Empire & Ecolitan by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

Corridor.”
    â€œWe’re not quite so prone to take Imperial terminology literally. Besides, what else would you call it?”
    Although he shrugged at the young woman’s cavalier references to a great engineering feat, he was a little surprised at her flippant tone with him. Her feelings he could understand. The highway might be a great engineering wonder, but it didn’t exactly appear to be necessary. He decided to push further.
    â€œThe Grand Fiasco?”
    â€œNot totally. It does make coast-to-coast surface cargo traffic both practical and economic, so long as you don’t have to factor in the amortization of the construction costs, which we don’t.”
    Jimjoy kept his jaw in place. The driver, young as she appeared, had been educated in more than mere ecology, that was certain.
    â€œEconomics, yet?”
    â€œIf you can’t make something economical, its ecology or engineering doesn’t matter. Except for something like the Grand Highway.”
    Jimjoy agreed silently—with reservations—and braced himself when the groundcar slowed as it took the banked curve through the narrow cut in the hill. The steeply sloped sides of the exit road were covered with vegetation, a sure sign that the exit road postdated the highway.
    The much narrower road they now traveled did not follow the imperious straight-line example of the Engineers’ masterpiece, but arced around the more imposing hills in wide, sweeping curves, gradually descending.
    â€œHow far?”
    â€œAnother five kays. Just around that last curve and downhill from there.”
    Although he saw one short and low stone wall, Jimjoy noted the general absence offences, as well as a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar flora. He saw no animals.
    â€œAnimals?”
    â€œThe Institute research farm is farther west. Most native animals are nocturnal, those that the Engineers left.” While her voice was carefully neutral, that neutrality provided a clear contrast to her previous tone.
    â€œI take it the Institute has questioned the Engineers’ policy of limiting local fauna?”
    â€œThat was before our time, and there’s not too much we can do about it, except to modify things to fill in the gaps.”
    â€œGaps?”
    â€œEcological gaps. If you need a predator, one will evolve. In the meantime, you discover something else overpopulates its range, usually with negative consequences.
    â€œHere we have the additional problem of fitting in Terran flora and fauna necessary for our own food chain. We don’t need as much as the Imperial Engineers calculated. But they always thought bigger was better.”
    Jimjoy listened, but concentrated more on his surroundings as they presumably neared the Institute.
    No power lines, often common on developing planets, marred the landscape. Nor did he detect any overt air pollution, not even any smoke plumes. No glints of metal or rusted hunks of discarded machines.
    The bluish-tinged trees with the angular leaves had a well-tended look. Interspersed with the native trees he could see Terran-style evergreens, but nothing which looked like T-type deciduous stock.
    The Accord-built road, although narrower than the Grand Highway and curving, appeared equally smooth, without a sign of patching or buckling.
    â€œHow active is Accord? Geologically?”
    â€œSlightly less than Terra, but the geologists claim that the current era is the most stable in several eons. And a geologic disaster is waiting in a decaying orbit.”
    â€œWhen does the disaster begin?”
    â€œI understand we have somewhere between twenty thousand and fifty thousand years local.”
    Jimjoy caught just a glimmer of a smile as she answered his last question.
    Mera had slowed the groundcar evenly as they neared the next curve. Jimjoy tensed, wondering if he were about to be ambushed or whether they were merely nearing their destination.
    As the car decelerated to slightly