Chapter 319: Chapter 319 - Call For A Free Quote For Container Power, Today!
I decided to sleep beside her in the witch’s home only because I felt like the | Nurturer’s Tolerance | was doing helpful work against her fever. It was entirely despite any of my preference... and fully knowing she may take it as intentionally intimate no matter what I wanted.
And I can’t help but feel like a ruinous little vixen because of that. One that steals the vibrant light from the people who show me interest.
My phone buzzed with a text that pulled me from dim thoughts. Anise asking to get together for dinner and talk about the upcoming work. I send back something perfunctory that stalls my answer...
| TASK: Establish Stash Power System |
And glance at the system’s task list and at what I’m attempting to take care of. [8:57 AM] - he is supposed to be here at nine. Hopping down from the top of the container, I begin to wander toward the entrance.
Claire ran a few calculations and the number range she came up with for cost kept circling in my head. Like the particularly persistent fly that followed me through the forest until I finally swiped it out of the air.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t afford it - even on the high end I could probably outfit over twenty of these. But there was something unsettling about committing a large amount of money to a single project that the Apocalypse System is pushing me toward.
My wolf had calmed down from its ’mate mania’ and focused on my current concern... and it pressed good points at me. Showing the moments I’d started researching off-grid power systems.
I’d known this was an extension of making my ’shelter’ as excellent as possible. But considering another Task in the list, that centers around a certain Ms. Voss... I sort of hate looking at any of them as... inevitable.
The rumble of a diesel engine outside made me open the door. A slightly battered old work truck pulled up to this back entrance. Missing some of its white paint and magnetic signs scratched and peeling.
Doesn’t look as fully professional as I would have expected, but appearances with artisans can be deceiving. At least it has a rack on top that carried a ladder and various pieces of equipment.
The engine shut off and I heard the slam of a truck door that whined like it had been opened and closed thousands of times. The sound of heavy boots scuffing concrete from a man that might be in his mid-fifties, maybe.
> Seems hard to tell with humans, especially those who have worked their whole lives. <
Gray beard trimmed short, work clothes that certainly did not just come off the rack, and something like a reinforced messenger bag. His eyes swept over the warehouse before landing on me standing in the doorway that he’d reached.
"You’re the one my investor sent me to see?"
Gravelly, matter-of-fact, and with the slight impatience of someone who either had other jobs to get to today... or who might not have come out of the house if it wasn’t for this. Getting a read on him in one sentence is difficult.
> Investor... is that how Claire is connected to him? Or did she blackmail someone else into calling him... <
"If you specialize in off-grid power installations, then I’m who you came to see. Citra Lomdi."
"Dave Morrison."
Extending a thick calloused hand for a brief, firm handshake, he seems surprised that I handled it without complaint or wince. I step back and let him through and his gaze lingered on the shipping container just sitting in the mostly empty warehouse.
"Twenty-three years doing power systems for folks who don’t want to be on the grid. Preppers and even some off-the-books operations. This is a new one, though."
"How so?"
"Most of my clients want their power systems installed in cabins, bunkers, or otherwise existing structures. I’ve done shipping containers, but you want yours in the box before it even gets taken to location."
He pulled a tablet and measuring tape from his bag before walking closer to the emptied container. Circling it like he was evaluating its integrity, he knocked on the walls in a few places as if hearing the sound would tell him things.
"Not that I’m complaining. I didn’t need to drive out to the middle of nowhere this time."
"Well, you’re welcome for that."
"Good bones. Lunarizon decomms these in great quality, but people like you don’t usually care that its been on a sea trip or two as long as it is watertight. How often you planning to move this thing?"
The sudden question hit a nerve I hadn’t expected. It was not just that the answer ’frequently’ painted a strange picture... it was that I couldn’t help but think of when I’d need to gather my things and run again, from the home I haven’t been back to.
"As needed. I have no plans to be burying it in a hill or mounting it to a surface, if that is what you are asking."
"Fair enough. Let’s see what we’re working with."
Mr. Morrison’s eyes told me that my indirect answers are probably nothing he had not heard before. He gestured toward the container’s open modified doors as if asking me to lead him inside.
The shelving units I’d installed along both long walls and the back, the bed in the center, the organization of supplies and equipment... it had felt slightly cramped when it was full, but it almost felt too empty looking in here again. Like a fresh start.
He pulled out his measuring tape and started checking the dimensions. I guess it’s smarter not to assume everything is standard... or that the ones I’d taken for the shelving and sent to Claire are absolutely correct - if she even shared them with this man.
> I also believe that the humans here have a phrase that goes something like ’measure twice, cut once’. Anything done in twos is fine with me. <
"You’ve got good headroom, at least. That’s important for what we’re doing. E-mail mentioned you had plans for shelves and other things. You might want to revisit them after we are done. "
"So the power system will need that much clearance?"
I was worried about that, which is why I made sure to get everything out of the way. Well, that and not wanting to be judged for keeping a giant piece of rough red chert near a new bed.
"That’s where we’d want to put the main components. Battery bank, inverter, breaker box - the whole setup. So nothing else goes on that whole end."
Dave pointed toward the back, where I’d placed the deepest of my shelving units. My heart sank a little.
Again, the cost of it all is not truly so terrible when I have most of a million of this country’s dollars... but I’d been proud of working out how to maximize my ’living area’ in the center while having plenty of storage space. I watched him pace off the depth from the back and then tap on the side.
"You’re also looking at losing about three to four feet along this entire wall."
That seems like a lot. Apparently my concern showed as I tried to visualize a quarter of my storage space gone - because he kept explaining while tapping things on his tablet.
"The battery rack alone is going to be substantial and everything needs enough clearance for ventilation. Electrical components generate heat - and heat kills batteries. You’ll need air circulation around them, especially in a metal container that’s going to get hot in the sun - which it will be in if you want the solar panels to work."
> I am no longer so sure that I do! <