“Get a concrete truck?” Mike asked. “Rent one or get a contractor if we can find one?”
“Might be a good idea,” Prael admitted. “It’ll make building the bunkers easier, too.”
“I’ll look into it,” Mike said, getting back in the SUV. “Have fun. And, by the way, if you try to miss every little leaf you’re never going to learn.”
He decided to skip the dam workings for the time being, heading over to the range area. It was at the north end of the valley, right up against the range of tree covered mountains at that end, and was coming along nicely. There was a pistol and sub-gun range installed already, with another for pop-ups underway to the side. The last range, the farthest to the east, was for long-range rifle. That one used heavy metal targets and had been laid out but wasn’t being worked on yet.
He followed the graveled road up to the end of the range under construction and waved at Praz as he arrived. The rifle instructor waved back, then walked over to the Expedition after a word to the Keldara doing the pop-up installation.
“How long?” Mike asked.
“Another week for the basic installation,” Praz said. “A couple of days for the long-distance range.”
“Need more bodies?” Mike asked. “Meller won’t need half his bodies in a couple of days when they get finished on the foundations.”
“I’m good,” the rifleman admitted. “More people would just require more supervision. If I get some people I’d like Killjoy and he’s working on bunkers.”
“The basic bunker installation is going to be done pretty soon,” Mike said, frowning. “If you get slowed down, talk to the colonel and he’ll shift some people your way.” Mike looked around and smiled. “A decent range will be nice for a change.”
“Well, this one will be pretty decent,” Praz admitted.
“Onward and upward,” Mike said, waving back to the valley. “Gotta go check on the dam.”
He made his way back down to the south, passing one of the plowers on the way and returning a wave, until he reached the small valley chosen for the hydro dam.
The trees and brush had been cleared out from the base of the defile and most of the dirt dug away to reveal bedrock. On both edges of the defile a narrow trail had been graded and blasted up the hill to positions over where the dam was going to go in. As he pulled up, the fifty or so Keldara who had been doing pick and shovel work were making their way into the open and getting behind the backhoe that, so far, had been their only major equipment.
“Hold up here, Kildar,” one of the Keldara said, walking over to the Expedition as Mike pulled up. “Sergeant Meller is about to set off a charge.”
“Works,” Mike said, shutting down the SUV and getting out. “How big, you know?”
“Small,” the Keldara said. “Getting rid of a cell of rock. A big stone, really. It’s in the way for getting to the rock on the south side. Once it’s out of the way we can finish leveling the foundation. He thinks it will take more than one blast, though.”
“Hey, Kildar!” Meller said, coming around the edge of the defile. Where the trees and scrub had been was an area of rock that was mostly flat until it hit the slope. The small stream now ran down a narrow rock channel. “Hang on a second,” he yelled again, holding up an electronic detonation device. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
There was a sharp crack and a blast of dust in the defile and Meller looked up and around.
“The sky didn’t fall!” he caroled, walking back into the valley before the dust had even settled.
“Got to go,” the Keldara said, hurrying in that direction.
Two of the farm trucks roared to life pulling forward, Keldara swarming on the back for the short ride, with the backhoe following more slowly.
Mike pulled forward as well, driving the Expedition actually into the stream to avoid the line of Keldara and bumping up the streambed until he could see the center of the workings. The dirt had been dug out and rocks blown down to create a fairly broad level area. He could see the final obstacle they were working on, an irregularly shaped boulder about the size of the Expedition, which had been cracked on one side and nudged out from the wall of the valley. The remaining mass was about the size of the Expedition; the portion that had been blasted off was about the size of a Volkswagen and now lay strewn around the workings.
“Hey, Kildar,” Meller yelled as Mike pulled up. The Keldara had already set to work lifting smaller rocks into the back of the trucks as the backhoe moved into position to lift the heavier material.
“How’s it going?” Mike asked, getting out of the Expedition.
“Pretty good,” Meller admitted. “There’s no problem with the position and the Keldara are the hardest workers I’ve ever met. Once we get this rock out of the way and level out the position we’ll start making forms. After that we’ll pour the foundations and the main weir. It’ll take about two weeks for that to set enough to start work on the rest.”
“What are you going to need for that?” Mike asked.
“Just a lot of dirt at first,” Meller said. “I can move that with wagons and stuff, but it would be better to get a couple of dump trucks and the steam shovel. I’m going to need to dig dirt out from the channel to bring the water back to the main stream and anywhere else I can find it that won’t get in the way of planting. I’ll run the trucks or whatever up there,” he said, pointing to the roads that had been blasted up the hill, “then dump it in position. It’ll have to be tamped down, I’d like to get a compressor for that, and we’ll lay it down in layers until the dam is built up to the proper level. Then we’ll front it with clay from over by the ranges.”
“Is it… what you said about permeable, enough?” Mike asked.
“Permeability,” Meller said, nodding. “It’s impermeable enough. I did a field expedient test. I probably should be doing more soil tests, but this stuff is good material from what I’ve seen; not too much organics to it but it will compress really well. I’ve built dams this large before in Afghanistan and Iraq and this one should be fine. I’m really overbuilding it, but better overbuild than underbuild.”
“What about seepage?” Mike asked.
“That’s why we’re preparing the foundations,” Meller said, grinning. “If you want to bring in an engineer with a degree and everything to check it out, I won’t mind.”
“You got plans?” Mike asked. “I can just find a firm and send those over to see what they think.”
“Hand drawn,” Meller said. “You don’t have AutoCAD on the computers at the caravanserai.”
“Order a copy,” Mike said. “Do up the plans and I’ll get them vetted. Or you can send them to a firm if you know one. But, yeah, I’d like a guy with a degree in this stuff to say it will work. Do that before you start pouring.”
“Will do,” Meller said, frowning. “It’ll take me a few days, though, not counting the time to get the program. There are some smaller packages that I can download that will do for showing it to an engineer. But I’ll have to work on that by itself.”
“What you’re doing here any of the trainers with blast experience can do,” Mike said, shrugging. “Hell, I can take over if you want. It’s just blowing this rock out of the way and leveling after it’s gone, right?”
“Yeah,” Meller said, shrugging. “You want to take over?”
“I haven’t had a chance to blow anything up in years,” Mike replied, grinning. “Well, okay, a year and a half.”