatives, riffs and improvisations. Finally, finally, amidst fresh cheering, Anne-Marie declared 'Force Majeure' and, with that certain twinkle in her eyes, led me away. As usual, the 'Big Mac' crates had followed by the time my partner was sated, and we were thoroughly, delightfully showered.

"Jake," Anne-Marie stated, briskly towelling a shapely curve, "I've so much news, I'm not sure where to start. Yes, your two 'stray' Xanadu cargo pods do have complete makings for horticultural Nissen Huts. Also, the Chaparral 'Gifts & Goodies' pods finally yielded some potentially useful equipment and other materiel. Including some nice seeds and bulbs. I'll tell you about them later...

"I'm sure you had a lot to do with it, but Davyd's 'Progressive Compression' trick worked wonders. Lt. Svenson and his team managed to deconvolute, stack enough 'patch' scans to suggest some common inner structure.

"We're fairly sure those shells were *grown*--"

"Huh ? Dozens of kilometres on a side ??"

"Even allowing for size differences, angles." As I sought reply, failed, Anne-Marie towelled her lovely hair dry, began brushing the mop to its usual neat bob. She continued. "Miss Katlyn, one of the 'Cooberra' adolescents, is a budding entomologist. Breeds stick insects, cultivates their preferred greens. Knows her stuff. Really, really knows her stuff: I reckon she's another 'Miss Betrys' in the making...

"Also, between pollinators, pests and their predators, I'm the nearest 'Fresno' has to a 'Generic' Bug expert: We agreed if it wasn't for their non-segmentation and outrageous size, these shells tick so many boxes for arthropoidal exo-skeletons, out-grown, then shed...

"But, Jake, Katlyn spotted a better possibility: These could have been 'egg-shells'--"

"Huh ??"

"Yes, that near-fractally fibre reinforced silica 'shell' material is very strong, very stiff. Remarkably stiff. But, so big ? There's no way it could be rigid. Even pressurised to the safe limit of a fractional Bar, the Engineers' models warn it would still flex, wibble and wobble like a very, very big soap-bubble.

"Katlyn saw the optimal 'fit' would be leathery, 'Soft-Shell' eggs: Lizards, snakes, tuataras and platypus. Perhaps like sea-turtles gather at favourite 'laying' beaches ? Hatchlings leave their split 'shells' behind ?"

"From the lack of 'gradation' or 'over-lay'," I dared interject, "they seem 'Of An Age'..."

"They do." Anne-Marie agreed. "So, perhaps, a 'One-Off' event, not a 'Return' site ? A passing 'flock' or 'herd' ? Which begs so very many questions: Why here ? How big, how many were the beasties that laid them ? And, yes, how did they travel ??"

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #129

My wits were still spinning as we made our way towards the Diner. At least I noticed how much 'fresher' the air now seemed, how much recent growth had developed on planters' previously sparse frames. After pausing to sniff several now-vigorous examples, I thought to ask, "The 'Ponics ?"

"Going really well," Anne-Marie stated. "Once we figured our plants' roots' humic acids were 'Secondary Leaching' their new-to-them bedding, driving 'Ion Exchange', we just had to compensate, wait it out. All done.

"Second big crop of root-veg came in last week. Enough to add ten percent to some ration allowances."

Unsaid, that was barely two heaped sporks, but progress is progress is progress...

"Plus," she whispered, "some overage we've freeze-dried and cached."

"Very sensible," I agreed, equally quietly. "Rebuild contingency resilience."

"Ah, today's menu has one of the new 'Diner Coder' offerings ! It is quite nice."

Novelty aside, the faux 'Mixed Grille' of this under-sized 'All Day Breakfast' would have tasted much, much better with a dash of generic tomato ketchup or mild mustard relish. Or, preferably, both. Sadly, such must still be 'pending'. I wasn't prepared to spoil the mood by quizzing their time-line. Between brisk, if bland mouthfuls, I did wonder, "Any ideas what we can do with the asteroid's silicate regolith glean ?"

"Depends on micro-composition," Anne-Marie thoughtfully replied. "Jake, you did really good work with those preliminary analyses, but a lot of the regolith 'trace' elements are parts per zillion. We'll have to variously leach, concentrate, see what goodies are lurking in the long tail...

"And, yes, figure what is unwanted, depleted or missing...

"Separating pure, bright silica crumbs from the generic grey regolith, though ? Well, the Engineers and 'Citizen Science' teams reckon half a dozen ways, and counting. Still trying to figure if they can or should craft useful tubs, planters, tanks from it. That scary-high melting point is the problem..."

"No soda-glass to dilute it to 'workable', no Boron for toughness," I agreed. And, yes, the other diners were clearly hanging on every word uttered by us. Logically, I asked, "Will we want more ?"

"Yes, please," Anne-Marie stated. "About twice more. At least if we have it, we can work around its quirks."

"Hmm. Those first 'iceteroid' gleans had a most unwelcome extended commute. And 'Kieffer' gas-dives needed a long time 'On Station'." I took a breath. "With 'Odd Bod' getting further and further away around its orbit, the Tuggers would not be happy."

"That was discussed." My beloved partner nodded. "I'm told 'Loudly'. Just shy of 'Table Banging'. So, a compromise was agreed: The mantis scoop does not need an 'iceteroid' slicing pod's forty-some metre gape. Happens there's a part-stripped 'Evac' pod: Emptied, minus auxiliary air-locks, with a couple of 'pump poles' set around one end's bigger, centre-line port, it would happily swallow a dozen kilo-tonnes of loose stuff."

"With a regular 'glean' pod for the same again ?" I suggested.

"Exactly." Anne-Marie nodded. "And, by the time the 'Evac' pod has been fully stripped, modified, your 'Odd Bod' will have swung around the far side of the star, be heading back..."

"Ah..." I chased, sporked the last crumbs off my plate. "Ample time for another 'Training Opportunity', then."

"Exactly."

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #130

As usual, my first priority after an extended deployment was running the laundry. While Anne-Marie headed back to the 'Ponics, I booked two machines. After checking there were no 'Immediate Action' messages among the many, many text-mails, I gathered the needful. My go-bag's clothes, all rather stale despite my best efforts aboard 'Cwm Fahr', formed most of one wash. There was just room for my partner's 'Round-To-It' baggy of smalls and tees. The other machine swallowed a set of bedding. However confident Anne-Marie seemed, the evidence of her long days, short nights and chore triaging showed.

Both laundrette view-screens were showing rolling compilations of asteroid surface footage: My routine 'Rockery' collection, Tuggers and trainees 'Finding Their Feet', those very unsettling hints of stratification within my targeted sondages.

Then, a summary of Lt. Svenson's team's findings came up. They'd managed to co-ordinate, over-lay enough variously angled scans to clarify that 'suggestion' of internal structure we'd surmised. And, yes, the alarming hypothesis of giant 'Soft-Shell' eggs was suddenly all too credible.

These 'Anomalous Patches', be they out-grown 'Exo-Skeletons' or discarded 'Soft-Shell' eggs, were old, old, old. Without a robust estimate of 'farming rate' by the local impactor flux, I could only reckon much, much older than Sol's, the Convention's or Sylvan Alliance stars' entry to the 'Local Bubble'. Wide error-bars allowed for any-when between a dozen million years and at least ten times that...

As yet, nothing like them had been reported within 'Convention' space, nor in the extensive region known to the Sylvans or their various allies. The xenocidal 'Others' were not talking, but enough data had been slowly salvaged from the 'Taggli' wrecked during that first 'City of Lincoln' encounter off Sankey to exclude their discovery. Like-wise, the Anwyc had not noticed anything comparable during their initial, far-ranging period.

As ever, of course, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...

Which sort-of circled back to our 'Priors'...

Like us, the Sylvans and their allies had been utterly astonished to discover most of their habitable planets had been terraformed between five and a dozen million years ago, then seeded from Earth. We had their 'Back Story' fossils, the original species. Despite sundry extinctions and much evolution, some were still uncannily recognisable. Even those unfortunate, pre-industrial worlds recently razed by the 'Others' all matched. Also, several planets where terraforming relapsed, or was abandoned, held unsettling 'Earth' fossils.

I'd distant cousins on 'Nova, in the Epsilon Eridani system. When found by 'Venturer' during that star-ship's wondrous 'First Mission', that planet had been a 'Runaway Greenhouse'. Not hot as Venus, nor such acid clouds, yet only the proximity of twice-Jovian 'Gantur' and its vast zoo of ammonia / water ice-moons and moonlets made the 'Nova Project' practicable. To begin their 'Quench', the team spent a decade gleaning and delivering a 'train' of cubic kilometre ice-slices from 'Berga', a convenient triaxial 15 km diameter outer moonlet. Then, an approaching conjunction between 'Gantur' and 'Baltern', the sub-Neptunian, gave them a 'Once in a Generation' opportunity to 'pump' Berga's already wide orbit, coax its remaining 1550-ish cubic kilometres 'Over the Pass' onto a Hohmann-transfer...

Sliced and diced, 'Berga' did not 'Break' 'Nova's clouds, but showed how a couple more such ice-moons would. And did...

The initial settlers had to breathe Heliox, live in sub-surface habitats. Their processors took in the cooling atmospheric 'fug', chilled it to condense water. Electrolysing this, most of the hydrogen was reacted with 'fug' nitrogen and CO2 to form Ammonium Carbonate and Carbamate. Beyond fertilising extensive 'Ponics, this was stockpiled for planned 'bubble' green-houses. Supplemented by nocturnal Oxygen, those duly flourished. When atmospheric 'Free Oxygen' reached the necessary level, vast pine plantations were progressively established. Besides 'naturally' drawing down the CO2, this silviculture fuelled an extensive 'agrochemical' industry...

You may imagine the settlers' surprise when ground-work unearthed a curious range of plant and animal fossils, apparently of Earthly origin. Initially suspected to be mischievous hoaxes, these proved to 'document' the cruel failure of 'Nova's 'Prior' eco-system, the run-away relapse of that partial terraform around five million years ago...

What had gone wrong ?? Several rather virulent 'Schools of Thought', now mellowed to 'Bitter Rivals', still sought robust evidence to support or falsify their proposed failure modes. Sadly, each possibility was so very scarily plausible...

Like 'Plato's Shadows', we only knew what the 'Priors' were not. The lack of 'Seeded' reptiles and related Avians was profoundly unsettling: Was their absence due to 'non-interference' with kin ? Such as that last tribe of former 'hominins', independently evolved unto 'Palaeolithic', rescued by the Sylvans from the 'Nuclear Winter' of their 'Other' attack ? Or the converse, some deep loathing there-of ? Was the ancient 'K/T Extinction' of Earth's magnificent Dinosauria targeted, per the Others' xenocidal jihad but writ large ?

One thing was certain: Beyond those 'terraforms', the mega-ribbon of Mighty Antar's 'Silver Snag' and sundry small, as yet unidentifiable or incomprehensible finds, such as mine, we'd not a clue to 'Prior' size(s), shape(s) or form(s)...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #131

After neatly line-hanging the mostly-dried washing in our suite, I tackled my remarkable backlog of text-mails. Medically prioritised to front and centre were blood-donation reminders from Doc. Meredith, plus two alerts that my 'First Aid' training renewal would soon come due. As 'form letters', both alerts also asked if I'd consider extending my basic skills unto Nursing Assistant, Nurse, Trauma / Paramedic, even a full Medical degree. Thanks, but no thanks: I'd enough on my plate !!

The Engineers variously invited me to attend more Workshop training modules and, yes, help with the 'Business End' of the planned asteroid regolith glean pod. It seems that wrangling the Tuggers' Hab turrets' mis-matched 'Field Poles' had earned me a reputation. In truth, their 'fix' just needed deep-trawling umpteen arcane appendices, then connecting those apparently irrelevant scraps sorta-widdershins...

On a lighter note, I'd been added to the circulation list for the new 'D&D' news-letter edited by Pete Prentice. Jargon-rich, this mostly chronicled 'Campaign', 'Foray' and 'Side-Quest' reports, 'Experience Points' awards and 'Re-Ranking' citations. Beyond, there were numerous advertisements for 'Team Building' vacancies and trading materiel. Many trade goods were still 'Virtual' or 'Symbolic', but there'd clearly been a cross-over with the growing 'Luthier' group. Logically, any 'Bard' who could passably strum a bloomin' lyre or lute, actually play pan-pipes or flute, out-ranked merely 'nominal' claims. Like-wise, 'Real World' competence up-ranked any 'Luthier' who could craft an instrument, any 'Artisan' or 'Artificer' who could produce tangible artefacts...

Amused curiosity aside, my eye was caught by the pair of 'Traditional Artificers' seeking venue, materials and recruits for a 'Turning' workshop. An experimental lathe with wide 'swing' over its bed had just too much flexure for 'serious' engineering tasks. Unable to precision-machine 'hard' stock, it was relegated to working 'engineering plastic' or soft alloy. Happens this limit yet embraced turning most timber types, and carefully 'finishing' pottery to stand level or take a lid. If, of course, we had the makings for those...

Hmm...

Two thoughts occurred: First, though crafting 'much' laboratory 'glass-ware' from pure silica would be non-trivial, making 'some' made sense. Warily grinding, honing, lapping their ball-joints, flanges and tapers suited such a set-up.

Second, though now long ago and far, far away, I still vividly remembered that day with Mum in the Marrakech street market. Yes, my small-bore pistol and precise shooting had 'broken' the street gang. Yes, Mum's larger weapon had then strewn the lane with their dead. Hey, who do you think taught me 'Pistol Fu' ? But I also remembered the next lane, with its wondrous pottery. Regardless of near-by gun-play, umpteen Artisans were hand-spiralling, jigging, wheel-turning, glazing, decorating. They made small pots and cups, flat-ware and bowls in a dozen utile or ornamental sizes, handy storage jars and pots, even 'Amphora' and 'Pithos' analogues scaled from 'jerrycan' via 'Hide Within' to 'IBC'...

A very neat 'half-gallon-ish' storage pot caught my eye. Its proportions were simply 'right' on so many levels. Mum briskly bargained, bought it as my holiday souvenir. Yes, she was pre-empting possible PTSD. And, yes, this pot proved much, much less alarming than the previous year's trophy, the crocodile's 'lethally distressed' skull. Remembering my school's out-cry, Mum wisely warned that I *must not* mention our clinical culling of that hapless street gang...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #132

Lt. Richards and Lt. 'Logistics' Baxter together extended their compliments on my Xanadu Pods' nimble data-base. Enabled by Fresno 'Holding Station' off 'Anchorage', nimbly tag-teamed by Miss Betrys and Cadet Collins, the tiers' contents had been progressively accessed, scanned, entirely identified. As Anne-Marie implied, we now had the makings for a 'Useful' number of complete horticultural Nissen Huts, variously equipped and glazed. Sadly, though there were several 'Usefully Sized' stock-tanks, albeit 'Some Assembly Required', they were much, much too small for 'Serious' Aquaponics. They could serve as 'Pilot Plant', of course...

And, yes, some of the newly gleaned Silica could perhaps be cast to 'Light Pipes', fully isolating our now-precious luminaires from aqueous media that could, over time, 'creep' to rival helium...

Next came an update on the two Chaparral 'Gifts & Goodies' Pods. I was surprised to see they were still being explored, un-packed, documented. At least, beyond umpteen 'Open at {DATE}' parcels with personal and family gifts, there was some actual hardware. Their growing assortment of 'small' stuff, such as baggies of flexible washers, O-rings and gaskets for domestic appliances etc, would find good use.

More welcome were three (3) tunnelling rigs. Pre-used but in excellent condition, these 'Tunnel Boring Machine' (TBM) front-ends came complete with excellent 'User' and 'Service' manuals. Two, of rival makes, cut three metres diameter, matching the 'Lateral' borers deployed on Chaparral. The third's cut was five metres, for 'Shafts', mid-sized 'Adits' or 'Generic' spaces. Happens this model had much commonality with one of the smaller. So, made sense to keep them paired. And, all three were sufficiently similar to Chaparral's that we'd the skills and expertise to deploy them as-is.

Of course, our good luck did not extend to their extensive zoo of consumables, those many fixings, spares and accessories any significant tunnelling required. A 'token' provision was all these TBMs had. At least, as they used generic power and plumbing connectors matching the Evac pods', we had the lead-time to adapt, devise, provide the rest of their needful. Even significantly down-rated, compared to our near-frantic, 'Limit of Sustainability' work on Chaparral, they provided options.

Sadly, that still left us without any skid-steer loaders, Jumbo derricks, face multi-drills, wall-bolters, pilot-corers, debris conveyors, grinder/sorters or so much other ancillary equipment. There was certainly no 'Rock Grubber' lurking elephantine amidst the many, many remaining space crates and parcel cages...

However, such TBM front-ends were potentially much, much more versatile than a glance would suggest: Although they usually made a circular or ring face-cut, for a new or enlarged tunnel, TBMs could also chord-cut. Below ground, a pass would side-widen circular to oval bores. On the surface, a chord-cut gave an arcuate trough. Multiple passes would deepen the cut, or widen to clear extensive strata and inconvenient out-crops. In fact, turned side-ways and boom-mounted, a TBM could serve as a small 'Bucket Wheel Excavator'...

To the evident glee of my partner and her 'Ponics team, a goodly number of 'Gift' parcels had included packets of seeds and bulbs. Although there was some overlap with Fresno and Tugger holdings, never mind Anne-Marie's eclectic collection of cell-lines, these 'kitchen garden', orchard and 'decorative' cultivars were very, very welcome. As yet, I knew we lacked the facilities to grow most of them beyond token trays and planters but, given time...

More importantly, these cultivars provided vital genetic diversity. Even slight differences could be 'leveraged' to provide a welcome variety of size, flavour etc. These traits could be cross-bred, back-crossed to enhance appearance, flavour, environmental tolerance and disease resistance. Such manipulation was grist to my beloved partner's mill. As a child, I'd been astonished to learn that our familiar 'ginger' carrots had been 'bred up' from a natural Pre-Burn mutant 'Sport': Like purple beet-root, its ancestors had been white, resembling turnips, parsnips, mangel-wurzels, white radish or sweet-beet.

There was another aspect: The seeds included an interesting range of Brassica. Beyond nutritional stuff, not to mention their welcome variety of textures and flavour, some Brassica had the curious knack of pulling non-essential trace elements out of the soil. In fact, their cultivation as food-stuffs on tainted ground was unwise due to their scarily efficient concentration of toxins. The flip side was they could be used to clean up such land, even glean those elements.

At home, I'd seen how mineral seams variously favoured or deterred different plants. When you 'got your eye in', you could often read the sub-surface as clearly as a Geo-Phys sweep. I learned that 'Phyto-mining' was the term for collecting metals from a type of plants called hyper-accumulators. Rare and unusual, they could absorb certain metals from the soil, store very high concentrations in their leaves and stems. These levels would be toxic to most plants. Some held so much, it was possible to harvest, dry and incinerate their biomass to generate high-grade bio-ore.

These plants may have evolved the function of hyper-accumulating metals as a defence mechanism against herbivores or pathogens. As usual, 'The Dose Maketh The Poison'. Still, where Pre-Burn mining had poisoned the land, had tainted waterways, 'Phyto-mining' was often the only practicable remedy. And, yes, the only viable way to access the stripped remnants of those former ore-bodies. In parallel, microbial bio-leaching was now the preferred way to sanitise, remediate acid-dribbling adits, vast, weeping spoil-heaps and the lurking menace of tall-tiered tailing ponds...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #133

After arranging an appointment, I culled another swathe of irrelevant text-mails then strolled along to Doc. Meredith's lair. He took my donation, checked the usual flags, shook his head. "Mr. Kinson, I swear you have a gift for stumbling across anomalies, if not full-blown weirdness. At least, as Jenny, my Senior Nurse-Practitioner grumbled, 'Proves we're not in Kansas any more !' "

I shrugged politely. What could I say ?

"What are your plans now ?"

"Small stuff. The Engineers have invited me for some more Workshop training modules. Also, help them re-purpose a dozen small 'Field Poles', to set around the centre-line loading port of a stripped Evac Pod as 'Regolith Conveyor Pumps'..."

"Sounds complicated..."

"Not really." I shook my head. "We had to improvise some to clear spoil from those deeper Chaparral shelter Adits: Not full 'Industrial' efficiency, but 'Good Enough'."

"Hmm. I'm told you did wonders coaxing the Tuggers' systems..."

"Their Habs' 'Ice-Slicer' turrets ?" I shook my head again. "No. That just took a lot of stubborn digging to find what was *really* causing the contention, then a few soft-ware tweaks to resolve. No big deal."

"They think it was..."

"Not if you work the problem backwards."

Doc. Meredith just looked at me for long, long seconds, then laughed once. He admitted, "For a moment there, I thought you were joking !"

I shrugged, said, "Us Geologists do a lot of 'Back-Solving', trying to figure how things came to be. Does help to have both ends of the puzzle, which usefully constrains the parameters."

"I'll take your word for it," he allowed. "These 'Patches', though: Lt. Svenson said there's nothing like them in 'Convention' space. Is that so ?"

"Nothing like them reported," I corrected. "Just like we're still trying to figure why the Priors preferred some star systems over others: We may have simply looked in the wrong places."

"Huh ?"

"Seriously," I admitted. "The 'Convention' got lucky: Plenty of local stars that were neither too bright nor dim. Enough had 'moderate' solar activity, with at least one potentially habitable planet in or near the 'Goldilocks Zone'. Astrometry plus stellar Doppler usually showed if a system might be welcoming or not. So, after the two original 'Venturer' survey missions, those first home-steaders grabbed the 'low hanging fruit', skipped most of the others. They shunned flare-prone 'Dim Reds', both the 'Moderns' and the truly ancient, low-metallicity 'Population II'. By-passed systems whose 'Hot Jupiter', 'Brown Dwarf' and/or evolved 'White Dwarf' had cleared planets from the 'Zone'.

"Yes, with time, prospectors began to range out from 'settled' systems. Mining, gas-diving stations and 'support' communities developed. Given so many other, competing priorities, their routine reports to the 'Astrophysical Survey' arrived piece-meal, often short on detail. Though students' Science Projects were better, most only ran for a few years before their young operators went off to college. Though 'Rock-Hoppers' collected a lot of 'In-System' data, very, very few documented it well." As both a professional Geologist and active amateur Astronomer, that irked on multiple levels. "And stellar monitoring ? Yes, settlers did watch their own star or stars for any anomalies or 'tantrums', but most reports came from 'City Class' star-ships logging their regular routes. Wasn't until the Others' Taggli raids became more serious, so ships tried to be less predictable, that the 'Survey' began to get status updates for many neighbouring systems."

Doc. Meredith raised a quizzical eye-brow, but I was on a roll.

"Huh: If it wasn't for the 'City of Tulsa' navigator's decision to dog-leg via 'Ember', there would not have been time or resources to build more than scant few 'Chaparral' deep shelters. Most residents' only option was a full evacuation..."

[jemhouston]

Once again odd knowledge is worth gathering.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #134

The following weeks' Engineering course modules were good fun: It would be fair to call these topics 'Fancy Work'. We had already qualified to turn 'Internal' and 'External' threads for both 'Standard' profile and the low-backlash / pre-loaded positioning types used for 'Lead' and 'Ball Screws'. Now, we made their 'Left-Handed' equivalents, handy for turn-buckles, plus adaptors, reducers, replacement connectors, valves and manifolds for both common and un-common 'plumbing' connectors. Also, the Engineers had found two shelved 'shoe-boxes' with an interesting assortment of fittings and fixings.

One held Sylvan and Akkkan materiel, plus extensive documentation. The other had some salvaged 'Other' items plus terse 'cover notes'. Yes, driven by loading, material differences, their threads' diameter, pitch, depth and profiles did vary. Yet, though our engineering histories and mensuration systems differed markedly, what works still works: 'Convergent Evolution' had produced remarkable similarities. We became skilled at machining these, and their matching spanners, too.

Yes, some-one asked about Anwyc tech. That, apparently, presented a problem. There was not much material, and all from a scant few salvaged Bio-Raider 'Needle Ships'. No larger Anwyc craft had been encountered, apparently such only serviced their few remaining 'Inner Colonies'. Worse, few of the studied 'Needle Ships' were exactly alike. At first, they were thought the product of multiple ship-yards. As 'differs' accumulated, an alternative explanation strengthened: They were of different ages, very different ages. Beyond decades, some approached a century...

But, we would be getting Anwyc-tech specific training. First, a serious dose of theory...

Gears: Like a lot of tech, they look so simple, yet are anything but. In fact, gears are a text-book example of 'The Devil is in the Detail'. Coaxing more than 'modest' efficiency, power transfer and life-span from even the apparently simplest, 'traditional' spur gearing demanded careful tolerances plus surprisingly subtle profiling. Beyond that lay nested complexity comparable to a resurgent caldera's rising magma's evolution. Still, assembling a basket of gears to a differential or epicyclic set was remarkably satisfying...

Beyond generic lathe and mill-drill work, we also studied 'specialist' approaches more suited to repeat or batch manufacture. Gear 'Hobbing' needed a hybrid machine. About half-way between lathe and mill-drill, its two skew spindles were variously synchronised by careful gearing. Could be small, could be large, could be utterly massive. Then there was thread 'Rolling', from the many low-load utility fixings used for our cabin partitions, to 'indefinite' length via skewed rollers. As these threads were not 'lathe-cut' but 'pressed', they were inherently stronger, with scant waste. Like 'Hobbing', though, 'Rolling' only became 'Cost Effective' for big, big batches...

After wrapping our wits around complex gears, re-purposing Evac Pods' 'Pump Poles' for the planned regolith gleaning proved almost trivial. We delivered the adapted Evac Pod early, its maw's 'Pump Poles' better synchronised than hoped: Wasn't hard, just took some very, very wary iterative tweaking. As their tuning improved, we needed fewer and fewer 'Poles'. So, our group had ample time and space to 'play', sand-boxing other applications. With an eye to the future, we used most of the rest to craft 'conveyors' to complement our serendipitous 3-metre and 5-metre TBMs. The remaining 'Poles', we quietly weaponised. Several concatenated to a 'High Pressure Pump' gave us a pair of rather scary 'Rail Guns'. These could launch ordnance at disconcerting speed. One was optimised for hefty, hand-loaded metal darts, the other took a 'Spin Gun' magazine. Serious weapons on a 'pintle' mount, they could be upgraded with several more 'Poles' and some nimble software, become 'Luggable' weapons with minimal recoil.