Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [134]
“This is already a disaster,” Cesca reminded him.
He scratched his curly brown hair. “Right. And the Therons would probably rather not have another.”
Knowing the eccentric engineer’s capabilities, Cesca had sent a ship to his frozen methane excavations on Jonah 12. Kotto hated to be pulled from a project that already occupied his full intellect, but Cesca had asked him as a personal favor, and the man’s resistance had melted. Now he followed her like a devoted pet.
Kotto paced through the work areas. Several times, he had expressed disappointment that he hadn’t had a chance to study the hydrogue wreckage before the Eddies hauled it away to Earth, but Cesca tried to keep the man’s genius focused on the immediate problem. Kotto turned his energy to restoring the forest world.
“We’ve cleared this whole settlement zone now, so I had our ships spray down a mesh of biodegradable polymer to hold the soil in place. A crew of Therons is already out finding fast-growing native groundcover for the first phase of the reclamation process. Then I want to build retaining walls and stair-step some of these hillsides.”
He held up a long, thin sheet of electronic plans, scrolling through image after image. “I can use this opportunity to install up-to-date plumbing and power conduits, ventilation systems, communications nodes.”
“They have their own ways, Kotto. Be careful not to do anything they don’t want.”
He blinked at her. “All right, I’ll ask first. But so far they’re fascinated with the renovation plans, and they’ve been very helpful.” He shifted to a different page of the plans. “Normally I’d use raw metals and alloys as structural materials. In this case, though, I doubt the Therons want us to strip-mine or bore holes into their rock outcroppings—”
“Don’t even consider it. That’s fine on an empty asteroid, but the ecosystem here has been damaged enough. We need to heal and repair this planet, not make matters worse.”
“Exactly my point.” Kotto tapped his finger on the plans. “I ran compositional analyses and materials tests on the wood of the dead worldtrees. It’s quite a remarkable substance, almost as sturdy as steel, yet workable. We can use that fire-hardened wood to form the basic framework for all the structures the Therons need.”
“There’s certainly plenty of it available,” Cesca said, looking at all the downed trees. “Unfortunately.”
As if unveiling a masterpiece, Kotto displayed his architectural scheme that used salvaged wood, a few necessary components of Roamer manufacture, and the original material of the fungus reef. “Look, I can shore up these parts of the old city and rebuild the rest. It’ll be better than ever before.”
His unique vision impressed Cesca. “We’ll have to get the Therons’ approval first, but I think they’ll be quite pleased.” She surprised the bemused inventor with a quick and enthusiastic hug.
Denn Peroni flew his ship next to a pair of water-hauling vessels captained by the twins Torin and Wynn Tamblyn. They had brought two of their container ships from the water mines of Plumas to use for large-scale operations. From orbit, Roamer scouts traced still-burning fires on separate continents, following plumes of smoke to the heaviest unchecked blazes. Now the Tamblyn brothers dumped water from their haulers to snuff out the flames in these remaining hot spots.
Cesca’s father sent daily progress reports to the base camp. Shipload after shipload of water scooped from fresh lakes rained down upon the last uncontrolled fires, dousing them. Even from high in the sky, Denn could almost feel a sigh of relief from the sentient trees. Every blaze extinguished was like a hot spike withdrawn from the planet’s sensitive flesh…
Cesca sat and listened while several Roamer agricultural engineers spoke with Yarrod and other high-ranking green priests. “I think you’ll find that we Roamers are well versed in efficient crop-planting methods. We’ve also become adept