DISCOVERY Laymen believe that weather control satellites and modern ecology will turn every inch oi a planet into an Eden, but they are wrong The change of chmate obtains for the planet as a whole, and depending on a multitude of considera RAKIS HNPS 426 RAKIS FINDS tions, some parts will benefit more than others The Kalatorano region of Rakis most probably looks a great deal like it did when the planet deserved the name Dune, since it has benefitted less than most It is a region of karst topography, with poorly-vegetated rolling hills, their dusty surface punctuated here and there with steep sink-boles Less rain falls in Kalatorano than is typical for the planet, and seeps quickly into the soil, leaving it as dry the next day as it was die day before The only settlement of important size in Kalatorano is die city of Dar-es-Balai, a minor administrative center for the region Al-Habaqi, mayor of Dar-es Balat, was an energetic and far-sighted man, ambitious to improve the economy of his city and region He successfully urged the construction of a large stadium on the outskirts of town, both as a public works project of importance to the area and as a recreational facility And the stadium was only one of several plans he had devised both to increase the population and to stimulate commerce. First, he hoped that the unusual topography, if skillfully promoted, would attract tourists to the natural bridge, the limestone caverns, and the sink-holes Second less sure but with greater potential, wealth might flow from the mining of uranium, if survey reports fulfilled the promise that {hey showed. Anticipating a substantial growth for Dar-es-Balat, al-Habaqi lobbied and secured authorization for a stadium that would accommodate every resident of the city (as it was then) with ease Nor would the stadium empty the public purse The site (which he himself had originally proposed) would take advantage of several thousand years of nature's cooperation A water course had run Bear Dar-es-Baiat since the renewing of Rakis, and the erosion of millennia had worn an originally shallow valley many meters deeper But a century before al-Habaqi's term m office, the river had been diverted Now the valley stood dry not fer from the town, its walls forming two sides of a natural amphitheater AI-Habaqi argued plausibly that relatively little excavating of the valley, moving earth from the center of the slopes, would form a cheap foundation for the cement to be poured And it would be a secure foundation, too know- ing the caverns that wormed through the rock in the area, al-Habaqi was careful to engage engineers to sound the floor of the valley Their instruments showed solid earth and rock to the limits of their reliability After the ceremonial groundbreaking al Habaqi often took time from his official duties to watch the progress of the work that would cap his career, the stadium that he fervently and secretly hoped would bear his name Thus, he was watching from the top of a hill on a hot, dusty afternoon of Madai, the second of Shawwal, 15525 In the valley below him, large earthmovers were scraping away, already in some places five meters deeper than the old streambed It was before his astonished eyes, therefore, that one of the large shovels stopped, seemed to tremble for a few seconds, and then vanished from sight By the time al Habaqi scrambled to the valley floor a comedy of errors was in progress, a comedy which the plajers were in no position to appreciate Twelve tons of shovel had disappeared leaving not even a track m the dirt Standing some meters away were two workers and a foreman, when they saw the shovel disappear, they ran to the spot, and they too vanished An understand able caution now took possession of the construction crew, who, hesitant to move any closer, formed a rough circle some thirty meters m diameter around the place where the shovel had stood Within the circle was the bare unbroken floor of the excavation, but no trace of the shovel or the four people Within moments the paralysis was broken when the bystanders heard cries for help from their missing fellows, still nowhere to be seen A supervisor then climbed into the cab of an omnimover drove to the edge of the circle and extended its waldoes horizontally to their full limit, they slowly entered the circle and passed through it in plain view to the opposite side To an increasingly panicky chorus of cnes for help, the supervisor retracted the waldoes and sat bemused m the cab A faint tearing sound was heard, which grew to a crackling, rumbling roar Just then, one of the spectral vou.