Bootstrap Colony

by Hechtl, Chris

  Jack: “Roger that. But I bet you don’t have to worry about getting stepped on.”

  Mitch chuckled. “No, not by walking buildings... Piles of kids are a different story. Getting knocked over by a pregnant lady if she turns too quick is also a hazard.”

  There was a chuckle of agreement from Mike. “Yeah, quite a day care there. Maybe I should make room for you here if sanity returns?” Mitch and Jack chuckled.

  “All right I am off to find Helen and see if we still have a bed to sleep in. take care.” Jack said tiredly.

  Mitch and Mike: “Night.”

  Mitch flicked a hand out to change the channel. On a separate channel to Mike he clicked the mike. “Mike you still there?”

  “Roger.” There were sounds of him tuning in.

  “How many can you really support?” Mitch asked.

  “Twenty, maybe thirty if they are adults. I can’t handle kids, every hand counts here,” Mike responded.

  Mitch waited a moment, processing that. After a moment he clicked the mike. “Roger that.”

  The next day Jacklynn walked through the group to Angie. Angie was leaning over a woman and child. Jacklynn scotched down to the kid, tweaked her nose and she dimpled and squirmed as she smiled. Jacklynn smiled back. “Hi ya squirt. Angie trying to swap jobs with you?”

  The little girl shook her head. “What does she do?”

  Jacklynn snorted. “She is my copilot.”

  “ Oh,” the girl replied in a small voice as she looked to Angie.

  Angie smiled. “At least till I get my own plane. We are setting up a factory to build more this winter.”

  The mother looked up interested. “A factory?” She nudged the man next to her. “My name is Candy. This lump is my husband Bill. Bill they are building a factory!”

  Dubiously he turned to the girls. “Where?”

  “Oh at our base. We have a fortress about two hundred eighty kilometers north of here,” Angie replied with a smile.

  Candy blinked in surprise. “How can you have a factory? I mean, we could only bring what we owned...”

  Jacklynn snorted. ”Yeah well, our boss used all his money and managed to buy enough to build the base. It is pretty extensive. I imagine many of you will end up therefore the winter if you don’t stay here or end up at Iron village.”

  “Oh,” Candy looked confused.

  Bill grunted. “How much did he bring over?”

  “Well he brought over four hundred loads, lots of vehicles, all packed with gear. Robots, factory modules, mining gear, animals, prefab buildings, the works,” Jacklynn explained proudly.

  Bill’s face cleared, and then he whistled. “This I gotta see!”

  Candy looked up to him. “Yeah.” She turned to Jacklynn. “Bill and I worked on the factory floor for Ford.”

  Jacklynn nodded. “That is great!”

  Angie nodded. “We have been building small stuff, parts, solar panels, window glass, wind turbines, and minor things, but we haven’t gotten to vehicles. Mike and Jack have been clamoring for engines and vehicles.” Bill and Candy looked relieved. “We are heading back there in an hour,” she added.

  Jenny the little girl piped up: “Can I come?”

  Angie ruffled her hair. “Well sugar, let me check with Doc. I think for today only injured will fly to the base.”

  “Oh...How come?”

  “Well we have a hospital there.”

  “Oh! Wow!” She turned her pixie face up to Candy. “A hospi..hospitl.”

  Candy smiled. “Hospital dear.” Bill goosed her sides and chuckled as she squirmed and giggled.

  Angie smiled. “Yeah we have all the comforted of home.” She looked up, poked Jacklynn and they looked to Doc waving to them.

  Jacklynn got up and stretched. “We hope to see you there soon.”

  Jenny looked up, and then a thoughtful scowl creased her little features... ”They don’t have a school do they?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. Angie giggled,

  Jacklynn looked over to her then nodded. “Yup ‘fraid so squirt,” she said with a straight solemn face. Jenny made a disgusted face; Candy covered her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles.

  Bill looked alarmed as his wife teared up, and then hugged her. “Yeah, I think we will definitely be there,” he said softly as his wife nodded. Jacklynn nodded in return and waved as she left.

  “I dare say, are you chaps going to carve up that beastie?” Jack turned from his discussion with Helen, Doc, Nicole, and Cassie to turn to the interloper. A rumpled slightly balding male, at least forty, peered at him through thick glasses.

  Jack looked annoyed but Helen put on her best manners. “I think Maggie the vet would like us to ship it to her, but I am not sure, we may need the meat. And you are?”

  “Oh sorry, I am Dr Mallard. Please call me Ducky.”

  “Okay Ducky, why are you interested?”

  “Well, back on Earth I was a marine biologist, I specialized in sharks. I had a booming grant, and criky I would love to have been able to write a paper about that bloke and his chaps,” Ducky replied. Cassie stifled a snigger as her mother punched her arm.

  Doc coughed. “Well Doc, you can ask Maggie for her notes on the autopsy.”

  Ducky interrupted. “Not autopsy, necropsy.” Doc nodded.

  Cassie rolled her eyes, but quit when her mother gave her a gimlet eye. “Okay necropsy. If you can get net access she might be able to send you her draft notes,” Doc replied, returning her eyes to the marine biologist.

  Helen sighed. “It would have to be short, power is low and so is bandwidth.”

  “I say, you have Internet?” the good doctor demanded with a dubious look. Mallard fussed with his glasses.

  “Oh yes, we set it up a couple months ago.” Jack pointed to the antenna farm. “Wireless of course.”

  “Oh of course,” Ducky took off his glasses and wiped them with a rag. He wasn't sure if he believed them or not.

  Doc smiled. “If you want, I can ask Sam if we can bundle the carcass up and you can ride with it to base.” Many of the surviving refugees wanted a ride with Jacklynn and Angie. Having one ready and eager to go on the convoy might make it easier for others to agree as well.

  Mallard smiled a brilliant smile. “That would be peachy! I’ll just have a look see before we take our jaunt.” He turned and took himself off.

  Cassie sniggered. “He even waddles,” she observed softly. Her mother punched her again, but she was dimpling, fighting a guffaw. Nicole joined in giggling.

  Helen laughed, wiping tears. “Well, at least Jacklynn will be glad to see a fellow Australian!”

  “I think he is from New Zealand.”

  “Oh.” She shrugged. “Close enough.”

  “We have a lot of people now, German, Indian, French, Asian, and South American. It is getting hard to communicate,” Jack commented.

  His wife gave him a quelling look. “We’ll make do, everyone is welcome,” she said, making her opinion crystal clear. He sighed and nodded dutifully.

  She nodded her chin to Axel coming in loaded with gear. “I see you have them out scavenging.”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah, try to salvage what we can, maybe there will be food.” He gave the scavengers a bleak look.

  “No bodies though,” Doc said. Helen shivered. She noted Axel piling it in the middle of the yard yelled and headed over, waving her hands and hollering about making a mess. Some of the folks looked, up, and a few duck avoiding the fight while a couple others come over to sort through the spoils.

  Chapter 17

  It took two days for Jacklynn’s flying circus to evacuate the critically wounded to base. Each return from Base she brought back a couple hundred pounds supplies of food. When she was finished running wounded she took regular passengers.

  Jacklynn was flying the Summerset family and a teen into the base, they were the first group of able bodied to make the trip. She had one of the teens sitting in the copilot seat, even giving him a thrill by letting him fly
the plane for a while. When they got to the outside border she took over however.

  One of the kids asked where she got her aviator jacket. She looked over with her sunglasses, and then keyed her intercom mike. “Well, my friend Roserita made one each for Angie and I.”

  “Oh, is that sheep’s fur? Wool?” the girl asked fingering the neckline.

  “Yeah. Yes it is fleece. We had some extra stockpiled from the spring sheering.”

  “Sheep?” Candy asked.

  Jacklynn smiled and pointed, banking the plane into a turn. “Sheep.” The passengers looked. Oohing and ahing as they spotted a herd of sheep in a walled pasture. Border collies kept them together. A woman looked up and waved. They passed over other herds, buildings and farmland, making many oh and ah in pleasure and growing excitement. Candy caught Bill’s hand, he gave it a squeeze and her a smile.

  On the ground they were met by Mitch. Jacklynn shooed them forward as she turned to meet Lisa to service her plane for the return trip. The new folk looked around like tourists, pointing this way and that. Candy had a smile fit to give her jaw an ache. She began to tear up, Bill patted her on the shoulder, and she pulled herself into his arms. He muttered soft reassurances to her.

  Jenny began to get upset, looking around and shaking. She wasn't sure what was wrong but her mother's tears had her in distress. Mitch scooped her up and she froze, and then began to cry. He tried to sooth her, but Candy came out and with a watery laugh told her mommy wasn’t upset, just very happy. Confused the child stopped and looked at her, then began to smile as her parents smiled and talked. She hugged herself to her mom, who caressed her hair. “There there love, no need to get upset.” Jenny popped a thumb in her mouth. Mitch looked on and then at Bill.

  Bill sighed. “She has been doing it since we got here last year.”

  Mitch commented slowly... “Yeah, it is a bit much for a kid to take in.” Bill nodded, patted his daughter.

  Mitch got up, gesturing to the Summerset family and the teen. “Okay folks, Janet has set up the showers so you can shi...” He glanced at Jenny, “I mean poop shower and shave.”

  Jenny popped the thumb out of her mouth. “You were going to say shit.” He turned and blushed. “Don’t worry, my daddy says it all the time.” She grinned an impish smile to him and then to her dad.

  Bill looked chagrined, toeing the ground as Candy glowered his way. The teen muffles a laugh with his hand into a cough as he passed. Candy glared at her husband then sighed. Mitch chuckled. “Okay, as I was saying, we have a system set up for new folk, get you all cleaned up, fed, then give you the ten cent tour.”

  “Do we really have to pay?” Jenny asked, concerned. “I left my piggy bank...”

  He laughed shaking his head no. “No dear, it is just an expression.”

  Janet waved to them impatiently. “Okay folks; let’s not keep the lady waiting.” They moved off to join her.

  Mitch stepped over to Jacklynn a short time later. “How is it going?”

  Jacklynn looked up to him. “Okay no problems with the plane, you sure got a beauty!” He nodded. “Copper town is still a mess, not as bad as the leviathan attack, but they were clearly overwhelmed. Paul and Sam are taking as many as he can manage back here. They should have left by now,” she reported.

  He nodded. “I got a call from Jack, he said they left an hour ago, about sixty five refugees, a quarter were wounded. We will get another fifty to sixty on the next load.” Jacklynn nodded.

  “Doc sent Cassie along since she sent Dora back here to manage things. They should be here in a couple days now that the road has been improved. They were also bringing a rather battered predator drone with them,” Mitch added. Jacklynn winced. “Sam is chasing me to build bridges,” he added with a grimace of annoyance.

  She looked at him. “Oh, we can handle the forms, concrete, and rebar, but I am not all that thrilled about keeping people out in the field for long periods of time... Or tying every vehicle up to one project. Mike is already hassling me for trucks, as is Jack.” He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair for a moment.

  “It isn’t like they can use them when the snow hits,” Jacklynn replied as she nodded. “That young man, Jamal wanted to be a pilot by the way.”

  Mitch nodded. “Can he hack it?” He asked looking to where the young man and family had entered the base.

  “Yeah he did okay with the stick on the way here,” Jacklynn replied. He gave her a cool look.

  “Okay, another pilot in Jacklynn’s flying circus,” Mitch finally said. She snorted a chuckle and waved him off as Lisa shyly handed her a clipboard.

  “So which is it going to be?” Mitch turned and looked to Brian.

  “Jack and Mike want vehicles; I can’t say I blame them. I want a couple more but I also want planes,” Mitch replied. He shrugged. “Fortunately I have the parts for about nineteen more tractors, but some were missing pieces. We can put them together first and ship a pair each out to Mike and Jack. Once they realize they will need electrolysis machinery they will start clamoring for that next,” he replied as he grimaced.

  Brian nodded. “Sam wanted more construction vehicles,” Brian replied.

  “Yeah, we can extend the frames of some of the trucks to turn them into platforms for dump trucks and with a bit more modification skip loaders or cement trucks. Graders are out right now however.” Mitch turned and watched a GP robot trundle by.

  “I think if we do two each for Mike and Jack, let’s say seven for Sam, and maybe five for Paul right?”

  Brian nodded, doing the math. “Yeah, won’t do us any good though with snow when winter sets in.”

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, but we won’t have them put together till winter time anyway. Well, we might squeeze one or two out,” he replied thoughtfully. He privately doubted it though, there was just too much to do right now. He shrugged. “It all depends on how much is there in each kit. If we have to fab stuff it may take longer.”

  Brian nodded. “Hey wait, that leaves two left right?”

  Mitch gave him a small smile. “I always keep an ace up my sleeve...or at least parts in case one of the others eventually break down.”

  Brian nodded and then gusted a sigh. “Yeah, not a bad idea. We have been pretty lucky, only a couple flat tires, some tie rods, stripped clutch, and an axle so far. The road is going to make convoys easier though.”

  “Yeah, and these ones won’t be so beat up. Lisa will be able to do a tear down and rebuild during the winter too like we did last year.”

  Brian nodded, “Yeah, that was fun, we got to learn a lot about these beauties.”

  “I would rather see us go with a rail,” Mitch commented, looking off to the southern sky.

  Brian looked dubious. “..Rail?”

  “Train.”

  Brian nodded. “Lot of material there boss, and a lot of exposure to the crew making the track. Plus I wouldn’t like to see what a train hitting one of those dino’s would do,” he shuddered.

  Mitch got a thoughtful look. “Yeah, but what if we make it off the ground?” Brian looked confused. “Preform cement part. We could go monorail maybe...”

  Brian tapped his foot catching on and getting into the act. “Hmm possible. We could build the parts in sections using jigs here, and then ship them out to assemble in the field. High enough up and they would be out of the way from the animals.”

  “Hmmm. Sounds good, but a little out of our league right now,” Mitch sighed wearily. “Yeah, so trucks and planes it is. At least for now,” he said coming to a decision and then shrugged. “Maybe we can use preforms for parts of the bridges Sam wanted to build.”

  Brian nodded. “According to Jacklynn those two that just came in, the Summersets are factory workers. I think we should look them up after they have a little time to settle in and see what we can arrange.”

  Mitch nodded. “Good idea. Don’t forget the bridge stuff!” He hollered as Brian retreated. Brian waved, not even looking back. Mitch snorted and got
back to work.

  The Summersets came over after dinner, eager to get to work. Together they worked out a plan. First they would assemble the two dune buggies, and then the tractors closest to being finished. Hopefully they could get the tractors out before the snows to get some use out of them.

  They decided to build six planes plus parts, and then switch to vehicles. This way they could still use the planes during the winter, while building the vehicles, which were almost useless in the deep snow without special equipment. The new vehicle bodies would use carbon fiber, but would have a steel tube cage to protect it against roll over’s and animal encounters.

  Bill and Candy were excitedly looking forward to the job. They told Mitch about the Lings, they were Taiwanese factory workers. “I heard that they lost the baby,” Mitch told them quietly. Candy sighed and Bill patted her hand, and then pulled her into a hug.

  The refugees and villagers agreed to establish a Mountain lake village at the edge of the sulfur deposits next to the chain of mountain lakes in a dormant volcano north of Copper town. Due to the late time in the year they decided to wait, sending the bulk of the refugees to base and twenty or so to Iron village. They could train and prepare the new village with an extensive survey and plans, and implement some of the plans early stages during the long winter.

  Mitch was at his desk when he heard someone knock. “Enter.” Four people came in. He looked up from the report he had been reading to study the newcomers. Three of them were male, one was Asian, most likely the Korean Akira Tenaka. The five foot eleven bald guy built like a tank must be the Seal, CPO Roberts. The guy with the crew cut must be the Gunny; he looked down, Gunnery Sergeant Raphael Hodges. He was drawing a blank on the blond woman with the pony tail though.

  He felt a smile tug at his lips as he noticed they were standing at attention. “All right folks, why don’t you pull up a chair and have a beer?” He smiled as he pulled the six pack of green bottles out of the cooler beside his desk and set it down on top.