DCW: Just Ideas

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 28th May 2007

Characters: Ayona, Valdean
Description: Master mason Ayona and apprentice Valdean come up with ideas to protect the lower caverns in the future.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 28 of Turn 4
Notes: Mentor Approved

"Just looking around, Valdean?" Ayona asked, finding the mason craft
senior apprentice in the devastated Weyrbowl as evening drew in.

"Oh, Master Ayona... yes." the apprentice shifted uneasily, the
older woman intimidating to him, even if she didn't intend to be.
"I...well, you know, I just wanted to get an idea of what is going to be needed here." he shrugged, his hands kept in the pockets of his trous, to keep them from nervously flitting about.

"Rebuilding the missing side of the volcano would do it," Ayona
suggested with a grin. "I bet this never happened before the western
side collapsed." She couldn't imagine how long ago that must have been. The volcanic rock was hard and not easily worn away but there was little evidence of the western arc of the caldera now.

"Well, we could try.." Valdean answered, "but we'd need more than a few hundred turns and a whole Weyr of crafters. And maybe by the next Pass, we'd have it complete?" The enormity of the job scared him, almost as much as the storm itself had done.

"That's a good summary of the problems. So," she looked around with a
speculative expression, "what do you think we might do?"

"I'm lost, I'll tell you truthfully. I..." he spread his arms wide,
"It's so BIG!" he said, his eyes roaming from one end of the breach to
the other. "It's no surprise how so much water washed in, is it?"

"Well, it was a bit of a surprise to me," Ayona admitted. "And at my
age that's not a common thing to say. But let's think. Look at the
high water mark on the Bowl walls there. Could we build a wall across
the breach just that high? How would people get in and out of the Bowl, then?"

"A tunnel. The new wall needs to be thick, very thick." Valdean nodded, agreeing with himself. "But for that to happen, we'll need a tunnel for access."

"Sluice gates, perhaps? To hold the water back?" She was interested in what he thought would work and what wouldn't. It was good practise to think up wild plans - they were exercise for a designer's mind.

"Some type of sluice is needed, to protect ... well, the idea that it
could happen again. We don't want the tunnel to be left open." he
shrugged his shoulders, and started to walk back and forth, his eyes
ranging from one side of the breach to the other.

"What if we sacrificed the weyrling barracks and the other buildings in the Bowl?" she suggested. "Just protected the openings into the lower caverns?"

"I don't know... somehow I suspect that the Weyrwoman and the Headwoman would prefer those buildings to stay intact. There has to be a more viable way."

"If we found room in the cliffs for the weyrlings ... The cliffs are a natural barrier. Sealing them off for a little while would be easier than trying to close off the whole Bowl. Storm doors on the end of corridors?" They were all just ideas, but a lot of ideas were needed before settling on any one.

He considered her words for a moment, what she said held merit, but once again the manpower needed would have to come from somewhere. "You're right, it would be easier to develop storm doors for inside the rockface itself, than to fill that gap," he indicated the yawning distance, "and then create a tunnel with storm or sluice gates." He never failed to be amazed by Ayona's ingenuity, the difference between a Master craftsman and his lowly rank of apprentice was never more obvious.

"Well, you keep thinking, and when we get some time after the repair
work we'll go over every single idea. We have to do something. This
can't be allowed to happen during a Pass."

Last updated on the May 30th 2007

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DCW: Just Ideas