He tried to get a sample of the sea horse-like creature but ended up only getting samples of their scat for his troubles. He actively avoided a giant creature that looked like a leaf bug or Praying Mantis. The beast tended to sip from the barnacle creatures embedded amongst the rocks. These too they were careful to avoid, the giant barnacles had tentacles that grew out of the tops and writhed around, occasionally snatching up animals that came within range.
In the evenings over dinner, they argued over what they had seen. They tended to argue a lot about the insect-like creatures and if they were even insects at all. Without detailed examinations, they couldn't tell for certain, which frustrated Nate.
He made a point about how the thin atmosphere wouldn't support breathing through an exoskeleton and chitin so they had to have lungs or something.
"Again, alien," Mary said with a sigh.
"True."
A week into their journey along the coast they came across an alien seal colony. The beasts were hunted by sharks and a plesiosaur creature from the water and alien predators on the beach.
"Doesn't seem fair," Mary said. "They've got it coming and going," she said with a shake of her head.
"Not all of them," Nate said, indicating a group off on another stretch of beach backed by a ring of cliffs.
"Oh?"
"Some are sheltered on the rocks with the cliff behind them and the rocks in front. As long as they stay out of reach from both sides, they are safe." He used one of their two drones to get an aerial view. It was impressive.
Mary nodded as they studied the situation. "That would explain why they are still alive and not extinct," she murmured.
"True."
"Oh, Terran types too!" she pointed to a selection where elephant seals could be seen. "They intermingle the colonies?"
"There is probably limited safe space," Nate said hesitantly. "It does bring up the question about the wormhole too."
"Oh?"
"I thought it was on the surface. You know, surface of the ocean. Obviously not. So, what else did it bring? And are some of those plesiosaur things alien or from Earth?"
She turned thoughtful eyes to the sea. After a long moment, she shrugged. "Something tells me, unless a carcass shows up on the coast, we're not going to find out anytime soon."
"Possibly not even then since it would attract the predators," Nate observed.
"True," she replied with a nod and shiver.
~~~^~~~
Occasionally, the expedition got a chance to stop in a fishing or trading village. They got to pass on a bit about their travels and deal with their minor celebrity status. Nate found himself hit upon wherever they went.
They also had to deal with politics, something that seemed to repulse both of them. When they reached the northern border, they talked to the local lord about how to continue their journey.
Both of them wanted to get into the neighboring duchy but it was not allowed. They eventually radioed home but were denied. "You don't have diplomatic immunity. They don't have anything like that. No. We talked about this," Eugene scolded.
"Okay," Nate sighed.
They were forced to turn back at the border and head south along the way they had come. "Next time. Next time we'll mount an expedition, maybe one for each of the other kingdoms," Nate said hopefully.
Mary groaned. She had been nervous about entering the kingdom; after all, they were not the Imperium. Their team had not been happy about it either. She was just glad that the king and queen had nixed the idea.
~~~^~~~
Since they couldn't get permission to go into the foreign duchy, they turned south but continued to hug the coast, taking to the trails or even going along on the beaches themselves where possible. They moved quicker since they'd already explored much of the area. Nate still insisted on stopping to take samples and images though. And they had to keep the map-making program up.
To their surprise they found an isolated fishing village surrounded by bluffs and cliffs one fall morning. The trail that had gotten them there was a tough one, not for the faint of heart. According to their map, the village had a land route out.
As they checked out the village, Mary was the first to spot a battered Terran fishing vessel tied up at the wharf. It surprised and shocked everyone.
When they got close, they managed to read the name on the ship's stern, the Miss Bliss.
By the time they'd gotten to the pier, some of the natives had begun to appear. Many were dour and wary. They wore rather worn wool sweaters, pants, and for most of the women heavily patched long dresses.
According to one of the natives that spoke to their students as she bartered for supplies, the wool and material for clothes and other things had come from herds inland until the main road had become blocked after a bad storm. They now had to sail around the coast to the next village in line to trade, which was expensive. But when a ship was doing that, it wasn't out fishing.
A judicious search of the village turned up a single surviving Terran. The woman was shocked when Nate and Mary revealed themselves as also from Earth. The woman, Cory, had been on the fishing vessel as a cook and “engine wiper slash general hand.” The ship had survived with the crew mostly intact after being sucked through the wormhole. She pointed it out in the village and then to her small home in the hills nearby.
"So it is from Earth!" Mary said, turning to the ship in wonder.
Cory nodded. She had hugged the duo when they'd met and told her they too had come from Earth. To talk to someone in English was a relief after so long. She even forgave Nate for being British; she didn't care. She might have married a local sailor but that had been more or less for survival. She had trouble with the language; she wasn't polylingual and had dropped out of high school. The mix of Latin and other languages were beyond her ear and ability. She more or less got along with the natives through pointing and sign language.
They were generous and paid for a fish stew meal with her. She told them a bit about how they'd arrived.
"Initially, it'd been tough. Gilligan's Island," she said.
Nate frowned. Mary shook her head at the reference. "Three-hour tour indeed?"
"Three-hour nightmare," Cory replied. "Four of us survived. We did okay initially; we took the trawler out and managed good hauls. The skipper kept thinking we'd find a way back. We never did. Instead, we damn near ran out of fuel," she said.
Mary gasped softly.
"But you did get to port eventually," Nate said.
"Oh yeah, we managed to convince him it wasn't worth it and we limped back here. We tried to use the local rotgut alcohol to keep the engine running but it ate up the seals. We tried to patch it with pitch and glue but made a hash of it over time. The last time it died we didn't want to risk her at sea if something else failed."
"Wise," Nate murmured.
"The skipper took the tech and ideas and used some of our money to buy a ship which he outfitted. It was a sailing ship though, bastard to run." She made grasping motions with her hands. They were heavily callused from years of cuts and misuse.
"And the others?" Mary asked gently, already expecting the answer.
She looked away in pain.
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's not your fault. Not anyone's fault. Bob died from an injury on a ship. They buried him at sea. Darion got a leg hooked in a line during a storm and drowned. Paula …," her lower lip quivered. "Paula died in childbirth."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."
"It happens. It happens a lot here," she said with a sniffle. She took a cloth out and blew her nose.
"Well, we're working on changing that. With your help, we can do it even faster."
She looked up in surprise. "Really? I was a cook. I dropped out of high school. Working on Miss Bliss was all I could find. And it got me out of town …." She bit her lip.
"Yeah, but you know a bit."
"Not a lot. Not stuff I needed to know to save Paula," Cory said heavily. She sniffled slightly, d
istressed over the memory she'd thought she'd put behind her.
"Survivor guilt is a false guilt," Nate said.
"What? What did you say?" Cory asked, affronted.
"It's … it isn't your fault your friend died. It isn't your fault that any of them died; it happens, especially here like you said. And we're working to change that. You might have dropped out of high school, but you did get that far. Most of these people can't read," Nate said, waving a hand. "They look at medicine as something beneath them. You either live or die on your own in some parts."
She looked around them to the natives and then nodded. She'd seen it often enough, experienced it. She wanted to get away but her husband and life were tied to the village. She sometimes felt trapped.
"And you have been vaccinated. And you know things that we would take for granted on Earth, like boiling water and stuff. You know some basics like first aide and such. Kitchen sink chemistry and all that."
She rolled her eyes but then nodded.
"See?" he said. "And we have stuff to share, but the natives have a hard time understanding it."
"But … I can't communicate with them worth a damn!" she said in distress. "I get by but …," she waved a hand.
"Getting by is fine. You know who people are so you can tell us who to take certain things to, and since you've been here a while, you can reassure them."
"Oh."
"Unless you want to leave?"
She frowned and looked out to sea.
He followed her gaze. "Husband at sea?"
"Yeah," she said softly, thinking about what could have been. He was rough around the edges but he did care for her.
"Okay then. Nothing is written in stone here; you've got time."
"Okay. Maybe I can make some fish stew and you can fill me in with what's been going on?"
He smiled. "I'd like that."
~~~^~~~
Nate made the evening radio report public, so everyone could see him do it and hear the disembodied voice. It took a few patient tries to get through to the capital; they had to move the antenna a few times until they got the right angle.
When they did get a clear enough signal, he reported his daily log including the fact that they had found another Terran. He gave the radio operator the information about the Miss Bliss as well as Corry's name.
To their surprise the king came on the radio after listening to the report. "Tell her welcome aboard, Nate," he said when they finished.
Nate gave the woman a sly look as he smiled. "She heard you, sire," he said. Cory blushed and nodded.
"Cute," Eugene replied. "We're prepping for winter here; the harvests are coming in again. It looks like a good crop; according to the records, we've smashed last year's crop records. So, good job for you and Mary and everyone else involved."
Nate smiled again; this time broader as he shot Mary a look. "So, you didn't need us to count bushels after all?" he drawled.
Eugene snorted. "Good one. You're still needed when the spring planting comes around and planning. And I still want to send the two of you up north next year to sort Duluth out. You can look at it as a working trip."
"Working trip? Bloody hell," Nate grumbled.
"Working trip in that you'll be able to sample the wildlife up there too, Nate," Eugene said patiently.
Cory gave Nate a look. He looked a bit mulish but then nodded. "Pay for your pleasures I suppose," he ground out.
"Exactly. Max is still getting HAM radios out, so we have a small but growing network. Most of them are with the government or lords. But it's growing. Anyone new is welcome," he said.
Nate nodded, giving Cory a look. She squirmed a bit.
"We've got a storm brewing here," he said as the wind picked up. "You may want to let the people inland know it’s coming."
"Roger that. Stay safe."
"We'll try. The road here is impassible by the way. We're going to stick around for a day or two to see what is tossed up on the beach by the storm and then see if we can do something about it. If not you may want to have the local lord do something."
"Most likely he wrote the village off since he didn't want to invest in it, but we'll look into it. Most likely later though," Eugene warned.
"Roger that," Nate said with a grimace. He shrugged to Cory. She nodded but looked a bit disappointed. "Anything you can do will be appreciated, your nibs."
"Nibs, I like that," Eugene replied with a snort. "Capital out."
"Expedition over and out," Nate said.
~~~^~~~
The science expedition stayed in the village through the storm. Once the worst had passed, Nate led his students onto the beach to see what the high tide and storm had washed ashore.
They documented all sorts of fish, plants, and animals. Mary was involved in cataloging them. They stayed long enough for the processing of four catches before the natives grew a bit impatient with the constant questions and documentation methods.
Nate encouraged them with what he knew of the fishing industry. He even drew Cory out; she told them of using winches and chutes to help process fish faster. And of using cutting lines, where a group would process fish fast and pack them in salt or ice.
Each evening Mary or Nate would give them some tech or trot out some trick that worked on Earth. Cory helped to explain, and she became excited about the bits and even excited when she found out that they were working to reproduce them in the Imperium.
"Seriously?" she asked eyes wide.
Mary smiled. "We brought a tech base with us. We've been improving things." she went on to explain about a few of the things, and then explain to the village elders about new ship technologies.
"They are going to be redundant if they don't adapt," Cory murmured as she realized the implications. Many of the people in the village were reluctant to change. What worked for their ancestors was fine for them. They were closed minded. She had a sinking sensation that whatever didn't take would be forgotten by the time the expedition left if not before.
"It is an issue," Mary said, listening to the others chatter. Some of it was animated in a positive way; some dark as people realized they were being left behind the curve. "I strongly suggest they work on that road."
Cory nodded.
"We're making seals and such now. If you can get a list to the capital, they can look into it. I don't know how seaworthy that ship is …," she frowned and waved to the Terran ship.
She looked over to it and then nodded. "She's got a fiberglass hull. I haven't scraped her hull though; I'm surprised what passes for barnacles haven't sunk her by now though."
"Ah. So, maybe work on some minor improvements and go from there? Put her in a museum or something?" Mary suggested as Nate came over to them with a tray of drinks.
"Drydock," Nate suggested.
"They don't have one here, just the beach," Cory said, pointing to a beach where two ships were laid up. One was half built; the other had a hole in her side.
"Well, um … not sure about that one," Nate said, studying the beach. There was only enough room for two, maybe three ships, on that flat space. He had looked there for samples but the surly looks from the workers had chased him out within a short time period. There was no way the natives could get the third ship in there for a long repair time.
"I wanted to dive and scrape them off here, but Guthrie, my husband, caught me and stopped me. There are shark-like things in the water here, half shark, half eel. They are around when the fish are running or when they are getting rid of the guts from a catch," she said, indicating the ships in the small fishing fleet.
Nate nodded. "Been there, seen it. Gulls too. Animals are attracted to the waste. You were lucky," he observed.
The locals told stories of things attacking people from time to time, even leaping into a boat when they hauled a catch in or reaching over the side to sweep some luckless sailor overboard. It could be scary.
"Yeah," she said and then shook herself. "Lucky."
Nate took a sip of his
beer. Mary did too.
"So wait, the road is closed, how did you get here?" she asked.
They showed her the trail they'd found and followed. "Herder trail no doubt. Maybe the village can improve on it? Something is better than nothing."
"True."
~~~^~~~
The following morning Nate took a team to check on the main road. The village elders went with him, those that had not gone out to sea to go fishing. It only took a short period to find the narrow stretch and then find the massive landslide. "Like a stopper cork in a bottle," Nate observed, kicking at some of the small rocks. There were quite a few boulders, nothing they could break without a lot of effort. "Yeah, I see what you mean; it'd take a crew of dozers and major equipment to clear that," he said with a shake of his head. "Guess we're not getting out that way."
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 26
