Ship's Holog: June 2078, fragment #22

Oops! Just checked the time on my holopod; it’s time to head back to the boat. As we do so, however, I’d like you to notice the architecture of the town. I’m not sure my grandmother mentioned it, but I’m a builder/architect back in our valley, and as a result, I’m always interested in the architecture of places I visit, even these shore towns with their apparently monotonous rows of buildings, made entirely of granite. I actually find them fascinating. I know you’ve probably seen holograms of buildings like these before, but I doubt you knew they're actually based on the architecture of the Shakers, a religious sect of celibates that has had a strong rebirth in New Vermont after having almost died out in the late 20th century.

Take these buildings, for example. They’re pretty amazing. The thick granite exteriors provide superior natural insulation, keeping the buildings cool in summer and warm in winter. This original Shaker design turned out to be a perfect solution for New Vermont when the fossil fuel shortage led governments to outlaw the manufacture of synthetic insulation for all but critical needs, such as in refrigerator ships or buildings located in extremely hot and cold climates without access to natural insulating materials like granite.

You wouldn’t have been able to see the roofs of the buildings from where I was standing at the time, so later we pasted in a zoom shot of them taken from our ship.

The roofs of these buildings are an architectural feature adopted from turn-of-the-century pioneering ecotects in Europe and Japan who designed "green" roof-tops as a way to cool down Tokyo—known as “Heat City” in those days. Instead of the steep slate roofs characteristic of earlier Shaker buildings, the roofs of these lakeside buildings are flat and topped by extensive roof gardens. In summer these gardens are open to the weather and in winter they are protected by thermo-screen roofs, which instantly melt snowfall, turning it to water for their winter roof-top crops: herbs, spices, and salad crops, including carrots, radishes, onions, even lettuce. These roof-top gardens weigh surprisingly little, as plants are grown hydroponically in a slurry of water and ultra-lite pellets made from recycled plastics dug up from old land fills and ground up into small particles.

All right, enough architecture for now! I'm just about back to the marina. Thank goodness! Here's Marco, Harriet, and Anna. “Everything go O.K., folks?”

“Yes, without a hitch,” Anna replied, probably wondering at the concern in my voice.

“No problem,” Marco said, obviously trying to reassure me.

“Why, did you have a problem?” Harriet asked.

"Well, might have. I'll explain when we got back to the ship. I want Mira and the rest of the family to know what happened and what we might expect as we go up the lake. Let's get the skiff loaded. I'd like to get out of town as quickly as we can."

My nerves were clearly on edge and now their's were too. We all worked quickly and silently, loading our extensive supplies aboard, and set off back to our boat in silence.