MINIMCOM: Roadgrader

Yesterday, I introduced you to MINIMCOM's construction of what would later be called his PPT Cannons. But when he first built them, he did not have war in mind. He had construction. Rome had the layout of her campus in her mind, along with schematics as designed by her husband, Rei. She needed MINIMCOM to do what would have taken an army of bulldozers, front-loaders and dump trucks. Here is what MINIMCOM had to say about it:

     “What are those?” Rome asked.
     “Those are multiple bi-directional PPT throwers,” the livetar replied.
     “What are they for?”
     “I will use them to clear and level the ground. I will also transport a paving material to give the roadways a strong foundation. For today only, I am not a starship. Today I am a roadgrader!” The livetar bent his mouth slit upwards into a small smile. “Hop aboard and we will begin.”
     Rome laughed and followed the two-meter tall livetar around to the rear of the starship.
     “Come, Aason,” Rome said within her head, using her PPT connection to her son. “We are going to start building.”
     “Coming, Mommy” Aason replied and he ran over to them. Together, they climbed aboard the starship and headed directly toward the cockpit.
     The actual construction process was a marvel to Rome. It was unlike anything she had ever encountered. On his first pass, MINIMCOM used his PPT cannons to surgically slice down whatever trees were standing where the outer roadways were to go. North and south, east and west, a grid-like pattern appeared. Trunks lay everywhere. MINIMCOM then made a second pass and used his regular transporter to send the fallen trees, branches and trunks elsewhere. Following that, the starship soared upward, turned and swooped down, vaporizing the dirt and grass along each cleared swatch of ground. As he was doing this, he was simultaneously transporting a silicon mixture creating a ceramic surface that would be impervious to the elements. In his wake, MINIMCOM left behind a perfectly paved set of roads to nowhere.
     After the outer roadway portion was done, MINIMCOM used a different technique. He floated over to a section of trees in the center then rotated the cylindrical PPT throwers so that they pointed straight down. Moving slowly and purposefully, he extracted tree after tree, roots and all, until all that remained was a barren, rectangular section of ground.
     “Now we excavate,” MINIMCOM offered.

The reality is, I actually did have a design for the campus. How Bruce rendered it into 3D is sort of a miracle. More on that tomorrow.