Chapter 17(OB)
Jen sat happily in the trailer of the quad bike as Seth drove her to his bliss grass processing farm shed. It was the early hours of morning, just before the sun rise, and the air was chilly on Jen's bare legs.
The farm looked as it always had, but had icy frost on the ground in a lot of places. It was negative 2 degrees centigrade outside, but would quickly get warmer once the sun came up. Jen admired the beauty of the frosty landscape of bare dead land, dotted with widely spaced crop fields like islands of life in a sea of sterility.
Jen felt a thrill of fear as the quad bike slid over the ice going around a corner in the vehicle track. The landscape was very flat in this bit of the farm however, the corner not to avoid any terrain but simply to change direction, so the quad bike and trailer merely slid harmlessly for a few meters before regaining grip on the tyres.
Seth slowed right down to cross some of the insulated electrical cables that crisscrossed the farm. The quad bike itself would not be damaged by simply driving over these lines of insulated cables where they lay flat on the hard ground, but the cables themselves would not last long being run over. The only safe places to cross these cables was at what Seth called "bridges".
These "bridges" were little more than tiny little trenches, about 2 inches wide, an inch deep, and 4 meters long, covered with very basic steel plates to let the quad bike and other vehicles drive over the trench. The wires ran through the trenches under the steel plates, and Seth had to slow down at these bridges to be sure that he was driving over the plates rather than the somewhat delicate wires.
As well as these permanent bridges, The farm had widely scattered "portable bridges" little more than crudely welded metal arches, that could be dragged around as needed to provide temporary crossing points for whenever Seth laid out a long synthetic rubber water hose to irrigate a field when required. These hoses were rolled up when not in use, and moved around constantly, needing mobile bridges to drive over. Jen had wondered why Seth couldn't just run over a rubber hose, but hadn't raised the question yet.
Seth clearly hadn't thought about the layout of the bridges and cables when he chose where to put them many years ago, and the layout was not as efficient as it could have been. In some places a lot of bridges were unnecessarily close together, and other places had no bridges at all, forcing them to make sizeable detours to reach the nearest bridge.
The exact boundary between Seth's farm and the neighbouring farms was vague at best. A contested no man's land existed where two farms met, with both sides agreeing that the exact boundary line was "somewhere" in the contested border. Further down the river where the farms were more well established, the farmers had agreed upon precise boundary lines, marked by lines of rocks or even by actual wire fences. But out here it was a much more inexact science.
Seth's farm was relatively narrow, a bit over a mile wide, but very very long. It stuck out from the river like an individual spoke on a bicycle wheel, and just kept going in a straight line until it hit into the bottom of a low cliff that Seth hadn't yet gotten around to blasting a vehicle track into. The property apparently continued on even further beyond this cliff, but Seth couldn't yet get the quad bike past the cliff to it to cultivate it.
This far up in the very difficult to reach highlands, the land was completely useless unless it had river access. Seth's farm was backed up against a large stretch of land without access to any navigable river, so the "block" had been extended out quite far into this worthless land for very little extra cost when Seth bought the land 21 years ago.
Even Seth had only a very vague idea about the exact "dimensions" of his property, especially since he clearly already had more land than he could use, but Jen estimated that it was over 20 miles long when including all the bits Seth couldn't yet reach.
It was clearly obvious that no life of any kind had existed here prior to Seth buying the land. The original smugglers certainly hadn't bothered with such a hard to reach bit of land, it was the ultimate in vacant land, not even a microbe had formerly lived here. The planetary governor had apparently just used satellite photos to work out how to subdivide the planet without even going to these places first, and sold the blocks cheap to raise completely free capital and increase the local population.
Seth had apparently been given a satellite map of the land, with the coordinates shown and bright red lines on the map showing the property boundaries. Seth had relied heavily on the less than perfectly accurate local GPS to tell him the location of the farm, and apparently there had been... disagreements, with the neighbours about the exact property boundaries.
Seth and the neighbours now had an unspoken agreement to simply not use the contested land, creating what Seth comically called "the DMZ", a stretch of undeveloped land marked out by dotted lines of bright yellow spray paint on the rocky ground, about a hundred meters wide along the boundaries. They apparently were all on friendly terms, not really bothered with such a small bit of land on such big properties.
The shed they were heading for was around 3 miles from the house, and equidistant from the two neighbouring farms. They were only not already arrived because of the confusing maze of bridges and cables forcing them to make modest detours. The shed was more heavily built than most of the sheds, because of the valuable drug precursor chemicals it contained, with triple layers of corrugated iron sheets, far more screws and bolts than normal, a far stronger gate door, and an internal mesh of steel rebars built into the roof and wall frames as an extra defence to prevent forced entry.
Jen sat happily in the trailer with the air bottles and other supplies, as Seth stopped to unlock and open the shed. Jen was then driven into the shed, which was extremely fun she found.
Jen giggled as Seth lifted her off the trailer to stand on the concrete floor, and gazed around in excitement at the contents of the shed as Seth unloaded the trailer. She was surprised to see a hydrolysis unit in one corner, with electrical cables powering it, and a pipe connecting it to an outside rain water tank to provide the water to make oxygen. The shed also had lights, a portable electric fan to keep cool, and even a small electric heater to keep warm.
As well as mod cons, the shed had quite an impressive, if somewhat crude, chemistry set up, and a wide range of things and machinery needed to process the bliss grass. The place was absolutely filthy, and Jen immediately changed to using one of the air masks of the hydrolysis unit, and got to work on her hands and knees trying to clean the floor with water on a bit of scrap rag she found.
"That is a lovely view," Seth said from behind her appreciatively.
Jen looked around curiously and noticed that her borrowed shirt was not covering her ass as she was bent down on her hands and knees cleaning the floor. Seth could see everything.
Seth came up behind her and said, "we have time for a quickie".
Jen then heard Seth unzip his fly and felt him come up from behind. Jen gasped with joy, YES!
"Am I in the right hole?" Seth asked.
"There is no such thing as a wrong hole husband," Jen moaned provocatively.
"Damn I love you so much Jen, you are perfect," Seth replied in awe.
***...
"Um, I think that there IS a wrong hole after all... That's gross!" Seth said afterwards.
"I'm so sorry husband, I wasn't expecting it in that hole, I can clean myself out first in future," Jen offered sheepishly.
"I should have put on a condom before trying that, my own stupid fault," Seth replied grimly.
There was a bit of awkwardness as Jen and Seth cleaned themselves up. Thank goodness this shed had soap and water! Jen had been planning to use the... bucket, later at home, she didn't like to poo in front of Seth and had been holding it in until later when he was out of sight...
Jen did what she had to do in a bucket in the shed, they both very thoroughly cleaned themselves up, and they said no more about it.
"Ok... Let's get started," Seth said awkwardly.
"Yes husband," Jen said sheepishly.
Seth walked to the back of the shed, Jen following obediently behind, to a very small number of the white plastic sacks he put bliss grass in. Jen was surprised by how little he had.
"Is that all the bags husband?" Jen asked with proper humility.
"I'm afraid so, with all the cold weather, sickness and worries, I have harvested far less than usual," Seth said sadly.
"I'm so sorry to hear that husband," Jen said sympathetically.
"It is what it is. Just have to make do," Seth said.
Seth hoisted up a sack over his shoulder, and carried it to a moderately large electric mulching machine. Seth opened up the sack and poured harvested grass into the intake tray of the mulching machine. Seth then turned it on, and used a small bit of wire to carefully flick all the grass into the mulching blades. A few seconds later and a deep plastic holding tray beneath the machine quarter filled with mulched up grass.
Seth turned off the machine, took out the bottom tray, and tipped the mulched grass back into the intake tray. Seth then repeated the process, repeating it 5 times in fact. The grass was now almost a paste.
Seth then moved to a table with a few small ultra high speed electric kitchen blenders plugged in on top of it. He carefully put all of the green bliss grass paste into these blenders, and turned on all the blenders. He then walked away, just leaving the blenders running, and got another sack of grass for the mulching machine as the blenders just kept blending.
By the time that the second sack of grass was ready to be blended, the grass in the blenders had apparently been liquified. Seth poured the green liquid into a large plastic mixing bowl under an electric kitchen mixer. Jen looked at the kitchen appliances regretfully, Seth's drug kitchen had better appliances then the kitchen Jen cooked food in!
Seth poured out a very tiny amount of liquid from a plastic bottle labeled "cellulase enzyme" into a little measuring tube, and added this carefully measured amount to the liquified grass in the mixing bowl. Seth then added water to the bowl until the green concoction doubled in volume.
Seth set the electric mixer to a low speed setting, and turned it on. The mixing appendage then spun around in the bowl, both rotating and orbiting around inside the bowl, mixing the liquid slowly but thoroughly.
Seth then added the second batch of mulched grass to the high speed blenders, and got another sack of grass.
When the blenders were done with the second batch, Seth turned off the electric mixer and carried the bowl to a large plastic liquid storage drum, and emptied the bowl into it, apparently just as somewhere to put it until he was ready to do more with it.
Jen watched with rapt attention as Seth promptly liquified the entire harvest of bliss grass, and transferred all of it into the drum. Seth used a bit of junk plastic pipe to stir the drum for a while, before remembering that he had Jen and giving her stirring duty as he got the next step ready.
Jen shivered with cold as she stirred, the sun had come up just a few minutes ago, and it couldn't be more than 3 degrees centigrade in this shed! Her borrowed shirt was fighting a galant but losing battle to keep her top half warm, but her bare legs and sandalled feet were rough with intense goosebumps and haemorrhaging out heat!
Jen curiously dipped a fingertip into the concoction she was mixing, and found that it was barely warmer than the air!
"Husband, what is the thermal activation energy needed for these enzymes?" Jen asked curiously.
"What in the what? What does that even mean?" Seth asked in bewilderment.
"How hot does it have to be for the enzymes to work?" Jen asked.
"Um, I don't know, would it make a difference?" Seth asked.
"It might husband. May I please look at the enzyme bottle?" Jen asked.
"Be my guest," Seth told her.
Jen picked up the bottle and read carefully. Jen then had a sinking feeling.
"Um, husband... Do you store this bottle in a cool place, in a refrigerator maybe?" Jen asked with a terrible feeling of dread.
"No... I keep it on the bench top over there," Seth said quietly.
"Would it have gotten over 40 degrees centigrade at any time since you got it? Jen asked with a sinking feeling.
"It did get above 40 a few times yeah, is that bad?" Seth asked.
"Temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade destroy this enzyme. I'm so sorry husband, but I think it's gone bad," Jen said with terrible sympathy.
"Destroyed..." Seth repeated, face going pale.
"It's very likely, the bottle says that the enzyme denatures at 40 degrees centigrade and above. If the contents of the bottle got that hot then the enzymes are no more. Irreversibly destroyed," Jen explained very gently.
"But there is a chance it is fine right!?" Seth insisted.
"Perhaps, perhaps it didn't get that hot in here. Maybe it's cooler in the shed?" Jen offered.
"Actually, it gets hotter in here..." Seth said in a quiet and wretched voice.
"There is another way to get the morphine? You have still been producing bricks," Jen prompted.
"I have, but not as many per weight of grass as just after I bought the new bottle after the wet season. Fuck! This means that for 21 years I have been loosing money every time after the first hot day! FUCK!" Seth exclaimed.
"You didn't notice the lower yields?" Jen asked very delicately.
"I did, but I didn't know why it happened, thought the grass was just more rich right after the wet season. FUCK!" Seth shouted.
"There... there might be another way of doing this." Jen offered.
"Yes, please anything! How?" Seth asked frantically.
"Well first we need to blend it a lot more times, but filter out all the cells first." Jen began, with proper wifely humility of course.
"Just tell me how I can help, you are now in charge of this," Seth said cooperatively.
***...
Jen felt uncomfortable telling Seth what to do, but with a lot of humble requests and many hours of work, Jen was feeling confident that she had got all the morphine. Hours of blending, filtering, blending, filtering, followed by every form of chemical attack Jen dared to use on the stubborn grass cells to break open every single one of them for the morphine they contained.
Jen had pretty well confirmed that the enzyme was indeed destroyed by doing an experiment with cuttings of various vegetables from the garden. There was exactly no difference between the vegetable purée with the enzyme added and the control group purée that had none, there could be little doubt that the enzyme was denatured and useless.
With the correct microbiology resources Jen would perhaps be able to create a crude but functional homemade replacement enzyme, but it would be difficult with what Seth had available.
"May I make a request husband?" Jen asked humbly.
"Of course," Seth replied indulgently.
"May I make a list of things to buy?" Jen asked.
"Please do, we really need to figure out a shopping list before the end of the next wet season," Seth encouraged her.
"Just a list, I won't spend any money without your permission," Jen added quickly.
"I don't mind so long as you just don't spend too much. Feel free to buy something for yourself as well," Seth told her.
"Well, one thing that I would like to buy is the books I read growing up. Educational books. Z8C would have to order them for me," Jen asked humbly.
"The same books that taught you all this chemistry?. Done done done, yes buy them as soon as possible, I want to read them too," Seth replied excitedly.
"I will have to order copies translated to low gothic so you can read them too," Jen explained.
"Please do, how much will they cost?" Seth asked.
"I will have to ask Z8C the price. Hopefully not too expensive," Jen said hopefully.
"Do you want any of the usual stuff women want? Clothes, shoes, vibrating dildos?" Seth asked.
"Vibrating dildos? Do women usually shop for that?" Jen asked in surprise.
"Yeah they do, HUGE numbers of dildos! Women like to go to the shops in groups, and try out dildos on each other. That's why they don't invite men, they are secretly putting dildos in each other. They buy them by the bagful, the average woman has at least a hundred dildos," Seth insisted adamantly.
"Really?! They do this?!" Jen asked in dismay.
"They pretend that they don't but they secretly do," Seth insisted.
"I am perhaps not like other women then, I never knew this," Jen said in amazement.
"The Wsuian women didn't have dildos?" Seth asked.
"Some lines were trained to use them as part of their education, but 679 line were forbidden from touching them. I only ever saw them in educational films and books," Jen admitted.
"Well, feel free to buy them so long as they are not too expensive," Seth said.
"I prefer your penis, but if you want me to then I will use one. Did your mother teach you about this secret practice of women?" Jen asked.
"No, I only learned about it since coming here," Seth explained.
"How did you learn about it?" Jen asked.
"I read about it," Seth explained.
"You mean in a book?" Jen asked curiously.
"I read it in my porno magazines. Women go shopping for clothes together, but they then use dildos on each other in the change rooms," Seth insisted firmly.
"The same porno magazines that say that sisters of battle perform fellatio on every imperial guardsman they meet?" Jen asked.
"Um... shit..." Seth said quietly in disappointment.
"I think that not everything in those magazines is true, but I will believe it if you want me to," Jen said delicately.
"Read nothing but porn for 21 years..." Seth trailed off sheepishly.
"I can still buy dildos if you want me to husband," Jen insisted.
"What about clothes and shoes? Women like THOSE don't they?" Seth asked desperately.
"Yes husband, women of most human cultures enjoy buying clothes and shoes," Jen confirmed.
"You want that stuff," Seth asked.
"I am not even wearing pants husband," Jen giggled.
"Yeah, silly question. But apart from what you NEED, is there any clothes that you WANT but don't need?" Seth asked.
"Clothes that you would find sexy," Jen admitted with a provocative giggle.
Seth shifted, clearly aroused. Jen lifted up the bottom of her borrowed shirt to reveal her very damp vagina, an inviting smile on her face.
"I have sex with you far too much I think," Seth admitted as he advanced towards her, one thing on his mind.
***...
With the distraction of yet more sex, and questionable advice about women, behind them, Jen and Seth once again got to work extracting as much morphine as possible from the bliss grass. They worked very hard, long into the night, and were rewarded for their efforts with a very small brick of extremely pure morphine.
To be continued