Chapter 26: Power Switch
Lisa woke up with a start! She glared up at the unfamiliar ceiling for several seconds before finally remembering that she had moved into her new base. Sitting up on the two old couch's, Lisa stretched stiff and lazily. The room was a bit chilly, but at least it felt good to have had a full night's rest. Even at Joan's house she couldn't sleep-in long because Richard got up every morning before the sun had even risen. He had to tend to the garden or collect firewood and just him moving around the house was enough to keep Lisa awake. This was one of the downsides of being perpetually alert as a former soldier.
Getting up and ready for the day, Lisa started off with two carrots for breakfast. Not an ideal breakfast, but it was far tastier than nothing. Besides there was not much food left in her possession, even her MREs were starting to run out. She also had no idea when her next real meal might come along. Finishing her meager meal and deciding that leaving the coffin in her 'room' would be alright for the time being, it was time to start working.
Her first task, before checking to see if she could get this old dam running again, was to stock up on more food and water. The water wasn't all that hard to get nor that scarce. The river had bulged into a sizable lake on the topside of the dam and flanked by steep canyon walls. This lake’s surface was remarkably high reaching and to get to its surface, Lisa only need to make a short walk down a rocky slope next to the dam’s wall. Her she decided to add a well wheel pully to make water collection even simpler or perhaps the wiser solution would be to get the pump station working. That is if she could get electricity to run the pump.
Food would be a bit trickier to get. She could go to buy food from the market, but this option had two problems. One, was that her funds wouldn't last long, as she had no current income. Two, if someone were to follow her back to the dam, they might figure out her plan and cause her trouble. It would be best to learn more about the area and its people before venturing to and from town to frequently.
Another option was to grow her own food. This also wasn't currently possible. She didn't have any seeds, time, or decent knowledge of farming. So, for now her only real and favorite option was to go hunting.
Lisa decided to cross the dam and go into the woodlands growing by the lakeside and between the far-off mountain. There she intended to set up snares for squirrels and rabbits. Small game was much easier to gather than bears or deer. She knew how to set up many snares from her military survival training and had occasionally used similar traps to catch humans during wartime. Other than her black katana, she had taken from her coffin several strong thin wires before heading off towards the dam's road.
Now that she wasn't focused on fighting, like last time on the dam, she could really take in the scenery. The road itself was in surprisingly great condition and its dark black asphalt was perfectly smooth with no visible cracks. On either side of the road, she could see that the guard walls were chest high. The only sign of any aging was where two areas of the concrete walls met and, in that space, a large tuff of weeds grew. It seemed that the original engineers knew their craft and built the dam well.
Looking over the chest high wall on her right, she could see the town spread out on both sides of the river. The dam was built much higher up in the mountain cliffside compared to the rest of town on the plateau below. The western side of town she had first arrive to and explored some, clearly was the larger part of town. Judging from the gray smoke that rose from scattered fires from both sides of this river split town, Lisa could tell that the western side was more populated too.
Whereas the on the east side, despite the lack of populace, it looked like it was at one point an area of industrial power. Tall and complex looking factory's, large warehouses, chemical silos, and office buildings dominated much of the area. Only from the middle of the eastern part of town along the river and stretching towards the area closest to the ruined highway bridge, had smoke rising, showing that people lived there.
Then leaning over the edge, Lisa took a quick look at the dam wall itself. She took her time scanning the wall from top to the swirling waters below. Thankfully, she saw no apparent cracks or damaged areas across its entirety. Only five huge overflow water pipes, out of twenty, could be seen spewing muddy water into the river. She was so high up she couldn't hear the water splashing at all. She hoped that the other fifteen pipes were just closed off and not clogged. Fixing clogged dam pipes was not going to be easy or cheap.
Turning away Lisa looked towards the other side of the dam, it was beautiful. The lake, the dam had created, was nestled in between the craggy towering canyon. On either side was a steep but short cliff, with tan and gray rocks scattered at the water's edge. Above these cliff’s was a sea of evergreen trees and poplars. Looking at this striking sight, she spied a hawk gliding regally across the lakes placid surface, adding to the already silent serenity.
The wind was gently blowing her hair as the newly risen sun warmed her skin. Lisa smiled happily enjoying the pleasant morning. She took her time crossing the dam taking in the new day’s beauty. Soon she reached the cool shadows of the forest and stopped to take out her materials to build the snares. Only going a few paces into the woodlands, Lisa chose to place the snares into specific places that she knew would bring results.
Lisa smiled to herself as she recalled her first time learning how to make a snare. She could still hear her unnecessarily upbeat drill instructor teaching her platoon how to make one. At the time she found it boring to learn about but from her experience, learning about snares was a must.
“The snare is a simple way to catch food in both design and function. Simply find a path cutting through the tall grass made by rabbits or a branch leaning against a tree. Then make and tie a small loose loop on one end of the wire, no bigger than a fingers width. Then thread the other end of the wire through the loop to form a slip knot. Take the slip knot and place it ten centimeters above the ground or five centimeters above the branch. Finally, secure the loose end to a nearby tree or stake. Now leave the snare there till dark or the next morning. The animal will enter the trap and it will tighten down onto some part of the animal and prevent it from escaping until you were to come get it.”
Lisa set up a dozen of these snares before heading back to the dam's powerhouse building. Coming out from the woodlands she found it was nearly noon, and the sunshine was warm as it reflected off the asphalt road. Rekindling last night's fire, she boiled and ate some corn on the cob. Once fed, it was time to get back to figuring out how to get the dam running.
Using what little battery power the laptop still had, Lisa studied the blueprints to the power lines leaving the plant and electrical lines that traveled the entire dam itself. When the laptops power reached ten percent remaining only then did she finally close the laptop. Fortunately, she had a relatively great memory and knew exactly what and where to look for her objectives.
Her first goal was to ensure that all the power lines, exiting the Powerhouse towards the town, were all disconnected. If anyone else knew that electricity was running again, they would immediately try to take over the hydroelectric dam. She could not let this happen, otherwise her goal to make some money would be destroyed. Fighting off anyone that could threaten her goals would not be an issue, but if no one were left to sell electricity to than that would be just as bad.
Checking these lines was much easier than one might think, for all Lisa needed to do was look over the powerline poles leaving the facility. There were four lines going in opposite directions from the Powerhouse and each line was an Ultra high voltage (UHV) long transmission line. A transmission line having a length more than 250 km is considered as a long transmission line. These UHV lines are capable of sending electrical power to nearly an entire state, a fact that excited Lisa immensely. If she did manage to spread her influence into other towns, it would take no time for her to rake in so much cash!
But for now, she had to sever these lines temporarily. Luckily, she didn't have to cut them, but rather uncouple them from the transformers inside the Powerhouse. Normally it would take several workers with the power tools to do this, but Lisa had her military grade cybernetic prosthetic strength, which was more than enough to uncouple the lines. The nuts on the bolt holding the lines in place were large enough that she could pinch and twist them off with brute strength alone!
The next step was to go to the control room and flip on the switches to the transformer number one and to generator number one. Even though there wasn't any power yet, she had to do this so that they would activate after she manually started the turbines inside the dam. To start the turbines two things needed to be done. The first was to make sure that water from the lake was able to travel down through the intake pipe and spin the turbines underneath the generators. This led to the second issue. Lisa had to go into the dark tunnel then manually turn the valve open to allow water into the pipes.
After seeing the cold darkness of the tunnel the day before, Lisa was not looking forward to going in there. It wasn't that she was scared but going into such places alone was always unsettling to anyone. Humankind had always feared that which is hidden in the depths of darkness.
Lisa got together materials to make two torches to light her way through the tunnel. She found old rags and flammable liquids in the storage rooms on the first floor to accomplish making the torches. Lisa also decided to take with her, in addition to her katana and torches, her handgun just in case she returned to find someone in her base.
Standing in front of the two big metal doors leading to the tunnel of the dam, Lisa took a big breath and let it out slowly. This was one of her habits to relax, even though she had no real reason to be feeling so tense in the first place. Then removing the chain and dropping it at her feet, she pushed open one of the heavy doors.
Yet again, damp cool air rushed rapidly out from the dark maw of the tunnel. The sounds of metal on concrete screeched annoyingly together. Taking a match from her pocket she lit the first torch and it immediately started to burn brightly. The fire light lit up an area of twenty meters or so ahead as she walked towards the first set of magnetic generators. Luckily, the closest generators were not far from the entrance.
Lisa’s shoes scraped softly on the concrete floor as she walked carefully checking the walls for where she remembered where the switch was. She quickly spotted the big, red, and round manual switch on the wall behind the first generator. Before she turned it on, she inspected the generator itself. Eyeing it carefully in the firelight she determined that there was no signs of major rust, cracks, or warped parts. This was surprisingly great news, considering how long the dam had likely been dormant.
Satisfied, Lisa turned to the round wall switch and set her torch down on the floor next to her. The light dimmed slightly, but everything near her was quite visible. Gripping the switch tightly in both hands she rotated it. The switch groaned in protest loudly and she could hear the mechanisms inside the intake pipe raising to let the water back in the pipe. The gurgling of water was audible as it flowed down rapidly before contacting the turbines under the generator.
A dull thud echoed slightly from below as the turbines started to forcibly spin the shaft leading to the generator, which in turn creaked as it started up. The process was slow, and it took nearly five minutes before the generator started to make a repetitive humming noise. Hearing this Lisa got excited.
Now for the moment of truth, could it power the dam's lights and provide her the chance to start earning wealth? Thinking about this Lisa picked up the torch from the floor and hurried over towards the breaker on the opposite side of the tunnel. The breaker had on the outside of it a big lever that was currently lowered. All she needed to do was lift it and see if electricity indeed was being generated.
Lisa reached out towards the leaver, when a peculiar slight sound came from further down the dark tunnel.
"Pat, pat, pat, pat!"
It was the sound of bare footsteps coming her way from within the darkness! She was not alone down here!