Topography

Well, my loyal followers… just in time for the winter break, I finally have rock over my head. The base is finished!

It’s taken a while, largely because of my principled stand on environmental impact. I wanted to completely shield the place from prying eyes, and at the same time make it possible to reverse the building work when I eventually leave, replacing all the rock I removed from inside the mountain – down to the last molecular bond where possible. I expect you can deduce that this isn’t an easy task at all. It involves a number of devices whose capabilities would make your military commanders explode with desire, so I’m not going to discuss any details at this point. Let’s just say that there’s a loch hereabouts that came in pretty handy and currently has a temporarily raised water level.

I’ve moved my equipment into the place now, and all that remains is to set things up the way I want them. I used to be fond of looking at the scenery through my windows, and I’ll miss those. However, I think a judiciously deployed drone or two will enable me to make some remote viewing walls.

I’ve downed tools for the moment. I definitely need a break, and I’m thinking of exploring a little. There’s a river flowing near here, and I’m guessing it might be interesting to follow that and see what I find. I might even do some walking in the mountains.

“Mountains” is, of course, a relative term. Some of the mountains I’ve encountered in my travels through space have been no bigger than what you people would probably call a hill. Those on the planet Demeron, for example, are mostly about fifty metres tall, but because the inhabitants of that world are around the size of my fist and slow-moving at that, they make quite a big deal of climbing them – which I think permits me to use the term.

At the other end of the scale, we have the great artificial Prodigy Mountains found on the Hoops of Ladrigal. These are upwards of eighty kilometres tall (and I’ve never climbed them, so I had to look that up), and were deliberately made to be impressive. They were built by Ladrigal themself a very long time ago when the Hoops, a concentric and angularly offset series of ringworlds, were constructed around a star near the part of the galaxy that’s about 120 degrees spinward from here. One day I’d like to visit and make the trip up the easier path. The view is spectacular, but one needs a good pressure suit built for hiking.

Anyway, I digress. I just wanted to mention that I’ve been watching your recent moon shot with great interest. I note that the capsule is on its way back at the moment. It’s good to see progress, despite the primitive state of your space technology, and I sincerely wish you all the best with your endeavours. Who knows, perhaps within my own life time (which is admittedly appreciably more than yours), I may get to see you inducted into the Federation. I think I might even shed a tear.

Right, I’m going exploring. Another update soon. Be good!