By the sea, Mister Todd

There were a few things I didn't like. I especially didn't like changing the original White Sands excavation, because so far I've been doing an Indiana Jones of the Gaps; keeping well-recorded history where it is and putting the crazy stuff that Athena Fox encounters into the margins where things are less documented.

And there were some plotting issues showing up that I won't bore anyone with (well...not this time around!)

It wasn't until I was at brunch today, with my usual phone stand and folding keyboard, that I realized...

The footprints were left by a lake.

A lake is a great place to forage, to get water, and to hunt. Which is something the predators know as well, so you don't want to make your camp there. Besides, it gets too wet.

The original footprints were found in the White Sands National Monument in 2009. The story is set in 2019. The radiological dating was re-visited in 2020 and 2022 and is still controversial but never mind that for now.

I really want the concrete pad for some sort of engine test to be out there. Near Holloman AFB. Away from the national park. And I want a full-on excavation. And I want a reason for MacDonald to have wished to be buried there.

So let's look for a settlement! Let's do archaeological terrain analysis and figure out where the White Sands Girl might have been going with that kid when she did her one mile out-and-back along the edge of Lake Otero. Which since the dates are still controversial, and archaeological funding is thin on the ground...err, playa...and that terrain analysis puts us squarely outside the park and into the bombing range, means I can absolutely have a bare-bones, controversy-racked terror for Penny's first professional state-side dig.

Without the slightest disparagement (or changing of the facts) of the original archaeology.

The entire VP-8 scene fell into place as well. This is why she has a black-and-white photograph, why she hopes to get something from it, and why the output of the image analyzer is actually useful to her. (And, in keeping with my new dictum of "clues change the game," what she finds is not what she was looking for.)

It does leave me with her having to get back into the military reservation after the dig is closed. But, actually...

And more pieces fell into place. The excavation has been stopped but they can still pack up their stuff. Which didn't get decided for a week so she had time to wander around Alamogordo and hang out with Lon while he is still alive. And that means she can go off the reservation...err, into the reservation...while she is doing clean-up. It does leave me the problem of getting to Roswell without a car...

And so it goes.