Bootstrap Colony (10 page)

It took him a while to get it
sorted out; he had banged his fingers and scraped his hip before he was
finished. It was a bit crude, but he felt a surge of pleasure, knowing he was
getting there... if slowly.

He hurried through lunch, taking
bite from his MRE while flipping through the manual for the sink hook up. The
tankless water heater was rather neat; he had over thirty of them. Each was the
size of a small suitcase, but could provide unlimited hot water on demand.
Pipes arrayed like a radiator were inside the plastic box, along with
electrical heating devices and a lot of insulation.

Each of these boxes would allow
him to have hot water without having to run a lot of extra lines and insulation
all through the walls and floors. This one would service this bathroom as well
as the sinks in the planned nearby infirmary.

He checked the weather with a
look outside, it was just sprinkling, but the distant skies were still clouded
over. “Beware the ides of March,” he muttered, slapping his hat into his thigh
and then returning to work.

He came up for air sometime
around dinner time, or at least when his stomach refused to quit rumbling. The
bathroom hook up had gone in with only limited fuss. With that experience he
had knocked out the kitchen area, then the storerooms.

He took the time to splash
through the puddles to the mobile home. There was a small break in the storm,
allowing him to get there without getting totally drenched. He brushed the
water off in the entryway, letting the animals sniff him down in their usual
greetings. Hera and the kittens were pretty insistent; he petted her as he
nuked a meal in the microwave. “You’re going to love all the nooks and crannies
to explore once I am done huh?” he asked her as she purred. “Doing this for
your benefit huh?” he teased, tweaking her ears affectionately. She batted at
his hand, then at the nose of Max who insisted he had to have attention too.
Giving Max’s jowls a good rub; he picked up the hot meal and dug in.

After diner he watched the rain
for a bit, sitting in the back by the window. Hera was happy, occupying his lap
while Max gave the occasional suffering sigh of neglect on the floor at his
feet. The kittens were having a ball, playing with each other and Max’s
twitching tail.

Perhaps it was a good thing this
storm had hit; he was getting a bit more done on the home front. Concern for
the animals, crops, and cement was momentarily forgotten. It was good to get
into this, if he kept it up he might be able to move in once the storm cleared
and the floors dried.

Power and heat were going to be a
pain; he had the equipment, but had so much to do it was impossible to get to
them right now. He knew it was important, but he had too many balls to juggle.
If the storm held into the next week he might be able to survey the first
hydroelectric sites.

The next morning the morning
progress report had him concerned. One of the GP’s was down, it had broken down
outside late in the evening. He looked outside as he took the last sip from his
coffee. It was still gloomy with clouds, but no rain. Taking a chance, he left
his weather gear behind to splash to the robot.

One look made him swear. Rocks
and concrete dripped from its wheels. On the side of its head were the numerals
zero nine, the robot that had delivered the bathroom package. Obviously in his
haste he had not considered the weight of the robot over the still curing
concrete driveway. He gave a long suffering sigh, and then ordered another
robot to tow the stuck one to the courtyard area.

It took a lot of work with a
crowbar, hammer, and chisel to get the wheels and tracked unstuck. He finished
just as the first dropped of rain began to fall once more. Glaring at the sky,
he gave a rumble of frustration.

He pushed the robot into the hall
area, and then dug through the boxes, spooking an armadillo into a hasty
retreat. He found a spare drive motor, and swore under his breath as he pulled
the burned out one out and bolted the new one in.

When the rain began to pour a
short time later he sighed and stretched. The robot repair was complete, it ran
a diagnostic, reported all was okay, then shut down until he could get it out
to the charging station.

The Andy robots had completed the
layout of the first floor; he was amazed at the progress. It only took a few
hours to go behind them, making connections to wire the bedrooms. Once the easy
rooms were done he went back and finished the laundry area. He would have to
wait to get a pallet for each of the other bathrooms.

He checked the animals, and then
took a lunch break, flipping through an electrical manual while he watched the
rain. A spider rat startled him; the thing had no fear approaching him. One of
the Mini-Me robots chased it off. He was going to have to do something more
about pest control. He watched an armadillo come in and began to root around in
the corner.

The rain began to slow; he hoped
he would catch a break... At least long enough for him to check things outside.
A wet crunch in the corner made him turn. The armadillo was tossing its head
back and forth, crunching away at a thrashing scorpion. “Well, you're okay,”
Mitch said. The armadillo finished its meal and wandered off. He turned to look
outside. The sun began to peek out of the skies, lightning his mood a little.

After an hour of periodic stops
to check the weather he gave up and went outside. The rain had stopped, but the
weather had not cleared totally. Off in the south west above the line of
mountains he could still see darkness. He decided to chance it, ordered the
GP’s to fetch the bathroom pallets for the five remaining ground floor
bathrooms, then the kitchen gear. He made sure to route the damn thing around
the courtyard this time.

He took the command Hummer out to
the fields, dodging around the occasional pothole. Mud and muck splattered the truck,
but he was only interested in getting out to see how things had held up.

He checked the combine, finding
it sunk into the soil a bit, but okay. The fields were still a bit wet, but he
could see the sprouts of plants still poking up. He hoped he didn’t lose a lot
of fertilizer or seeds in that mess.

It would be a while before he
could set up the synthesizer for ammonia with the liquid hydrogen, nitrogen,
and argon he was getting from the water and air compressors. Fortunately the
fields he had planted were thick with nitrates and nitrogen. Hopefully it would
be enough; the Terran plants were fertilizer hogs.

The fence had a few holes; a few
poles had come down or were leaning down. They had been driven into the ground
over a meter, but a few had crossed dry shallow gulley’s... Which were not dry
or shallow any more. Water gushed through them, heading to the river nearby.
Concrete footings would be needed, as well as drainage ditches. He made a note
in the log. The perimeter was secure; one of the Ed’s was splattered with mud.
He checked the log, apparently it had fallen. The diagnostics on the machine
were green though. He knew he would have to clean it up and do a manual check
as soon as possible. He logged that too.

He got back to base just as the first
drops of rain began to fall once more. Ducking between pallets, he managed to
outrun the rain. Scowling a bit, he dug in and got to work.

That evening the rain was slow.
More of a fine mist then a full rain. The bathrooms and kitchen were all set up;
all he needed was to pour floors now. It was almost tempting to move into his
bedroom suite, it was a pair of long chambers up a slopping corridor. He had
decided not to pour a floor there, the piping ran along the outer walls, or
hung from straps in the ceiling.

Walls were made out of aluminum
strutted which would be covered in water resistant drywall later. Much later.
He had to get everything sorted out first.

After a bit of wrestling he
decided to wait it out. It was silly to move in, and then get stuck out once he
poured the floors. Better to wait and do the move all at once.

The next morning he took Max, who
was hyper and leaping with joy to the caves during a break in the storm. He had
to check the dairy; it was reporting it was full. The cows were mud splattered,
but okay. The dairy not so much.

One corner had sunk down, tipping
it. He had a GP to bring him some rocks to prop it up. He tried to shift it,
couldn’t, so he ordered a donk over to lift the machinery. The GP slipped the
rocks under the corner, and then the donk set it down. He judged it wasn’t
perfect, but it would work for now.

The tanks were full, but the
instruments reported the milk was off. He checked by taking a look and whiff.
“Woo wee! Yeah. I’d say so.” He had the GP run a waste line and dumped the
batch. He still had a lot of milk, enough to last until the calves were born
hopefully.

In fact, since he was stuck
waiting for the next storm, he decided to run through as many of the outdoor
chores as he could get away with, then do make some dairy products when the
rains started.

He couldn’t do much more inside,
he needed to use the crane to lift gear to the second floor, and with the muck
in the courtyard he wasn’t going to chance it now.

He managed to get a lot done,
repairing a leaky greenhouse, repairing some of the bent over fencing, even
turned down the hydrogen maker to conserve power. With the wet weather he had
only the diesel generators, four hydro-electric generators, and seven wind
turbines to rely on for power. The solar farm was only giving him a trickle of
power.

He even managed to finally get
the awning up for the mobile home. That would shelter the door side of the
vehicle, allowing him to access the laundry machine on the outside without
getting wet. He tossed a load of laundry in, setting the washer and dryer then
let it rip while he stepped into the camper for lunch.

After lunch he glanced at the
sky, and then got down to the barn to check on things. The animals were pretty
morose, being kept up in pens while it poured out sucked. Max bounded around,
even peed on one of the stable panels, making him wince. “MAX! Take that
outside!” He groaned, knowing it was futile. Max was not a purebred; he had a
quarter wolf in his gene pool. At least he was doing it outside; the camper
would stink to high heaven if he had done it inside.

The first dropped of rain made
him glance outside. Sure enough, the next storm was starting up again. He
sighed and walked to the dairy area to get it going.

Three hours later the renate was
off and running, the butter churner was chugging away, and he had a vat of milk
being homogenized and pasteurized. He had even gotten the ice cream maker
going, deciding he needed a treat. Getting the vanilla extract and sugar had
been an interesting rain soaked trip to the mobile home, but he had gotten it
done. Eggs were easy; he just picked a couple out of the hen house.

Most of his eggs were going to
feed some of the animals, he just didn’t eat that much eggs. Breakfast was more
of a cereal thing for him; he just didn’t like a big meal early in the morning.
The cats and dogs loved it. He even boiled a few and fed them to the cheetah,
they had batted them around like a ball before chomping them down.

A marmoset would have been fun,
but one heck of a handful. He loved the cheetah, lithe grace and shiny coats,
but wasn’t sure how well they would adapt here. He would have to wait and see.

The rain broke that evening, it
was almost a shock, and the sudden stop woke him from his sleep. He checked
outside, it took a while for him to sort out that it was the lack of rain that
had woken him, not something wrong.

The next morning dawned bright
and sunny. He checked the horizon, and was pleased to see only scattering
clouds. Hopefully he could finally get back on track. He let Max out for his
morning run; pooper scooped the cat’s litter box, then dug his laundry out of
the machine and tossed it on the bed.

He took his time with the outdoor
chores, reveling in the light. He even let the animals out to their pastures.
The dogs frolicked, bouncing around and chasing one another before he called
them to order. The cheetahs were put into their outdoor enclosure, and then he
dug into work.

He sighed as he took a long look
at the garage driveway. It had a track from where the GP had trudged through
it. It wasn’t too bad, still better than soft dirt, but that area would have to
be smoothed over and cleaned up once the water dried. The garage floor was
okay; it only had a few ruts in it.

He called Max to him and checked
inside. The robots had completed the layout of the second and third floor. He
was reluctant to go beyond the marked out areas though. He decided to wait on
doing something; it would make for another great rainy day project.

Max found an armadillo; with a
soft woof he nudged it, and then tried to play. He pawed at it, whining and
cocking his head back and forth. The creature chattered in annoyance and instinctively
rolled into a ball. He watched in amusement as Max cocked his head back and
forth, and then pawed at it... Then rolled it around with his snout. When he
became disinterested and turned to leave the armadillo slowly peeked, and then
chittered. Max turned back with sudden interest, the armadillo’s head
disappeared. “You spoke to soon mate,” Mitch laughed, watching Max study the
balled up creature intently.