At the conclusion of class Friday, they entered the weekend. While it wasn't a true weekend, at least she didn't have to teach students. She felt a certain amount of stress due to not having a lot of material to stretch into ten days of instruction. Fortunately, her students were just as slow picking up the basics as she had been. Maybe she would get to graduation at the end of the second week without looking like an idiot.
Saturday they spent assembling showers and bathrooms from the types of containers that she commonly saw stacked on train cars. Eight heavy bolts locked the frames of the long bottom containers together. Then they welded the seams together using animas. A third container, this one shorter than the others, was stacked on top and centered. They bolted and welded it to the rest. Then things became interesting.
Two wide tanks were installed in the uppermost container, their tops surgically removed so that it was easy to see down inside them. The open ends would allow water to be fed into the system, after which gravity and valves would handle the rest. To that end, lengths of pipe were run from each tank down into both sides of the lower level. Each tank had to go to each side as Jimmy's dad had designed the system to have one with hot water and one with warm water. The idea was that they would save energy flushing toilets with the less hot water and be able to adjust shower temperature.
Once the pipes were inside each individual unit, it fed in both directions along the ceiling, with T junctions sending the hot and warm water down to shower nozzles leading to spouts at regular intervals. Towards the exterior doors, the downward pipes stopped going to shower fixtures and instead connected to toilet tanks that were attached to the wall. The toilets themselves were ratcheted down atop gaskets that connected to thicker out pipes beneath the structure, which they had elevated on sturdy metal beams. Shower drains joined together in a similar but separate system.
Then came power lines and LED light fixtures fed from banks of batteries located in the upper container. The interior walls were coated with insulated foam, then faced with plywood. The stalls around the showers and toilets were made from two-by-fours and more plywood. It screamed rustic and functional before the weekend ended, though there was still more to do. Mr. Hills wanted to put in ventilation but hadn't decided how that should work in a sub-zero environment. They also hadn't had time to figure out a solution for the doors -- letting in gusts of freezing air every time someone entered or exited was not considered a viable option, meaning some means of trapping warmth while the door was being used was necessary.
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They were able to do a test of the lines by loading water into the tanks and checking to see if there were any leaks, then when everything held, they tested each shower and toilet individually. By that time, it was getting late on Sunday and they decided to delay any further activity to another day.
While all of that weekend work had been happening, the social environment had largely been stuck in a stasis due to how busy everyone was. The exception seemed to be Mike and Cassandane, who were mostly absent as they played at fighting each other. Every time Sam saw them, she scrutinized them for any signs of flirting. Each time she questioned whether or not she had imagined the conversation with Mike where he admitted to his attraction. Either their dance of seduction was subtle in the extreme, or they were serious about their training. Mr. Hills spent more time than necessary supervising and chattring with Kendra, but otherwise he seemed to behave himself, not that anyone would know from the way Jimmy constantly squirmed when the two were in proximity of each other.
The arctic shelters that had been ordered began to arrive. They were orange plastic igloos that could house two people. Sam's impression was that it was much like a tent, only with harder walls. Supposedly the material was a good insulator, which would be important. At night, the leaders meeting researched other equipment options. They ordered three large military tents. One was for the cafeteria. Another was for classroom space. A third was for office space. None of them were rated for arctic temperatures, but they reasoned that a kinetic could warm up a stone heat sink every few hours to keep the temperature above freezing.
Other purchases included electrical cords, cold rated deep cell batteries, power inverters to convert from direct to alternating current, and a salvaged bus. That final purchase, an old Van Hool double-decker bus, had been put out of commission due to an engine fire. The idea for the bus came about when Jimmy pointed out that expense for buying a boat to transport students to and from their arctic base would be more than they wanted to spend, especially if they intended to pay dock fees at their point of departure. As it was looking increasingly like Mike would be responsible for carrying students to and from their base, he outright refused to directly carry people and their cargo for thousands of miles. He was willing to lift a vehicle of some kind, since his issue was one of dexterity rather than power or endurance. They had rapidly cycled through options before settling on a bus and then located one that could be purchased on the cheap.
Altogether, the weekend proved busier than the week had been. Sam didn't mind that as Jess continued to be preoccupied with Srinivas, making her free time into a series of awkward social fumbles with people who were both older and from different backgrounds. Her jokes fell flat more often than not and every interaction required effort. Working was easier, even though she had very little knowledge of construction, electricity, vehicles, or finance. She almost regretted the arrival of Monday.