Infrastructure of Empire
As the humex traveled west toward Nexra, they came upon an increasing number of human tribes with an increasing level of cultural sophistication, although such contact was infrequent. But it was a surprise, that, by the time they arrived in Nexra, the humex found many and diverse tribes of humans, mostly settled in the Great Sea Valley. As the humex and the humans came in contact with each other, most of the humans wanted to join the humex for the usual reasons – security and food. The problem that the humex encountered was the startling cultural diversity of the humans – not only from the humex, but from each other. Cultural assimilation, therefore, took on a new sophisticated requirement. Initially, after the first descent, human tribes encountered were simple and had no strong cultural practices. There was no special need to disabuse the tribes of their old cultural traits – they had little or none. But, the human tribes encountered in the Great Sea Valley were markedly more sophisticated, and, many of their social practices were unacceptable to the humex.
The loosely confederated humex assimilation administrators, headed up by Airam, were able to manage the cultural assimilation of the human tribes found along the trail with a minimum of administrative and educational effort. Now, cultural assimilation had been thrust into a professional imperative. More training of more administrators was required to keep up with the demand of the increasing number of human tribes wanting to join the humex. First, a brand new program of cultural detoxification had to be developed. And, the program had to be different for each tribe - to get the new tribes to a point – a blank slate so to say – where they could be taught the humex culture and to be placed within it as a contributing member of their new society. It took Airam and associates over two years to get in front of the curve of cultural assimilation, but finally they had it under control. As usual, the new humans brought with them many social and material contributions to their new culture and by virtue of the vast numbers of new humans; the overall security of the fledgling Humex Empire was appreciably enhanced.
After assisting Airam in the establishment of the so-far-successful incoming human cultural assimilation agency, Ahlu turned his full attention to his primary professional duty – that of the leader of Nexra’s development activities. Surveying, engineering and topographic map making had been in process for about three years before Ahlu arrived on the scene. Continual planning meetings had been held to attempt to establish zones, dividing the site into ten political precincts. Definitions of commercial, residential and governmental sites were established. Each land-use was defined, in some detail, describing allowable building types and uses. Rules for development were established. And infrastructure requirements were outlined.
Who would settle where in Nexra? There had been many demographic maps considered, constructed, and changed often because of the new human groups who were given citizenship and whose entry had resulted in oft-changing humex cultural demographics, although usually slight. Until Ahlu arrived and became active, the progress of the development group had ground to a virtual standstill. Infighting between the departments had been endless. The consensus necessary to begin development in earnest was nowhere to be found. Ahlu estimated that most of a year had been lost. The next descent group was scheduled to arrive somewhere on Earth in fewer than fifteen years. This, coupled with the increasing pace of humex emigration from cities all the way back to The Grove in higher than anticipated numbers, added significant pressure to this dysfunctional process.
Ahlu held a meeting with the managers and staffs of the planning agency. He acknowledged that urban development, especially on this scale, was a difficult undertaking. He knew mistakes had been made, but there would be no recriminations for past errors. For now, it was time for everyone to pull together for the common good. He stated the obvious, but underlined forcefully, that most immigrants were still living in their wagons or other temporary facilities. He further observed that although the euphoria of arriving in Nexra was the adrenaline carrying the hopes and the enthusiasm – and the patience of the new arrivals for now, signs of disillusionment were appearing sporadically. Ahlu pounded his fist on the lectern and implored the crowd that from now on progress must be visible and immediate – period.
He asked to meet with the department heads for an early next morning meeting to establish new and imperative progress parameters. He asked the department heads to be thinking of the most urgent and efficient projects available to start within the guiding principles – visible and immediate.
Ahlu was comforted to find that much good basic legwork had been done on the preparation to begin certain activities. For instance, the political precinct maps had been overlaid with development zoning maps providing five or six good alternatives. Demographic statistics and estimates were acceptably up to date so the political and developmental maps could be finalized and populated. The rules on infrastructure required with each type of development contemplated were almost completed and Ahlu could see that the typically extensive humex analysis was present in the work completed so far. Once the mapping was complete, the first visible activity would be infrastructure construction. Ironically, the first physical commitment of materials and labor would be assigned to the longest term commitment. Once a basic grid of roads, along with accompanying underground water and sewer systems was engineered and installed, the Nexrans would be able to begin to erect apartments for the incoming throngs as well as supporting manufacturing, distribution, service and government buildings and attendant activity, including hospitals and schools. Ahlu believed that after his morning meeting, his department heads would share his short-term vision that would make development progress visible and immediate. He was right.
