Canticle Blue

15. Channels

After a quick cup of tea the next morning, Havilan entered the book room for the first time and found that it had once been a repository for all things textual, including book creation, restoration, unreadable documents, and even paper making. It was the size of three habitats, with many shelves on the walls, most of which were closer to empty than full. As he had mentioned to Geddes, much of the remaining material there was in the form of books or codices. But there were also scrolls and stacks of paper, some held in place by ornate paperweights. In their current condition, the rooms showed little semblance of order. There were only a few pieces of scattered furniture, and reading materials were strewn across the floor in several places. Even the shelves seemed disorganized, as if someone had hurriedly searched for essential items and then thrown everything else back.

And there was dust on everything. The exposed papers would have to be carefully cleaned. Havilan wondered about possible brittleness in the paper too. Some of it looked to have been made from reed-tree pulp, so he added a reminder in his personal log to ask Elyse how to deal with it. After that he took several dozen images of the book room contents and rejoined the the team, some of whom were just waking up. Elyse brought him breakfast, and they ate together looking down on the city.

While they were eating, Cian talked to everyone about the water tunnel. "We think the steam in the tunnel accumulates because water intended for the city is being blocked and recirculated. The room with the pumping unit—we don't know what it is yet—is probably too hot to enter. So, what we're thinking for today is that some of you could start cleaning sediment from the waterways in the lower city while Tor and I work with the tiles up there. Tor says the tiles on the Great Room floor are easy to remove; so you'll be able to get a clear view of what you're dealing with in each channel. When you turn the tiles over, you'll see that the undersides are flanged, so you can use them as temporary containers or rinse basins for small objects. Also, we're going to close all of the drainage gates in the pools and supply gates in the washroom areas while we're cleaning. The gates aren't quite as high as the full depths of the pools, so any overflow won't be a problem. But they should trap stirred-up sediment while we're cleaning. Any overflow in the Great Room channels will flow to the sea tunnel."

Geddes added, "Again, we won't have to be in a hurry, but it may be the best way to begin our work in the city. For now, we think it will be easier to use tarps to move sediment than carts. The sifters will be available, but they would be much harder to use with wet sand and gravel. They could be used in water, but not without making more mud. So, what we had in mind was to drag the debris to the overflow areas to dry out a bit. Then we can bring in carts to take sifted material to the beach later.

"Tor thinks the main areas of blockage are well above the waterfall level. So, as Cian mentioned, they will be working their way upstream as conditions allow. Before they start, they're going to shut off the waterfall to divert more water to the channels where we'll be working. That will flush any silt that remains after cleaning to the private pools. After that, we can team up on the pools themselves."

Syl broke in, "We get to have Havi on our team. Elyse said he promised...or made some similar commitment."

As everyone laughed, Havilan shrugged his shoulders, and bowed.

Geddes raised his hand lethargically and said, "I get to be on Syl's team too. We're going to be focusing on the north side of the system today. The flow in the channel will be higher, so there's probably going to be standing water in places for awhile.

Syl continued. "We cleared the habitat just to the south of the Men's Room. It has a few tables, chairs and shelves. For the time being, you can take anything you find there. Just let one of us know. If you guys want to use it for meals or meetings, that will be fine too. So, now we get to play in the water, something I've always loved to do. Have fun!"

After Tor closed the waterfall gate, Elyse and Havilan started working their way upstream in the north channel, sometimes getting wet unintentionally and sometimes with intent. They turned over tiles two at a time to highlight any larger objects that might be partially buried, and used trowels and brushes to load the tarps. Despite their occasional dalliance, and the increased water depth, they made surprisingly good progress.

At one point, when they were working near the waterfall, Elyse asked Havilan, "Would it be okay if I called you 'Havi' sometimes? Syl says you would like it. I think it's such a cute nickname."

He laughed. "She's called me that since grade school. But, sure, you can call me that. You two are my most ardent followers."

Elyse made as if to splash him and, although he was already wet, he leaned backwards. Because he was in a squatting position, he toppled over and had to brace himself by putting a hand into the channel. It landed on something that was obviously more than sand or rock. When he washed it, he was holding a wonderfully crafted pendant made of at least two kinds of exotic matter, inlaid with silver, gold, and polished sea glass. In what could be described as a shouted whisper, he said, "Elyse, I know what these inlays are supposed to be! I actually have a drawing of one of these pendants in a book I brought. The Per'sa name escapes me right now, but it will be easy to look up." He raised his hand and motioned for Geddes to come over.

Elyse looked over his shoulder, and tried to keep him from falling at the same time. She pointed to an intricate lavender and green mosaic rendering in the center of the pendant. "Havi, I think that's supposed to be a mist-flower!"

Geddes was very excited to see what they had found. Havilan handed it to him and asked, "Do, do you remember when I showed you a picture of one of these at the Bryn?"

He held it close to a globe lamp. "Oh yes! We had a question about one on a quiz too. But I didn't know they made them this big. I don't remember these kite-like spars running through it, either, or this text on the back."

Havilan said, "I think you're right. There's nothing like them in any images I've seen. The vertical spar might have been originally connected to a wearable chain...though it's hard to see how. I'm not sure about the horizontal one, but I can't help thinking that the silver inlays were meant for some kind of conduction. The text—it has the equivalent of a hyphen—translates as 'finish-stone' or 'end-stone.' I was wondering how it could have gotten all the way down here, but try putting it back in the water."

He did, and it nearly floated. He said, "Imagine that." But the island seemed to have an imagination of its own. As he motioned for Syl and the others to come over, he thanked them earnestly and, pretending he hadn't seen their splashing, said, "You two make a good team."

They returned to their work with renewed vigor, especially since the removal of the pendant had increased water flow in the channel. While pointing this out, Elyse suggested, "Havilan, you should talk about the pendant at the meeting tonight. There is something I want to speak about too. Maybe we could go up there together."

So, at lunch break, they took their notebooks and personal logs to the artifacts room to help each other prepare. After that they finished cleaning their channel in the Great Room and swept the remaining silt into make-shift traps.

As they came into a relatively dark area near the bottom of the first terrace, Elyse said, "Havi, look at our shoes." The glow of blue powder on them was unmistakable. "That will be my topic in the meeting."