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"Nice. Quiet." Cadma
"I'd like that, if we can get this damned chair into a Skeeter."
"Sure, we can do that. Or have Carlos make you a folding model."
The projection equipment was wheeled out to the center of the floor.
An enlarged holo field shimmered like a heat mirage: the faces and figures against the far wall were pale, wavering ghosts.
The lights dimmed. The holo image hardened, and the speakers piped in sound.
A motorboat was being lowered down the ravine and into the river below the dam. The boat was a ten-foot black oval, tough synthetic elasticized skin stretched over a metal frame, two low seats and crescent steering wheel mounted in the front. The Skeeter-type engine aft looked too big for the boat. The plastic-sealed knob of a holotape recorder showed above the central mast.
It had reached the water. A second, identical boat dropped to join it.
Sylvia came to sit between Cadma
"You look ready," Mary A
"You know it. Now Marnie's saying next week! Cadma
"I'll remember that," he said. "Last time Mary A
"Hush."
Someone yelled, "Ta-ta-ta-daah!" as Elliot Falkland and his fiancee.
La Do
Cadma
Carlos rushed over to Cadma
Cadma
"Wish me luck, amigo. Falkland has more water experience than we do."
"More than anyone but the samlon. He's got flippers for feet." Elliot
Falkland and Jerry minded the catfish ponds downriver. Falkland also coordinated the underwater repair operations and had overseen the construction of the dam. That was where he had come to know La Do
"Loser paints the wi
"I see your point. Kill him."
"Senor Falkland sleeps with the fishes."
"Good luck," Terry and Sylvia chimed.
Carlos shook hands with the men, kissed the women, then hustled out to supervise the lowering of his boat.
Sudden envy stirred in Cadma
The holo field flickered to a different vantage point. An aerial view of the Skeeter pad swiftly expanded to take in the entire camp. Cadma
The Skeeter zoomed and veered explosively, rose straight up, then dive-bombed Civic Center. There was clapping, cheering and groaning. The holo field was expanded to fill the room, the magnification bleaching a little of the color from the image.
The three-dimensional aerial panorama was stu
Camelot wasn't the cramped curlicue of the first year's temporary dwellings. It would be Avalon's first permanent city, and was designed as such. Now that the crops were established, there was time to work on a more leisurely layout. Camelot covered a square kilometer of homes, boulevards, parks and meditation groves, recreation centers...
Each plot of land was huge, larger than any of them could have afforded on Earth. Unbelievable wealth by any standard that they had left behind. And room for almost infinite expansion, as their worms and insects and terraforming lichens churned Avalon's soil into something that the less hardy plants and animals could use. Mineral supplementation and acid balancing created an ideal medium for their crops. Huge homes, ranch houses. Mansions that would one day overlook gracious estates.
Room for a man to grow!
The boat engines were no longer ear-jarring burrs, and the Skeeter zipped off to follow the race. The camp cheered, bets flying and changing: Who would be the first through the rapids? They were twenty kilometers from the northern mountains, and it would be a while before the real action began, a few minutes before the boats worked their way through the dam locks.
In the meantime, the band had apparently rested long enough. Zack mopped his forehead with a banda
He shouldered his fiddle. His fingers danced across the strings, producing sounds of surprising sweetness.
Hey there ladies, grab your man
Hold that lad as tight as you can—
Sylvia's hand sneaked around behind Cadma
It's a conspiracy. I'm doomed...
Mary A
Setting her heels into the composition floor, she dragged him to his feet.
Sylvia and Terry and the surrounding crowd howled at his obvious discomfort, and Cadma
"It's been a long time," he whispered, "and I am sore wounded," relieved that others were moving out on the floor. They formed a square with Hendrick and Phyllis.
In a few moments there were squares all over the hall, and Zack was calling and fiddling, the band was playing, and Cadma
Mary A
Before he realized it, Cadma
At the end of an hour the dance broke up with a spontaneous cheer and hugs all around, and Cadma
The holofield projector was wheeled back to the center of the quad. Once again the air shimmered, causing squeals of delight—Carlos's boat had breached the rapids, and it was deliciously easy for Cadma
He was aboard their boat, hovering directly above Carlos's shoulders as he spun the wheel, guiding the boat through the rushing water. The water was begi