Bootstrap Colony (12 page)

The next morning he rushed
through his morning chores, checked over things, then pulled out the detonator.
He picked up the earplugs and stuck them in, then smiled. “Well, here went
nothing. FIRE IN THE HOLE,” he called flipping the safety up and pushing down
on the detonator button. With a resounding boom he heard the charges go off. A
moment, a heart stopping moment of quiet, and then he clearly heard the gushing
of water pouring into the chamber. He looked up to the top of the face. Smoke
and dust were still drifting off, and the waterfall was definitely slowing...
and finally down to a dribble. “Perfectumondo,” he sighed contented by how well
that had worked.

He let the water and dust settle
and went planting. It took a couple hours of back breaking bending, but he got
the three greenhouses cleared and new seeds to replace them in the racks. The
robots ran lines to each of the vegetable plots, as well as hoses out to the
fields. He ordered the robotic tractor to plow the next three fields, and then
did a perimeter check.

A quick bite of lunch led to a
check of the interior of the cave. He whistled in awe at the sight of the
waterfall in the Great Hall. It was huge, and breath taking. He glanced over to
the side where he had had the ladder. “Guess I am not going up that way,” he
observed as he snorted.

In the courtyard the cherry
picker and crane were waiting by the massive piles of gear. He sighed, and then
stepped into the basket. “Upsadaisy,” he said, thumbing the controls and
looking up.

Getting out of the basket and
into the chamber brought a heart stopping moment; he nearly slipped on the
slimy surface. A hasty grab to the rock face saved him, but it twisted his
wrist a bit, making it ache.

He checked the chamber and then
looked up to the open hole above. “Wow, what a hole!” He sighed, remembering
one of his favorite movies fondly. “Okay, where to start,” he murmured
thoughtfully. He turned, and then nodded. “Okay GP,” He looked down at the
scene below, then hastily stepped back as vertigo struck. Nope, definitely not
a good idea. “GP three attach the first load to the crane. When it is complete
crane lift it to my location.”

“Affirmative,” The robots replied
in unison.

It took a bit of work and coordination
to get the load up to the chamber opening. After trying verbal commands, he
gave up and pulled out the controls to guide the load in manually.

The first load was basic gear, a
crane system to attach to the face and roof with pitons to better winch up
materials. Next came forms for the concrete, then tools and rebar sections. The
rebar should be easy to put together, he had tried it on one of his job sites
as practice. The wire tie was bent around the junction and then twisted with a
motorized handle shaped tool with a hook on the end. Much simpler then welding
and longer lasting as well.

With the last load up, he took a
break then looked around as he ate a tasteless sandwich. He was going to need
more materials soon; he was almost out of bread. A baking session might be in
order tonight if he wasn’t too tired. He looked over to the portable cement
mixer and then groaned. “Shit.” He looked at the dripping opening. “Whoops,
forgot the water.” he sighed in frustration. He slapped at his though for a moment
and then ordered the robots to hook up a line and send up one end to him.

It took all afternoon to get the
crane finished and the first form up and rebar twist tied into place. The forms
would redirect the waterfall into the turbines, then out back into the pool
through sluice gates. Debris screens would be on top of the entrance holes, as
well as up on the bluff above. They would have to be cleaned regularly or
debris would pile up and clog things.

The temporary rail crane above
would lift heavy parts, and then slide them along the track before lowering
them into place. It would take a lot of work to muscle things in right and get
parts aligned properly.

The channel leading to the
waterfall in the Great Hall would be an emergency release valve. If during
spring thaw the water pressure became too much for the turbines to handle the
computer would open the valve chambers to allow some of the water into the
channel and to the Great Hall. It could also serve to aid in the air
conditioning during summer.

He started the first pour, and
then realized it was getting dark. Swearing, he ordered more lights up, then
continued the pour. “So much for playing baker,” he muttered, wiping sweat off
with the back of his arm.

He finished just as dawn warmed
the eastern horizon. He stood a meter back from the mouth of the open cavern,
admiring the view. Wearily he used the basket to get down, trudged tiredly
through his morning chores and then dropped into bed. “Just a couple hours,” he
muttered as he felt the cats cuddling against his side.

Blearily he woke, noting it was
dark out. He checked the log, noting that the robots had completed the interior
pours that were possible and were down in hibernation mode. The GP robots were
busy reinforcing the breach areas. A report that he was now low on clay made
him sigh. He ordered the robots out to the clay gully in the morning.

It was nice to stretch his abused
muscles, he petted an annoyed Hera, annoyed because he had abandoned her for so
long, then had returned to ignoring her as he slept like a log. In fact he had
felt her once climb over him and nudge him insistently, but had dismissed it.

Knowing he was awake she insisted
on a thorough petting, then feeding. Max whined to go out as he fed the cats,
scratching at the door. Sleepily he let Max out, and then stepped out. Shock at
the late hour woke him far more than coffee would. Damn, it was almost sundown!

He hurried through his chores,
checking over the repaired breaches, and then ate. He set up the first batch of
bread, leaving each batch in the fridge to rise slowly. He would bake them
tomorrow.

The next day he had a quick
shower, and then rushed into work. It was a pain doing the chores; he wanted to
get things over with so he could do the next pour. He had four water turbines
to install.

The forms filled in the pool
area; water from the first set of turbines would be directed out through a
second set of turbines and then into what remained of the pool. He brought up a
GP robot to help, and managed to get the next three pours done by mid day.

Cleaning up, he checked the
dough, punching them down, then kneading them and setting them up for the final
proof. He checked the perimeter, then the clay convoy. Everything was going okay;
four trips had been made, without any sign of animals or trouble. The whitish
clay looked good. One of the tractors was reporting a brake problem, he
switched it out with a fresh one, the logged it for later repair.

The sky south was a little dark,
he could see incoming clouds. He swore, knowing it could mean trouble. He had
planned to repair the potholes in the driveway, but was just too tired. He had
a robot do it, and then the GP up in the cave called, asking for directions. He
smiled, and then ordered it to hibernate for a couple hours while he baked.

Two days later he had finally
gotten the second and third portable water turbines up into the cave. One was
set up in the channel to the Great Hall, while the third was cemented into the
lip with its paddle wheel hanging over the edge into the air where the water
should flow.

The clouds were coming in; he
knew he was on borrowed time. The GP had been an asset helping bring in loads.
The turbine components were all in their bays, ready to be hooked up. Tarps
hung from pitons inside the cave, covering the cement in case of a sudden
downpour.

The farm robot had completed four
more fields, and two more vegetable fields. The dwarf corn, wheat, and sugar
cane would eat up a lot of resources for a while. He had been forced to tap the
pesticide tanks early, spraying the sugar cane field to rid it of some alien
pests. Fortunately all the rain had helped irrigate the fields.

He might have to move up the next
planting early to get them out. Robots had piled furniture, kitchen appliances,
and bathroom pallets near the entrance to the garage and entrance hall,
allowing him easy access to them in case of prolonged rain.

He really should check on the
people north of him, but the UAV had not found any further sign of them. It had
found a suspected iron deposit ninety kilometers north by North East however.
It would require a drive out to confirm it however.

He looked to the sky. It was
still cloudy, and the South Eastern sky was dark, sure sign of a storm on its
way. He checked the log. With the waterfall shut off he had cut off the bulk of
his hydrogen making, and his water turbine. The cloudy skies were making it
hard to power the robots, he had been forced to shut the Mini-Me’s down, and
hibernate the GP and Andy robots after dark. The Donks were also a problem,
they required hydrogen to supplement their electric batteries, and his hydrogen
reserves were at half level.

He needed to give the concrete at
least another week or two weeks to cure. He would have to scale back his
planning for now. Grimly he ordered the droids to hibernate. The war robots
were eating up a lot of energy, he ordered P one to guard the Northern gate,
and P two to guard the eastern one. Each CAT would patrol one kilometer
sections of the perimeter; the ED’s would stand down at strategic places and
only go active if called upon.

It would have been nice to use
the Crusher’s for patrol, but each of them had only the single full tank of
fuel and electrical charge. If he had an emergency, it was better to keep them
in as a reserve.

The farm robots would have to be
put on hold for now. The dairy was shut down; the animals had finally dried up
completely. Since he couldn’t pour concrete he decided to work on the barn
area.

A team of GP robots and a single
Donk tore apart empty cargo pods, and then hoisted up the top sides, and
bottoms to him and a GP robot. He used the cherry picker to attach a bar along
the face of the cliff; to this he attached one end of the panels. The other
would rest on metal blocks along the panels lined up as a wall. Eventually he
would need to break those pods down to use their materials.

From the inside he used wire
netting to cover the openings; they would allow air and light through, but not
much rain or debris. Or pest animals hopefully. With this area covered he
filled in the gaps on the top face with patch concrete, and then expanded the
stalls inside the new expanded barn.

He set up stallion boxes,
birthing stables, and a separate area for the rodents. The coons were a pain,
they were constantly moving about their cages as he moved them, grasping at his
clothes. They had been locked up for a while; hopefully he could get a room for
them soon. If they became too much of a handful he would be forced to release
them into the wild, something he was a little reluctant to do.

The next morning the sky was
definitely gloomy, dark and foreboding clouds blocked out the morning light.
“Yeah yeah,” he muttered, then got through his chores, checked the tarps one
last time, then dug into planting and reseeding.

The rain began as he was
finishing the second greenhouse. He swore, and then waited for a break before
sprinting though the puddles to the final greenhouse. He was sore; it was a pain
planting one plant at a time into the ground. Digging, plopping it in, pushing
soil over it... mind numbing to him.

The seeds were easier, but also
mind numbing. Just pluck a seed out, and plop it into a hole, cover with
fertilizer, then add the drip line. He had to be careful of his precious seeds,
making sure only one got into each hole. These were cabbage and celery.

When he finished he watched the
rain pound into the plastic sheeting. He was tempted to have KITT pull a truck
up, but decided against it. He just had to reserve his fuel. Wasting it because
he didn’t want to get wet well, that would be annoying if it bit him in the
arse later.

Sighing he trudged through the
break in the storm, feeling the clinging mist quickly dampen and then soak his
jacket, while mud splattered his jeans and boots.

He
took the time to clean up at the mobile home, had dinner, and then set another
batch of bread loaves to rising in the fridge before going to bed.

The next morning the rain was off
and on, so he kneaded and proofed the dough balls, then put on his gortex rain
gear and jogged to the cave.

He stripped off the gortex
inside, and then took a look around. He decided to do some wiring, maybe he
could even set up one of the bathrooms after chores.

The bathroom was easy, since he
had started the first, he only had to drop in the toilet seal, then the toilet
and hook up the lines and bolts. Ready to go. He did his master bathroom next,
then the laundry.

Each of the six laundry machines
were complete systems. A washer and dryer built into one single cube. They were
stacked two high, with front facing doors. He looked at the opening, out to the
cliff face. He would need to fill in the bottom around the plumbing, then add
some glass blocks for the top for natural lighting.