Delphi Diversion (Delphi in Space Book 12) by Bob Blanton

Author:Bob Blanton [Blanton, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Delphi Publishing Inc
Published: 2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Now We’re Getting Somewhere

Marc was walking along the first road they’d built outside of the city. Its purpose was to give the farmers access to their farms from the city. Soon they would be building the roads that led to the ranches farther back in the hills. Following him were the farmers who had selected land grants along the road.

“Hey, why aren’t there any bar ditches?”

Marc, a city boy, had to look up what a bar ditch was, ‘a ditch alongside a road for the purpose of drainage. Dirt is borrowed from the ditch to crown the road.’

“Because the pavement is pervious.”

“What the hell does pervious mean?”

“It means it’s porous so water can flow through it. That eliminates most runoff so we don’t need drainage ditches. It’s safer too, ditches beside a road are just asking for an accident.”

“Come on, what happens when it really pours down?”

“The road is sitting on three meters of decomposed granite; the pavement will allow over five centimeters of rain through per minute, so I don’t think you have to worry.”

“Won’t that granite become waterlogged?”

“It’s designed to allow the water to percolate down to the water table. If it’s waterlogged, then all this land will be under water.”

They continued to walk and finally arrived at a planned site for a mini-hamlet. Four families had agreed to build their homes close together so that they could share infrastructure. They’d also agreed to build four other houses each to create a small community. Those houses would be close to the corner, while their homes would be farther away, allowing for more privacy and larger homes.

“You said you’d give us the infrastructure for our hamlet if we created one.”

“That’s correct. Did you allocate the forty square meters for it?”

“Yes. So that means we get water and sewer, right?”

“Yes. We’ll be using the small treatment plants that we designed for The Cook Islands. The water will be recycled, and a truck will pick up the dirt every week. That is unless you want it. Just let us know.”

“Where’s the water tower?”

“We’re not using a water tower, we’ll be using a weighted column,” Marc said. “It will only be twenty feet tall, but the weight will generate eight hundred kilopascals.”

“Huh?”

“About 110 PSI.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“What about internet?”

“There’s a utility channel down the center of the road. We’re running fiber through it and electricity, so you’ll have internet and power. We have junctions every two kilometers.”

“Comm coverage?”

“We have cell towers every fifty kilometers. You do know this is all in the handout?”

“Yep, just verifying.”

“What about fire hydrants?”

“We only have those in the city. You’ll have one in your hamlet, but if a fire breaks out, we’ll use an Oryx to bring water to it. We can dump the water or run a hose down to the firefighters; the Oryxes will have pumps to make sure there’s enough pressure.”

“Okay, seems like you’ve thought of everything.”

“I’m sure we’ll eventually discover something we forgot. Do you plan to build a schoolhouse?”

Orion, the planet’s AI,

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