Lights Out

Writers: Chelle, Paula
Date Posted: 29th September 2016

Characters: Corowal, Sarban, Erassa
Description: The storm causes an outage.
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 7, day 14 of Turn 8

"Crackdust!" Corowal nearly jumped out of his skin and swore when
lightning hit somewhere very close. The boom of the thunder followed
right behind the flash. "This is the second storm in a sevenday," he
remarked and grimaced when the squall made the windows rattle. "Shards
and shells!" The light flickered and went dark. Then seconds later
they flickered back to life.

Grateful he had gotten the technicians to repair all the pipes and
lines not too long ago, Sarban was still watching the lights. Just to
make sure, he had glowbaskets ready to uncover in his office. The
headwoman wasn't a fool and always had a backup plan. Thankfully,
Corowal was a floor up above him so he didn't hear his yelling. The
ground crews had gone out earlier before the wind had picked up to
make sure everything was tied down and secured as much as possible.

There was another flash of lightning and boom of thunder. The lights
went out again, and this time they didn't return. Still muttering
curses, Corowal located the glowbasket and opened.

"Dad!" There was a frightened cry from his children.

"It's alright, it's just thunder, it must have put out the light. Stay
here with Erassa and Felyna, I'll go to see what's the matter,"
Corowal walked around with the glowbasket, reassuring his family and
opening all the other glowbaskets. Erassa located some candles and
lit them. "See how exciting this is. Pretend this is an adventure
and you're out camping," he suggested and the children soon started
to build a hut from blankets and bedfurs.

Corowal left his quarters to find out what was wrong and how long it
would take the lights to come back.

"Shards!" Sarban stood up and fumbled around in the dark before he
uncovered one of the glowbaskets closest to him. Then he moved about
and worked on the rest. It wasn't going to be safe to try to go out in
the storm and examine whatever was wrong, much less try to repair it.
That meant they were operating on glowbaskets until then.

One of his understewards appeared. "Go find the Master Technician.
I'll be expecting a report after the storm clears and we have light to
work with. If he needs some men, come back and let me know after you
speak with him." The young man disappeared, hurrying off with his
own glowbasket in hand.

Scratching his face, Sarban considered trying to work under the
glowlight, weighing the time it was going to take when he heard
footsteps coming. Turning, he saw Corowal approaching and could just
imagine how well this conversation was going to go. Telling his cousin
to be patient was like trying to tie down a full sail in a monsoon.

"Sarban," Corowal called, locating his cousin. "Any news yet? How long
the lights are out?"

"Just sent someone to speak to the Master Technician. It's not safe to
go out and look now, though. So we'll need to wait at least for the
storm to finish out if we can see by glowlight. Unless the problem
lies with the connections here in the Hold. That would be easy and
quick to fix." The men on duty at the power plant would be able to
work inside there too, he realized.

Unfortunately, Sarban had been a sailor. He didn't know much about
electricity. He had men hired for that. "We always keep glows on hand
for emergencies though so everyone should have them and the drudges
are uncovering the ones in the Hold's public spaces now."

Gesturing for Corowal to walk with him, they could at least see if
anyone was looking at the transformer within the Hold. That would give
Corowal something to do and keep him from feeling helpless and it
would give Sarban something to ask about. "Tomorrow is threadfall
though, so we'll need to divert men to that tomorrow if it doesn't
get fixed tonight until the groundcrews come in." Preparations for
Fall had already been made so that wasn't a worry.

"I do hope the dam or power plant aren't damaged," Corowal sighed. He
hated it when there was nothing they could do. Just wait out for
reports. At least the Hold was well prepared. "If the storm doesn't
pass for tomorrow, how will it affect the Fall? Won't the rain drown
the Thread before it reaches ground?"

"If it's heavy enough rain, yes. If the Weyr doesn't fly, we'll know
there's enough rain." If they weren't needed for sweepriding, usually
the Hold watchdragon appeared to let them know they didn't have to
worry about burrows. "We just shored up the dam. And if the power
plant was damaged, then I'm firing the techs we have and getting new
ones. Because they just went over all that. I've got the hidework to
prove it. And it cost us a pretty mark to get those replacement
parts from the smiths."

Corowal just nodded in agreement. "It's been a stormy month," he
remarked and greeted some hold folk who had left their apartments to
find out why the lights were out. He reassured them and instructed
them to return to their homes.

It took some walking but they finally reached the electrical supply
room within the Hold. It held the breakers and other equipment needed
to distribute the lines from the plant through the Hold itself. Sarban
opened the door, pleased to see a few bent heads when they got there.

"It's a short circuit," one of the technicians told them after turning
to look, hearing the door open. "Will be fixed within a
candlemark," he continued. His tone was irritated. People had been
going in and asking them about that the whole time.

"Thank you, keep up the good work," Corowal said. The technicians
obviously didn't need more interruptions.

That was certainly welcome news. A quick fix would be less expensive
to deal with and would anger the holders-and Corowal-less. Sarban
inwardly relaxed. "Well then, they seem to have that handled. We'll
go out and do an inspection in the morning, though, to make sure
there isn't any physical damage that needs repairing to any of the
structures. With the way the wind's blowing, I can bet there may be
some limbs to gather up later to use as kindling for the numbweed
fires."

"Yes," Corowal agreed. He shook his head ruefully. "At least we don't
have hurricanes like in Coral Bay. Remember those?"

"Oh aye. I remember racing ahead of them at sea so we didn't get
caught in them. Awful things. Of course those storms during the
winters near Tillek are worse I think. Huge waves ready to swallow
you that you can't crest and cause capsizing." Not wanting to dwell
on past nightmares of being lost to the waves and drowning, he shook
his head. Being from a seaholding family, they had known people who
had perished.

"Yes," Corowal clapped his shoulder. He had done his share of sailing
on his stepfather's ship. "I'll get back to my family and assure them
that power will be back shortly. Let me know if there is serious
damage," he continued. He trusted Sarban to take care of the less
serious problems the storm might cause. "Afterwards, send patrols to
check the main roads. Rain like this can cause cave-ins."

"Will do. Go get some rest or maybe tell some stories under the
glowlight until they all go back to bed. I imagine the boys would love
to sleep under some sheets pulled up. An adventure, as it were."
Chuckling to himself, Sarban went back toward his office so he'd be
easy to find, sending a passing understeward around to let everyone
know it would be fixed soon.

Last updated on the December 17th 2016

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Lights Out