Chapter 24

I was feeling restless after spending most of the day sitting in my office reading reports. Since we returned to the surface it seemed as if I spent most of my time reading reports and recording my daily dumps. I needed to do something worthwhile besides lower the height of the stack of reports that needed to be read.

“Joan, I’m going to the Command Center to talk with Mike. I may not be back this afternoon. If not, lockup and I’ll see you tonight at home.”

As I strolled through the hallways, I acknowledged the greetings I received from my fellow Arkians who were headed somewhere for some reason. Sometimes the greeting was just a smile or the nod of a head in my direction. Other times, they stopped to say “Hi” and chat for a moment. Since I was trying to avoid what I should be doing, I welcomed the chance to talk with someone different. Eventually, I arrived at the Command Center and joined Mike in his office.

“Hi, Mike.”

“Afternoon, Jon. Anything special that I can do for you?”

“No, I just had to get out of the office, and I thought of you. How has your day gone?”

“Good, so far, Jon. Mostly all I’ve had to do was read status reports from the SCCs and Guard Post commanders. All I ever seem to do is read reports. Although, we had another incident with a small group of survivors the first thing this morning that you should find interesting. This time it was on Highway 80 near the Forestry and Fire Protection Facility.

“Ensign Bilart, who is at Blocking Post 1, decided to follow up on an outstanding task that Lieutenant Morrison said they would take care of once things settled down. Bilart sent a detail of Seals to the facility to see if they had crosscut saws or other items that might be useful for cutting up trees at Blocking Post 1.

“While the detail was poking around at the facility, they came under fire from someone across the highway. They took cover and when they located the sniper they returned fire. The sniper was hiding behind a car that was in the parking lot of the Jehovah Witnesses’ church, which was on the other side of Highway 80. They riddled the car and sniper with M16 fire before they could get their M240 into action. They moved in to confirm the sniper was dead, and in the process they checked out the church.

“The guy had more than a dozen women and kids shackled to the pews since they weren’t under his immediate supervision. The story they told was the same as what we usually hear from abused survivors with a few minor differences. Evidently the guy flipped out and became a religious fanatic. He preached weird sermons to them from the church’s pulpit three times a day. The women said he had a wacky belief about God sending down the meteoroids to inflict death and damnation on the evildoers who destroyed his life. They said he blamed you and the Ark for destroying his life.”

“Me! Why would he blame me or the Ark?”

“That was the same question I had, so I had Major Brown look into the matter for me. Do you remember Billy Mackey?”

“Yeah, he was the leader of the BCers.”

“I thought you would. He was the sniper. The women said he ranted about how you destroyed his motorcycle club just because his girlfriend asked for a tour of the Ark.”

“Humpf. If he was anything like he was back then, and it sounds like he was, then he is no loss to our gene pool.”

“Yeah, I didn’t meet him personally, but I can recall the problems he and his gang created around town, so I agree with his death being no big loss. Anyway that’s what my day has been like.

“What have you been doing, Jon?”

“Not much other than read reports. What have you heard from Phil about the Refinery?”

“Not a whole lot more than the last time we talked. I assume you read the reports I prepared.”

“Sort of, Mike. You have things under control, so I just read the summaries. Unless I have a question, I don’t read the detailed contents.”

“Okay I’ll start with Phil’s arrival at Davis. Actually, he wasn’t able to reach Davis on his planned route, as a large meteoroid had destroyed a portion of Highway 113 and a good part of the city. He detoured west about two miles to Lincoln Highway and took it south to Highway 80.

“From Lincoln to Vacaville, Phil encountered road damage that was caused by small meteoroid strikes. As he approached Vacaville, he also started running into large amounts of debris on the highway that was blocking the road and there were also sections of road washed out by the tsunami wave. While in Vacaville, he scavenged some heavy construction equipment and a good supply of diesel. It took him a lot longer than we planned to get through Vacaville.

“From Vacaville to the refinery, he encountered debris, washed out sections of road, and more meteoroid damage to the highway. Phil tried sending out scouting parties to find a way around the washed out sections of road, but the county roads were in worse condition than the highway. In a few places, they had to rebuild portions of the highway. The trip was planned as two days of travel, but it ended up taking seven days.

“The Refinery was a mess, what with the debris, damaged fence line, and damaged equipment. The head of the Petroleum Group, Bella Egan, and her crews were able to get into the control rooms they planned to use, so they could inspect the damage. They think they can fix the Refinery.

“Our people started cleaning up the refinery by removing the fencing and dragging it up the road to an open patch of ground. Phil said his patrols found out the stores in the surrounding area were destroyed and their merchandise had washed away. I think he is trying to save everything that might be useful in setting up a defensive perimeter.

“Next they removed the debris and the remains of a few people who had been killed by the tsunami from the portions of the refinery that the Petroleum Group is planning to restore to operation. When that was done, Bella’s people could access the buildings while Phil’s people started cleaning up the rest of the refinery.

“Once the Petroleum Group had access to the buildings, they started removing the accumulation of mud and small debris from the buildings. Most of the control room equipment was damaged by saltwater, but the non-electrical equipment was usually salvageable. Bella and her crew chiefs believe they can replace the computer-controlled equipment with manual controls. She said they would be doing things the way they were done over a hundred years ago, so it will be a more cumbersome and labor-intensive arrangement; but it should work.

“Since Bella’s plan is to convert all of the computer-controlled processes to manual control, they are preparing lists of the equipment and materials they will need to do the conversion. Leah’s group will look for the items they need to do the conversion, or a close substitute. If suitable parts can’t be found or adapted, the Petroleum Group will prepare drawings and specifications for parts and send them to us. Our machine and fabrication shops on Levels 13 and 14 will make the parts Leah can’t find. If our attempt at restoring the refinery is successful, I think it is going to be a major kluge. In spite of that clusterfuck, once the refinery is in operation, we will have the time to create computer programs and restore the refinery to a fully computer-controlled facility.

“The Petroleum Group crew that went out to the oil and gas fields is having similar problems. Their crew chief, Caleb Hilliard, inspected the derrick sites and he found saltwater, mud, and debris inside the motors that drive the derricks and in the pumps that pump the oil and gas into the pipeline. His crew is disassembling the motors and pumps, cleaning them with fresh water, and reassembling them. Most of the restored equipment is working. If a motor or pump is toast, they scavenge a replacement from a derrick we won’t be using and start all over by cleaning the replacement.

“According to Caleb, the pumping stations are far simpler than the refinery to restore to operation in that the equipment’s complexity is simpler and it requires less control by computers. The motors and pumps need to be disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled and his crew will get to that once all of the derricks we need to use are restored to service. He will also need to covert the pumping stations to manual control.

“While all of that is being done, Caleb has about half of Lieutenant Montoya’s people walking the route the pipe lines took looking for any sections of pipeline the tsunami uncovered. When they find a section that is uncovered, they inspect the pipe for damage. So far all they are doing is, marking the location of the exposed sections of pipeline on a map and noting any damaged sections. Caleb’s people will repair the damaged sections later and then pressure test them to see if there are any more leaks. Once that is done, they will rebury the exposed sections.

“All together, Jon, it will be months before we are ready to start our first batch of diesel.”

“What about the Blocking Posts, Mike. Any problems?”

“Not really, Jon, just the usual. Occasionally, a small group of survivors will show up. They are mostly friendly and the Seals check them out for any ROE violations. So far there haven’t been any violations and the groups are happy to join us.

“Lieutenant Morrison has moved Blocking Post 4 to the State Recreation Area. The crew chief of one of the Line Crews showed up and said he had a request to route power to them and they would do it the next day. A problem came up, and from what I heard, Post 4 won’t get power until this week or the next.”

“Okay. What about the SCCs?”

“Excluding the usual personal disagreements between survivors, things seem to be going good there. Leah has been putting survivors to work on her Scavenger Teams. Recently Sam’s Property Department has been recruiting people to be a nucleus for creating what she is calling Survey Teams.”

“Yeah, I know about that. It is a frequent topic at dinner. Since we had that discussion with Sam, our Bond Mates are involved in putting together an agenda for Captain Morrison to work on. I understand they are preparing to get the Bond Groups of Seal Team 2 involved in the process.

“Sam is doing the advance planning for surveying the homes that will be used as quarters for Ark Army personnel and their Bond Groups. Starting the surveys is still months in the future for she needs to identify the area for the Bond Group Homes and she needs to ensure Leah can restore utility services to the area.

“There are also problems with living space. Our average Bond Group is currently four adults and Sam thinks it will increase to around six adults. Add in the current and future children and most homes are too small for an entire Bond Group.

“Sam has two solutions for using private residences as our quarters. First, she thinks we should designate three or four abandoned homes to be a single Bond Group Home and her Property Department will issue the home to a single person and their Bond Group. This is the fastest solution for getting all of our people into the abandoned residences. The main problem with the solution is the people who make up the Bond Group will have to go outside to move back and forth between the homes that form their Group Home. That will be a major inconvenience at night and during bad weather.

“Her second solution is basically the same as the first solution. The difference is she will have construction crews build hallways between the residences that make up the Group Home. Then the Group Home will essentially be a single interconnected structure. The problem with that solution is it will take years to put together enough Group Homes for just the soldiers here in the Auburn area and to provide those Group Homes with utility services.

“Sam is also considering a third solution that will use apartment buildings as quarters for our people. She is thinking of dividing each floor into several Bond Group Homes. She is talking about creating doorways between adjacent apartments to create a single Group Home. If the apartment building has enough space on each floor, she is hoping she will be able to develop four Group Homes per floor. The solution will work and be quicker and simpler than using private residences, but it will create a number of issues with maintaining the apartment buildings.

“Sam thinks all of her solutions will result in maintenance issues for our soldiers. Especially those who may not have the skills and time to maintain their Group Home. She has decided we need to issue the homes and maintain them ourselves. Right now, she is having her people do a study to see which solution is the best: private homes or apartment buildings.

“How is Sergeant Previn doing with integrating all of the schedules, Mike?”

“Major Vannes checks with me several times a week for guidance in resolving the problems that Sergeant Previn finds. It seems that she is making good progress and it sounds like Ann is happy with what Previn is doing. I haven’t asked for status since she started integrating the last batch of Department schedules, but the people Previn has worked with have complimented her on the job she’s doing when I’ve spoken with them.”

“Alright. Keep an eye on her progress and see that she gets whatever she needs to do the job. How is Carl doing in Folsom?

“He and his Companies are settled into their Areas of Responsibility. They are sending out patrols to look for movement in their respective AORs. That has been attracting the attention of the local survivors in their AORs, so they have been getting a lot of walk-ins looking for help. The SCC wasn’t intended to provide long-term care for survivors, so the survivors are being bussed to Auburn.

“Leah has been talking about sending some of her Scavenger Teams to Folsom. I let her know that until we have a better idea of what is going on in Folsom, that would be a bad idea.

“From the looks of things, we are going to have to open two or three new SCCs here in Auburn to handle everyone we are getting from Folsom. Leah and Sam will likely appreciate the additional workforce, but we will have problems with providing guards for the new SCCs. What with our redeployments, I haven’t had time to determine how to handle that situation.”

“Just a thought, Mike. What if we were to set up the new SCCs by co-locating them near SCCs 2 and 3; that location would be near the center of Auburn and away from our borders. I’m not that familiar with the area around SCC 3, but I remember seeing some fairly large buildings in the area between the two locations. We could use those buildings to set up several SCCs. Since they aren’t as close to our borders and exposed as SCC 1 and 4, Alpha Company and Seal Team 1 could provide guard services for all of the SCCs in that area. We may have to increase Company A’s manning at SCC 2 and 3, so those guard forces can protect the new SCCs. Things seem very calm at the Freight Yard. If necessary, we could temporarily have one of Fox Company’s Platoons deploy to the area to assist with guard duty, but I don’t think that will be needed.”

“You are right about things being calm around the Freight Yard, but I don’t think splitting Fox Company up like that would be a good idea. They and Seal Team 1 are our Quick Reaction Forces. I want to keep them available for rapid deployment to any point they are needed. Putting Fox on guard duty in two places would tie them down.”

“That’s true, Mike. I’ve been out of the picture for a while, so I’ll bow to your superior grasp of the troop distribution and situations. Getting back to Folsom, how is the tree clearing effort at the dam going?”

“Ahmed let me know that the Seals completed the initial effort, and Ensign Yeager left Chief Nighy and Seal Platoon 6 at the dam to keep the filter grid clear in the future. He also told me the Army personnel Ensign Yeager trained are doing a good job helping to keep the filter grid clear, so it sounds like that task is under control.

“Yeager and Seal Platoon 5 arrived at the Ark to reprovision. When Yeager checked in with me, I told him that he and his men should prepare for deploying to Benicia, but to wait here until the next Benicia resupply run is ready to go. They will be here for at least another week. I told Yeager he and his people should take at least three days off with their Bond Groups before they start preparing to head for Benicia. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since then.

“Have you heard about the Texas Barbeque, Jon?”

“No, I haven’t. What happened?”

“It hasn’t happened yet, Jon. The other day, Captain Bell stopped by to visit with me. She told me that she and Lieutenant Brooks had decided that SCC 2 should host a Texas Barbeque to welcome Seal Team 1 to the SCC. It is supposed to be a bonding event between the Seals, the Army, and the people at the SCC. They are just getting started with the planning, but she felt she should let us know about their event and let us know that they plan to invite special guests, which will include you, me, and our Bond Groups. They are also planning to send food out to the Blocking Posts and to have Alpha Company’s people and the Negotiators who are at the other SCCs join them at SCC 2 for some food. She will be having those people rotate through SCC 2 in small groups. It sounds like a good idea, Jon, so I told them to go ahead and enjoy themselves.”

“Yeah, it does sound like a good idea, Mike. Too bad we can’t expand it to include all the survivors and all of our Arkians. Humm ... I just had an idea, Mike. But it would spoil Abby’s plans, so I’ll defer it until next spring.”

“What are you thinking, Jon?”

“I like her idea so much that I would like to expand the Barbeque idea to include everyone who is living on the surface and the Arkians who work on the surface but live in the Ark. It doesn’t seem feasible, but I’d like to also include everyone living in the Ark. Unfortunately, I would wreck her concept of the Barbeque being a bonding experience if I did what I’m thinking of doing now. I’ll talk with her about my idea at her Barbeque. Let Abby know that if she needs assistance, we’re willing to provide support without taking over her show.”

“Anything else, Jon?”

“I can’t think of anything, Mike. I’ll get out of your hair and head home. Maybe I’ll be able to kick back in my recliner and take a nap before dinner.”

Charlie Company’s Second Platoon was patrolling the border of their AOR in Folsom. Third Squad’s three-vehicle convoy was commanded by Staff Sergeant Gwen Crane (Charlie 3-3). The vehicles were maintaining a spacing of thirty feet with four soldiers crouched down in the beds of the three vehicles. As the vehicles moved down the road, the soldiers maintained a focused surveillance of the general area to each side of their vehicle. On each side, they watched for movement to the front, sides, and rear of their vehicles. The muzzles of their weapons made small movements that tracked the left-right movement of their eyes.

Corporal Art Laker, the driver of the point vehicle (Charlie 3-3-1) saw an SUV cross the road about six blocks ahead of them. This was the first sign of vehicular activity the patrol has encountered since they had arrived, so he called it in to Sergeant Crane using his personal radio which was on the same frequency as the Company’s comm net. However, personal radios had a very limited range compared to the vehicle radios, so his transmission may not be picked up by the Company’s comm center.

“Charlie 3-3, Charlie 3-3-1. Over.”

“Go, Charlie 3-3-1. Over.”

“An SUV crossed our line of travel about a half a mile ahead of us where our road ends in a T-intersection. Over”

“Roger, Charlie 3-3-1. Get us there quickly, but approach the intersection carefully and stop at the intersection.