Ascent of the Aliomenti (24 page)

“We need a way to make the collection system automated,” Will noted. “And we need to get the source water high enough above the city base that it can drop into our purification system and flow through our aqueducts. How do we do that? We could probably do something with gears and a hand crank, but we don’t have an Ealdor River here to provide a steady source of power. There’s nothing we can capture here that we can rely on, nothing that moves all the time like the river.”

Elise raised her hand. “What about wind, Will? The winds here are strong, and pretty constant. I’ve felt myself pushed by the wind more than once. Could we use wind to turn a wheel like we use the Ealdor River?”

Will stared at her. “Elise, that’s
brilliant!”

The wind had been a source of complaint since they’d arrived on the desolate island. The constant movement of the ocean tides triggered brisk winds that often made it difficult to keep one’s balance. More than one person had suggested that the city in the air would need small perimeter walls to ensure that none of the residents plunged to their death after a strong gust of wind drove them off the platform.

In this circumstance, one problem came with the seeds of the solution to another.

Will had Elise, James, and David work on building a wind capturing device. “If we’re lucky, we can have it work somewhat like the water wheels back home,” James mused. “That means everything else we build – all of the gears, for instance – will work just as it did in the original village.”

“And if not,” Elise replied, “we’ll make something that works with what we’re able to capture.”

Will and Wayne focused their design and construction efforts on creating the water delivery system. This critical system would capture water from the lake and raise it to the elevated city, where it would enter the water-purification system.

“I’d like to figure out how to make this system adjust to the height of the water we’re using as our source,” Will told them. “If we don’t, we’ll have cases where the water is forty feet
below
the city, and some where it’s
level
with the city. I’d rather not have to build several of these and switch between them depending on the height of the water.”

They discussed the best mechanisms for raising water, for regardless of the flood conditions, they’d need to raise water at least twenty feet for deposit into the purification system. They envisioned a system using a band much like they’d fashioned to transfer the power of above-ground water wheels to below-ground gears. Instead of turning gears, this band would have buckets attached to the exterior. As the wheels turned and moved the band, the buckets would scoop water, and the band would lift the buckets up and over the top wheel to fall into a waiting water collector.

They used a rope to form the connecting band in an early prototype, but problems became apparent immediately. “The buckets of water are
heavy
,” said Daniel, one of the carpenters working with Will. “Lifting one isn’t a huge problem, but lifting
dozens
? I’m afraid the rope is going to snap due to the weight. And if the rope gets wet, well, then it’ll snap even faster.”

Will turned to Wayne, the wagon maker. “Didn’t you work with some of the tanners back at the old village? How strong is leather? Can we use something fashioned of leather to lift a large number of buckets full of water?”

Wayne shook his head. “I think Daniel’s point still holds, Will. It would be stronger than rope, true, but the water would ruin it in time. And even though it’s stronger than rope, it’s still not strong enough to lift that much weight. We need something much, much stronger.”

“Right,” Will said. “We need something made of metal.”

“Won’t metal rust, though?” Wayne asked. “Sure, it’s strong, but if it rusts through we’re still left with the problem of our band breaking.”

“Possibly,” Will admitted. “We’ll need to ask our metal workers about that. Let’s mock our system up with rope for now and see what they can come up with. It’s going to have to work much as a rope would, which means that our design should still apply.”

They used thick rope and a pair of smaller wheels that Wayne put together for testing, mounting the upper wheel on posts fifteen feet in the air above the water. When Wayne asked how they’d get the wheel and rope up there, Will used Energy to float himself, along with the wheel and rope, to the top of the support posts and complete the task.

Wayne was amazed. “I’ve never seen anyone do that before. How... how can you... ?”

“Keep practicing, Wayne,” Will replied, clapping the man on the shoulder. “Keep building your Energy. Soon enough, you’ll see something like floating a few feet off the ground as nothing to be excited about. You’ll get there.”

Wayne nodded, though he looked doubtful. Wayne had long struggled to build his Energy. Most others who had joined the Aliomenti with him, and who had taken their morange and zirple allocations at the same time, had by now progressed enough to perform tasks like basic levitation. Some had even started short-range teleportation. Wayne, though, still struggled with basic telekinesis, a basic Energy skill. No other Aliomenti were able to make wheels and other wood products with curved elements as well as he could, though. Will knew that Wayne felt inferior to his fellow Aliomenti, for though he tried to look excited and inspired by the progress of the others, he was unable to hide the pain in his eyes or emotions at the realization he was being left behind.

The two men attached a pair of buckets to the rope, and turned the lower wheel with a crank to see how the buckets would move as they rounded the two wheels. When a bucket hit the upper wheel, it would fly over the top, splashing the water to the side before flipping clumsily over the wheel.

“This isn’t going to work,” Wayne said, scowling. “The cranking mechanism isn’t smooth, and the bucket is going horizontal too soon. The water is going to completely miss the aqueduct because it will spill out before the bucket turns upside down.”

“Right,” Will said, grimacing. “The trick is to figure out why it works on the original Wheel, but not here.”

“It works on the original Wheel because the buckets are built into the Wheel,” Wayne said. “It’s impossible for the Wheel to turn without actually moving the buckets. And the buckets are angled.”

Will grimaced. Would they need to build a new wheel large enough to collect water from the lake and lift it to the elevated city? And even if they could build such a massive structure, what force could possibly turn it?

“What we need to do,” Wayne murmured, “is build the band so that it’s basically a chain of buckets...” His eyes seemed to light up, lit by the fires of inspiration.

Will was intrigued by the statement. “Show me.” He found a stick and handed it to Wayne, motioning for the wagon maker to demonstrate his idea in the dirt.

“Well,” Wayne replied, suddenly hesitant. “I’m not really sure it will work, so maybe...”

“Wayne,” Will said, “nobody’s ever done this before. We don’t know if something will work until we try it. You may have the answer in your head right now, so it’s best if you draw the picture. Drawing it may trigger a different answer from either of us. We’ll keep adapting it until we get it right. But we have to start somewhere.”

Wayne nodded, still cautious. “What I’m thinking is that we build panels that fit together, and the outside of the panel is the bucket.” He seemed to find inspiration as he drew and explained. “We build a lot of wheels that fit together like gears, and we position them so that the panels get passed up the whole length with the teeth.”

Will grinned. “I love that! Let’s try it!”

Wayne shook his head. “We can’t try it yet, Will. See, the wheels will turn, but each gear goes in the opposite direction of the previous one. So every other wheel would push the panel
down
, rather than pull it
up
. The gears would work against themselves.”

Will thought about that. “But don’t we need to pull those panels
down
as much as push them
up
? Pulling down on one side is helping lift everything on the other.”

Wayne’s eyes widened. “If we space them correctly, so that the teeth only extend out to the panels on the correct side, and make the panels large enough.... yes, those gears will pull and push at the same time.”

“Let’s give it a shot,” Will said.

Wayne looked up. “It’s getting dark. How about we get started first thing in the morning?”

“Sounds like a great idea,” Will said, yawning. “This is going to work, Wayne, and everyone’s going to thank you for it.”

Wayne’s smile was genuine. It was the first time he felt he’d contributed to the community.

XIX

Water

1035 A.D.

The sun rose, casting shadows through the few trees on the island. Clouds provided minimal cover against the warm summer rays, only just preventing the island from baking under the intense heat.

Will stretched and rose from the small reed mat they’d all woven for themselves. The reeds washed up on the shore, and they’d collected them early on to weave into makeshift blankets and sleeping mats. Will used extra clothing he had for a pillow. Since it was summer, and the weather here noticeably warmer than it was back at the first village, it was a comfortable way to sleep.

The small huts were meant to be temporary. None of them wanted to be sleeping in the valley when the first storm drove the sea over the island, and they’d agreed that making the huts too comfortable might dissuade them from working as hard as they otherwise might to finish their permanent residences. The construction and creative efforts were to be focused on the completion of the megalithic concrete city in the sky.

After eating a morning meal, Will and Wayne began working on the design Wayne envisioned the day before. “I think the panels you envisioned can be thought of as hinges,” Will said. “That’s what they are, really. We can make teeth on the outside of the gear wheels specifically to fit into the gaps between the hinge panels. But I’m still worried about the size of them. They’ll break as they round the wheels at the top or the bottom.”

Wayne nodded, grinning. “I had the same thought, Will. And I think the problem is that we were thinking in the wrong direction. We don’t want to make the panels
bigger.
We want to make the panels
smaller
.”

Will blinked a few times. “Come again?”

“You’re exactly right, Will. If we make those panels, say, ten feet tall, they’ll bend and snap when they round the wheels at the top or the bottom. In addition, the direction of the water pour at the top would be unpredictable. So... we make them
smaller
. Maybe a couple of gear teeth tall each. The gears can be much, much smaller this way as well.”

Will considered this, and then realized what Wayne was proposing. It was the equivalent of the chains used to pull roller coaster cars up the hills at the beginning of the ride. The individual links could easily bend around the wheel at the top and return back to where they’d started. In their case, the links wouldn’t pull wheeled vehicles up a large hill and then return to the ground empty. Instead, they’d attach buckets every few panels to scoop up water from the source.

“We can add buckets as needed this way.”

“Exactly.”

“The panels can actually extend off to one side which will make pouring the water into the aqueduct much simpler.”

“Agreed.”

“And we probably don’t need to worry so much about the water over the top. The gears, the buckets, they’ll all be so small that there won’t be as much weight.”

“Exactly.”

“It’ll be a huge number of very small buckets, moving a small amount of water each, but at a high rate of speed.”

“Whoa, wait just a moment,” Wayne said. “Why a high rate of speed?”

“To get a steady stream of water, we need to dump it into the initial aqueduct at the very highest point as smoothly as possible. That’s what we had with the water wheels back home. Here in Atlantis, though, we don’t have wheels continuously dumping water into our aqueducts, because it’s more difficult to obtain the water. We’re getting a smaller quantity of water with each scoop. That means we have to dump those scoops out more quickly, which means...”

“Which means that we need to move the entire system more quickly,” Wayne finished, frowning. “That brings up my next concern. I think we can build this up a bit at a time, add each new gear and then add additional small panels and buckets as needed. But... how are we going to turn the top wheel? It’s going to take a huge amount of force to get that many gears to turn at once.”

“Whatever it is, it needs to be up there,” Will said, pointing at the pyramid. “It can’t be down here. The water might very well topple the entire gear turning mechanism, and then we have a problem. If it’s up there, we can reach it and fix it if needed.”

“I need to see what it looks like from up there,” Wayne said. “Perhaps James and Elise have ideas about how to use wind to turn the gears.”

Will nodded. “Ready?”

Wayne took a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s go.”