Energy you could beg or buy. But you couldn’t hack your way around the absolute need for water. You couldn’t replace or compress water, or live on virtual water or simulated water. Water was very real and very heavy, and a lot of trouble to make. Sometimes the Troupe captured free rainwater, but even a rainy year in West Texas never brought very much rain. And even when they did catch rainwater, they couldn’t ship much water with them when they moved the camp, and the Troupe was always moving the camp, chasing the fronts.