RK Series Racing; Stage 5 Camp; Part 2
This post was partially written by @Knugcab
After getting the green light on route choice, the remaining afternoon and evening was spent doing nothing of particular interest.
Valentin went about starting work on how one could make the Dione fit onto rails, while Tim tried his hand with archery using Constantin’s equipment, which failed spectacularly due to both a lack of strength and not being left handed.
Sometime later, they made some dinner and headed into bed.
They generally slept well, up until about 8 moon the next morning, when Janne walked over to the place where the others set up camp.
Janne had hardly been asleep that night all over the excitement that Team RK had “promised” (well, at least that was what they had done in his mind) him to test drive the Tangerine tank. At 8 moon he thought that they must have gotten enough sleep, and was storming away to their camp. It seemed like nobody was awake yet which was somewhat disappointing to him.
“Hello…someone awake?” he tried a bit hesitant, but it seemed like he got no reaction.
“Ehhh…WHAT THE FUCK, WAKE UP, IT IS MORNING NOW!!!”
Constantin, as always, was the first to react to the inconsiderate shouting from Janne. He crawls out from under his tarp, looking at him.
“You couldn’t be any louder now, could you?”, he grunts, visibly annoyed at being forced out of bed, even though it wouldn’t have taken too much longer for him to naturally wake up anyway.
Not much of note happens within the car, but some rustling can be heard coming from within the tent next to it.
“Yes I could but it felt rather unnecessary”, Janne said, smirking.
Constantin fumbles around a bit and pulls out the local pocket watch that Jayde gifted to him previously.
“It’s 8-04 moon… Some people are trying to sleep…”, Constantin spoke. He had little issue with getting up early, though past experience told him other people did.
“Well, do you remember that you…OK, sort of but still…promised me a test drive of the Tangerine tank? We need to do it in the morning while we’ve still got time for it, right?”, Janne said, looking a lot like an 8 year old that had found a huge Lego set under the christmas tree at around the same time (converted to earth hours) in the morning.
“First off, i didn’t promise anything. Val said he has no issue with you driving the thing. Second, yes… it’s morning, but he has a hard time getting out of bed, especially if forced to earlier than planned. Do with that what you will.”, Constantin explained, as he crawled the rest of the way out from under his crude shelter.
“Really? You couldn’t have waited like… another hour or so? It’s still pitch-black.”, Tim added.
“With your occupation, you should know that there is nothing like “getting some more sleep” when there is important stuff to do, right?”, Janne said to Constantin and nodded.
“You are aware that the others are NOT military, right?”, Constantin replied.
At this moment, the tent opens up, with Valentin basically flopping out of it into the dirt surrounding the area. At this stage, he very much looked more like a zombie than a human.
“There you go. Zombie Valentin… good job.”, he added, motioning at Valentin. Tim got out of the car, now awake enough to function as well and was worried about Valentin because of the almost comatose state he was in.
“So, you’re awake now Val? That was about time”, Janne said. “Do you remember that you promised me a test drive…or…at least sort of, yesterday? Can we do it, I don’t know, like…now?”
“Huh?”, Valentin moans, lifting his head and some of his hair out of the dirt, now looking at Janne. He looks very confused, as he hasn’t understood a single thing. “Give him at least 20 minutes if you want him sort-of functional.”, Constantin said, increasingly annoyed at how much Janne was forcing the drive to happen despite the owner and crew not being ready. “Yeah… he’s a sleepyhead… he won’t touch Coffee with a 6 foot pole… maybe he should.”, Tim added, now rather amused, since Valentin was not in immediate danger and the zombie-like behavior was funny to look at.
“Oh”, Janne said a bit surprised. “Shame I didn’t know about it then so I could have woken him up 20 minutes earlier.”
“Would’ve been faster if you had a little more patience, actually… Ripping that guy out of his sleep cycle doesn’t help him at all, as you can see.” Constantin commented, also mildly surprised. He knew that Valentin wasn’t a morning person, but it getting exponentially worse the earlier he is forced to wake up also was new to him.
Valentin took a look around, trying to make sense of what is happening, before leaving the tent entirely, wearing only what in effect is a pair of short sweatpants. It turns out that Valentin did not take 20 minutes to get his brain going a bit, but he obviously wasn’t happy at all.
“You really want that drive, don’t you…”, Valentin groaned.
“Yes, of course I want to”, Janne said a little bit surprised. “It should not even be a question to be honest, I have never seen a steam powered car before, much less driven one.”
“I am much more surprised that neither Andreas or Marie seemed to have even the slightest interest in it. What the fuck is wrong with them?”
“And that justifies shoo-ing out three people out of bed at… erm…”, Valentin paused, not really knowing the time and how it works in Crugandr.
“Clock says 8-07 moon… Whatever that is.”, Constantin said, filling in for Valentin.
“yeah… that. In the middle of the night, is what i’m saying.”, Valentin added.
“Well, I am awake so I thought you guys should be that too. Now, when are we going to take the test drive?”, Janne asked restlessly.
“If you have a flashlight and a few minutes of time we can start preparing him. Otherwise you probably won’t shut up anyway”, Valentin relented, turning around to pop back into the tent.
“Sure”, Janne said and took a flashlight up from his pocket, accidentally turning it on while pointing it in the eyes of Valentin.
“Oops, sorry”, he said and turned it off again.
Before Valentin managed to turn around to change clothes, a blinding flash completely obliterates his sense of direction. Instinctively, he holds both eyes shut with his hands as he groans in pain and stumbles backwards, resulting in him getting caught in the tent’s rigging. He thus falls over and onto the now flattened tent. Following that, he rolls around a bit, now on top of his tent.
Constantin rushes over to aid Valentin, checking in on if he injured himself in the process of the tent entanglement.
“Oh, fuck”, Janne said in a state of shock. “It was an accident, I promise. Are you all right?”
“Got any first aid materials if needed?”, he asked Constantin
“Nothing a car-kit wouldn’t have…”, Constantin quipped back as he started to take a look at Valentin. In a sensational stroke of luck, the tent perfectly folded in on itself and did not do any added damage on top of the fall itself. And even that went better than what anyone expected, as he landed on top of the sleeping mat that still was in the tent.
It takes a while before Valentin can re-establish his sense of orientation, followed by him confirming: “I’m good, i think.”
Some basic checks follow, yielding nothing out of the ordinary. “Cannot see anything fucked up either…”, Constantin replied.
Afterwards, Valentin sat up on what now is a tent-ruin, looking at Janne with a face that wasn’t pleased at all, not saying anything.
“I take it as if you have had a less than pleasant experience now”, Janne said with some aftethought in his voice. “I’m utterly sorry, I pushed the switch by accident”, he said and looked at a somewhat annoyed looking Valentin sitting on the top of his collapsed tent.
“No shit sherlock… first you shove all of us out of bed at what feels like 4AM and now you blind the lead-engineer of this thing with a retina-killer that is your flashlight…”, Tim commented, having witnessed the entire thing from the other side of the car.
“Can we just get this over with already?”, Valentin said, still sat on the tent in his rendition of sleepwear. “Connor, can you please get the grease-gun from the roof?”, he added, promting Connor to join the conversation as he is sent out of stasis.
“Certainly.”, he answers and starts work on the roof, digging about the various containers and barrels up there.
Janne started looking at everything with great interest. At least “greasegun” was a word he saw as a sign of a great start. If something needed lubrication it just had to be good, more or less.
“Uhm…hey Val…want some kilju for later by the way? You know, the best painkillers are made from just sugar, yeast and high quality water from above the arctic circle…”
- Having acquired the grease gun, Valentin popped the hood and took a look onto the engine bay. “I need you to point the flashlight at the engine”, Valentin said to Janne, mentally bracing for the glare that would follow. “Also… what is Kilju?” Connor stepped in to provide some info. “Kilju is a beverage of Finnish origin, usually containing 15 to 17 percent Alcohol by volume. Unless seasoned with fruits it doesn’t have color or taste other than the ethanol contents. It’s small-scale manufacturing has been legalized in March of 2018.”, Connor explained, followed by Valentin noticeably shaking his head. “Yeah you can keep the booze…”, Valentin replied. (edited)
“Oh, come on, it is not too bad”, Janne replied. “Marie drinks a lot of it and just look, it has not done her any harm”, he laughed and actually managed to point the flashligt somewhat right.
“Just keep it… i don’t drink…”, Valentin replied rather sternly as he went about greasing up most of the valvetrain that was externally mounted next to the engine. Once done, he handed the grease-gun back to Connor and then carefully lowered the hood back down to avoid accidentally retaliating against Janne for the flashbang-attack.
Janne did not say a word during the greasing of the valvetrain, but you could tell from the look of his face that he was really interested and memorized every detail.
“Yeah right…and now?” he asked curiously after the hood was shut again.
“Time to raise some steam… You get into the driver seat and don’t touch anything.”, Valentin ordered and walked over to the front passenger door.
He took seat on what now is the fireman’s workplace and went ahead in going through the process of raising steam.
First, he went through the plungers on the center of the dash, pulling each one from left to right and holding it there for a few seconds.
He then reached over to the steering column and turned the key to the first position, powering the electrical system of the car.
Back on his half, he turned the three dials clockwise, spinning up a set of fans at either end of the car, followed by him briefly turning the ignition key to the second position, which sparks a fire in the boiler.
The dial on the center console near the gear lever is turned clockwise as far as it will go.
“Now to wait a few minutes. Steaming takes some time…”, Valentin said, watching the left gauge of the two mounted centrally between engineer and fireman.
“Now this was a long time ago…”, Janne said. “But it is all like I remember it…except for everything that is different”.
“You know, history repeats itself. I actually took my drivers license in one. They had them in drivers ed because it was said that not even a learner driver could kill one”, he said, having kind of a hard time to hold the nostalgia back.
“And now…? Well now I am once again back as a learner driver in a Dione. Who could EVER have thought that?”, he laughed.
He took notice of everything that Val was doing, and he took it easy when he told him about waiting.
“For this, I could probably wait the whole day. It will just be SO much worth it in the end!”
Valentin went about watching the gauges, not really listening to Janne at the moment. At some point, he turns the center console knob back to where the big gauges were reading roughly equal numbers.
He then grabbed the small lever in front of him on the dash and moved it upwards a bit, forcing the engine into life as it spins over slowly.
Afterwards, both big levers are pulled towards the seat, sending a pair of brief belt-screeching sounds into the surrounding area.
With some belts now under tension, another gauge on Valentin’s side started reading increasingly higher values, up to a point at which one of the big levers is moved back towards the dash again.
That small lever is also returned to it’s neutral position, stopping the engine from turning.
“So… you are, in effect, still driving a car. It mostly behaves like an electric that is ran through a manual transmission. So you pick a gear, release the clutch and then it’s like any electric car with very little regen-braking.”, Valentin explained in a matter equally brief to how he did it with Tim and Constantin.
“Now?”, Janne asked Val just to be sure.
“Not yet”, Constantin blurted from outside the car. He went around the back and opened the trunk through the exposed latch on the insude, freeing up the top-half of his tarp as it drops to the floor. Then, the trunk lid is closed up again.
“Done.”, he added, giving a thumbs up through the interior mirror.
“I guess you have full on torque making a gearbox unnecessary in itself”, Janne asked a bit hesitant, “but is it a bad idea to start in fourth as an unexperienced driver or could I just throw it in fourth immediately and forget about it?”
“Floor it in fourth and you accelerate about as quickly as a semi, at least from a standstill. It has a bit more grunt at speed but we won’t be going anywhere near that fast.”, Valentin commented, having obtained extensive info on that as Connor drove the thing the entire stage yesterday.
“OK, should I maybe try in third then?”, Janne asked.
“Third or fourth and forget about it.”, Valentin replied. “Floor it in second and it’ll break traction.”
“Well third it is then”, Janne said, put it in gear and released the clutch. When pressing down he throttle he could feel that it had torque more or less immediately when it pulled away and that was a kind of pleasant feeling.
“You know…in one way this is a bit like how one imagines a steam locomotive, but much lighter. Which of course also is kind of what it is, well, minus the rails then”, he said.
“On the other hand, you said EV… Yes I have more experience with them than I would like to admit, you know, it was over 10 years ago the first generation IP Neutron was released and…I have driven lots of them. Repairing IPs for a living, you know. And yeah, it sure feels a little bit similar”, he said while the tangerine tank for a brief moment was leaving the campsite.
“But this is cool at least. An IP Neutron absolutely isn’t”, he laughed.
Valentin didn’t say much as this was his first time he was in charge of maintaining the boiler. Yes, he knew how Robert worked in and out, but he still needed to get used to it. The usual driving noises of gravel being crushed by the wheels and the engine rattling about up front were accompanied by the occasional belt-screech and variance in fan noise as he worked the various levers and knobs dotted about the engine bay.
Janne took the Tangerine tank for a fairly long spin for being just a test drive, to really get to know it well. He actually liked the experiece and everything went well. When returning back to camp he was both impressed and satisfied.
“You know, I really LIKE this”, he said. “I need to build something like this one day, that’s for sure. But maybe I should do the woodgas Saarland Kardinal project first. Learning to crawl before learning to walk, you know”. Not that his skills wouldn’t be enough to make something like this come true, but it was probably still something of a dream he wanted to save for a later occasion.
Parked back in the spot where it was before taking off, he asked if there was any special procedure for stopping and turning off the thing.
“On your end, just put it in neutral.”, Valentin replied, as he went about shutting the TTE back down again.
He tried to be as careful as he could when pulling the plungers to avoid waking up any others as the steam escaped the lines.
The remainder went without a hitch and even his tent was back up again, courtesy of Constantin having rebuilt it in the meantime.
“Wow…”, he said. “I will forever be thankful for this test drive. Also, sorry for almost breaking your back, it was really not my intention”, Janne excused himself.
“Maybe actually look at the clock before throwing a goddamn flashbang at people…”, Valentin grunted. He just was happy it was done and he could at least try to catch up on the lost sleep at this point. A minor saving grace was that Robert did not need greasing anymore.
“You aren’t supposed to sleep your whole day away”, Janne laughed, and left Team RK for checking out the pink van before the upcoming stage.
Once Janne was gone, Valentin immediately went back towards and into the tent.
“If anyone really wants another drive, they do it immediately or not at all…”, Valentin muttered, halfway in his tent already. “Wake me up when Robert is steamed for departure.”, he added, as he closed up his tent.
“Wilco.”, Constantin replied, as he entered the car’s rear bench to catch up a bit as well.
So did Tim, but with lesser success, as he wasn’t as easily put to rest as the other two.
What little time was left of the night was spent resting as best as they could.
to be continued
