VII #3
she exclaimed so everyone could hear her, while her colleagues nodded in confirmation.
That again sparked conversations and murmuring in the room.
Ana nodded gratefully to Mirela and let the people digest the news.
Eighty days didn't sound like much, but they had two and a half months to think of something regarding feeding over two thousand people.
She decided to cut off the murmur and clapped again to draw people's attention to herself. Getting it, Ana stopped by Nika.
"All right, we have over two months to solve the food question. I think we have some progress in that field too. Nika?" Ana handed the floor to the girl, who stirred, cleared her throat, thought it over well, and then began to present:
"As you all know, a meal consists of carbohydrates, proteins, and minerals. All are essential for human survival, and we have to create the conditions for growing and producing them. Luckily, we have a laboratory equipped precisely for the development and research of food products.
Someone got the excellent idea to move the laboratory from the agronomy faculty to this location before the bombs fell. That laboratory will serve for modifying and genetically manipulating food so that, in our conditions, we can get the maximum out of everything we have. Look at this."
Nika took out a small bag and shook some grains onto her hand.
She showed the yellow grains to the people. "What is this?" she asked the gathered.
"That's popcorn," someone tossed out from the crowd.
Nika nodded in confirmation.
"Exactly, that's popcorn corn. If you throw it on the fire like this, add a little oil and salt, in a couple of minutes you have a crunchy high-calorie meal, but in the laboratory we see this grain differently. We see it as a source of oil, flour, fertilizer and, of course, as popcorn."
She smiled and thereby charmed the gathered people, who began to smile too.
Nika then asked for attention and continued: "So, with this grain the crew found during the inventory," she put the precious grain back into the bag, which she then handed to one of her people, "we've, say, solved the problem of oil and fat in 60 days. Yes,
" she raised her tone so she'd be heard well, "corn needs that long to develop and bear. But with our laboratory and the ability to manipulate the corn's genes, I'm convinced we can speed up the process. Not excessively, but it's possible.
With that we've solved the problem of fats and carbohydrates in the diet."
Nika looked the gathered over well, then added: "But so the diet isn't completely monotonous, Irena's crew found seeds of lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and various vegetables. Luckily, someone thought to store the things needed in agriculture on the first floor too."
Nika let the people take in what she'd said, but it was quite clear she wasn't done with her presentation yet. Even Ana was impressed by the girl's confidence and the news she brought. Nika quieted the gathered and continued:
"All those crops need about 30 to 60 days to bear fruit. Which brings us to the conditions. Ivan, take over." She stopped in front of the burly guy and handed him the floor.
It was obvious Ivan wasn't used to speaking before a crowd. With a restless gaze he studied the faces. Then he noticed Nick, who leaned his back against the wall and nodded to him encouragingly. Ivan took heart and began:
"I'll be brief. The caves have running water, and we're currently working on a system of sprinklers and pumps to successfully irrigate the whole cave system. There's enough plastic sheeting and material to build the initial layer of beds for about two-thirds of the system. Which is, I think, enough,
but for exact figures you have to ask someone who deals with that. I only know that as early as tomorrow we'll be able to sow the first beds closer to the laboratory."
People interrupted him with murmuring, and he looked around in embarrassment.
Seeing his predicament, Ana quieted the gathered.
"Ivan isn't finished, drop the talk about lettuce now and let the man finish."
Ivan looked at her gratefully and, clearing his throat, continued:
"As I said, the first beds by the laboratory will be able to be sown, but not all the conditions are met." A sudden silence in the room. Ivan calmly explained: "Namely, we don't have enough of the lamps needed for growing plants."
"What do you mean?" someone asked. This time Denis spoke up, who until then had only stood calmly:
"Plants need ultraviolet light. We don't have enough lamps that could provide such lighting. Actually, apart from a few lamps found in the laboratory, we have no lamps at all needed for growing grain."
Loud murmuring. People had already gotten quite excited about the idea of growing grain. But now hope was melting away, and the weight of Denis's announcement again pressed on their hearts and minds. Then someone from the crew gathered around Irena spoke up:
"Listen! HELLO!!!" the young man shouted so he'd be heard through the murmur.
He felt the gazes on him and said: "You say ultraviolet light is needed?"
He looked at Denis, who nodded. "As far as I know, tanning beds use such lamps. While we were doing the warehouse inventory, I noticed four or five tanning-bed units in the technical section. Maybe more units with such lamps can be found there."
Denis began to think.
"You say four or five units. Hmm… Each such unit has about a dozen lamps to get a sufficient amount of radiation." He looked around the room, seeking help. "Girls, help. How many lamps are there?"
The girls murmured, and after a minute Ana spoke up:
"How would the girls know that. A tanning bed isn't healthy and I don't think it's used much. When you lie down in a tanning bed, you don't count how many lamps there are." The girls nodded in confirmation.
Denis seemed embarrassed, but didn't let it affect his thoughts.
"Okay, let's assume about a dozen lamps are installed in each tanning bed, which brings us, in the best case, to about fifty lamps that, with properly placed mirrors, could light at least a third of the initial beds. That's still not enough. It's just the start and we're still short."
He shrugged helplessly and returned to his place in the crowd.
Murmuring was heard again. Impossible ideas were offered and immediately refuted. But people were thinking. They activated their brains in an attempt to overcome the obstacle to their survival. Then someone's high voice was heard through the crowd.
"Phones."
Nick turned in surprise toward Tomi, who had called it out. Tomi, it seemed, had been gathering all his courage for this moment. He shifted restlessly, then quietly added:
"The flashes on phones can be used. With the addition of a simple film and a little fine-tuning, they can shine in the ultraviolet spectrum."
It seemed Tomi would gladly sink into the shelter's concrete just so people would stop watching him.
Nick looked at Nika, on whose face a big smile had formed, and a hidden pride because of Tomi.
She'd blushed like a teenager, but was obviously happy.
"Yes, that's right, Nika is definitely interested," Nick muttered into his beard as he, encouraging his friend, put his hands on his hunched shoulders.
Then, to ease things for his friend, he added loudly:
"And we have over two thousand devices that are currently completely useless. What are we waiting for, let's put them to use!"
Suddenly Ana spoke up: "Two thousand, will that be enough?" She looked now at Denis, now at Tomi. Finally Tomi spoke up:
"It won't, the flashes have a narrowly focused light. Even with the help of mirrors it won't be possible to spread the light too much in the amount needed for the whole zone. It'll cover about three-quarters of the needed space."
"Which is more than we had five minutes ago," Ana added. Then she addressed the gathered: "Ideas for the last quarter?"
People began to talk, but now with a little more enthusiasm. Suddenly Dijana broke away from the group and approached Ana, whispering something in her ear. Ana's eyes widened and she quieted the clamor:
"Silence, please. Here's an interesting idea."
She encouraged Dijana to present her idea. Dijana was flustered for a moment, then began:
"What if we paint the existing lamps? Ultraviolet radiation is just a spectrum that can be obtained with various filters. How about making that filter by applying paint to a normal lamp?"
Denis was thinking, but then confirmed: "It would be dim, which could be compensated for with a greater number of lamps and by heating the filament on the existing ones. But it could work." He nodded gratefully to Dijana, who accepted a warm hug from Ana.
"We could also, by the same process of heating the filament and with a higher temperature, force the metal in the lamps to shine in the ultraviolet spectrum," Tomi quietly added, but Nick heard him clearly.
"Tell them that, Tomi," Nick suggested.
Tomi just looked at his friend and shook his head.
He felt he'd already said too much, and the discomfort of the crowd was already causing him problems.
He forced himself to stand against the wall completely still to suppress the urge to run out of the room, somewhere he could be alone.
So the last thing he wanted was to feel all their gazes on him once more.
Nick understood his problem and didn't push further.
The idea of heating the filaments on the bulbs was possible anyway, and Tomi would most likely suggest it to Denis later, once people dispersed.
So Tomi did what he'd done before in similar situations.
He shut out external influence and devoted himself to his thoughts, giving only a fraction of attention to the meeting unfolding before him.
Ana paced before the people, holding the threads of the meeting firmly in her hands.
"So, we have lighting and irrigation, do we need anything else, Nika?" Ana asked as the crowd quieted. Nika thought briefly, then added:
"We need shit," she said shortly.
People looked at her. On some faces disgust appeared. That didn't faze Nika. She explained: