Once everyone had gathered on the beach and Greg had reconciled himself to the finality of his situation, he turned to Mark and said, “Mark, perhaps you should offer a prayer of thanksgiving that we arrived mostly intact.”
Mark drew to his full height. “It would be my honor. Ladies and Gentlemen, let us pray.”
Everyone bowed their heads. “We pray in the name of all those that human beings hold divine each in their own heart to the one in whom they believe. First and foremost let us give thanks for bringing us alive and well to this gorgeous land. We thank you for the voyage that had few of the hardships our ancestors suffered on previous voyages. We thank you that we do not have to conquer this land in battle as did the ancient Israelite people. We thank you for the abundances we will soon share. We ask you for the guidance to help us live together as sensitive and caring human beings. Help us to know when to look after our own gardens and when to care for those of our neighbors. Help us and guide us for without your guidance we will surely become lost. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you now and forevermore. All say, Amen.”
“Amen.”
After a moment of silence, Myra spoke. “About five kilometers up river there is a fresh water lake. There is a colony of horses, cattle and buffalo from Greg’s previous excursions to this planet. I suggest we take the inflatable life rafts from the shuttles and go there. We can’t do anything until the shuttles cool and the tide goes out. Besides, Greg has to retrieve and unload all the cargo containers with the animals which was his primary motivation for being here in the first place.”
“Captain, may I join you?” Dr. Miller asked. “I would like to see the animals and know where they are.”
Gloria looked at him with more than a hint of jealousy as Greg said, “By all means. We need to move quickly.”
As they left, Greg was pleased to see Myra directing the group in raiding what little remained in the disabled shuttle’s food lockers and loading the contents into the life rafts.
At each stop, Dr. Miller was more pleased than the last. The animals were healthy and had developed stable social groups. He saw babies and yearlings in every group, but he was impressed the most that none of the animals feared him. In fact, once having spotted his satchel of goodies, they crowded around for treats. Greg laughed out loud at the antics. Dr. Miller’s pleasure more than made up for any hardship they might have suffered getting here.
Their two days together snatching cargo containers out of the water passed quickly. The last container came down in the lake where Myra had chosen to set up camp. That, of course, was no accident. It was the same lake where she had ambushed Greg on his previous trip.
Greg and Dr. Miller arrived exhausted and exhilarated. Once they had pulled the last container to the shore, the rest of the refugee community joined them and helped release the animals inside. A substantial herd of horses grazed nearby. Once the new arrivals were released, they quickly joined the others. Greg wondered if the chestnut brown filly he had dropped off what seemed forever ago would remember him. He whistled the call he had used on the ship to bring the animals out to the common area. A half dozen raised their heads and went back to grazing. Only one looked at him. Her color was deeper than he remembered. She stared at him for a moment and then slowly walked in his direction.
The people who had heard Greg’s call stopped what they were doing to stare at him and the beautiful horse walking slowly in his direction. Only when she was within a few paces of him did she recognize him. She let out a whinny and thrust her nose into the crook of his neck. She rubbed her face against the side of his and breathed heavily into his ear. She stood for a moment with her head against his and closed her eyes. He fed her a slice of apple which she devoured greedily.
Myra laughed from her post on top of a container. “I heard you had a way with the ladies!”
A ripple of laughter passed through the group. Dr. Miller wandered over and gently stroked the horse’s neck. “My, aren’t you a beauty! I’ll bet you’re smart too. I can tell by the way you look at me. Yes, baby, you are a smart one. You can come play with me anytime.”
Blondie did not seem amused.
In the two days that had passed while Greg and Dr. Miller were unloading animals across the planet, Myra had organized everyone into work groups. They were gutting the containers from Greg’s previous trips for use as shelters. Given that it had rained the previous day, they were happy to stay dry. They were using the life boats to ferry materials from the shuttles to the camp site. They had started to plant a garden with hand tools crudely fashioned from pieces of the machinery previously used to exercise the animals in their containers. Everyone was industriously working to carve a new home out of this small piece of wilderness.
Greg was amazed at the progress they had made in such a short time. He wandered over to Myra. “Very nice,” he complimented her. “You have been busy I see.” Even Linda Danvers was doggedly digging in the garden with her one good hand and her other wrapped in bandages.
Myra said, “We need to form a government as we discussed back on the ship, and we need to get the containers out of the shuttles.”
“Let’s do the containers first,” Greg suggested. “Can we get them out of the shuttles?”
“The aft cargo doors appear to be undamaged on Blondie’s shuttle. The containers will roll out to the end of the door. You can pick them up one at a time with your tug and ferry them here.”
“I thought your plan was to scatter the people all over the planet, one with each herd of animals so that they could peacefully live the life they always wanted.”
“Yes, it was. That was the plan, but Dr. Turner convinced me otherwise.”
“How so?”
“She pointed out that if someone became ill or injured they would have no way to seek help. Look at Linda. Could she survive on her own?”
“I guess not.”
“Shall we get the containers?” Myra asked.
“Where are we putting them?” Greg responded. “Do we know where people want their containers placed? Six of us don’t have containers. What are we doing?”
“I am returning to my ship and reporting in to the Force so I don’t become AWOL and so I can keep in contact with the people who are funding this.”
“Who is funding this?”
“The Interstellar Animal Rescue League is involved with several projects. This is the biggest, but not the only one. They have become a leading underground force against the Swordsmen. You will make several more trips for supplies and immigrants on your ship. I doubt you will spend much time on the surface.”
“That still leaves four.”
“As to our shuttle pilots, the others are building homes out of empty cargo containers so they can stay here.”
“Very tidy,” Greg remarked. “You know that once the containers are on their flotation collars, your P I ship can as easily drag them up the river to the edge of the lake as my cargo tug can. That will speed things up. Once we know where everyone wants to go, we can place their homes appropriately.”
They gathered Blondie and Katherine from their home building activities and headed off to unload the containers. Unloading Katherine’s ship went smoothly. They inflated the flotation collars as soon as the containers left the end of the ramp and pulled the assembly away. The rollers in the bottom of the cargo bay made the process easy and smooth. Once empty, Katherine’s shuttle floated off its wheels and they pulled it closer to shore where they secured it to rock outcroppings.
Blondie’s ship was more difficult. Some of the containers had become wedged, and the ship was at an angle. Not all of the motorized rollers worked. It took the better part of two days to unload Blondie’s ship where Katherine’s had only taken a few hours. With help from the powerful winch on Greg’s tug to drag a couple of the containers out of the hold, they were finally able to remove the containers and transport them to the lakeside.
In preparation for the meeting that e
vening, Greg called to the ship. “Brownie, please have the ship recall the tug. When it arrives, the two of you please come meet us here.”
“Aye sir.”
“I didn’t know your ship could control the tug on its own,” Myra said.
“Yup, my ship is full of surprises. Since the tug only holds two people. It was either send it up empty or make two trips.”
When Brownie and Sam arrived, the refugees gathered around the campfire for the meeting.
HOMESTEAD - CHAPTER SEVEN
DURING THE VOYAGE, Dr. Miller had been established as the de-facto “adult” of the group. He took control of the meeting and was elected council chairman. Mark Stonebridge, Tanya Keller, Jonathan Dearing and Linda Danvers were elected to the council. Dr. Miller looked rested and content. Judging by the expression on Gloria’s face, he had gotten the couple of days with a consenting female the cargo ship’s computer had recommended.
Greg was pleased to see how many of the group were forming pairs and knew such pairings could make life in this isolated place more comfortable. Based on his youth on a desolate tracking outpost with his single-parent father, Greg understood the value of sympathetic companionship. Blondie was not talking to him, but he decided to not let that bother him.
They spent the next day moving the containers to their agreed upon locations. The plan Dr. Miller had developed for determining who went where made sense to everyone, and locations were quickly chosen. With ten kilometers of lake shore to divide each got half a kilometer to themselves. Gloria got a spot next to Dr. Miller and others who wished to be neighbors were able to do so.
Doug Marlin directed the set-up of the mobile homes.
“I grew up in one of these,” Greg commented.
“Really?” Doug asked. “Any particular one?”
“A Modern Modular 301, on a Space Force listening post and research station.”
“Modern Modular built thousands of those! My dad had a hand in half of them over his fifty years with the company. Modern Modular split its space capable division off to form Interstellar Compact Homes. They are direct descendants of the 301. The 301 did for space capable mobile homes what the DC 3 did for air transport. I worked there until I jumped ship to join this adventure. I helped build all of these units. They have several improvements over the 301. Do you like the way the solar panels fold out to create a roof triple the size of the base? That was my Dad’s idea. See the way they adjust to catch the greatest amount of sunlight? That was his idea, too. There are improvements in the waste-water recyclers and the solid waste disposal systems as well. The pop-outs in the sides work better and seal better than they did before.”
“Was the flight seat part of the original design?”
“No, that’s what made me interested in this particular order and made me decide it was time to go. I was assigned to design the systems necessary to support someone being transported in these units. It was a tremendous challenge. I loved the thought and had a great time making it work. Most of these are used in space or on planets with little or no atmosphere. Some are used under water so they were tight, but making them capable of supporting their occupant in transit was a new idea. I had a great time with this.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Adventure. I worked in the only factory in a factory town. Everyone I knew worked in the same big building. It’s not like it’s a bad place or they treat the employees badly. It’s not that at all. I could work for fifty years on space capable mobile homes and retire like my dad did. It could have been fine. I broke up with my girlfriend the week before I get this order for twenty-four identically equipped space capable homes with transport capable seats and I get curious. That’s a big order. The only people that buy this particular model are the Space Force and research organizations headed off-planet. The special modifications didn’t seem so unusual for the Space Force, even though they had never asked us to do transport capable before. What was weird about this order was that it wasn’t one order. It had twenty-four different buyer names. They came in at the same time, with the same specs and from the same sales agent. I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what. When the payments were in cash, I suspected pirates, but instead of calling the Space Force, I visited the sales rep. I followed the trail back to Myra and when one of the original owners went missing, I came in his place. Here I am on a clean new planet with fresh air and a huge outdoors! What more could a man want?”
Greg smiled. “Not much I guess.”
Mary Burke wandered by. She had been a tax accountant for the Federation Internal Revenue Service and fled after being threatened over some irregularities she had found in Swordsman church accounts. “May I offer you gentlemen some iced tea?” She held out two glasses.
Doug winked at Greg and said, “Yes, thank you.”
Mary and Doug smiled with smiles full of special meaning. Greg watched with approval.
Doug turned to Greg, “What kind of research did they do at the station where you grew up?”
“Before we had hyper drive, remote observatories were set up on whatever moon or asteroid would support one. The observatories searched space for signs of habitable planets. By the time hyper drive became available, a couple hundred systems had been identified which could contain an earth-like planet. When the first survey teams went out, they found some did, and some didn’t. New observatories were established outside the solar system and the older stations became defensive focusing their attention on monitoring in-system traffic. I was there during the shift from scientific exploration to law enforcement. It was a difficult time for my father. He retired soon afterwords.”
“I wondered what your youth had been like.”
“Well, now you know.”
Myra left in the morning to return to her Space Force duties. That afternoon Greg elected to go back to his ship. Helen asked if she could join him “for old time’s sake” she said, but Greg suspected it had to with the fact that when the pairing was done, she had been left out. Greg wondered if beneath the tough exterior she was hurting inside.
They returned to the ship and ate prepared dinners in silence. The flight deck was deafening in its quiet. Without the subliminal vibration of the ship’s engines, the ship seemed especially still. Without the ship’s acceleration to create artificial gravity, weightlessness gave it the ambiance of a giant at rest. Greg had taken the unusual step of shutting off the music. As important as his music was to him, this was a serious departure from routine. For once he relished the peace of the quiet. Helen headed for the sleeping quarters she had previously shared with two other people in rotation and said, “Greg? In the morning? Can we talk? Please?”
He smiled. “Certainly. Whenever you like.”
“Thank you.”
The next morning, Greg was drinking coffee when Helen floated into the flight deck wearing her work-out clothes. She ate a small breakfast and over coffee looked up at Greg. “Who do you love?”
“Excuse me?”
“Is there someone you love enough that you would be willing to die to protect them?”
“No, I don’t think so. There have been people I loved and people I thought I loved, but no I don’t think so.”
“Even your wife?”
“No. She cheated on me. She never loved me.”
“Your mother?”
“She died when I was ten. It was horrible. Pirate attack. I saw it happen. I try not to think about it. Gave me nightmares for years.”
“Blondie says you killed two men in a bar room brawl. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Pirates?”
“Yes.”
“Was it over a woman?”
“No. They kept attacking me. The only way I could stop them was to kill them. If they had walked away they might be alive today.”
“When we worked out, were you toying with me?”
“No, I needed your help to get back in shape, and you were gracious enough to help me. I will be forever in your debt.�
��
“Did you ever fight me the way you fought them?”
“No. I never wanted to kill you. I wanted to kill them.”
“But, what if I wanted to die?”
“I would talk you out of it.”
“I want to die.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“I want you to fight me the way you fought them.”
“No.”
“Nobody loves me. I want to die.”
“Not on my watch!”
“Will you at least work out with me one last time before you leave?”
“Where do you think I’m going?”
The question caught her by surprise. “Everyone knows you don’t want to be here. We shanghaied you and your ship. We know you resent it. We know you’re looking for a chance to escape. I saw the look in your eyes when you realized how extensively Blondie’s shuttle was damaged. You were ready to cry, and it wasn’t because you love space hardware. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“We understand, but I don’t think you do. You can’t go home any more than I can. You have the ship, and you can leave us here, but I don’t want to die down there alone. No one down there loves me, and if you won’t, I would rather die up here with you in a fair fight.”
“Don’t do this.”
“I am not leaving until we fight for real.”
Greg looked at the intensity in her eyes and sighed. “Let me get changed.” He was not looking forward to this.
They met in the common area of the cargo hold where they had worked out together so many times before. Helen had never sparred in weightlessness. Greg had. Greg knew how much impact weightlessness would have on their routines. He hoped Helen did not hurt herself because she was used to working with gravity or the simulated gravity caused by the ship’s constant acceleration. They observed the same formalities they normally observed, but when she attacked, she attacked with a vengeance that Greg had never seen before. Greg, knowing her moves, was able to defend himself. They sparred for twenty brutal minutes without resting. Finally, Greg felt this abuse had gone on long enough. The bruises on both their bodies were real and painful. He was bleeding from more than one of her blows. It was time to put an end to this. He grabbed a loading strap from its tie down and lashed her to the wall while she struggled against him.
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 8
