In August the restriction in the valley again collapsed but we had been maintaining a weekly monitoring of the situation and were fully prepared for the results. We suffered no injuries but the road link was again impassable as the river now passed through its old bed which had been slightly widened.
When the system had settled again the flow-rate had increased significantly but was less than before the impact as we were still suffered from a partial drought. Fortunately we were happy to note that there was no sign of another dam being created. This was probably because the weather was now considerably warmer. The continuing flow from the distant higher ground, to our great satisfaction, indicated that the valley would eventually return to some resemblance of its original state.
Now that the restriction appeared to be a thing of the past, unless perhaps the winter was long and severe, we decided we would make a vehicle bridge in order to keep our communities combined as a mutually supporting empire. Here we had some luck as the concrete foundations of the old road-bridge, previously seen by us adventurers, still existed in a restorable state. With little difficulty we were able to build on those foundations; the flow rate of the river was not dangerous to the structure or careful workers. We used wood from the forest which, though it was returning to some form of life, provided much dead wood that remained in usable condition. The skills of our carpenter, together with some metal from the ruined pylons, allowed us to fashion a strong little bridge more than capable of taking our little vehicle.
In November the river again froze but there was insufficient material to create a restriction in the upper valley. The debris from the impact had, by now, been largely washed out of the system. At this time we visited the site of the old lake and found, to our great satisfaction, that the basin still existed and a new lake was forming albeit, at that time, frozen and full of material from the restriction releases. This unwanted material would be removed the following spring and, if possible, we intended to attempt a restocking of the lake with fish as an additional means of obtaining protein and restoring nature. Oh how I remember looking forward to fishing with a rod and line once more.
During this period we recovered and restored one of the small petrol vehicles from the Martinez village. This had involved a considerable amount of work as the batteries were flat and we had to attempt a recharge. We were a little worried, from experience, about the potential cylinder and radiator damage caused by the severe cold a vehicle we had previously selected had had some cylinders and the radiator destroyed by ice. Fortunately good antifreeze had protected several of the engines and other components though brakes and clutch had to be carefully released. What was surprising was that the modern engine, we were restoring, started almost immediately; the fuel injectors and processor had somehow survived undamaged.
Unfortunately most of the vehicle batteries would no longer hold a charge as the cells had shorted. These batteries were brought back to the shelter for the battery expert to repair. This he considered a relatively minor problem but stated that their charge capacity would be considerably reduced from the original. The larger battery we used in the vehicle had to be forced into place by technically modifying the battery compartment with a hammer. Though not elegant it worked and we then had two functioning vehicles.
We took our little tractor, on its special trailer, towed by the wonderful four wheel drive, to the village as we planned to try a little ploughing to prepare the land for next year. The tractor was stored and well protected in the garage of one of the restored houses and a little of our supply of antifreeze defended the radiator and cylinders. We left this agricultural effort to the experts as they happily ploughed and prepared as many acres as they could for the following year.
We hoped to be able to produce some crops, especially potatoes and sugar beet together with some of the edible grains, for although we still had a considerable supply of the latter commodities we had to be certain we would remain self sufficient into the future. In addition we needed some more hay for our animals and sugar to distil alcohol fuel for our future vehicles.
Such small scale farming would be sufficient to maintain our current population and would allow us to maintain our reserves. Maintaining such a buffer would support our morale and we would see some return from our agricultural efforts.
Having diversified our group we were in a much better position to do the same with tasks. The village would be our first external farming center. The rich mans shelter became our communications center, by way of its position, and the main shelter our education and development center. Here remained our fish farm and small gardening center, our main defence center, our study system and the development of our future energy base. It would have been difficult to move any part of this effort at that time. There was also our repair center and clothing, including shoe repair and manufacture. Currently a large percentage of our animals were also here but we intended to send most of this investment to the village; maintaining only a reserve in the shelter against disaster.
The shelter itself remained our primary resource and we were determined to take good care of it. Most of those families who had children under fourteen remained here to complete their education and for their protection. We intended to further diversify our population once we had set up a communication system to the Martinez village. Such diversification was defensive in nature as it would provide our different centres with a better understanding of any risk from any direction before the empire itself became involved. It would also provide us with additional agricultural land such that the village itself could become self sufficient. Our main shelter would, however, provide a place of refuge if any external element of our empire was overcome.
The task of setting up the additional communication links required was put in hand. Again we used the insulated electric cables we found in various places as this was all we had of sufficient length and low impedance to produce a functioning communication link over such distances.
The task of connecting the Martinez village into our communication network would take nearly a month of hard work. It was, in principle, a simple task but we had to obtain a large amount of usable cable from those places and routes we considered redundant; at least into the medium term. For us this meant that the cable route could be utilised if it connected a village we considered unrecoverable or too distant to provide an acceptable service without amplification.
We, of the external adventure group, were given the task of setting up the communication link to the Martinez village as we had, at that time, nothing useful to do. It was hoped that next year we would be more productive in the agriculture sector and the Martinez village was surrounded by potentially productive lands that we hoped to rapidly return to productivity.
Once the communication link had been set up to the village we used some cable from the military store to extend the communication, via a switch we produced for the purpose, to two of the houses. Our communication system was becoming quite sophisticated but we would have to design an automatic switch either from our then produce-able electromagnetic relays or, once they had proved reliable, our home produced transistors.
Whilst we were setting up the communication link others were hard at work restoring some of the least damaged of the Martinez houses. They were also restoring the least damaged of the furniture and, where necessary, moving items into the houses designated for accommodation. Two village fountains were available and the water of both tested potable. The wind generators and the solar panels were returned and optimized and batteries provided. We allocated the village two small diesel generators and a supply of fuel for their use if it should prove necessary. Having made the houses as comfortable and secure as possible we looked at the requirements of the tenants.
We collected some of the otherwise unrecoverable combustable material from the badly damaged homes with suitable debris from the surrounding country. This material was stored in a dry, protected, environment (two redundant garages), so that it could be used to keep the houses
comfortable warm during the winter. We then installed a simple, reasonably efficient, gravity fed central heating system using some radiators and modified boilers we found in the buildings.
A third house was fitted with an Aga type heater/oven incorporating a water heater with a similar gravity fed central heating system as in the other two houses. The water heater was designed to support a single shower and a wash basin. The Aga itself provided cooking facilities for the village residents. This house was well furnished with tables and chairs sufficient for the tenants allocated to the village with a few extra facilities in a communal lounge. This would, it was thought, create a community spirit within the group and reduce the energy requirement. One room was set up as a welcome room either for visitors from our empire or those presently unknown.
The most optimum kitchen utensils for the Aga were made available from our stores. When all was ready twenty five persons, including my family, moved into the village. The residents had been given some training in the use of defensive weapons and twelve units, with ammunition, were provided for their protection.
From then on a twenty four hour stranger watch was instigated as our occupation of the village would then be obvious to any observer. The area around the houses was cleared allowing all round observation and assisting future agriculture. Where we paranoid? Anyway the effort required was relatively slight and it might preserve our lives; notable, to me, my family.
We knew that towards the distant west there were some coal mines and we planned to send a small four person expedition on petrol motorcycles to that area. Their task would be to attempt to make contact with any mining communities who would hopefully be able and willing to provide us with a temporary, semi sustainable, coal reserve or possibly other minerals into the short to medium term. We could use wood but we wanted our tree resource to recover sufficiently to become a sustainable resource into our medium term. For us sustainability was very important. We would not return, nor would we have to for many years, to the old ways; intending to assist our good old earth to recover from our previous excesses.
Our steam engine study group had succeeded in producing several functioning steam engines suitable for use with generators even though their energy conversion was rather inefficient. However, as we now had a proven, reliable, sustainable, alternative energy source we would be able to use it to reduce our reliance on our irreplaceable diesel. Given this sustainable energy source and sufficient personnel we could then begin to manufacture whatever we required. This had become one of our prime objectives.
We asked our experimental archaeologist to design and build two kilns, supported by bellows, with which we could smelt iron and other metals. We also required moulds that could be used to make things. Items from these moulds would require finishing and this was initially performed on our previously manufactured, manual lathes. We were now producing items to the level of the mid to late Victorian period and preparing to produce our own electronic equipment to the equivalent of the early 1950’s.
At this time we decided to look past the lake village for new friends. We were getting to the stage where we needed workers and, hopefully, expertise that could be allocated to different tasks. We were very fortunate in that our personnel were happy to take part in any suitable work program to which they were voluntarily allocated. Nearly all of the tasks, excepting the shared cleaning tasks allocated to almost all, were intellectually stimulating, manufacturing based with only a small amount of what would once have been considered office support tasks. We were becoming a manufacturing and agricultural society. We kept records of techniques and solved problems where this was considered advantageous. Here our biggest problems were the lack of sufficient pen, ink and paper; the latter being the most critical at that time.
We also lacked several areas of specific expertise. We were, ambitiously, considering using the restriction of the valley to create a dam for the production of electrical energy. Due to increased precipitation the flow of the river was slowly returning to its earlier level which, though not great, had potential for us. If properly harnessed this asset could produce considerable energy for a factory (to be built) but we still had the problem of energy transmission. For this project to be viable we really needed civil engineering expertise and a means of producing a lot of reasonable quality cement. We would need to control water flow and a means of converting that flow to electrical energy. We had one advantage the restriction wall had proved able to take considerable compressive loads.
As a last resort we would set up a study group to perform the planning and organising tasks but expertise in this and other potential projects would allow us a far greater chance of success. With this project we again came down to the problem of electrical transmission. For simplicity we planned on a single phase system.
In early February of the fifth year we left our little empire to look for additional recruits. We drove our little four wheel drive towards the east past the lake and the nearby destroyed village; of which so very little remained. If we had not known of the village existence we might not have recognized the remains. There would, unfortunately, be little material recovered from there.
The lake now looked placid but we had not yet made any attempt to clean the basin which appeared to have a little remaining ice at the edges. The climate was returning to something like normality and others were, as we travelled on our new adventure, involved in preparing the land for seeding. Most of our personnel had, by now, visited the outside world and things were returning to what would be our new norm more rapidly than anyone could have expected.
We followed the remains of a road through a steep sided slightly downward sloping valley next to the river that originated from the lake. The road was badly damaged by the erosion originating from the repeated failure of the valley restriction. This appeared to have roared through this area like a rocket blast. The road was, however, passable with care and not a little work removing the many annoying obstructions which included a very large rock. We were able to complete thirty kilometres in two and a half hours and there the valley opened out and we could see off into the horizon, over an angle of about two hundred and seventy degrees, some distant hills. In the valley and on the upper slopes of those distant hills we could see small patches of green which appeared to be, using binoculars, bushes and grass. The rest had remained largely mud as nature had not yet recovered from the flows through this valley.
At the opening to the expanding valley, we set up our electronic detection equipment and searched, while on the move, for any electromagnetic activity. After three hours of very slow driving we had observed nothing within the electromagnetic spectrum but searching with binoculars we observed indications of several valleys. One, then the nearest, was interesting as we could see a road continuing beyond our vision. A road indicated a destination and a reason to explore.
To get to the road required a diversion down into the valley as the slopes of the sides of the valley were, at this point, too steep and stony for us to risk driving there directly. We had to travel about ten kilometres instead of less than two by a direct route. On reaching the valley entrance we found a slightly damaged road and within half an hour we came to a very lightly damaged village. On proceeding a little further we were met by an armed reception committee. These people appeared friendly but definitely cautious. I then noticed several more armed persons on the valley sides. They had us under their control which made me a little apprehensive. I think they were interested in our use of a vehicle which, to them, would have suggested organization.
Their spokesman was reasonably well dressed and, though thin, was clean and did not appear malnourished. When he spoke he was confident and authoritative; with his observable support I considered his attitude fully justified. He first asked about our intentions. We explained that we represented a group that would like to create a community of survivors for mutual advantage. We told them, with some candour, that we had built up a sustainable system and had sufficient technology to produce si
mple steam engines and were hoping to plant some crops this year
He, with similar candour, told us that they had survived in caves having rejected the government shelter offer. They too had realized that the government’s promises had been just platitudes with no realistic back-up or support. They had also realized that providing even long term food for the original population would not have been possible. There group had taken everything they could from the village store, belonging to one of their survivors, which had been well stocked as soon as they had heard rumours of the coming impact.
They had invited several people from other villages to join them. These invitations had been made, largely, to those able to provide required stores; mainly shopkeepers, farmers and builders but had included two teachers, two mechanics, two medical personnel and a pharmacist. The group consisted of one hundred and two individuals including twenty one children then under fourteen.
They told us that they had food enough for another three years which was now mainly dried meats and fruit with various grains that had been set up for long term storage. They were worried that their medicine store was running out of vitamins and their doctor feared the onset of vitamin deficiency problems because of their limited diet; especially in the area of fresh fruit. Lastly they explained that their fuel reserves were limited to about two thousand five hundred litres of diesel though they had about twice that amount of petrol with grease and oil in abundance.
Somehow, to our amazement, they had managed to keep three small, but rideable horses; two mares and a stallion. They also had some chickens and sheep. For us the horses were a prize asset that we would like to expand. We made this knowledge available to this group and explained that we could provide them with food, vitamins and medicines; though some of the latter two were, by then, out of date but considered safe by our doctor. We told them that later, if required, we could support them with some fuel and we described our repaired village and how we were now moving people into this new accommodation to perform farming tasks. We advised that volunteers to join them, from their group, would be most welcome.
Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group Page 34