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Well, that was a lot easier than I expected.
It turns out that Silverfish knows some people who know some people. Once I’d explained Haven to him, he got me in touch with some of his superiors at the MoD. It seems they’ve been thinking about this sort of thing for a while, but from a military perspective - apparently the boys with guns don’t like the idea of an enemy they can’t shoot (names ReDs), so they’ve been wanting to look into new quarantine situations. The governments haven’t been keen on their pitch, though, mostly because it was a military pitch, it seems. Apparently the government don’t like the idea of the army setting up on their own private, practically autonomous islands. Too many countries have had rumblings about military coups.
So, this colonel that Silverfish introduced me to put me straight onto a woman at DEFRA. I suppose it makes the most sense to go through them, as we’re talking about taking unused land and setting up modern, small yield farming. It’s small yield, yes, but it’s farming, and apparently DEFRA are actually getting really concerned about this whole Rasvenous global threat GEAS are talking about. Food production is top of their list.
The nice DEFRA lady likes our plans so far, but the location is a bit of an issue. Thanks to the wonders of devolution, the site’s actually under the jurisdiction of the Scottish National Assembly (makes sense, I guess). She’s got people on the case, though, and they’re talking to Hollyrood right now, discussing freeing up the land for a government-backed sustainability research project.
Yes, she really called it that.
In the current climate, with so many things for the gov to worry about, it seems there isn’t the money to throw at research into long-term solutions - as ever, they prefer to put funds into plugging holes and waiting for the future to fix itself. If we have a future, it’ll be held together with gaffer tape, if the UK government has anything to do with it.
So, no funding, or at least only a little actual monetary funding, but DEFRA think they can sort out securing the land for us and throw us a little hardy crop seed to get us started - something their scientists have been working on.
I’m a little worried about that colonel, to be honest. I mean, it’s great that he got us onto the right people at DEFRA - that’s all moving faster than anticipated - but I now have horrible visions of soldiers coming in and trying to take over. Maybe I’ll have to be stern about no military presence. It would help with the quarantine situation, though.
No, that’s stupid. I do not want Haven turning into some sort of martial law military installation. Thank you Colonel, but no thank you.
Things are progressing nicely, though.
Ok, so, I guess we need to decide who we need.
Haven has to be fully self-sustaining, like a kibbutz for the catastrophe era, so the community needs members who can get the place running and keep it running.
On the food side, while everyone will be involved in the day to day growing (that’s part of the package - if you want to be part of Haven, you have to be willing to get dirty: weeding, pulling up spuds, sewing etc), we need professionals, too. At least a couple of real farmers, who know about growing grain crops and getting the best yields out of the space we have. And that’s just for the arable farming - we’ll need people who know about animal husbandry, too. There are already a few sheep on the island, but we’ll need a flock big enough to keep us in wool and meat, which means we’ll need a proper shepherd who knows about such things. Chickens are easy enough to look after, so a nice number of chooks will keep us in eggs and meat. Then we’ll need someone who knows about cattle - raising, milking and butchering. Actually, a butcher’s a good point - or at least a proficient game hunter, who knows how to kill, draw and dress anything we want to eat.
A vet’s vital, of course, to look after the health needs of the animals. And a doctor or two (or a doctor and a nurse) to do the same for the human inhabitants.
We can probably suppliment our diets with fish, too, so we’ll need some residents who know how to fish.
Then it’s the infrastruture side of things to think about. Engineers who can set up our power supply, so maybe specialists in renewable energy, who can set up and maintain enough wind turbines and solar cells to keep us powered, and whatever sorts of capacitors and transformers we’d need for a fully functioning local power grid. Maybe I’m thinking too big. Maybe we wouldn’t need a grid, just generators churning out enough juice for each individual house. A couple of turbines or a little solar farm behind each dome. See, this is why we need experts - this isn’t my area.
Also, a computing and communications expert to get us set up with lines of communication to the outside world and an intranet.
We’ll need a few folks who know about construction. The domes are meant to be fairly easy to erect, but we’ll need to level the ground for them and get them built, along with polytunnels and other small building projects.
Long term sustainability means kids, so we’d need a small scale education system, with a couple of professional teachers - a lot can also be taught by the community, like home schooling on a grand scale. Who better to teach the children about renewable energy than our engineers?
Oh, a mechanic, I guess, to keep any machinery going.
librarian-cum-archivist for the information archive might be a luxury, but it’s something to think about.
Who else do we need?
The mercenary realist in me says that we’ll need some sort of militia-style defence force, but I really don’t want it to come to that. I’m just slightly concerned about maintaining the quarantine when there are so many fugees about. All we need is one ReDs carrier to hop a boat over to Haven and the whole project, the whole community, is screwed. We have to be able to prevent that. I guess I know a couple of people at the MoD. Silverfish might have some ideas. Hell, he’ll have more than just defense ideas - he could probably help with most of the infrastructure setup. Definitely a useful geek to know.
So much planning to do!
All that’s left of the old settlements on the island are heaps of stones. The views are stunning, though, and everything’s so lush - great for growing crops and rearing livestock. There are even sheep and red deer in residence.
To quote a certain Hobbit, well, I’m back.
I decided not to log in while I was visiting the Haven site, because there was too much risk some troublemaker might zero my signal and spoil everything. Better safe than sorry.
And yes, I did just refer to it as the Haven site.
It’s perfect. A little tricky to get to, but that’s sort of the point - we’ll need to set up a quarantine ring if we want to keep ReDs out, so the harder the site is to breach the better.
It’s actually really pretty there - all green hills and sandy beaches. The plans shouldn’t make too much of an ugly dent in the natural environment there, so it’ll stay a beautiful place to live.
And there’s so much space! We’re figuring on a population of a hundred, so we’d need about a hundred acres for crops and livestock, plus space for living and infrastructure; the site’s a little over 2000acres. Even if only half of it’s useful, that’s more than enough room for all our needs. The wilder half will stay a little bit of wilderness on our doorsteps.
Even BigDamnHero admitted that the place is beautiful, and he’s a real urbanite so he’s been tough to convince that the plan’s the best course. He says he could see himself living at Haven. I can see it too.
So, I got on to Mongoose as soon as we were home yesterday and showed her the photos and a local map I’d managed to source. She agrees that it looks ideal. So, time to start making proper plans. The site’s officially actually owned by the government, which is perfect - no private owners to fight it out with. The idea of pitching it as a social experiment is definitely the best route, I think. If we can show the brass that we’re doing this for the betterment of blah blah blah - to test whether self-sufficient communities are sustainable. For England, James.
So, we have to figure out exactly how to pitch it to the .gov
Actually, I should talk to rhizomorphic - he’s a prof in London now, sow getting an accademic’s name on the paperwork might give it some extra force.
I need to run to the plots - they’ve been neglected for a few days - but then I’ll get down to work.
Project Haven is a go.
Well, that’s sorted, then.
I’m taking a little trip. I told the Mongoose I’d look into the posible location, and I’ve got no more work this week that I can’t do on the move (how the hell did we live before laptops?), so I’m off for a few days.
I’ve got tickets. I’m taking the bullet up as far as I can and then I’ll have to organise a boat. Yes, a boat. We’re talking about an island, here. It’s the only way to keep ReDs out. An island, and no-one lands without permission. Enforcing that might be tricky, yes, but Silverfish has a lot of useful contacts at the MoD and I’ve already had a word with him. He’s interested in helping. And there’s Mongoose’s dad, of course. He could be very useful.
BigDamnHero’s insisting on coming with - he says he doesn’t like the idea of me going out into the wilds on my own, not in the current climate (and I don’t mean the weather). So he’s taking a few days off and joining me. My knight in shining armour. I suppose he’s right.
I remember when a ‘fast’ train up to Edinburgh used to take about six hours from London, but now you can hurtle the length of the UK in less than four. Thing’s will be a bit slower at the other end, but the location being tricky to get to is sort of the point. Sweet isolation.
BDH is packing now - making sure the tent’s serviceable and all that, and then we leave first thing in the morning. Strange to think that by tomorrow night we should be there, at the place which might eventually be home.
I’ll try to stay online as long as I can, but I doubt I’ll get much signal once I’m over there.
Here goes nothing.
Wish me luck.
Guess what I did at the weekend? That’s right, I talked to the Mongoose. Lots.
We sat up for hours discussing things.
Discussing what it would really be like to set up a new home somewhere away from here. Secluded. Making our own power, growing our own food. A little haven of quietude.
We even talked about building a library there. So if the worst of GEAS’s predictions come true and in a couple of decades there’s nothing left, we’ll at least have saved something from the fires of societal collapse. With all the griefing and viralware out there, actually keeping stuff digitally for posterity just isn’t safe anymore. We’ve gone back in time and good old-fashioned ink on paper is the safest way to keep stuff. I mean, how much of my fiction did I lose when my account got hacked a few years ago? Stuff that I can never replace. If I’d had hard copy I’d still have it.
So, a library. Books. Reference stuff and fiction. Anything we can save. Take it somewhere safe and keep it. Not locked away so no one can read it - books are meant to be read - but secure and fireproof.
We even had an idea about how to go about it all without raising suspicions. Hide it in plain sight. The best way the tell a lie is to hide it between two truths. So how’s this for an idea: a social experiment. We get the ball rolling on this little haven and tell people it’s a social experiment. Like Big Brother, but with useful people. We get engineers, growers - all the useful skills - and we say we’re running an experiment to see if medium-scale self-sufficiency works. Just to run for a couple of years, to prepare for future projects when the shit hits the fan.
Only it doesn’t just run for a couple of years. We hand pick our little community and then we stay there. Safe and sound, making our own power, growing our own food.
Hell, if we pitch it right we could even get government funding - tell them it’s for the good of the nation and society, to find out what works. It would be true, but at the same time we’d be building a new home for ourselves, away from all the danger.
I even know where. Well, I have to look into it, maybe take a trip, but the place I’ve found… it looks perfect on paper. Better than perfect. Fertile, secluded and unihabited.
It could be home.
I talked with the Mongoose lots at the weekend. We were have idle thoughts that were almost turning into the seeds of a plan. It’s a sort of extreme plan, but a very appealing one.
A haven.
The whole world starts to fall apart, but we build ourselves a nice little haven with self-sufficient living, clean energy and no reliance on the outside. A little idyll to call home.
I even started idly researching possible locations, based on the area and requirements Mongoose and I came up with. I think I’ve found a possible spot.
Obviously I’m slightly concerned that I’m turning into some sort of weirdo isolationist, but central society breaks down, fringe and isolation societies might stand the best chance.
My mother’s been watching the tv news (she still resists taking a leap into the 21st century) and finally heard the GEAS announcements, and then heard that a load of people went off the deep end and decided to make nicey-nicey with trains.
So what does she do? Call to make sure I’m ok. Why, because I might throw myself into traffic? I’m worried but I’m hardly hysterical.
Of course, at least she doesn’t have to worry about ReDS - she has the almighty aloe vera to protect her!
