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'qa' Overdue Maintenance, 'qb' The Floor Is Water: revision, split end into new chapter, continue writing 'qa'

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BodgeMaster 2025-01-24 21:53:40 +01:00
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out. Roaring water echoes from somewhere in the distance. Annie grabs
her bag and follows the others towards the end of the tunnel. The wall
to the right features doors, large gates, and a few windows that allow
a peek into abandoned offices, storage spaces, and a machine shop.
a peek into abandoned offices, storage spaces, and a small machine shop.
The end of the tunnel connects to a large balcony extending into
a narrow ravine with rusted metal walkways going to either side.
a narrow ravine with rusted metal walkways going to the left and right.
</p>
<p>
They walk onto the balcony and take a look around: The walkway to the
left goes to a freestanding staircase tower that goes down to the bottom
of the ravine and is just as rusty as the walkway itself. The walkway
to the right connects to the top of a concrete dam blocking the ravine.
A couple bushes, flowers, and a small tree grow there, partially hiding
rusty cranks and levers, and the dam is green from moss and small ferns
growing all over its side. Water flows over the spillway, falling into
the depths below. To the right of the dam, inset into the same rock face
as the tunnel exit, is a wall with a window front.
</p>
<p>
They walk onto it and take a look around: The walkway to the left
goes to a freestanding staircase tower that leads down and is just
as rusty as the walkway itself. The walkway to the right connects
to the top of a concrete dam blocking the ravine. A couple bushes,
flowers, and a small tree grow there, partially hiding rusty cranks
and levers, and the dam is green from moss and small ferns growing
all over its side. Water flows over the spillway, falling into the
depths below. To the right of the dam and walkway, inset into
the same side of the ravine as the tunnel exit, is a wall with
a front of windows.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Annie, check this out!</span><br />
Jack gestures for her to come to the railing. She hesitates.<br />
<span class="quote speech">That railing is gonna hold, yeah?</span><br />
@ -41,8 +42,8 @@
and &quot;jump&quot;</span> onto the beam holding it, leaving the
section of floor barely hanging on.<br />
Michelle asks: <span class="quote speech">You okay?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Yeah &ndash; less so the floor...</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Yeah &ndash; can&apos;t say the same for
the floor...</span><br />
The two walk the rest of the way across, meanwhile Annie and Jack stay
on the balcony.
</p>
@ -66,96 +67,155 @@ dam first, then turn their attention to the windows.</p>
<span class="quote speech">Looks like there might be a way back to
the tunnel from inside. We could let you in that way.</span><br />
Jack replies: <span class="quote speech">That would work
but we probably don&apos;t wanna break these windows.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Nobody said anything of
<i>breaking</i>...</span><br />
James takes a screwdriver out of his pocket. He jams it inbetween
the window and its frame, then quickly pulls on it. The window jumps
but we probably really don&apos;t wanna break these windows.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Nobody said anything about breaking
them...</span><br />
James takes a screwdriver out of his pocket and jams it inbetween
the window and its frame, then he quickly pulls on it. The window jumps
open with a bang.<br />
Michelle looks at him a bit <span class="comment">befuddled?</span>.
<br />
<span class="quote speech">What?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">You seem to have some <i>interesting</i>
skills...</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">The more intact old world buildings tend
to have locked doors. Gotta get in somehow.</span>
</p>
<p>
Jack and Annie are waiting in the tunnel next to a door.
The handle moves down and they hear the deadbold retracting with
a click. The door creaks as it gets pulled inward, revealing a hallway.
Michelle is on the other side, leading the way. James is standing in
a door to the left, holding it open. They go through and enter the
control room, a somewhat large room packed with equipment. Across the
room is the wall with the window front, allowing a view of the spillway
and the top of the dam. In front of it is a random collection of
electronics and furniture, mostly desks and chairs and terminals,
<span class="comment">zusammengeschoben? piled up?</span> for storage.
In the center is a large
console with more buttons, switches, and gauges that is facing the
windows and an opening in the floor behind it, covered with a thick
glass pane.
The wall to the left is lined with metal cabinets with buttons,
switches, large gauges and levers on them.
The wall to the right is taken up by storage
<span class="comment">cabinets? the drawer thingies...</span>
and an assortment of large devices and contraptions.
</p>
<p class="comment">TODO: They take a brief look at the control room
and then climb outside onto the dam, returning to the control room
afterwards.</span>
<p>
<span class="comment">This needs to be tied together again as the
beginning of the chapter has been rewritten.</span>
They roam around the room for a while. Annie looks outside, admiring
the flowering lilypads floating in the water held back by the dam.
Meanwhile, Michelle looks at an old calendar.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Jack, what&apos;s the status on that dome
city you&apos;re building? You guys only have two years to finish that
project.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Oh no, I guess we&apos;re gonna have to slack
less while waiting for bureaucracy to take its course.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">The power lines are gonna get hooked up
to the battery bank in a couple days. Aren&apos;t you excited for
progress?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Not my department but I sure hope we&apos;re
no longer gonna need these portable batteries down there. Having a
working power grid is gonna be so nice.</span><br />
They are laughing. The calendar shows October 1991 with a few entries
and crossed-off days.
The handle moves down and they hear the deadbolt retracting with
a click. The door creaks as Michelle pulls it inward, revealing
a hallway. She leads the way. James is standing in a door to the left,
holding it open. They go through and enter the control room, a somewhat
large room packed with equipment. Across from them are the windows,
allowing a view of the spillway and the top of the dam, with a random
assortment of office furniture and a few electronic devices
<span class="comment">zusammengeschoben? piled up?</span>
in front of them. The wall to the left is lined with metal cabinets
with a few buttons, switches, large gauges and levers on them. The wall
to the right is taken up by storage <span class="comment">cabinets?
the drawer thingies...</span> and an assortment of large devices and
contraptions. A bit towards them from the center of the room is
a large console facing the window front with many buttons, switches,
gauges, and two telephones on it. Annie walks past it and looks out
the windows, admiring the flowering lilypads floating behind the dam.
</p>
<p>
Jack looks at a clipboard that was placed on the control panel on the
center console.<br />
<span class="quote speech">The next maintenence expedition is scheduled
for 2011... I don&apos;t think anyone ever stepped foot in here after
Sunside&nbsp;Cove was sealed off.</span><br />
Annie turns around and leans against the center console.<br />
Jack picks up a clipboard and pencil that lay on the center console.
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Maintenance checklist for October 2011 &ndash;
I don&apos;t think anyone has stepped foot in here since Sunside Cove was
sealed off.</span><br />
Annie turns around and leans on the console.
<span class="quote speech">It wouldn&apos;t surprise me. Many people are
legitimately scared of the outside world.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I mean they&apos;re probably right, the
outside world is pretty dangerous. Watch your step, by the way...</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Whoa!</span><br />
She stumbles backwards. Without noticing it, she had walked onto the
glass pane. It allows a view down into a hall filled with machinery.
She looks down and ... <span class="quote speech">Whoa!</span><br />
Without noticing, she had walked onto a thick glass pane covering
a large opening in the floor. It allows a view into a hall filled with
machinery. The floor is flooded by water rushing out of a burst pipe and
spraying out from the flanges of many other pipe sections.
<br />
Jack says: <span class="quote speech">It&apos;s a miracle that there is
still power being generated here. Michelle, James, have a look down
there.</span><br />
Michelle responds: <span class="quote speech">Yeah, we saw on the way in.
This place is overbuilt to take it.</span><br />
He walks around the console and tries to get a better look.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Looks like it might not tale it for much
longer. All four turbines have water, but only three are spinning.</span>
</p>
<p>
They gather around it and look down. The floor is flooded by water
rushing out of a burst pipe and spraying out from the flanges of many
other pipe sections.<br />
<span class="quote speech">It&apos;s a miracle this place is still
running.</span>
</p>
<p class="comment">
missing section
After a short time discussing with Michelle and flipping through
the paper on the clipboard, they come up with a plan and Jack sits down
at the console. He picks up a telephone and dials a number.
While wedging the receiver between his shoulder and ear, he pulls a few
pages from the clipboard and lays them out in front of him.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Good afternoon, this is Jack, I am calling
from the Ivydale hydro power station. Am I talking to infrastructure
control?</span><br />
Short pause while he listens.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Yes, I am.</span><br />
Another pause.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Sir, I don&apos;t care. We have an emergency.
Am I talking to infrastructure control?</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">I&apos;m not here to answer questions.
I am calling to inform you of an imminent power outage. Follow procedure
thirty-nine. Switch the battery banks to autonomous and disconnect the
transformers.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">Follow emergency procedure thirty-nine.</span>
<br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">As I said, I will not answer your
questions.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">Follow the procedure. You have fifteen
minutes.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">Will you do your fucking job already?
You need to get the city running on backup power <i>right now</i>.
Questions can be answered later.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">If the grid goes down with the power station,
that&apos;s on you. Follow emergency procedure thirty-nine. You can call
me back on the two five five two. Have a good day.</span><br />
Jack puts the receiver back down and shakes his head.<br />
<span class="comment">TODO: James is probably unfamiliar with
telephones.</span>
</p>
<p>
Jack turns the key and the gate starts to move up, scrathcing and
squeeking as it does, revealing a bunch of crates. About half-way
up, it gets stuck, making a buzzing noise. He lets go of the key and it
stops. They duck under the gate and look around. They find themselves in
a warehouse much larger than the gate and windows facing the tunnel would
lead to assume.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call
an adequate stockpile of spare parts.</span><br />
Jack walks up to a huge crate and wipes the dust off the label:
<span class="quote non-speech">Turbine C, replacement 2</span>.
In the meantime, Michelle has gone around and flipped some switches on
the control panel cabinets to the left. The gauges are lit up and their
needles no longer sit at their resting points. Jack flips a switch on
the center console and it lights up like a christmas tree. He gives it
a once-over, then he presses some buttons on his watch and gets up.
</p>
<p class="comment">
exploring the warehouse, they find a forklift and a railroad in the back
<p>
The four climb back outside onto the dam. Jack and James attempt to
<span class="commenr">man-handle?</span> the mechanism to lower the
spillway gate. To their surprise, it actually moves and the water flow
increases.<br />
<span class="comment">ToDo: something missing here, Idk</span>
</p>
<p>
A bell starts ringing in the control room. They climb through the window
again and Michelle sits down at the center console. She hits a button
and the ringing stops.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Power draw is dropping. Looks like
they&apos;re doing their part.</span><br />
Jack looks at his watch.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Sixteen minutes. About time...</span><br />
A few minutes later, the bell goes off again. The needles on most of the
gauges suddenly swing to zero. The phone rings. Jack answers:<br />
<span class="quote speech">Ivydale hydro power station, this is
Jack.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">Affirmative, you are disconnected.</span>
<br />
He looks up and holds the receiver away from his mouth.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Annie, can you flip that big switch?</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">This one?</span><br />
It moves down with a satisfying <i>ka-chonk</i>. Michelle turns
some <span class="comment">what do you call this style of switch?</span>
on the console and slowly pulls back one of four levers. The console
buzzes at her and some status lights start blinking.<br />
She tries the other three levers, only the third one moves without
buzzing.<br />
Jack speaks into the phone again: <span class="quote speech">We&apos;ll
need to manually shut down three of the turbines. In the meantime,
is it in your power to gather volunteers?</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">As many as we can get. We need people to
dismantle and rebuild large machinery and plumbing.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">I don&apos;t know? Talk to the news or
something.</span><br />
&ndash;<br />
<span class="quote speech">Thanks.</span>
</p>
<p class="copyright">Copyright &#169; 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) &ndash; All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>

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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> The Floor Is Water </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><a href="index.html"><button class="back">&lt;</button></a>
<h1>The Floor Is Water</h1>
<p class="comment">missing section</p>
<p>
Jack turns the key and the gate starts to move up, scrathcing and
squeeking as it does, revealing a bunch of crates. About half-way
up, it gets stuck, making a buzzing noise. He lets go of the key and it
stops. They duck under the gate and look around. They find themselves in
a warehouse much larger than the gate and windows facing the tunnel would
lead to assume.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call
an adequate stockpile of spare parts.</span><br />
Jack walks up to a huge crate and wipes the dust off the label:
<span class="quote non-speech">Turbine C, replacement 2</span>.
</p>
<p class="comment">
exploring the warehouse, they find a forklift and a railroad in the back
</p>
<p class="copyright">Copyright &#169; 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) &ndash; All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>