Fred nervously got out of the cart. He stumbled as he walked up to the door. Turning the handle, he pushed the large bay door aside. Inside was another travel cart and seemingly endless rows of shelves, just like in the farming wing’s storage room. Unlike the shelves in the storage room in the farming wing, these were filled to overflowing with boxes and boxes of miscellaneous items and spare parts.
Paul walked up behind him, clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Welcome to your new office, Fred.”
Fred’s eyes opened wide in shock. His head swiveled to the left and to the right as he took in the sight. He sank down to his knees and turned around to face Paul. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he blubbered out over and over again, “Oh thank you! Thank you, Paul!”
Paul smiled, pointed to Fred’s new travel cart and said, “You might want to drive that to your old office and put up a sign directing people here.” Too overcome with happiness to speak, Fred just nodded, indicating his understanding.
Paul’s next stop was the reactor room. He found Max, Mary, 1105, James, Ryan and Lucy in front of reactor number three. Many access panels on the front of the machine were open wide. They were working together to reinstall a very large, bright fire engine red device. Paul pointed at it and said, “Hello everyone. What’s that?”
Mary piped up first. “It’s the cooling pump, dad. We fixed it. Once we get it reinstalled then we can flush out the cooling system and bring this reactor back online too. We won’t be dependent on only one reactor anymore!”
Paul gave his daughter’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “That’s fantastic!” he said with a smile that threatened to split his face in two. “My God, we really are going to be alright!” he thought as the weight of the worry, which he had been carrying for so long that he forgot what it was like to be unburdened, melted away from his shoulders like snow on a warm spring day.
“How much longer until it is done?” he said with barely suppressed enthusiasm.
“Almost done,” said Ryan. “The hard part is complete. We have already mounted it to the frame and have reconnected it to the piping. We just have to reconnect the wiring harness and then we will be good to go.”
“What about the acid?” Paul asked. “Are 12 and 41 working on that?”
Mary shook her head and said, “No dad. I have them fixing things around the colony.”
“Then who…?”
James patted 1105 on his camera stalk and said, “Our genius bot here installed automatic controls on the acid generator. It doesn’t need a babysitter any longer. It self-tunes and shuts off automatically once it fills a 55-gallon barrel.”
Paul looked into 1105’s cameras and said, “Good job.”
1105 bobbed his cameras and said, “Thank you very much James Zeus and Paul Hydro. I appreciate your nice compliments.”
Paul looked over at Lucy and said, “So Lucy, are you joining the ranks of the technical people?” Lucy blushed and shook her head no. Paul had an inkling of what was going on. He could not resist a little tease and he said, “So, are you here to keep the boys company? In particular, one mister Ryan Grey?” She blushed crimson and hid her face. James shook his head and disgustedly said, “You got that bloody right mate. I think Ryan broke her. She used to be all aloof and untouchable but now she just melts and fawns over Ryan here like a mythical puppy dog. It’s enough to turn one’s stomach.”
Paul chuckled and said, “I think he is going to be in trouble with The Dragon Lady when you all get home.”
James burst out laughing and Ryan wrapped his arms protectively around Lucy, looked at James and sputtered, “You’re just jealous that you don’t have a girlfriend, James!”
James playfully punched his friend in the arm and said, “No mate. I’m happy for you both.” More softly he added, “I don’t know how you did it. I should be so lucky to find myself such a beautiful girlfriend.”
Lucy grinned at him and said, “Beautiful?”
James stepped back and said, “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean…”
Lucy interrupted his sputtering and said with a mischievous smile, “Forgot I was standing right here, didn’t you?”
“I… Uh… Never mind!” James said, too embarrassed to articulate further.
Lucy grabbed his hand and mercifully put a stop to his incoherent babbling. She kissed him on the cheek and said, “Relax James. There is somebody out there for you too. There is somebody out there for everyone.” She closed her eyes, looked inward and said, “Even for me.” She was silent for a second and then admitted, “I put so much of myself into my work guarding Martha that I never had the time to look for a soulmate.”
They all stood in embarrassed silence for a minute until Paul said with a businesslike voice, “Anyway gentlemen and lady, I am not here for a social call. I need your help with something.”
Ryan answered for the Australians. “What can we do for you?”
Paul pointed vaguely in the direction of the underground train station and said, “As you know, I am putting together a train full of food for your colony. Besides the basic foodstuffs, I would also like to provide some foods that your colony has been without since the apocalypse. If I can, I will also provide your colony with some plant cuttings for the things that you lack too. Is there anything that you can think of, besides coffee that is, that your colony lacks?” All three began talking at once. Paul held up a hand and said with a laugh, “One at a time, please.”
Ryan held up his hand and said, “We can’t really answer that since we do not know what you are growing here.”
James nodded and added, “I recommend that you set a video conference between your farming councilor and ours.”
Paul nodded and said, “Makes perfect sense. I’ll go find Cindy and take her to the train station console.” Paul sighed and said, “Does anybody know where she is?” With a laugh, he pointed to the travel cart added, “At least I don’t have to walk anymore when I have try to find someone.”
Mary tapped her father on his shoulder and said, “You might not even have to drive, dad.”
Paul’s brow wrinkled. “Well then, how will I find her?”
Mary grinned and pushed a red button on the computer console. “41,” she said, “How is the network reconstruction going?”
41’s voice emanated from a small speaker in the console and he said, “I am just about done Mary Hydro. I am performing final diagnostics. All the pieces are installed and the network is performing nominally.”
“Thank you 41. Good job,” she said with a barely suppressed a grin.
Paul’s jaw hung open. “So, this is the little repairs project that you have had 41 and 12 working on?”
Mary blushed and said, “Yes dad.”
James reached over and shook her hand. “Good grief. That’s incredible! If you were not already taken I would ask you to marry me right here!”
Mary blushed and pulled her hand free. Paul rescued her by saying, “Can I put out a general call to find Cindy from here?”
Mary, looking relieved at his intervention, said, “You can do even better than that.” She pointed at the console and said, “Watch this.” She pushed the red button and said, “Eliza. Please tell me the current location of Cindy Johnson.”
Eliza immediately responded. Her voice no longer had severe digital distortions and a deep hum. It came through crystal clear from the little speaker on the console. “Hello Mary. The current location of Cindy Johnson is in the poultry wing. Do you wish me to connect you to her?”
Mary tried hard not to appear smug. She failed and said with a wide grin, “Yes please, Eliza.”
Paul shook his head to clear out his surprise and he asked, “How do I work this, Mary?”
“You can push the red button to establish the connection and then again to end it. When connected you just talk. It switches between speakers automatically.”
Paul nodded and pushed the red button. He leaned towards the console and said, “Cindy Johnson, this in colony leader Paul Hyd
ro. Please respond.”
The little speaker on the console came alive with the sound of clucking chickens. After a couple seconds Cindy’s voice came clearly through. “Hello? Who’s there? What’s going on?”
Paul grinned and said, “Hello Cindy. This is Paul. The bots have fixed the computer network. Please meet me in the council chambers as soon as you can.”
Cindy responded, sounding thoroughly amazed. “Yes… Yes Paul. I will be right there.”
Paul answered, “Great, see you there in a few,” and then he tapped the red button. He walked over to Mary and embraced her. “You never cease to amaze me, girl.” Mary did not trust her voice not to crack. She just hugged her father back with all of her might.
Chapter 26
Paul, having the advantage of a vehicle, arrived at the council chambers before Cindy Johnson did. He found 41 industriously hooking cables to a brand-new big screen monitor on the wall. The old worn out monitor sat disconnected upon the floor beside him. When 41 noticed Paul he said, “Hello Colony Leader Paul Hydro. I have replaced the defective wall monitor screen with a new one from stock.” 41 reached out with one of his arms and pressed a recessed power button and the screen came alive. Unlike the old monitor with its faded colors and its galaxy of burnt-out pixels, it displayed the computer’s screen saver pictures in astonishing detail.
Paul walked over to 41 and patted him on his camera stalk. “Thank you 41. I had no idea just how bad the old monitor was.”
41 nodded and said, “Indeed. It should have been retired decades ago.”
Paul nodded, turned to the monitor and said, “Eliza. Please provide your operational status.” Paul stared wide-eyed at the photo-realistic image of a woman that instantly appeared upon the screen. In a clear voice she responded, “I am at one hundred percent functionality. 41 has repaired my defective audio circuits and replaced my degraded display monitor.”
Cindy walked into the room and said, “Oh wow. Is that what she is supposed to look like?”
Paul indicated a chair beside him and said, “Apparently so, Cindy. Please sit down.” Turning to face the monitor he asked, “Eliza, do you have the capability of establishing a video link to the Australian council chambers?”
The computer avatar smiled and said, “Yes Paul. With our restored network, I can provide a real-time video conferencing connection. 12 has patched our network into the fiber optic cables running through the planet-wide transportation tunnels.”
“Excellent!” Paul exclaimed. He turned back to Cindy and said, “I have asked you here for an official consult. What I am about to share with you is common knowledge in the Australian colony, however the severity of the problem has been downplayed to the general populace to prevent a wide-spread panic.”
The eyes in Cindy’s round, freckled face opened wide. “Understood Paul. What is the nature of their emergency. I assume that it has something to do with food.”
“Very astute, Cindy,” he said. “Yes, they had a fungus infect their hydroponic gardens. While they have eliminated the blight, it caused them to lose an entire harvest. The food shortfall has left them in serious danger of starvation. I am going to send them a train full of some of our excess stockpiled food to help them through the crisis.”
Cindy nodded and said, “That’s very kind of you Paul, but what do you need me for? Fred can give you an accurate inventory of our stockpiles. He can tell you how much we can spare of each type of food too.”
“Yes, he can, however I asked you here for a different reason.” Paul took a breath and continued. “They have some crop species that we do not have and vice-versa. What I am going to do is offer them some seeds and cuttings of the plants that we have that they don’t and ask for the same in return.”
Cindy immediately became much more interested. “Sweet!” she cried. “You don’t know just how often I have wished for some more variety.”
Paul squeezed Cindy’s shoulder and said, “Remember Cindy, diplomacy. Let me do most of the talking at first, okay?” Cindy nodded and then Paul said, “Eliza, please establish a high-definition video call to the Australian colony’s council chambers.” Immediately, the screen changed to show an antique telephone icon and a stylized ringing sound came from the speakers.
Martha Turner Did not feel her usual amusement as she watched the barely controlled bedlam of her council chambers. “I really should step down but who else could keep these over-grown children in line?” she thought to herself. “Good God, I am so tired. I’ll die right here in this chair one day I imagine. I wonder how long it will take before somebody to even bloody notices?” The sound of a ringing telephone behind her interrupted her maudlin thoughts.
The room slowly fell silent as each person noticed the telephone icon on the computer screen. “What’s that?” councilor Robert asked, completely confused. Martha’s head snapped around. The ringing stopped and a computerized voice said, “Incoming video call from Paul Hydro at colony number seventy-six. Please say Accept or Decline.” Martha froze for a split second but then she fairly shouted, “Accept!” Instantly, a high-resolution image of Paul Hydro’s face filled the screen. He smiled and said, “Hello again, Martha.”
Everyone in the room started talking at once. Martha silenced them with a bellow of “Silence!” Martha was completely shocked, however her years of statesmanship allowed her to hide it. “Hello again Paul Hydro. This link looks quite a bit better.”
Paul nodded and said, “Indeed. We managed to repair our network. We have fixed one of our reactors as well. Work is in progress on the repairs of a second one.” Paul raised his hand and waved at the camera. “Hello councilors. May name is Paul Hydro. I am the leader of colony number seventy-six. I’ve called you today to negotiate a trade agreement.”
Robert stood up and said, “Hello. My name is Robert Sterling. I am councilor of recycling. Am I to understand that you had NO working reactors? If you are in such dire straits, just what do you think you will have to offer us?”
Martha gave him the evil eye and yelled, “Sit down and shut up, Robert!”
Paul held up a hand and said, “It’s okay Martha. It is a valid question.” He nodded to Robert and said, “When the nuke hit us, it collapsed the tunnel to the technical wing. We lost all of our technical people. Only the farming wing survived. We did not have anyone who could fix the reactors.” Paul took a deep breath and continued, “It was a near thing but one of our bots found a way around the collapse by going through the inter-colony transit tunnels and one of our people used a tunneling machine to re-open the collapsed tunnel. Our crisis has passed.”
Robert stood back up and said, “Well that is nice Yank, but what good does this do us down here?”
Paul silenced him by holding his hand up in the air and said with a frown, “Remember who you are speaking to councilor. I don’t know what you are used to getting away with down there but I am a colony leader and I expect a minimum of respect.”
Martha had enough of his bluster as well. “Robert Sterling. I’ve had enough of you. You are underqualified to even be this colony’s garbage collector. Remain silent or I shall rectify that by relieving you of your position!” Robert’s face turned beet red. His mouth snapped shut and he sat down in his chair so quickly that it groaned and threatened to collapse underneath him. “Much better.” She turned to face the screen and said, “I apologize for my idiot councilor’s outburst. What do you propose Paul?”
Paul’s face relaxed. With a little laugh he said, “Well, to start with, we don’t need light bulbs any longer. We found a fully stocked supplies room in the newly reopened technical wing. What I wish to negotiate today is an exchange of food for plant cuttings and seeds from crop plants that we do not have here.” He pointed vaguely behind himself and said, “We have stockpiled more than enough food over the years that we can easily ship you enough food to get you through your current crisis.”
The room erupted into chaos once again. This time however, Martha just let them all vent. She fe
lt the same relief as all of her councilors.
Paul waited until the bedlam subsided. He pointed to Cindy and said, “This is Cindy Johnson. She is my councilor of farming.” Paul put on his best diplomatic face. Now clean-shaven, his visage was quite imposing. “Martha, I propose that Cindy chats with your farming councilor. This way we can decide what items we can share to our mutual benefit.”
Martha, also quite used to the diplomacy game, put on her game face as well. “Melvin Brown!” she bellowed, “Get up here!”
Melvin was a skinny man with a hatchet face and a long, hooked nose. He had a nervous tic in his left eye. Unused to speaking in the council chambers, he was even more nervous because of the amount of blame that had been heaped upon him after the hydroponic blight disaster. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and he was so nervous that he was unable to speak. Martha laid a hand upon his shoulder as he sat down beside her. “Relax Melvin.” She glared around the room and said, “Everybody give him a break. Nobody could have anticipated the blight. After all, the hydroponic gardens had been running flawlessly for three centuries.” She waved to Cindy and said, “Happy to make your acquaintance, Cindy. Melvin here is not good at public speaking however he is a wizard at farming. Without his skill, we would have not only lost the harvest but we would have completely lost our entire farm to the blight. Melvin, please work with Cindy and help us come up with a mutually beneficial trade plan.” Melvin tried to speak however the room-filling babble of voices drowned him out. Her patience with her unruly councilors gone, Martha bellowed, “Enough! Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, clear out of the council chambers. Right now!” She looked over at a couple uniformed men and added, “Security, please escort everybody out and then exit the room and prevent anyone from reentering until I say so.” A chorus of complaints met her edict. Martha was not in the mood to tolerate even the tiniest bit of insubordination at this point. “Security, if anyone gives you the tiniest bit of resistance, please charge them with contempt of council and lock them up.” The room fell silent and the councilors nearly trampled one another in their haste to exit the room.
Those Left Behind Page 15