Koale came back out looking satisfied. “Good haul,” he said. “Main gains were in farming related areas, which is not surprising. We have access to a lot of the tools now, and the plots they have there.
More interesting is fertilizer and an enriched fertilizer from the guano I had found before. They’ve also got access to glass, so windows, but more importantly bottles and vials. Plus a forge to make the glass with.”
“A forge is good. Now, if only we could get our hands on some metal.”
“Echoing my thoughts. I loaded up one of the larger stones in there now. I do admit, I am not looking forward to building with them,”
“Speaking of, shall we grab those two for lunch? We can figure out expansion plans over food.”
Soon they were once again gathered around the fire. Plates were full of roast glider with a side of cobb. Felix reveled in having a reliably full stomach once more as he ate.
“That was some good work with your new place,” said Renessa.
“Side effect of the tier two research,” said Koale around his food. “It unlocks traits to use while crafting and potentially new recipes, but it also makes more basic recipes of a higher quality. You can see the difference right there.” He pointed at the two huts and resumed eating.
“Not like you two did any of it yourselves,” muttered Trent.
Renessa put a hand on his knee. “We’ll have our own nice one soon, as well.”
Felix cleared his throat. “Well, we were kind of hoping you guys might be willing to wait on that. If the pirates might sweep in at any time, perhaps defenses and improved tools might be a better first step?”
Trent grunted. “Well, you ain’t wrong for once. I suppose comfort can wait. Though, I like how this is a sudden need after your house is done.”
Felix opened his mouth and then closed it again. “You know what? No, nevermind. What have we got for defenses? A wall is an obvious choice there, but what else?”
“They had some of giant, red cougars,” said Renessa. “Maybe we can dig spears in at an angle? Keep them from charging in?”
“Not bad. Pretty cheap resource wise too.”
“We need to consider the water as well,” said Koale. “It won’t do us any good if they can just step around it in the back.”
“Why not more wall?” said Trent. “They’ll have armor on, and weapons, plus whatever else they’re carrying. They ain’t swimming.”
“That’s,” Felix paused. “That’s actually a good idea.”
“I don’t think this will be enough,” said Koale. “With the numbers you listed before, and they’ve got metal tools? This will just slow them down. We need more.”
“What are you thinking?” asked Felix.
“If they destroy the base, that’s unfortunate, but we can rebuild it fairly quickly. What we have now would take, two days, three? To get right back to where we are now. If they kill us and destroy the beds, a bit longer, but we’ll be back on our feet within a week. If they get the research though, then we are talking about a much longer time period.”
“All true,” said Renessa. “What’s your endgame thought then?”
“I think in the short term, we need to have a copy of our research elsewhere, along with a cache of rebuilding materials. In the long term? We need to leave. I saw when we came in we are in a chain of islands. We’ll go somewhere else where we don’t have the threat hanging over our heads.”
Trent stood. “Hang on a minute. You just get here, and then decide we should up and move?”
“It is merely an option. One I agree with, but it is hardly decided.”
“I’m not sure about leaving either,” said Renessa. “For now let's stick with an offsite cache and the defenses here? We can plan an exodus later should we think it's needed.”
“One problem,” said Felix. “Things seem to rot when not in use.”
“I don’t think that’s as big of a problem as you’d think,” said Renessa.
“Oh?”
“‘When not in use’,” said Renessa with a shrug. “All we have to do is make sure someone stops by and uses it every couple days.”
“And that’ll work?”
“It it doesn’t, at least we’ll be able to tell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
“Fair point. So are we all agreed then? Walls, walls and more walls, spears and a couple hidden crates?”
Everyone nodded.
Felix clapped his hands together. “Great, and now for the fun part. More blueprints.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The plan to lay the wall blueprints was quickly complicated. They couldn’t just run the wall along all the existing structures; it would leave them no room to grow. And so, in an effort to lay down effective defenses against a future foe, Felix and Koale began to plan a kitchen.
They stood next to the existing cook fire and laid out green walls around themselves.
“Put the door there, so it’ll open towards the huts,” Felix said as Koale finished laying out the walls. Past experience had taught them the process went much smoother if only one person was putting out the blueprints at a time.
“Windows?”
“That would be great, but I don’t think we can spare the luxury just wait.”
Koale nodded and finished the outside framework. He placed down a table and four chairs on one side of the design, and a cookfire on the other. “We can bring in the existing spit and plates for the rest. Am I missing anything?”
“How about a table with some chests underneath over there? For butchering and storage. And one more thing I thought I saw. One moment.”
While Koale placed down the butchering table and chests, Felix searched through his crafting menu. It took a while to scroll through anymore. They’d come a long way from solely the research desk as an option.
He found it. A brick oven. He had proved during his stay on planet that he was not much of a chef, but he didn’t see any harm in laying it out anyway. It didn’t cost anything to put down just the plan, after all.
Felix and Koale examined their work. With so many outlines, it was difficult to distinguish one thing from the next, but Felix thought they did a good job regardless.
“Next up?” said Felix.
“I overheard Trent saying he wanted a smokehouse. It will help preserve the meat for longer.”
“Right, so onto the workshop then?”
“Just because Trent says it doesn’t mean it is necessarily wrong. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to offer an olive branch.”
“Not necessarily wrong, but a real good indicator on likelihood.”
“Having some jerky wouldn’t be bad.”
“Yeah, yeah. Do you know how we make a smokehouse?”
“Renessa gave me a few pointers. It shouldn’t be too hard. We’ll need stone though. Would you mind checking how the research is progressing? Actually, we can't continue without it. Sit with the research, will you?"
Felix nodded and strolled towards the hut. The desk had the research at 75% complete. He took a seat and settled in. It’d take about another half hour even with him sitting there. Felix drummed his fingers on the desk and watched the progress crawl forward.
It was 90% along when Trent came in. Felix nodded at him and got back to staring at the research.
Trent mumbled under his breath as he grabbed something out of his chest.
“I’m sorry?” said Felix, “I didn’t catch that.”
Trent turned to him. “I said that of course you would be hiding in here while the rest of us work.”
“It does look like that, yes. We need this research to finish to continue laying out the the blueprints, though. You can take my spot if you’d rather?”
Trent snorted, “No. You stay there. I’ve got real work to do.” He left the hut, slamming the door shut behind him.
Research progress was at 93%. Felix sighed.
The research soon completed, yielding the anticipated stone wall. Felix put in another for tier 2, and wen
t to rejoin Koale.
Koale had already begun work. Next to the kitchen was now a small shack. The lower half of the walls were stone. The rest of the walls and roof were wooden. There was a small gap in the wall a foot or so off the ground.
A few feet beside the gap was a stone cube overtop a cook fire. The cube had two gaps as well. One that lined up with the shack’s gap, and one at ground level on the opposite side.
Koale was staring at the two level gaps, deep in thought.
“That was quick. What have you made here?”
Koale pointed to the shack. “That’s the smokehouse proper. Door in front, you hand meats in there. The hole at the bottom will connect to this here,” he pointed at the stone cube. “That’s obviously got a fire. The lower gap will allow airflow and fuel to be fed in. The upper one will channel smoke to the smoke house for the meat.”
“Aight, and the problem is?”
“I’m not sure how to construct the tubing that runs between them. We don’t really have that option right now.”
“Why wouldn’t wall work?”
“It’s just not efficient. We could conduct the smoke much better if only we could…”
Felix stopped listening. He found the new stone wall in the crafting menu. He had the small channel planned out before Koale wound down. Felix simply pointed to the green blueprint and winked.
With a deep sigh, Koale stomped off to where they had decided the workshop would be.
“I think, given we will have a forge in here, we ought to have the workshop open on at least one side,” said Felix. “I know you like the heat, Koale, but between the island heat and whatever the forge puts out? It’ll be unbearable for the rest of us.”
“That’s doable. One open side leading towards the rest of the buildings?”
“Sounds good. You thinking wood or stone walls?”
“I’m inclined towards at least half walls of stone.”
“I was thinking the same. The system may protect us against incidents, but it seems tempting fate to have an all wooden structure.”
It didn’t take long to lay out the bones of the structure. It had a long wall facing toward the jungle. Two shorter walls along the side and an open face. The full walls were half stone and half wood much like the stone house and the the open side was supported by a number of stone pillars.
Inside, a forge was placed in the center of the back wall. A workbench was placed to one side, and a small fire pit with pulping station on the other. There was a small table with a mortar and pestle on it. Koale planned on adding vials and doing his experiments there. A number of crates were placed next to each station.
Even with the furniture placed, the building was still mostly empty, but they anticipated needing more room as their research continued.
Interior buildings planned, they could finally begin placing their defenses.
After brief discussion, they decided on wood over stone. Stone would undoubtedly be a better material, but they would have enough problems getting enough stone for what they had slated already. They could always rebuild itt later, if the material because feasible.
The wall was simple. A wood wall encircled the small hamlet from shore to shore. Two gates were built into the wall at opposite ends, each reinforced with stone. Once the wall hit the beach, it extended out in a straight line. It continued well past the point where one could simply walk along the bottom.
Felix and Koale sat at the tree line, examining their work. It had taken all day, but they laid out a goal. From here, it was just gruntwork and long days between them and a better life.
Renessa and Trent wandered from blueprint to blueprint, looking at the plans more closely. They had been working hard on the crops and had not had a chance to examine their work as they went.
After they finished their tour, the couple walked up. Renessa looked thoughtful, and Trent was glowering. Felix was less than surprised.
“I like it,” said Renessa.
“But?” said Felix.
“That obvious? I was thinking about how we could add on to the defenses. How about a moat around the wall? We could use sea water for that, and it would be resource light.”
“A lot of digging, though. I don’t see why we couldn’t work on it when we’ve got nothing else to do though. Just shovels and time.”
“On water,” said Koale, “Is there any way we could rig up some sort of irrigation system for the crops? I couldn’t help but notice that running fresh water took up the bulk of your and Trent’s day.”
“We’d have done that already if we could have,” said Trent.
“What he said,” said Renessa. “All the fresh water is too far away for it to be practical. If we were further inland, we could try for a well, but we haven’t got much options here.”
“Unfortunate.”
“I’ll tell you what’s unfortunate,” said Trent. “Two people busting into your camp and then redesigning the whole thing.”
“I’m sorry?” said Felix. “I thought we were in agreement that we needed improvements to the defenses to fend off the pirates?”
“Last I checked, a kitchen isn’t exactly a fortification.”
“Well, we needed to lay out interior buildings before we knew where to put the walls.”
“And you couldn’t be bothered to ask Nessa and I our thoughts on that?”
“Well,” said Felix. “I suppose we should have done that. Koale did say he had heard you wanted the smokehouse though, so we put that down.”
“So eavesdropping makes it all better then?”
“Look, we’re trying man. If you have anything to improve, you can do it yourself.” Felix turned and walked back to his hut.
Once inside, he paced up and down the tiny aisle. Liz chirped at him, and watched him go back and forth. After the third pass, she climbed off her shelf and onto her perch on his shoulder. She chirped again and then nestled in.
Felix smiled in spite of himself. “You’re right girl. I haven’t got time for this.” He reached up and petted Liz as he went over to his chest. He grabbed out a pick and an axe and headed back out again.
He picked the tree nearest camp and readied his axe. He swung hard. What was up with Trent anyhow? If anyone should be angry here, it was him and Koale.
He swung again.
Trent had left them to die on that spaceship. And that was after he was useless after they got hulled.
Another swing.
Then he knocked them out. Tied them up.
Swing.
Renessa wasn’t acting like this. Why did Trent have to?
By the time the tree toppled, Felix was tired, but felt better. Trent was still a jerk, but he would manage.
Koale came over to help him strip vines and cut the logs. They carried them over to the wall. The logs they tossed straight into the blueprints. The vines followed after being turned to ropes.
As they walked back, Felix said, “Two thoughts here. First, perhaps we should do the workshop first? That’s one that gives us more options in construction. And secondly, you think maybe you can add a crate out by where the wall will go?. That way, I can just drop off things as I get them. I need to be away from Trent for a bit and don’t need to be walking across his path every trip.”
“The crate we do easy. As for the workshop, we should be able to do at least the actual stations first. We don’t need to do the full building right away, necessarily. Maybe we should just stockpile materials the rest of the evening and talk about the order of construction with dinner?”
“Yeah, sure. Last thing we need is more of Trent complaining.”
The two cleared everything in their path until the sun sunk low. The chest was full of logs, vines, branches and anything else they thought they might need.
Tired, but pleased with their progress, Felix and Koale grabbed their seats by the fire.
Trent dished up plates of some sort of stew. It tasted like glider, tubers and something else Felix couldn’t identify. It was actually
good. It just needed some spices.
He was stalling. “We’d like to build the work stations first before anything else. It’ll give us the ability to build some of the more advanced crafts again, and if we don’t build the rest of the building, it’ll be relatively cheap.”
“So much for defenses,” said Trent.
“Granted, but it’ll allow us to make you both customized weapons, and make paper for the research desk again.”
Renessa nodded, “Do it.”
Koale cleared his throat. “I would also like to consider moving the research desk to the workshop. It would make it easier to sit with without intruding on you two, and it’ll give us reason to rebuild it with the improved materials.”
“Bullshit,” said Trent. “You’re just looking to strip this camp away from us.”
“Trent, it really isn’t an unreasonable ask,” said Renessa.
“No, Nessa. Don’t you see it? They come waltzing in, build themselves a nice house with our resources, but not for us. They redesign everything. They want to take the only thing of value we got left. They eat our food, and what have they provided so far?”
Felix jumped up, “That is about enough. We have been busting our asses to try and improve things. Yeah, you don’t see anything yet, but you know damn well tomorrow you will. And the day after that it’ll be better still. I don’t know what the hell your problem is, but I am done.”
“That is enough out of both of you,” said Renessa with a quiet, cold tone. “You will both go hit the bed. You’re clearly overtired to be out here throwing a fit like a couple of toddlers.”
Felix stormed off. Trent looked at Renessa. She pointed at their hut. “Go. Now.”
He left. Neither man looked at each other as they headed to their respective huts, side by side.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Breakfast the next morning was a quiet, awkward affair. Felix refused to meet the eyes of anyone. He ate in a hurry, ready to take his frustrations out on an unsuspecting tree.
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