Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and it’s our only hope to have electricity. If we lose it or it gets damaged I can’t build another one.
    My parents and my brother untie their rafts and shove off. Their lack of concern for me is unsettling. I know I need to take care of myself but this is a little ridiculous.
    Walking to the ambulance raft I untie it and give them a shove.
    “Paddle as best you can. I have one more thing to get and then I’ll catch up and we can work together.” I say to Grace as she drifts a few feet away.
    “Seamus! Get in your raft now!” She screams back at me.
    The faces of my parents and my brother whip around and see me standing on the ramp as they all float away. I walk inside and raise the ramp until it’s high enough for me to use it as a boost to get to the tail-mounted reactor.
    After grabbing a wrench from the wall-mounted toolbox I scamper up the ramp. Face to face with my reactor, I fit the wrench over the first bolt. It’s the wrong size. The wrench spins freely.
    Releasing my grip on the plane I slide down the ramp, invisible to those in the rafts. After splashing down I head back to the toolbox. I can’t even geusstimate which wrench is the correct one. My hand grabs three that are smaller than the one I grabbed first as well as a pair of pliers.
    Getting up the ramp with both hands full is more difficult than I expected. Once I make it to the top the shouting begins.
    “Seamus, leave it!” Grace is yelling.
    “Son, I know you worked hard on that but we don’t need it. Let it go.” My Dad always acts like his words carry more weight than the others.
    Dad is right in a way, we don’t need it. But having it will make things better. Electricity gives us a better chance at survival. Even if we only use it to recharge our tablets and computers so we can access the trove of information stored there it will help. I hope someone put my backpack in one of the rafts, there is still a charge left on the laptop battery and I don’t want it to get wet.
    “It will help.” Without getting into the details I let them know that I am not going to leave it.
    Lying on my back again I try the largest of the new wrenches. It doesn’t fit. Rather than continue trying and failing I switch to the pliers. The angle of my body and the need to squeeze and turn the pliers makes the project difficult, but it’s working.
    Eventually the first nut comes off and I place it in my pocket. Before setting back to work I turn and look down at the water, it’s rising fast.
    My focus helps me shut everything else out. The water, the sweat, the ache in my hand, none of them exist and I get the second nut off in no time and start on the third. For some reason progress on this one is slower and more challenging.
    In the corner of my eye the bright yellow of a life raft appears. I’m distracted and look down to see who it is. My father smiles up at me but says nothing.
    With the third nut off I turn my sights to the fourth and final nut.
    “Let me hold the unit. If there is strain on that nut you’ll never get it off.” Dad is kneeling in the life raft and pushing up on the reactor unit.
    Sweat is pouring off my head and my hands are slick. I work the pliers as quickly as I can but it seems to take forever. Unexpectedly the nut pops off and the pliers join it on a clattering fall down the cargo ramp. Dad’s life raft shifts away from the plane and the reactor unit settles on my arm painfully.
    “Little help!” I growl loudly.
    There is loud splashing, and even though I know they are trying their best I wish they would hurry up. It’s taking all my strength to keep the reactor from dropping into the water and getting ruined.
    Just when I think I might pass out the pressure on my arm lightens. I can tell my Dad’s grunts and it helps me relax to know he’s there.
    “You need to help me help you. Push with your free hand and we can get this off.” Dad is working hard but his trademark calmness keeps me together.
    When the reactor is