Firebrandt's ears rang. He heard his heart beat inside his head. He released the seat restraint and struggled to his feet. As he stood, he slipped down the deck grating. He scrambled to regain control of his own feet as he discovered the floor was tilted nearly forty-five degrees with respect to the planet's surface. The captain caught Suki's seat as he slid by. He helped her undo her restraint and controlled her slide to the juncture of wall and floor. "I feel fat," she said numbly, balanced on the corner.
Roberts let go of the center column and slid to the junction. The captain helped him to his feet. "It's the higher gravity," Firebrandt explained. "Not enough different to harm us, but enough to feel."
They walked down through the ship. It had been hulled amidships due to the sliding. They stepped through the hull onto a grassy meadow. In front of them was a river, wider than the Mississippi of Earth. The sun was high in a slightly greenish sky. Some animal chirped.
Suki wrinkled her nose. "It doesn't smell right," she said.
"Different organics than we're used to." Roberts sniffed the air. "Alien pollens and a slightly different atmospheric content from Earth." He nodded satisfactorily. "But it doesn't smell bad. Some of this stuff may be edible after all. It's certainly not like the stench we smelled after stepping into the heavy air of the Rd'dyggian dome on Titan, eh?"
Firebrandt nodded. "Thick wet air that's about twenty degrees colder than pleasant." The captain stretched in the sunlight. "This is delightful. No wonder the Rd'dyggians turned this over to general colonization."
Roberts looked back at the gaping hole in the ship. He saw that the empty launch bay was ripped open. He looked beyond the ship. Wreckage was scattered as far as the eye could see. "General colonization or no, we're shipwrecked. Marooned until we die or someone rescues us."
Suki and Firebrandt sat down on the grass and looked at the river. They didn't even think about being marooned. They were happy to be alive, ready to face the future together. HOMESTEAD
Firebrandt, Roberts and Suki scoured the ship for supplies they would need. Firebrandt removed the emergency cooking gear from the mess. Roberts checked the kitchen and found that most of the provisions had, in fact, survived. Suki went to the hold. Many things had been damaged in the descent. After rummaging around, she found the poison detection kit along with an item she never thought they would need. Firebrandt had raided a science vessel almost a year before. Among the items he appropriated was a geologist's field tester/computer.
The captain carefully lowered himself into the unopened launch bay. The sleek, red launch vessel had broken free of its magnetic grips and rested against the bay doors, dented and scratched. He opened the craft's door manually and stepped gingerly inside. He was delighted, if astonished, when he hit the power switch and the control panel came to life. At least the batteries were intact. Unfortunately, as he feared, there was no fuel for the reactor. The captain powered down the launch and stepped out.
Firebrandt removed Legacy's graviton generator, a few of the deck amplifiers and tools. Roberts built a makeshift shelter out of old gray canvas and metal piping. They set up their bedrolls. Using the emergency cooking gear, they made a dinner of ship's provisions. After dinner, Firebrandt and Roberts walked across the grassy meadow and down the embankment to the river. Using the poison detection kit, they tested the water. The water proved to be safe. The captain reached down, took a handful of water and drank it. Roberts lunged at him to stop him, but was too late. "You don't know whether or not there are any microbes in that water that could kill you," he said. His thin black eyebrows closed together, worried.
"Any microbes that tried chewing on my insides would probably get a stomachache." Firebrandt grinned, then slapped Roberts on the shoulder. He saw that Roberts was still worried. "Look, we won't know whether or not we can survive here unless we're willing to take chances. The water tastes great, by the way."
"It's a big river," sighed Roberts, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop his captain from taking chances. The sun was on the horizon. The reddish light played across the water.
"What'll we call it?" Firebrandt sat down on the sandy bank and let his gaze travel up and down the length of the river.
Roberts looked back toward the river. "When the first conquistadors came into New Mexico on old Earth, they called the big river they found, Rio Grande."
"I'm not up on old Earth languages," said Firebrandt, absentmindedly. "That's Spanish, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Roberts wryly. "It means 'Big River.'"
"Well, if there's a Rio Grande on Earth, we can't call this Rio Grande. No matter how much we like the name." Firebrandt grinned.
"Who else'll ever know?" When he saw that his captain was unconvinced, he made a new suggestion. "How about Nuevo Rio Grande—New Big River. Besides, this river's bigger than the Rio Grande of Earth."
The captain took another drink, then stood and brushed pinkish sand from his trousers. Turning in unison, the two returned to the ship. On the walk back, the captain looked around at the countryside. "So, if that's the Nuevo Rio Grande, are we in New New Mexico?"
"Don't give me that 'New New' shit." Roberts cringed. "They did that on New Earth. There's New New York, New New Delhi—it's the least original planet in the galaxy." As they topped the hill and started walking across the meadow, Roberts said, "How about Nova Granada?"
"Sounds like an explosion on a white dwarf." Firebrandt's bushy eyebrows raised in unison.
Suki looked up at their arrival. "What sounds like an explosion on a white dwarf?"
"The name Roberts suggested for this continent," said Firebrandt. "He wants to call it Nova Granada. We decided to call the river Nuevo Rio Grande."
She smiled. "After the Rio Grande of Earth." She nodded approvingly.
"On the ancient Spanish maps, what we call New Mexico was then called Nova Granada," explained Roberts. "I happen to like the name."
"I do too." Suki's gaze swept the countryside. "It has a certain flair."
Firebrandt finally acquiesced. They built a fire as the stars began to appear. The captain and Suki sat, arm in arm, creating names for the new constellations they saw. Finally, they decided to set up watches while the others slept. So far, they hadn't encountered any potentially dangerous animals, but it wasn't worth the risk to find out if there were nocturnal predators. Suki took the first watch while Firebrandt and Roberts crawled into their sleeping bags.
* * * *
That first night in Nova Granada proved uneventful. Suki hadn't seen anything, but both Roberts and Firebrandt reported seeing nocturnal animals in the glow of the fire. The captain never got sick on the water.
Roberts and Suki spent the next several days testing plants in the area for poison. The soil tested good for growing Earth plants. Reed-like plants growing a short distance from the river proved to be a grain. "You know," said Roberts. "I think we could malt this grain and make an ale of sorts."
"You would need to find some yeast cultures for fermentation," commented Suki doubtfully.
"The admiral didn't take all the ale stores from the ship," said Roberts, brightening. "We can culture yeast from that."
"So we'd just need to get the cultures to be fruitful and multiply." Suki looked at Roberts. To her surprise, he blushed. "I've never seen you embarrassed, Carter."
He cleared his throat. "Let's check out that grove of fruit trees," he said to rapidly change the subject.
The stand of fruit trees was about three kilometers south of the ship. He was silent during the walk. When they arrived at the grove, Suki picked a fruit. It was slightly rubbery and purple. "It looks kind of like a pomegranate, but it feels a little like a citrus," she said.
Roberts nodded. He took the fruit from her, touching her hand slightly. She felt a slight thrill and watched him as he began cutting into the fruit. The fruit itself had much the texture of an apple, only it was red and juicier. He sat on the ground cross-legged and began testing for poison.
"Do you ever get lonel
y? Jealous perhaps?" asked Suki as she leaned against the tree. "Do you ever wish you had a woman here? It's such a lovely place to be with someone."
Roberts looked up, his brow wrinkled. "Do I ever get jealous of the captain, you mean?" He sat back. "Suki, you are a beautiful woman." She smiled warmly, knowing he never made an idle compliment. "However, I'm his first officer. I swore loyalty to that man nearly twenty years ago, when we first joined up aboard a privateer. We were only fifteen then, but I saw his potential. I knew he was going to be a captain."
Suki knelt down and took Roberts' hand. "There have been times in the past week when you've looked so lonely. I'm sure Ellison would be willing to consider a group arrangement."
Roberts laughed and squeezed Suki's hand. "Ellison Firebrandt may be my closest friend, but I have no desire to make him my sexual partner!"
Suki's hand moved up Roberts' forearm. She moved behind him and began stroking his neck and shoulder muscles. "That's not the only arrangement we could make." She kissed him lightly on the neck.
Roberts sighed. "Did he put you up to this?"
"No," said Suki, perhaps a little too quickly. She paused and took a deep breath, then moved around and sat facing him. "Ellison loves you in his own way, just as you love him. It wouldn't be in his nature to be jealous."
"I know that," he said, seriously. "Suki, you really are a beautiful woman and believe me, the offer is tempting. However, it's not right. Not now. Maybe in the future."
"I know most people are not comfortable with polyandrous relationships. But why wait?" She began to move closer to him.
Roberts sighed heavily. Seeing the look on his face, Suki stopped short. "When I was thirteen, I saw two men from the Coma Navy rape and murder my mother." His brown eyes glazed over slightly as he stared past a tree. "I yelled and got one of the bastards in the kidney with my pocket knife." His voice took on a razor sharp edge. "The other one grabbed me by my neck, threw me over his knee..." At that, his voice cracked. He rubbed his smooth head. "He scalped me," he said, his voice almost inaudible. He looked at the stump where a Coma hepler had removed his hand. His face turned ashen. "I don't know who found me or took me to the hospital." He leapt to his feet and turned away. Suki stood and put her hand on his shoulder.
Roberts took several deep shuddering breaths. "I simply can't think of sex without thinking of that day. I've tried to get around it, but I can't."
"I don't know what to say." Suki found her own voice trembling. "I ... I didn't know."
"Only Ellison Firebrandt knows. In a very real sense, I owe him my life. He's the one who gave me hope, who taught me that I could live with the memory." Roberts turned and faced Suki, again. "He gave me purpose. My life is the captain's."
Suki nodded and began to understand a little better. "Roberts, if anything happens to me, you'll take care of him, won't you?"
He smiled. "I have to. I only hope you do the same."
"Barbara Firebrandt was right, we both love Ellison and we're loyal to him to the death." She sat back, heavily.
"You love him, but you were worried your love would drive me away." He smiled admiringly. "I always knew you were the woman to be at Ellison's side."
"And you're the man to be there," she said. "But I didn't just do it for him. I find you a very attractive man. I would share your bed or—" she looked around "-a soft bed of grass, with you anytime."
Roberts leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She blinked several times, surprised. "Let our emotional relationship grow some, first," he said. "Then maybe I can get around this wall buried in my subconscious."
They stood slowly and made the hike back to the ship, holding hands.
* * * *
During that first week, Firebrandt began working on the graviton generator. He would occasionally scour the landscape where wreckage of the ship was scattered. He set up a makeshift scaffolding on one side of the ship. On it, he mounted the deck plate amplifiers.
Roberts noted that his captain seemed to be going out of his way to make work for himself. He tried to understand what was going on in Firebrandt's mind. His crew was gone. His ship lay as a virtually useless wreck. Survival had become a challenge. Even so, Firebrandt seemed unaffected.
Suki, on the other hand, knew exactly what was driving her friend and companion. He may have lost most of his crew, but two still did survive. As captain, he had to assure their survival. Like Roberts, she worried that if survival became easy, Firebrandt's energy and vitality may begin to whither.
After a week, the three survivors of Legacy never referred to the planet as anything other than Sufiro. They began eating some of the natural plants to supplement the ship's provisions. A few did make them sick, but most plants that did not test poisonous proved to be edible.
Firebrandt announced that his project was ready for testing. Roberts had an idea of what the captain was trying but Suki shook her head. "I still don't get it."
"I'm going to right the ship," announced Firebrandt with a quiet flair.
"But the generator and amplifiers are only designed to simulate Earth gravity." Suki shook her head. "Sufiro has slightly higher gravity. How can you right the ship?"
"I've boosted the power output of the amplifiers," he explained. "They will now generate a larger gravitational field than the one of the planet. When the ship rolls most of the way to right, I'll cut power."
"You'll burn out the graviton generator again," complained Suki.
"What other use do we have for a graviton generator on this planet?" The captain shrugged.
He activated the switch on a small clipboard-sized control pad. The ship shivered and quaked. It finally began to roll toward the graviton amplifiers. The captain touched the pad and turned off the amplifiers. The ship rolled over atop the equipment and smashed the scaffolding. Sparks flew from the generators. "I guess I got it a little too close," Firebrandt mused.
Still, he had managed to right the ship, with the deck parallel to the ground. Neither Suki nor Roberts could help themselves; they applauded. Roberts' good hand pounded his knee as enthusiastically as any two hands coming together. The captain took a bow, then winked at Roberts. "I think you may just have answered an age-old question."
"And that is?" asked Roberts.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
"So," asked Roberts, with a vaguely annoyed look, "why did you right the ship? I mean, there was no real reason, as far as I can see. We got in and out, and had access to our food and supplies."
"That's why I'm the captain," said Firebrandt, smugly. "You're thinking short-term. Now that we have found food and know that we can survive here for some time, I'm looking at creating a home."
"In the ship?" Suki gazed in wonder.
"The ship's just a starting point." The captain glanced back toward his handiwork. "We can build around the ship. But we have bedrooms and a kitchen aboard ship, so why not use them?"
"There's no power to the ship anymore," protested Roberts.
"There's no more fuel," corrected Firebrandt. "There's plenty of power." He pointed to the Nuevo Rio Grande. "It'll just take a little bit of work to get it connected." Again, he looked back at the gaping hole, now in the side of the ship. "First we should try to get that hole dealt with, to keep the animals out."
Suki and Roberts nodded. Most of the animals they had encountered on Sufiro seemed frightened of humans. However, some were interested in tasting human food, just as humans were interested in tasting their food. While most of the animals looked reptilian, many did not have scales. In Roberts' and Suki's exploration, they never found any eggs. The largest animal they saw was a "reptile" that looked like a monitor lizard about the size of a terrier. It was obviously predatory as it hunted the furry flying creatures that flitted around the river.
Firebrandt had an extensive library aboard the ship. As he dusted off fallen books and put them back on their shelves, he searched for a way to build a house with the materials on hand. Originally, he thought of a
wooden house.
Unfortunately, there were not enough trees to build both supports and walls. He found the answer in a book about the Pueblo Indians of Earth.
The captain and Suki found shovels and began digging up large piles of sand around the ship. The grain size of the sand was sufficiently small that it made good mud. The high grass, when dried made good straw. They started making adobe bricks. There was a slight axial tilt to the planet, so there would be seasons. Fortunately they knew from Roberts' scans, taken before they crashed, that winter was a long way off. The three decided that a mansion was in order. They began laying out the first layer of adobe bricks, devising a floor plan.
There was an abundance of trees along the river at various places. They began chopping, using laser cutting equipment they had aboard the ship. They formed the trees into supports. Scattered Erdonium from the ship was collected for roofing and floor material.
The next two months were busy. Suki made bricks throughout the day. Firebrandt lay and mortared the bricks in place. Meanwhile, Roberts worked out a scheme for anchoring the adobe structure to the ship. After the first level was completed, they put in an Erdonium floor and began the second story. When it was finished, the three stood back and examined their work.
The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) Page 4
