Weathering Storms

by Taborri Walker

  “What? No! I’m not getting on that! Where’s the buggy?” it was instant panic, and she struggled hard.

  “Tis no other way, Sesha,” his voice boomed. “Now up,” and he swung her onto the horse’s rump behind Robert but her suit and the rain-slick horsehide didn’t cling. Sesha let out a yelp of sheer fear as she slid backwards, only to land in Darren’s arms.

  “In front, sweetheart,” and he put her there. “Hold that handle,” was the shout as Robert made a clicking sound and they were moving – it terrified Sesha, who screamed again.

  “I have thee,” Robert said in her ear. “I shall ride till you tell me when to stop,” and the mud was splashing as the horse bounded forward.

  Sesh, yell stop! Shni was far more capable on tracking but she did. The winch… we have to take it.

  “I have to go into the forest here, just a few feet, Robert! Wait for me!”

  “Take a lantern,” he started to undo one.

  “Shni will light my way better!” and the Gem lit up. She left the blanket but kept the hat and floundered through wet bushes to the tree where she’d left the alien device. It was the work of a moment to undo it and scurry back.

  “Cans’t carry that, Miss Sesha! Too big an’ heavy!”

  “It’s not, really… I’ll hold it! Just pull me up, I have to take this back to my shuttle!” The pull hurt terribly despite it being the Gem arm and the suit was stiffened. “Shni says the shuttle’s a little further ahead,” the bouncing was horrible now with the winch digging into her already tender midsection and when she yelled “Stop!” again, almost fell off after dropping the equipment. Robert held her, then lifted her down. Her body was never so happy to be off the back of that awful beast!

  “How do you do that all the time?” Sesha called in his ear while he half-carried her to where she pointed, and stopped when she said again. “Don’t move, especially forward,” now the hat came off and she wiggled out of the sling too. Both hands and forehead again touched to shut off the forcefield and she started dragging off the branches.

  “My… God,” Robert gasped as he saw what was in front of him.

  “It’s okay, Robert… it’s like a wagon, just made out of metals and stuff! Come on,” she grabbed his arm and shoved him forward until he was forced to put a hand out and touch it.

  The sound he made was terrified as he backpedaled hard and fast to get away from the stuff he was unable to imagine. Sesha let him go and just slid down to the ground. She couldn’t help it; there was not much more left in her.

  But that little motion helped Robert get his senses back and he clambered to her. “Miss Sesha! What be wrong? Are you hurting again?”

  “I can’t do this, Robert,” to her mortification she was crying. “You’re too scared and I understand but I can’t do this,” the rain pelted her face, mixing with tears. “My crewmates are going to die and your city is broken up; we’ll all be stranded and it’s my fault!” Unable to squelch the emotion she cried harder.

  “I will help,” he scooped her up, bending over against the rain. “I may be affrighted but an’ thou tell me what to expect I shall do it. I am sorry for my actions.”

  “Don’t be… I told you this would be frightening; I was reacting the same way when first seeing how little you folk had,” Sesha fought for control of her crying there in the rain and began getting in her grasp. “Ready to go in? The door will open from the top and lay down… if we can squeeze in before it lays all the way down it should come right back up and we’ll be in without much water.”

  “Aye, m’ Lady,” he braced, Sesha keyed in the code on her Gem. Robert gasped at the line that appeared, the parting of material but the moment it was open just enough, he slid Sesha in and slithered himself in. By then Sesha had the door coming back closing.

  “Just slide to the floor, Robert… its totally dark in here, so we won’t fall over anything.” He did and by the light of the Gem, Sesha touched the wall above them. “In the count of thirty, lights will start coming on, but slowly… you’ll feel air moving too but it’s okay. It’s like lighting candles one at a time… see? It’s starting now.” When he gasped, Sesha just held him tighter. Together they sat up and looked around.

  “Tis as you said… a room, just with a different look, an’ two chairs,” feeling bolder, Robert rose and helped Sesha up. She gestured to the two chairs up from her and he helped her sit in the one she wanted, then gingerly perched on the other.

  “This is my… navigational system, Robert. Like the tools you use, only more advanced. I’m going to turn them on and what you’ll see are different colors of lights twinkle all over. Nothing will hurt you, I promise, but don’t touch any of the stuff, okay?”

  “Shan’t,” he watched and even began asking questions, which decreased his fear exponentially. Then, “thy bleeding be starting again,”

  “I felt the wax come loose when you pulled me up. Okay then, this is almost ready to go so can you help me change the bandage?”

  “If it is what you desire,” he started and she snarled.

  “You are the only one here and I can’t do it alone.” At his wide eyes, she softened. “I’m sorry… if you please, that first cabinet there. Put your hand flat on the front and push up. It will slide up and over.”

  He had to wipe his hands on his wet coat three times from nerves before doing it. When he saw what seemed to be drawers, he nodded.

  “See the blue button? Push it please. It will pop the drawer out. Good… now grasp it and pull towards you. Ah Robbie boy, you’re a natural.” Again the blush, something fierce. “Now,” Sesha got up from the chair and promptly fell to her knees, weak from blood loss and pain. “Just… lay me on the floor…” the man stepped carefully and slid her down. He opened his mouth but she shook her head.

  “One step at a time, okay? Push the red symbol on the box. It’s a medical kit, the one I got some things from and helped Anna and Jeremiah.”

  “And Dinah, and the lad with a cough, Miranda’s lad, I believe.”

  “And now you get to use it to help me. There a roll I need and a package of paper squares you’ll need. Undo the pack and lay a few on my tummy then undo the dressing.” It was several seconds before he could start. Sesha used that time to unroll what looked to her like a flat gel pack with slender wires jutting out of one end. “Hand me that little square thing with four holes on an edge,” she asked vaguely. He picked the right one first by sheer luck, as several things in the kit were square shaped. It was the programming unit to the pack and plugging it in Sesha entered the code for traumatic penetrating injury with blood loss.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  “Almost. I’m wiggling the bowl stuck in the wax and Sesha, you’re really bleeding,” he was sounding panicked.

  “We’re going to do this quickly… as soon as you pull off the wax grab those paper squares and press them all over the wound area.”

  “These?” his voice was incredulous. “They’re so thin!”

  “Use a bunch of them, and do it now!” her half-yell made him jump enough that the wax was yanked free and there was awful pain as he pressed them on the large open wound.

  With her good hand Sesha slapped the gel pack over the bloody hole and upper shoulder, then activated it. The pain of initial startup was terrible and Sesha screamed and bucked against the floor and walls, but when Robert began to pull off the pack which had suctioned itself to her wound, she stayed him.

  “Don’t!” she snarled, making him jerk his hands off, and he froze until she had her breath back. “It’s sealing itself to the wound. I’ll be fine. Help me up.”

  From there, he lifted her up and carried her back to the pilot’s seat where he settled her gently and held her face by the cheeks until she was able to hold her head up on her own.

  “Shni, you were right,” came out in gasps. “That wasn’t as bad as the wax treatment earlier.”

  “I’m so glad,” the Realistic’s tone was relieved.

  “By oh, m
aybe… point oh five of a percent?” Shni wisely stayed silent, so Sesha turned her attention to Robert.

  “Throw my piece of equipment in when you go out the door on your way to the horse,” her voice rasped from the pain she’d just been through. “When I start the engines this will get noisy and even windier than it is now. If you’re able, ride on ahead and tell everyone I’m coming. If you can’t, just wait. You’ll see this thing go up in the air and I’ll shine a huge light ahead of you.” Robert nodded, set his hat hard on his head and went to the door. Sesha called to him. He turned back around. “Thank you. You’re adjusting well. All of you are going to like your new lives, I hope.”

  “We’ll be free,” he smiled, gesturing lower on his body. “That’s what matters.” He too had had the beating, then.

  “All right Shni,” Sesha was still shaking but her fingers danced on the console just as expertly as they had over a year and a half ago before going into TravelSleep, just a bit slower for her condition. “Let’s see how well this baby acts with that fresh seawater still sitting there.”

  The checklist was done rapidly but with precision and then she keyed in the sequence to give a boost off.

  “Just above the trees, darling, not into space, okay? Let’s go for one-tenth of a normal boost.” The windy roar wasn’t nearly as bad as usual; the flyer lifted straight up and held just over where she’d asked. A touch and finger-slide across a blank circle and the thing swung about. The light picked up Robert in motion, just not very fast. The winds were worse; she could see one lantern had blown out.

  There was a bump on her foot when she turned; looking down, there was the medical kit and with it, something else she needed. Without a cognizant thought Sesha leaned over – ow – and scooped up a pack with small round flat discs in it. Before Shni could say anything she tumbled some out and popped two in her mouth.

  Seshaph’lariminium! Shni roared her full name. What do you think you’re doing? Those are stim pills, not to be used on injured Beings!

  “I have a problem, Shni… I need to do a lot more work before I can rest, you know that. If I don’t use these, the crew will die, the people here be in a worse way after this storm is over. Tattle if you will, I don’t care. I’m using them!” she nudged the ship forward slowly, keeping the path well lit in front of Robert. In turn he spurred the horse to its fastest.

  There was the beach with figures large and small hurrying about and there was the crowd. They were close to the buildings but didn’t move as Robert galloped up. Sesha keyed her intercom system to hear him screaming she was coming in her flying ship, no fear. He kept repeating those two words and Sesha was sure they were needed. Sesha brought the shuttle down right on the edge of the ocean and pivoted it as much as possible to show all she could. The sleek ship moved around even as it edged forward and everyone got a look at every part except the top. It set down on its skids and wet sand dried in an instant and blew, so everyone had to cover their faces until they heard the whine of the engines shutting down.

  “We truly are backwards,” Sarah muttered.

  “Not really… it is that Sesha’s worlds have probably been in existence longer. We are a young race, dear,” Beulah smiled and hugged her friend. She wasn’t Grace, but the feelings were close, the years a bit further apart and Beulah loved her too. “Our race needs time to grow more, to learn. Those of us who choose to go with Sesha will… accelerate, was the word she used. Instead of lives spent doing everything as we know now an’ thinking it better, we have seen the far future.”

  “That is why some of us are staying,” Florence added, mopping rain off her face. “I wish to help our world advance any way it can so future generations will have these incredible wonders.” She added her arms to Beulah and Sarah

  In the shuttle, Sesha packed more Stims in her suit’s belt pocket made just for this and ran a status check of all systems. Everything was nominal; Sesha wasn’t happy with that. The fluids weren’t going where she wanted.

  “Bet it’s clogged,” was her grumble. She pushed up and knelt under the front dash, pulling the container towards her. Sure enough she could see darker debris on the bottom and in disgust, just dumped the stuff and left it open to drain. “Gotta find something to strain this stuff,” was the mutter.

  Watch your head, Shni cautioned a moment too late and Sesha beaned her head on a drawer hidden deep underneath. The old phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind’ worked in 98% of all peoples, Nestram’s too.

  Is that what I think it is? Sesha’s face lit up. If it was, she could do something nagging horribly at her. Will my Aga Command Code do?

  Sure will and yes, I think it is. While it’s not exactly programmed knowledge, we Gems gossip too. Extras.

  Sesha connected her Gem to the computer dot on the front and it opened for her code. The sight made the young woman laugh; bad as things were, this couldn’t have happened better! Sesha lifted up two pen-like devices and tucked them in her pocket, then went to reach in again.

  Don’t touch ‘em with your skin, Sesh. Tip the two out, it doesn’t matter which. They’ll adhere flat to the hip-belt until you hand them over.

  Magnificent, Sesha felt much better about this whole separation thing now. Extra equipment on her, Sesha emerged slowly, exhausted, from the ship.

  Nicodemus forged forward and scooped the woman into his arms as the crowd whooped. Everyone hurried back to the dining hall. There the woman was plied with teas and hot soup they had cooking since she left three hours ago.

  “Florence, Beulah… come here please, I need you,” which was an understatement. They were already scurrying to her, concerned with the new blood on her suit. Sesha stayed their efforts to treat her.

  “I have something I want to do for the two of you… would you like to still see each other, talk as you do, reminisce and more?”

  “Yes,” both nodded as Florence spoke. “but how?”

  “A Wrist Gem for both of you with the Realistic program added. See these black strips on my belt? Each of you pull one off,” Not letting them question or stall for moral reasons of right or wrong, Sesha twisted so that they had to, to let her ease off the painful posture. “Those are now your computers. Put them on your arms, either one, but that will be the one it stays on.”

  A moment was used to look at each other, then they did it, both shuddering from the sting. With minds not as advanced nor properly prepared, this hurt a little. While they leaned against each other, panting, Sesha pulled out the pens and first injected Beulah’s temple, then Florence’s. She put the pens in their breast pockets.

  “Don’t lose those. I just put the module into your heads, it will record everything about you in the time I’m gone. Then I’ll take them out and insert them into your bands.”

  “’This will give us what you have?”

  “Yes, but without dying,” Shni’s voice was a bit sarcastic. “And if Sesh sets the computers too, they can update – that means get new information about you two – on a regular basis. Don’t ask how, they just can even as far away as you’ll be. And are you going to leave them just like that?”

  At that, the women paused to think.

  “I like the pattern you had, Sesha, except I would have a fire opal as the stone,” Florence said.

  “I want the same. That way we think of each other often, Auntie.”

  “Are there any of those stones around?”

  “In the Church,” they chorused.

  “After I leave go there. Touch the band to that stone and think ‘replicate.’ Got that? ‘Re-pli-cate.” Then think of my pattern,” Sesha willed her bracelet back to its band state and laid it on top of Beulah's, then put Florence’s on top. “Hold still a couple minutes,” closing her eyes, Sesha told her computer what to send and it did. “Now you have my pattern and a lot of other knowledge in your computers. Be sure to put your bracelet in seawater at least once a week to keep it strong and it will last as long as you do.”

  “What will become of it when I die?”
Florence asked.

  “If it stays on your arm, meaning no one cuts your hand off to take it, it will go back to the black band. If you’re cremated, it will burn up, if you’re buried, it will burn up,” she smiled at the looks the two gave her. “But if anyone takes it off you, while you’re alive, you’ll have 30 seconds to do nothing or yell a certain word, which the computer will keep in your mind. If you don’t, it will burn with a heat so intense the burglar will burn up too.”

  “But we can take it off safely,” Florence had to affirm that.

  “Yep,” the door opened and the boys came in, dragging something huge with them, “but don’t share it. If you take it off, Florence, do so because you want to, but not for long as it will degrade. If left off for 7 days it will be down by one-fourth, a month, it will destroy itself, thinking you dead.” Florence just nodded at the answer as Benjamin and Ezra approached.

  “We have the barrel ready. There was only one empty one. Will that do?” the boys rolled the empty thing to her.

  “Rellaq, God of mountains that’s pretty big! It’ll do, but all that stuff in the water is going to cause clogs. It did on my shuttle so I drained the whole thing, I’ll need to refill that tank too. Is there,” she was stopped as the boys both started squirming, working at the back of their pants and shirts. “Uh, boys? Mommas, is something wrong?”

  “Naw. It’s just the best place to keep these,” and they held out what appeared, then unrolled it.

  “A… screen?”

  “We call it a mesh, a strainer,” Rachel came over and smiled. “A few of us women helped the blacksmiths figure out how to spin fine metal strands – well, fine for us – and we wove them. It’s used for a number of things here, like some food preparations. An’ it will work well to strain the seawater! From one bucket to another, then into the barrel. Will that work?”

  “Oh yes, very well. This will allow a little more water. It’ll have to do for amount, though. If it wakes up the crew then they can help get enough to get the ship home.”