Bootstrap Colony (17 page)

“I told you it would. Guns have a
kick called recoil. Physics one oh one. Every action has an equal and opposite
reaction.” He ducked down, squeezing past Pete. Pete handed down the rifle to
Janet who racked it carefully.

Mitch looked over his shoulder to
Pete, who was still standing in the opening. He snorted, and then drove the car
down to the kills. The surviving animals moved out of the way warily. Mitch
ordered the robot between them and the animals. He arched the truck and trailer
near the tree, and then checked the downed animals carefully for signs of life.
When he was sure they were dead he called the others out.

Janet stretched, warily watching
their baleful audience. She bent to examine the nearest Struthiomimus. She ran
her hands through the feathers on the Struthiomimus, avoiding the blood soaked
areas. “The front has down like a goose or waterfowl. The rest of the body was
covered in feathers, including primitive flight feathers.” She observed,
pulling the feathers up off the forearms to flare them out.

“Do you mind if we get this show
on the road and examine them later Janet?” Mitch asked, warily watching the
dancing grass.

She looked up. “Hmm?”

He pointed his chin to the grass
beyond. “I think we are going to have uninvited guests soon.” he said warily.
She nodded.

“Quickly now folks, the predators
will be on the scent soon.” Mitch urged them to work. Brian nodded, needing no
further invitation. He got to work with practiced ease, cutting the head off,
and then cutting into the abdomen and pulling out the entrails. Janet wrinkled
her nose but helped wrestle the first carcass onto the trailer. The second was
easier, but the third had its broken leg caught in a root. It took a bit of
hacking at the root to get it freed.

By the time they had the fourth
loaded the flies and therapod scavengers were gathering. Brian was soaked in
gore, he tried to wipe his face but Janet quickly grabbed his hand to stop him.
She handed him a towel. He nodded his thanks and cleaned up.

They moved the truck to the
protoceratops kills, moving through the herd which parted and moved warily
away. The surviving animals wanted no part of the blood soaked strange thing in
their midst. Brian got out, but Mitch had him hand the knife to Pete. Pete was
a bit dubious and hesitant, but Brian and Janet coached him through the
process. He was a bit pale when they finished, Janet hugged him to her. “Good
job love, good job,” she murmured, ignoring the sticky mess. She held her hands
up. They were covered in blood. A scavenger came over, teasing at one of the
intestines. She looked down at it and then quickly looked away.

Mitch pulled out damp rags; he
tossed one each as they got back into the truck. The CAT robot followed them
out of the nesting area and North back to base. “Now all we have to do is avoid
any predators and scavengers between here and home,” Mitch said, relieved. Pete
grunted, very quiet. Too quiet Mitch thought.

“Did you know that the
Protoceratops is the most likely origin of the griffin myth?” Mitch asked,
trying to get their minds off the gore for the moment. Pete made a grunting
sound.

“Griffin?” Brian asked knowing a queue
when he was given one.

“Yes, scientists believe our
ancestors would find exposed skeletons and then think they are monsters. That
is how a lot of mythical creatures came to be known. Imagination, it was all
imagination.”

Brian nodded. “I can see where
they got dragons from a Raptor or Rex skeleton, but a griffin?” He gave Pete a
look. Pete wasn’t paying attention, staring off into the grass.

“The skeletons of Protoceratops
can be re-arranged to form a griffin,” Mitch explained. Mitch pulled up the
laptop and frowned as he searched for the entry.

“I really hate it when he does
that.” Janet muttered, nodding her head to Mitch.

“What?” Brian asked. “Not used to
modern technology?” he teased. Janet shrugged, and then turned to watch their
path.

“Yeah, here it is,” Mitch showed
the screen to Brian.

“I hope they are worth it,” Janet
said.

“Well, if they are anything like
turkey I for one will be happy,” Mitch replied. The turkey were not doing so
well, he had lost two more, and half the eggs came up dead or unfertilized.

“We might have a replacement
right there, though trying to fit one of those in an oven will be a challenge,”
Brian snorted.

“Stuffing it too,” Pete looked
up. “My mom said...” Then he paused and looked down. He looked out to the
savannah.

“Your mom said you don’t stuff a
turkey?” Janet asked softly. He swallowed, and then nodded. “Your mom was a
good cook then. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on you.” She said in approval
as she patted his arm.

“You don’t mean I have to cook
them too do you?” Pete asked, thoroughly aghast. Janet, Brian, and Mitch
laughed.

They build a drawbridge for the
waterfall entrance, exciting some of the kids. Classes were going well; he had
set up the computer and Janet to teach three hours a day. Most of it was hands
on, stuff that both interested the kids and helped them in the long run. Brian,
the fourteen year old was more into security and engineering so Mitch took him
under his wing most of the time. Vance Martin, the gangly seventeen year old
was more of a natural leader but he was incredibly quiet and reserved. Mitch
noticed the young man still needed to develop his confidence though. He had
great initiative, so Mitch learned he can set him a task with a few hands and
get out of his way to let him do it.

Vance, the robots, and Mitch
stacked rocks, and mortar in the Great Hall, Much to Janet and Anne’s disgust.
He tried to explain that they were going to build fireplaces, but gave up after
a while.

They also went to work and built
the scaffolding for the second floor, on top went metal plates from the
flatbeds and a welded railing. Vance had been thrilled at the chance to do his
own welding. Once Mitch was sure he had it under control he turned the job over
to the teen and went onto the next project. He checked in on him of course, but
he knew that doing it on his own would help restore the young man’s self
confidence.

Anne had been a hotel assistant
manager; Mitch had her take over the day to day running of the base managing
everything. Janet ruled the kitchen, and helped deal with the kids as a mother
figure. The two girls, Sandra and Brie enjoyed assisting in the schooling, all
the kids began to blossom and put on weight again.

One of the first things Anne did
was a round of haircuts. She even got Mitch to participate. She waited until he
was in the chair before she then pulled out a bowl behind her and plopped it
down on his head. The kids and Mitch laughed.

Two of the younger teens, Jeff
and Sean spent most of their time off with the animals. Jeff had been in the
four H club the year before. The two girls, Brie, and Sandra stuck to Anne like
glue; she made them her assistants when they weren't helping Janet with
schooling. Mitch was glad; if the adults and older kids hadn't been here he
would have been overwhelmed with everything going on.

They set up a better compost
system, much to the disgust of some of the kids, until he explained why. The
compost pasteurizer allowed them to better control the bacteria in the compost,
allowing them to limit pests and control the quality of the compost easier. The
younger kids didn't quite get it, but they did understand that it helped so
pitched in with a resigned sigh.... and occasional cough and pinched nose.

The new compost system also
sported a plastic cover. This was part of the recovery system that would allow
them to siphon off surplus methane and other natural gases that the wastes gave
off... allowing them to compress and store it for later use.

Concrete pads were poured for
each of the silos as well as the seed container tankers. The seed container
trailers were tipped and set on end. They had been designed from the beginning
to be able to be transformed into seed/grain silos. It was gratifying to see
the design had worked out so well when put to the test.

Getting the silo’s set up had
been interesting. The crane was used to move the assembled sections, topping
each completed level until it was finished. Vance and Brian had handled that
project; both had enjoyed the responsibility but admitted each of the ten silos
had been hard work.

The silos were a big concern for
Janet and Mitch. They discussed the concerns over lunch several times. Too dry
and silo dust became a major flame and explosive hazard. Too wet and bacteria
would set in, destroying the stored crop and also causing fermenting...which
could again lead to an explosive situation. Finding the happy medium and
staying there would take careful monitoring by both the computers and humans.
Janet made a point of not trusting the machinery.

With Wayne, Vance, Pete, and
Brian Mitch set up the first of the permanent greenhouses. The dwarf wheat was
harvested, and a new crop laid in. This time dwarf corn. Since they didn’t have
much fertilizer beyond the trucks and compost, they were going to have to
rotate crops. When the first dwarf corn planted was harvested, they replaced it
with soy.

Most of the crops Mitch had
brought along were genetically engineered crops, but with limited need of
fertilizer. He knew that commercial crops required massive amounts of
pesticides and fertilizer to reach optimum potential. He, hell,
they
were relying on the natural soil and whatever he could toss together. It would
just have to do.

The plants were short, allowing
for faster growing cycles with minimum waste. He would have to hold back ten
percent for seed for next year, but so far yields were within expected
tolerances.

The sodium solar heater went up,
Brian was particularly proud of his contribution to its construction. The small
seam of salt was tapped to fill the heater. Once the mirrors focused the light
from the sun onto the center tower it would heat up, super heating the sodium
which would then flow through a series of turbines before running through the
heat exchange and back to the top. The heat exchange was a thermal pump that
transferred some of the heat through conduction to pipes filled with water that
then ran to the network of plumbing. It would hopefully keep the water from
freezing when it snowed out.

He let Brian set up the heating
and air conditioning system on his own. The young man reveled at the challenge.
It took him a while, but the experience was good for him. Handling all the duct
work had been an interesting challenge with scaffolding and ladders. Brian
wryly commented at dinner the night it was completed that he had a lot to
learn.

While Brian and two of the robots
were setting up the heating system Mitch had dug into the mills. Janet watched,
lending a hand when she had the time. When he was finished she surprised him by
giving it a go, then turned and gave him an urchin smile. “I grew up on a farm,
I even helped out in the local mill a time or too.” She smiled as he nodded in
sudden understanding.

“Good, you can play with the
flour then,” he said. She rolled her eyes at him as he left.

Mitch even got into projects he
hadn’t thought possible the first year, assembling the vats for the algae and
bacteria farms. The algae vats were giant clear plastic cylinders, each filled
with a mother sample of genetically engineered algae. Each of the little plants
would take in waste materials like C02 and other things, along with sunlight
and produce hydrocarbon sludge for industrial use.

The transgenic bacteria from the
Alcaligenaceae family were an important link in his plastics industry. The
bacteria excreted polyhydroxybutyrate, or PHB, a polymer used to make
biodegradable plastics. Once he and his helpers had it up and running, they
would keep a mother like they do for the algae to reseed the tanks after each
harvest.

With plenty of power and solar
water heating things look good. Summer rolled in, hot and annoying. Animals
poached the fields, causing problems. They set into a routine of working in the
early mornings, taking a siesta in the heat of the afternoon and then working
when the cool breezes cut in a few hours before dusk.

The caves acted as a heat sink,
keeping themselves cool if a bit wet and moist. Additional insulating foam was
sprayed around the ceiling duct works. Plastic sheets were extruded, and then
cut into panels for the false ceilings and wall paneling. They'd have to keep a
sharp eye out for mold and mildew.

With a twenty eight hour day
cycle, they have plenty of time. Mitch continued working straight out, setting
up tanning areas, the machinery, and the communication towers. Pete helped him
to set up the communication room. They even got started on an outer curtain
wall around the outer perimeter before they ran out of rebar. Mitch had them
halt on pouring until the iron supplies could be restocked.

With the kids and sufficient
power he set up the core factories, the other mills for various things, plastic
extruders, smelters, and forges. All of them were automated and cutting edge,
so of course they have some teething problems. The molecular furnace was one of
the biggest headaches, it drew an enormous amount of energy, almost all four of
the water turbines on its own at peak draw. Since right now he needed it to
extract and separate as much material as possible he set it to run at night
when draw from the other machinery was the lowest. It would give them a small
but steady supply of materials not easily found.