'City of Fresno'

[jemhouston]

Good childhood for this time.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #26

After an indifferent but welcome lunch, I spent the afternoon trawling Fresno's library for anything related to iceteroid gleaning. There wasn't much. Beyond a few homesteaders or explorers needing to 'top-up' supplies, the business was thoroughly industrial. A rock-tug would run the relevant scans. Its 'expert system' would identify appropriate sites. Cross-checked parameters would go to the nav-system and twin ice-slicer turrets. Cut free, then to length, each polygonal cryogenic prism would be optimally sized to slide down the gorge of a collection tank, ready to be hauled away for processing...

Anne-Marie returned just before we were called for dinner. She'd really enjoyed her tour, had agreed to trade sundry cultivars with the crew's 'Ponics. A lot of her 'small stuff' that was, as yet, too specialised for our Berthing drums' facilities would be very welcome in crew and rock-tug 'kitchen gardens'. Also, vice-versa as, given our numbers, extending some of their tasty plantings would better suit our Berthing drums...

But, not just yet, as there was insufficient water to open more than our first lines. Yes, the two Berthing drums' HVAC's reduced humidity setting was harvesting our body-moisture, but so very slowly.

That evening, we received an invitation to visit rock-tug 'Cwm Fawr' the following day. The craft that would ferry me to an iceteroid and catch my gleanings, this was also the one with the 'family zoo'. As access was more complicated than just hiking our Berthing drum's forward leg to the flange, then to the crew-drum's central docking port, we'd get a guide.

Ms. Betrys Jones showed up just after breakfast. Elfin-slight, perhaps a dozen years of age, with intelligent brown eyes and cropped dark hair, she was utterly at ease in her Spacer skin-suit, opened pressure helmet, quilted over-all and laden tool-vest. She swept our cabin with an educated gaze, was astonished to discover it was a 'double', delighted to be shown my half-uncrated 'Big Mac' and Anne-Marie's range of cultivars. Clearly, there'd be much further discussion of both but, for now, time to go.

Anne-Marie always seemed to move with a dancer's grace. I was equally comfortable in raised, standard, low, variable, spun and/or zero 'gee'. However, on our way down our spin-drum end's 'leg' to its busy 'flange' and the spines' 'turbo-lifts', young Ms. Betrys made us both feel like clumsy ground-pounders. Nimble as a barn-cat, she was a hard act to follow. The 'people' space of a flange's hexagon was necessarily complicated by the many service areas and ducts tucked or threaded between legs' and spines' pass-through mega-framing. And, of course, we were headed for one of the further spines, 120º around...

A 'City-Class' star-ship, Fresno was built big. Still, the vastness of space masked scale until you realised how huge each triangulated spinal truss-section actually was. A theatrical or work-site truss had tubular longerons you could grab with one hand or hold with two. Fresno's were rather larger, akin to a subway's bore. I vaguely remembered they'd been copied from a Pre-Burn oil-rig platform's jack-up legs. Their turbo-lift 'cars' were a cross between shuttle-craft and rail-bus. Ours, configured for mixed-use, had accommodation for people with bulky baggage such as flight-crates, which I'd need for 'Big Mac'. Others were pure people-movers, ranging from 'mini-cab' to 'air-bus' or, like an air-truck, hauled palletised 'atmospheric' cargo. Open 'Flat Bed' wagons could ferry vacuum-tolerant loads, such as frame TEUs and modular tankage. There were some 'crew-cabs' about, technically semi-captive / multi-modal 'Local' work-pods, but I reckoned they'd live near the Crew drum and the centre Power Section, ready to ferry Techs and 'Damage Control' teams.

[jemhouston]

Interesting design

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #27

Ms. Betrys set our destination. Sundry hatches sealed, the 'car' switched from our 'platform' to the 'down' line, departed aft-wards at ¼ 'gee'. Anne-Marie and I watched the passing zones' CCTV avidly as 'shaft' and 'flange' sections alternated. Fresno had been extended for our 'Last Call' run. Aft of the bulging central 'Power Section', an added flange provided ample legs for the round-trip's extra tankage, now some-what depleted. We were not going that far. Ahead of the 'Power Section' and its adjacent open 'cargo' sections, another added flange meant multiple Evac modules could book-end our Berthing spin-drums to hasten boarding. The 'regular' cargo holds, including those with sundry shuttles, were docked ahead of, or flanking the crew's spin-drum.

Rock-tugs 'Cwm Fawr' and 'Cooberra' were neighbours on adjacent flange 'legs' in an open 'cargo' section, with the three 'collection tanks' between legs' 25 metre (nominal) ports, then the tugs and their habs at 100 metres. Their masses were mostly offset by, on the third legs' 50 and 100 metre ports, both pods of 'Gifts & Goodies' that didn't reach Chaparral. Yes, the tugs could have landed them, but there was no way to get pods or contents 'under-cover' or shielded before Ember's nova storm-front arrived. I'd heard from the laundry gossip that a team from each berthing drum was working through those pods' 'Bills of Lading'. Sadly, the tally seemed a near-random mix of gifts from friends, extended family, well-wishers and prior evacuees. A lot were apparently labelled, 'Do Not Open Until...' as seasonal / anniversary gifts. As yet, there was not 'much' or 'many' of anything. Intended to entertain, amuse and, hopefully, delight bored occupants of the tepuis' fully-equipped deep shelters, there was scant match to Fresno's 'Deep Space' situation.

The 'car' slowed, entered our destination flange, switched to a platform. After our habitual check for atmospheric integrity, Ms. Betrys led the way to the nearest leg. A cheerful team of 'Junior' children, up to adolescent, were using the first part of the corridor for something resembling cricket. Given the environment, they had a 'soft-ball', glancing strikes off the bulkheads like 'Real Tennis'. Politely, they suspended play for us to pass. A gleeful group of pre-schoolers had claimed the second part as a zero-g gym, were hurtling between taut-lines, wall-nets, roo-balls and trampettes. They yelled greetings...

Anne-Marie and I exchanged thoughtful glances. All evacuees with young 'dependents' had fled Chaparral on earlier ships, Tulsa taking the very last. And, given the circumstances, our adult M/F ratio had become severely skewed, probably 3:1, with most of the latter already couples. Excluding our two 'Ponics students, these rock-tugs' family crews had Fresno's only youngsters and sub-adults. I reckoned it might be four or five years, perhaps a decade, before our limited logistics could support much population growth, never mind a baby-boom. Upside, given the 'Rule of Thumb' that it takes at least a village to raise a child well, if you considered each tug's crew as a farmstead or hamlet, they would be two thriving communities close to a 'market town' straddling a navigable river...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #28

Anne-Marie and I were greeted effusively by 'Cwm Fawr' co-owners Olwyn and Davyd Jones, Gwen and Huw Evans, then visiting 'Cooberra' co-owners Sheila and Bruce Morgan, Kate and Keith Collins. I'd enough 'Small Welsh' from my childhood for the former. Recognising the latters' Antipodean accent from my parents' Tibesti colleagues, I enquired, "G'day ! How ya goin' ?"

With ice broken, and Anne-Marie further charming every-one with her looks and manners --As usual, visibly setting several to silently wonder, 'HTF did *He* catch *Her* ??'-- we were invited aboard. As usual, the crew-hab was extensively customised. Though a spin-drum's essential 'partial-g' replaced umpteen daily hours of zero-g exercise and most 'osteo' meds, length varied. Some habs put heavy emphasis on zero-g capacity for pod-docks, maintenance and/or spares machining, others on 'spun' space. 'Cwm Fawr' definitely leaned to the latter. The central part of its 100 metre length, including end-caps, held a contra-rotating pair of 25 metre spin-drums. We entered via the hab's rather cramped 'Forward' un-spun admin area, the 'Aft' being used for work-shop, pod-docking and more storage. I was rather surprised to notice two full work-pod style cockpits, plus the distinctive, hull-mounted shapes of work-pod 'Field Poles' and the backs of two pop-up turrets, both much larger than the laser turrets found on medium and larger shuttles. "Ice-slicers ??"

"Yes and no..." Davyd Jones confirmed my surmise with a cheerful wave. "Hab has enough work-pod 'Field Poles' to get around on its own, plus we use them for training. But those are just laser-turrets. Had to disconnect their old ice-slicer 'Pump Poles', as they just would not synchronise with our hab's main 'Fields'..."

"Huh ?" That was very odd, as Rock Tugs, like Fresno, shuttles, work-pods and even my 'Big Mac', used multiple 'Field Poles' working in tandem. In addition to the very big 'Main' set in the bulging 'Power Section', Fresno had an 'Auxiliary' set in each flange for 'load balancing'. A general-purpose hauler such as 'Cwm Fawr' had at least ten hefty modules, typically one near each end of each 'longeron'. A '3G' tug would have an additional mid-line set, making fifteen. Synchronised, phased by fibre-optic runs, their 'setting-up' was akin to 'swinging the compass' on a surface ship: A tedious, meticulous business. Thrice so in 3D, much more so to balance enough for 'Blip' FTL AKA 'Pulse Drive' hops, but essentially straight-forward. Yes, incorporating each ice-slicer turrets' 'Pump Pole' effects would take further finesse, yet even that wasn't a difficult process. At least, it should not be. So, what was missing ? "Hmm..."

"I don't suppose you..."

I shook my head. "Sorry, not my scene. I prefer to wrangle 'Fields', lasers and 'Blasters' 'By the Book'. Have you asked if any of Fresno's few 'Field Engineers' have the 'Magic Touch' ?"

"None in this league, Boyo ! Even looking at these or Cooberra's is far, far down on their 'To-Do' list." Davyd shrugged, added, "Getting, keeping Fresno FTL-worthy is their top ten priorities, we'll not dispute that..."

"I... I have some, um, 'enhanced' diagnostic and configuration routines. 'Rock Hopper' stuff. I could send you a list ?"

"That would be right neighbourly," Olwyn replied. "Right neighbourly ! Now, come through for a pot of tea and some Rarebit."

[jemhouston]

Making friends where every they go.

[Belushi TD]

In a situation like they are in, anyone who exhibits the social traits that they do will make friends with the majority of people.

1. Don't complain about stuff that can't be fixed.
2. Offer helpful suggestions about stuff that CAN be fixed.
3. Pull their own weight.
4. Don't respond to obnoxious behavior by others.

That's a good way to get along pretty much anywhere, any time.

Belushi TD

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #29

The steaming tea, the freshly baked bread, the dripping 'cheese' --Vegetarian, but delicious-- were very welcome, a sensory-rich feast compared to our berthing drums' 3D-printed meals. I left it to Anne-Marie to tactfully enquire about rationing.

"The young folk are not rationed," Olwyn replied. "We've cut-back ours, but not by as much as you."

"And we have an allowance for 'Entertainment'," Sheila added. "How did Captain Owen put it ?"

"Ha !" Bruce laughed. "He's a Fair Dinkum Cobber ! He said, 'We Do Not Bind The Mouths of Kine Who Tread The Corn' !"

Pizza-analog demolished, fragrant tea sipped to dregs, we got down to business.

Ms. Betrys needed a robust 'Secondary Education'. This lay beyond the family tug-crews' skills and facilities, beyond even Fresno's extensive library. Book, Vid and Sim learning only went so far, she needed 'Hands-On' plus tutoring. So, she was to be 'Apprenticed' to us: Anne-Marie and Fresno for Botany and 'Ponics, me for Geology and resource gleaning.

Accommodation was being organised: Fourth cabin along our corridor, still on our 'Diner Call' rota, a group of four guys had had enough of each other's company. A few weeks in close quarters was tolerable, months endurable, but a potential life-time quite another matter. As part of a more complex shuffle, akin to 'Nine Mens Morris', one was changing drums, one was changing ends, and the other two were moving in with 'like-minded' folk. So, Ms. Betrys would get their vacated cabin. Yes, she'd probably spend a day or two a week 'at home', enjoying kin and cooking, but she would have personal space to study and grow away from domestic issues. Also, as not our immediate neighbour, she'd have some privacy in a few years when her thoughts turned to 'Friends with Benefits'...

As Ms. Betrys tried to hide her blush, Anne-Marie raised a polite eye-brow, as did I. Okay, it was clearly a 'Done Deal', but we hadn't got the memo. Upside, it was logical, reasonable, practicable etc etc. Anne-Marie said it sounded good, we'd give it a go. I politely concurred.

Discussion turned to resource gleaning. My 'Rock-Hopper' credentials were 'On The Record'. I mentioned my training for that included the basics of Ice Slicing. Did 'Cwm Fawr' or 'Cooberra' have the requisite software suite ? No ? Then it was down to me, 'Big Mac' and a borrowed semi-portable 'Blaster', vacuum-rated. Of which, they confirmed, they had 'several'. Upside, almost anything in the 'Deep and Dark' fitting our preferred initial range of one to ten kilometres was likely to be an 'Iceteroid', available for 'Slicing and Dicing' to tank-port size. Yes, yes, finding such was down to Fresno's instruments, no question there. Besides, gleaning from small-ish Oort or Kuiper objects should keep us 'Below the Radar' of inner-system users. Simply helping ourselves to ice-giants' or gas-giants' moonlets, or asteroid-belt objects, never mind spending weeks at a time 'gas diving', could be problematic. We'd have to use 'Due Care' on the diplomatic front, too, lest locals proved unsympathetic or worse. We really, really did not want to start a range-war...

The corollary to the comparative ease of ice gleaning was getting 'Metallics' and 'Go-Juice' would be much, much harder. Nickel-iron asteroids were usually the shattered fragments of 'planetismal' cores. That meant they'd probably formed on the warm side of a system's ice-line, would be difficult to locate beyond it. Again, with potentially unsympathetic locals...

Likewise, as a donor for Helium and Deuterium 'Go-Juice', a full 'Jovian' might be too massive, have vicious radiation belts. A 'Neptunian' or 'sub-Neptunian' might be too small to have useful atmospheric proportions of Hydrogen or Helium. We needed to find a 'Saturnian' or 'sub-Saturnian'. Further, we did not have the industrial-sized cryo-systems to conveniently distil Helium Three from the much more common Four isotope. At least Deuterium and Hydrogen Deutride could be stripped from a 'wild' Hydrogen stream using contra-flow diffusion and/or molecular sieves, albeit slowly and progressively.

[Belushi TD]

I don't seem to recall any previous concern about possible inhabitants of the systems they're looking at. Is this a new thing, or is there stuff I've missed?

Thanks
Belushi TD

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

"Finding friends would be a bonus"

Just rockin' up and helping themselves to inner-system resources could prompt a "GET OFF MY LAWN !!" response. Gleaning part of a small-ish iceteroid from equivalent of outer Kuiper Belt or Oort cloud is more likely to go un-noticed. In fact, the 'Heliopause', at ~120 AU for Sol, probably masks such activity beyond. Getting in-system to a Saturnian is a very different matter...

As yet, they have seen no evidence of space-going, but space is big, travellers may be few, and their propulsion tech un-known. Would a jumbo-jet's or Concorde's passengers even notice a Columbus-era carrack or caravel ? Or vice-versa ?? Like-wise, equivalent of luxury dirigibles or flying boats might pass un-noticed by hypersonic / sub-orbital fast-movers...

Or there is a network of sensors / covert buoys and the first you know is when a gun-boat puts a shot across your bow.

Hopefully, such are not from psychotic equivalent of Norks or IRGs, who'd just 'fire for effect'...

[jemhouston]

Or an automatic system that fires on anything not marked as friendly.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #30

I mentioned these 'Go-Juice' issues, got nods, then welcome news. Fresno's few Field Engineers' priorities precluded helping 'Cwm Fawr' fully integrate their hab's retro-fit turrets, but we'd been much luckier with the cryo-stuff. Fresno's Environmental Systems' 2nd Engineer (Acting) Joe McDonald had 'significant' experience of such systems' design and operation. Seems he reckoned that if we stripped 'most' of the air-con / HVAC and recycling equipment out of several 'Evac' pods, these were sufficiently modular that we could repurpose and adapt them as a cryo-cascade. Though their output would not be 'Prime Fusor Grade', there'd be a high, and very welcome enrichment factor. In fact, given wary tweaking and tuning, he reckoned we should get streams rich enough for Fresno's own systems to easily clean up.

So far, it was just simulations. However, he'd been working on their progressively more sophisticated modelling every spare minute since Fresno's 'Long Jump'. Now, finally, he'd been given the nod. We'd still have to build the adapted plant into a stripped 'Evac' pod, figure how to supply feed-stock, control the systems, pipe to fuel tanks etc etc. Stepping back a rung, those aboard who'd helped strip those 'Evac' pods left on Chaparral would have to take the lead...

Anne-Marie's side-glance, lip-twitch and miniscule shrug told me, "So, no rest for us !"

Happily, we then got a tour of 'Cwm Fawr's 'Zoo', got to pet sundry critters, be 'mogged' and shoulder-sat by the cats and kittens. I made enquiries about their HVAC system, was promised details of the 'enhancements'...

Back in our cabin, we found that Fresno's e-mail with the planned arrangements had belatedly arrived. We were also invited to a meeting in the Crew hab tomorrow. The topic, forming a 'working party' to partially empty an 'Evac' pod, transfer the needful modules from its neighbours, then begin assembly of the complex cryo-cascade. Also, several 'Evac' pods would need partial emptying to provide sufficient storage and work-space to process non-icy gleanings.

There was also a link to the proposed cryo-cascade's schematics and modelling. Anne-Marie and I studied them until late into the night. I knew a lot about recycling systems, as did Anne-Marie from her 'Ponics perspective. This project, however, was in a different league. We could easily follow the many 'interlocking' process streams individually, even a few at a time. Took long, hard hours before we dared believe we'd begun to 'grok' the entirety...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #31

Although Fresno's library had all passengers' 'Social Profiles', only senior crew were fully listed. Thus, in person, Joe McDonald 'From Nevis' came as a bit of a surprise. Towering two metres ten, rake thin, bald as an egg, he was dark skinned, from 'St Kitts & Nevis', rather than the original 'Nevis', near 'Fort William' in the West Highlands of Scotland. His great-great name-sake, a Scottish Yachty, had been among the many who'd taken refuge there during the 'Hot Flu' chaos and subsequent years. Helping repair and run local systems and services, he was a 'key worker' in what became those islands' generational battle to keep collapse at bay. He married into the community, taught and tutored tirelessly. His legacy endured...

That said, charmed from initial shyness by a few kind words from Anne-Marie, it was soon apparent that our Joe was an 'Engineer's Engineer', and a genuine Genius. How much so, us mere 'Norms' could not tell...

Joe had also found 'some' documentation, schematics etc for the 'Evac' pods and 'Berthing' drums. Though an obsolescent format, he'd managed to port the lot to Fresno's modern style. My hasty peek at the 'Berthing' plans told me even this 'overview' would be invaluable to our Stewards and, in time, our Engineers. As I'd surmised, a lot of 'Plant / Service' facilities and spares storage were shoe-horned into remarkably obscure corners. Sadly, there was no documentation for the diners...

In turn, Joe was fascinated by what Anne-Marie and I remembered of our scramble to 'Field Strip' those 'Evac' pods on Chaparral. What seemed a surfeit, nay, a multiplicity of small-ish modules was explained by an under-stated appendix note about how, 'in extremis', life-boats rarely filled evenly. Hence, pods' amply redundant capacity against damage or frantically cramming more than a thousand people aboard. Given a few days, but with worst-case ranging to miserable weeks, such over-filled pods might be docked to under-filled pods or rescue ships, 'Load Levelled'. Meanwhile, their life-support systems must endure. 'Soft Failure' was key, modularity, commonality and multi-purposing essential, despite any modest cost in efficiency. Happens that was the 'Apollo_13 Lesson', whose LEM and Command Modules' CO2 scrubbers used different designs of cartridges with incompatible connectors; utter disaster averted using duct-tape...

Joe diffidently explained that, part-way through his 'From Blank' design work, he'd come across an 'obscure' appendix which laid out the entire cryo-cascade using such re-purposed pod modules. Yes, he'd been astonished. He'd needed 'Quite A While' to progressively sanity-check it, a lot longer to adequately craft its complex simulation, warily stress-test against 'Bloopers', 'Stoopids' and full-on 'Murphy Bombs'...

Those of us with any engineering experience shuddered in sympathy. 'There Is Always One Last Bug' is a cruel, cruel truth, but the trick is to keep failure modes sufficiently benign, reversibly progressive, ultimately survivable. In Joe's opinion, the described cryo-cascade was a work of art, akin to the elegant, pump-less Einstein–Szilard 'ammonia' fridge cycle...

I raised a polite eye-brow. As a young teen on Uncle Jack's farm, I'd met such 'Classic Electrolux' machines, helped 'clone' a batch. Their operation required but a modest heat-source. Resistive, from a simple 12 Volt mini-wind and/or micro-hydro generator sufficed, as did a 'pilot' light burning low-grade 'Bio-Gas'. Though efficiency was 'poor' at best, they did not need 'Utility' power, pump-seal or bearing replacements. They just worked...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

I've been, uh, distracted by essential roof repairs, which turned into a whole new roof --Of which my bank owns 35%-- and an equally essential CH boiler replacement, which has up-ended half the kitchen. Beyond my reluctantly ripping out a tall, floor-stood cabinet and shuffling appliances around, the plumber added to my misery by finding an unsuspected live cable with his 'flue' wall-coring drill. That took out another handy power-outlet. Electrician coming tomorrow to variously re-instate, make permanent etc etc...

Upside, have warmth, can bask...

I've been writing the Fresno serial 'slowly', but a serendipitous scribble spawned a 'novella' set some busy months along...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Currently 'World-Building' for systems en-route which, when you delve below the 'hand-wave' stage, is much, much harder than domestic 'Rough Plumbing'...

Have sent a couple of 'fun' atmospheric modellers into digital hysterics: Yes, I do want to boil the seas down to brine pools, think 'Messinian Med'...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

==City of Fresno #32

The 'Evac Pod' stripping would take longer than initially expected due to our shortage of zero-g workers. Logically, of course, most such had left on Tulsa or earlier flights. Only a few of the 'Deep Shelter' workers were, um, 'Multi-Modal'. Even those of us who'd help strip Pods on the surface would have to re-think our approach.

So, the next day, Anne-Marie and I joined the groups removing interior panels from the tagged 'Evac' Pod. First things first, we had to demonstrate our zero-g skills, both as-is and mass-shifting. Though even I'd been barely aware of it, Fresno had a slow 'Barbecue Roll'. That rate of but one (1) revolution per fifteen minutes had scant effect on spin-drum contents. It gave minimal 'Coriolis' within Flanges and near the triple Spines, was convenient for the on-going 360º scanning. In a Hab's briskly spun drum, 'Coriolis' was overt, like a gentle hill-side, a drain-sloped floor, a yacht's 'heel' or a 'fresh' cross-wind. You got used to it. At our docked Pod's radius, though, there was just enough 'Coriolis' to be disconcerting. A free-floating panel, module, tool or fastener would neither stay put nor fly 'straight'. Remembering how the tug-crews' kids embraced such as 'windage' in their games was humbling...

Anne-Marie and I had been much too busy helping to strip those 'grounded' Evac Pods on Chaparral, then nervously waiting on-orbit for our Pod to be docked, to really think about the internal design. Yes, we'd noticed the end-caps' curious 'surfeit' of docking ports, and we'd sorta-noticed the way those so-neatly aligned with the honey-comb interior's hexagonal corridors and minimal 'capsule' cabins. Seems I'd made an arcane quip about 'Columnar Jointing', which Anne-Marie later researched. Also, some-one had made a remark about the sorta-Isometric, almost 'Escher-esque' lay-out, with our cramped cabins equally accessible a-ground, in orbit and, now, docked to Fresno. Thinking back, the nearest equivalent I could find might be the famous, Pre-Burn 'Flip Ship' and the later 'Polar Pod'...

Upside, an 'Evac' Pod's very cellular arrangement meant that, with each claustrophobic cabin's door/hatch and wall-panels removed, the compact 'Hygiene' module, even tighter than our 'Berthing' cubicles, could be disconnected, hauled away as-is, followed by the narrow bunking stacks. On Chaparral, those would become dividers, en-suite facilities and furnishings as shelter accommodation was progressively extended from curtained 'barracks'. Here, we grappled and 'floated' our gleanings to the wide axial docking port. Another group ferried them along the 'Leg' to the nearby 'Pod' designated for their storage, where a third group was dismantling panels to provide space. The work went slowly at first. Gradually, as more people turned up and, after some training, joined the 'mosh pit', our Pod's interior began to look a tad thread-bare. We needed the sorta-Isometric framing to mount the re-purposed HVAC systems' modules, but negotiating the skeletal interior's 'tangled web' and complex shadows was non-trivial.

Module by module, most of this Pod's 'Systems' were re-positioned per Joe's careful plans, leaving just enough to safely support workers in the Pod, plus a few cabins for 'shelter', relief, refreshments and 'bunking'. Per our diner schedules, we turned up, worked, took essential breaks, returned. Anne-Marie and I put in a long, hard, but very satisfying day, were left utterly exhausted. We certainly worked up an appetite, demolishing our minimal diner meals with much more gusto than usual. After, though a cabin's 'en-suite' cubicle was small, we'd just enough space and dexterity to wash-cloth each other's back, knead weary limbs, huggle happily...

The following morning, after breakfast, we joined the 'mosh-pit' tackling the next Pod. Its panels and 'Hygiene' modules went one way, 'Service' modules the other. The semi-skeletal interior would become zero-g storage and work-space. Yes, there was such space in both Berthing Drums' 'Attics'. There would soon be more as IBCs' tonnes of diner concentrate were converted to meals then 'Ponic fertiliser. Still, we'd need a lot of 'ambient' warehousing for non-volatile gleanings, plus the space to safely process such. Much 'Light Industry' does not belong near people. Many activities require 'appropriate' respect plus ample elbow-room. Berthing Drums' Attics, 'Ponics and 'Ends' had no facility to handle larger or heavier loads than a single pallet. So, those off-axis 'Evac Pod' docking ports, with modular air-locks opening to vacuum, could prove very useful. Yes, we had noticed how such modularity would allow several locks to each be shortened by several metres, then those sections combined to extend one lock by a dozen metres or more...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #33

Beyond re-positioning those re-purposed 'Service' modules, we also toted plumbing and cabling. Much of the 'process' would range from merely 'Deep Freeze' for water vapour and many VOCs, down through liquid Ammonia, CO2, methane (110 K) and such to the 'serious' cryo-zone with liquid oxygen (90 K), argon (87 K), nitrogen (77 K), hydrogen (33 K), then beyond, into helium's arcane 'Handful of Kelvins' country. Valves and instrumentation were emplaced, labelled for later connection. Thermal expansion and contraction were a big issue, so the connecting pipework had to be suitably rated, appropriately flexible, with joints gasketed for their stream. Many purging and leak-sniffing ports were positioned, then all was thickly clad in bulky, semi-rigid insulation of the appropriate type. We soon ran out of 'Tetris' jokes...

From 'inside' the maze of our future refinery, it was hard to gauge progress as module by module, pipe by pipe, cable by cable, the complexity grew, grew, grew. Some-how, some-how, Engineer Joe kept track, like a Combined Parade Bands' Drum Major...

Anne-Marie and I ate, worked, ate, worked, staggered back to our cabin exhausted, washed, ate, slept like logs. The next day, and the next, and the next, we did it all over again. Then, remarkably, we were no longer 'toting' modules, plumbing and insulation, but 'Connecting, Knitting and Weaving' instrumentation and control lines back to the Pod's de-facto 'Control Room'. Physically less arduous, it was fiddly work. Much, much more so, Anne-Marie allowed, than for her 'Ponics' comparatively crude sensors.

Those of us with the requisite skills neatly 'Laid and Loomed' the many cable runs, labelling and logging as we went. A second team checked our lay for blatant damage, borderline-tight bends and, by reflectometry, 'pinches'. A third team checked the correct cables linked the correct sensors and valve actuators to the correct ports on the correct patch panels. A fourth team confirmed the 'mapping' to be sure, to be sure, to be sure. A fifth team checked those newly accessible whatsits were both awake and 'Playing Nice'. Of course, as in-line conditions were still 'ambient', a lot of sensors simply reported this, or 'Out of Range'. They would be re-checked and calibrated iteratively as the system was variously purged, cooled and otherwise initialised...

I'd helped prepare, provision, calibrate, maintain and repair those 'Rock-Hopper' craft I'd ridden. I'd done a lot of work on Chaparral's TBMs. This 'System Commissioning', though, was in a different league. Could we have even attempted it without Joe ? Well, yes, but 'piece-meal', repeatedly cycling 'mix' to-and-fro, stripping one or two 'sub-streams' at each pass. When this 'Refinery' came on-line, it should run its complex cascade of processes 'As One': Feed-stock in, sundry what-evers neatly piped out.

It would soon become my job to harvest 'iceteroids', then be a shift-operator extracting 'The Needful' from both those chunks and the gas-divers' gleanings. At least the latter would run a comparatively simple 'front end', discarding the majority of slurped sub-Saturnian atmosphere to enhance, pre-concentrate the hydrogen deutride (HD) and Helium(#3) content...

[jemhouston]

Interesting stuff. Glad to see everything is being checked and rechecked.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Huh...
Still waiting on a run of dry days for roofers to finish and laborers to tidy: I swear they've much in common with cats, loathing wind and wet.
Still re-assembling kitchen, currently repairing deranged plaster to NW, N & NE of wall-hung boiler, one wary skim of filler at a time.
Then I can box-in the wall's 'organ pipes' of exposed plumbing --C/H_Out, C/H_Return, H/W_Out & gas-line-- with special attention to 'CHONKY THING', the big filter now attached to C/H_Out like a ruddy remora.
At end of the month, can order in a flat-pack 'blind' 1000mm kitchen unit with 180º carousel to tuck into corner freed by removal of old, floor-stood boiler. Thus recover some of the flatware storage lost to removal of tallboy cupboard to free wall for new boiler...
That unit needs 'riser' to support 'spanning' work-top to bridge side-shifted laundry machine, carry my favourite microwave and kettle...
I've organised a new power outlet for the laundry machine, also a cold-water feed tap, as originals would be lost behind the new unit. Still have to diamond core-drill a 42_mm hole through wall and fit new waste P-trap...
Plus there's a dozen consequential 'side-quests', which this margin is --Thankfully !!-- too small to contain...



City of Fresno #34

After several more days assembling the main refinery, I was co-opted to the small team assembling our gas-diver 'Front End'. Feed-stock would be drawn in about '40º Below' or 230 Kelvin, at 10% less than ship-board ambient pressure. This margin was essential to mitigate hydrogen and helium 'ingress'. Former could potentially cause embrittlement and acid formation. Given but half a chance, latter would waltz through apparently hermetic seals, wreak havoc within...

Un-spoken was that my 'Eyes On', given Fresno's engineers' intensive coaching, would equip me to both tweak settings and do 'running repairs'. Tug-crews came and went. Ms. Betrys showed up, displayed remarkable insight. Joe, our Genius Engineer, fielded my some-times clunky queries with welcome patience. He knew it was far better for me to ask for clarification on something 'apparently obvious' than be bitten by a 'Murphy Bomb' slipping through the gaps in our differing assumptions. For the record, we found and resolved several potentially embarassing ambiguities, but found no actual 'bloopers': Kudos, Joe !!

Given its comparative simplicity, the gas-divers' 'Front End' was soon 'ready for use'. Moved to a newly extended air-lock for safety, it was slowly cooled down, calibrated, warily fed a cocktail of gasses approximating a generic sub-Saturnian's atmosphere at trawl-level. The systems and sub-systems took a while to 'tune'. Happily, by the end of several long, long days, we were getting pure-enough nitrogen, argon etc, plus 'Enhanced Hydrogen' with a remarkable 11% deutride, a vast improvement over the 'wild' feed's 10^-5 proportion. Waste hydrogen was used both to pre-cool the feed, and hyper-chill the Helium stream towards 'Handful of Kelvins' country. There, Helium_4 was mostly stripped from the much less common but essential He_3. Most of the waste was, of course, used to further pre-cool feed...

Back at Fresno, these 'pre-processed' gasses would be further refined by the 'Main Plant' then Fresno's systems unto 'Go Juice' and 'Other Useful Stuff'. Both Argon and the common 'Helium_4' were very welcome.

Okay, a real 'Gas Station' operated on a much, much larger scale and much more efficiently. Our 'Front End', even our 'Main Plant', were equivalent of filling an ISO TEU tank with a hand-pump. Still, they were all we'd have for now. Thankfully, as yet, we had time and fuel to spare. Getting the process right, building robust procedures and training operators was our immediate priority.

The gas-diver 'Front End' would also capture other atmospheric constituents such as ammonia and methane, albeit inefficiently. That aspect was intended to tackle in-transit 'gassing off' from iceteroids: If we could glean such unpredictable volatiles without difficulty, they'd be a welcome bonus. If they proved a nuisance, we were authorised to shrug and vent...

I was utterly spent by the time both the 'Front End' and 'Main Plant' were assembled, the former running. I knew fully commissioning the latter would take weeks, the many process stages patiently, progressively purged, settled, calibrated, re-calibrated, integrated. Fortunately, that 'grind' could continue aboard Fresno while the Rock Tugs slowly gleaned potential feed-stock.

'Time Out'.

Anne-Marie, who'd done a lot of 'Main Plant' cable and routing inspection, claimed I'd then slept at least eighteen hours, crawling from bottom-bunk only to use the en-suite and slurp water. Concerned, she'd queried my medical augments. Diagnosis: Utter exhaustion. Treatment: Bed-rest and patience. When I woke, ravenous, medical augments furiously scolding my extended over-exertion, I found Anne-Marie had thoughtfully left me a covered plate heaped with 'finger-food': 'Fishy Strips', 'Mini Veggy-Wieners' and 'Veggy-Sausage Rolls'. Yay ! I'd prefer a 'Full English' and a pot of 'Builders Tea', but duly reduced the 'picnic' to scant crumbs, felt some-what more human...

[Belushi TD]

Make sure when doing all the repairs and, most specifically, the box in, that you leave sufficient space to change the filter.

I know you're smart enough to do that, but I've managed to forget to do similar things, and I hope you'd prefer a little bit of pre-emptive "Don't do that" than having to box it in, and then unbox it when the filter needs changing.

Belushi TD