"This facility generates power," he explained, "but as it does so it also generates fuel. The chambers are filled with wood, sealed, filled with smoke to drive out the oxygen, then heated with sunlight. The gases released come out under tremendous pressure that turn our turbines. Those gases are then processed into synthetic gas, synthetic gasoline and synthetic lubricants when all the gas is gotten out of the chambers they are emptied. The by-product is a high quality charcoal.
The plant isn't quite self-sufficient yet, we receive a small subsidy from The Church. But we're learning more and more every day, refining our process, and as more markets become available for the products we produce we become more and more independent. When we get all the bugs out they'll be stations like this all over the world, producing fuel from a renewable resource."
"Incredible!" Samuel praised. "Put the gas you produce right into the regular pipelines?"
"It goes all over the northeast," the foreman announced, "along with the hydrogen gas produced from our wind generators. We know just the mixture. These systems will eventually replace natural gas as those resources slowly dwindle. The tars we produce will replace those currently used in paving, and as they are organically produced will be far less harmful to the environment."
"Wonderful!" Samuel praised, "And The First Speaker came up with the idea, using solar energy to produce portable fuels from wood."
"I'm sure others had it, too!" the manager assured, "But he was the one that put people to work to find ways of making such a project viable. Well, we'd better get to work! The loading crew foreman will show you how to stack and how to mix the woods."
It was hard, sometimes dirty work, filling the chambers and cleaning them out, but Samuel rather enjoyed it, and felt he was helping accomplish something.
The years began to drift happily by. The country was happy except for the fundamentalist Chris who still hated The Spir and fought any way they could to curtail the spread of their religion. But all they did was to no avail. The more they tried to hinder, the more the movement grew.
It seemed like he had only started when Samuel proudly stood at graduation and got his engineering certificate. They loaded their belongings into shipping containers, sent most of them out in a truck, then piled into Speaker Polley's car and he drove them to Bangor to meet the train that would take them west. Here Samuel was just twenty with a four year old daughter and a two year old son heading off to a foreign country to take a very important position! He still worried if he was ready for it, but Speaker Polley assured him he was.
"Sir," Samuel requested, "will you send a message to my benefactor thanking her for all that she did?"
"I most certainly will!" The Speaker promised. "Now, get going, Warlock!"
Samuel came to attention and saluted, which The Speaker answered and hurried his little group onto the train. His son ran up to anybody he met and happily announced "My daddy's a soldier! He's going to keep the peace in Somaila!"
Most people would smile and say "That's very nice, dear!" Every once and a while someone would grimace and snort "Oh, really?"
The train ride was enjoyable. When they finally arrived at the cargo ship loading in San Francisco there was a certain sense of excitement. The Captain showed them to their quarters. "We're just about loaded," he remarked, "the salvage goods for Somalia are on the bottom. We'll stop in The Philippines, unload some cargo, and take on some more, then we'll go on to India and do the same. Then we'll drop you at the capitol. You'll have to take ground transportation to your station. It will take us a few weeks but it will give you a chance to relax for a while. It might be the last chance you get for a long time! All your briefing papers are there on the bureau. Welcome aboard, Warlock!"
"Thank you, Captain!"
"Will we see any pirates?" Sharon asked.
The Captain smiled. "We're an armed Republic freighter, ma'am. Sea raiders rarely come near us. There is a possibility we might see some as we go through Indonesian waters, but there's not much chance they'll come after us. Our main gun can take a destroyer out of the water! And our twenty-two millimeters and forty-four millimeters will take out small assault boats. They don't mess with us! You have nothing to worry about."
They finally got underway and were blessed with good weather almost all the way. And when it did rain it was only light storms. They never saw any real rough weather. They did, however, see some pirates, much to the pirates' dismay!

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