The cast met the next day to examine priorities and schedules, with Kira leading the discussion. “Let’s begin with Bill laying out requirements.”
Bill said, “We’ll get a leg up by doing as many tasks in parallel as possible. So I need all the help you can give in setting up and testing equipment.”
She scoffed. “You’ll get it.”
Bill continued. “When the fish-food bioreactor is operational, we’ll have food for the tilapia in about a week. We should thaw the eggs now, while we rig tanks for the fry. I also brought cyanobacteria. Those darlings eat carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen, like plants do, but they grow in tanks like fish. They also fix nitrogen from the air, so they create fertilizer for plants. But they all need tanks with dedicated heaters. And all this requires water - quite a bit.”
“Antwon said, “So we need more mechanical setups for all this, and more power?”
“Yep. Ain’t that a bitch?”
Siggy said, “Damn, Bill. You’re going to need the sorcerer’s apprentice to do all this at the same time.”
Bill thought of a broomstick carrying a water pail. “That would be something.”
Kira said, “We’ll give you all the power you need. I’ll make a schedule for the tasks and send that around for comment.”
A week into their frenzy of work, Kira called them together to deliver bad news. “Guys, the near-term weather forecast isn’t good. A dust storm is likely within the next three days. We don’t know how long it will last - maybe less than a week if we’re lucky.” Staci said, “Sounds like a good time to hash out scenes for podcasts and edit what we’ve got.”
Bill replied, “Scene building? Really? We can’t use that time to continue construction and testing?”
Kira said, “Not unless you want to sleep in a cold shack on a hard, frigid floor. The storm restricts our mobility. Anything that operates outside gets dusted, big time, which is rough on equipment. We retreat to our quarters and hunker down until it passes. And I needn’t add, with no solar, there is only power for urgent requirements, like drinking water, oxygen, and heat.”
Bill asked, “But what about the methanol burners?”
Kira replied, “Good thinking, but they make carbon dioxide, so we don’t use them indoors. We don’t have the time and equipment to construct venting arrangements we want to bet our lives on. Besides, we need those to keep our batteries charged so we don’t freeze or run out of oxygen.”
Siggy added, “I’m grateful we didn’t have one of these storms before the methanol reactor was online. I don’t know how we would have coped.”
Bill was visibly perturbed. “Damn, Siggy, you were right. I regret this already.”
“I know. We didn’t really come here to be entertainers, did we? But the show is a necessary evil. Hey, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it. That’s why it’s called a challenge, right? Only arrogant assholes like you and I are stupid enough to do this. Look on the bright side. When the storm clears, we’ll have empty barrels to hold more methanol.”