Chapter 15

Captain Ahmed Maroun was working on the Status and Accomplishments Report Colonel Carl Fenton requested when Sydney Paltran knocked on his office door.

“Come on in, Sydney. What’s up?”

“We have a bit of a problem, Ahmed. One of my people took their lunch break up on the dam and he noticed there are numerous trees and other debris on the far side of the dam’s filter grid.”

“Sorry, Sydney, but I don’t understand the problem. Why are trees and debris near the filter grid a problem?”

“The filter grid is basically a heavy-gauge wire filter, Ahmed. It keeps trees, shrubbery, and other large pieces of debris from being sucked into the turbine’s intake port. If large items of debris are sucked into the intake port, they can damage the turbine. That would shut down the facility until we repaired or replaced the turbine.

“As the debris collects outside the filter grid, it clogs the filter. That causes more water pressure on the filter grid’s mesh and support structure. If the pressure gets high enough, the mesh or support structure might give way and allow debris to be sucked into the turbine.”

“I see! What do you normally do when this happens?”

“Normally, the dam’s maintenance crew would clear the surface debris from the grid before it got this bad and send divers down to clear the lower portion of the grid. Since we don’t have a maintenance crew, I’m hoping you can do something.”

“Okay, Sydney. I’ll call it into the Ark, and they will handle it.”

“Ark 3, Bravo 1. Over.”

“Go, Bravo 1. Over.”

“There’s a problem here at the dam, Ark 3. The head of the hydroelectric crew tells me there are trees and other debris building up and clogging a wire mesh filter that keeps debris from entering the turbine and damaging it. If the debris is not cleared, the mesh filter might give way and let debris into the turbine. He tells me the debris on and below the surface needs to be cleared and that means boats and divers. Do you think one of the Seal Teams can be assigned to clear the debris and keep the mesh filter cleared? Over.”

“I’ll let Ark 2 know about the problem, Bravo 1. Considering the seriousness of the situation, he will probable send out Seal Team 1 or 4 to fix the problem. Expect them tomorrow. Ark 3 out.”

Colonel Carl Fenton knocks on General Henderson’s office door in the Command Center.

“Come in and have a seat, Carl. What’s happening?”

“I just got off the radio with Captain Maroun out at the dam, Mike. From what I understand there is some type of filter system that keeps debris from getting sucked into the turbine. There is a great deal of debris in the lake and it is clogging the filter system, which puts pressure on its support structure. If the support structure gives way, the debris will get into the turbine and damage it. He needs boats and divers to clear the debris.

“My first thought and the Captain’s was the Seal Teams. They have their boats and dive gear stored out at Lake Folsom, so they are probably the best trained and equipped to do what is needed.”

“I agree with you, Carl. Right now, all of the Seal Teams are assigned to other duties. Seal Team 4 is probably the one that we can afford to lose with the least impact. I’ll call Phil and talk with him. Other than that, how is Captain Maroun doing out at the dam?”

“We didn’t talk, but everything seems to be going good for him. At least, I haven’t heard of him having any problems since he executed the member of the Line Crew who armed himself and shot a survivor.”

“Yeah, that was a bad one. The only good thing about that incident was the Line Crew didn’t blame Ahmed for what he did. Apparently the man wasn’t liked by his coworkers, and from what I’ve been told, Ahmed warned them all about what would happen if they armed themselves without permission.”

“I better let you get back to what you’re doing, Carl. I need to call Phil.” As Carl was getting up to leave, Mike Henderson was reaching for his telephone.

“Phil, Mike Henderson here. I’m sorry to do this to you considering you are in the middle of planning the Stage 7 effort, but we have a problem out at Folsom Dam that needs boats and divers to fix. It seems to me that we have a choice of Seal Team 1 or 4, and Team 1 is tied up in Auburn. Can you spare Team 4 for several days?”

“I think so, Mike. What’s the problem?”

“Evidently there is a lot of debris in the lake and it is clogging some sort of filter system that keeps debris out of the Hydroelectric Facility’s turbine. They are afraid the pressure will damage the filter system and allow the debris to be sucked into the turbine. So, we need someone to go down there and remove the debris.”

“I understand the problem, Mike, and yeah, the filter grid collapsing would be a disaster. I’ll talk with Andy and have him leave as soon as possible. Anything else, Mike?”

“No, Phil, and thanks.”

Ten minutes later, the commanding officer of Seal Team 4, Lieutenant Andy Montoya, is sitting in Captain Phil Johnson’s office.

“Andy, there is a problem at the dam. Do you recall the training scenario where we learned how to destroy an enemy’s Hydroelectric Facilities by putting large pieces of tree limbs on the turbine side of a dam’s filter grid so they would be sucked into the turbine?

“Yeah, I always thought that was a neat way to knockout a Hydroelectric Facility.”

“True, but now there is a lot of debris pushing against the filter grid at the Folsom Lake facility and they need someone to clear the debris away from the grid before the network’s support structure gives way. Your Seal Team is the most available, so we need you to get your people to Folsom Lake as soon as possible. How long do you think it will take for you to deploy, get your boats, dive gear, and other equipment out of storage, and get to work at the dam?”

“We should be able to leave in two to three hours, Phil; from what I hear, it will take about three hours to get to Bravo Company’s location. Our gear is stored in a warehouse on the east side of the lake not too far from the Folsom Lake Yacht Club. So let’s say another six hours to recover the boats and other gear, fill our air tanks, and be ready to start work. If the situation is really urgent, we should be able to start clearing debris by early tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t know how urgent the situation is, Andy, but we both know that facility is critical to the Ark’s plans. So the sooner you and your people get there and get to work, the better.”

“Alright, Phil. I better go get my people together, briefed, and packed so we can leave.”

Bravo 1, Ark 3. Over.”

“Go, Ark 3. Over.”

“Seal 4 is deploying to your location with ninety people. You can expect them to arrive this evening. Over.”

“Roger, Ark 3. I will arrange billeting for them. Over.”

“Ark 3, out.”

Looking up when he hears a knock on his door, Ahmed Maroun sees Sylvia Turner, the lead Negotiator, who he asked to join him.

“Mistress Turner, we have a problem at the dam and Seal Team 4 will be here this evening to fix it. There will be around ninety men and their equipment and the only place we have for them to stay is at your temporary survivor housing. If I recall, you are currently housing no survivors. Is that right?”

“Yes, but we set the buildings up for survivors, not soldiers.”

“I understand. However, the current situation is they need a place to stay and your facility is adequate and empty. So they will stay there for the next few days. Thank you and that will be all for now.”

Layla Conway, another of Company B’s four Negotiators, watched as Sylvia Turner left to go talk with Captain Maroun. Talking with Ahmed always irritated Sylvia. An irritated Sylvia had left their office and now a raging, angry, red-faced Sylvia returned.

“I take it your meeting with the Captain didn’t go very well?”

Sylvia stomped back and forth along the short path between their desks and the far wall working off her anger, and in a loud, almost shouting voice she said, “That pompous ass told me we have to let a Seal Team stay in our survivor housing. He didn’t ask. He just informed me ninety men would be here after dinner and we had to house them. Then he told me that I could leave to get ready for their arrival as that was all he had for me.”

“Sylvia, calm down! The situation isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be. We have enough room for ninety people. I also don’t think the Captain meant it the way you took it.”

“You don’t understand, Layla. It’s not them using our housing that makes me angry. It’s their attitude. These military types just walk in and assume they have the right to take over our space because they are military and we’re just civilians. That pompous ass is the worst of them.”

“Sylvia, take five long, deep breaths, let them out slowly, and calm down. Forget about what Ahmed said. He is obviously oblivious to your feelings and opinions. What else do you expect from a man like him?”

“I expect a man like him to treat me as an equal, not as a servant. First it was your people have to stay in the trucks, until we tell you that you can get out. Now he’s telling us that he is going to use our housing for his people regardless of our wishes.

“Arrrrgh!”

Seal Team 4 arrived at Bravo Company’s Headquarters building at 1915 that evening. Captain Maroun provided Lieutenant Montoya and Ensigns Rand, Tibbs, and Yeager with a short briefing regarding the dam. He agreed to escort them to where they can see the situation with the filter grid after they dropped their packs in the Headquarters building, which will be their billets for the duration of their stay. After a brief explanation regarding Sylvia Turner’s dislike of military personnel, Ahmed took them across the street to the Negotiator’s residence.

When they arrived Sylvia Turner was in her room resting. Ahmed introduced the four men to Mistresses Layla Conway and Emma Collins. They showed the Lieutenant and Ensigns the three buildings the men of Troops 1, 2, and 3 can use while at the facility. After thanking her, the men return to their vehicles to pick up their packs. The three Ensigns assembled their six Chief Petty Officers, assigned each Troop to a building, and directed the CPOs to get the men settled in their buildings.

The four officers dropped their packs in the two rooms in the Headquarters building that they will use, and returned to the two pickups that would carry them to the dam. Accompanied by Staff Sergeant Jack Davis and two drivers, Privates Amber Spacek and Jasper Eubanks, Ahmed and the four officers were driven to the top of the dam, so the officers could observe the situation firsthand. It’s nighttime, so it was difficult to see very far. After exiting the trucks, Ahmed said, “Sergeant Davis, get the million-candle-power lights we brought for these Gentlemen to use.”

Opening the cross-bed toolbox on one of the pickups, Sergeant Davis handed out four hand-held lights to the Seal officers. Walking over to the edge of the road, the officers pointed their lights out over the lake’s surface, so they could see the water close to the filter grid. They walked up and down the road examining the perimeter of the filter grid.

Lieutenant Montoya said, “There must be at least a couple hundred trees out there on the surface, and probably more below the surface.”

Ensign Parker Tibbs said, “It’s going to take more than a day or two to clear the grid of this much debris, Andy. Some of those trees are rather large. If we tried to pull them in from the road, we’d probably damage the grid and I doubt our boats are powerful enough to tow them away from the grid. You got any ideas, Yeager?”

Ensign Zackery Yeager said, “Yeah, I do. I agree with you about damaging the grid by pulling the trees in from the road and about our boats. Do you remember those speedboats they had over at the Yacht Club? Not the little ones, but the big mothers with inboard motors.

“I bet we could liberate a dozen or so of those and drag the trees away from the grid one at a time. We could pull the trees close to the road and cut them free. Park a tow truck on the road and we could hook its cable up to the tree and have the tow truck pull the tree out of the lake.”

Ensign Efrain Rand said, “Those big tow trucks they used to tow tractor trailer rigs would be good for that job. Put two or three trucks on each side of the grid and have three boats work on each side of the grid pulling the trees in close to shore. A couple of men in the water to untie the trees from the boats and connect the tow truck cables. The question is, what do we do with all those trees?”

Captain Maroun said, “Not a problem. Drag them down the road a ways and I’ll have some men unhook them and roll them over the edge of the road. If nothing else, my people can use them to increase the size of our barricades.

“It doesn’t get as cold down here as it does up in the hills, but it does get cold. The buildings we use, used to use gas heating. I was thinking of installing more insulation in these buildings and finding us some heavy-duty commercial electric heaters. So far, all we’ve found is some heaters designed to heat a single room in a residence. It would take a dozen or more of those to heat just one of the buildings we’re using as a barracks for one of our Platoons.

“I heard about one of your Seal Teams cutting up trees for firewood to keep themselves warm this coming winter. I hadn’t considered using wood burning stoves, but we could turn all these trees into firewood to keep our buildings warm and toasty this winter. There are forests to the west of us that would supply us with wood for years.

“We’ll probably end up with a mix of wood stoves and electric heaters. Stoves for large open areas and heaters for enclosed offices.”

Lieutenant Andy Montoya said, “From what I can see, Ahmed, this situation with the trees is bad, but I think we got here before it became critical.

“Since we now have an idea of what we are up against, Gentlemen, let’s get our equipment out of storage, and back here to the dam. We need to setup our compressors and get all of our dive tanks filled. We can work up a plan for who does what in clearing the trees later tonight.”

Clara, I, and our Advisory Council had several issues to address and the most pressing was the creation of our new government, and that would take several hours to address. Clara and I decided to have Sheryl Johnson and Mike Henderson address the issues that the Internal Security Department and Ark Army wanted to address before we got too involved in the structure of the government, which would be an ongoing topic.

I started the meeting by saying, “Bill, Sheryl, you wanted to report on your progress on investigating the break-ins that happened in our storage rooms. Let’s get that out of the way first.”

Sheryl said, “Thank you, Jon. The last time Bill and I presented a report on this topic, we reported on three problem areas.

“The first problem area was the formation of gangs that started breaking into the storerooms to steal merchandise. During the past month, the number of incidents has declined. The few young people who continue to take merchandise from the storerooms are concealing their faces, so they are not as readily identifiable. However, when they leave the storeroom, they uncover their faces and frequently return to the Park area to rejoin their friends.

“We obtained confessions from some of these young people by showing them videos of them in the storerooms and videos of them returning to the area of the Parks a short while later while wearing the same clothing. Prosecuting these petty thefts has made the presence of cameras in the storerooms known to our Arkians. For some reason, Arkians aren’t as aware of the cameras we have in the Parks on the residential levels. Our solution of prosecuting the older kids in these gangs has reduced the problem significantly, and we believe the problem is now under control. Our solution has also provided the Ark Army with a number of recruits they might not have had otherwise.

“The second problem area was the adults who are stealing resources for their families. It is still an ongoing problem, but the number of thefts detected has gone down. The awareness of cameras in the storerooms may be the cause of the decrease in thefts; alternatively, the thefts may not have been discovered, yet.

“The final problem area was people breaking into the storerooms and opening storage containers, but not taking anything. So far, we only have the one instance that we reported at our last meeting captured on film, but we are hoping to film further incidents. Mary and I discussed this problem late last week. Since we don’t know who is committing the break-ins, we decided to have her people check for evidence of someone having tampered with the containers when they remove them from the storerooms. Hopefully more of the people involved in this type of break-in will be filmed in the future and we will able to identify them at that time.

“For now, I’m going to stop providing status reports on theft problems, unless something significant comes up. That’s it for now, Jon, unless someone has questions.”

There were no questions, so I told Mike to go ahead with his presentation.

Mike said, “Leah, I received a question from Division 2’s commanding officer, Captain Charles. One of the people in Seal Team 2, which we deployed to Blocking Station 1, wanted to know if we would be restoring natural gas service to the Auburn area, and if so, would we be restoring service to that location. That seems like it would be part of the Recycling Department’s effort, but I don’t recall us discussing the subject. Has it been considered?”

Leah said, “Yes, Mike, we have taken restoration of the natural gas service under consideration. But currently, we have no plans for extending it to the Blocking Posts.

“Sorry to deviate from the topic, Mike, but I’ve been confused for a long time. If I understand it correctly, Captain Charles is Navy and he is equal in rank to Colonel Fenton; but Colonel Fenton has Captains reporting to him. Is a Navy Captain the same as an Army Captain?”

“No, Leah. The Army and Navy use different names for their rank structure. The military used what was called a rating for their ranks. Officers were rated from O 1 up to O 10, and there was one special rating above an O 10. The names of the ranks can be very confusing. For example, before the Fall, an Army Captain was an O 3, and in the Navy, an O 3 was called a Lieutenant. A Navy Captain was an O 6, and in the Army, an O 6 was called a Colonel.”

Leah said, “That is confusing, Mike. Why doesn’t the Ark Army have a single set of ranks? It would make things a lot simpler for the rest of us to deal with.”

“I understand, Leah. It is something I want to discuss with Jon after this meeting. You’re welcome to join us if you want to present the civilian point of view; but, let’s get back to my question about natural gas service.”

Leah said, “Okay, Mike. At the time we considered the issue, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t be able to restore services in the near future. We decided to not address the topic unless someone brought it up. Limited restoration of natural gas service will be part of our effort to restore the Benicia Refinery.

“We evaluated how natural gas was obtained and distributed. I need one of my more knowledgeable people to give you an accurate explanation, but from what I understand restoring gas service will be extremely labor intensive and we do not have the manpower to restore service for general use at this time. As I said, we will be restoring a limited supply of natural gas to run the Benicia Refinery. So yes, we will do what is necessary to restore gas service to the places that need it to support our other critical efforts. So far, the only critical need identified has been the Benicia facility. Once our critical efforts are taken care of, we will expand service to the SCCs, and if it is really necessary to the Blocking Posts.

“Unfortunately, it will be a long time before we restore natural gas service for general use. The main problem is the distribution system used before the meteoroids for moving natural gas from the gas wells to the consumer. The gas from the wells was pumped into a network of gathering pipelines that carried the gas to a Gathering System.

“As an aside, we would also have to provide electrical power to numerous locations in order to restore gas service, which would be a major effort. For at least the next year, we will be struggling to get AC power to the critical areas that need it.

“The Gathering System removed impurities from the gas and transferred the purified gas to the country’s Distribution System, which distributed the gas throughout the US using a network of major pipelines. The pressure in the Distribution System was typically between two hundred pounds per square inch and fifteen hundred PSI.

“The local gas utility companies operated Gate Stations. The purpose of the Gate Stations was to transfer gas from the high pressure Distribution System to the company’s local distribution system, which supplied the consumers with gas at a pressure between a quarter of a PSI and two hundred PSI. From what I’ve been told, the gas distribution network also used pumping stations to move the gas through the pipelines.

“For us to partially restore the system, we will have to operate our local gas wells and feed the gas to a facility that acts as a Gathering System. Our plans are to modify one of the current Gathering Systems to meet our current needs and restore its full capability at a later date. We will also need to make major modifications to the current Distribution System and to the local distribution systems that supply the Benicia and Auburn areas. We are hoping to only need one or two pumping stations to move the gas through the existing pipelines to Benicia.

“Right now my people are struggling to just take care of the Auburn area. When I consider everything that needs to be done to restore the basic services that our people will need in Auburn and other towns, restoring natural gas service to residential consumers is important, but it is toward the bottom of my list of things to do. If you need a more detailed description of what needs to be done, Mike, I can refer you to my people who looked into the matter.”

Mike said, “No, your answer was more than adequate for now, Leah.”

Mike continued, “Jon, I want to revisit the topic of Abandoned Property for a brief discussion. We decided that the Ark should claim ownership of all Abandoned Property in our area of influence. The Ark is to use the property for the good of the community and make it available to anyone that wishes to purchase it.

“I made this information known to everyone in the Ark Army. All of our fielded units are interested in participating in this program, so they can move their families to their current locations. I put them off for now by informing our units that, we will begin Stages 2 and 7 shortly, and most of them will be redeployed to new locations.

“How far along are we, Jon, in implementing this policy?”

Jon said, “So far, all we have done is to make an announcement. Clara and I need to find time to put together an organization to manage the effort. Do you have people interested in buying a particular piece of property?”

“Not exactly, Jon.

“The US Army used to provide living quarters on its bases for married and single service members. Since I announced our new Abandoned Property program, I received several requests for the Ark Army to instigate a program similar to that of the US Army for our people.

“I envision such a program as requiring the Ark to designate a number of the residential properties the Ark acquires as quarters for our people to live in. The Ark would retain ownership, and our people would live in the properties for the duration of their assignment at the location. For future areas that we incorporate, the Ark would have to buy or rent properties from whomever owns them for the use of our people.

“Captain Charles followed up with Lieutenant Morrison regarding his concerns. The Lieutenant and his people originally expected their deployment to last for about six months. With our minimal manning deployment plan, the Lieutenant’s people will be manning Blocking Posts 1 and 4. The current schedule indicates they will be at the two Blocking Posts for about five years, and the revised schedule will may extend that to over seven years. Their living quarters and family situations are acceptable for a short-term deployment, but inadequate for a long-term stay. I suspect the needs of the service will have them rotating out to a different duty station at some point. However, we will have someone stationed at the Blocking Posts, so living quarters will be needed for their replacements’ families.

“The Lieutenant believes, and I concur with him, that in a year there will be only a minimal probability of a hostile party approaching us on Highway 80. He and his men accept they will be there for five years and they are hoping that we can resolve this issue of Abandoned Property in a way that will allow him and his men to modify their living conditions without ending up in trouble.

“The Lieutenant informed me that there are a large number of unoccupied homes in the area that he and his men could use as personal living quarters. Once the area is reasonably safe, they are thinking of moving their Bond Groups to the Applegate area.

“According to the reports Captains Charles and Johnson submitted of the tour they conducted of the four Blocking Posts, this will be a problem at all of the Blocking Posts, here in Auburn, and any other place that our people secure. Our plans for securing other areas will have our people establishing permanent homes where they will raise and train the next generation of the Ark Army. When our people select a permanent home, it will undoubtedly be an unowned home, and they will probably want title to the property.

“As you can see, this is a complex problem that will require some form of control that is acceptable to both military and civilian personnel. I am hoping that we can develop a temporary solution for this issue that will help guide unit commanders in allowing their people to have a decent life without the civilians in their area feeling that they are using their position to loot the area.

“Does anyone have an opinion on this subject?”

Looking around Mike saw Leah and Sam’s hands raised, and said, “Yes, Leah.”

“I think I understand the situation your people are in, Mike. I am having a similar issue with a few of my people. While my people are out scavenging what the SCCs need for the survivors, they are also finding things that would make their personal lives better. I have heard a few comments early on about people bringing items back to the Ark for their personal use. I didn’t get names, but I made it very clear to everyone that collecting items for their personal use is looting, and if caught they will have to face the consequences. I’m not sure if that put an end to their actions or if their activities just went underground.

“There is a lot of Abandoned Property here in Auburn that is not suitable for use in redeveloping this area, and the Recycling Department has no plans for scavenging those items. It doesn’t make sense to me to just let the stuff we don’t scavenge sit there unused. I am quite certain that if we were to tour the ritzy parts of town, we would find jewelry, artwork, antiques, and other valuable property just sitting there.

“Before we decided to claim all of the Abandoned Property, I toyed with an idea of how we could recover these resources. After we made that decision, I modified my initial idea. When I got to looking at my idea closely, I quickly came to realize that claiming ownership of all Abandoned Property solved one problem, but it opened the door to many additional problems.

“For example, the way I see it the first step is to establish an organization to address the ownership and control of Abandoned Property.

The second step is for us to define what it is that we are claiming and want to keep. That is where the main problems begin. I can see us claiming a building, the land it sits on, and the buildings’ contents. However, do we really want a hundred thousand sets of cheap dining room tables and chairs? Do we really want to take possession of the pictures of the former owners’ families and all of the cheap prints that people hung on their walls as decorations? Do we want twenty tons of cheap costume jewelry? I don’t think so. But then there is the question of taking physical possession of the quality artwork and jewelry. Not to mention where to store it until someone decides to buy it.

The third step is to decide what to do with all of that stuff that is worth saving, but we don’t need it immediately, and don’t have the time to retrieve it or space to store it. Many of our survivors will want to claim ownership of the items we are claiming but not taking physical possession of. We will need a way to transfer ownership of that property to the people who want it.