Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [51]
Nur’of, Maratha’s lead engineer, had undertaken an ambitious project during the long night when it would not disturb vacationing Ildirans. After the day season’s last shuttle had departed, his burly diggers had begun to operate machinery to bore shafts into the crust. Nur’of had no directive from the absent Maratha Designate, but had made up his mind independently to develop some improvements. Designate Avi’h would not object to an increase in power efficiency; in fact, he probably wouldn’t notice at all.
Anton ducked through the arch and ventured into the steep shaft. Portable blazers had been strung every few meters, shedding bright light. “Hello? Is it all right if I come inside?”
He encountered a muscular Ildiran worker with massive arms, broad shoulders, and a neck as thick as his head. Though worker kithmen were not the most intelligent or agile of Ildiran subspecies, they were diligent and uncomplaining. The worker lifted a heavy chunk of rock from the front of an earthmoving machine, grunting with the effort, but his expression did not change.
Since so few Ildirans remained on Maratha Prime, Anton had made an effort to meet them all. “Hello, Vik’k. Where is Nur’of?”
Seeing him, the digger flashed a childlike smile. Vik’k seemed to enjoy listening to Earth fairy tales; perhaps his low intelligence was an advantage, since more sophisticated Ildirans were troubled by the concept of fictional exploits: Fiction was not part of their grand Saga.
The digger dropped the boulder onto a carefully arranged pile and gestured deeper into the tunnel. “Nur’of is in there. He is fixing things.”
Anton thanked him and strolled farther on with a jaunty step. Ahead he saw an unexpected network of polished, large-bore tunnels that looked as if they had been cut with acid instead of heavy machinery. And they appeared curiously old, not freshly dug like this main passage.
The engineers were talking at the end of the new shaft, where warm, moist air smelled of rock dust and mud. In the bright light of the blazers, Nur’of stood before a broad wall diagram that showed a sketch of extensive new tunnels beneath Maratha Prime.
The lead engineer looked up to see him approaching. “It is the human rememberer! You will have to tell your people this story of what we unexpectedly found. One of our boreholes broke into this odd honeycomb of preexisting tunnels. No one knew they were here.”
Nur’of had widely spaced eyes and an enlarged head, though to a lesser degree than the heads of purebred scientist kithmen. A cross between scientist and technician kiths, an Ildiran engineer was especially adept at doing rapid calculations in his head and could retain enormous amounts of practical data, such as alloy components, melting temperatures, and stress tolerances.
Anton indicated the crude wall map. “Where did all these tunnels come from?”
“Not important. These shafts will take us directly to the thermal rivers. We can make use of that!” The engineer scrutinized the diagram again. “Now we can extend transfer conduits through these existing tunnels into the boiling aquifers. Maratha Prime will have all the power and heat we could possibly want.”
Anton clapped the engineer on the shoulder. A few weeks ago, he’d had to explain the meaning of a pat on the back. “I know you’ve been working hard at this, and you’ve dreamed it for a long time.”
During Maratha’s day season, the engineers maintained solar collectors, storing accumulated power in enormous banks outside the domed city. But during the half year of darkness, the skeleton crew had to ration energy consumption until the next dawn.
While most engineer kithmen were content just to maintain systems in perfect working order, Nur’of preferred a challenge. Since Maratha’s crust retained