Reconquest: Mother Earth

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XVIII

 

Here are where the sewing machines will go." Sandy McGowan pointed to a room with six work stations. They had what looked like simple wooden tables with yarn, thread and other sewing materials. Nearby the workstations were bins that had various fabrics. 

Mitch yawned. Although he was interested in the community's new clothing manufacturing facility, he had barely slept lately, and it was catching up to him.  

Sandy led him to another room. "This is where we'll produce wool." The room had large tubs to scour the wool, a dyeing station, a station to comb the wool, and finally a spinning frame.  

Mitch smiled. "You've done a good job." 

"Well, the people here need new clothes," Sandy said.  

He excused himself after Sandy finished the tour. Tomorrow, he planned on inspecting a nearby tool and dye shop. He wanted to manufacture mechanical items needed for construction. They had already started making circuit boards and computers. They were becoming self-sufficient, raising their own food and making various goods.  

He jogged home, trying to get in some extra exercise. On the way, he ran into Bruce Dennison, who Mitch had put in charge of getting the nuclear power plant back into operation.  

Mitch took a moment to catch his breath. "Moose, I've been meaning to talk to you about the plant. How are the upgrades coming along?" 

Bruce had spent his previous life as an operations instructor at a nuclear power station, spending most of his time teaching people how to run the reactor plant. He had the most nuclear power operational experience at the community. Mitch also felt a kinship with Bruce, who he affectionately referred to as Moose, because of his background in the navy, having served as a ballistic mate in a nuclear submarine.  

Bruce sighed. "Slowly. The biggest problem has been getting or making replacement parts. We've made some progress. Slowly but surely we'll get the reactors up and running." 

"Great. Let me know what resources you need. That would be a huge benefit if we can start using nuclear power." 

"Mitch, I'm all for getting another fuel source, and I think we can get the power plant up and running, but we need to step carefully here and avoid making the same mistakes we made in the past. Back in the day, disposing of the nuclear waste and byproducts was always an issue. Typically, the government found Native American reservations to dump the waste. We need to be smart about how we handle our nuclear waste. It's bad enough what the aliens have done to the planet. We shouldn't contribute to the decimation of Earth." 

Mitch nodded. With all of the things on his agenda, it was easy to overlook important details. Fortunately, he had good people to whom he could delegate the work. "You're absolutely right. I want you to hold town forum discussions to discuss the matter. Set up time at the community center, and we can brainstorm." 

"Good deal." Moose was about to leave when he stopped suddenly. "I do have some good news. We've made strides converting the cars from gasoline to biofuels. Two this week. There's been a bit of a learning curve, but we're getting there." 

After Mitch had learned about Bruce's pre-invasion passion for restoring old cars, he set him to work in helping convert their existing gasoline-powered vehicles to ones using biodiesel, but primarily vegetable oil. Given the existing lack of refinery capacity, Mitch was trying to move away from the use of petroleum where possible.  

Mitch patted him on the back. "Good work. Keep me updated." 

Mitch finished his run. When he got to his house, a note posted on the front door stated, "Interviews with new citizens. Meet me at Community Center 2 at noon."