enough here to keep you busy. For now, let's let Ray know he's got a nearby river, for water."
Ray had the tractor down and one of the 'scouts' mowing the tall grass al ready. Scout was just the short term for the guys that did the muscle work, and if there was danger, the shooting. Some of them had hunting experience, all had extensive travel histories. Ray was walking around placing stakes. Lon flipped on his radio comm and frowned at the crackling static. Odd, with no clouds in sight.
Ray measured and noted his way up to Lon's hill. "I don't see any reason to prefer north or south of the gate, so pick your favorite. Want your box right here?"
"And steal the be st view? I'm afraid I should be nearer the anchor. Let's put everything south of it. Unless you need the river."
"Nah. The soil's deep and moist, there will be water in every gravel or sand layer, so it's just a matter of going deep enough to have filtered out all the bio-contamination. All right. I'll run the entrance road straight out for five hundred meters, and the return lanes just north of them. Fuel tanks and water tower to the north, boxes south . . ." He marched off and Lon hauled all the scientific staff off and out of the way of the work going on. After mowing came the grading and the building of elevated pads for the boxes, in a neat double row south of the gate. Then they started dropping the boxes and expanding them. The size limitations of the gate had created some interesting challenges for engineers, but these 'boxes' were simply accordion folded or had sections that slid inside each other, or both. They, and the trailer they were mounted on, had to fit through a three and a half meter circle, and be no longer than eleven meters. Ray dropped the HQ box just up the hill from the anchor. For now Lon would be living in the HQ box. If they got lucky, he'd bring in more staff (and boxes) and it would become all office space. The BioSci unit was next. Again, if they were lucky it would become the medical center for the expanded operations, and the biologists would get one or more boxes of their own. The Geology/Physics box would likewise be augmented, according to the specific things they found. The aerial mapping box, mess, two boxes of private living quarters, one barracks box for the drivers who'd be coming and going. It was a small cadre, leaving him the funds to hire short or long term specialists at need.
The scientific staff, pretty much as a whole, turned their backs on the camp construction and started poking around. Nelson wheedled Roxy and the gyp from Lon and headed east, with his assistant and the biologist, who was muttering about the lack of trees. Apart from the brushy willows along the fringes of the river and the little creeks running into it, there were no trees to be seen.
Kia Farr, the physicist Nelson had recommended, was fooling with some of her equipment. She was an unknown quantity, being one of the new hires. She was supposed to be a solid mapper, but with plenty of theoretical background as well. The tiny fluctuations in the local gravity and magnetic fields gave clues as to deep faults or dense ore bodies. The drone aircraft would carry out a grid search of the planet, full spectrum, IR through gamma, magnetic as well as gravity. Then they'd go out and check on the ground to determine the cause and meaning of changes in any of the surveys. The gyps had a range of about two thousand kilometers, could carry extra alcohol to extend the range, and if all else failed, they could limp slowly home on the electric motors and solar panels.
The radio clipped onto his belt crackled a bit over Ray's voice. "Damn static. No sign of a thunderstorm, though. We'll have all the boxes dropped and the mess box up by sundown. Water piped in by tomorrow, so we can set up the lavatories, expand the rooms. Do the labs the day after."
Lon nodded reflexively. "Good. I expect even the newest of the cadre can manage a night out of doors."
"
Ray had the tractor down and one of the 'scouts' mowing the tall grass al ready. Scout was just the short term for the guys that did the muscle work, and if there was danger, the shooting. Some of them had hunting experience, all had extensive travel histories. Ray was walking around placing stakes. Lon flipped on his radio comm and frowned at the crackling static. Odd, with no clouds in sight.
Ray measured and noted his way up to Lon's hill. "I don't see any reason to prefer north or south of the gate, so pick your favorite. Want your box right here?"
"And steal the be st view? I'm afraid I should be nearer the anchor. Let's put everything south of it. Unless you need the river."
"Nah. The soil's deep and moist, there will be water in every gravel or sand layer, so it's just a matter of going deep enough to have filtered out all the bio-contamination. All right. I'll run the entrance road straight out for five hundred meters, and the return lanes just north of them. Fuel tanks and water tower to the north, boxes south . . ." He marched off and Lon hauled all the scientific staff off and out of the way of the work going on. After mowing came the grading and the building of elevated pads for the boxes, in a neat double row south of the gate. Then they started dropping the boxes and expanding them. The size limitations of the gate had created some interesting challenges for engineers, but these 'boxes' were simply accordion folded or had sections that slid inside each other, or both. They, and the trailer they were mounted on, had to fit through a three and a half meter circle, and be no longer than eleven meters. Ray dropped the HQ box just up the hill from the anchor. For now Lon would be living in the HQ box. If they got lucky, he'd bring in more staff (and boxes) and it would become all office space. The BioSci unit was next. Again, if they were lucky it would become the medical center for the expanded operations, and the biologists would get one or more boxes of their own. The Geology/Physics box would likewise be augmented, according to the specific things they found. The aerial mapping box, mess, two boxes of private living quarters, one barracks box for the drivers who'd be coming and going. It was a small cadre, leaving him the funds to hire short or long term specialists at need.
The scientific staff, pretty much as a whole, turned their backs on the camp construction and started poking around. Nelson wheedled Roxy and the gyp from Lon and headed east, with his assistant and the biologist, who was muttering about the lack of trees. Apart from the brushy willows along the fringes of the river and the little creeks running into it, there were no trees to be seen.
Kia Farr, the physicist Nelson had recommended, was fooling with some of her equipment. She was an unknown quantity, being one of the new hires. She was supposed to be a solid mapper, but with plenty of theoretical background as well. The tiny fluctuations in the local gravity and magnetic fields gave clues as to deep faults or dense ore bodies. The drone aircraft would carry out a grid search of the planet, full spectrum, IR through gamma, magnetic as well as gravity. Then they'd go out and check on the ground to determine the cause and meaning of changes in any of the surveys. The gyps had a range of about two thousand kilometers, could carry extra alcohol to extend the range, and if all else failed, they could limp slowly home on the electric motors and solar panels.
The radio clipped onto his belt crackled a bit over Ray's voice. "Damn static. No sign of a thunderstorm, though. We'll have all the boxes dropped and the mess box up by sundown. Water piped in by tomorrow, so we can set up the lavatories, expand the rooms. Do the labs the day after."
Lon nodded reflexively. "Good. I expect even the newest of the cadre can manage a night out of doors."
"
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