Chapter Seventeen
All the families went to their places on the lake that night, Nev's parents and grandparents for the first time. Several had jobs, but all could call employers, tell them the heat had gotten to them, and not endanger them. By midmorning, all were sure the decision to buy cabins on the lake was a very good one.
Nev, Knight and Blade were discussing the viewroom placement at Dorn Michaelson's cabin when Nev's father arrived. The three went back to work. Kail and Dorn sat on the end of the dock and began building a friendship. When Dorn left to buy a solarium, Kail went with him.
Kail and Dorn returned in midafternoon. They had a trailer with a solarium, columns and the materials to build the platform, from which the viewroom would be placed, Knight had described to them. They also had posine, glasselle, doors and all the bits and pieces that went into constructing a viewroom with a posine path. They unloaded it all with their high-loader.
"You both decided you want to watch, can't wait, and got a parts list from Dawn?"
"She and Drand may be here soon, Knight. He was getting a detailed description of the construction process, while she was checking to see you have all the tools you need with you."
"That is a happy man."
"There was a discussion of a sequencer system change in their vows, Dorn."
"We ran into the judge's son at Dolden's. He said she recessed court for a laugh break today. It's a suit over some vases. One of the attorneys said, 'matched set,' and most of the people in the court room started laughing."
Nev, Knight and Blade gave them a time remaining on what they were doing and told them where to find the brewer in the car. They finished roof, wall and trim repair and masking the cabin for colorbond a few minutes later. In thirteen, they pulled the masking off and Blade began on the trim. Knight and Nev began working on the viewroom, with installation of the door mechanism.
There wasn't a great deal of trim, and Blade worked very fast, but he didn't go to help with the viewroom when he finished. He began on the yard. Six hands on the viewroom wouldn't really speed things at that point. When everything but the mowing was done, he began working on the water construction platform. As soon as he did, Knight switched jobs.
The platform was supports and frame for a posine floor. It was just a matter of assembling the frame, attaching the posine to the front and pushing it into the water. It floated, to start. When they had it positioned, the sixteen supports were triggered.
Broad feet unfolded and the supports unscrewed, until they could not go deeper. The posine was still well above the water. After it was charged, the high-loader was driven onto it. The entire assembly sank, but not a great deal. A scaffold was connected to the end and two more supports sought the lake bottom.
Blade left that job and went to work on the viewroom. Knight stood on the scaffold extension and calculated position in depth for each column. When he finished the calculations, he gave them to Blade and began working with Nev again.
Blade trimmed columns and drilled them for hardware, then moved them onto the platform. Once they were off the lawn, he began mowing.
Knight left Nev and began setting the columns. Blade finished the lawn, except where Nev was working on the viewroom. Knight got the last column set, then he and Blade began assembling the frame for the viewroom. When that was almost complete, Blade left it to cut a narrow trench for water and power conduit.
Knight finished the viewroom support frame, connected the utilities to the house and ran the conduit to the water's edge. Blade filled the eight-cen wide trench and coated it with grass seed.
Knight lowered the scaffold between the columns to waist depth, then went back to work with Nev. Blade began assembling the doorway that would allow a person to pull a covered path from the side door of the cabin to the end of the posine path from the viewroom. It could be heated after connection, but was primarily designed for use in wet, not cold, weather. Nev left the viewroom to help Blade. Knight picked up the viewroom with the high-loader and moved it onto the platform, then finished mowing the lawn.
When Knight began working on the door assembly, Nev left it and began moving tools and equipment to the LH or into the cabin. He went back to working on the door assembly when that was done.
Knight left the work on the door, unrolled the utility conduit, slipped a loop over a column, then connected the end of it to the viewroom. Nev and Blade finished the doorway, as Knight was setting the viewroom onto its frame.
Nev and Blade stripped to swimbriefs and dropped from the platform onto the submerged scaffold. It wasn't as easy to reach all the frame bolts as it was from the high-loader platform, but none were out of reach.
They collapsed the scaffold supports, disconnected it and took it out of the water. The platform supports were collapsed and it was pulled off the water. The posine was discharged, disconnected and rolled, then the support structure was disconnected in two places. It became three footed rails and a roll of posine, which fit neatly into the LH.
Knight, Nev and Blade walked from it to the front porch, where Kail and Dorn were seated and handed Dorn the remote. There were also controls at the side door and in the viewroom. Dorn smiled widely and touched the control. The door assembly extended, carrying the enclosed path to the shore.
"Beautiful! I'm real glad I watched you do this. It's going to make me real popular tea company at Berda's, for days. That platform and scaffold design is great. I didn't know how you were going to work in the water. I certainly didn't expect you to have everything done on the outside by dinnertime."
"I'm impressed. That's gorgeous. The path is wide enough you could carry a couch through it and it's pretty extended."
"Don't retract it until we check the walkway connection and seal, Dorn. You might want to watch this to explain it to your tenants. Posted instructions wouldn't work as well. 'Stick your hands out and punch the buttons, reach up, punch that one, grab hold of the edge and walk,' is all it takes, but people look for diagrams, correct terminology and such in posted."
"Yes, Nev, they do, and they expect anything with posted instructions to be complicated. That's simple, all right."
"You pull to see how easy."
"Light as a feather, Knight. Now what?"
"When you get to the end of the path, just push the tabs, where the buttons are, into the slots. If someone accidentally retracts the path with the walkway connected, they'll disengage, but they won't reconnect if the path is extended again. This is too light. It would just push it back. After connection, disconnect and walk it back, so you can see it will collapse into the doorway frame properly. This does have footlights, but they're barely discernible in sunlight. It doesn't opaque. No one's going to see enough to know people are running through it nude at night. The path walls and roof do opaque. They're much more brightly lit and the opaqueing glasselle is better for construction stability. This won't blow around when connected. The frame collapses, but it doesn't bend."
"I noticed I'm pulling it straight because that's the way it goes."
"It's as idiot-proof as we can make it, Dorn. That's why there's an interlock on doors at both ends of the path, and it's not just an open, or railed, path. That might be more interesting, in appearance, but a way to assure people don't step on the posine, until it's charged, just has to be included for a rental property."
"Absolutely, Nev. Tabs line up perfect."
"Nev, I really am impressed. You three are fantastic at what you've chosen to do. You know I thought it was a waste."
"I was sure you'd see how much what we do contributes and how much we enjoy it. Drand didn't show up. Odds he now owns a high-loader and Case and Stats had help on a job?"
"No. I don't think even the land clearance and flyers could have kept him from needing to see one of these done immediately. You expect him to hook up with Case and Stats."
"Not the same way we are. I think he and Dawn are going to
get heavier licenses, and Ronnie's going to really go to work with Danny. Doc Larry is going to work for you. You have other people in mind."
"I'd like to hire them all, but Danny's parents don't want to move from Travella and Ronnie's won't leave Lambelin. Stats' mom and Dawn's dad want to change jobs, and move out of Richland. His dad and her mom wouldn't have any problem finding work up here, if there weren't positions associated with building the campus. You know who I really want and am trying to figure out how to convince to move."
"Balleon Industries will fight to keep him."
"I'm really hoping Case and his mom will help me, not them."
"Case will, but it will be very subtle. He'll look like he's not even expressing an opinion, but living here will become very attractive, to his mom."
"Which may be exactly why Drand and Dawn aren't here."
"True. I want to build a golf course and we're way behind on promised work."
"You also want to work on flyers and a car. How long here?"
"Everything is ready for pickup and we can get ready for carpet and appliances by tonight, I think. We should be done here by midday and maybe finished with three easy inside jobs by tomorrow night. We've got nine more, but four are going to take about a half-day each. Five or six days of real push, then we have yours. I'd just hire someone to do the course, but I really want Blade to design it."
"Why?"
"It'll be beautiful, play beautifully, be comparatively easy to maintain, tournament quality, with things like gallery space, convenient toilets and good cart trails and maintenance access, and he'll learn he has real talent for aesthetic and useful greenscape design. It's something Knight and I both see and he doesn't. Roper district is basically trampled dirt, sidewalks and streets. It's a totally unexpected ability and we didn't see how much talent he has, until we started designing the park. He doesn't realize it's primarily his design. So, a golf course, so I can teach him to play golf."
Kail burst into laughter. Nev grinned and told him there were only three firms on the continent that listed golf course design and it was a sideline of their landscaping business. There were only four golf course design specialists on the planet and he really wasn't impressed with any of them.
He expected a real boom in the pleasure industry to begin as soon as a stable government was in place and new technology began to be developed. People were going to have more disposable income and larger families, and be looking for ways to spend one to entertain the other.
His dad told him he'd wondered what he'd planned for the time rental maintenance was just maintenance. He didn't think general construction would interest them long and hadn't seen the viewrooms, living space expansions and golf course were the next step."
Nev told him he would have if he'd talked to Knight and Blade very long. His main job was "assemble the ideas presented in just talk into a plan outline pointing the right direction." He'd learned it at home and it had been what he did on the physics project, so he knew he had good training. His dad smiled widely. Nev's job description was the same as his.
Not long after Dorn and Kail left to take the trailer back, Nev's grandmother chimed the door of the cabin. She led Nev to her car and pointed to a container in the back seat. As soon as he got it out, she got in the car and left. Nev carried the container into the cabin, opened it and burst into laughter.
"Dinner is on top. A statement Grandma was frustrated is beneath it."
"Frustrated? Mobile comms!"
"Three wrist comm chrons and four comms for cars, Blade. Yours. Knight, yours. Your car, the LH, the T and a flimsy with a comm code for the Bolt. Note says separate service, not through the house."
"Why?"
"Because they're personal gifts, Blade, not for the business. The comp takes messages concerning jobs. We can specify current contractor and others be forwarded, but these are for family and friends to reach us with things like, 'Hi, I'm bringing you dinner.' You'll love this. Grandma makes great noodles with punkit cream sauce."
"Smells wonderful. Elven Silver Blade and Silver Green Bolt, nice codes."
"Knight of Pyramids and Knight Arrant's Steed."
"Nev to a T, Old White Workhorse and Prince of Purse!"
They burst into laughter. It was a great code. Nev's grandmother had obviously gotten a book update. They weren't surprised they all three got calls, as they were finishing dinner. Danny, Dawn and Drand gave them comp codes for 'everyone else's' and they entered them and shortcuts for all. Nev's grandmother had obviously had great fun creating comm codes for everyone, too.
Danny told Knight that Milla had gone comm shopping right after Gem World Communications announced all IS required monitoring and tracking installations had been removed, and mobile units would require specific programming to serve as locators for verified loss-of-contact emergencies. She also told them none of them would get a bill for service. It was paid for a decade and it was global, so there would be no long-distance records.
Gem WC had come up with exactly what people wanted first, and there might not be a mobile comm left in a store on the planet by the next evening. The other services were working fast to copy and would probably offer slightly better rates, but Gem WC was making a fast fortune.
Dawn told Blade who made the comms, their specs and how long they'd been on back shelves. Nev got the specs from Drand, along with a list of possible system integrations for the vehicle units.
Knight told Nev and Blade what Danny said. Blade and Nev told him about the lists they'd gotten. Nev said Dawn had "instantly reverted," but he wasn't sorry. He figured all that work they'd done teaching her most people didn't think of tech specs as casual conversation would probably be noticeable again by midwinter, and she'd help Drand remember. Since they now had her code, each of the three called Milla to thank her for the terrific dinner, the great comm codes, and the comms and service, too.
They finished installing and enclosing the spa, polishing the kitchen and baths, colorbonding the walls and ceilings, then changed the lights and set up the cabin for an entertainment system. It was twenty-three fourteen when they got that all done, but all that remained was putting in new carpet and appliances.
They installed the mobile comms and reconnected both the comm and power receiver in the Bolt, before they went to bed. All the vehicles were more than five years old, so all had once had comms. They put them in the slots and told the comps they were there. It didn't take long. Knight used the comm in his car to tell Dorn the work was done, as they left the cabin the next morning at ten seventeen. At twelve forty-two, they had sandwiches on the way to the second easy job.
Kail called Nev and told him that he, Dorn and a pair of secondary students had gotten all the furniture in the cabin, just before the rain began, and the two boys thought watching the rain from the viewroom was "peak-on."
The rain was off-and-on for three days. Case and Stats were doing the same thing they were, doing every inside job and working from about six to twenty-three daily to catch up. By the day the forecast no longer had periods of rain in it for "probably eight days," all they had left to do was a day's worth of outside work before they began on the rest of the viewrooms and 'house expansions.'
Case and Stats did have a high-loader to use and had done one "please," but had five to do. Knight, Nev and Blade had passed to calls to them because Nev's parents place and the ski cabin were both going to take time.
They were going to use a construction crane for the ski cabin. Nev's grandmother had showed him a catalog image. He told her she was paying for operators' licenses for three, crane rental, a lift installation license and the building permit, then asked how high she wanted it. When she'd told him he told her to order five columns.
The day after they finished the last jobs scheduled, before Nev's parents and grandparents, they went to Mountain City for the first time. There were campaign signs in front of homes and posters in windows of businesses.
They were delighted. They weren't as pleased with the people who were sure one needed school to use a crane and install a lift, even though they said they'd studied.
Knight got impatient. He described a Velter plex lift, all parts and specifications, the installation process and the maintenance schedule. Nev named the twelve types of construction cranes. Blade put the formula for computing wind-deflection and shear stress on a datpad, then flipped the stylus into a cup across the room. Knight started on operational capacities, primary uses and manufacturing specifications of six models of the 'first type' and they were very quickly shown to test booths.
When Knight, then Nev and Blade walked out, a short time later, a clerk asked them if there was something wrong. The comp began printing licenses and the clerk blinked.
Case, Stats, Dawn and Drand walked into the Association of Construction Industry Insurers courtesy licensing office, while it was still printing list installation licenses, Blade pointed to a light that was "yelling fix me."
"Caprot seventeen eleven frequency regulator, Drand."
"I've got a Bortel-I nine oh six, Dawn. It'll adapt. Case, give me your micrometer."
"I've got a Totson circuit shaver in one of these pockets. Here."
"Thanks, Stats."
"Boost me up on Stats' shoulders, Case. I'll dismount it while Drand's adapting the Bortel-I. I don't know how you could think, Blade. I know you can hear this frequency."
"If it had been steady, or started before I went in the test booth, I'd have climbed Knight and yanked it out, Dawn. I figured you'd have something to fix it faster than a circuit rebuild. See you later. Shut the door, Nev. Comm Case. Signal Dawn there's nothing wrong with that module before she takes it apart. I was preventing a long argument you need training certificates from a school on their list. Comm out."
"Nice, Blade."
"Knight, I had this vision of Drand and Dawn starting on various matrix specs and Case and Stats going back every day for ten, before they could ask for apps."
Knight and Nev burst into laughter. Before they left Mountain City, they stopped at a Millson dealership. It was a surprise for Blade. Everything needed to restore the Bolt was waiting for pickup, including upholstery, carpet, headliner and the appliances that went in the compartments around the rear seat.
The woman at the service counter was almost as excited he'd found and was going to restore a Bolt as Blade was. He promised he'd drive it down when they finished, and told her it probably wouldn't be long. Half the people of West Side in Teal Valley had tools laid out to grab when they started. She said she'd see him in the morning.
They did start on the Bolt that evening and they did get a lot of help. They moved the Tourline and T out, put the Bolt in the center and left the garage door open.
Doc Larry came over while they were working. He was grinning widely. Kail had commed, transferred files, given him a schedule of meetings, and said, "Oh, you're hired. I'll figure out the title and salary later. Comm out."
They got a lot done on the Bolt that evening, but it wasn't near finished. They began tripling the entertainment area of Nev's parents' cabin the next day. They did have a building permit for the job. They were going to put in two sets of double doors. They'd be open much of the time. They were going in the side and end of the living room.
They began with the viewroom. It was over the water, but high over it. The path from it would lead to a deck. That was second.
They used columns to support tiered decks. The space under the two decks was usable. It was filled with plants with walks through them and alcoves, to be comfortably furnished for groups of from four to eight. All of the area beneath the broad curving stairs wasn't usable, but they were. They would be reasonably easy to climb, but designed to be comfortable to sit on, broad and nicely cushioned so both step edges and rails were comfortable to lean against.
The heating and cooling system was installed. Outlets were small and on the outside of deck and stair rails and on the ten-cen high border around it all. They put in a personal lift up to the decks near the end doors, then placed lights over plant areas, along paths, and beneath the roof overhang of the cabin and installed torchier lamps 'everywhere.'
They poured the floor over utility conduits to all areas, then built the waterfall fountain that cascaded from a pool on the top deck to one on the ground. The column that supported it was wrapped in vines and so were the arms that held the shallow clear basins, which overflowed into the next lower, spiraling around the column.
They built a circular bar in the center, put in all the plants and built small cascades of water many places through them, then carpeted all non-plant areas in a deep pile silvered brown that was highly stain resistant, didn't show normal dirt and was very easy to clean. They programmed the comp to send the small housekeeping bot to all areas, put the appliances in the bar and placed dark green recycle units among plants at the edge of walks, many places.
They went up on the roof of the cabin and installed the unit that held the roof, then they built the doorway for the viewroom path. At each corner they set a tall, thick plant pole into the holes in the border made for them and attached them to the top deck. They hung large baskets of trailing plants on arms that contained sprinkler heads. They put potted vines beside the doorway, wove them through and over the narrow arched trellis in front of it and connected the drip watering system. At dusk on the sixth day, they turned on the water and lights, then walked into the house and told the comp to "enclose deck."
The corner poles and roof assembly opened. Extensor arms carried sage green walls, bases moving along tracks in the outside of the border, on both sides of the area and to the side of the house behind the end doors. Extensor arms carried opaqueing glasselle from both outside corners to the doorway. A glasselle wall dropped down from the bottom of the doorway to the viewroom. All leading wall edges had vand seal male edges. The wall that had gone down and open panels in columns and the outside of the door had female. The roof assembly unfolded on one side.
All walls had tracks at the top edge with posiseal beneath them. Pale cream posine, carried by two extensor arms of the same color, a third of the way in on both sides, moved along the wall tracks, then inserted into the one in the glasselle walls and the doorway. Posine was the only material they were sure wouldn't collapse from the snow load on a flat roof. As soon as all walls and roof were in place, the comp charged the system. The posine became rigid and the vand and posiseal swelled.
Knight ordered the viewroom path extended. Kail and Lillen walked out into the big beautiful room and sat down at the bar. Knight, Nev and Blade followed.
"This is a work of art and genius. I don't know why I expected glasselle all around."
"Glasselle all around would have just been a rectangular dome, Mom. If you just wanted an enclosed space a dome would have been fine, but you'd have asked for one if that's what you wanted."
"Room capacity about two hundred. If you wish, or ever need, to get people out, order the front wall open. There's a manual seal discharge and reel in the right pole bottom."
"We couldn't get the seal in the same color, so went with transparent. You can see it's there, but it's not obvious."
"Blade, it's nearly invisible. This room won't be particularly expensive to heat."
"Your parking area is done, Dad. It's got a standard parking dome with automatic door. Not particularly warm, but pull the path cover up from your door and people won't freeze coming in or leaving. Leave it up in winter. It's reasonably cheap to heat if people aren't in and out all the time. You'll use the garage, so it won't lose much heat either."
"You finished just ahead of rain."
"It's that time of year. The harvesters call it 'work-dry-party-wet-season,' Lillen. The lights can be dimmed in sections, or all of the light bars or torchiers ordered on or off, and they'll all dim. You can order, 'plant lights on,' and those will be all that come on. They'
ll get light through the glasselle, but the lights over the more interior plants should be on about eight hours a day. The comp's programmed for that, but you can override. House comp, torchiers, plant and viewroom lights only."
"It's even more beautiful this way, Blade."
"I thought it would be pretty."
"Comm Milla. You've got to see this. I'm opening the champagne you gave me and Lillen is dashing for treats. The parking dome is up and we'll cover the path, so you don't get wet. Tell everyone. Comm out."
"There's no furniture yet."
"She'll call Dawn to call your neighborhood and the five families, and a few others, Blade. She knows how much champagne she gave me and what we have for treats. We'll have a social occasion after it's furnished. This is just come-see and she knows who wants to most, who should get to."
"I'll take the path up."
"I'd like to do it, Knight. It's my new path. Going to use that one too. I think lightweight, not quite patio-style furniture that people will move around."
"That's about what we envisioned. Watch for people on stairs carrying chairs, Dad."
"They'll more move them around on tiers than up-and-down, Nev, but I will. Milla will be so stunned, and proud of you. I am, all three of you, but I always am."
"Poor Drand, another night everyone deserts work on the flyers."
"Rain all day tomorrow and most of the next day, Blade. We should get the Bolt done easily and have real time to help with those too."
"I used to really dislike rainy days, Nev."
The 'gang' were "awed." The bar and steps were perfect for the gathering of about forty. Essa suddenly yelled she knew the furniture. Lillen, Milla, Silky and Blade 'chased' her to a screen. Blade knew alcoves and numbers of lamps on tiers and the ground. Lillen told Essa to "order right." Essa told Silky he was helping.
They chose several styles and fabrics, but the chairs, loveseats and low tables, were all transparent with random vaporous swirls of creamy white. The fabrics chosen were predominantly dark brown and forest green and all leaf and branch patterns. The furniture was softly sculpted and looked very comfortable.
The little company on the northwest continent that made it was open. They acknowledged the order and request for rush air delivery to Teal Valley and gave midafternoon in Teal Valley in two days as delivery time.
Lillen commed the company president to say thank you personally and told him they'd send images of the "design triumph" where it was being placed, both as room and decks. The company president asked questions, then said, "We'll get it there tomorrow."
Lillen told him it would be two days before it stopped raining and they could retract the room, but he'd get images of that as soon as the furniture was in it. When she got off comm, she checked on the company. It was three young couples and the designs were theirs. She was delighted.
Case surprised them all. He told his dad the university was more important, he was changing jobs, and borrowing the money from his boss to expand their lake home, until their other house sold. He told his mom keeping up with the competition wasn't easy, but he had some ideas. Stats' mom whimpered. Stats said he had ideas too. Kail hired her and Dawn's dad. Dawn and Drand told her parents they had ideas.
Case's dad just nodded when Kail told him he was hired and had "an until-the-house-sells loan." He was laughing too hard to talk.
The next morning, they finished the Bolt. Knight and Nev 'went along' to the Millson dealership in Mountain City. Blade gave the woman who'd been excited, and then eight others, short rides. When they got home, Nev pointed to the comp and said, "Golf course," then he and Knight dashed out the kitchen door to the T. Blade yelled he'd never even played golf, then began looking at images of courses and reading comments on their design and play on various types of grass.
Blade arrived at the hangar with dinner. He was smiling widely and told Nev and Knight he'd had fun, after he got over the panic. He told Nev he was going to have to hire a construction company to build the workshop, but cart parking was just a smaller version of their boathouse.
They finished the first flyer that night. Work on the other three had already begun. Some things had just been simpler to do all at once. The flyers weren't going to be all alike, but generators, tool compartments, workbenches and rooms were, and all of those were done. The second flyer interior had also been started. They got quite a bit done on it and the third and fourth well underway by the end of the second day of rain.
The next day, Lillen got day and evening images with walls retracted and sent them, and more with walls in place, to the small company. Case and Stats began work at Case's parents' cabin. Knight, Nev and Blade, with Milla's "dying to play golf" consent, began work on the course.
More rain was coming, but intermittent showers wouldn't slow them greatly at her home or the ski cabin, where some work would be inside. It would on the golf course and having it seeded before it showered would aid grass growth immensely.
Blade dug sand traps and water hazards. Knight moved and planted trees. Nev tilled fairways and the driving range. Blade changed equipment and prepared greens, including the putting green. Knight changed and laid the sprinkler system, other water and sewer lines and power conduit. Drand and Dawn made all the connections. Nev cleared and leveled the Pro shop and cart rental area. Blade prepared tees and filled sand traps. Nev cleared and leveled restroom areas. Knight poured floors. All three, Drand and Dawn erected restroom 'sheds,' installed faucets and toilets and placed waste recyclers around the course. Knight poured cart paths, while the others began erecting the pro shop, snack bar, banquet hall and cart rental and storage area. Blade seeded it all.
Drand and Dawn had a construction license. It didn't cover homes or office buildings, but it allowed them to build permanent structures of some types. The snack bar and banquet hall, which overlooked the course, were designed to fit within the strictures of their license and signed off by architect Andon Lambert.
The cart barn and maintenance shed were constructed in hours. The building was quick, but it would have taken many more than three days without a flood of volunteers. The recessing domes to cover patios were installed and landscaping was completed, as the appliances were being installed in the snack shop and banquet hall and carpet was laid.
Because they'd borrowed very large farm equipment for the course preparation, the land had been well-cleared in advance and so many worked on the main structure, the whole project was done in eleven days, except for the fairways and greens. They were rapidly changing from brown to green, but the course wouldn't be ready for play for at least fifteen days.
The specialty grasses wouldn't be ready for trampling as quickly as the type used in the now fully 'trampleable' park. There, ball and soccer teams were already practicing and playing and picnics, concerts and plays were already taking place. The schedule of events was growing and parents were bringing children to see and play from all across the region, not just Teal Valley.
Case's parents had needed additional living space, not just room to entertain more. Ronnie's and Danny's parents had gone home, but returned on days off to see progress.
Case and Stats used solariums to create bedrooms, baths and office space at various heights. They enclosed the area between to create an atrium and expanded the kitchen and living room by removal of walls, under Drand and Dawn's license. They also expanded the master bedroom, adding doors and an enclosable spa area. Lights beneath the solariums and steps up to them assured plants beneath them were happy.
The fountain they built in the center of the atrium was a spiral of slender transparent columns with water bubbling out of the lighted top of each. The one-point seven five diameter, point seven five meter deep pool at the base was on a point seven five meter high pedestal, and transparent. It was stocked with water plants and ornamental fish. The pedestal contained the best aquarium continuous-cleaning and filtration system available. It also contai
ned an auto-feeding system, which released food in the area in the center of the columns, but that wasn't turned on.
Case's mom really enjoyed sprinkling food and watching her fish, from one of the three plant-surrounded 'lobes' of various sizes, furnished for four-to-six with transparent green swirled furniture.
The living room-atrium combination gave Case's parents room to entertain sixty to seventy comfortably. Their viewroom was on the water and they still had a nice lawn area between it and the atrium doors. The only open or enclosed area Case and Stats had built was the spa patio.
The atrium had melt units and water channels in its arched transparent roof. It also had many baskets of trailing plants and lights for them beneath it. They were the primary source of light in the atrium, but every solarium had its own. Case's parents now had a five-bedroom, three-bath home and the rest of the extended family were all scheduling visits. They were already at work on Stats' parents' cabin, building a "patio-greenhouse with fruits and veggies in reach along every walk and from every chair in an alcove."
It was going on the back side of the cabin, with doors from the kitchen and dining area, and would enclose. The cabin was quite close to the lakefront on a wooded lot. The road side had enough cleared areas to make the inside-garden-orchard-patio Stats' parents wanted. Platforms would give more seating areas and allow people to pick fruit off trees. Stairs to them would be spiral. Water would run through the entire area in a brook with gates to irrigate planted areas. Lights would be on columns of many heights and focused on planted areas.
The walls and roof were glasselle. The roof was steeply peaked, matching that of the cabin, but there was a sub-roof of gel-core solar sheeting, used by floral growers for its heat exchanging properties. It could be set to cool or warm the area it faced and was ninety-nine-point eight three percent transparent to sunlight. The glasselle was less, but snow would slide off it quickly. It would make pockets and eventually tear the sheeting.
By the time Knight, Nev and Blade had finished the viewroom, building and enclosure for the rest of the exterior entertainment area, installing a dome over the parking area and green-escaping Nev's grandparents' house, Case and Stats had finished Stats' parents' cabin and were helping Dawn and Drand with Dawn's parents'.
Knight, Blade and Nev began on the ski cabin with a five-days-before-downpour weather forecast. They set the columns, with the viewroom frame already built onto them, used the platform they built for the construction crane to connect it, lifted the viewroom into place and fastened it in, then installed the transparent lift shaft between two more widely spaced side columns. The glasselle walls, ceiling and doors of the lift could be opaqued. The shaft could not, but it didn't refract light and was as near invisible as advertised.
The path they built was from the bottom of the lift shaft, which was a bit above ground level, to the broad loft deck. They quickly enclosed it and the very large first story deck. The enclosures had no retracting walls. That was unnecessary. The cabin was for winter use. They returned the crane the third day.
They installed the garage dome over the additional parking area and built a covered path from it that joined the one from the garages. The garage dome wasn't a recessing type either. It was shorter and assembled in sections. It had melt units in the top of the supports and lights on the bottom. They finished all the exterior construction almost ahead of the rain.
They built the connection between the walks with the rain pouring down on them. It didn't take long, but they were soaked and dripping when they finished. They stripped off clothes, put them in the clothes cycler to dry and got in the spa to get warm. That's when Blade told them his plans for one hundred cut crystal snowflakes.
"Five mobiles suspended from the ceiling. I've got five each of four thin chrome rings in diminishing sizes. I'm going to hang them one each in front of the five windows over planters. They won't obstruct the view and the ceiling is high enough to give nice space between the rings. I've got a lot of other crystal stuff, including glassware and decanters for the bar, and I ordered plants and furniture for the viewroom and decks and carpet for the decks. It's silver-gray. It won't show dirt badly and people shouldn't get that far with dirty feet. I've got chrome lattice for plants and stuff to build a curving chrome plant-framed waterslide into a warm pool from the top to bottom deck. That's why I said enclose out past the deck on that end. We'll fill the whole area with flowering plants in hanging chrome planters on chrome poles and crystal bars and panels hung from the top on monofil. Since moisture won't collect on glasselle, the water in the slide pool can be hot enough to steam, if someone wants it that way."
"I'm really looking forward to doing this. How big is the pool?"
"We'll be digging a hole for it, assembling a frame and lining it, Nev. Seats all around the sides, mid-chest deep on me, a chrome ladder up to the bottom deck, and a chrome stand with dozens of white fluffy robes beside it. Not a spa. No water jets. Just a big pool that'll hold about twelve comfortably, and a slide that puts people in it at one end. They can go down the ladder if they prefer. We just don't carpet in a half circle around the ladder, and water runs through. The whole idea is ancient history. Nev, we just lost Knight."
"Crystal, chrome, refraction, steam, slide, tub or drip-through, something connected in there, Blade."
"I figured we were going to have to come up with something. Everyone else is still reworking the math. They need a kick in the ass to get their minds moving."
"They need one to get them started building a new government, so they can get the spaceport, the portal and interplanetary communication going. The families of the oligarchy have 'made port,' so people know there's something going on here. And nobody's even building a damn shuttle!"
"Comm Danny. Beautiful, Knight's glazed and Nev's steaming. Do a gov-job-open list and a congressional district map. Tell them people are about to show up at the portal, and land, and if they don't get their asses in gear to get ready for visitors, they'll take the math ingredients home and work up recipes, because we obviously aren't going to close our mouths and get to work. Yes, they need local gov, but they can't wait to get every local gov in place and running before they think about planetary, unless they plan on city-states and the comp just keeping things outside them going. Drenched doing the last panel, but we'll drive into dry to work from now on. Thanks. Comm out. The others just got the enclosure done. They've still got thirty-nine minutes before it rains."
"I've got an idea."
"Oh, we knew that, Knight."
It took them four more days to finish the ski cabin. The next morning, Nev called Andrea and told her his grandmother had gotten impatient and there were several golf carts in the cart barn. The rain had topped off water hazards, the course had been mowed, and it could handle two teachers and a pair of students. She said her clubs were in the car.
They taught Knight and Blade to play on the course Blade had designed. Andrea told them not to expect most courses to be as much fun to play. Blade looked surprised, then smiled widely. While they were on the course, Nev called the mayor and said the cart barn was filling, so they'd better get someone in the pro shop and snack bar, if they planned to collect greens fees. The course had been overseeded, mowed and would be ready for full play after the third mowing in five days.
"Comm out."
"That soon?"
"At that point, golf cleats will do more good than harm, Andrea. Drand ran an aerator around the greens yesterday. The rain really helped the grass root well. He checked plugs all over. Even the third seeding will be sturdy enough by then. It's time for the city to relieve the volunteers of course maintenance duties, and several people to get new jobs. They know who's going to manage the snack bar, pro shop, banquet hall and course maintenance, but the contracts aren't signed yet."
"They'll get signed fast now, probably within minutes, so they can start stocking shelves and pantries. The banquet hall was
a good idea. It'll help pay for winter upkeep."
"It'll also reduce the probability we'll be doming the bandstand area, so there's a place for a wedding reception. Summer is ending. The course will be playable until jackets are traded for coats, but summer people are already asking about boat storage. It's going to be full quite soon."
"It'll be hot down there until well after the first frost here."
"Which will be a bit early this year."
"Such a change from last year and you brought it all. Not just to here, to the whole world."
"We intended to do something about the world. The rest just sort of happened."
"Andrea, he intended. The others knew it and, of course, helped."
"I realize that, Knight. What are you going to do about all the attention you're going to get?"
"Oh, we'll slip any tech we come up with in quietly and dump the money in the building fund."
"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the cabins. This too, but it isn't going to put your names on the front of every design and architecture site on the infonet in thirteen days."
"What?"
"You're going to win the Design Academy Award for Innovation, Nev, and Case and Stats will get second. Nominations are complete as of yesterday and your little businesses are listed. You may get the big one, Design of the Year."
"Uh… How did we get nominated?"
"Some member of the Academy submitted your name. Who knows who was cruising around the lake, then ran in some place in Veil Lake and asked who did your parents' place. Many have. Everyone up there and down here gives a list of go-see and now people in Frostlea are. Your families aren't going to put opaque domes over all their homes and refuse to allow the nominations committee to get images for Academy members to look at. In thirteen days, the member votes will be tallied and you'll both be in the top five, two itty-bitty rental maintenance companies from Teal Valley, which everyone has now heard of, in the top five in the most prestigious design competition on Gradelode. The Academy is based in Coral Hills on the northwest continent, so the awards didn't get much attention by anyone but architects and interior designers, here. This year, it will."
"Yipe."
"We need to do more real fast to distract from family names, Nev, preferably somewhere else."
"You're available?"
"Clear schedule as of this morning, all of us."
"Comm Penny. Penny, Knight said all three companies finished everything yesterday!"
"I thought we were going to get some time off."
"Eventually, Blade. We aren't going to build stuff outside in snow to our nuts."
"I remind you, mine are much lower."
L'Gem Page 17
