TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 19)
BargeHunters
of which there are thousands in use,
is 195 ft long and 35 ft wide, with a capacity of 1500 tons.
The newer ones are twice that large at 290ft long by 50ft wide and 3000 tons
Carlos Skirmish had the biggest and best built Levee among the farmers who had built Levees to survive. Those who hadn’t built levees hadn’t survived. It turned out not to have been big enough nor strong enough. It had almost cost him and his wife their lives. They no longer trusted the levee. They lived aboard a boat now. The two had moved in with their neighbor who had had the same thing happen to his family. Their levee had been hit by a barge in the night too. The Melton’s and the Skirmish’s were life long friends. The Meltons offered the Skirmish living quarters in their Antique Motor Yacht and stood watch while Carlos and Karlee healed. They both healed amazingly fast due to the nanites in their blood, but it was still going to take time. They had both suffered near terminal injuries. In the meantime they all discussed the situation with the other farmers in VR.
“So what do we do?” one of the white boys said. Weldon and Carlos’s were the only two black families in the group. The other’s were white. They teased each other about it all in good fun. They’d all known each other and had been good friends since childhood.
“I’m thinking about it” Weldon said.
“You know what we ought to do?” one of the little girls of one of the white families said.
“Shush girl” her mother said. “the adults are talking. Go play with your dolls.”
“Okay mommie. But my doll is moving into a barge! Come on Billy. Let’s find a barge” The little girl ran off to play with her baby brother.
Total silence.
“Out of the mouths of Babes” Karlee said in awe.
“And a white one at that.“ Sherry said.
They all had a good laugh. Then got down to business.
“You know. That’s a pretty good idea when you think about it” One of the white farmers said “those barges are pretty damn large. They’d probably hold my house, shop, garage, and have some room for a yard. LOTS of yard if it were to be stacked into multiple decks.”
Once again there was absolute silence.
“It might take two or three barges to hold all that, but we HAVE two or three barges available. Arnold you’re a genius” Weldon said “I could kiss you.”
“You will NOT!” Arnold was scandalized.
“Heh.” Weldon and Carlos played it for all it was worth. Arnold thought Carlos was TransFat or Trans something. He was mostly confused..
“So here’s what we’re gonna do. Bill you got that Bass boat with the fancy GPS and stuff?” Carlos asked.
Bill spoke up. “Yeah. I still got it.”
“Well use the GPS so you don’t get lost in the fog. Make sure you got plenty of batteries for it. Then you and some boys take lots of food and water. Go up river and find a likely barge. Try to find one that’s almost empty, but the bigger the better. Maybe you can find one of the new ones. Then sit on it. If you drift past us according to your GPS before I get back to you then bail out and we’ll try it again. I need to make a call to the ArchMage.” Weldon said.
“Gotcha, come on boys. Let’s go for a boat ride” Bill and his ‘boys’ (two were girls) went looking for a likely Barge.
Virtual Reality Call
Shelby : Hi ya Weldon, what can I do for you?
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Weldon: How do I go about getting the use of a bottom feeder?
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Shelby: If one’s free you can have it. Otherwise wait in line.
If it’s REALLY urgent I’ll make one for you.
You need one? What do you have in mind.
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Weldon: We’re going to salvage some barges and put our homes in them.
We’ll probably have to figure out a way to move the big bastards too.
And empty them out. You wouldn’t want some coal would you?
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Shelby: Hang on a minute.
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Shelby was momentarily away from the ‘phone’. Disgustingly enough it played ‘elevator music’ while he was gone. When he got back Weldon was almost sick.
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Weldon: Ewwwww.
That’s some really disgusting music.
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Shelby: Oh?
I was told it was good stuff.
I wouldn’t know. I’m tone deaf. I’ll change it. “
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Weldon: Good plan.
Anything but Rap.
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Shelby raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on that.
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Shelby: We just modified three big Manta’s for another project.
I put those projects on hold. You have priority.
I’ll have the Terrible Trio take them to you for a test run.
They’ll be at your complete disposal.
Might as well catch you some barges and move your houses into them while we’re at it.
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Weldon: That’s mighty nice of you.
That’s exactly what we had intended to do. Who’s the Terrible Trio?
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Shelby :Oh...Wilbur, Cody and...
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Weldon: and Carl?
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Shelby: Yeah Carl.
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Weldon : Oh. Well actually there’s no need to come over here.
Send them upriver. I’ve sent a guy ahead in a BassBoat. He’s BargeHunting.
I’ll call him and tell him to expect your call.
Give him a call when you get close and he’ll use his air-horn or
something to let Wilbur and them know where he is.
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Shelby: Works, Bye
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Weldon: Bye.
Wilbur said “Ooooooh. You got some big one’s didn’t you?”
“Heh. We did that.” Arnold grinned at the Manta Rider. That was pretty cool. “I reckon we got enough for everyone to have one too....or two.”
“ Or three, or four. Well let’s see what we can do” Wilbur said.
Arnold and his boys in the Bass Boat had found a coal tow. Lucky for them it was tangled up in a high voltage electric transmission line. The electricity had been shut off long ago but the wires made perfect barge traps.
Wilbur, Cody and Carl first attached anchor lines sufficient to hold the acres of barges from moving then anchored the lines down below. Then they conned their respective Manta’s under a big barge each. The barges were full of coal. Three thousand tons of it. They centered their respective manta’s on the very rear of the barge and attached like a Remora to a Shark. Then the manta whipped it’s long, LONG tail up, and out of the water and into the coal. At the end of the tail was a ‘coal mole’ attachment, grasping crawling legs , paws and a mouth. The paws moved it around and shoveled the coal into the mouth which led to a specially designed peristaltic pipe designed to move coal. The pipe moved the coal into the SmokeForge inside the Manta. The SmokeForge, industrial grade, went into overdrive making SmokeCrystal.
When large enough quantities of SCrystal accumulated it grew legs, crawled to a corner of the barge, upside down on the bottom of the barge underwater, clamped on tight and metamorphosed into a thruster. Soon the barge was independently mobile although slow. The barge then detached from the string and began a slow powered drift to where it needed to be. The manta continued to make SCrystal.
Upon reaching the ‘Island’ in question the barge moored against in nose first. The manta was at the stern and it wouldn’t do to crush it. SCrystal began to vaporize into SSmoke and the smoke began to move. It formed the substructure needed, on the barge and the Island, to support a very strong overhead crane. Then it formed the crane.
When all was ready and a sufficient quantify of SCrystal was on hand, wide straps began to descend from the over head crane to the structures below in question. The first to be moved was generally the house. People are strange that way. The straps lowered to the ground on either side of the house, then bored underground, and formed an octet truss platform beneath the building sufficiently strong to do the job.
Then Anchor’s Aweigh! Elevator top floor! They Raised the house up to the barge where the traveling crane positioned it right where they wanted it to be, lowered, secured it with SCrystal released it and went back for the garage. (or the barn or the shop or a few machines......whatever.)
Unseen and uncared by anyone, the Manta’s continued to gather coal, any coal that they didn’t need for SSmoke right then was turned to SCrystal , loaded onto fast-mantas that just happened to be on hand and sent scooting back to Shelby. Shelby had a supply chain from three projects rolling in.
A LOT can be held on a fifty by two hundred foot barge. Especially with the aid of SSmoke. They had as many barges as they needed. The work went like clock work. When one place was done the Manta went back to the barge string and got another. It left a ‘clean up Fluffy’ behind to totally clean the barge. The moving crew continued to work until every farmer’s island holdings had been transferred to big barges except for one.
Carlos Skirmish’s place. His Levee had had flooded. It was likely to be the hardest so they’d saved it for last. Wilbur, Cody and Carl had the accumulated experience of moving ALL of the previous houses. Working underwater shouldn’t be that much harder.
It wasn’t. They used, what else, SSmoke to repair the house and hold it together. The extraction went like clockwork once again. Drones don’t care if they’re working in water or air. Shortly the job was done.
Carlos and Karlee flew their “wheelChairs” forward to thank Carl. He had been the operator who had saved their home. Carl stepped forward, shook Carlos’s hand, then turned to shake Karlee’s as well.
When she touched him he collapsed.