“You see this? Burned up a good bit
of my mass allowance – anyway, it's an old-fashioned straight
razor. Hand forged by my great-great-grandfather. He made it out of
the spring steel of a motorcar. Know what one of those is? They
burned hydrocarbons for power, and not very well. Used to be, just
about every private citizen had one. That's where the oil went,
mostly.
“My twice great-granddad was
American – United States, that's how long ago – and he owned a
car called a 'Ford'. When the Chinese War got bad enough that they
cut out civilian hydrocarbon rations, 'Ole Grandaddy built a forge
out of junk and started making hand tools and stuff out of the car.
Without methane to make it go, or what ever it was, all that Ford was
good for was scrap.
“Got to give it to him...people
thought he was crazy for learning how to forge metal in the first
place. Granddad was so proud of him that he changed the family name
to 'Ford'. That's how we got the name – after a car.
“That's why
I'm out here, half way to Saturn. If we don't keep the oil flowing,
if we don't protect the supply, then my
kids and grand kids are gonna have to learn how to forge hand tools
out of cars.
“And
there ain't no more cars.”
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