“I had all my engines built as ceramic hydrogen hybrids. They use superconductor batteries to store power. When they just move around unloaded and on easy to travel ground they use the electric, when under load they switch to hydrogen. Have to be careful not to overload them though,” Mitch explained. Jack pursed his lips and nodded thoughtfully. Once the forklift driver was finished unloading, he refueled the tank on the back then took a wrench and cordless impact gun to the arms. He popped them off with a bit of work, then with the help of a couple crew members popped on a dozer blade.
A little tightening with the wrench and impact gun and he jumped back in the cab with a jaunty wave to the departing crew. He fired her up and went off to follow Sam. “Nice design,” Jack commented.
Mitch smiled. “Yeah, cost a pretty penny, but it was well worth it. I am not too fond of uni-taskers. I guess it came from watching too much of Good Eats,” he said with a small smile. Jack laughed and slapped his shoulder.
“Do you have extra radios?” Axel asked, mumbling with his mouth full.
The teenager next to him piped up. “We are using these!” He pulled out a walkie talkie/ cell phone and showed it proudly. “We only have a few though.”
Mitch nodded. “Well, you see that tower there?” He pointed to the radio tower Sara and a couple helpers were putting together.
The group looked at the truss tower going up nearby. “Yeah?” The kid asked, “So?”
Mitch smiled. “It has a couple roles; one of them is a cell tower.”
Jack looked up. “You’re shitting me, a cell tower? Here?” He turned to Helen. “Honey did you hear that? That thing is a cell tower!” He pointed to Sara’s project. Helen looked startled, and then does a yes yes yes shimmy. Several people nearby who overheard cheer.
Jack turned to Mitch. “Damn, I didn’t know you could do that.”
Mitch smiled. “Well, as I was saying, it is a cell tower, Ham tower, Internet Wifi link, and a lightning rod.”
Axel whistled. “Dog gone, that will be a big life saver.” He pointed to a ruined blackened object near the Forge. “That was a generator, till it got toasted in the last storm.”
Mitch nodded. “I ran into that problem a few times too until I got my act together and the lightning rods up.” Jack grunted.
“The tower will let you use your cells like radios. If you still have them,” Mitch sighed. “Most people probably tossed theirs when they couldn’t use them.” The teen looked dubious.
“Ned, why don’t you go check,” Jack ordered. Ned nodded and rushed off.
“We placed five other towers on high ground on our way here. I kept one in reserve just in case of problems.” Mitch pointed to the last flatbed with a tower on it.
Axel, always the conservative mechanical engineer, nodded. “Yeah, good idea that, never want to get caught with your trousers around your ankles.”
Jack gave him the eye. “I am never going to live that down am I?” he demanded. Axel snorted. Mitch looked back and forth between the two and then shrugged.
“We should have limited coverage between our three villages soon. We can also keep in touch with the convoys.”
Axel nodded. “But cell towers only have a short range, three to four miles right?”
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, but we added a little tweak, anything out of range is sent to the HAM to the next station,” Mitch explained. Axel nodded.
“Wait, Wifi?” Axel asked, dubiously.
“Yeah, we have a network,” Mitch responded with a smile. He pulled out his tablet and showed it to them. “This allowed me to access the network, and send data in burst packets from tower to tower to the central computer.” He tapped the stylus, showing them as he pulled up a file. “We even have e mail again, and the network can integrate any wireless device.” A laser projected a keyboard onto the ground. Mitch moved so the laser projection was in his shadow so they could see it better. Axel gave a low whistle of appreciation at that.
Since the unloading was completed the crews stood down for lunch, and then got to chores while a smaller crew loaded the sacks of ingots. Jack pointed out that it would be easier to transport more processed metal, and Mitch heartily agreed, and said he would see about making an induction furnace as soon as possible. Jack was startled and asked just what he had back at base.
“Sam told me about the giant fortress, caves, a farm, greenhouses, domes...you got all that?” Jack demanded, clearly curious.
“Oh yeah, and more.” Angie stepped up, sipping a drink. “Yeah he is our resident pack rat,” she teased. Jack looked to her then quirked a questioning eyebrow. “He packed everything, including kitchen sinks.”
Jack chuckled as he wrapped one arm around his approaching wife’s side. She hugged herself to him, whispered something into his ear a moment. He nodded, face sobering. “Helen here said Doc said Natali is still in labor. She might have to do a field C section.”
Mitch winced, Angie paled. Mitch turned to Angie, had her get Paul to pull the med kit out and get it to Doc. He called Brian on his walkie talkie, telling him to pack the surgery kit and plasma, and ask Cassie and Dora to get a kit together. He waved to Sara, asking her to hook the plane up to the lead hummer to give it a charge. She did so, muttering about the heavy weight.
“Angie, can you get back to base, do a turn around and pick Cassie and a med team up?” Mitch asked.
Angie nodded. “That serious?”
“Yeah. If the girl,” Mitch started but Angie interrupted.
“Natali boss, her name is Natali,” Angie supplied.
He looked to her. “If she started losing blood, she could go quickly. Speaking of which bring back some O blood and a transfusion kit too.” Angie nodded as she tossed him the empty cup and jogged to the plane. She did a quick preflight then unhooked the lines with Sara and taxied away to the runway.
Sam and his road crew were doing a booming job with the gravel the village had stockpiled, piling loads near the wall trenches, as well as along the path of the dirt road. They work until dark, stopping only to charge their engines from the auxiliary tanks the crew brought along.
Sam wanted to set up lights to continue working into the night, but Jack and Mitch shot that idea down, pointing out his team was tired and it was dangerous with predators out and about. They retired for a late dinner and rack out. The yowls of nearby predators, and the chitter of bugs kept a few up and nervous for a time. A few members of the convoy decided to rack out in the cabs of the vehicles.
Angie returned in the night, calling in for them to set up for a night landing. From her voice she sounded extremely nervous. Mitch rousted his team to drive out, setting the vehicles up with their lights to form a perimeter around the landing strip. They had to chase a few animals off the strip; Angie had a close call with a wompi deer as she landed. She was still a bit hysterically amused by the experience for hours after she landed.
“Damn, looked like they had a rough trip,” Mitch observed, taking in the raggedly torn skin on the wings and left side. He panned his flashlight over the tail, noted the rips in the rudder. “Yeah, something tells me this isn’t storm damage though,” he observed.
“Great, now what?” Jack turned to look out into the depth of the darkness. “We need to get in soon, something is coming, and I don’t want to be on the menu.” He shuddered a bit in the cool night breeze.
A shaken Cassie grabbed a bag and hustled off in the direction of the lit village. Paul called her back, getting her to jump in with him and the rest of the gear before they hauled ass to the village. Their vehicle roared off into the night, bouncing in the dark, making their headlights jitter all over the path.
The team returned to the village towing the plane a few minutes behind them. Angie was exhausted, muttering about a few close called with Shriekers in the air. The next morning the angry cry of a newborn infant woke them. Mitch smiled. Breakfast crews were at work and Angie whistled shaken when the morning light hit her plane and she finally got a good look.
Mitch came over, looking over the plane. He noted the damage to the wings. The Shriekers as Angie called them had been a closer call then any had thought. Aluminum and plastic were shredded on one wing; the rudder had also take damage. They used hand tools and duct tape to patch the damage. Angie wasn’t comfortable flying though so they broke the plane down and loaded it onto an empty flatbed.
Sara ran a water hose to the trucks. When Jack asked why she told him they were making hydrogen. He turned and headed over to Mitch.
Jack asked if they had fuel, Mitch shook his head. “We haven’t been looking for oil, and everything I brought is either electric of flex fuel. I can make some oil, but only in very small quantities.”
“We ran our trucks, the dozer, and saws until they ran out of fuel.” Jack commented with a nod.
Mitch nodded. “Okay, since we are going to be here another day or two waiting for Doc, why don’t we let Sam and his crew play in the dirt and if you can whistle up a few volunteers..” He reached into the back of the nearby hummer and pulled out a hard hat, gloves and then an electric chainsaw. “We can do a little lumber jacking,” he suggested. Jack nodded with a smile. He hollered to Axel to get a crew up. Sara tagged along as one of the guards.
They broke for lunch, happy at having cut so much, but a little weary. Mitch talked with Jack, finding that they have a couple electric saws, and a diesel generator. He had them hook the saws and power tools up to draw off the convoy’s batteries. The solar panels on the roofs of the vehicles would recharge them. They used the hummer to drag logs back to a cleared area to dry in the sun.
Brush was pulled back to piles for burning, or left in place. Axel wistfully wished his truck hadn’t run out of gas. Jack patted him on the shoulder. Mitch asked what it had for an engine, and Axel told him proudly it is a V eight four on the floor, with four by four. “Can it handle flex fuels?”
Axel shook his head. “No, I bought it back in 2005.”
Mitch scratched his chin for a moment. “Okay well, you can either save up and when we get the engine works going trade to convert the truck to flex fuel, or pull the entire engine and replace it with a biodiesel one,” he suggested.
“Biodiesel?” Axel asked, wrinkling his nose.
“Yeah, I have surplus methane and ethylene, so we convert it to biodiesel for the emergency generators,” Mitch explained.
“Oh.”
“You could convert it to run hydrogen, pump it directly into the carburetor. But it has a nasty habit of flash backs and explosions.”
Axel shook his head. “Saw that on Mythbusters, thanks but NO thanks.” Mitch chuckled.
“A complete drive transplant would work too, but not well. Electric is nice on roads, but there aren’t any here.” He chuckled. “At least not till Sam and his crew get done.”
Axel looked over to them in the distance and snorted. “Yeah, he is having a ball,” he said gruffly. Jack laughed.
Doc came out, weary and dragging. Cassie propped her up, but even her youthful energy was clearly flagging. “Natali is okay; she lost a lot of blood. We almost lost mother and daughter both,” Doc said, wiping her brow with the back of her hand. The father came out, cradling the child. The women folk rushed over, cooing and oohing and ahing. Sara led Doc and Cassie over to the mess area to get some food. Doc looped her stethoscope behind her neck and followed.
Mitch stepped behind her and gave her a neck and shoulder rub sometime later. She groaned in appreciation, lowering her head and arching her back. Cassie piped in with a “Better do me next.” He snorted. Doc sighed in contentment, and then wrinkled her nose at the smell of sweat registered in her tired brain. Catching the look of disgust Mitch chuckled. “Sorry Doc, been cutting trees.” He turned his attention to Cassie.
The teen rolled her shoulders and sighed. “So I see we aren’t going out on the plane,” she said, noting the packed plane. She shuddered.
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, Angie is a bit shook up, and nervous about taking her up damaged.” Doc looked up concerned. “They had a run in with Shriekers. Tore the plane up a bit,” Mitch explained.
Cassie shivered then nodded. “It was freakin scary mom! Gah! I never want to be in that again!” She shivered a bit more.
Doc looked up to Mitch. “I need another day at least to make sure she is out of danger,” Doc said.
“Of course Doc. Worst comes to worse I will send Sam and his road crew on ahead and we can catch up in the hummer.” She nodded. “That bad huh?” he asked with a note of concern in his voice.
She shivered a little. “Yeah, thank god you packed that surgery kit. And the plasma! We went through ALL of it.”
Cassie wrinkled her nose...”I thought I was going to faint, Natali was gushing blood,” she whispered and bit her lip. Mitch nodded. “We mucked it up with a mop, but mom is worried about the blood lost, not to mention bacteria,” Cassie continued.
Mitch nodded. “Okay, we can stick around a little longer, at least till their medic is able to care for her.”
“Nicole IS there doctor,” she said tartly.
Mitch winced. “Okay, I didn’t know that,” he sighed.
“Sorry,” Cassie shrugged him off so he stopped.
“Okay I will get with Jack; we can cut some more trees tomorrow, maybe do a bit of hunting. Sam can play in the dirt.” They laughed at that, seeing Sam come up brushing clouds of dirt off his overalls, grinning.
“Having fun?” Cassie called over the heads of others. Everyone looked up interested as Sam’s crew came in to clean up and eat.
“Oh loads! You have no idea how much I missed doing this!” Sam said with an ear to ear grin. The group chuckled and laughter sparkled among the audience. Mitch went to Jack, and quietly let him know what was going on. Jack nodded.
“Okay,” Jack replied.
Standing and banging a pot Mitch got everyone’s attention. “For those of you who don’t know, Nicole and the baby are okay, but Doc wants another day or two to make sure they both pull through. So we are going to stick around. Axel here can lead Paul, Sara and a few others to keep cutting trees. I will take a few volunteers tomorrow before dawn and do a bit of hunting to supplement our rations. If we get lucky we can have a good old fashion Barbecue roast.” There were some cheers at that news. He smiled. A few people offered to help on the hunt. He nodded. “Okay, be ready at zero six hundred,” he instructed. They nodded.
The next morning he pulled out with two hummers and they split up. The herds have returned so it isn’t that hard to find them. They found a herd of smaller hammerheads, and picked off a few. They dressed them in the field, and then called in a truck to pick them up. Jack called in from car two saying they have killed a couple bison, a paraceratherium, and caught an auroch calf. “That Para thingy is huge! It looked like a long legged rhino! A lot of meat on it,” he called in excited. A second crew came out to his location.
Once the truck was loaded and on its way the team got back in the hummer and headed back to the retreating herd. They spotted a few predators, and they stopped to assess the situation. Taking out a pair of binoculars they watched as a pack of raptors took down a hammerhead. Jack called in to tell them that the bison had been picked up and he was now heading to the local watering hole. Deciding to avoid the raptors, Mitch's crew headed downwind of them in search of safer grounds. They came into a valley with caves on either side. A creek meandered through it, with a few trees scattered up the slopes. A couple giraffe creatures ambled off at their approach, the Barrett dropped them before they could get very far.
They broke for lunch, while the pickup crew arrived. Gina reported that Angie had shown the villagers how to make a primitive smoke house with Axel, and they were busy dressing and smoking meat, while others packed meat in salt or boiled it.
The group moved on when lunch was finished, exiting the valley to a dead end cliff overlooking an ocean bay. The sounds of the waves breaking on the beach made Terri wistful for a dip, right up until she saw a giant fin cutti
ng the water off shore. The smile she had on her face congealed into a rictus of disbelief as her body shivered in terror.
A short time later they ran out of terrain. They turned around, and spotted deer and elk in a copse, catching a few with well aimed shots. They tossed the animals up on the roof racks, and then got the lay of the land while searching for more. Jack called in that his team had run the herds clear of the area, but had brought down another dozen. “It looked like we have saturated our cooking crew anyway,” Jack cautioned. Mitch nodded. His back up team were already heading out back to the village. They decided to pack it in. Terri spotted a patch of safe berries; they paused to pick some bushels.
As the sun began to set they turned around and retraced their tracks now homeward bound. At the mouth of the valley the sun set in glorious gold and low yips and yowls began to echo among the valley walls. Concerned they looked around for the source of the predatory sounds while trundling along. Gary spotted something and then gasped as a dark shape ran parallel along their path and disappeared. Concerned they looked at the ridge lines, just as Terri screamed and pointed. Hammerhead creatures, smooth skin with fins along their sides and tail stepped out...
Awed Mitch looked at the infrared. “They are warm blooded.”
Terri pointed out that, “They are dark, almost purplish black. Are they predators?”
Gary stared. “I can’t see a mouth... Do you think their related to the hammerhead herbivores...” Mitch made a sharp intake of breath as he noted something and then told Gary to speed up.
”No, by their approach I would say they aren’t herbivores; herbivores would be scared of the scent of blood. They seem, attracted to it,” Mitch said. With the animal's heads down and moving side to side they couldn’t see the mouth clearly.
Terri’s soft “Omygodomygod...” was the only other thing they could hear over their own ragged breathing. Then she screeched when one of the creatures sat up and scratched an itch like a dog. Talon claws could be seen gleaming in the dying light. A yawn showed a mouth much like a shark, a half moon shape filled with rows upon rows of sharp triangular teeth. “Get us out of here!” She screamed. Gary slammed the accelerator to the floor.
Bootstrap Colony Page 23
