Vaxdemic Book 2 Chapter 19
Chapter 19
I want to get this out of the way, because I wanted to write it down but I haven’t had enough to write about till recently. I think God is screwing with me. A few days after we got the bypass valve working and the main inlet open the rain stopped all together. The water level in the lake is now almost normal. It’s like it only existed as a problem to make me solve it, then God said, “Well that was funny, on to the next thing.” Everyone else seems happy it’s over. I guess I’m just feeling a little bitter.
Putting the generator back together went pretty smoothly after Garv and I got some time to crash. We both lost a full day to make up the sleep deficit. Matt wasn’t too happy about it, but I thought it was best to get it taken care of while we could still tell the hallucinations from reality. Also our rate of mistakes dropped sharply. We actually finish putting it together twice, but I was uncomfortable with the number of parts we took out and didn’t put back in. I’m not sure what a lot of these smaller parts do, but I’m sure we’d figure it out after something irreparable broke. Matt is already talking about building a second generator with what we learned taking this one apart. He assures me it will be much easier once we have power. I think if he wants a second generator, he’ll have to build it without me.
So, the generator is done, mostly. True the machinery is back together, and we even got the cover on, but there’s one thing left. The ancient computer sitting in the corner that regulates power flow needs to be hooked up. Given its age we’re lucky it has a screen. I don’t know exactly how old it is, but it looks like it predates Linux. I’m not too worried, once we get the it figured out I’ll refit it with something newer. That was my old job after all. Our biggest obstacle is connecting it to the generator. The computer itself is more like an old mainframe, built into a manual control unit. The inside is basically a mix of spaghetti wires, and hand soldiered boards. I’ve been spending my days with my electricity textbooks trying to figure out what everything is and does.
Garv has actually been indispensable in this. Apparently, he used to work in a factory before moving to the dam. He started out as a simple operator until one day his machine broke down. It apparently had that problem often. Garv said he didn’t have anything to keep him entertained that day, so instead of calling maintenance he just fixed the machine himself. No one knew about it till the machine was due for its next inspection and they found his repair. Apparently, he’d completely disconnected some big things that they thought were necessary but Garv knew weren’t. When they found out it was him, he was almost fired, which according to him happened often. When confronted he countered all their arguments by saying his repair had lasted six months with no break downs, not one of them had managed to keep the machine running for over a week. His boss seeing the logic in this gave Garv the basic test needed to get into maintenance. It wasn’t long before Garv had put most of the old technicians out of a job. How did Garv get the knowledge to do this. He told me as a child he just took things apart and tried to put them back together, eventually he started writing it down as he did it and learned through repetition and experience, much to the chagrin of his parents, teachers, and relatives who’s stuff he took apart.
Most of the parts I can’t identify Garv can. It was a little weird watching him lick a part or stick it to his arm to see if it shocked him to figure it out, but then I can’t bring myself to question him. Mapping out the circuits was easy compared to hooking up the power. Well, I say hooking it up is difficult, there’s actually no question as to where what goes. This machinery were working with is supposed to generate enough electricity to power a small city. As such it doesn’t have wires, it has bars, actual physical bars of copper that go into the concrete and behind the computer, then out of the computer to the studs on the side of the dam. Garv had to point this out to me when we started work on the computer. It took me a moment to understand what he meant. The idea of power output so high it used bars of copper rather than wires was absurd. In a lot of ways I still think it is. I know we’ll use wire eventually to transport it to the city and outlying areas. I’m now more aware of just what I’m dealing with.
This leads me to the difficulty. The truth is I’m a little scared. This is far bigger than anything I’ve worked with before and it’s unquestionable if we do something wrong or touch the wrong place while the powers flowing, we’ll die. I’ve seen people shocked in movies and games. I’ve been shocked enough to know that electricity doesn’t work like that, it’s scarier. The text book I’m using has a section on electrical safety with graphic drawings and descriptions of how terrible a death cause by electric shock can be. It’s a section I regret reading as many times as I have. Hooking the machine up is just a matter of reattaching the heavy connectors to the right bars and it “looks” really obvious which should go where. I also know that a lot of these old machines were built with no regard to ergonomics. It’s possible they just laid the bars wrong and we’re actually supposed to cross the connectors. This isn’t an exaggeration, I’ve had many plant engineers and managers say stuff like “Yeah, they goofed up when they ran the cables and so you have to connect them this really impractical way. It’s just how we’ve always done it.”
I was mapping out the inside to both get an edge on whatever the computer was going to throw at me and to stall. Unfortunately, the mapping finished quicker than I hoped and I could no longer think of any excuses. I informed the others over dinner that the next day we would power up the dam for a test run. That night Garv and I hooked up the small grid we have at the dam and disconnected every sensitive piece of hardware we could. I remember having several nightmares involving explosions and immolating inside a burning dam. The next morning, we were awoken to Matt running heavy cables down the stairs. He informed us if the test was successful, he wanted to finally test the LRADs he’d brought. I tried to argue with him, but he said he was sure Garv and I could make it work.
It took less than an hour to prepare the junction for the LRADs. Then it was time to turn on the old computer. It shuttered and clunked making the lights dim for a moment, then an orchestra of fans and whirring noises emanated from the machine. The screen lit up and an actual menu popped up. The program was indeed old, but it took me only a few minutes to learn how to navigate the system. It was remarkably primitive, but it did have a manual section that covered the generator’s start up procedures. The system apparently needed to be on a certain screen when the generator started to properly control it. I copied the instructions, prayed, double checked the instructions, repeat, repeat…
Garv got impatient and threw a wad of paper at me. With great hesitation I prepped the computer and gave Garv the word to open the valve to the generator. Garv opened the valve slowly. We could hear the water rush into the main chamber of the turbine. Air release valves pushing out gas as water took its place. In less than a minute I got a reading from the generator. Then we started to hear the turbine spinning. I switched the display to power output. We were already generating more power than I thought possible even with a hundred of my windmills. Garv ran to the stairs and shouted to Matt’s men to start their test.
In only a few minutes the men yelled for us to come up. I asked Garv to watch the display first. I really didn’t want to stay topside long and he could take as long as he wanted when I came back. Garv smiled unnervingly as he took the controls. I decided I would make it a really quick trip. When I reached the top one of the men took me halfway to the gate and handed me a set of binoculars. I scanned the walls. Four men were turning the LRADs in different directions and laughing. It didn’t take long to see why. Men were running as fast as they could out of the woods holding their ears. Some even having a thin trickle of blood leaking under their hands. Others simply fell to their knees vomiting as the men on the wall focused the invisible beams of sound on them. I assumed this was a victory, until I hear the call.
One of the men we’d left at the dam was yelling for me to come back. Something was wrong. I sprinted up the hill fearing the worst. As I entered the blockhouse the lights were almost blinding. I made for the stairs a quickly as I could. Several bulbs popped as I made my way down. Garv was at the computer panicking. He shouted the generator was creating too much power. I looked at the screen, we were nearing almost a thousand kilowatt-hours. I told Garv to switch the genitor to the bypass valve. I navigated the menus and found the emergency shut off. In a few seconds all the lights dimmed and went out.
It took half the day to get the old stuff working again. One of the windmills broke. The power surge temporarily turned them all into fans and this one spun so fast it shattered its axel. Thankfully that was the worst of the damage. After taking stock I realized for the first time I had broken something generating too much power.
Bob Stackey
July 10, 2024