“He hasn’t been there in a year, maybe two.” Pete shook his head.
“The Muncy place?” Jennifer and Brittany asked with almost perfect timing.
“That’s the old name,” Grant explained. “Fifteen thousand acres of prime grazing land that was bought up by some LA real-estate tycoon about ten years back. He put in a paved landing strip for his jet, so he and his buddies could get in there and hunt. He’s fenced the whole area in and brought in buffalo and small herds of African plains animals.”
“Trophy hunting by fence line.” Pete snorted in laughter. “They probably had to remove the ear tags before taking a picture of what they’d shot.”
“I know the type,” Tom added. “That’s not hunting.”
Brittany rapped her knuckles on the table. “Excuse me.” Britt glared at him long enough that he actually felt a little guilty. His wife’s attention swung back to the younger of the Ballards. “Does he have jet fuel there or not?”
Grant nodded. “Yeah, he’s got a big fuel tank, next to the hangar he built. He used to have a caretaker and a couple of hands maintaining the ranch. I have no idea what or who is there now.”
“How far is it?” He joined the conversation.
“About fifty miles west of her. The ranch straddles the state line.” Grant’s finger pointed at the map. “Have to figure out a way to get across. The Feds have the National Guard watching all the border crossings. We have to do it with a tank truck, so going very far off-road wouldn’t work. Then we’d have to get back with it loaded. Definitely have to stay on the road for that.”
“You’re talking about my water truck? Aren’t you?” Pete almost shouted.
“Our water truck,” Grant replied. “You have a better idea?”
Pete just stared at the map as he shook his head in disgust. “That’s real dry country out that way. They’ll likely have a truck or three they use on the property for getting water out to the zoo animals. Far as I know, giraffes and zebra need just as much water as cattle.”
The older Ballard looked around the table at the faces staring back at him.
“What? You’re planning on stealing the asshole’s fuel. Why not one of his trucks?”
“That would make getting there easier,” Grant agreed, giving his dad a look of appreciation. Tom thought there might have been some surprise mixed in as well. “You could just hike the old wagon trail, move at night.”
“OK,” Brittany said, “what about the return trip?”
Grant covered his grin with a hand. “I may know some people who could help with that.”
Pete glared at his son. “You said you were through with all that. Those two hillbilly idiots are going to get you killed.”
“Those idiots saved my life, Pops.”
“I’m sorry,” Britt broke in, glancing at him. Tom thought she may have given him a slight nod of approval, before she turned back to Pete. “If we had an option, Pete, we wouldn’t have involved any of you.”
Pete just glared at his son, before turning back to Britt. “That will mean so much when I have to explain to his mother why our son has been shipped off to New Mexico. That’s if he doesn’t get himself killed.”
“It’s bigger than me, Dad . . . or you.” Grant pointed at Sir Geoff, who had remained quiet at the far end of the table. “The Feds wouldn’t be hunting them if it wasn’t.”
“Don’t tell me you all believe that crazy shit from the video. It’s nuts.” Pete’s eyes took them all in. “You’re all nuts.”
“It’s all true,” Sir Geoff said quietly in response.
“Mister!” Pete yelled, “I don’t give a good goddamn what you think is true or not. What’s true . . . is that even if you can gas up that bird and get out of here, we are going to be stuck with a lot of questions that we won’t have any answers for.”
“I realize that, Mr. Ballard.” Tom was glad to see the old man was wearing his magnanimous face; he was selling.
“Do you know what happens when the ISS doesn’t get the answers they want?”
“I believe I do.” Sir Geoff nodded sagely from his seat. “Which is why you and yours should come with us.”
Tom glanced at his wife, and saw no surprise on her face or anger at Sir Geoff’s suggestion. They’d all been thinking the same thing, he realized. He nudged Rich sitting next to him. “Can the Osprey handle that?”
“How many people we talking about?” Rich asked the younger Ballard.
“You’re serious?” Grant was pulling on an ear.
“We are.” Britt threw a glance down the table at Sir Geoff. Tom thought she may have been pissed that Sir Geoff had made the offer without consulting her, but she was in agreement.
“My parents,” Grant said with a nod in his father’s direction. “My wife”—Grant glanced at the clock on the wall of his kitchen—“who is going to be home in about an hour, and our son, Caleb. He’s a year or so older than your twins. The two idiots I mentioned earlier, Danny and Josh, the ones who would be willing to help us get across the state line. They’d probably jump at a chance to go.”
“By all means.” Pete shook his head with a malicious grin. “You be sure to take those two jackasses! There’s not a plan in the world those two muscle-bound morons couldn’t screw up. Take them, please! That’s a plan I can get behind. But I’m staying right here. This shit will blow over.”
“You can’t really believe that, Mr. Ballard.” Denise spoke up from a bar stool behind Sir Geoff. “I’m about to have a baby. If I thought there was a better life to be had here, I’d be staying.”
Pete nodded at her. “Ma’am, with respect; I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to do. Don’t ask me to.”
“We won’t, Mr. Ballard.” Britt smiled at him. “We’ve asked too much already.”
“Damn straight you have.” Pete pulled his ball cap down lower on his head. “If you’ll excuse me.” Pete was halfway across the kitchen on his way to the door when his son called out.
“Talk to Mom; she’ll know what to do.”
The door slammed with enough force that dishes in the cupboard rattled.
“He’ll be alright. He just needs some time to get his head around a new idea. My mom has seen your video. She’ll straighten him out.”
Grant’s wife, Beth, was more than a little surprised to see the gathering at her kitchen table when she walked in the door, carrying a bag of groceries and leading a ten-year-old boy with dark hair who peeked around his mother’s legs at the strange crowd.
“Beth, Caleb.” Grant waved his family in. “There’s some people you need to meet.”
Three hours later, by the time it was dark, the quiet of the ranch was shattered by the sound of motorcycles screaming down the country road. They all looked up from their discussions over an after-dinner coffee as the motorcycles came into the yard, sounding like they were up against the house.
“That would be Danny and Josh.” Grant grinned.
“You sure about this?” Beth asked her husband who had called them on the radio an hour or so earlier.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure.”
“Frick and Frack . . .” Beth muttered.
“What’s with them?” Brittany asked Beth. “Your father in-law wasn’t exactly a fan.”
“That’s an understatement.” Beth nodded. “They’re an acquired taste. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that option. I have to love them; they’re my brothers.”
“They’re solid,” Grant said as he got up from the table to go to the door. “Probably just wondering who you all are.”
“They know we’re here?”
“Miss Brittany,” Grant called over his shoulder, “they’ve probably been watching us through the windows with a rifle scope for a good bit. They’ve got their reasons for being a little skittish.”
“You bet your ass we do,” a voice rumbled from the hallway behind them. “Sorry, Sis, your bedroom window was open.”
“Daniel Carlisle, if you got mud on my bed, I’m
going to beat your ass.”
Tom watched as the stranger visibly relaxed after being threatened by his sister. He slowly let his hand move away from his gun, and put it back on the tabletop where it had been a second before he’d seen a shadow move in the hallway. He gripped his mug of coffee and took a relaxed sip. He saw the new arrival’s face relax a little more as he walked casually around the table towards him.
The newcomer slapped a meaty palm on his shoulder as he walked past, and smiled down at him with laughing eyes. “You might have been quick enough, soldier boy.”
“Danny!” Beth yelled. “These are our guests!”
Danny, in his early thirties, was a little less than six feet tall, and built like a fullback. He sported a silver belt buckle the size of a cantaloupe, muddied cowboy boots, and a pearl-buttoned plaid shirt. The pale skin on his arms and face was sunburned. Bright blue eyes, beneath a thick mop of dark hair, took all of them in as he bowed his head in a friendly if confused gesture. Tom thought he looked a lot like the cowboys he’d grown up around.
“Well, I can see that now. My apologies to you all.”
“You good?” a voice shouted from the yard.
“We’re good,” Grant yelled out the door. “Get in here.”
A few seconds later, another Danny walked through the door, except this one looked a few years younger, and he had hair the color of sand.
“Hey, you know, there’s a set of twins out here, young kids. The bad guys wouldn’t be bringing their kids along to arrest us.”
“Josh, get in here,” Beth yelled at him.
Tom shared a look of relief with Britt; the twins, Matt and Craig, had been outside playing with the Ballard boy, Caleb, since they’d finished eating. Tom noted the 1911 tucked behind Danny’s belt at the small of his back, and he knew he would have been quick enough.
Danny walked slowly past them until he came to a stop, staring down at Sir Geoff.
Grant, with Josh in tow, came back in and snapped his fingers in front of Danny’s face.
“Guys, I’d like you to meet Sir Geoffrey Carlisle. You’ll remember him from that video that came out of Colorado.” The two newcomers stood staring down at Sir Geoff before Danny turned and squinted at his brother in-law.
“What’s going on, Grant?”
“Yeah,” Josh said, “you been holding out on us?”
*
Eden
“Thank you for coming to speak with us.” Jomra had the serious, “official” look on his face that Kyle had come to recognize. The Jema were generally very laid-back as individuals. As a people, though, particularly when on clan business, they could be quite rigid and steeped in formality. He wondered how much of that was original Jema culture, and how much was the behavior they’d learned as they’d struggled to survive under the Kaerin on Chandra. Regardless of the answer to that question, Jomra had called them here on clan business, and it showed on his face; all of their faces, as he realized Audy and Kemi, flanking Jomra, shared his somber visage.
“The pleasure is ours,” he said as he pulled a chair out for Elisabeth. Hank, Dr. Jensen, and Jake were already seated in the small conference room. The community center facility they were in was one of the very few completed buildings in Adrena. Jema had settled everywhere, but if they had a cultural capital on Eden, this was it. It was where Jomra called home, and the settlement held maybe a third of the Jema.
“My brother, Paul,” Elisabeth said as soon as she was seated, “sends his regrets. Unfortunately, he is still recovering, and travel is difficult for him.”
“I had the honor to speak to him a day ago.” Jomra smiled. “It was his idea that we meet here, privately. I understood that he trusts you all to carry his writ.”
“He does,” Hank answered. “Up to a point, we have his blessing to make decisions outside of our own council.” Hank waved an arm slowly down the Terran side of the table. “Paul has asked me to convey his personal support for your proposed endeavor, but he fears bringing the issue to our people would result in turmoil. He cannot officially support this expedition, but he will not discourage any volunteers, Jema or Terran, who wish to take part.”
Jomra nodded. “He told me this as well. Can we use your portal or not?”
“Jomra.” Hank sat forward, resting his elbows on the table, and leaned his head in Doc Jensen’s direction. “David and his technical team have an approved mission to go to Chandra to collect the information we will need to be able to bring you back from Chandra. You understand the measurements he and his team must make on Chandra itself?”
“I understand the need for them, yes.” Jomra offered a grin. “I think I am not alone in saying that I do not understand anything about how the portals work.”
“No, we are all in that same boat,” Hank said, and then smiled at Doc Jensen seated next to him. “With exceptions, of course.”
Elisabeth took over from Hank. “The point is, the story must be, has to be . . . that we are sending a security team to protect David’s technical team. But in reality, we’ll be sending him and a small team to a remote island that we have to pray is uninhabited. We will send the Jema expeditionary force where you think you have the best chance of success, without getting everyone killed.”
“That last part,” Jake added, “that’s the important part.” Jake nodded toward him and Hank. “I know we’ve already discussed where we think you should go, I’d like to personally and formally suggest some remote place in the highlands of Scotland, maybe one of the islands off its west coast.”
Elisabeth turned her head to shoot daggers at Jake. “As I was saying, the important part is that as far as anyone else knows, you’ll be going to the same location as Dr. Jensen. We aren’t happy with having to hide the truth from our people, but we’ve weighed this against Jema insistence that you will go with or without our support. We believe this plan gives you the best chance of success.”
“We understand,” Audy said. “We can appreciate the desires of your people to live in peace.”
“We all wish that,” Jomra intoned, “but trust us, there will be no peace, no safety until the Kaerin threat is dealt with. Is it not better to have that battle on a field far away from your people?”
“You’re correct, Jomra.” Kyle had hoped to stay out of this conversation and let Hank and Elisabeth lay out Eden policy. “But the battle you may find yourselves in will be far away from the support and the supplies that allowed us to win last time. We will be out of communication for some time.”
“We understand.” Jomra nodded. “Our forces will be led by one who understands caution and patience. I do not believe he will take unnecessary risks.”
“We’re talking about Audy, right?” Jake was grinning as he pointed at Audy across the table from him.
“Jomra’s desire for caution has been made clear to Audrin’ochal,” Kemi pointed out.
“Very clear,” Audy agreed.
“Timing?” Hank’s hands opened up in question as he looked over at Jensen. Kyle hated that there were so many moving parts to this, and in the end, it was all going to hinge on whether Dr. David Jensen could get the technical data he needed to be able to get back anyone they sent to Chandra.
“Sending you is not an issue. We could do that now.” Jensen rubbed at his face. “We need the phone booth portal from Earth to bring you back or establish communication with you. Without it, it’ll be months before I could construct another unit here.”
“And if we are able to retrieve it?” Nothing scared Kyle so much as the idea of going back to Earth and being stuck there. “How long before we can bring them back?”
“A week or so on earth, to ensure it’s checked out thoroughly. Then my technical team can go to Chandra with it, someplace remote, and within two weeks, we’ll have the data we need. We are thinking of Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific for our team. It’s a long way from anywhere. Hopefully, it will be uninhabited.”
“South Pacific?” Jake looked at Audy and pointed at the
Jensen. “Even better. We should just go with him.”
Doc Jensen ignored the outburst with nothing more than an annoyed shuttering of his eyes. “Once we have the data we need from Chandra, we’ll come back here and prepare to reinsert to wherever Audy and his people have gone. We should be in a position to bring them back, or start shuttling them back . . .” Jensen shook his head and looked around at everyone at the table.
“The phone booth is not designed for heavy use, nor is it very large. Eventually, we will have to construct a real, genuine portal there. But only after you’ve found someplace secure for us to work in peace. We’ve already started punching out the components for that permanent unit, but again, it’s not something that can be built and thrown together over the course of a few days, or weeks for that matter.”
“What’s the timeline, Doc?” he asked.
Jensen rubbed at his nose and looked apologetically at Jomra and Audy. “I guess what I’m trying to get at is that your people going to Chandra are going to be completely cut off for at least a month, and for another six months after that, limited to sending perhaps ten people back once every ten days or so. And that”—Jensen shook his head— “is if the phone booth is in working order and stays in working order.”
“What are the odds on that?” Kyle asked, not daring enough to turn his head and look at Elisabeth. He’d already told her that he was planning on going back to Earth with Jensen to retrieve the phone booth.
“Barring any damage to the machine, very good, actually. It’s just a matter of powering the capacitors.”
“The team we send to get the phone booth, on Earth, will have to wait for the charge to build before they can use it?”
“That’s correct.” Doc Jensen smiled at him. “I’ll be going on that trip, so you can be assured it will happen as quickly as possible.”
“Why can your portal not send people back?” Jomra asked. “The Kaerin portals allow for this.”
New Shores: The Eden Chronicles - Book Three Page 8
