Chap.294 First Survey Day

Chap. 294 First Survey Day

“This is why we train, K’ndar”.

D’mitran, B’rost and Risal were nursing ales (in K’ndar’s case, a mug of klah) around the fire pit in Mt. Garben’s sides. D’nis, who lived in the caverns instead of in a building, nodded in understanding.

“I told Raylan I wasn’t cut out for this. And I’m glad I listened to you, D’mitran, that we do a dry run of the survey, because it was a disaster.”

“I didn’t mean to screw up,” Risal said. “Me neither,” chimed in B’rost.

“I know that. I sure didn’t wake up this morning and think, oh, I’m going to bugger this survey up so bad I won’t know which way is north.”

D’nis pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. “It’s that way.”

K’ndar stared at him for a split second, then joined in the laughter. It lightened his glum mood.

D’mitran, who, in K’ndar’s opinion should have been the leader, said, “Okay. Let’s tear it apart, piece by piece, to see what we can do better tomorrow.”

I really don’t want tomorrow, he thought. Siskin cheeped on his shoulder, worried about his mood.

“Okay, me first,” K’ndar said.

“It hadn’t occurred to me that one of us needed to annotate data. B’rost and Risal are shooting azimuths, D’mitran is calculating how to run the next line, and doing the math, and who had I expected to annotate? Raventh?”.

I don’t know how to use the little stick Raventh said.

He laughed. The other dragon riders knew Raventh had said something. He had to translate for Risal, who was looking askance. “Raventh said he doesn’t know how to use a pencil.”

Then she laughed.

“So I was more interested in watching how you two worked the laser transit, you’re calling off data which I was supposed to annotate. By the time I realized that my job wasn’t strictly standing around looking important, you’d shot at least half a dozen azimuths. Then we had to do them again, and I got the numbers in the wrong spots on these wonderful forms Jansen made up for me. Then I wasn’t sure if we’re supposed to go AROUND those volcanic outcrops or do we send one of you to climb up? Arghhh.”

“Okay, K’ndar, my turn,” D’mitran said. “I’m not boasting but I do have a little more experience, and even I had some problems. I wasn’t sure, either. When we did the steppe and Western expeditions, it was all straight line baselines and transects, with no worries as to Who Owns This Spot. One of the problems is exactly what you said. Do we avoid natural obstacles like marshes, fallen trees, boulders? Remember when we did Western, and we had to hack out a spot to take a reading? What did Lord D’nis say? “It’s not absolutely necessary to get it down to the millimeter.” I don’t believe Risal or B’rost will appreciate being up to their necks in a pond, trying to guess if their stick is precisely 100 meters. I think we avoid it that sort of obstacle. Does a meter here, or ten meters there to avoid something like a pit really will make a difference in the boundaries of Lords Dorn and Toric’s Holds? So, in my opinion, we should make it a judgment call if it’s not clear cut. Next?”

Risal spoke up. “I think I am part of the problem. I’m so sorry, K’ndar, I didn’t lie, but, well, I wanted so badly to be part of this that I didn’t tell Raylan that I’m not a certified surveyor. I was trained to use an old type transit, I can do transects and walk the tape out. This laser transit is amazing but it has me a bit flummoxed. All of you were depending on me as if I knew what I was doing. That little bit of training we got on using the laser was just enough to confuse me. K’ndar, I think we should do the transects we shot today all over again, because sometimes I was just calling off the numbers I thought were right. I know NOW how to use it, but-the data are probably wrong. I’m sorry.”

She looked crestfallen.

“It’s okay, Risal, even if your numbers were right, my annotating them wasn’t,” K’ndar said.

“And I was so afraid of hitting B’rost, even though he was wearing protective lenses.”

“When I remembered,” B’rost interrupted. “They steam up and I can’t see through them.”

“Yes. And I’m beginning to wonder if I know what I got myself into. I did a lot of walking and scrambling and I confess I’m beat. Can I do this every day for as long as it takes?” she said.

“Is there a time limit?” B’rost asked.

“Um..” K’ndar leafed through the checklist Jansen had built for him. “Jansen was so helpful, making up this schedule, but it assumes so much. That’s not her fault, she asked me how many hundred meters lines we could shoot in a day and I just gave her a wild wherry guess of twenty.”

“TWENTY?” Risal gasped.

“Yes.”

“K’ndar, I don’t know if I can do that. I mean, I’m in good shape, but twenty is a lot. It takes half an hour to just get everything situated, at least it did today, and twenty? We’ll be out until dark.”

“Where did you get that number?” D’mitran asked.

“Well, I watched as the techs tested the laser transit. It took them about ten minutes to get it all figured out. So I just thought, oh, ten minutes per sighting, we can do twenty.”

“But K’ndar! They’re experts at it!”

“I know. Now I know. And I just thought it was supposed to be one hundred meters. I don’t know where they got that number.”

“I do. It’s because their tapes are in hundred meter lengths. That’s it.”

“And,” D’nis added, “back on Earth when the science was first developed, they they used chains and rods. A hundred meters of chain is a lot of weight, but chains made for exact lengths.”

“So it’s arbitrary?”

“Not so much arbitrary, hundreds are easy to work with. It’s more a case of it’s ‘traditional”.”

“Let me guess,” D’mitran said, “We’ve always done it that way.”

“Yes.”

“Not only that,” B’rost said, “but three of us have dragons to care for. That usually takes a lot of time. It’s not fair to Risal to expect her to just keep plugging on while the rest of us groom.”

K’ndar nodded. “So to answer your question, Risal, if there’s an end date, it’s not a reasonable one. Maybe a month?”

She groaned.

“I think that’s unreasonable, K’ndar. I had problems, too,” B’rost said. “I wasn’t sure if I was getting right on the mark with the stick. And I think Risal and I should trade off positions. Her doing all the think work and me standing with the stick and doing nothing isn’t just unfair, it’s boring as all get out.”

“You aren’t doing nothing, if you don’t get the ground point exactly right, it throws everything off.”

They sat around, staring at the fire, lost in their own thoughts. How did I get myself into this? they all thought.

“Does it HAVE to be hundred meter increments?” B’rost said.

“Um,”Risal said, “Like he said, it’s always been that length.”

“Is it absolute? Because, for instance, when we did the steppe, we flew a hundred kilometers each leg. That was just to make things all neat and tidy, but we can’t do that here. But is it absolutely necessary to do each stretch precisely one hundred meters? If we can see three kilometers in a straight, unimpeded line, why not shoot all the way? If we shoot according to conditions, say four hundred meters this leg, one hundred fifty meters the next, and communicate via datalink, the math will still work. And the other way, let’s say, I’m sure it’s going to happen, we’ll be in bush so thick we are standing on each other’s toes. Then it might be only five meters of clear. Does that make sense? Does it make sense to work in teeeeeeny tiny bits of hundreds when we can shoot in kilometers?”

“Not in my opinion.” K’ndar took a deep breath, hoping he didn’t sound dictatorial.

“And what you said earlier, B’rost. If I’m leader of this thing, I get to make the decisions. I think we should take turns doing all the jobs. I’m willing to be the stikdik, I’m willing to learn to shoot azimuths, I’m even willing to do the heavy thinking that D’mitran does, planning on where to shoot the next line. All of you could take turns annotating data and standing around looking important.”

“Like this?” B’rost jumped to his feet, placed a hand over his heart and looked skyward.

Amidst the laughter, K’ndar said, “I hope I didn’t look like that!”

“No, you looked like this,” B’rost said, and put on a puzzled look and scratched his head.

That drew even more laughter. “No cookies for you, B’rost,” K’ndar growled.

“Shaff,” B’rost said, “That’s okay, I don’t like raisin cookies.”

“Either.” K’ndar grinned. Then he sighed.

“If I may make some observations?” D’nis said.

“Yes, please, Councilman Weyrleader,” K’ndar said, “Please.”

“These are all good points, and it says a lot for you for owning your errors. That makes for good science. And character. Look. This isn’t starship science. The old time way of surveying shouldn’t be allowed to hobble you. The laser range finder is going to make life a lot easier for you. Let both avenues work as the need arises. This meeting is profitable in that you all are seeing the problems. Remember, dragonriders, and Risal, this is what we did after fighting Thread, we always had an after action discussion. We sat down and dissected the performance of everyone. Not to be harsh,it was to refine our tactics, to train new riders and to keep riders safe. That’s good. But I think you’re making it far too difficult and time consuming.

Let’s recall how Piemur laid out the original boundary. His notes were kept on fellis leaves!! Thankfully, they’ve been scanned into the database. He didn’t use a transit. He created the boundaries the way humans do when they don’t have laser transits or hundred meter tapes. He set the boundaries using landmarks. Think of it. Do you say, “walk two hundred thirty four point zero six meters on a 126 degree azimuth.” No. You say, ‘see that outcrop way out there, it looks like it has dragon spines on the right side? That’s our next landmark. Turn north from there.” It doesn’t matter how many meters.”

“Shabash,” D’mitran sighed, “You’re right.”

“That’s how he did it and that’s how you should do it. You aren’t creating new boundaries, you’re re-affirming them. So say you come to a spot where the boundary seems to go many kilometers. Measure it if you like, in fact, it’s a good idea with the laser. But use common sense. I wouldn’t do it hundred meter by hundred meter. That will break your hearts, it will cause resentment and ultimately, bad data. All your job is to reaffirm the boundaries using landmarks.”

They all started nodding. Of course. That made so much sense!

“In addition, Piemur rode a horse. He didn’t go bushwhacking through the jungle. He didn’t need to. He skirted the thick and chewy stuff. Why work so hard at something that can easily be avoided?”

“Ah,” everyone sighed. The outlook brightened.

“K’ndar, yes, you should annotate the data WHEN the transit team gives you readings. You should also be annotating physical features. A ravine, a dry waterbed, a beach, a lightning struck red tree, an outcrop, a boulder that looks like whers have been scratching their itchy hides on. I’d take pictures, were I you, of every landmark. I’d get a data point and log it in the datalink. I’d sketch them, too. If it’s organic, like that redtree, I’d datalink it because they have a habit of falling down. It’s a lot more note taking, I agree, but it gives someone a better sense of where the line is, if they don’t have the survey report or even a compass, never mind a laser transit.

Risal, yes, you and B’rost should be taking the measurements, in kilometers if at all possible. It will speed things up, tell you how far you’ve come in klicks rather than agonizing meters. If it’s just not sensible, forget it.

D’mitran, I think you should route the transit using common sense. If there’s a boulder, it’s a landmark. Go around it. Mark it, cairn it if you like, but definitely annotate it as a landmark. A benchmark! If the jungle is too thick, and you’re not going to get a straight line unless you hack down half of it, don’t waste your time. Annotate it as “too thick”. One of you can ride a dragon over to where it opens up and give it a good guess as to how far it is from Point A to Point B. Or if the transect turns into a ravine so deep you can’t see the sun, you annotate it and if possible, shoot at the other end, if there is one. Don’t go clambering down into it. It’s not worth the time, and time is expensive stuff.

This entire thing, to me, and again, this is just my humble opinion, is a bit odd, but it’s more to satisfy the question as to who owns what where. I really find it hard to believe dragonriders will be arguing with Lord Dorn or Lord Toric about one measly meter, or kilometer either side of an invisible boundary.”

“Bet you Toric will.”

“That’s a sucker bet, D’mitran. But he hasn’t shown much interest in actually doing it himself. Piemur did it, but that was what, forty years ago?”

“And he’s been pushing the boundaries ever since.”

“Aye. And that is why this needs to be done. You’re doing the grunt work, but once we see what the boundaries really are, my job, and those of my colleagues, will have the really shitty one, telling Toric that no, that is not your land.”

They all nodded. K’ndar felt grateful to relinquish the role to D’nis, even for a little while.

“So my advice is, my friends, is to not sweat the small stuff. Do it as well as you are able, but don’t kill yourself. Your end date is when you wind up at the spot you started. It might take a month, I doubt it, it might take a year.”

“Shards, I hope not.”

What a mix of emotions, K’ndar thought. One moment everything is looking dim, then bright, and now dismaying. A year?”

No. Fine. I’m leader and have been given little if any parameters? I’ll tackle that bull.

“Why don’t we do this. Twice a week, we go out, shoot for the day, then come back here, scrub the data, because we have to do that, too, and the other days, we do our regular job,” K’ndar said. He looked at D’nis.

“Sir, and this directed to you as councilman D’nis, does the council have an expectation of WHEN we must finish?”

D’nis shrugged. “As far as I know, no. Part of it is we have so much on our docket at the moment and it shows no signs of lessening. Part of it is it is not that important, and the biggest part is-hoping Toric dies before it’s finished, so we don’t have to fight him.”

They laughed.

“Do we HAVE to start here, at Landing?” Risal said.

“Um, no. I thought it was, well, I just decided to start here,” K’ndar said.

“Why don’t we do this. Go out to where we believe Toric’s lands start, work our way around his Hold FIRST? That way, we can get the data to the Council sooner, and afterwards, we can take our time doing Lord Dorn’s and the dragonrider’s lands.”

He liked it. A lot.