Home » The Archives » Chapter 5 » Learning to Live in Paradise
| Re: Learning to Live in Paradise [message #1393 is a reply to message #1392] |
Thu, 26 July 2012 20:58   |
artisticrainey
Messages: 1228
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
Karma:
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Field Commander
Switzerland |
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Brains and Kat headed for the hospital. It was clear that these generators had suffered water damage. Neither of them was working; a panel had been broken off of one unit and was hanging by one bolt, and the other had a side badly caved in. As they descended the few steps into the room, they found that the water was up to their knees. Brains went over and began trying to remove the damaged panel on the first one and asked her to do the same to the other. Kat moved over to it, and began unscrewing the bolts that held one panel in place. As she removed it, a rather large fish leaped out at her, knocking her down. It landed in her lap.
This time her scream made Brains jump. "What on earth, MGM?"
Kat managed to flip the fish away from her now sopping wet uniform. "Ugh, what a horrible thing," she exclaimed.
As the fish tried to swim away, one of the locals who had been helping move patients out of the hospital passed by. He glanced in and, seeing the fish, exclaimed loudly in his own language. He rushed in, and grabbed it, holding it up by the gills.
He looked at the puzzled faces of the mechanic and the engineer and said in his broken English, "Food. Good eating. Feed many little ones." Then he hurried out with his prize.
Brains and Kat looked at each other, and both began to chuckle. He said, "We live to serve, wherever and however we can."
Kat started laughing harder. "And this time we're serving a fish course."
The interlude relieved some of the pressure they'd been under, and they turned back to the task at hand with renewed energy. Brains got the panel off the generator, examined it, and said, "Before we can do any repair work, we need to get the water pumped out of here, so we can dry things off." He looked around the room, and spied a hand pump. "Let's get this contraption over to where we can start removing the water. We'll take turns operating it, so neither of us gets too tired. Boy, this is an old one! I only saw one of these in a couple of books, and once in a museum in the States."
So taking it in turns, they had the old machine pumping out the water. The level slowly dropped, but the ground under their feet was slippery from the silt that had accumulated with the water. Kat began slipping and sloshing, and struggled each time it was her turn to operate the antique device.
They switched places, but Brains found out the hard way that there was also seaweed on the floor. One second he was passing her and the next he was sitting in the water, and his glasses had fallen off. He moved to get on his hands and knees so he could fish around in the water to locate them, and felt rather than heard the crunch. "Uh oh. I found my glasses."
"That's good," replied Kat.
"Not so good. They're under my knee. And they're now broken. I can't see a thing without them."
"Oh no! Brains, now what do we do?" she asked anxiously.
"You'll just have to be my eyes for the moment," he answered. "Now tell me, is the water low enough to work on the generator?"
"Not quite." she replied, cranking the handle as she talked. Eventually it was low enough. Brains told Kat what to do and she managed to work, using the dry rags they'd brought on the connections and the generator, until it spluttered into life. "There!" she said, "looks like that is working okay. But now what about you? I suppose we had better head back to Thunderbird Seven."
"No, Kat. We still have the other one to do, and it's worse off than the first. Plus all the cloths you used are now too wet. I think you should return to Thunderbird 7 and get the spare pair of glasses I keep there in case of something like this," and he lifted his broken glasses, "happening. And bring back more dry cloths, if Doc can spare them. Okay?"
"Okay Einstein, will do, but will you be okay here while I am gone, I may be some time?"
"I'll be just fine, MGM."
Kat waded through the water and headed for the surface. Once out in the open, she thought, not for the first time, how much work would be needed before anyone could every live there again. Suddenly she saw a familiar figure heading towards her. "Hi J.. Quasar, how's things?"
"Not too good, MGM, but what are you doing alone? Where is Brains; is there a problem?" John sounded concerned.
"Brains slipped and dropped his glasses and broke them. I have been sent back to Thunderbird Seven for his spare pair and some more dry cloths, if Dr Tracy can spare any."
John looked at the dripping wet mechanic. "Seems that you need to dry off, yourself."
Kat looked down at her uniform and smiling ruefully, said, "There's a fish around here somewhere that will be a good meal for several people. Somehow it got into one of the generators during the tsunami, and it happened to be the one I was working on, removing the panel. It knocked me down into about eighteen inches of seawater."
"Both of you fell in there? And you're okay?"
"Oh yes! I guess the only thing that got damaged - other than Brains' glasses - was our pride. But the other generator was damaged more, and Brains needs to be able to see to get it fixed, and we need to wipe down the connections."
"Well, I need to go to Seven so I'll walk with you," John said, falling in step with her. "Let's hurry."
Post by Tawnyangel22 and Hobbeth on 27/06/2005
  
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