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Several days later Lindsey was walking through the family residence and couldn’t believe how much their home had changed. All the family pictures were now down off the walls. The furniture was either missing or staged where her husbands and sons didn’t have to run all over the residence to get them and take them down to the containers. As she watched a couple their teen age daughters were pushing a large chest of drawers. She realized it was Pops.
“Does Pops know you are packing his room?” Lindsey asked the girls.
“Yes! He’s in there packing up his things,” Talia, one her older daughters responded. She followed the girls back to the patriarch’s room and saw her senor husband quietly loading a box with his hanging clothes. As they came in the old man said absently as he pointed to a hanging clothing box, “Talia, you can tape that one up and get it ready for the guys!”
“You need any help Pops,” Lindsey asked, knowing the answer.
“No, me and the girls have got a handle on this,” the old man looked up seeing Lindsey, “You might check the boys room, they’ve been quiet for the longest time. Makes me think they’re up to something!”
Lindsey left her senior husband’s room to the room where several of their younger sons shared. She walked in and saw that her sons had stopped packing their toys up and were playing with a toy she hadn’t seen in years, a toy monorail. They had built quite a layout with the monorail not just going around an oval but it climbed up to one of the beds across the bed. Then the toy train came off the bed and went back to the floor and dived into a tunnel and then around the small town they had built. Now the small boys were mesmerized watching the train go round and round the layout. Occasionally watching it take a side track. Lindsey watched her sons watching the monorail train go round and round the layout. She hoped her sons would be able to play like this on Home. She let them play for a few minutes longer enjoying her sons enjoying themselves. Finally she spoke to them.
“Okay guys,” she said softly, “Time to get back to work.”
“Do we have to?” Matt the eight year old asked.
“I’m afraid so Matt,” Lindsay answered the boy, “come on I’ll help!”
With that Lindsey helped their youngest sons back up their room. She hadn’t realized how many toys the boys had. As she packed their clothing away she wondered if she should check out Lyudmila’s before she left. The boys were going to need clothing soon and the hand me downs were getting sparse and had seen better days. After she put the last of the boys’ boxes at the top of the stairs for her family to move to the container, she found her purse and went down the street to Lyudmila’s.
Main Street was mostly deserted. Many of the shops had been closed up as their owners had either moved into the city or simply abandoned their stores. Some of the abandoned shops had been boarded up, others were just vacant. The pet shop had been abandoned months ago much to chagrin of the village as the owners had just left the animals. Many of the animals had found homes with the villagers some like the birds and the rodents, and the snakes had been simply let go. They had simply dumped them into the storm sewers and hoped for the best.
That had been months ago.
Now as she walked to Lyudmila’s store realized how lucky she and her family were. Her family was the only small business that the crown was permitting to be taken whole Franklinton to Home. She passed the gun shop remembering how put out the owner had been when he couldn’t take his shop with him when evacuated to Home with his family. That made her wonder how the evacuees were going to support themselves when they got to Home. That made her wonder how people were going to be able to buy things in their store.
At length she came to Lyudmila’s. She had been surprised that the store was still open. As she walked into the store she found the owner, an older woman Pop’s age setting suite cases before the shop’s door.
“Hi Lin,” The woman greeted Lindsey.
“Hi Luddy,” Lindsey returned the greeting, “You going to the city?”
“No,” Lyudmila replied, “My sister heard what’s going on and has asked me to come and live with her on Jenny’s World. She’s got a small tailor shop there and said she could use my help. The crown paid my passage, and gave me a grant of five hundred crowns. I’ll be on Jenny’s World by the end of next month. I hadn’t told anyone! Why are you here?”
“The boys are growing like weeds!” Lindsey replied, “I thought I would get some outfits for all the kids! But if you’re closed…”
“For you I’m open,’ the shopkeeper said, “Let’s see what we can do for your kids.”
She had always respected Lindsey’s family. Although they sold clothing in their store they didn’t sell the same stuff she did, and often came to her place to buy better clothing for her family. She took Lindsey into her shop and helped her pick out several outfits for all her family.
As Lindsey put the last item on the counter she asked, “What do I owe you?”
The shop owner consulted her pad, shook her head a few times, wrote on the pad a couple of times and spoke to Lindsey, “I need fifty crowns.”
Lindsey looked at the shop owner in disbelief, she had been mentally adding up her purchases, and had come up with close to 200 crowns. Normally she wouldn’t have spent that much on clothing for the family, but suspecting this might be the last time in quite a while she would be able to do such things for her family, she had happily purchased what she thought her family needed. Her conscience though, wouldn’t let her take advantage of the shop keeper. “The tags add up to over two hundred!”
“I know,” Lyudmila replied, “But let’s face it. As soon as people know I’m gone, my store will be looted. Everything will be taken. And the insurance company won’t cover my loss. You’re getting everything at cost.”
Lindsey took her wallet out and gave the woman sixty crowns. When she handed the woman the money Lindsey stated, “Lyudmila, you will need all of the cash you can get a hold of. Please don’t argue.”
The woman didn’t and helped Lindsey take her packages the short distance up the street to Jackie’s store.
“Good luck Lyudmila,” Lindsey turned to the shop keeper.
“Write me when you get to Home,” Lyudmila returned and hugged Lindsey, “I want to know how things are going. Here’s my sister’s address.”
She wrote her sister’s address on one of the boxes, and left. A few minutes later she left the town she had lived in for thirty years.
The next day they were greeted by two more container carriers dropping off two additional containers. When Moshe checked the bill of lading he found that the containers contained fabric and sewing supplies including several sewing machines and they were consigned to them. He assumed it was additional stock for them to sell.
The last night they were there, the family said their good byes to their friends and neighbors. Some of whom they hoped they would meet again on Home, others they knew they would never see again. They drank a last toast to each other as they said their good byes. By midnight everyone had gone their separate ways.
The family spent their last night on Trena sleeping in their large common room. In the morning they packed their bedding away in a couple of large trunks and carried them to where their other bags staged just outside the front door to the store. They found the crown reps waiting for the family.
“Well let’s get this done,” Pops remarked getting the master keys out of his pocket.
The crown reps walked with Pops and Moshe to the back of the store where the store’s utility room was located. It took only a couple of minutes to shut the building down. As the two women from the crown walked to the front of the store they couldn’t help but notice how empty the place was. The shelves that had held the goods that the family had sold were gone. None of the cold cases were left. As they walked through the empty store the women noticed that there wasn’t trash anywhere they looked.
Pops locked the doors and handed the keys over to the women. They had sign
ed the papers the other day turning the building to the crown. Now all they had to do was get to Home. They didn’t have long to wait. A large landing craft landed at the nearby school’s parking lot. Two loaders rolled off the landing craft it took only an hour to load the family’s store onto the transport. The family was surprised when the crown reps escorted them to passenger seats set up for them. Instead of going to Trenaport to catch a lift to their transport the Broad Sword, an Attack Carrier loaned to the kingdom by the Earth Empire.
The kids were excited they had never flown anywhere, let alone aboard a ground to orbit vessel. They were beside themselves running all over the landing craft. Finally they managed to get the children rounded up and got them seated. As they took their seats, a militia officer came onto the passenger deck of the landing craft, he saw the family and spoke to them, “I am Major Rather, and my crew will get you to the Broad Sword.”
“Thank you,” Pops replied seeing delta bioperson, he wonder what Riesa and Jeremy were up to. The family hadn’t heard from them in weeks. They had moved to McKay where Jeremy was a surgeon and his daughter was his nurse. It wasn’t too unusual, as they were very busy on McKay.
“Let’s get you on your way,” Rather turned and went into the cockpit. Ninety minutes later they were landing aboard the Broadsword. There the family was escorted to their quarter.
Lindsey looked around the room. The room had bunks set in small almost alcoves around the room with a lavatory at one end and a lounge at the other end by another door. It was roomy even with everything in it. It was better than she thought they would get. The only problem would be keeping the kids under control. As it turned out that wasn’t a problem as the adults in their berthing area got together and kept the kids out of trouble.
The voyage to Home took only a week. Lindsey and the family were kept busy the entire voyage. They met at least once a day with a crown representative who was responsible for the area they were to be settled in. He and his team briefed them about Home. They were briefed on the weather, the planet’s gravity which was a little less than Trena. So far they had found no dangerous animals. They had found an extensive data base in one of the abandoned building, according to the data there was no dangerous pathogens, diseases, or infections. The climate was similar to Trena’s; but a little cooler. Besides the one big continent, there were a couple of smaller ones with large oceans. The main continent was almost pristine. It was mostly virgin forests and wilderness with very little evidence that anyone had been on the planet. The town they were to be settled in was Outpost 1. It was the second largest town on the planet. The town seemed to be some sort of resort and recreation center. With a large marina that had several hundred pleasure craft brought up on the beach, including several large sail boats.
When Lindsey and her spouses saw the building they were to set up their store in they were stunned. It was smaller than their store on Trena. It had about three quarters of the floor space they had had on Trena. It was one story and spread out along one city block with parking a parking lot between it and another building behind what would be their store. It was a couple of blocks from the water front. It was Pops who observed, “There’s no place to live in the building. Where do we live?”
“Here,” the crown representative said displaying a large two story building. It was the building behind the store. The adults looked at each other not knowing what to say. It was much bigger than what they had lived in above their store on Trena. Lindsey had been certain they would have to block off a portion of the store just to have some place to sleep and take care of the kids.
“It’s behind the store,” the rep said, “We think it was the town’s manager’s home. In addition to several bedrooms, it’s got a large kitchen and dining room. We think some of the bedrooms were servant quarters.” He wasn’t going to use clone barracks, “It has offices. We think your store building was the town’s service department’s warehouse.”
“Is there a lot of crap in the store?” Moshe asked wondering what it would take to get the place ready to go.
“It’s going to take a bit to get it ready,” The crown rep admitted, “but it’s mostly stuff used by the work crews to maintain the town’s facilities, tools, and such. You might be able to sell what you find!”
Lenora, who along with Jasmine was their buyers, spoke softly, “We’d have to see them before we can sell them. It might be better to just give them out.”
“It might be good will to offer what we find in the store to anyone who needs it.” Lindsey remarked. Most everyone around the mess table nodded.
A few days later they landed at Outpost 1. As they rode on the bus through the town they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Although some of the buildings showed signs of abandonment, many of the buildings showed little to no damage. Some windows missing, doors ajar, one or two trees crashing through roofs. Many of the buildings had no damage what so ever, with piles of leaves and debris blown into doorways or in corners.
Finally they pulled in the parking lot behind their store. They piled out of the bus. While Jasmine, and Lenora walked into house herding the kids before them, Lindsey, Pops, and Moshe walked into the building that would be their store. It was a little smaller than their store on Trena had been.
“It’s a good thing they left the shelving,” Pops commenting seeing the large warehouse shelving able to hold a large shipping pallet, they had left their warehousing fixtures, and equipment behind on Trena. They had brought a couple of the pallet movers with them, but it would not be enough to load the store.
“I hope the gang doesn’t mind helping to finger print all the stuff we brought,” Moshe remarked referring to hand loading all the shelves in the store. Without the automation they had on Trena it would be laborious task that would take several days. As Moshe wondered when they would get their containers he looked around seeing all the debris and equipment left over.
Pops was looking around the space also seeing all the debris, he looked to Lindsey and Moshe commenting, “Well looking at it won’t get it cleaned and opened. Let’s get the gang in here and start getting it ready!”
Lenora walked with the others to the big house behind what would become their home. She was impressed at how big the house was. It was much bigger than the space they had on Trena. Although there was a large master bedroom, Lenora with the concurrence of Jasmine, decided to give it to the younger boys. A room next to it was a little smaller and they gave it to the younger girls. There were two so called servant quarters which they gave to the teenagers. There were a scattering of smaller bedrooms and what had been offices that the adults took. They left the one large office to be the store’s office.
By early evening they had begun to settle in. The containers had arrived and they got into the one that had their personal stuff in it, so that by late evening everyone’s bed had been set up.
That evening when the children had finally gone off to bed the adults were gathered in what would be their dining room sipping coffee. Lindsey looked around the group and said, “Family we did it!”
“Yes we did,” Pops remarked, “The family will continued on!”
Book 8: The Opposition Takes Action
Every Last Mother's Child Page 104