Read Online Building Harlequin’s Moon by Larry Niven, Brenda Cooper - Free Book Online
Authors: Larry Niven, Brenda Cooper
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“Feel the damp wind on your face, Rachel?”
She nodded, holding her arms over the sea below them.
“It blows up the crater walls, carrying water vapor. It’s cooler than the air it meets on the far side. It would stay inside the crater and rain here, except we’ve built paths for it to funnel through. So we drive the rain to fall mostly outside the Hammered Sea, where it fills streams. We have pumps that take care of it when Selene doesn’t, a backup system that sends water through the crater walls to fill the streams. We used the out-pumps a lot, early on. But we haven’t had to use them for years—we test them everymonth, but I dunk we could turn them off if we wanted to.” Gabriel waited a bit for the children to find one of the huge pipes. They were hard to spot, colored like the crater for camouflage. Erika had insisted on that. He and Erika had argued for months over the costs and time involved, but now, with this view, he was glad Erika had won.
“That’s brute force engineering—the pipes. Real terraforming, with a whole planet and tectonics, would use temperature and humidity and wind. Selene doesn’t have the raw materials to do it right.” He turned around and pointed down slope behind them. “The gentle angle of the outside walls, here, what we just climbed, drains the water to the plains you see below, and there some of it subducts. We capture that water and pump it back into the sea. The remaining water moves through surface streams, some of which we channel into engineered viaducts, like the Aldrin viaduct. The water we use in Aldrin comes from here. Other viaducts carry water back here eventually. That’s the hard part—we may never get the water back into the Hammered Sea without the in-pumps.” He paused to let the children absorb the beauty of Selene’s hydrological engineering.
“Some of the viaducts are open. You made those deep enough that the water stays in,” Harry said. “I saw some on the way over here.”
Harry would make a good engineer someday. “I like the open design. It encourages water evaporation, increases humidity.”
Ali picked up where Gabriel left off. “It’s the water cycle that determines where we live and plant, where we place our cities. The first engineering we do anywhere is for water. We picked Aldrin for a major base because it is far from here. That makes it safer. Imagine a quake big enough to break down a crater wall and let the water loose? All the water in the Hammered Sea? Remember, it’s kilometers deep.”
“So why did you build Clarke Base?” Ursula asked.
“So they can make what they need to keep the Hammered Sea working,” Harry said.
Ursula stuck her tongue out at Harry’s back.
Gabriel grinned. “Largely right, Harry. Think of it as a huge dam.” He noticed the puzzled looks on their faces. “Okay—a huge machine. It needs people to maintain it, to fix it if it breaks, and even more, to be sure it doesn’t break. We grow fruit and vegetables here on the plain, where there’s water. So Clarke Base is a food production plant and a maintenance shop. This is also where we make the planters and planes and some of the other machines you see and use.”
“Don’t you make almost everything on
John Glenn?
” Ursula asked.
“Well, when we started,” Ali said. “But even
John Glenn
is too small to make everything we need for Selene. It’s hard to move heavy things between the ship and here—and we don’t need to.”
“How do you make so many miles of pipe?” Harry asked.
Gabriel frowned and looked at Ali, who licked her lip and said, “We use nanocytes,” as if it were a dirty word. “Trillions of tiny machines. Just for raw materials,” she qualified. The children looked puzzled.
“Someday I’ll show you,” Gabriel said, turning toward Harry. “So, do you understand the basics of our hydrology?”
“It’s nice to
see
it. I understand it better than when you first told me.”
“The cycle will vary as
She nodded, holding her arms over the sea below them.
“It blows up the crater walls, carrying water vapor. It’s cooler than the air it meets on the far side. It would stay inside the crater and rain here, except we’ve built paths for it to funnel through. So we drive the rain to fall mostly outside the Hammered Sea, where it fills streams. We have pumps that take care of it when Selene doesn’t, a backup system that sends water through the crater walls to fill the streams. We used the out-pumps a lot, early on. But we haven’t had to use them for years—we test them everymonth, but I dunk we could turn them off if we wanted to.” Gabriel waited a bit for the children to find one of the huge pipes. They were hard to spot, colored like the crater for camouflage. Erika had insisted on that. He and Erika had argued for months over the costs and time involved, but now, with this view, he was glad Erika had won.
“That’s brute force engineering—the pipes. Real terraforming, with a whole planet and tectonics, would use temperature and humidity and wind. Selene doesn’t have the raw materials to do it right.” He turned around and pointed down slope behind them. “The gentle angle of the outside walls, here, what we just climbed, drains the water to the plains you see below, and there some of it subducts. We capture that water and pump it back into the sea. The remaining water moves through surface streams, some of which we channel into engineered viaducts, like the Aldrin viaduct. The water we use in Aldrin comes from here. Other viaducts carry water back here eventually. That’s the hard part—we may never get the water back into the Hammered Sea without the in-pumps.” He paused to let the children absorb the beauty of Selene’s hydrological engineering.
“Some of the viaducts are open. You made those deep enough that the water stays in,” Harry said. “I saw some on the way over here.”
Harry would make a good engineer someday. “I like the open design. It encourages water evaporation, increases humidity.”
Ali picked up where Gabriel left off. “It’s the water cycle that determines where we live and plant, where we place our cities. The first engineering we do anywhere is for water. We picked Aldrin for a major base because it is far from here. That makes it safer. Imagine a quake big enough to break down a crater wall and let the water loose? All the water in the Hammered Sea? Remember, it’s kilometers deep.”
“So why did you build Clarke Base?” Ursula asked.
“So they can make what they need to keep the Hammered Sea working,” Harry said.
Ursula stuck her tongue out at Harry’s back.
Gabriel grinned. “Largely right, Harry. Think of it as a huge dam.” He noticed the puzzled looks on their faces. “Okay—a huge machine. It needs people to maintain it, to fix it if it breaks, and even more, to be sure it doesn’t break. We grow fruit and vegetables here on the plain, where there’s water. So Clarke Base is a food production plant and a maintenance shop. This is also where we make the planters and planes and some of the other machines you see and use.”
“Don’t you make almost everything on
John Glenn?
” Ursula asked.
“Well, when we started,” Ali said. “But even
John Glenn
is too small to make everything we need for Selene. It’s hard to move heavy things between the ship and here—and we don’t need to.”
“How do you make so many miles of pipe?” Harry asked.
Gabriel frowned and looked at Ali, who licked her lip and said, “We use nanocytes,” as if it were a dirty word. “Trillions of tiny machines. Just for raw materials,” she qualified. The children looked puzzled.
“Someday I’ll show you,” Gabriel said, turning toward Harry. “So, do you understand the basics of our hydrology?”
“It’s nice to
see
it. I understand it better than when you first told me.”
“The cycle will vary as
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