After the ship was loaded, Heath started the ship’s engines. The military group was still far away, barely in Socorro. They were traveling much faster than the speed limit, but they were too slow to overtake the android-piloted starship. Heath was off the ground before the military group reached the spaceport and The Operative saw the contrail of the Renaissance upon his arrival at the spaceport.
The Operative said, “Damn!”
An Air Force officer added, “I don’t think that we can scramble in time to stop them. It looks like we failed.”
The Operative said, “I can see that. I need to figure out how the hell I believed the intelligence I got. It said I had more time.”
A Navy officer said, “We should’ve trained a little less and got here faster.”
The Operative said, “I’m in charge here. Don’t forget that.”
The Navy officer replied, “Yes, sir. Understood, sir.”
The Operative said, “We have no new information to give the General. He’s not going to be happy.”
The group watched as the ship disappeared into the blackness of space. The support team already left, so The Operative’s group could not even take one of them to gather new information. They felt utterly defeated.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Railroad
The colony decided that the mining operation could not be efficient without a railroad. To that end, it was decided that the first production of steel from the foundry should be used to make rails for a rail car.
Scout told Becky, “We need rails for a railroad. Then I need short rails to be used as railroad ties.”
Becky asked, “What’re we going to use to attach the rails to the ties?”
Scout said, “I told Jordan and Lane to weld the ties to the rails once they’re ready.”
Becky said, “But I need a mold to hold the form of the rails while I pour them.”
Scout said, “We’re going to have to use the old school mold for this one. You’ll have to dig channels into the ground and then pour the metal into the channels. I know that it’ll be more difficult, but there’s no better option for a while.”
Becky asked, “Are you going to order some for the next supply ship?”
Scout said, “I’ve already done that. You should only have to do it the old way for about a month, because the ship is already well on its way here. I anticipated the need for railroads when I told Scott what to load on the ship.”
Becky said, “So as long as the shipment doesn’t get intercepted, delayed, damaged, disabled or destroyed, then I should have the proper tools in a few weeks.”
Scout said, “That’s about right. Hopefully, you’ll have a good mold to work from when the molding material gets here. Then you can just put an existing rail into the mold and have a perfect one to reuse.”
Becky asked, “How long do the main rails need to be?”
Scout replied, “It doesn’t matter as long as they’re uniform. The longer they are the better.”
Becky then asked, “How long do the ties need to be?”
Scout said, “About two meters wide, and again, they need to be uniform. Remember that you’ll need to make the rail car fit the tracks, so make the measurements accurate.”
Becky said, “I don’t do anything halfway. You’ll have the best rail system in the solar system by the time it’s done.”
Scout said, “That’s the right attitude. I love having you and your boyfriend in my colony. The two of you are so dedicated that you make my job much easier.”
Becky said, “Where is John?”
Scout said, “He’s assembling a group of volunteers to start military training. I think that Jordan, Lane, Clive, Joanne, Jack, Lin, and Mark are the fighting force of our colony. I’ll also join them if they need me to.”
Becky said, “I hope he stays safe. He can be so gun-ho.”
Scout said, “He knows what he’s doing. I’d rather have him fighting with me than against me, that’s for sure.”
Becky said, “Okay, I need to get to work digging the trenches.”
Scout walked out of the foundry building and toward the biodome. Becky got her shovel and a hoe out of the storage closet and began to dig. She dug a trench fifteen meters long and ten centimeters wide. The hole was only fifteen centimeters deep, but it was uniform from one end to the other. She tapered the hole at the top in a typical rail shape. Then she smoothed out the sides and the bottom. At the end nearest the building, she dug a small hole three centimeters deep and as wide as the rest of the rail. She would use this to guide the metal into the mold and to extract the finished rail once it cooled. Then she would cut the excess metal off of the rail with her circular saw.
The next project Becky undertook was digging the smaller tie channel molds. She was tempted to dig many of them, but in the end, she was convinced that she couldn’t make too many of them uniform. She dug three molds for the railroad ties. The holes were two meters wide and ten centimeters long. The channels were nearly flat, only one centimeter thick. This was so that they could easily create a stable surface for the railroad. They had two poles of dirt to allow the ties to have holes so that the ties could be secured to the ground. Once the molds were dug out and smoothed to exactly the same measurements, it was time to pour the molten metal into the molds.
Becky took a 400-liter barrel filled with iron out of the storage bay in the refinery. She used a hand truck to move it to the kiln in the foundry area of the refinery. Then she dumped the iron block into the kiln and allowed it to boil. The iron got very hot, and eventually became a liquid. Once the iron liquefied, she radioed for Skittle and Snicker to assist her in pouring the metal into the molds.
She thought, “This is way too dangerous to even think of doing on my own. I need some help, and I need more strength than Jordan and Lane can give me. I wonder how the people who built the first railroads did this.”
The robots arrived six minutes after Becky called them, and they were ready to work. They lifted the kiln full of boiling metal. They took it out of the foundry and over to the molds. Then they poured the iron into the molds.
Becky instructed them, “Don’t fill it over the edge of the mold. We need the rails to all be uniform, so they all have to be filled exactly to the edge.”
Skittle acknowledged her with a green light on its head blinking twice. That was the robots’ signal that they understood an instruction. The robots poured exactly enough metal into the molds to fill them to the edge. Then they took the hot kiln back into the foundry and but it back where they found it.
Becky didn’t like the next part of the process because it didn’t allow her to do any work. The kiln was too hot to reload with, so she couldn’t move ahead. The metal in the molds had to cool for at least an hour to solidify, so she couldn’t begin to work the rails. She could only wait for the kiln to cool sufficiently to allow her to place more iron in it.
Thirty minutes later, the kiln was ready to be reloaded. Becky retrieved the next iron block fifteen minutes into the waiting period, so it was ready when the kiln cooled. Becky repeated the process and walked back outside to check on the rails. She needed to wait an hour for the iron to boil completely, so she worked on the rails until it was time to pour the next ones.
Ten minutes after she walked outside, Becky verified that the rails had solidified. The instrument she held in her hands showed that the internal temperature of the iron was 70° C, so it was solid completely through the metal. She needed help to remove the hot metal from the ground, so she called for help.
Becky radioed Jordan, “Can you and Lane come help me with this hot metal? If I had some proper tools, I could do it myself. Scout wants a railroad first, so I’ll need a lot of help to get this done.”
Jordan replied, “We’ll come help you. We’ll bring some of the other guys to help put it in place, too.”
Becky said, “Great.”
Jordan brought Lane, Jack, Lin, and John to the foundry. They lifted the rail out of the grou
nd while being careful not to damage the mold in the ground. The template would be needed for some time until the supply ship arrived. Next, Lane retrieved the circular saw from the refinery. He cut off the handle using a straight cut into the metal. He cut that piece of metal into strips that would later be used as stakes to secure the railroad to the ground. The group then lifted the metal, which had cooled to 50°, with their protective gloves on their hands. They carried the rail from the foundry to the mine. The mine was 500 meters from the refinery building. Once the group reached the mine, they placed the rail into position. Then the group returned to the foundry to assist Becky with the pouring of the second rail and the next group of ties.
When the group arrived at the refinery, the metal for the second rail had boiled. They moved the boiling metal to the mold and poured. Jordan then placed the ties in his car, where he would store them until there were a significant number of them.
This process was repeated until there were four rails and 12 ties. The group had all of the rails in place, so they needed to secure the rails to the ties and the whole track to the ground. Jordan took the ties out of his car and placed the first one under the rails. The robots had returned to lift the rails as the men placed the ties under them. Once the first tie was under the rail, Lane welded it to the rail on both sides. Then Jack smoothed the ground to allow the robots to replace the rail. The next tie was placed one meter farther down the rail than the first tie. The exact same process was repeated until they ran out of ties.
Jordan said, “We’re only twelve meters down the track. We need to have a lot more ties. We should make those quickly before we make more rails. Ties are faster anyway; we just let them stay in the mold as long as the rail because it was convenient.”
Becky said, “Ties still take about twenty minutes to cool.”
Lane said, “So that means we can make three sets of ties in the same time as one rail.”
Becky said, “Okay, let’s head back to the foundry and fire up the kiln.”
Jordan said, “I’ll take a couple of passengers in my car, but most of us have to walk.”
Jordan, Lane and Becky rode in the car back to the refinery while the rest of the group walked the short distance to the building. Once inside the building, Becky started the kiln. One hour later, the metal was ready to pour into the molds. The rest of the group had busied themselves while Becky prepared the metal. When the iron was ready to pour, they returned to assist Becky. They poured the first set of ties into the molds and waited for them to cool. Then they repeated the process until the supply of molten metal was exhausted. They had spent the balance of the day creating railroad ties and they now had 81 ties in addition to the 12 that they had already placed.
The group retired for the day, and headed to Shai’s quarters to see what she had made for dinner. The supply ship had not yet arrived, so the crew already knew what the most likely meal was.
Becky said, “I wonder if dinner tonight will be fish and chips.”
Jordan said, “There seems to be nothing else available to eat.”
Lane complained, “It wouldn’t be so bad if we got food more than once a day.”
Jack said, “Things’ll get better. The supply ship is coming, and Shai promised that the days of exclusively fish and chips would come to a close.”
Becky said, “I can hardly wait for the first crops from the biodome to come into season. I’ve seen the stuff we’re going to put in there, and it looks amazing.”
Jordan said, “But the robots have to finish the construction first. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Becky said, “I think I heard Scout telling Kathy that it would be ready for moving in by the end of the week.”
Jack said, “I heard that rumor too. I hope it’s true.”
Jordan said, “I think it is. It’ll be glorious when we become self-sufficient. Then we’ll be done with the fish and chip diet.”
Jack said, “Amen to that, brother.”
Becky said, “I second that.”
The group entered Shai’s quarters and prepared for dinner. Shai walked out of the kitchen with a covered dish in her arms. She didn’t want to give the crew any reason to complain before the dinner arrived on the table. She removed the cover to reveal a dinner of fish and chips.
The next day, the same crew returned to the site of the railroad. They installed the ties to the remainder of the rail. Then, Jordan secured the rail to the ground by driving a stake through the holes in the ties. He repeated the process until there were no more stakes to be used. Jordan secured ten ties to the ground, and he would secure the rest when the next rails were created and he cut the excess metal off of the rail to make stakes. The crew secured the ties to the second rail. The process took about two hours.
They needed to secure the two rails to each other. Lane welded the two rails together all the way around. The robots lifted the end of the first rail slightly while Lane welded the underside of the rails, then they replaced the rail and allowed Lane to weld the tops and sides. That took about twenty minutes. Jordan secured the ties to the ground.
While the men worked on preparing the rails at the railroad site, Becky worked diligently to prepare the next set of rails and ties. She melted the metal, and only called the robots to assist her when the time came to pour the metal into the molds. The third set of rails was ready as soon as the men completed the second set of rails.
When Jordan and the rest of the group arrived at the foundry to collect the third set of rails, Becky was very tired. She had been working with hot metal all day, and there was a small amount of excess metal in the kiln.
Jordan asked her, “Are you going to make it through the day?”
Becky answered, “I’ll be fine. I have some extra metal that I can’t really use for ties.”
Jordan said, “That’s very convenient. I need more stakes. Can you pour some molds for small stakes?”
Becky said, “How long and wide?”
Jordan said, “Length isn’t that important, but they need to be just a little less wide than the holes in the ties.”
Becky said, “I think I can do that. Doesn’t even sound hard, plus it’ll be a welcome change to the hot metal all day.”
Becky went to the area where the molds were and began digging. She dug ten small holes in the ground that were the right size for stakes. Then she took the molten metal and poured it into the molds. In fifteen minutes, the stakes were ready.
The group took the newly formed rails and ties, along with the stakes to the railroad site. They would continue working for the next four days in the same way. On the fifth day, the railroad was complete from the mine to the foundry. Work would have to be interrupted on the railroad because the biodome was finished.
Chapter Forty
Biodome
The terraforming team walked into the biodome and immediately looked up toward the roof. They were dwarfed by the structure. They were also impressed. Filling it up with plants seemed impossible. The walls were impossibly tall, and there were no ladders or rails installed on them yet. The end of the building was two kilometers away, and the sides were each a full kilometer away. They could tell that this job was going to be very challenging.
The first thing they did was comment on how big the space was. They couldn’t help it, as they were impressed with the sheer enormity of the building.
Kathy said, “This place is huge.”
Her voice echoed around the vast, empty space.
Scout said, “You don’t need to shout in here. Your voice will be heard even at a whisper until we fill the empty space with plants.”
Kathy lowered her voice and said, “This is just so amazing. I’m standing on an alien world and seeing the very place that our society will be born. It’s just so wonderful.”
Jordan said, “It’s going to be a lot of work to fill this place up with plants, though.”
Becky said, “I think this’ll be the hardest thing we ever have to do.”
Shai said, “It’ll be worth it, though. Let’s bring in the supplies.”
The crew brought the soil from Earth, along with the rest of that trailer, with the assistance of the robots. They used the robots like a tractor, and pulled the trailer all the way to the biodome from the spaceport.
Scout said, “Let’s go get it.”
Everyone grabbed a bag of soil from the trailer and took it back to the biodome. Each person cut their bag of dirt open and poured it out onto the floor. The floor of the biodome would soon be covered in two meters of soil from Earth. This soil would constantly be replenished for the colony to sustain itself. The crew spent five hours just moving dirt into the biodome.
Jordan said, “This is hard. These bags are heavy. I haven’t worked this hard since my military days.”
Lane said, “I remember those days. We carried fifty-kilogram packs on twenty-kilometer hikes just to train for the hard stuff. Once you were out in the field, it just got harder.”
Scout said, “Okay, enough reminiscing. It’s time to do some work in the here and now.”
Becky said, “Yeah, join us worker bees.”
Jordan said, “Hey, we’re all working hard here. Some of you are just younger.”
John said, “It’s not our fault that you got old. Now help us out here.”
Scout said, ‘Alright, let it go. Less talk, more work.”
The crew finished pouring the soil onto the floor, and it was time to make sure that it was evenly distributed. They covered 80% of the floor with soil, but left the remaining 20% for walkways and the control booths. The crew gathered rakes and hoes to smooth the surface of the dirt. They spent one hour smoothing the dirt.
Scout said, “That’s enough for today. Let’s head to my quarters for dinner.”
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