Authors: Christian Cantrell
Arik replied to Cam's message:
"I'll come there. Leaving now."
When Arik stepped off the maglev in front of the Infrastructure Department, Cam was waiting for him on the platform.
"Welcome to the Wrench Pod," he said. Although the two of them had known each other their entire lives, it seemed appropriate to shake hands. Cam was grinning, clearly excited about showing Arik something he had never seen before, and maybe even teaching his friend a thing or two. Arik had been past the entrance to the Wrench Pod hundreds of times on the maglev, but he'd never had the opportunity to go inside.
"Sorry I'm a few months late."
"No worries. Stemstock never spoils. Cadie couldn't come?"
"You two see each other all the time. I thought we could leave the wives behind today."
"Perfect. Zaire has inventory duty so we probably couldn't find her even if we tried."
The entrance to the Wrench Pod was just off the maglev platform. It was a gaping archway designed to make it easy to move large pieces of equipment from the workshop to the maglev, then on to wherever it needed to be installed. This might have made sense during the early years of construction, but at this point, they'd built so many narrow passageways and installed so many prefabricated doors that they now had to build almost everything in small individual components and assemble them in place.
"When does the tour start?"
"Let's do it before lunch to give the break room time to empty out."
The Wrench Pod was much bigger and busier than Arik expected. There were probably over 100 people bent over various workbench configurations using every form of saw, electron laser, press, and pneumatic tool against sheets of steel, slabs of plastic, and cylindrical pieces of duct work. There were sheets of polymeth embedded vertically in tracks in the floor, bright and alive with rotating diagrams and schematics. Arik looked up and saw a complex network of catwalks overhead which provided access to pulley systems and motorized lifts. Cam led Arik along the perimeter of the room where they wouldn't be in the way. He had to raise his voice to be heard above the cacophony.
"The Wrench Pod is divided up into three main sections. This is the shop where most of the action happens. There's also the warehouse where Zaire probably is right now, and the dock where I usually work."
"What do they have you doing these days?"
"Still repairing rovers. But everyone is required to specialize in at least two areas, so I'm also learning welding."
"Welding? What's to learn? Don't you just melt two things together?"
Arik didn't know anything about welding, but he knew enough about soldering to know that welding was probably surprisingly complicated and intricate.
"It's about as easy as growing a fern," Cam said. Even best friends weren't immune to the rivalry between pods. "Actually, I've come to think of welding as the ultimate craft. The concept is as simple as it gets: you want to take two things, and join them into one. But to do it right, you have to know chemistry, physics, a little engineering, and you have to have very good dexterity. Besides, because of you, we have to use all the most difficult welding techniques."
"Me?"
"We're not allowed to do oxyacetylene welding since it burns too much oxygen. So because you guys can't keep up with demand, I have to learn resistance, ultrasonic, and plasma welding."
"Now do you see why I never leave work? Everywhere I go people complain there isn't enough oxygen. If you want more oxygen, go live on Earth."
"But then I wouldn't be the 'Pinnacle of Human Achievement' anymore, would I?"
The opening into the warehouse was another massive archway. They entered from the edge and ducked beneath the slope. It was much quieter once they got a few meters inside, and it was also much darker due to the sheer immensity of the room, and the massive racks that prevented a large percentage of the light from reaching the floor.
"The Public Pod was the first warehouse in V1," Cam said. "You can see why they had to build a new one."
"I can't even see where it ends. How much stuff is in here?"
"There's at least one of every single thing that went in to building V1 in this room with the exception of computer equipment, nuclear reactor parts, and a few custom-built components."
"How can you possibly find anything?"
"That's why we constantly have someone maintaining a running inventory."
"How much of V1 do you think you could rebuild with this stuff?"
"Probably twenty percent. About half of all this will go into maintenance, repairs, and reconfigurations, and the other half is for expansion. One of these days, we may even start building V2, assuming you guys can figure out how to fill it with air."
They began walking perpendicular to the first row of shelves so Arik could see down the massive aisles. Cam motioned toward the indiscernible rear of the warehouse.
"In the back, we have several hundred tons of steel, a little concrete, probably 100 prefab doors, a few kilometers worth of maglev rail, and somewhere between 500 and a 1,000 slabs of raw polymeth."
"Do you guys do the polymerization yourselves?"
"As far as I know, all the polymeth we have came from Earth. I know we can make nonconductive polymeth if we have to, but we don't have the technology to make the conductive stuff." Cam pointed down an aisle that came into view as they walked. "Down there is all the flexible PVC and duct material. Past that is vacuum plumbing, pumps, valves, and purifiers. All those little bins contain every conceivable screw, bolt, nut, washer, pin, and clip you could possibly imagine, though it takes about an hour to find what you're looking for because nobody puts anything back where it belongs. All this is electric and lighting. That stuff stacked over there is fiber and urethane insulation, and all that is old composite insulation that needs to be moved outside since we can't use it anymore. These crates contain a couple thousand tubes of butyl, silicone, and various types of adhesive, and all those spools on that wall hold pulse optical cabling."
"What happened over there?"
"That used to be a stack of about 10,000 carbon rubber tiles — the things that turn everyone's feet black — until someone backed into it. Nobody will own up to it, though, so everyone refuses to re-stack them."
"Where do you store things like furniture? Cadie told me to look for a new bedroom set."
"We custom mold almost all furniture as it's needed so we don't have to store it. That's one of the things Zaire is learning to do." Cam noticed two black plastic bundles on a low shelf. "Here's some inside information for you. Whatever you do, don't break your toilet. We only have two spares for all of V1 right now. There were three here yesterday, but it looks like someone stashed one."
"You guys are a bunch of misfits."
"Are you saying we're not as civilized as a bunch of chemists and botanists?"
"Is the dock close by? I have to get back soon, but I want to see it before we eat."
"Yeah, it's back this way."
Cam ducked through a door in the rear of the warehouse, and Arik followed him back out into the din of the shop. They walked along the back wall, and Cam turned his head and talked over his shoulder.
"So how do you like working with Cadie?"
"It's good. We haven't had a chance to collaborate much yet because we've mostly been doing research, but we spend so much time at work, it's nice being able to see each other occasionally. What about you and Zaire?"
"Eh. Let's just say that Zaire is no Cadie."
"What do you mean?"
"I love that woman dearly, but she's not exactly the easygoing type. I'll tell you at lunch. I don't know where she is right now and if she hears me complaining, she'll kill me."
"Where are we going to eat?"
"The break room. It's next to the dock."
"You guys are supposed to have the best stemstock in V1."
"I doubt it's the best, but I can guarantee we have the most. You should see these people eat."
They stepped through a small archway into the dock. The left side of the room was lined with wire mesh lockers, most of which contained limp and grimy environment suits. There was an equal number of helmets strewn across the tops of the lockers, mostly on their sides. The right side of the dock was a small parking lot with three small robotic rovers in the corner, and three full sized manual rovers beside them, all tethered to the wall by thick black cords. Beside the last rover was a small trailer with its magnetic hitch pointed out into the room. The back wall was lined with mesh shelves containing various types of tools. Arik could see picks and shovels, jackhammers, pneumatic tampers, and what looked like the components of a small pile driving rig. The floor was a giant grid of metal grate tiles that resonated with each step.
"This is where I spend most of my time," Cam said. "And
those
are my babies." He pointed to the rovers. "The big ones are Anna, Betty, and Clara, and the little ones are Malyshka, Kudryavka, and Zhuchka. Obviously they were built by different engineers."
"Evidently. What do they do?"
"The little ones are mostly used for inspections and very simple repairs. They have camera booms and the six arms in front can be outfitted with just about any kind of tool you want. They can be controlled from any workspace anywhere in V1, and they can even function somewhat autonomously, though I've seen them do some pretty stupid things. The big ones are man-op only. They're mostly used for hauling supplies and personnel around the perimeter of V1, usually when we're too lazy to walk."
"Are they hard to operate?"
"The little ones can be tricky, but the big ones are easy. The stick on the left controls the two left wheels, and the stick on the right controls the right wheels. Push both forward to go forward, pull both back to go backwards, and move them in opposite directions to rotate."
"What's the range on them?"
"Probably a hundred kilometers or so, but they never go more than maybe five kilometers in the course of a day."
"How far have you taken them out?"
"Not very far. There's no reason to go any more than a few meters from the perimeter of V1 unless you're going to the ERP which I'm not allowed to do. Why, are you planning on running away?"
"I'm just wondering how brave you are."
"I'm plenty brave, I'm just not stupid. I know the guy who maintains these things."
Arik was startled by the sudden hiss of rapidly equalizing pressure. He turned and saw a man in an environment suit step into the room through a set of wide steel doors. The man took a deep breath and blew it out as he removed his helmet, and Arik could see that his long gray hair was damp with sweat. His arm reached around behind him and came back with slender hexagonal tube about 50 centimeters long. He stacked it on top of several identical tubes on the left side of the door, and Arik noticed that there was a similar stack on the opposite side. The man stomped his feet as he walked over to an empty locker. The purpose of the mesh floor, Arik realized, was to catch and contain the dirt from boot treads and rover tires.
"That's obviously the main airlock," Cam said. "All the functional e-suits are over against that wall. They're pretty much once-size-fits-none. You're supposed to do an integrity test on your suit every time you come in, and clean and disinfect the inside of your helmet, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone do either."
They watched the man shove his gloves down in his helmet, then toss the whole thing up on top of the lockers. He groped for something inside the metal ring of his collar, then pulled the suit apart down the front and began peeling it away. He sat down on a bench so he could get his feet out of the integrated boots, then hung the suit on a hook by its stiff metal collar. On his way out of the dock, he took a bottle from a shelf and doused himself with water.
"See?"
"They don't look as well cared for as the rovers."
"They're pretty much indestructible, so nobody worries about them. They're made out of seven alternating layers of some kind of ballistic composite fiber material and all the seams are welded so they can't tear. It would pretty much take a laser to cut through them. The helmets are made out of a hardened glass fiber composite which is supposedly shatterproof. I've seen guys drop their helmets on the metal floor while getting them down, pick them up, put them on, and stroll right out the airlock without a second thought."
"Has anyone ever gotten hurt out there?"
"Not that I know of. Statistically, working in the warehouse or the shop are both far more dangerous than working outside."
Arik walked over to the lockers to get a closer look at the suits.
"Are these things easy to use?"
"They're completely automated. The hardest part is finding one that fits you. Once you get into one, all you have to do is seal up the front, make sure your gloves and helmet are latched, and throw a fresh cartridge in the back. The suit won't activate unless everything is threaded and sealed properly. The cartridges provide both your air and your power, so that's all you need. You can even hot-swap them while you're outside, but I wouldn't recommend it — at least not without a buddy nearby in case something goes wrong."
"Are those the charged cartridges on that side?"
"Spent cartridges on the left, charged on the right. Heaven forbid someone put up a sign or something. Every night someone takes all the spent cartridges and puts them in this huge wall unit we call
the hive
to charge them, and every morning someone stacks them all back up."
"How does the airlock work?"
"I don't think anyone actually knows. It's completely automated. The inner and outer doors are physically linked under the floor so it's impossible for them to both be open at the same time. The computer in the airlock can tell how many people are inside, and it won't open the outer doors until the number of people it detects and the number of activated suits are the same. All you have to do is push a button and the computer takes care of the rest. It even does any necessary decontamination on the way back in."