Solar Twins

by Jason F Crockett

  CHAPTER TEN:

  Windfall

  Franklin panned the camera across the large bay that spread out in front of him. His massive hands dwarfed the vid-cam. The sun was rising behind him and there were still patches of fog here and there on the cool surface of the bay. The water seemed greener than it ought to have been. It was probably due to the much yellower and redder color of the sun.

  It had taken them longer to cross at the delta of the river than they had expected. It was wider than they had thought. No trees grew close to the water there, just small bushes and stubs of growth that at some point in time had been out of the water, but now were all but buried in the ocean. Franklin stood on a bluff about five meters above water level. He finished his commentary as the extreme North end of the bay passed out of the viewfinder and focused briefly on his team sitting in the All-Terrain-Rover waiting for him before switching it off. They were a haggard-looking bunch, none of whom had slept very well the night before. They were used to sleeping in the shuttle in deep space. The shuttle carried its own noises, steps, creaks, mechanical hums, and beeps, but they were used to those noises. Sleeping outdoors in a flimsy tent on a new planet with the sound of waves lapping, chirps, growls, and far-away screeches was an experience that would take time getting used to.

  “Come on, Franklin,” Nicole whined. “I really want to be back at the shuttle by tonight. Surely you can do all your documentation as we drive.”

  “It’s just too bouncy Nicole. Anybody who tries to watch the video of this while we are driving will get motion sickness even though they’re sitting still. I think I do have enough of this area for now though. What do you guys think of it here?”

  Elton quickly spoke up as Franklin climbed into the back of the A.T.R. “There is quite a bit of space now between the coast and the bog. I think that we should plant our beacon on the North side of the bay. That will be totally north of the bog and we would have plenty of room for expansion for our farms and livestock, but also a perfect area for fishing and sea transportation.”

  “I tend to agree with you, Elton,” Opie said. “The main problem with being on the North side of the bay is that the Outpost is South of us and we want ease of transportation between us and them. Regardless, it’s not up to us. Let’s plant the beacon a little further North as you said, and we’ll let the captain decide.

  Ten ticks later brought them around the Northern tip of the bay. Elton drove to within a stone’s throw of the water’s edge before sliding to a halt. “Everybody out and let’s do this one more time.” They all piled out quickly. They all wanted to be back with the main group of guys back at the Windfall by nightfall.

  Opie strode around with his laser pistol in his hand, the capacitors fully charged. Franklin stood on top of the vehicle quietly documenting the view. Elton took some samples of the local plant life. Many of the trees were not quite conifers but seemed to have a much smaller and thicker feel than most earthen broad-leafed trees. They were not too thickly grown either, which he found very odd since there shouldn’t have been anything or anybody around to thin them out. He moved away from the trees and began to make his way down to the water’s edge when Nicole who was already standing in the water gave an exclamation.

  “What, Nicole? What’s going on?”

  “It’s fresh water,” she exclaimed. “When we crossed the river delta and tested the water it was fresh too, but I thought that was because the river was pushing the salt water out seawards. That’s not the case though. This is drinkable and there is no influence from a fresh water source. This is definitely a good place to set up. This will change the whole ecology that we were expecting to see. I can’t wait to get all my lab stuff set up. This will be great.”

  “Wow, this is great,” Elton agreed, as he waded into the water, boots and all. Just think of the plant life that we’ll find.”

  He would have dived in had Opie not called. “Elton, give me a hand with this beacon, will you? I want to tie it to this tree here before we head out. Nicole, I can’t protect you in there, too. Come out of the water until we know better what’s in it.”

  Elton shrugged and waded out of the water. He was a people pleaser and didn’t seem to care that his herbology study was cut short to help Opie. He passed back in front of the vehicle as he headed towards Opie.

  “Franklin, I can’t believe you’re up on the roof again. We’ll never get those dents out this time.”

  Franklin took his eyes away from the viewfinder long enough to look at the indention that his feet were making in the roof of the A.T.R. He was a big man, and it definitely looked like they would have a tough time getting it back into shape. “Not to worry. We’ll probably be dismantling this before too long. We don’t have enough fuel to drive it around too long. It’s not an HHO engine like some of the others.”

  “You know, Opie, if you would take your hand off that laser pistol, you would be able to do this yourself.”

  “Do you have a problem helping out?” Opie asked.

  “No, just making an observation. Now, what do you need me to do?”

  Ten ticks later, the beacon was securely tied to the only tree out in the open. The beacon had a solar pack on the top of it and would stay charged for a long time without maintenance. Not only did it send out an RF signal, but a bright yellow light blinked off and on as well.

  I can’t imagine we’ll find a better location than this.” Opie said.

  “Yes, it’s definitely better than the other two locations,” Elton agreed.

  They made their way together back to the vehicle. “Let’s go, guys,” Opie called out. “If we head back now we may be there by mid-afternoon. We can give our reports and relax a bit before nightfall. What do you say?”

  Franklin hopped off the roof. “Let’s go, I’m ready.”

  Nicole hopped in. “Let’s go, I feel like I’ve been rolling around in a pig pen.”

  Opie wrinkled his nose, “You smell like it too,” he smiled to take the bite out of his words.

  Nicole slapped him on the back of the head. “At least I have an excuse, what’s yours?”

  Elton and Franklin laughed. “You deserved that Opie.”

  Opie laughed too as he absently rubbed the back of his head. It would be good to get back to the rest of the crew, to say nothing of Beth Ann.

  The rest of the return trip went quite well. After the first few ticks of banter, they settled into a quiet watchfulness. There wasn’t a road or smooth path for them to use so Opie drove slowly and picked his way around some of the larger obstacles. Even so, they did a lot of bouncing around and the ride was exhausting. Twice while trying to angle back to the South, they ran into the edge of the bog and quickly turned back to firm ground. The line of trees they had seen at the beach angled northeast from there and was soon not much more than a dark line on the Northern horizon. There were still a lot of shrubs and small trees dotting the landscape adding texture to the rest of the green, brown, and yellow Kunai grass that waved softly in the gentle offshore breeze. Once they startled a herd of something like cows or oxen, but they disappeared so quickly into the long grass that no one could tell what they were or even if they were the same as any of the animals they were familiar with back on earth.

  After the second time running into the bog, they decided to head all the way to the foothills before heading south. Somewhere around noon, they stopped on top of a hill that was the first of many each rising higher, in turn, heading east into the mountains.

  Elton sat with his back to a wheel of the A.T.R. Most of the muck from their accidental excursion into the marshy areas had long since dried up and he kicked them easily to the ground before getting comfortable. “Nicole, did you ever think you’d be somewhere like this doing what we’re doing?” he asked.

  Nicole had picked a smooth rock outcropping to sit on and she had her back to him looking out across the marshy plain. She didn’t answer right away but took in the awesome panorama stretching out in front of her. To her right, sh
e could see that the trees thickened into a forest, dark green and unknown. She could see the bay straight in front of her across the plain. To her left beyond a few more fingers of land protruding from the foothills as if they were trying to hold onto the land that was being sucked into the marsh, she could just make out the miniature tent city that had been set up. Out in the middle of the muck sat the shuttle looking lost and miserable and half buried. “Actually, I did. I thought I was signing up for the adventure of a lifetime. What I didn’t plan on,” she said, tempering her voice with anger so she wouldn’t cry too, “was getting stuck on this adventure for the rest of eternity.” She waved at the shuttle with her fork as she swallowed a chunk of something resembling beef. “That…We’re never going to dig the shuttle out of there. I tested some other frequencies on our radio too, and they are still broadcasting. So, something happened to either the Outpost or the COMET and we just don’t know what. If it’s the COMET, then we are screwed big time. We are essentially all but thrown back to mid-evil times as soon as our supplies run out. We’ve got about a year’s supply of food if you consider stuff like this Faux-steak food. But, how much fuel do we have for our vehicles?” She wasn’t really looking for an answer, but Franklin turned off the camera and answered.

  “We have a few vehicles that run on solar or HHO. Some of my farming equipment runs on HHO. Hopefully, we’ll be able to send back for a supply run if something did happen to COMET.” He got quieter as he continued. The enormity of that “if” statement stood out to all of them. What IF something had happened to the COMET?

  “Even if something did happen to the COMET, between Outpost and Windfall we have hundreds of years of experience in most areas of technology.” Opie almost looked hopeful as he spoke. “Besides, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know that anything happened to it. Come on, let’s go. We can talk while we ride and with the camp so close, I’d hate to get stuck out here for one more night.”

  They packed up their eats and climbed back into the vehicle. “Are you still O.K. driving, Opie?” Elton asked.

  “Yes, I walked around during our break so I’m good to go.”

  They had talked longer than they had intended to and although they didn’t get stuck in any more muck, it was almost suppertime before they were pulling into camp. As the temporary tent city had sprung up they did not have the use of vehicles in mind. So, after trying unsuccessfully to find a way in, in the vehicle, Opie parked the A.T.R. next to a few other vehicles and they walked in on foot.

  “Hey, Fabian.” Opie hollered seeing the builder by his tent. “We just got back in and need to talk to the captain and find our tents. Could you give us a hand?”

  “Sure! Hey, good to see you guys back safe. The captain’s not doing too well, but he’ll want to see you. Hold on a sec.” He disappeared into the tent and popped out a second later with a small backpack over one shoulder. “I like to be prepared,” he temporalized to no one in particular. “O.K., follow me, guys.”

  “What’s wrong with the captain?” Nicole asked. “Is this why no one has been returning our calls on the radio?”

  “Well, I don’t know anything about your radios. That is a possibility though. The captain was in the upper levels of the shuttle in the corridor when the ground finally gave away under the front of the shuttle. The captain went for quite a tumble down the length of the corridor and broke a few ribs. Caleb, Ram, and a couple of the other guys managed to get him out, but he’s in pain and on meds. He’ll be fine; he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “So, the shuttle sunk then? Opie asked.

  “It’s about half in and half out right now. The lower doors are underground. All we have access to now are some smaller maintenance hatches.”

  “Oh, no!” Franklin exclaimed. “What about the large farm equipment? Did you guys get any of that off?”

  “We did get some of the large equipment out. There is a large dozer they use for terra farming and a couple of other items that I’m not even sure what they are. People were our priority. As it was, we almost didn’t make it. There are also a few vehicles that sank on the way here from the shuttle. We may be able to get those out later.”

  Franklin groaned audibly at the news, his pale and freckly face turned red and patchy as he struggled with the idea that his job of farming in an air-conditioned, programmable tractor just got a hundred times more difficult.

  “Here’s the captain’s tent,” began Fabian. “Let me see. Where’s…hey, doc! Is the captain accepting visitors?” He spoke loudly in case the captain was listening. If it were up to the doc, the captain would not have visitors for a week.

  Dr. Samuel Denton was, for the most part, the dream doctor as far as bedside manner was concerned. Unfortunately, for anyone who the doc thought would get in the way of his patients’ health, his manner was quite different when protecting the health of his patient.

  Dr. Denton hurried his short legs over to Fabian. “Quiet, man, or you’ll wake him up!” he said quietly.

  Fabian continued on in the same loud voice. “Doc, these folks are from the survey team that went out. The captain will want to see them if he’s awake.”

  The doctor tried to lead him away from the tent, but Fabian just continued to talk loudly. “They have some news that Captain Gaston Pomme will want to hear. I’m sure you’d be interested in it too, Doc.”

  Dr. Denton gave a huff and rolled his eyes as Captain Gaston raised his voice from inside the tent. “Samuel? Samuel, if that’s my survey team, I’d be grateful if you bring them in.”

  He scuttled in only to come back out moments later. “O.K.,” he said, standing in front of the entrance. “I’ll let you in, but it won’t be a long visit and you’re not to get him too excited. Do you understand?” He looked at each of them in turn until he was satisfied that they would listen to him when it was time for them to leave before he held the tent flap open for them as they entered.

  Captain Pomme was lying on a half-reclined lawn chair and watched with tired, but satisfied eyes as they filed in. “Welcome back people. How was your trip?”

  Nicole sized him up with concern in her eyes. He was still quite pale and had a wrap around his chest with no shirt on. He was obviously still in pain when he tried to move or take a deep breath, so he avoided that whenever possible.

  “Our trip went fine,” Opie said. “It wasn’t without its share of difficulties, but it went well. The marsh is much larger than we anticipated, but I don’t think that will be a problem.”

  “We found several possible locations and there are beacons at each place,” Elton joined in sitting casually on the corner of a box to the right of the captain. “But, we know which place is the best.” He grinned as he spoke, and the others smiled too. Their excitement was palpable.

  “I took some vids. Do you want to see?” Franklin asked.

  “I want to, but the good doc will rush you out before it’s even set up. I trust you all. Especially if you are all in agreement?”

  “We are.” They practically spoke as one.

  “O.K. then, we’ll plan a meeting for tomorrow and begin to organize the transfer over there. The sooner we are in a permanent set up, the better. Opie, you see that the meeting time gets disseminated. Let’s plan on four hours after sunrise. We don’t have a better way to tell local time yet.”

  “Who am I to ask to come to this?” Opie asked.

  “Well, the camp isn’t set up like we had originally intended, is it?”

  Fabian spoke up. “We tried to keep the sectors grouped as we had previously decided, but we only half succeeded. I do have the list of the sector leaders though, and they know who was supposed to be in their sectors.”

  “If I can get the list of sector leaders from you, Fabian, we can have our meeting with them and they can meet with their sector members regardless of where they are to disseminate the information.” Opie looked expectantly at the captain, “How does that sound?”

  “That sounds like
a plan.” His smile turned to a grimace as he adjusted himself in his chair. “Let’s plan on meetings and preparation tomorrow and we can be on our way by the day after tomorrow.”

  Dr. Denton came in as he finished. He waved his glasses at them. “It sounds like you have enough of a plan now. Shoo all of you and let the captain rest. It sounds like it will be all I can do to keep him from injuring himself more, so he needs all the rest he can get while we are not traveling. Go on now.”

  They hurried for the tent flap. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Captain.”

  Nicole wasted no time after leaving the tent but focused right in on Fabian. “Fabian, if you will show me where I can bathe, eat, and sleep, I’ll trouble you no further.”

  “We’ve been waiting for this for too long,” Elton grinned. Everyone but Nicole laughed.

  “O.K. folks. Follow me. I’ll give you the short tour.” Fabian said.

  “Thanks.”

  Three days later the first group of settlers arrived on the beaches of Windfall Bay. Opie led the small convoy of vehicles further west than the survey team had traveled. They stopped at the foot of a small line of hills that rose 20 meters above sea level and formed a breakwater to the main body of water.

  “Fabian, for now, let’s leave the trees intact in the immediate vicinity as much as is possible. We’ll just intersperse the tents among the trees.”

  Fabian stretched and looked around. “That’s fine, we need to focus on sanitation first anyways. This looks like a great spot, the hills protect us from the ocean side, the trees from the North, and the bay to the South.”

  “Yes,” Opie agreed. “We’ll bring in each sector and set them up from here to as far as we need to, to the East. It will take a lot of runs, but it’s almost nice to have some folks that will be more settled in to help the others. What’s the plan for permanent housing?”

  “I’ll have to see what equipment I still have available to me,” Fabian said. “I still don’t know what all we will still be able to get off the shuttle. There is quite a bit of equipment that we have been counting on that is still on the shuttle.”