Thanks for your patience. This is another long chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
*****
1 Yumi Takahashi
The first piece of technology to fail on Samothea was a rotivator that Yumi Takahashi repaired.
Yumi could get none of the large old farming equipment to work, though Michio Nakatani sent her many replacement parts. She worked on a mechanical plough, a tractor, industrial irrigation pumps and a harvesting machine. They were all solar-powered but none would function, despite the abundance of strong sunlight in the tropical region of Samothea. But she got a small rotivator to work. More suited to a cottage garden, it reduced the time the Farmer Tribe took to plough a field. Until, after a couple of months, its motor failed.
She knew what the fault was. But it was not something she could fix. Most electronic devices used superconducting ceramic conduction lanes in place of old-fashioned metal wires because they could conduct electricity at ambient temperature with no resistance.
Ceramic conduction lanes usually ran through the casing of a machine, which could not easily be covered with osmium-alloy coating without adding grievously to the weight of the device. A coating would also shield the solar panels from the sunlight they needed for electric power. Instead, Yumi wove osmium-coated conduction bands through the body of the rotivator. She hoped they would survive the incessant impact of low-level x-rays from space.
When Yumi took the rotivator apart, she saw what had happened. The x-rays made the ceramic superconductors spark and overload, burning out the electronic components. Like all the equipment she had temporarily fixed, the rotivator was beyond repair after it failed.
The next devices to fail were the laser penknives that Yael sent home soon after arriving on Celetaris. The last penknife to project a laser beam died a few weeks after Yael left again for Celetaris. They were cheap tools, unlike the two good-quality penknives that Ezra brought with him to Samothea, which were still working well after nearly six years. Even so, it was slightly worrying that such simple devices with minimal circuitry were failing so quickly.
Other failures were even more worrying. Despite osmium-alloy shielding on their few electronic parts, the Petticoat crew's air-suits started to show signs of weakness. This was a problem because the crew used them to fly between the settlements and to do heavy-lifting jobs, such as carrying tree-trunks to make new cabins.
Robyn Bradford, team leader of the Petticoats, ruled that the air-suits were no longer safe for flight or heavy-lifting.
The next technology failures were the radio links between the council chamber in the Cloner City and the outlying settlements. The direct hyperspace communications link between Celetaris and Samothea was still working, though the signal was often weak and patchy; but those in the Cloner City could no longer talk directly to the Herders' Northern and Southern Camps, the Mariners' Beach Settlement and the Woodlanders' Forest Camp.
The new hyperspace communications link between Earth and Samothea that Michio Nakatani had installed was working reliably. Those on Celetaris who wanted to talk to the women of Samothea found they got a clearer signal if the video chat was routed via Earth. It was worth it, despite an extra half-minute delay.
The failure of the radio links on Samothea was an inconvenience for the Samothea Project and the Petticoat crew. It was a cause of sadness to Annela, who liked to talk daily to her sisters in the Woodlander Tribe. Ezra also craved talking to his thirty bedmates and his thirty-five children. It was a blow to him, though he could still talk to Solange, Ash and those of his bedmates who happened to be in the Cloner City.
The disappointing failures of technology persuaded Robyn to order tests done on CSS Petticoat I. Next time the shuttlecraft landed at Ocean City Astroport, it was taken to an engineering hangar and given a full airworthiness test and electro-mechanical examination.
The results were devastating. The same problems found in the repaired technology on Samothea afflicted the shuttlecraft. The superconducting ceramic lanes of its hull, which routed power and data, had suffered burn lines and fractures that showed up under a microscope.
The craft had been exposed to the x-rays only six times in six months for less than a week at a time, yet its conduction lanes had already lost 80% of their integrity. The shuttle might perform with no problems for many more flights but it was sustaining damage at a worrying rate and no one could predict when it would fail completely.
Robyn had regret but no real hesitation when she grounded Petticoat I.
Danielle took the news in a resigned manner. It was just another thing to add to the long list of the Samothea Project's problems, about which she was now inclined to believe that, if anything could go wrong, then it would go wrong.
Rosa Silverstein had designed Petticoat I. She did a quick calculation and decided it was better not to have the craft refitted with new electronic equipment but to put the money toward a new shuttlecraft, a sister ship to the more advanced (but much more expensive) CSS Petticoat II, which Ezra gave to the Samothea Project.
"I threw Petticoat I together from an existing craft plus the new engine," Rosa said somewhat wistfully to Danielle. "It was just a container with wings."
"She was a fine ship, Rosa. She served us well. Does she have any scrap value?"
"We can retrieve the osmium for our own use. Maybe the Nakatani Corporation can do something with the hyperdrive unit."
"All right, it's just another cost to add to the mounting costs. Thanks, Rosa."
******
On Samothea, in the Council Chamber in the Cloner City, Yumi gave a mostly pessimistic report to Madam Gloria and the Advisory Council about the failing technology.
"Is there any technology we can keep working if new parts are sent from Celetaris or Earth?" Madam Gloria asked.
"Only if they have even thicker shielding," Yumi said, "and they will likely have a shorter lifetime than we so far predicted."
"We understand that means additional costs," Madam Lawspeaker said. "But maybe it's better not to rely so much on foreign technology."
"Why not?" asked Yumi.
"Because it makes us dependent on Earth or Celetaris, rather than on our own efforts. It makes us crave luxury."
"Madam Lawspeaker means that it's better to be poor but pious," Gloria said with a smile.
"That's not a fair thing to say, Gloria," the Lawspeaker objected, sitting up even straighter than normal.
"I'm sorry, Aunt. It was a joke."
"It's not a joking matter."
"No, indeed."
"I don't oppose technology and colonisation, or even men visiting Samothea, merely because it will make us lazy or disobedient," the Lawspeaker went on, expressing the full measure of her righteous protest.
"I oppose it because the changes will damage the relative harmony of our society and make us dissatisfied with our lives, without giving us the means to become more satisfied. If we rely on Earthside technology and it fails, but no more can be bought, what then?"
"I understand, Aunt. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Don't become reliant on Earthside technology."
"Thank you, Madam, it's good advice."
Gloria was silent a moment. When she spoke again, she addressed herself to Madam Scientist and Yumi.
"Is it possible to have some kind of intermediate technology, better than the tools we presently have but not electronic, so not vulnerable to the x-rays?"
"Yes," Sally Scientist said. "We can make purely mechanical devices, like the water-wheel that Yumi and Ryan built from wood and leather. We could make ploughs, seed drills, mechanical harvesting machines, reapers and binders, carts, lanterns, turning machines and potter's wheels. We couldn't make these things before because we didn't have good enough tools. But if we import the tools and materials, such as plastisteel and plastiglass, then we could create something like the industrial society that existed on Earth before electrical machinery was invented, which used muscle-power, horse-power, wind-power and water-power."
"Modern materials are very strong, very cheap and light-weight," Yumi added. "The problem is how to work on them without electrical tools. We'll need more than just traditional hand-tools and bench-tools to work on these materials. But we can get halfway there if we have the parts made up for us first."
"We've not bothered to import purely mechanical devices yet because we were hoping that modern electrical machinery would work," Sally said.
"But Ezra's laser penknife still works," Yumi said. "That means there's some modern technology worth importing. I'll speak to Michio and see what he can send us."
Later that afternoon, during the hottest part of the day, most of the Advisory Council had siestas in their rooms. Solange helped Odette sort out the Juniors. Ash took Solange's daughter, Tahney, and the other children from the Cloner City down to the river for a cooling splash. And Madam Gloria played Sally at chess in her apartment.
As usual, it was a close game. Sally's method of playing was to concentrate for the first half-hour, pinning Gloria down in a difficult position, then she would relax and watch how Gloria escaped the trap, with the game usually ending in a stalemate. It frustrated Gloria to know she was being let off the hook by someone who could beat her if she really applied herself; yet it was always a challenge and a fulfilment to escape.
After the game, the women relaxed and talked.
