"Good afternoon, Governor" , said Nerva. "Konnichiwa, Governor" said Momoshiki. "The trip was uneventful. We encountered no problem on our journey to Tau-44" said Nerva. "Thank you again, for your invitation."
Nerva looked at the buffet on the right wall and said "May I go am pour myself something to drink?" The governor smiled and invited them to join him for a glass of locally made drink. They started talking about their journey to the Taus.
After a while, Nerva looked at the Governor "Now, then... could you, please, tell me more about Borneo? I did search for some data, but everything that I have found was really old."
Aeryn smiled "A man by my own soul. Well, let me make a small recap. Before the Gallic invasion, the planet was the main civilian point for the Republic. We build many settlements, fortified ones as we figured we may have to deal with occasional Outcast raid but it was something we didn't expected. The planet is having a few type of climate, but here on the equatorial belt is mostly tropical climate, going north a few degrees and we have something similar to steppe and alpine climate and afterwards is arctic. Using our Planetform knowledge, we developed settlements for all types and we build several, grouped in Colonies. At the moment we have finished on Borneo 17 Colonies composed on many Settlements, some small some big. There is a however in all of this. At that time, we expected to live here forever and we didn't foreseen the Gallic advancement, which made of a hasty retreat. Years passed and the Gauls didn't intend to occupy the planet fully, just use it as a depot. Slowly the nature took over again. Overall, all the colonies are either lost entirely, consumed by natural events or nature, or damaged. My plan was to fix and repair what can be salvaged." he stopped
"And here comes another biggie. You see, we just reclaimed this system and until now, the checks on all the other Colonies were done mostly by the Army and since they are not Engineers, their report is lacking a lot of information, which is why I have called the 53rd and wanted Nerva to come and do a survey, before we do anything."
He turned towards Nerva "When can you start, sir? Mister Richard Dean will be your 53rd colleague." and then he turned towards the Dragon "Sir, do you have any questions for me?"
Nerva, listened carefully to small recap that he was getting from the Governor. Each time he heard something that could be a problem to their revival plan, he would make take a note in his mind.
I would like to start as soon as possible, the faster we get our info the better.
Nerva finishes his glass and continues: But before that, what kind of raw materials do we have at hand? I am sure your teams have thought about the logistics.
Aeryn looked at him and smiled "Unfortunately, we have nothing at the moment. As I said, we only surveyed two Colonies, one which we are now here and then the other one which is in the North region."
He looked at the Dragon and at Nerva "That is why I asked for a survey.After the survey we can see what we need, make a list and start proceeding transporting the materials and engineers, because as I said, we had in mind only this two settlements. Additional engineers and workers are required. We need to discuss the matter of logistics and all. But all after the survey, do you agree?"
Nerva looked at Aeryn "Great, the i guess we should start as fast as possible." He though a bit, From his description, it should not be that bad. Unfortuntely, I do think it will take some time to finish surveying all the colonies.
Nerva turns to Momoshiki I will see you when I come back. I am sure that you and the Governor have a lot to talk about.
He turns towards the otheres " Now there, gentlemen, lead the way and I shall follow." Nerva and his new Crayterian friends embark a their first part of their journey to Revive a Planet.
On their way back Nerva looks over the data they have gather. He looks at his tablet and reviews the flight path.
He scratches his head With what do I start? Abandoned and green, or abandoned and frozen to death?
He flicks through the images and stops at one that depicted a desolate place, covered in deep snow. The building he could see were only the faint remains of what was once a blooming city. He sighs War is always affecting the weaker ones... civilians had no business in such a theater of war. He remember what the Governor told him, about how the Crayterians fought the Gallic invaders. He looked back at the screen This was once someones home.... Nerva, it's time to focus, everything that happen cannot be reversed.
Ok, then. We have two options here: 1. Use this as a skeleton to build the city. | 2. Raze everything an star anew. I really have to think this through. I don't want to give them false hopes. He swipes to change image. This time it was a snapshot of one of his cities.
The buildings were all shining in the sunrise's rays. Broad streets were connecting the several town neighborhoods. Each of them as big a smaller city. There was underground transports, cars would move at extreme speed on board vactrains. The cars would be loaded onto a platform at one end; then they were accelerated to high speeds, and they started decelerating when getting closer to end of their journey. This vactrain idea is not something new. They will think I am mad when they will see what I have in store for above ground transportation.
This one is a city in the heart of a jungle. And not any jungle, it looks like some sort of Ecuatorial Jungle. He acesses a file with more data that was compiled from the scans.
The equatorial rainforest supports the greatest biodiversity (number and types of living organisms in an area) on Borneo. This is the result of abundant moisture and sunlight. Average daily temperatures are around 28ºc with a low diurnal (variation in temperature that occurs from the highs and lows during the day) temperature range.
Temperatures rarely fall below 22ºc and cloud cover restricts temperatures to 32ºc during the day (as the result of cloud cover caused by high levels of evapotranspiration). Rainfall levels are high throughout the year as the result of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Convectional rainfall results in annual rainfall levels of around 2000mm.
Storms typically occur during the late afternoon as the result of intense heating during the day. Both high levels of rainfall and temperatures contribute to a year-round growing season. High levels of evapotranspiration create an incredibly humid environment.[/color]
Looking at the new image that appeared on his screen, Nerva starts pondering again. These buildings might look really bad...yet after closer analyses we've determined that these ones are feasible to be used as a building base. Not being convinced about, Nerva started to think about ways in which he could explain to the Governor the pros and cons of using the existing buildings.
40 minutes pass and Nerva seems to have found the best way to explain his idea regarding this settlement. he quickly scribbles down some of his train of thoughts and start swiping again.
This time he stops at not one, but two images. These were the new grounds that he, and the team of scientists decide that should be feasible spots to raise smaller colonies. We could start with a self-sufficient village in both of these areas. Unfortunately for the first habitats of this settlement... life would be a bit hard until we finish everything.
Nevertheless, the ground analysis shows that these two spots will be the best ones to start developing sustainable agriculture. Nerva smiles as he is looking over the soil analyses. He smiles because for the first there were some good news. Moving a large mass of people to from place to another is rally hard. Repopulating a planet with people from another planet is even harder. First thin we need to do is find out what of our existing crops can grow here; which of them will flourish and which of them will yield sub-par harvests. The cogs of ideas were sniping in Nerva's head like a well oiled mechanical clock Then we see what animal we can introduce to ecosystem. We need to get a functioning biosphere as fast as possible. But what about the existing fauna and flora thought Nerva. Indeed, he did not think about this. Believing that everything here would be just like a war-zone, desolate and lifeless, he did not take in account an already existing an functioning biosphere. This will need more thinking, and even more careful planning. I would not like to make a species go extinct because i brought the wrong type of wheat to the planet.
Several hours pass and Nerva finally gets overt the biosphere issue and start looking at more images.
I insisted on surveying these types of buildings because I believe that they can be used as means to test if the area in which they were build could be habitable. The military staff was not that happy when Nerva wanted to survey what looked to be military outposts. What sane army would give away, to a stranger, details about their buildings. Neverthless, Nerva managed to convince them that he was here to help, and not to steal any of their secrets.
Ok, i think we should.. Proffesor, we approaching the Governor's mansions. Please get ready to land. said the pilot.
Nerva put down the table and the instruments he was holding and tightened the straps that were holding him into his chair.
The sky was clear and the sun was shining over the fields in which the mansion was build. The lake's water was shimmering moved by the cold summer breeze. Nerva started imagining how would his life be living on such an estate. But in the end.... he realized... that the emptiness of space was calling him out.
Aeryn and Richard were in the Command room, overlooking several pads with information.
"Yes Dean, but only if we have more time and more people." "Employ more robots" "Easier said then done. You remember the past History we had with Machines and how we are now rebooting with Yuma Robotics. It will take time." "Sir, but we could actually increase the chances of recovering Borneo" "Recover? From whom?" "Nature, Governor, nature itself" "You are mad Dean, remember Yuma and Malachite. No, this time we will occupy only what we need." "But what about the industry on this planet" "Yes, but as we know, we must not make mistakes. Tau 44 is isolated. We need to have our own supply of goods and materials. So, as an Order I will dispatch Galileo to Makassar Field and Singapore Cloud also would need 53rd to start cracking on those modified shuttles to be able to explore the undersea caverns. We mastered a new field on Yuma. We must go underground now." "Aeryn, this is foolish. How can you be sure that there are so many underground caverns? " "Because the first time we had this planet we detected some of them in the survey. But our population was small and so we settled on the surface. Now we are in an enemy surrounded sector. WE NEED A PLANET FORTRESS. Which is what I want to do. Now be a good lad and ..." but he couldn't finish his statement as Nerva entered the room
"Greetings Nerva, how are you? Have a seat, please. A cup of tea or Sake?" he said smiling "How was your trip around the main 6 islands that we call continents here on Borneo?"
Nerva enters the room and see Aeryn and Dean discussing something, but they stop when they notice him. Nerva greets both of them, he asks for a coup of tea and then he makes himself comfortable in a big armchair.
Everything went extremely well, your men are real professionals.
Nerva drinks some of his tea and then he picks up his media device,I am sure you that you would like to see the whole set of data we managed to gather, but I will now give you a short description of what I've seen. Nerva looks the others and both of them nod and tell him to proceed.
We have surveyed the six mains islands of Yuma he makes a gesture with his finger and table in front of him receives the data from his tablet. The table had a built in holographic projector, the surveyed areas appear on the hologram. Fortunately, the way in which the islands are spread makes it easier for us to move from one to another. Unfortunately, some of the settlements have been heavily damaged. Nerva proceeds to talk about all of the settlements...
After 20 minutes, Nerva stops and turns to Aeryn and Dean. Now then, I am sure both of you would like to ask some questions. Because I really need to take break from talking. said Nerva while smiling.
Aeryn shocked his head and he looked at the report while Dean was going through some calculations
"Professor, the Gallic forces cared so less for this system as they left all the civilian buildings fall to the nature. They were only interested in the Strategic importance of the system"
"Yes" Aeryn nodded "The Gauls cared so less that they not even repaired Minato, which can become an important economical node for the Tau and Crow Nebula. The Crayterian plans are big. But enough for that." he smiled and he looked at the maps that Nerva provided "May I indicate which island we should look for restoration?" he said looking mostly near the equatorial area "Let's look into the BT100 sector. There is an island which we call Kalimatan, which had a few settlements. They were overtaken by the forest but we can claim it back. Before I let Dean speak, I want to know what your opinion is about it..."
Nerva pulls out the B-100 data again, take a glass of water and start thinking,
To be honest, I am glad that the settlements were not destroyed. he moves around the room. Most of them, although they are covered in vegetation, seem to be in pretty good shape. I am not saying there aren't any bad apples in on the tree... pardon the nature pun. he chuckles. My advice is to consolidate the buildings that are above the acceptable threshold. He comes back at the table and sits down. As for the rest.. I would not want to risk repairing something that will take more resources to repair than to build a new one. He stops and waits patiently to hear what the others have to say.