StarShip Down

by Darrell Bain

  “Just an idea,” He shrugged. “Now let's talk about the women.” He glanced over to where the two captive females were huddled together under the leering eyes of the men he trusted with weapons.

  * * * *

  “You're the logical one to explain the facts of life to those two broads, babe,” Morehill said to Sarah.

  “Me? I'm a traitor so far as they're concerned. Why should they listen to me?” She was reluctant but she had to admit Crag's solution beat rape. Maybe not by much but at least the women would all get a choice, poor as the selection might be. She didn't have to like it, though.

  “It don't matter. You're a woman. You can explain the setup to them any way you want to but that's how it's gonna be.”

  “And I guess I'm included, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Sorry, Sarah, but it has to be that way. If they see me playing favorites, I wouldn't last a day and then you really would see rape and mayhem.”

  “I didn't help you escape to wind up taking turns with you and someone I don't even know, Crag.” She knew an argument was fruitless but it was putting off the inevitable. What on earth had she been thinking? Even loving Crag wasn't an excuse because she should have been able to guess the consequences.

  “You should have thought of that, babe. What did you imagine was gonna happen with this many men and so few women? You either share your favors or there's fights and once fighting starts, we break up into little gangs. Then pretty soon we're all deaders. This way we stay together and eventually there'll be more women. Put up with it until then and we can be a couple again.”

  “Shit!” She stamped her foot in frustration and turned her back on him, but eventually she turned back around and sighed. “How long?”

  “I can't tell you exactly. First thing, we learn to use the bow gun. That kid officer will teach me to fly while we're at it and then we'll see.”

  “Just don't take too long, Crag.”

  “You'll do it then?”

  “Yes, goddamn it, I'll do it your way. But only for so long.”

  “Good deal, babe.” He kissed her then turned her around and patted her on the backside. “Now go do your stuff.”

  * * * *

  Travis continued on past the astronomy station without stopping. It was closed since it no longer served a useful purpose. He had no idea what they would do with the scope but intended to preserve it for future generations. He wanted the people to keep an outward-looking mentality even if spaceflight wasn't an option and wouldn't be for a long time to come.

  From there he went down a deck to where hydroponics provided a glimpse of future productivity. They had been carrying specially altered apple seedlings for one of the colony worlds. They were now being tested for potential on New Earth. So far, so good. He could practically taste the juicy crunchiness of a fresh apple. One day, one day. Some other plants, mostly vegetables, were being started from seeds although the variety was limited. All the seeds and plants other than the ones grown for food in the hydroponic gardens were originally designed for other worlds. He didn't expect them all to do well but surely some would. The environment of New Earth was certainly balmy and benevolent. In the meantime, Addie and her crew were doing their best to find native fruit and vegetables that were edible. He didn't stay there long. The smell in the gardens caused him to hurry the conference with Sue Tanksley although it didn't seem to bother her at all.

  The machine shop was too noisy for conversation unless it was moved to the chief engineer's soundproof office. He glanced through the transparent window and saw it was empty. Terrell usually busied himself outside observing the fruits of his machine shop's labor. It reminded Travis that he wanted to take a look himself. The two tractors had been shipped without accompanying implements such as plows, harrows, disks, augers and other pieces of machinery, all of which were necessary for preparing fields sufficient to feed a thousand people. Most of the power being put into work outside came from the tender's system. It was much easier for Terrell to use it than having to string cables from the ship, as he had discovered.

  He took a drop shaft down to the next deck below then walked for awhile, passing the busy food prep bays and pausing to swap the latest of the jokes being made about several erstwhile passengers. They had complained bitterly about the lack of stewards to serve their staterooms. Travis had given up his own personal steward to set the example but for those prima donnas, it hadn't made any difference. They were out weeding the fields now, albeit reluctantly and under threat of dire punishment if they failed to perform ably. Those weren't the only ones who felt their abilities would be better served at jobs not requiring physical labor but they had been the worst. He realized he might have created some future opposition by forcing people into jobs they didn't care for but he also knew he'd created far more goodwill. Despite exiling Montingham and Fondez, he still had several politicians to worry about, men and women who were good talkers and might have once been good lawyers but were not worth much here. They, too, were out pulling weeds or cutting fence posts. On the other hand, he had found a couple who seemed to enjoy physical labor on a new world.

  He paused before taking the last elevator down to ground level to gaze out a porthole where he had enough elevation to truly appreciate the job they'd done so far. Plowed fields stretched away from the ship in neat rows showing the first faint green of emerging growth. A small derrick was evidence of a water well being drilled using power from the tender. Fully half their seeds were in the ground now. The other half were being held in reserve in case the first planting failed. He didn't like to think about that possibility. It might not be a total disaster but it certainly wouldn't be good. There had been a lot of spirited debate over how much of their reservoir of seeds to sow in the first planting. Some wanted it to be much less and to supplement the crops with hunting. They were hunting some of the wildlife but he would much rather them not have to depend on it so much. There had already been casualties from the carnivores who hung on the outskirts of the herbivore herds. For that matter a stampede had killed one hunter who got too close to a herd trying for a clean kill.

  Once on the ground he walked to the other side of the ship, pausing to talk to people or simply nodding at them as he passed. Most were too busy to pass the time of day in chatter anyway. He was particularly interested in how the building was progressing. The sound of hammering and the buzz of saws grew as he rounded the curvature of the hull and came upon the sawmill as they were calling it. Two of the workers were taking a break and eating lunches amid mounds of woodchips.

  “Hello, Captain!” one of the women called.

  “Hi ... Grace?” he said tentatively.

  She smiled. “That's me. I swear I don't know how you remember everyone's name.”

  “I don't yet but I'm getting there. Now if I were a politician I'd already have everyone's first and last name memorized and know where they were from and what their kids’ names were. Unfortunately, I'm just a poor old ship's captain and not cut out for politicking.”

  They laughed at the poor joke.

  “How's the woodworking?” he asked.

  “Oh, it's okay, I suppose, except for all the burls. It's peculiar, like some insect has been gnawing on the trees. And the fresh ones are sticky, too.” She displayed a pair of sap-smeared hands.

  “You haven't heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “Miss Smitherson from the science department figured it out. That sap is really sperm of a sort. Birds and animals transfer it to roots of the trees that have them sticking out of the ground, except they aren't really roots. Those are the female part of the trees.” He grinned at their astounded expressions.

  “You mean I've got my hands all smeared with sperm?”

  “Yup. Or the local equivalent. Have fun, ladies.”

  He strolled on, laughing to himself. That had been fun, truthful as it was. Addie's gang had discovered the relationship after seeing one of the small eight-legged animals poke a long proboscis into the gumm
y ball on a tree and then amble on and begin munching on an exposed root. Something had clicked in the scientist's brain and the puzzle was solved, although it came no nearer to making the wood easier to work with. The exudates popped out all up and down the multiple trunks of the trees and formed hard burls each season's growth. Addie had told him some of the winged or climbing animals probably took care of transferring the sperm from higher ones, although the birds resembled helicopters when flying more than anything else.

  Travis had finished his tour of the outside and headed back to his cabin. He knew he needed to stop by the newly established agricultural department and talk to the two men and a woman he'd put in charge there, all former prospective colonists.

  When he finally arrived at his cabin, Addie and Brandon were waiting on him in the outer alcove, sitting side by side and holding hands. The goofy expression on Brandon's face told him immediately what they wanted. He invited them inside to discuss their marriage plans.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  “Bingo,” Jake Weber said to himself when the satellite chimed to notify him it had found the tender and pinged it. The electrical engineer had offered to take a turn in the com room while the satellite passed over a new stretch of Big Continent. He checked quickly to make certain the directional finder he'd rigged had tagged it, too, when the missing tender was located. It had. That gave him an approximate location. It would take several more passes to locate it exactly enough to ask the satellite for a photograph but he had no doubt they would soon get it triangulated and placed. He tapped the com.

  “Captain Callahan.”

  “Captain, Jake Weber here. I'm in the com room standing a watch for Zebrowski. I just got a ping back from our lost tender.”

  “Great! I'll be right there,” he said before Weber had a chance to tell him it would be some time before the exact location was known.

  * * * *

  Travis hurried to the com room where a technician usually stood watches while in a solar system. He felt his emotions going in different directions and being torn by each. He was glad the tender had been located but not so glad it had happened so soon. He wasn't yet ready to release their remaining tender for a rescue mission but he knew once the escaped convicts had been found, he would come under increasing pressure to mount one.He gave a brief knock and pushed into the room with Weber.

  The electronicist stood up. “Captain, I'm sorry I got you down here so soon. I don't have the exact location plotted yet. That's going to take several more passes over a period of days, maybe as much as a week or two to pinpoint them exactly.”

  “That's alright, Jake. You can give me an approximation, can't you?”

  “I can tell you it's on the other side of the continent, about midway on a line from us but that's about it. I can't put it closer than that yet unless you want to use all the satellite's fuel on maneuvers. Even after we get it pretty well located, we'll still need a pass fairly near overhead to get a good photo to check the area for suitable places to land and take off.”

  “Okay, Jake, I see part of the problem but once we get some photos I'm sure we can land where they are. After all, they got there. I do want a continuous watch until we have it pinned down and I can see what those people are up to. What kind of resolution can we expect?”

  “Zebrowski would know better than me but say ... about half a meter?”

  “No better than that?”

  “Captain, that's good! We worked like hell to make that much possible.”

  “Sorry,” he apologized. “I'm sure you did. I'm just wondering why they moved at all.”

  “I doubt a photo will tell you that.”

  “It might be able to tell us whether or not they've settled down. You know, cleared land for planting, building and signs like that?”

  “Well, yes. I guess that would indicate they're at least trying to farm or build a community. Should I call you when I get a picture?”

  “By all means. If I'm not in my cabin, get me on my personal com. Leave word for the other shifts, too.”

  “Yes, sir. Will do.”

  “Thanks.”

  He left Weber and headed back to his cabin where he had been contacted. The workday was already over and the evening meal had been finished an hour ago. He had intended to do some paperwork but he knew he wouldn't be able to now. Besides, he thought, Sissy should be back soon. She was working in the kitchen and they must be finished cleaning up.

  She was indeed there and already in the shower. One of the first things they had done was drill a well. The machine shop had worked overtime for several days machining the parts for a big pump and drill then used the tender to power it. Fortunately, good water had been found only twenty meters down. It hadn't been needed quite so soon but he had made it a priority nonetheless in case potable water had been harder to find. The ship's recycler wasn't a hundred percent efficient and the process used a lot of power, the one necessity they couldn't afford to run out of soon. He had lived in Florida as a teenager when a hurricane wiped out the power grid. He and his parents had found out quickly that running water is even more important than power. For some time to come, the ship was going to be more comfortable than any kind of housing they could build but in the meantime, he intended to have plenty of water for it. Eventually the ship would be stripped and some parts of it demolished and used for other construction but for now it was their living quarters. The only housing built so far was for the nighttime guard force on all four sides of the fields.

  Shortly Sissy appeared wrapped in one towel with another around her hair.

  “You didn't cut your hair, did you?” he asked, teasing her.

  She stuck out her tongue. “Every time you see me with a towel around my hair you start making accusations. It's still there, although I never have understood what men find so fascinating about long hair on a woman.”

  “It's not fascinating, it's sexy,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.

  “It's also sweaty when you're working with bubbling pots and pans but since you're my own true love, I'll leave it alone.”

  Travis suspected she liked the way her hair flowed down over her shoulders when she wasn't in the kitchen and especially at moments like this.

  “A woman after my own heart.” He turned her loose so she could begin dressing and told her about the satellite ping as she did, even if pulling on a dressing gown couldn't quite be called dressing.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “Sweetheart, I'd love to go rescue our people if they're still alive but much as I want to, we can't spare the tender, at least until the other well is finished. Anyway, we just found the general area where the tender is, not the exact location. We can't do anything until we know that.”

  “You couldn't let the tender go for even for a day or two?”

  “Not when it would involve mounting and dismounting the laser cannon. That would tie it up for a couple of days both ways. That's not the real reason, though. Logman tells me he thinks a dry season is on top of us. We need to have water for the crops whatever else we do. However, I think another week or two and I'll be prepared to risk it. I might say to hell with it and go sooner but if our people are still alive now, chances are they'll still be then.”

  “Logical but not what everyone is going to want to hear.”

  “I know.” He spread his hands. “What can I say? I have to make decisions I think best for all of us.” In the meantime he had instructed Johannsen to keep a continuous watch with the bow gun in the tender. With what he was planning for the convicts, he certainly didn't intend to let them do it to him first! Or try not to. The missiles and lasers weren't really designed for ground warfare, so he kept an army trooper on a heavy machine gun during daylight hours.

  “You won't get an argument from me. Come on and sit down and relax a while. Didn't you say it would take at least a few days before the site is pin-pointed?

  “Uh huh.”
>
  “Then let's talk about something else, like whether or not I renew my anti-fertility regime.”

  “Do you really want children?”

  “I wasn't in a hurry before this happened, but now? Yes, I think so. In fact, they're a necessity if future generations are to survive, you know.”

  “Of course, silly. I suppose I can break the surgeon's confidence enough to tell you there are already some pregnancies.”

  “You're not breaking anything. Don't you know women talk?”

  “I guess I do now. How many?”

  She told him and he stood in open-mouthed surprise for a moment then guffawed.

  “That's a half dozen more than the doc knows about!”

  * * * *

  Esmeralda woke with a start and sat up. The night was broken only by starlight since New Earth had only one small moon and it had not yet risen. As always, when the dreams of being back aboard the Carlsbad came, she had to reorient herself to the situation she found herself in. It wasn't one to her liking but perhaps it was the best of a bad bargain. She lay back down beside the sleeping man and began going over the events of the last weeks.

  When Sarah approached her and June that day, it was partially with the air of a supplicant but more so as a person relaying orders.

  “I need to talk to you two,” Sarah had said.

  “So talk, traitor,” Esmeralda said with as much emphasis on the word as possible without shouting.

  “It won't do you any good to speak to me like that. I'm here to save you from being held down and gang raped. If you're not interested in hearing what I have to say, I'll go tell Crag that.”

  “How could you have done it, Sarah? Don't you know what these men have done? They're the worst kind of criminals.”

  “I haven't asked and you shouldn't either. In this environment, it isn't polite. And don't change the subject when I'm trying to help you.”

  “All right. Go ahead.”

  “There's not enough women to go around. You know that already. We're all going to have to share several men each for a while.”