The rest pitched camp in their practised fashion, laying down hearths, digging out storm shelters and latrine trenches, erecting their tepees and houses. The trucks, released from the ColU’s direct control for these simple tasks, got to work ploughing up yet another stretch of Arduan ground, digging out fields extensive enough to raise a quick crop. The ColU itself, meanwhile, rolled down to the lake, where there were wide stem beds, and communities of builders with their usual nurseries, middens, dams, weirs and traps. It was almost like the builder projects around the jilla lake, Yuri thought. But there was no evidence that these builders were making any effort to manage this lake as a whole. The ColU watched the builders patiently, inspecting their structures, even communicating with them with its manipulator-arm hand-puppet builder talk. When Beth and the rest returned from the lake, Mardina gave them a camp night off to recover, feed, wash.
