I wasn’t really expecting that speech. But it seems that others were. Mike had walked up from behind, I don’t know how long she had been standing there, but evidently long enough. She nodded and said, “I was afraid of that happening. We need to be very careful how we handle things from this point forward.”
I went through the next couple of weeks, slowly getting stronger. They had made me start walking around a few days after the blood transfusion. I tried to forget about what the doc had said, but I couldn’t help but think about it. It made me more than a little apprehensive. I didn’t want to disappoint these kids, but I didn’t know how we were going to do otherwise. Once we got both shuttles in the air there was nothing we could do to help them.
They kept me walking, exercising and working out. They didn’t have a physical therapy room but Warren knew his stuff. He had me doing steppers, leg lifts, leg curls, almost anything that I could to regain my strength. The fact that one of the children were there any time that I was working out was a little disconcerting, but I didn’t know what to do about it.
I spent the hours that I wasn’t working out, developing a plan for Prometheus. Mike and I talked about it every night. I knew that Prometheus was normally hangered on sub level one. They had a nitrogen chamber for prolonged storage on that level. I just hope that that they had time to get her into it or that there were some spare tires in there. I could imagine what this weather had done to dry out her tires.
How to get her up from the sealed room was another issue. If everything was intact we would be able to manually power the hydraulics for the elevator to get her to the ground level. If not we may have to blow one side of the deck and use manual hoists to pull her topside. I knew that there were hoists in the building capable of lifting her totally off the ground. The question was if they were still there and if we could make them operate.
Finally, one day Mike showed up and said “Today you get to go to see Nemesis.” I didn’t ask why, I was just happy to get outside. We proceeded to leave the hospital to find Thomas waiting with a horse and wagon. I wanted to try to walk part of the way, but Mike and Thomas insisted that it would do me more harm than good. Not wanting to argue further, I relented. I mounted the wagon with the help of Mike and rode between her and Thomas.
Thomas started talking as we headed down the road. He told me about the shuttle preparations and how they were almost finished. He stated that the settlement had unanimously voted to help support and supply the expedition to Lambert to launch Prometheus.
The more he talked the more that I realized that there were things that weren’t being said. During a pause in the conversation, I looked at him and said, “other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
The laugh that came out of his mouth was astounding. With a huge grin, he said “you see Mike, I told you the boy wasn’t stupid!”
Mike had a strained look on her face that became pained as she spoke. She said, “There is more than Thomas is telling you. The New Americans have regrouped. They are massing for another attack. We have to leave for Lambert in the morning. Based on what we have arranged for transportation we should be able to leave in the morning and be there before lunch.”
I could tell that there was more. I waited for a few seconds before saying “and?”
Mike looked extremely uncomfortable as she lowered her head, “and I have committed to help the settlement deal with the New American’s once and for all.”
I should have known it was coming. I knew Mike and how she thought. Hell, she didn’t think much differently than I did, she was just quicker to come to the decisions than I was. That was why she was the skipper and I was just a hired hand. I knew it and so did she. She wasn’t afraid to make a decision even if it was the wrong one. I opened my mouth to say something but I could tell by her look that it wasn’t going to do any good, so I kept my mouth shut.
Chapter 12
The rest of the trip took place in silence. I knew better than to argue with Mike. You couldn’t win. She had made up her mind. The bad thing about it was that I wasn’t sure that I would have done anything any different than what she had already decided.
My mind kept going over the situation until I was almost sick to my stomach. But it didn’t make any difference. There wasn’t a real way out. For the entire rest of the trip I kept thinking of things to say and then figuring out why it shouldn’t be said. I must of looked like a fish out of water, I was opening and closing my mouth so much.
When we got to Nemesis, I saw that they had been preparing for the worst. The air cannons had been retrofitted to fire gravel canisters. Each cannon would fire five canisters at once. The canisters were fitted over the nozzle of each air cannon. This was a one-time shot, after that it was compressed air only. The canisters were wrapped in birch bark that would fragment as soon as they hit whatever was in front of them. They each held five pounds of gravel and were wrapped more than four times around with bark, with melted wax holding closing the ends of the canisters. I didn’t know how they would hold up to take off or any maneuvering that may have to be done, but after all a shuttle wasn’t the most maneuverable of aircraft, so there wouldn’t be much of that.
Mounted next to the air cannons were what appeared to be flame-throwers. When I mentioned it, I was informed by Thomas that they had thrown together homemade napalm, made up of gasoline and lye soap and using LOX, or liquid oxygen, from Nemesis’ tanks as a propellant and oxidant. They were in the process of mounting 55 gal drums of the homemade Napalm to the underbelly of Nemesis. It looked like Charlie had rigged some of the explosive bolts from the cockpit to the strapping so that they could blow them loose when they were needed.
I looked at all this without saying a word. Mike had made up her mind that this was her fight. Or that it was the fight that I would have accepted had I been able to stick around. I really wanted to call Moonbase and tell them to go to hell, but I knew that I couldn’t. Even though I never felt that I was a part of the community topside, I knew that it wouldn’t be right to abandon them. The same way that Mike couldn’t abandon these folks down here. To abandon them meant that they were going to die, later if not sooner. I was going to have a hard time living with that and I knew that Mike couldn’t live with it. That was why I loved her and quite possibly why she loved me,
The folks around camp kept working as we came in but each of them acknowledged us as we rode by. The children would stare in awe as we sat there looking over Nemesis. I looked at Mike and I said, “Why do they do that? Why do they put so much faith in me? What have I done to make them think that way?”
She didn’t hesitate “You are mântuirea, I not know how you say it in English. Like hero, or ….” She didn’t get a chance to finish, Thomas finished for her, “You mean savior?”
“Yes, yes, exactly the word, Steve like savior to children. He brave, unstoppable. Stand up for what he believes and bullets don’t kill him.”
I couldn’t speak for a few minutes. When I did find my voice, I said, “Thomas you can’t let this happen. You can’t let these children believe that. I’m not what they think. I’m not a superhero or a savior. I just want to get Prometheus back up so that this damn thing can be done.”
“I’m not going to tell them anything”, Thomas was unrelenting, “they need something to believe in. Some of them saw you get hit with at least seventeen gunshots and three crossbow bolts. They saw you live after losing more blood than they thought a body could have. Most of the teenage boys saw it along with a few of the younger boys. They story of how you laid down covering fire for Mike, David, and I, at extreme risk to your own life all while you were in the process of bleeding to death, has turned into legend in just a few short weeks. There is nothing that I can do to dissuade them from what they know. They know that you can do things that none of them have ever seen done. They know that if anyone from the settlement had done that, they would have been buried and not riding around on a wagon right now. They know that without you, we would be wea
ker now. They know that with you they have hope!”
I didn’t know what to say to that. There was nothing that I could say. I hated it. I wasn’t “that guy”. The one who saved babies, helped little old ladies across the street and stopped the bad buy. Damn it, it wasn’t fair. These kids were going to get a rude awakening and there was nothing that I could do about it.
Charlie had come walking up during Thomas’ little speech. He looked at me and said “you know Steve I guess that it would have been easier if you had just died.” He was grinning as he said it but I knew what he was saying. We had been taught in Iraq that dying was easy, but staying alive and getting the job done was the thing to do. He was right. He knew it and I knew it. So I looked at him and said “fuck you, Charlie.”
He laughed like he really enjoyed that one. Mike looked a little amused and Thomas acted like he didn’t know what to think.
I said “well, which one of you assholes are going to help me down or do I have to break a leg getting down off of this damn thing?”
After being helped down off the wagon, I started making an inspection of Nemesis. They had done a fine job on the Nomad hood and nose gear. The welds looked good and the explosive bolts were where they would do some good. I was a little concerned about the canisters mounted on the air cannons, but Mike assured me that they wouldn’t be a problem once she was headed to orbit. The fact that she was planning on attempting orbit was a little reassuring, but I still wasn’t convinced that this thing wasn’t going to end badly.
They had gotten her leveled up and pointed the right direction along with clearing the sides of the road of all of the tall grass by burning it off. We had a pretty good field of vision and it was going to be next to impossible for someone to sneak up on us again. There were lots of men around, along with several women and kids everywhere. I noticed at least a dozen big tents up with several dozen smaller ones. They had established a regular tent city here and it appeared to be striving. There was a small blacksmith set up that had a large crowd around it. I looked at Thomas with the question obvious in my eyes. He said, “He’s making armor. We have a few gas powered vehicles. We have been armoring them since the day of the attack. The bus that was used to attack us has been gutted and repaired. We plan on using it against them but with an entirely different tactic. I’ll tell you more about this tonight.”
There was a lot to see and quite a few checklists to go over. Mike wanted me to go over a preflight check on Nemesis with her. I don’t know if it was because she wanted reassurance or if she wanted to keep me from thinking about what was going on. We went through the entire routine, even to the point of sealing her up and increasing cabin pressure by a half of a psi in order to see if there were any holes in the skin. With the exception of the indicator telling me that the nose tire was flat we were one hundred percent green.
I had just given us the green light when she looked at me and said “I’m sorry Steve. I have this thing that has to be done.” We were sitting close, not close enough to touch but close enough that I could see the tears forming in her eyes. I knew. I tried to stand in one smooth motion but that’s hard to do when you’ve spent almost three weeks flat on your back. Mike jumped up to help me and as she pulled me up, I pulled her close and kissed her. I kissed her hard, she stiffened a bit, but then melted and went with it.
We came up for air after what seemed like a minute or more, but I knew that it could only have been a few seconds. She started to say something but I just put a finger to her lips. I said, “It doesn’t matter. I know what you have to do and you know what I have to do. Neither of us want it to end this way and with any luck it won’t. In a few days we’ll see each other topside and all of this will be behind us.”
She nodded and put her head down on my shoulder. I could have stood and held her like that forever, if it hadn’t of been for the fact that that I heard the “eh-hem” of someone clearing their throat from the hatch, I probably would have. It was Russell, Charlie would have known better, but Russell, well he was Russell and didn’t know any better. He looked embarrassed as he said “We have to empty the armaments locker this evening in order to prepare for the trip in the morning.” I regretfully loosened my grip on Mike and head for the locker, but not without a glare at Russell.
We inventoried the ammunition as we handed it out. We had done pretty well. We still had over 19,000 of the 5.56 rounds for the M-16’s, 874 rounds for the 12 gauge riot guns and 3,900 rounds for the CZ-40’s. These were all passed down to Russell who passed them down to Charlie on the ground.
I descended the ladder before Mike so that she could secure the hatch behind us. As I hit the ground and turned around I noticed a crowd of people had gathered. Most of them were children, some I had seen before and some I didn’t recognize. Two that I did recognize advanced to the front of the others. David and Robert slowly moved to the front of the group. They had something in their hands, as they got closer I realized that it was the jumpsuit that I had been wearing when we were ambushed. They were holding it so reverently. It had been folded and pressed. Thomas stopped as they got close and let them advance. He could barely look at me. I really didn’t know how to handle this, I wasn’t prepared for it and didn’t want to deal with it, but I had to. I didn’t know what to say, but Robert came to my rescue.
He looked up at me and said “Mr. Ray I know now why America is the home of the brave. You have done things that even brave men would not do. You have known when to shoot and when to not shoot. You didn’t harm me when I was following you, you stood up to the evil dogs and to the New Americans. You have made my life better just by knowing you and I hope that you will remember me when you leave.” With that he handed me the uniform.
I couldn’t speak. I know that I there were tears running from my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. I struggled to get my voice and after a deep breath, I knelt the best that I could and I looked at him and said “No Robert, you are the reason that America is the home of the brave. You followed four people that were heavily armed in order to protect your family and friends. You have been standing up to the New Americans your whole life, not just for a few weeks. You have lived this life, I am just a visitor. This uniform may fit me, but it was made for you.” With that I unfolded it and held it up to his chest. You could the patches where I had gotten shot, and the bloodstains where the women had tried to remove them but when you lose that much blood it’s hard to hide. I said “I’m confident that you will grow into it, that you will lead your people to greatness and freedom, that you will give this land the right to keep the name Home of the Brave. This uniform is yours to fill.”
I could see the pride in his eyes. He reached out and threw his arms around my neck. I pulled him tight and looked up at Mike. There were tears running down her cheeks, I’m pretty sure that she wasn’t the only one. I saw Charlie turning his back, but there was a hand to his eyes as he did it, Russell was outright crying and even Thomas’ eyes were glistening.
I pulled away after a few moments. I didn’t really care that I was crying like a teenage girl who had just been dumped. I put my hand on David’s shoulder and said “you make me proud that I have known you” and with that I slowly rose and turned toward Mike and Thomas and nodded. Thomas looked at me and said “it is time that we go.” With that, everyone got moving.
Everyone had a job that needed to be done, except me. Weapons were being packed into vehicles and knapsacks were being packed with food. The women were preparing the evening meal and after a while one of them who looked familiar walked up and told me that I had to sit down. That standing wasn’t one of the things that I should be doing unless I had to.
I didn’t feel like arguing with her and I’m glad that I didn’t, because once I had sat down she brought me plate of food consisting of a roast of some kind along with some of what passed for sweet potatoes. I didn’t realize how hungry that I was or how exhausted I was.
I must have dozed off, because when I woke up Mike had settled in next to me an
d there was a blanket pulled over me. The camp had settled down and I couldn’t see anyone stirring, although I knew that those “boys” of Thomas’ were out there somewhere keeping a look out on the shadows.
I awoke late, because almost everyone else was busy packing things up and loading them into vehicles. Like the night before, everyone had a job to do. It seemed that Mike and Thomas had the job of getting me into the Humvee that looked as if it had seen better days. We had a caravan of four vehicles with one of the older men driving each. There was an old Ford four wheel drive pickup in the front and rear, each with two armed men riding in the back. Russ and Charlie were riding in the vehicle behind us and there was an entourage of eight horses spread out on the north side. Each horse had a teenager and a younger boy on its back. I wondered about that for a few minutes and evidently Thomas noticed my interest.
“The boys on horseback will ride on ahead and scout out the territory ahead of us. In case they spot anything or are attacked, the younger boys can drop off without being noticed to either keep an eye on whatever they find, while the boy on horseback falls back to warn us, or they can warn us, while the boy on horseback leads the attackers off. They could also come in as a flanking motion for us if we get attacked. We have a series of signals worked out utilizing gunshots that will alert them if something happens to us.”
The End of the Beginning Page 11
