Martha smiled and said, “Well, Ryan and James are two of our best reactor techs. You are welcome to borrow them until your crisis is over.” Martha smiled, a rarity for the taciturn woman and she said, “Where are those two rascals anyway. Are they there with you?”
Ryan walked up to the camera and said, “We are here madam.” Ryan gave James a sideways glance and said, “We would be more than happy to assist our new friends.”
Lucy shouldered her way in front of the camera. With concern on her face she said, “Is everything okay there, madam? Do you wish me to return and resume protecting you?”
Ryan and James looked at each other and Ryan whispered in surprise, “Oh wow. The Dragon Lady sent her own personal bodyguard with us?”
Martha chuckled and said, “I heard that Ryan. Dragon Lady indeed.” Next, she addressed Lucy and said, “I am fine. I can handle these bloody fools. Unless that pompous ass Robert gives me heart attack from dealing with his stupidity that is.”
Lucy smiled and wisely did not offer her own opinion of Robert.
Paul chuckled himself and said, “Well, back to business. I understand that you have a bit of a food crisis at your end. We can help you with that. We have quite a stockpile that we would be willing to share with you.”
Martha’s shoulders lost a bit of their slump and she said, “That would be capital Paul. Is there anything that you require from us in return?”
Paul looked her in the eyes and said, “Well, you have already loaned us two extremely valuable reactor techs and a bot. That will be enough for now. We will immediately load up the train with foodstuffs and send it back to you.”
Martha, normally able to perfectly hide her feelings, failed utterly this time. “That is most kind Paul Hydro, however surely there must be SOMETHING that we can send you in return.”
Paul nodded and in all seriousness said, “Well, how about this. Without access to the manufacturing wing, we have completely run out of a most valuable resource.”
Martha looked at him in alarm. “What is it Paul. Just name it and it is yours.”
Paul put on his best diplomacy face and delivered a deadpan response. “Well, we really, REALLY could use several cases of blasted light bulbs. I personally am sick and tired of living in near darkness all the time.”
Martha laughed so hard that her whole body shook. “Consider it done.”
Chapter 24
James and Ryan stared in horror at the state of disrepair of colony number seventy-six’s reactors. James, as tactless as ever, turned to Max and said, “How the bloody hell did you let them get in this state? It’s a bloody wonder that they lasted as long as they did!”
Max’s brow creased and he said angrily, “Listen James. When the nukes hit, there was not a single damned technical person on this side of the cave-ins. We did have seven repair bots, however without any spare parts, they all failed one by one over the years. The last one that we had in working order had parts scavenged from the other six. Once that one failed we had to use the computer to try to train our damned FARMERS on how to maintain a state-of-the-art super-conducting power reactor. It’s not as easy as just pulling out a damned weed!” His anger deflated and he admitted, “We did the best we could with what we had.”
Ryan laid his hand on Max’s shoulder. He shot James a dirty look and said, “You will have to forgive my friend here. Diplomacy and tact are not part of his skill sets.” He looked Max in the eyes and said, “Actually, you guys did an amazing job keeping them running this long. It’s not exactly easy to maintain these beasts.” He pointedly looked James in the eyes and said, “Right, James?”
James wilted under his friend’s criticism. “Um, Yes Max. I am sorry.” He looked at the reactors and said, “It is just that I hate to see them in such a state. They are like my bloody children,” he admitted.
Max nodded at him and said, “I know what you mean, James. To be honest I feel the same way. You don’t know how much it bothered me that I did not have the resources to fix or even to properly maintain them.”
James sighed, patted him on the arm and said with real feeling, “Yeah, I’m sorry Mate.”
They stood in awkward silence for a moment until Max said, “Well, let’s go remedy that.” He pointed at the number five reactor and said, “Number five is in the best shape. It was the first one taken offline years ago when its cooling system clogged. My predecessors did not try to push it to keep it running like they did with the other ones.”
James nodded and said, “Okay then. Let me look it over.” He walked over to the reactor room main computer console and brought up a display. “No, not too bad at all,” he said half under his breath.
Paul looked up from the display, turned to Max and asked, “Do you think that that barrel of acid flush is ready yet?”
“I think so. We’ll have to run over there and check.”
James laughed and said, “Run? We REALLY need to get your communications network repaired!” He turned to 1105 and said, “While we go fetch the acid, please run a level five diagnostic on the number five reactor. Please repair anything that may hamper us bringing it back online.”
1105 nodded and then plugged himself into the console. Max watched the screen closely as the robot worked. “I did not know that you could do that,” he said to James.
Ryan pointed at the screen and said, “Yes, running a level five is the best way to nip any problems in the bud before they become serious. We do this daily on our reactors.”
“Cool,” Max said. “Thanks for sharing.” He inclined his head towards the door and said, “Well, let’s go get crazy Mary, the acid queen.”
Chuckling, they all walked out the door.
They found Mary twiddling the knobs on the acid generator. She was so absorbed in her work that she did not notice the men enter. Max, with a face splitting grin, put his fingers to his lips. He snuck up behind Mary and tapped her on the shoulder. She let out a blood-curdling shriek and whirled around. “Hello Mary,” Max said in a deadpan voice, “Is the acid ready?”
Mary balled her hands into fists and pounded upon Max’s chest. “Damn you Max! You damn near scared me half to death!” She glared at him and added, “It’s lucky for you that I did not have to pee. If I had…” She did not finish the thought, however Max got the message. Max could not help himself and grinned foolishly at her which made Mary glower at him even more. Ryan and James kept their distance, not wanting to become the objects of her ire as well.
“Bloody hell, Mate,” Ryan said. He stayed well back and waited to see what would happen next.
Max grabbed Mary and embraced her. “Payback is a bitch, ain’t it Mary?”
Mary’s face lost its frown. She broke into a smile. “Well I suppose that we’re even,” she said, staring him down. With an evil grin, she added, “For now!”
Max looked over to the Australians and said, “She got me good the other day.” When they looked doubtfully at him he laughed and added, “We are always pulling pranks on each other.” They still stood several feet back. “No seriously,” he said with a grin. “It’s okay.” When they STILL did not relax, Mary intervened. “No really. We prank each other all the time. Just the other week I snuck up on Max while he was drinking his morning coffee.” With a mischievous grin she said, “It came right out of his nose!”
She lost Ryan at the word coffee. “Oy, did I hear you right? You have honest-to-God coffee?” he asked with wonder in his voice. “We have been drinking nothing but coffee-sub for so long that nobody alive remembers what real coffee tastes like.”
“We sure do,” said Max. “We have a dozen coffee trees. I’ll hook you guys up after we are done.” Both Ryan and James’s eyes lit up. “That would just be capital, mate!” they said simultaneously. Max chuckled. “Well then, let us hurry and get that reactor fixed.” He turned to Mary and said, “All monkey business aside, is the acid ready?”
Mary nodded and said, “Yes, I was just about to shut the machine down when somebody… I a
m not mentioning any names, terrified a poor innocent young woman half to death.”
“Innocent my ass,” Max laughed, pointedly looking Mary in the eyes. He looked over at the machine and said, “How come you are running it anyway? Where are the bots?”
Oh,” she said nonchalantly, “I sent them to make some needed repairs around the colony. I can run this machine without their help.”
Max looked at the device with its myriad of dials and valves and shook his head in wonder. “Well, um, let’s get started then.”
Mary finished shutting down the machine and they all got into the utility cart and rode to the reactor room.
James walked up to 1105 and said, “Reactor status please?”
1105 nodded and said, “Aside from the clogged cooling system, reactor five is in good working order. Do you wish me to list the repairs that I have performed?”
James patted the robot and said, “That will not be necessary. I have faith in your work, mate.”
1105, despite having no face, appeared surprised. “Thank you, James Zeus,” he said.
Embarrassed, James blushed and said “Well, let’s get started on the cooling system flush.”
Max followed them as they jockeyed the utility cart with the big barrel of acid to the front of the immense lemon-yellow reactor. “How long will it take?” He wanted to know.
Ryan shook his head and said, “Unknown. It normally only takes two hours for a good cooling system flush, start-to-finish, however we never let them get as bad as this.” He contemplated for a moment, looked at James and said, “What do you think James? Six hours?”
James nodded and said, “At least. Probably more like eight.”
Mary grinned and asked him in a deadpan voice, “Is that Australian hours or North American hours?” Ryan fell for it hook, line and sinker. “What are you bloody well talking about?” he sputtered. “The hours in Australia are…” Max chuckled and James slapped his friend on the back and said, “She’s yanking your chain, mate!” He looked at Mary with an appreciative grin and said, “Good one, Mary.” Mary blushed and turned away.
Ryan sputtered some more and then he turned to 1105. “Please begin the flush of the cooling system of reactor number five.”
1105 rolled up to the front of the reactor and opened a large access panel. Inside were two large pipes with shut-off valves on their ends. One was painted blue and was labeled input. The other was labeled red and was labeled output. A bracket designed to fit over a 55-gallon drum sat inside with lengths of color-coded hoses attached. 1105 placed the bracket over the drum on the utility cart and attached the hoses to the matching color-coded valve. He opened the valves and then pressed a red button on a panel. The button turned green and the faint sound of a whirring pump filled the room. Nothing appeared to happen.
James and Ryan looked at each other. James walked over to the bracket and peered through a sight-glass on its side where one of the hoses was attached. Ryan said, “Anything Mate?” James did not answer. He continued to stare into the sight-glass. Max, sensing their concern asked, “Is something wrong?” Ryan nodded and said, “Maybe mate. This will not work if the system is one hundred percent clogged.” He turned to James and said, “What’s happening Mate? Anything?” After a moment, James nodded and said, “Yes. The acid is being drawn in by the pump however it is going very, very slowly.” Just then the barest trickle of acid dribbled out of the outlet hose. The acid was tinted bright white with dissolved minerals. James looked at it intently and muttered, “At LEAST eight hours.”
Nine and a half hours later 1105 shut down the system flush. He had to add an overflow barrel because the amount of dissolved minerals raised the acid level so much it threatened to escape the barrel. He rolled up to James, who was sleeping in a chair at the computer console and said, “Please wake up, James Zeus. The cooling system flush on reactor number five has completed.”
James jumped awake. “Um, thank you mate.” He shook Ryan and Max awake. Mary was already awake. Her hands flew over the console keyboard. Various reactor schematics flew by so rapidly that James wondered how she was reading them.
“Mary,” James said softly. She stopped typing and faced him. “1105 tells me that he has finished the cooling system flush.”
Mary smiled and enthusiastically said, “Are we going to start it up now? Let’s start it up!”
Max, who was standing behind her turned to James and Ryan and said, “Any reason we should wait?” When both of them shook their heads no he said, “Okay then. Let’s do it.”
Mary started to get up out of her chair, however James put his hand upon her shoulder and pushed her back down into her seat. “Do you want to do the honors, Mary?” he asked her with a grin.
Mary’s eyes opened wide. With a voice full of disbelief, she tremulously asked, “Seriously? Me?”
James nodded to her and said, “Ryan, walk her through the procedure please.” He looked at Mary and said, “Ryan is much better at explaining things than I am.”
Ryan sat in a chair beside Mary. He pointed at the screen in front of her and said, “Tap the home button.” When Mary did so he said, “Do you see the icon that says reactor status?” He waited for her to nod and then he said, “Press that icon.” The screen changed and displayed a graphic depicting all five reactors. Reactors one through four glowed a glaring, bright red indicating that they were inoperable. Reactor number five’s depiction glowed green. Atop the display it said, “Reactor five offline. Ready for startup.” Ryan smiled at Mary and said, “Go ahead. Tap number five’s display.”
The display expanded to show detailed status of the reactor. Ryan pointed to an icon labeled diagnostics. “We already know that the reactor is okay but I want to show you how to do this. Press the diagnostics button. When she did a row of buttons labeled one through five appeared. “Press number five to run a level five diagnostic.” A graphic depiction of the reactor appeared with each subsystem highlighted in yellow. As the diagnostic ran, each subsystem turned from yellow to green as it passed inspection. When the diagnostics completed, a box popped up on the screen that said, “Diagnostic passed. Ready for Startup.”
“If any subsystem had failed the test, it would have highlighted in red rather than green. You could then tap the red flagged system for a detailed report.” He turned to her and said, “Okay Sheila, tap the confirmation button to close it out.”
Mary looked at him sideways and said, “Sheila?”
James chuckled and said, “It’s an Australian term for a young lady.” He poked Ryan in the ribs and said, “It sometimes refers to a young woman that a person likes, isn’t that right Ryan?”
Ryan blushed and refused to answer him. He pointed at the screen and said, emphasizing her name, “Okay then MARY, press the reactor startup icon.” She took a deep breath and with barely suppressed excitement, pressed the button. A confirmation box popped up and she pressed okay without any hesitation.
They all turned to face the reactor. The long slumbering yellow beast noisily started with a whirr of pumps and a galaxy of flashing indicator lights. After a couple minutes, the console in front of Mary beeped, causing her to jump. She stared in wonder at the confirmation box that had popped up. It read “Reactor number five startup successful. Okay to connect to power grid?” She reached out to tap the button, however her hand stopped short and hovered just in front of the screen. Ryan tapped her on the shoulder and softly said, “Go ahead Mary. Press it.”
Mary pressed the icon and then the slightly flickering lights in the room firmed up and shone with solid brilliance. James was the first one to speak. “Congratulations Mary. Your colony is now saved.”
Mary let out a shriek of joy, jumped up and hugged him with all of her might. Everyone else joined in and formed a big, happy group hug. With tears of joy streaming down her face Mary said over and over again, “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe that we did it!”
Chapter 25
Paul drove a travel cart towards the farm
ing wing’s storage room. Paul patted the vehicle on the dashboard and said to himself, “I don’t know how we lived without these carts for so long.”
As he rolled to a stop at the entrance, He sighed to himself and thought, “Time to go kick Fred out of his dungeon.” Stepping inside he bellowed into the echoing cavern, “Fredrick Scavvie, Get your ass over here!”
Fred appeared a minute later, covered head to toe in dust from whatever he had been scavenging. “What do you... I mean, why? What have I done? I know I promised... but I can’t help it! There aren’t any more. I looked everywhere!”
Paul put on a hard face and said, “I’ve had it Fred. All I ever get from you are excuses. Whenever anybody needs something, all they ever receive are reasons why they can’t have it.”
Fred gulped and said, “What are you saying, Paul? You know I am not being evasive. I… I… I CAN’T HELP IT IF IT IS ALL GONE!”
Paul frowned, patted the seat beside him and said, “Get in, Fred.”
Fred sat down beside Paul. Shaking, he asked in a near whisper, “Are you firing me, Paul?”
Paul turned to face Fred and simply said, “You will not have to come back to this room anymore.”
Fred wilted in the seat beside Paul. His shoulders slumped and he said in a low voice, “I understand.”
Paul started driving. They rode in silence for a while until Fred worked up the nerve to ask, “Where are you taking me, Paul?” Paul did not respond. He just kept on driving.
They continued on through the farming wing, the restored tunnel and then deep into the technical wing. Paul rolled to a stop in front of a large metal door. He pointed at the door and said to Fred, “Go ahead. Open it.”
Those Left Behind Page 14