They surprised us with information, provided by their politicos, which they had not passed on to us through the communication link as it was not, at that time, considered useful. We were advised that prior to the asteroid impact attempts had been made to resupply both the Mars and moon colonies. We were, therefore, left to wonder if any of those distant people had survived and, if so, how long that state of affairs could continue. For me a far more interesting topic was could we assist them and could I help.
Perhaps, I thought, we might find some means of communicating with those colonies who might then advise us of their condition and perhaps they would have obtained information about potential survivors on earth. The problem with communications to those very distant colonies was that we would need a sophisticated antenna and advanced communication equipment both of which we could not, as yet, manufacture but we might be able to find and restore a satellite earth station. As satellite communications had been a major part of my profession one should understand my interest.
We would need to know the frequency band they were operating on so that we could scan that band for any channels being used. We had a chance of finding this by using SETI systems if we could find such a facility. I was, however, aware of several sites that might have antennas we could resurrect and modify for this purpose. I thought this would be an interesting and beneficial project for me to get involved in.
Before I could put my ideas on this topic to our people it was necessary that we should resurrect other more immediate external projects that we had had to forfeit in our retreat to our internal defences. First we would have to recovery our farming facilities as this would impact on our long term survival. We had achieved great things with the land but this had been largely destroyed by layers of sterile dust which reduced considerably the oxygen capacity of the soil. We would have to clear the land of this material and then attempt to prepare the soil by ploughing prior to seeding. Hopefully, if we worked hard enough, we might achieve a harvest the following year.
The first land to be cleared was that protected by the plastic. The recovery of this land would release a large quantity of the plastic sheet. This material could then be used to create large greenhouses. We would, however, maintain a small amount of the plastic, which had been cut for other purposes, to make windows to light and draft proof the houses when we restored those valuable assets to use. It was intended that later we would manufacture glass which, even if it was of poor quality, would be a great improvement on the now old plastic.
The first element we had to look at was the political shelter’s river. On this observation we were pleased to find that the flow-rate of the river had remained sufficient to prevent the dust totally clogging the water in spite of the reduced precipitation. We would thus be able to use the river to irrigate the land as we prepared it for planting. This factor initially ordered our land usage in this region.
By late October the atmosphere had cleared sufficiently for us to venture out unprotected. It was going to be another cold winter but with reasonable thermal protection we were able to work on preparing the land.
The land around the river was cleared of the semi solidified dust that was only a few centimetres thick. The effort of clearing this area was considerable but the farmers advised that after some initial clearing much of the remaining solidified dust could, with advantage, be ploughed into the land during preparation for next years planting thus assisting the bacterial survivors to refresh the soil. This was thanks to the persistence of the bacteria which would survive in the deeper ground and return to the surface to reclaim their domain helping our efforts to prepare for replanting. This saved us all considerable effort for which we were grateful. We started to plough the land, using horses, whilst many people worked at clearing the land of the worst of the solidified dust.
At our primary shelter similar work was being performed in the valley through which ran the river. Here again the river had remained in flow during the whole period. The work here, however, was much harder than at the other shelter and was at a greater distance from our shelter resulting in a less efficient working day.
Where we had previously cleared the land we had only to partially remove the semi solidified dust; a large quantity, of which, was thrown into the river to be washed away. Other parts of the land had not only to be cleared of the dust but also of the material left by the inundation. Some of this latter material, mainly trees and bushes, was collected together as potential fuel. All other material was either destroyed or composted as fertilizer.
By using our tractor and the horses we had, by Christmas, prepared a considerable area of land. By my uneducated estimate this extended to possibly three hundred acres for cultivation and another forty that we were going to set up as an orchard.
Fifty acres of the cultivated area would be set aside for cereals, another fifty acres of land was set aside for our animals which, until our animal herds had been increased, would be sufficient. A few more acres were set aside for plastic greenhouses and the rest for other options planned by those knowledgably of agricultural pursuits. We required sugar, for the medium term production of fuel, wine, and other specialized material and it was this that was their task to produce.
The politico’s shelter had prepared a considerable greater area of land and here also they were prepared to plant cereals and potatoes when the soil temperature had increased sufficiently in the following spring. In spite of our numbers we expected to have an excess of agricultural product next year. With this we hoped to be able to transfer more of our efforts to other forms of production.
One important item we now required was paper for sanitary, records and other purposes. We might make this commodity using some of our straw though such material would tend to be rather course for some purposes. Fortunately our experimental archaeologists had worked on a manufacturing technique that would just about meet our requirements for quality and quantity using wood and that which was provided by our geologists at the request of the chemist.
The politico shelter had developed a means of producing a form of flax thread which we could use to manufacture a crude form of cloth. At that time these very important members of our society were able to produce many things that I had believed would be unavailable to us for a number of years. They had even produced a small test of reasonable quality steel ingots using recovered material and charcoal. This they had produced in a small kiln the experimental archaeologist had created out of bricks with manual bellows. Computers and television would have to wait but we were recovering to a technology well in advance of our original objective.
In October we went to the rich mans shelter taking our vehicle over the restored bridge which had been unaffected by the dust. On arrival we opened up the air vents, tidied up the interior and used some of the material we had left there to produce a meal. We now had to prepare this edifice for reoccupation. The generators were checked for damage, refuelled from the reserve we had left, started and the batteries recharged. I was surprised that they still held a charge but they were mainly modern deep cycle units. We then set up the communication system and called our shelter to advise them of the situation.
We next visited the village and were pleased to find that only one building had suffered any significant damage and this was only the partial collapse of the roof. Other houses could be made habitable very quickly requiring only cleaning. The land would have to be recovered for agriculture but again that could be completed relatively easily as it was partially solidified by the rain and not liable to risk the lungs of those working on the task.
Several volunteers from the original group were soon collected and started work on cleaning up the village. The carpenter volunteered to help with the repairing the damaged house and within two weeks the village was habitable and the original families returned to enjoy their old freedoms.
They were left with much work. Their first task was to reinstall some of the wind generators that had been partly dismantled but not removed (insufficie
nt time and we had enough at the shelter). Once these were working light returned to the village. Initially food was cooked on a simple stove but plans were made to set up one of the wood stoves that had been found in a damaged house. This unit was connected to a simple gravity fed central heating system and water pumped to the two houses allocated to our occupation of the village.
The experimental archaeologists set themselves the task of designing a wind powered water pump to lift the water from the well to a water container installed in one of the houses. Within a week the vanes and pump had been completed and these elements attached to a metal mast provided by the villagers. This mast was created using material taken from our old provider; the broken electricity pylons in the area.
This magnificent equipment was of such benefit that it was decided that several should be created and two were shortly afterwards built at the original shelter to pump water from two of our external wells to the containers for the showers and toilets. This had previously been a major task lifting the internal well water from the food store to the habitation floor. This job was now removed from the inmates’ workload meaning that part of the work allocation for those inmates had been removed. Fortunately to compensate for this we were going to move some of the inmates to the Martinez village where much work was also required.
The Martinez village required more work than we had originally thought. We had become optimistic due to the small amount of damage at the other village but here one roof had totally collapsed and another was damaged. Originally we would have written off the collapsed roof but as we had more personnel requiring accommodation, were available and volunteered it was repaired.
Instead of the original AGA, which stayed in the shelter facility, we installed another central heating system that had been modified to provide two cooking rings and an oven of reasonable proportions. In reality it was virtually a copy of the principle of the original AGA that our metal working experts had produced using one of the original central heating boilers from our stores. Perhaps it was not as efficient as the original but it worked and was a welcome addition to the Martinez facilities.
We installed one of our new wind powered water pumps to one of the wells and the house that had originally included the AGA now provided all the amenities including a bath, which had up to then been unused in the house, and two showers. The latter units were created using material that was taken from the politicos’ shelter. The showers were a valued asset as one’s body would require regular cleaning with all the work we were doing.
With the AGA type two in place we started to rebuild the two collapsed roofs. This did not take very long as all the material required was at the place of work. Using our building experts and where necessary a carpenter, from the politico shelter, the roofs were rapidly repaired in just over two weeks. A week’s additional work tidying up the mess, caused by the homes having being open to the elements, and the houses were recognized as habitable. Only some additional furniture repairs were required and at the end of the month of November the houses were occupied by their new tenants; which again included my family.
On entering the houses we were amazed at the quality of the work. The roof plastering was, considering the material they were using, very acceptable. We, the new residents, were very pleased with their efforts and complements to the workers were exchanged. The beds were comfortable though I never found out what material was used to fill the mattresses but they too were quite acceptable. The broken windows were double glazed with the plastic sheeting and with the central heating, using locally collected wood dried in a garage, we would be reasonably comfortable when winter really hit us.
We had two small generators and a small amount of diesel but hoped to use a wind generator to provide lighting. Each house also had a wind up torch, stored in a known position, which left an increased number of these valuable items in the stores. Our first task, during our residency, was to prepare more land for the following year as we wanted all our outposts to be self sufficient. It was intended that we would be given some goats that we would have some fresh milk. To allow this luxury we had to prepare their accommodation by next spring.
We were also had two motorcycles, with basic tools, and a small amount of petrol. We made use of these to visit the nearby villages to find material for the houses. During these visits we looked for signs of occupation or recent visits but unfortunately found none. We did, however, find much that was both useful and interesting as we had not explored some of the more distant villages since the impact. This was because we had either been incarcerated in our shelter or too busy restoring our villages.
We found a few houses in some of these new villages that were almost undamaged by the blast, the dust or simply from not being lived in. In these houses there had been some decay but nothing that could not be easily restored. We were very pleased to find cars and more important two vans parked in garages. Some of these vehicles, we believed, could be restored to functionality either with their electronics or without. Without the electronics they would be less efficient but they would allow us to transport much that we had currently found difficult.
We even discovered more wind generators and solar panels that, with a little work, should provide us with more renewable energy thus preserving our supply of fossil fuels. With these renewable energy generators there were batteries; some of these were of the old lead acid technology but several were of more modern systems of which most appeared to have remained functional. The lead acid batteries were of interest as we had the technology to restore them to functionality with little effort. The more modern systems, though of interest, would be useful only if they worked. The problem we faced was how to get these units to where they were wanted.
We became even more ambitious and considered the possibility of restoring some of the old commercial wind farms near our current empire and then distributing the energy obtained to some of our establishments. Obviously such ideas had to be put to the people as much effort would be required by many personnel; though this would have to wait for our future.
Our geologists were looking for minerals that would be useful to our chemist. Our first geologist had been local and his knowledge of the area proved very useful. The ash we created in our wood stoves was stored and used by our chemist and archaeologists’ to produce products useful to our population. The production of charcoal was beneficial/essential to our production of metals. We were recovering at a rate I could not believe.
We had survived ten years within a very dangerous environment that had destroyed a large percentage of all life forms. We were preparing for further adventures and hopeful of being able to find new friends. I wait with interest to see if my request to attempt communication with the Mars and moon settlements would be accepted. We had heard, from one of our latter recruits about an unknown group of survivors near Zaragoza and we would try to send some representatives to speak with them if they had remained survivors. Our future looks as though it would at least be diverting and our children should be able to inherit a better world from our efforts. We will just have to wait and see.
OUR Asteroid Survival
A fictitious history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group.
Table of Contents
Index
Chapter 1. Beginning.
Chapter 2. Building & Fitting Out.
Chapter 3. Our Home; For the Duration.
Chapter 4. Government Facilities and Failures.
Chapter 4. Plans, Preparation & Evacuation.
Chapter 5. Impact & Aftermath.
Chapter 6. Early Days.
Chapter 7. Our First Rescue Mission.
Chapter 8. A New Technology Base.
Chapter 9. A Continuum.
Chapter 10. Opening The Doors.
Chapter 10. Opening The Doors.
Chapter 11. Life In A Burrow.
Chapter 12. Looking For New Friends.
Chapter 13. A New Continuum.
; Chapter 14. We Have An Enemy.
Chapter 15. Peace But Not Plenty.
Chapter 16. Doors Close Again.
Chapter 17. Free Again.
Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group Page 42