by John Ringo
“If we don’t need it all, we’ll turn it back in,” she replied. “We won’t be throwing any of it away; the women are being told to wash the material and reuse it. We’ll only use as much as is needed. And this is for the benefit of the whole camp, Edmund.”
“All right, Daneh,” he said with a sigh. “You said that you’ve talked to the women in the town, what about out in the camps?”
“I hadn’t even given it a thought,” she said tiredly, looking out the open window to the darkness. “It’s too late now…”
“And you’re needed here,” Edmund continued. “Rachel. You’re doing it. Tomorrow. Go to each of the camps and all of the groups that are going through familiarization. If anyone gives you any trouble tell them to come see me. Talk to all the women, tell them what’s going to happen and that we’re getting materials ready.”
“Yes, sir!” she said sarcastically.
“You’re still young enough for me to turn over my knee, young lady,” Edmund said with a smile. “Watch that tone.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want Daddy mad at me,” Rachel said, again snippily. “You realize I’m going to start any time, don’t you?”
“Yes, I had thought about that,” Talbot replied with another smile. “Take the appropriate precautions.”
“Appropriate precautions,” Daneh said with another sigh. “You realize that includes avoiding pregnancy?”
“Or terminating it after it starts,” Talbot answered with a nod. “Sheep guts for the first and tansy for the second.”
“You’re serious,” Daneh said with a shake of her head. “What do sheep guts have to do with preventing pregnancy?”
“Well, see, you rub them all over your body…” Edmund started and then laughed at her expression.
“Edmund…”
“Okay, seriously, you use the outer, hard, layer of sheep intestines as a prophylactic condom.”
“A what?” Rachel asked. “What in the hell does that mean?”
“Prophylactic is a term for a preventative…” Daneh replied. “But…”
“You take a section of sheep intestine that is of appropriate length, cut it off and sew one end shut,” Edmund said dryly. “The male slips the sheep intestine, which can be kept dry but has to be softened with water before use, over his penis. This prevents the ejacula from entering the woman’s body.”
“That’s… obscene,” Rachel said with a grimace.
“And of course some men have to use bigger animals than sheep,” Edmund continued with a chuckle, shifting up his belt theatrically.
“That would probably work,” Daneh said with a nod. “But the seam would tend to leak. And I’d have to find you a rabbit…”
“I think they probably waxed it,” Edmund said thoughtfully, ignoring the jibe. “You’d test it by filling it with water and seeing if it held.”
“I can’t believe you’re talking about this,” Rachel said. “Come on.”
“Rachel, you’ve long wanted to be treated like an adult,” Edmund replied without turning around. “Welcome to being treated like an adult. We could treat you like a child and tell you to leave if you wish.”
Rachel opened her mouth to reply hotly then snapped it shut.
“Okay, I had that coming,” she admitted. “But let me point out that you’re my mother and father. Maybe I am too young to handle some conversations because discussions of my father’s penis size is definitely one of them. Okay?”
“Okay,” Edmund said with a laugh. “Sorry.”
“What’s ‘tansy’?” Daneh asked.
“Oh, an herb,” Edmund replied. “That’s really all that I know about it. And that it’s an abortifacient that’s apparently pretty strong.”
“There’s so much I don’t know,” Daneh said with a sigh and a shake of her head. “Edmund, please, the next time you talk to Sheida, tell her that she will sustain a sister’s curse if she doesn’t figure out some way for me to get access to medical texts.”
“I’ll tell her,” Edmund promised.
“It shouldn’t be all that power intensive,” Daneh argued.
“I’ll tell her.”
“And we really need it.”
“I’ll tell her,” he said.
“Okay. And another thing, people are working themselves to death.”
“Some people are working themselves to death,” Edmund corrected. “What is your point.”
“We need to start briefing people on safety. We’ve got people who have never held an axe before in their lives doing lumberjack work and people working with heavy machinery who have never done that. The major amputation was a person working in the mill who didn’t have the sense to use some sort of lifting device to pick up one end of a huge beam. He’s lost the bottom of his foot permanently; it was too crushed to even think about repairing. I know in the old days nobody really cared about safety except for ‘try not to get yourself killed.’ But I think we can do better than that, can’t we?”
“I’ll look into it,” he said, pulling out a bundle of paper and a pencil. He held up his hand to forestall her outburst. “I’ll look into it. You’re right, in the old days nobody tried because nobody cared except the people getting hurt. And it might be possible to do better. But I can’t guarantee it. Cutting down trees is inherently dangerous unless you have power systems and a cage. And even then accidents happen. So is farming. It never got much better the whole time men were doing it. So I don’t know what exactly we can do. But we’ll try. Okay?”
“Okay,” she answered. “Last thing for you; we need to schedule a rest day.”
“Daneh…”
“Every society in history had a rest day,” she continued, ignoring the interruption. “Mostly they were religious in nature but they don’t have to be. People working this hard have to have some time off. I’d suggest one day in seven since that was the old standard and it seemed to work.”
“Sunday perhaps?” he said, amused.
“I don’t care which day of the week you choose, as long as you choose one,” she answered, firmly.
“All right, I’ll figure out which one is the most prevalent. We do have a couple of Jews and at least one Muslim, I think they take Fridays off.”
“Saturday,” Rachel interjected. “For the Jews anyway. Friday night to Saturday night if I remember correctly.”
“Saturday then,” Edmund said with a shrug. “We’ll want to think about holidays as well. Not many. But you’re right, people need some time off.”
“Kane’s brought his herd in. Tomorrow get a horse from him or from Tom Raeburn,” Daneh said to Rachel. “Take a bag with some bandages and go around to the camps. Brief the women on what’s happening and check on everyone’s overall health. There’s a lot of minor injuries here in town; I imagine there are out at the camps too.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rachel said, tiredly then looked up with a blush. “I’m sorry. You’re right. And it’s a responsibility. Thank you.”
“You’ll do well,” Daneh said. “If there’s anyone seriously hurt who hasn’t been reported in, get them to me.”
“I will.”
“I think that’s it,” Daneh said.
“In that case, get some rest,” Edmund replied. “Get up to the house. I don’t want you getting up in the middle of the night unless it’s a clear emergency.”
“I’ll stay here,” Rachel interjected. “That way if there’s something minor, I can take care of it.”
“Good idea,” Talbot said with a nod. “Now, milady?”
“I’m coming,” Daneh replied. “Good night, Rachel.”
“Good night Mother, Dad.” She waited until they were gone, then finished cleaning up the infirmary and looked around. The only place to lie down was the rough wooden surgical table but it would have to do. Putting a couple of blankets on it, she made herself as comfortable as she could and then rolled over on her side. She knew there was no way she could get to sleep but even as she thought it she found her mind wandering into dream.<
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* * *
In the morning, Herzer felt like a basket case.
He woke up to a hand shaking him awake and groaned. He was curled in a fetal ball on his side and every muscle in his body protested movement.
“Come on,” Jody said, not unkindly. “Breakfast is on and there’s only thirty minutes to eat. You’d best get to it quick.”
Herzer did not feel hungry in the slightest but his enforced starvation of the day before was vivid in his mind so he stumbled to his feet and made his way to the chowline.
The meal was cornmeal mush again with a side of some sort of herbal tea. But this time many of the people did not feel they could eat much. Many of them had only taken a half a bowl and some who had taken whole bowls, like Courtney, did not finish. There was enough left in the huge kettle that Herzer, Mike and a few others could have seconds and after the first bowl settled, Herzer felt drastically hungry. Not only did he get an additional bowl but by waiting by the pail for the used bowls he was able to cadge leftovers from several of the people, most of whom passed them over with every sign of bemusement. The exception was Nergui who when she saw his intention dumped her nearly full bowl out on the ground. This drew a furious reprimand from Dorsett.
“You don’t waste food,” he snarled, striding up behind her. “We don’t have enough as it is. Do something like that again and you can skip the next meal!”
Herzer, at that point, was starting to feel as bloated as a tick so he reluctantly dumped his empty bowl in the bucket and went over to pick up his axe.
He looked at his hands doubtfully. Skin was already starting to spread across the ruined flesh of most of his hand, but much of it was still exposed and dirt had mixed in with a yellow goo that had appeared on the surface. It was an unappetizing sight and his stomach briefly regretted the hearty meal. Wielding an axe was going to be painful; even holding his bowl and using a spoon had been unpleasant — but there didn’t seem to be much of a choice. He was contemplating a bleak day when he heard the clip-clop of horse hooves approaching.
“Hello, Herzer,” Rachel said, dismounting and tying off the horse to a convenient branch. She took a set of saddlebags down and waved at Dorsett. “Jody, I’m here to see about any medical attention anyone needs and then I have to talk to the females you have here.”
“How long is this going to take?” Jody asked. “We have a lot of ground to clear.”
“That depends upon how much I have to do,” she answered, snappily. “Do you have any major injuries?”
“No, but there’s a few of them that have bad hands,” Dorsett admitted, waving at Herzer. “Start with him and I’ll get the others.” Jody started gathering up the ones that he knew had blistered their hands the worst the day before.
“Hey!” Earnon yelled. “I can barely move and my back feels like it’s on fire!”
“I’m not here to deal with sore muscles,” Rachel said, looking at Herzer’s hands. “Good God, Herzer, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking we had a lot of trees to clear,” Herzer answered, wincing as she probed his abused hands.
“Come down to the stream,” she said, hoisting the saddlebags. “Jody, send the rest down with us.”
“Have you seen Bast?” Herzer asked as they walked to the stream. It was muddy with dirt from the clearing but moving up into the uncleared portion brought them to water that was as clear as gin.
“She’s been around. She’s working with the hunters to bring in game.” She held his hands in the cool water and gently wiped at the accumulated grime. “You need to keep stuff like this clean, Herzer. We’re pretty resistant to disease but surface injuries like this can still get badly infected.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said, grimacing in pain.
“The yellow stuff is suppuration, that’s normal with a skin injury like this, or so Mom tells me. You’re lucky really,” she added.
“How?” he asked as she took the hand out and smeared on an ugly green ointment. There were bits of leaf to be seen in it.
“Unimproved humans would have been days recovering from damage like this,” she replied, smearing on the ointment. “This is supposed to help healing. It’s not much but it’s something and it has stuff in it to keep the bacteria under control.”
“Can I used my hands?” he asked, half hoping that the answer would be “no.”
“I wish you wouldn’t, but there’s too much work to be done to have you idle.” She took strips of cloth and leather out of the saddlebag and started wrapping his hands, first in the cosilk then with the leather. That she ended up tying off to hold the whole collection on.
“The leather will protect the base of your hands. Your fingers aren’t bad, fortunately. Try to keep the damage to a minimum, okay?”
“Okay,” he replied, flexing his hands. The bandages did reduce the pressure on the wounds.
“Your skin will probably regrow by tomorrow then start hardening. Like I said, in this at least we’re lucky.”
“Lucky, yeah,” Herzer said grumpily then paused. “How’s your mother?”
“She’s doing okay,” Rachel replied tartly. “She’s keeping busy and I think that’s good.”
“Rachel, I…” he paused.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped, standing up. “You’re good enough to get to work.”
Herzer looked at her for a moment, then nodded and headed back to the encampment.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Rachel sighed as she finished the last of the badly blistered group. Most of them weren’t as bad as Herzer but a few were close. Gathering up her gear she walked back to the camp and looked around for Jody. Fixing the hands had been the easy part.
“Jody, I need to talk to all the females, now,” she said to the supervisor.
“What’s this about?” he asked. “They’re all working.”
“Edmund told me to come up here, Jody, and I know they’re busy. You really want me to have this conversation, though. Trust me.”
“Okay,” he said warily. “Courtney, Nergui, Shilan, Karlyn, Deann! Over here!”
He waited until the women had gathered around and turned to look at Rachel, folding his arms.
“And now you are going to take a walk,” Rachel said.
“Why?”
“Because I said so, Jody,” Rachel sighed. “Just go. Trust me, you don’t want to be in on this.”
He glared at her balefully for a moment and then strode off.
“Ladies, take a seat,” Rachel said, gesturing at a couple of the fallen trees. We have to have a little girl talk.”
She told them about the visit to Bethan and then about what had returned to visit the entire female species, then waited for the outbursts.
“You’re joking,” Nergui snapped. “That’s just…”
“Disgusting,” Rachel interjected. “Also true. And it’s not going to go away.”
“Ever?” Karlyn asked, eyes wide.
“When all the eggs are dumped it stops, say in fifty years. Maybe longer. But then, without the hormones, all sorts of other problems start. Or you can stay pregnant all the time.”
“Fisk that!” Deann snapped.
“Been feeling a little testy lately?” Rachel said acidly.
“What about it?” Deann responded hotly. “All this…” she said, waving her arms around, “it’s bound to make you a little angry.”
“Angrier than normal?” Rachel replied taking a deep breath. “I can feel it coming on me and let me tell you that doesn’t make me feel very damned happy at all. I’m especially looking forward to the cramps. Bethan said it’s like a pulled muscle that just won’t go away.”
“Are we all going to be like that?” Shilan asked. “I’m not feeling… testy. Tired, yes, but not… unusually angry.”
“I don’t know,” Rachel said. “Mom doesn’t have any texts that cover it in detail. We’ll just have to find out.”
“This… this…” Courtney finally blurted out. “
This just sucks.”
“Yep, it does that,” Rachel replied. “We’re coming up with ways to… catch the flow. Like bandages to go on your… on your parts. And, remember, you’re all fertile now. Get a little too friendly with your boyfriend and you’re going to be carrying five or ten kilos of fetus and support structure around for months.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Nergui snapped.
“Believe it,” Rachel replied angrily. “Believe it. Or don’t and end up bleeding all over the ground! Or pregnant,” she added with a tone of disgust.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Jody said, walking over from the cutting.
“Jody, I don’t want to say this again,” Rachel snarled. “Butt the hell out!”
“Look, girl…!”
“No, you look!” she snapped right back. “This is a female conversation. Males are not invited. Now go away!”
“I don’t care who your father is…”
“It’s not who my father is that you have to worry about,” Rachel said, standing up. “We’re done anyway.” She turned back to the women who were still sitting in positions of alternate bemusement and anger. “We’ll try to get the supplies up to you by the end of the day. But be aware that this could start at any time.”
“Oh, great,” Karlyn replied, shaking her head in resignation. “Just fisking great.” She stood up and walked over to an axe, looking for a likely tree branch. As soon as she spotted one she started hewing at it like it was the devil trying to climb out of a pit.
Rachel nodded shortly at the supervisor then went back to her horse, threw the saddlebags on, untied it, mounted and rode away at a canter.
“Is anyone going to tell me what just went on?” Jody asked angrily.
“Noooo,” Deann answered carefully, getting to her feet and wiping her hands. “No, I don’t really think you need to know. Not yet. And when you need to know you won’t want to know.”
“Nope,” Courtney said, getting up and heading over to pick up her water bag.
“Uh, uh,” Shilan added, walking away.
“Not in your dreams,” Nergui replied, finally getting up.
