With a yawn and a stretch, Jahwan slowly climbed out of bed, his leather wraps now with a few more charcoal and soot stains than yesterday. Taking care once more this morning,  he only stubbed his toes twice and tripped and bruised his ego on the way to the bathroom. Along with getting a nice big knot on his head in the process.

Closing the door behind him, Jahwan took his time to help fertilize the crops. Meanwhile the rolled steel of the bathroom door was looking extremely impressive today, the bulkhead and even the doorframe having been ripped entirely out of the ruins of a prewasteland submarine, found crashed into the mountain of the deeplands near the Great Crevasse!~ the bulkhead was a strange color of faded blue in comparison to the mostly gunmetal grey of the rest of the Narwhal. Though some spots had been painted by a young Jahwan in a now faded red color. The floors had bolts set every six inches, bands running down the length of the narwhal at a distance of one band every 14 inches.

Suddenly the toilet flushed, and the sound of vigorous hand scrubbing could barely be heard behind the massive bulkhead. Unfortunately during installation, the frame was put in a bit loosely, allowing sounds to transmit between the bathroom and other rooms. It did not help that most of the rest of the frame of the narwhal was just as soundproof. Although ultimately it did help in telling where the fire was during a hailstorm. The bulkhead opened and Jahwan stepped out, readjusting his black jeans, before closing the bulkhead and moving into the kitchen to reheat some porridge. Sweet porridge for noonfast was a delicious start to the day.

The Narwhal's exterior was a scratched and patchwork mess of various bits of steel, all bolted together. And looking through the kitchen window, one could see Jahwan slowly eating porridge with a crooked spoon that looked to be self forged. The bubbled window of the kitchen was a perfectly circular frame, with a less than circular arch for the bubble, it only came out about half the radius of the frame. And from the outside seemed like a barnacle of some sort growing on a large mechanical fish. While the front seemed mildly cycloptic with the one large bubble window at the front, a monocular narwhal contraption would be a great way to describe it in three words. Once Jahwan had finished his porridge, errant bits stuck to his face mask to show he hadn't been especially careful, he washed his bowl and spoon, before seeing his reflection in the few reflective things in the narwhal, namely, the glass holding the portrait of him and his grandfather. Cleaning his face at the sink, he checked once more and decided he was good to go.

If only he would clean the oil from his leather like he would his porridge, he might well have been propositioned by some young lass at a settlement when he was last there a few months ago. But Jahwan preffered his hard work, survival was very important. And he didn't have the hide of a beast good enough to use in a ceremony of family acceptance yet either. Nor the dyes he would need to give it the vibrant colors it should have, and would keep for generations.

For now, Jahwan busied himself with his day to day checkups, storing of vegetables, and pickling of others. By the time he had realized it hours had gone by and it was mid afternoon already. Deciding to get a start on his salt separator, Jahwan took the welder from his belt loop, sheepishly realizing he had never put it back. Somehow not even realizing it wasn't in place when he checked the machine to make sure it was working. Checking the charge he sighed in relief, he'd have enough for a little while.

Jahwan moved down to the sledge and unstrapped the belts that held the girder in place. Once that was done, he took a careful look outside the belly windows to check the time, he had several hours of work ahead of him. Working diligently, Jahwan sliced off girder like it was a roast ham, each and every slice, delicate, immaculate and meant for the furnace. He'd gotten a grand bunch of slices off the girder when he felt it was time to move on. Luckily his grandfather had been smart, and had a solution for moving heavy junk upstairs. A pulley system had been set in place for a long time, originally to help Bui the narwhal, and then to help fix it. Most of the time it was a second system that could be put up instead of the sail, as they would typically conflict in range of motion, though both could be put up at once if the sail needed to be stitched back up.

Now however, when the gantry was down, like the sail, it sat perfectly in line within the hull of the Narwhal, and allowed stuff to be moved between floors by the stairwell. The opposite side of the bathroom was where the gantry was able to pull things up, usually it was just a wall with a slide panel, not really there for anything other than not falling in. But now Jahwan pulled open the second floor shaft, and stepped in, his feet on the pallet that cargo rode upon, and slowly lowered the winch down. Once at the bottom floor, just below the cieling, which was quite high in the belly, in case of larger projects, and hooked the belly winch cieling cable up to the cargo pallet, lowering the gantry cable until the belly cable was taut, he then disengaged the gantry cable, and grabbed the pulley ropes from the belly cable control, and replaced the gantry ropes with them. The entire system was a bit convoluted, but it worked a lot better than one cable going through the entire ship, cutting it nearly in half.

Pulling along his pallet he lowered it down to pile chunks of sliced girder on, before tugging on the ropes, heavier backwards to haul himself back up, and then moved back to the gantry point. It worked much like a dumbwaiter anywhere but on the third floor, as the second and first floors all had their own pulleys. To use it on the roof meant extending the crane outside. Reconnecting everything, and pulling it taut once more, he swapped back over the the gantry, and slowly went up the dumbwaiter shaft to the first floor stairwell. Once there, he stepped out before pulling the pallet a bit higher, and then he latched it in place, wandering off to grab the second floor pulley system and smelting bucket. Pulling it back by hand, as the system was less intensive, Jahwan tilted the pallet and slid all the girder pieces towards the edge, where they were caught on a lip, from there he tossed them over into the smelting bucket one by one, before closing the dumbwaiter once more.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Pulling the bucket full of steel bits over towards the incinerator, he stoked and banked the coals to get it hot, but not overly hot. This thing would try and eat through the cast iron of the casting bucket if it could. Pushing the bucket in with a metal rod and closing the grate on the front to let the heat roil around inside, he got to work on making clay moulds. They would probably just break, but he could use the chunks of clay to help break up the soil in a planter fpr better irrigation. Although to be safe he used a mixture of sand and clay. Making sure it was flat and square to have a nice sheet of steel, he unlatched the grate on the incinerator, and pulled out the bucket of molten metal. Sadly it wasn't exactly steel any more, but that's fine. It just needed to be durable metal. Now it was iron once more. Probably weaker. Or stronger, depending on how much carbon it kept. But he poured it into the molds, one at a time before pushing it back into the incinerator to stay molten. The first sheet cooled a bit, becoming a sludge as it set. He then poured into another mould, before pushing the bucket back into the incinerator. At this rate he might get some 5 plates out of it.

With effort he dragged Ann anvil over to the middle of the room, and using a set of large tongs great the first of the cooling iron sheets, before slamming a hammer down on the moulding, cracking it. The sheet and some moulding  still held by tongs, he set the sheet on the anvil, and readjusted his tongs, letting the rest of the moulding fall into the pile on the floor. With his tongs back in place, he swing upon the sheet, bending it over a curved part of the anvil, bending it into a semi circular pattern, slowly feeding the sheet across the anvil, his hammer blows sending Sparks flying as he worked. Slowly the sheet took form, and then he placed it upon a small edge of the anvile that separated two surfaces by a half inch at best, and began making the sheet half as thick at the edge, giving it a decided lip, and then he turned it over and did the same on the opposite side of the curve, so one lip face outwards of the curve, and one faced inwards. If there were two it would fit together like a tube. But it was only one.

Once the curve was set, he slowly narrowed one end into a cap, hammer welding it in place. It wasn't done and needed some more touch ups, but for now, he had more work to do. And so he opened the grate to the inside, the heat bursting out enough to make his bandages dampen in sweat, and immediately dry too. Jahwan set the almost cooled metal on the grate, before moving on to the next mold, to repeat his actions. As Jahwan worked on the second half, the first one began to think in the great heat from the incinerator, beginning to glow a gentle reddish orange in color. It had almsot turned yellow when Jahwan swapped it out for a colder identical twin.

Once more with gusto, sweat poured down his thin frame as he hammered upon the creature of the once tube, now seeming more like an egg shaped hill that got bashed in, or half of it at least. On one edge he began to poke holes with a part of the anvil probably better suited for rings, but Jahwan used it to make bolt holes all along the half thickness lip, before dipping it into a barrel of oil, it didn't have much use outside of smithing, but he refused to use the oil for the incinerator. It would only clog it up.

He then repeated the process with it's now yellow twin, that rested upon the grating. Grabbing a second pair of tongs to pull out the now solidly cooled half of his salt separator. The second half hissed as it slipped below the oily surface. He turned away to begin on the third and fourth sheet. With this one he merely pounded and bent it until he had a solid looking pipe, with an experts eye hidden behind goggles, he dipped it in the oil. He knew how to spot weaknesses in iron. And steel. Considering he worked with them to get raw material, or figure where he had to patch the narwhal. With the fourth sheet he made a bucket of sorts, upturning the edges and rounding it out. Excess material was cut away with the welder at his hip, and tossed back into the smeltery bucket. It would be good for spare parts.

The fifth sheet, was not a sheet at all, I stead it was moulds for nuts and bolts, and extruded iron wire, with the remnants of the fourth sheet that had melted he made hinges and pins with yet more molds. It wasn't the best of quality, but he didn't have the technology of some settlements. Some had been lucky to find old world steel Mills, and had family members old enough to have had worked there to pass on the knowledge and skills. Few advances had been made, but it was still a good business. Trade with steel mill settlements was often very lucrative for them. New parts for many different kinds of rigs, and even custom parts. It all flowed out of steel mill settlements.

Jahwan had completed the first step. With the second, he bolted the two half domes together. Third, he used the blow torch to cut a small round door in the front of two halves of the eggshell, and then set the door upon the incinerator grate, the smeltery bucket, now done, had been pulled out and left to cool out of the way. Once the cutout had been heated up, he beat a lip into the outer edge of that, while the dome now rested on the grating, awaiting it's turn at further improvement.

Once that was done he hammered a few bolt holes into the top of the cutout, then set it in oil, then came the eggshell, which was much harder to manuever now, but he managed to beat a lip into it, and some bolt holes near it's top as well. The cutout of the eggshell went halfway up the top of the dome like structure. The entire thing was quite heavy, but the anvil was right in front of the furnace like any good blacksmith would have. So getting it in place wasn't the most difficult process for Jahwan. With this done he swapped the two pieces in the oil bath. And attached half of a hinge to the likely oblong half oval door of the new separator. The rest of it cooled he pulled it out of the oil and added it's half of the hinges. Then he slid them together, put a bolt in, and checked to see if it would work. It opened and closed the smoothly. But that might be due to the oil.

Jahwan set the bottom of it on the winch system, to call it a bucket would be a gross overestimation of it's height. It was more like a pan. A tall pan, but a pan none the less. With that on the winch, he then heaved and set the dome portion on it, straining to get an edge on, before pushing it the rest of the way, with a dull thunk, the separator was on the winch. This was going to be difficult to move to the gantry in the dumbwaiter shaft. But Jahwan pushed forward with it. Guiding it along the track until he was at the dumbwaiter. Opening it he lowered the dumbwaiter to a slightly lower level, just under the lip to the second floor, and latched it back into place. With a deep-seated groan, Jahwan pushed the separator to the edge of it's little box, huffing and heaving, he tilted it back, and pushed it forwards, getting it to slide over top and then pushed it onto the gantry. With this done, he lowered the dumbwaiter down to the very belly of the bottom floor, and closed the dumbwaiter before going to lay on his bed. He needed a nap. And then probably some food. Gazing halfheartedly out the window, he still had a couple hours before night. He'd be fine.

And so thinking, Jahwan sprawled upon his bed, muscles weary, and went for a quick nap.