Read Online Noah's Ark - Survivors by Harry Dayle - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Harry Dayle
Tags: Fiction, post apocalyptic
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added.
“Right. And so does waste water treatment. So we have to ask ourselves, how much water do we really need?” Martin looked around the table.
“There has to be basic sanitation,” Silvia said. “People need to wash, to flush toilets, or we could end up spreading germs and disease.”
“Silvia, you do understand we could be stranded for who knows how long?” Max didn’t look impressed. “Toilets I’ll grant you, but come on, back in the army you were lucky if you got a cold shower every couple of weeks on some tours. I say we switch off water to all the showers in the cabins, just leave one block running in the gym. If people have to queue, they won’t bother.”
“I wish we could,” Martin said. “But there’s no way to do that apart from visiting every cabin individually and cutting the supply, one by one. It would take days.”
“Okay, so we introduce a ration system,” Jake said. “Martin, I assume you can shut off the water to the whole ship from the desalination plant?”
“Of course.”
“So we let people know that the water will be on for one hour in the morning. Outside those hours they’ll have to make do.”
“The passengers aren’t going to like this. They’re not going to like it one little bit,” Lucya said, rubbing her neck.
“If we tell them it’s that or we switch the lights and heat off, they’ll understand,” Max said.
Everyone nodded, the matter seemed settled. Jake opened one of the draws under the table and moved around the contents until he found what he was looking for. He extracted a large blue crayon-like pencil. They were designed for plotting courses on laminated maps, but he had other ideas in mind. He started writing directly on the shiny table surface: “Water” Underneath, he wrote “Rationed, 09:00 − 10:00”
“Okay,” he said. “Anything else on water, while we’re at it?”
“What about the pools?” Silvia asked. “Five swimming pools and a few hot tubs, there’s a lot of water in those. Can we use any of it?”
“The pools drain through the waste water plant,” Martin said. “We could disconnect them and reconnect them to the fresh water tanks, drain them into those. That buys us a bit of extra fuel as we can use that water instead of the desalinated stuff.”
“Speaking of waste water,” Jake was stroking his chin, deep in thought, “you said that it gets treated by another machine?”
“Yes. Water from showers, sinks, the kitchens and bars, all that stuff gets filtered then goes overboard. Anything from the toilets goes through a shredder then dumped at sea. It’s the shredder that needs the power, that and the pumps. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?” Jake asked. “Can’t we bypass the shredder and dump everything as it is? Nobody is going to complain!”
“Because within twenty four hours this ship is going to be floating in a lake of its own shit,” Martin said. “And sucking that same shit up into the desalination plant to use as fresh water.”
Silvia screwed up her face. “Won’t the sea carry it away, on the currents?” she asked
“I doubt the currents up here are strong enough to have much of an effect,” Lucya said. “We could move to a better location, we’d need a few hours sailing time. Are you willing to burn that much fuel Captain?”
All eyes turned to Jake, waiting for his response, but he remained silent. He looked around the table, didn’t understand why nobody had answered.
“Captain Noah?” Max said.
“Oh, right, that’s me. Sorry, this captain thing is going to take some getting used to. Lucya, work out a course to take us somewhere where the water problem wont be an issue, but make sure we’re headed towards land. If we’re going to burn fuel, we should at the very least get closer to land. We all know we can’t survive at sea indefinitely, even with rationing. Our objective has to be to try and find land, and land that hasn’t
“Right. And so does waste water treatment. So we have to ask ourselves, how much water do we really need?” Martin looked around the table.
“There has to be basic sanitation,” Silvia said. “People need to wash, to flush toilets, or we could end up spreading germs and disease.”
“Silvia, you do understand we could be stranded for who knows how long?” Max didn’t look impressed. “Toilets I’ll grant you, but come on, back in the army you were lucky if you got a cold shower every couple of weeks on some tours. I say we switch off water to all the showers in the cabins, just leave one block running in the gym. If people have to queue, they won’t bother.”
“I wish we could,” Martin said. “But there’s no way to do that apart from visiting every cabin individually and cutting the supply, one by one. It would take days.”
“Okay, so we introduce a ration system,” Jake said. “Martin, I assume you can shut off the water to the whole ship from the desalination plant?”
“Of course.”
“So we let people know that the water will be on for one hour in the morning. Outside those hours they’ll have to make do.”
“The passengers aren’t going to like this. They’re not going to like it one little bit,” Lucya said, rubbing her neck.
“If we tell them it’s that or we switch the lights and heat off, they’ll understand,” Max said.
Everyone nodded, the matter seemed settled. Jake opened one of the draws under the table and moved around the contents until he found what he was looking for. He extracted a large blue crayon-like pencil. They were designed for plotting courses on laminated maps, but he had other ideas in mind. He started writing directly on the shiny table surface: “Water” Underneath, he wrote “Rationed, 09:00 − 10:00”
“Okay,” he said. “Anything else on water, while we’re at it?”
“What about the pools?” Silvia asked. “Five swimming pools and a few hot tubs, there’s a lot of water in those. Can we use any of it?”
“The pools drain through the waste water plant,” Martin said. “We could disconnect them and reconnect them to the fresh water tanks, drain them into those. That buys us a bit of extra fuel as we can use that water instead of the desalinated stuff.”
“Speaking of waste water,” Jake was stroking his chin, deep in thought, “you said that it gets treated by another machine?”
“Yes. Water from showers, sinks, the kitchens and bars, all that stuff gets filtered then goes overboard. Anything from the toilets goes through a shredder then dumped at sea. It’s the shredder that needs the power, that and the pumps. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?” Jake asked. “Can’t we bypass the shredder and dump everything as it is? Nobody is going to complain!”
“Because within twenty four hours this ship is going to be floating in a lake of its own shit,” Martin said. “And sucking that same shit up into the desalination plant to use as fresh water.”
Silvia screwed up her face. “Won’t the sea carry it away, on the currents?” she asked
“I doubt the currents up here are strong enough to have much of an effect,” Lucya said. “We could move to a better location, we’d need a few hours sailing time. Are you willing to burn that much fuel Captain?”
All eyes turned to Jake, waiting for his response, but he remained silent. He looked around the table, didn’t understand why nobody had answered.
“Captain Noah?” Max said.
“Oh, right, that’s me. Sorry, this captain thing is going to take some getting used to. Lucya, work out a course to take us somewhere where the water problem wont be an issue, but make sure we’re headed towards land. If we’re going to burn fuel, we should at the very least get closer to land. We all know we can’t survive at sea indefinitely, even with rationing. Our objective has to be to try and find land, and land that hasn’t
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