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with power available was also a
headache. He couldn’t start on the walls, the fences or the cave interiors
until he had more power and more TIME! The farm was going the best he could
manage, fortunately the combine and farm equipment were mostly self sufficient
and automated. Maintenance was a pain; the droids just didn’t have the reflexes
and fine control to do small connections or to clean themselves when muck got
into various joints or gears. Plants should be sprouting soon, they would need
water. He rubbed his brow.
    He had relocated one of the cats
and one dog to the mobile home after he had spotted a spider rat trying to
sneak in. The damn things were everywhere now, six legged varmints, and four
beady eyes. They stayed away from the cats and dogs, but were constantly in the
animal feed or running through the herds, causing them to moo or neigh in
fright.
    A few had been stomped; he had
gleefully tossed them in with the cheetah. The cheetahs were another concern,
constantly pacing in their cages. They needed outdoor space, placed to run as
did many of his other animals. He sighed again.
    It always came back to the
animals he mused. He tightened the last bolt and then stepped back, allowing
the robot clearance to lift the shaft of the turbine and place it into the
base. He connected the electrical line, then the bolts to the base. He watched
as the robots played out the guy wires, then drive the stake ends into the
ground. Then he shook his head and moved to the next one.
    Releasing the cats and dogs was
not an option, with their limited gene pool and pregnant condition he couldn’t
take a chance that one would be injured or killed. The idea of letting the
cheetah loose was also disregarded. The wrench slipped and he skinned his
knuckles. Swearing he checked it, then shook it as the skin smarted, reminding
him to pay closer attention to what he was doing. He looked over the area,
waiting for the pain to recede a little.
    A wall of cargo pods along both
sides of the garage opening had framed it nicely. The wall to the north was for
the animals, the wall to the south was for storage, and more animal corrals. As
soon as he had the time he planned to pull solar panels off the tops of the
crates and hook them to stands or lean them against blocks where they could get
the most light. The way things were now many weren’t getting much power after
seventeen hundred. In fact the ones closest to the wall were completely shaded
after sixteen hundred and therefore only getting a trickle of ambient light...
and therefore only generating a trickle of power. He'd have to move them.
    He finished the second turbine
then turned to the third as the robot put it on the base. With these three wind
turbines he should have enough power to better expand things. There were six
other windmills; two of them were giants that would require concrete foundations
before they could be erected.
    He was still a long way away from
turned on the mainframe, but getting closer. Setting up the water turbines will
be a major hassle he realized, and the potential for injury high. He now was
dreading it.
    He had four portable waterwheel
versions, already set up and chugging along under the falls. In fact they were
producing a lot of his energy, almost too much for the little alternators to
handle. Fortunately the windings were superconductors, so his concern was more
for the metal shaft holding out under the load over anything overheating.
Keeping the liquid nitrogen topped off was handled by the super conductive
cable, its outer sheath acted as a hose, channeling the super cooled liquid
around the cable, and up around the windings and then back to the small
refrigerator unit. It was all self contained and therefore one less thing for
him to have to worry about.
    The final turbine was completed
as the sun began to set. He hurried the final connections, accidentally
fumbling the bolts before getting things sorted out. The cabling was connected
in the last