Bootstrap Colony (22 page)

“Vance here is in charge of
general construction, following the blueprints in the computers. Right now he
is focusing on the perimeter wall.” Vance nodded and gave a thumbs up.

“This year we will focus on
expanding, growing more food, expanding the herds, mining, and mapping.” Mitch
waved a hand to Brian. “Brian and I have begun setting up our factories and
machine shops, and even started expanding them.” There were a few people who
murmured at this.

“It is slow going though, and we
are low on our stockpiles.” One girl got nervous. “Not food, no, we are a bit
low on
energy
, we are down to the hydrogen generators, the small and the
two giant wind turbines, and the hydro-electrics. The solar panels, and sodium
solar heater are all down, either covered in snow, or frozen,” he sighed in
annoyance. “Well, the two biggest wind turbines are not frozen...Yet.” He
paused as this sank in.

“The waterfalls have not
completely stopped, but they are carrying a lot of ice crystals, so they form
ice. Also the water flow is low, so we are at less than twenty percent with
them.” He shrugged. “Most of the lakes up North have frozen over. Water that
stands still tends to freeze,” he explained as he gave Brian a nod.

“We have enough energy for basics
that is why I am not pushing anything right now,” Mitch finished. Doc nodded.
“We have plenty of wood for the boilers and fireplaces as well.” More people
nodded. “I brought along a thermal exchange generator, heat water in a boiler
turned a steam turbine. It is inefficient though, and a last resort. I also set
up the hydrogen tanks, but they are half full. We can make biodiesel to fuel
the two small diesel generators, but I would prefer not to,” Mitch sighed.

“So what do we do?” one of the
huntresses asked.

He looked at her. “You are,
Phyllis?” he asked. She nodded. “What did you do before coming here?”

She smiled. “I hunted.”

“Okay, what about before?”

She shook her head. “I was an
army sergeant.”

“Okay sergeant, you and Brian are
in charge of security and hunting,” Mitch said. She nodded. Brian didn’t look
to happy at this.

Mitch ignored the distress and
pointed to the next girl. “What about you?”

She started, “Me?”

“Yes ma’am, what about you?”

She tried to stand but he waved
her down. “My name is Natalie, I was a secretary.”

“Okay, you can assist Janet. We
need someone who can set up our records,” he said. She nodded.

He pointed to another woman.
“You?”

“My name is Selma,” she said,
pointing to herself. In broken English she explained she was a seamstress in a
factory. He nodded when she finished.

“Okay, you are in charge of
clothes,” Mitch said. She nodded, smiling. “I have two textile looms; both of
them are power looms and are packed. We have a limited supply of wool, alpaca
fleece, leather, feathers, and cotton, and not much cotton from the hot house.”
He paused as a woman interrupted.

“Hot house?” she asked in
confusion.

He turned to a black woman and
cocked an eyebrow at her. “Yes and you are?”

“Hejira, I was a botany student,
I worked in greenhouses in Chicago,” she replied with dignity by way of
introduction. She wiped lint from her lap.

Mitch nodded. “All right, you’re
in charge of the greenhouses, and possibly the entire farming program.” She
looked alarmed. He waved the look off. “We have computers for support, and
plenty of people to draw off of.”

She still looked dubious. Jolene
piped up, “I am in charge of communications, and I get to run the radio station
with Pete,” she said with a grin. Pete smiled and nodded.

“You’re also our roving
reporter,” Mitch added, bowing slightly to the young woman.

“I am a pilot,” an Australian
woman piped up.

Mitch looked at her. “Fixed wing
or helicopter?”

She smiled, “Anything that can
fly.”

He nodded. “Okay, you’re our
pilot. Once Doc gives you a clean bill of health you can check the plane and
helicopters out.”

Her smile turned into a grin.
“When I get well you’re going to get your brains screwed out of you.” One of
the other girls agreed.

He blushed. “No need,” he
mumbled, squirming. She looked to him, giving him a catty look. Vanessa glared.
He turned to Doc. “Help help?” he said weakly, getting a laugh from everyone.

“You’re on your own bud; I think
there is a long line though. I might be in it too,” doc murmured wickedly. He
shook his head, cheeks flaming as the women tittered again.

“Can we still hunt?” Vanessa
asked.

He looked at her. “Can you handle
a bow or rifle?”

“Yes, I used to hunt and fish
with my dad.”

Mitch nodded thoughtfully. He was
secretly glad the women were responding so well. “Okay, you can be a games
woman then,” he said appointing her to her new position with a nod. She nodded
in return.

She poked the girl next to her.
“This is Lisa; she helped out her dad in the garage,” she said. Mitch nodded,

“Lisa?” She looked up slowly. “Do
you want to be in charge of the motor pool? We have a machine shop.” She ducked
her head and nodded quietly.

“She was raped when we first got
here,” Doc murmured in his ear.

“Rape trauma,” he muttered
darkly. He nodded quietly and sighed. “Okay we are going to need trauma
counseling,” he responded quietly to Doc and then sighed.

Maggie asked how much fuel they
had. He nodded to her. “When we crossed over I brought a bunch of gear. I set
up the basics of the chemical plant early on; if you go to the South wing you
can smell some of it.” A few muttered at this. “We filled a couple giant
basement caverns with biodiesel, methane, and liquid hydrogen tanks. We have
enough for two more months at present power levels, and we can scavenge with
reduced levels for more if necessary. We have had three months of hard winter,
I suspect at least another one to two more if this is anything like Earth, or
as much as three months more. Piotr has been measuring our distance from the
sun,” he turned to the Russian.

Piotr stood. “Accor’di’ng to
calculations we are moving away from star.” He pointed. “I tink in elliptical
orbit? Da?” Henry and Mitch nodded. “Don’t mean we were at perigee close to
sun, hot then long apogee cool. Know more soon.” He used his hands to describe
the motion, and then sat with a nod.

“No one is stuck in one
profession, if you want to learn something else there are classes,” Mitch
announced and waved his hand to Kathy, who blushed. “Y’all know Kathy here.”
The new ladies looked over to her and then back and forth between him and her.
“She is teaching classes for general schooling, and on the job training for
other things right now. Doc here has two apprentices as well, though I expect
anyone who doesn’t know basic first aid to apply for a training course,” he
said. He gave the group the evil eye.

“We all divvy up the chores, and
those are rotated by Janet here,” he said after a moment.

Janet nodded. Smacking her hands
together she stood, “Speaking of which, we have some work to do. Wayne I
believe you have to check the chickens?” He groaned and nodded as he got up.
Billy and Miguel got up and said they were off to check the plumbing with
Henry.

“Cassie you have homework,” her
mom said. Vanessa smirked.

Mitch noted this and smiled.
“Sarge you think you could run a visual recognition class?”

Phyllis looked up and over to
him. “Sure but why?”

“Well we need to get Vanessa
tuned into better hunting skills since she will be going out soon.”

Vanessa smirk ended abruptly.
“You have a week or two before Doc clears you for light duty, but since you're
going to be sitting around bored, you might as well do it going over hunting
material, basic first aid, and help Janet and Mags out with the culling and
butchering,” Mitch said. Vanessa shrugged. Sarge looked thoughtful. After a
moment she nodded, hiding a small smile of approval.

“It is a whole lot better than
sitting around watching re-ran of Gilmore girls and Charmed,” Mitch growled. He
gave some of the resident women dirty looks. “Also, try to keep power use down
to a minimum.” He shrugged. “That goes for showers and general water use too.”

“We do have two cases of
toothpaste and general bathroom supplies in storage. Ration them carefully and
try to reuse what you can. Hopefully we will be able to produce more next
year.” He looked over to Anne who nodded.

“Unfortunately I could not get
any birth control pills, so we are SOL there, so be careful.” He shrugged.
“There are rubbers though, if you need one ask Doc.” He gave Brian a nod. “Both
parties better be consenting, and of age too,” Mitch growled. Brian and Dora
blushed, clearly embarrassed about being singled out.

The computer piped up, stating
that the snow had stopped. Mitch nodded. Sergeant Phyllis looked startled. He
shrugged. “Like I said, I plan ahead.” She nodded slowly. “Most of the robots
are offline and stored till spring.”

“What about that war robot?” she
asked.

“I have dozens of security robots
of various types and several UAV’s as well,” Mitch explained. The pilot perked
up at this news. “Give us a day or so and you can take one up to do an orbit
around the area,” Mitch said, shooting a glance her way. She nodded.

“Lisa? Do you want to help me
break out one of the UAV’s? Or have Brian show you around the machine shop?”
Mitch asked, turning to the taciturn girl. She looked to Vanessa who gave her
an encouraging look and then hugged her. Doc watched.

Dora piped up, “I want to help
Brian and Angie, and we need to finish setting up the lift in the garage
anyway.” Lisa looked relieved and pointed to Brian, Angie, and Dora.

Mitch nodded and slapped his
thighs. “Okay, let’s be about it.”

Three year old Mateo came in,
yawning and rubbing his eyes. His mother carried his baby brother while his six
year old sister followed in their wake. “Awake huh?” Mitch asked, smiling at
the little boy. Mateo nodded sleepily, caught sight of everyone and shyly hid
behind his mom. The women smiled softly. Phyllis snorted.

“Are you going to cook the beef
stew?” Little Ruby asked.

Mitch gave the girl a questioning
look. Then he caught on after a moment and heartily smacked to his forehead,
making her and the kids giggle. “I totally forgot! Okay, I will get it started
then while it is simmering check the UAV’s.” He got up to leave,

Janet piped up, “No more barbecue
sauce!” she growled. He grinned evilly but didn't respond.

“Barbecue sauce?” Vanessa asked,
wrinkling her nose. Mitch's grin widened. Cassie rolled her eyes.

“You cook?” Sergeant Phyllis
asked.

“Yeah, like he said, everyone
helps out, and chores are rotated.” Janet replied and then turned to his
retreating back radiating annoyance. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to
make that damn sauce?!” She waved her fist at him. He ducked laughing. She
threw her hands up in the air. He smiled at her and shrugged.

The radio squelch cut off a
retort. “Maggie?” Wayne asked over the radio net.

“Yes Wayne,” Mags sighed and
rolled her eyes, knowing what was probably coming.

“I got the eggs, checked on the
geese and turkeys, but they are sleeping. The cheetahs are pacing a lot. Horses
too.”

 “Cheetah?” Vanessa asked.

Natalie however had different
priorities. “Geese?”

“Goose meat, and feathers for
bedding and jackets,” Janet replied.

“Oh,” Natalie nodded. “But
cheetah?”

Mitch smiled. “And raccoons,
pigs, horses, rabbits, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, turkey, alpaca,
chinchilla, Fish, some dinosaurs, tauntauns, and others,” he said, listing the
animals. She goggled at him in shock.

“Crap! Maggie one of the raccoons
got out again!” They could hear sounds of Wayne chasing them at a frantic pace,
mute chittering of glee could also be heard in the background.

“Okay,” Maggie said, “I will be
there in a minute.” She pointed to a couple of the couple kids, “You kids up
for a coonie hunt?” They nodded. Doc, Cassie, and Dora turned and wheeled the
invalids back to the infirmary.

Phyllis reported a sighting on
the border a few weeks later. She was settling in well, now kicking herself for
not making the jump sooner. She took turns with the Aussie bush pilot, keeping
an eye on the UAV feed.

The long range UAV confirmed a
sighting, but the cloud cover and dense forest were too much for it to get an
accurate reading. Concerned it might be refugees, they took a hummer out just
as a storm front began to hit.

As they made their way to the
targets a shaggy brown furred lumbering creature came out of the snow fog. “It
is a mammoth,” Mitch murmured in awe as he brought the camera up. Another and
then another came past the truck. They could feel the low thrumming noises the
animals made. One turned and trumpeted toward a ridge. They turned to look in
the indicated direction and spotted a giant snow beast.

Easily two meters tall, it was
covered in shaggy white fur. It had six legs, and a flat face. Two horns jutted
out like devil’s horns, another larger set curved down to point outward on
either side of the head and beyond like tusks. The front torso was massive,
like a bull or gorilla.

It was the eyes that were the
scariest thing, the four red eyes that shined and almost glowed. The fur
rippled in the wind. It seemed to watch the herd, and then turned its attention
to the hummer. Phyllis’s frantic intake of breath was the only thing they could
hear for a moment. Then another blast from the mammoths.

Tiny ears on the behemoth mammals
were flapping in anger and distress; they turned their tusks to the foe. Their
trunks thrashed, trumpeting war cries. The predator seemed to watch them,
standing there like an alien version of a silver back gorilla. Two clouds of
air would jet from its nostrils, which twitched. Then in a sudden swirl of snow
it was gone.

Phyllis shuddered. “Can we go
home now?”

Vance mutely nodded. “Good idea.
I for one do not plan on leaving the base till we are knee deep in spring.” He
turned to Mitch. “Did you get it?”

Mitch nodded as he shut the
camera off. “And the mammoths. There were some four tuskers in there too,
possibly mastodons.”

“Where did they come from? We
haven’t seen them all year?”

Mitch shrugged. “Most likely they
were north. When it is hot out they probably stay in the northern reaches,
along the arctic line. But when it got cold, they probably head South,” he
hypothesized. The herd chuffed a bit in annoyance and then moved on South.

“Then again, some of them, like
that snow beast, might be on the mountains,” Phyllis added and then shuddered.
“God I hope not. I would
hate
to have met up with one of those things.”
They heard a wolf baying, then another and another.

“Time to get the hell out of dodge,”
Mitch said as Phyllis steered them for home.

A few days later the pilot
Jacklynn called him in, she had spotted suspicious activity a dozen kilometers
away. He met her in the control room and she pulled up a video feed from the
UAV. Anne came in, she squinted and didn’t see anything at first, but when the
pilot switched to thermal imaging they could see the thermal image of twelve to
sixteen people stumbling along in the snow.

Mitch punched a button alerting
Brian of incoming. Piotr came in shrugging on a parka. They quickly outlined
the situation on their way to the garage bay. Meeting Brian they each took a
vehicle.

“Are we sure dis is no another
false alarm?” Piotr asked. His English is improving, but it took a moment for
Mitch to digest that question.

“Jacklynn got in nice and tight
with the camera and IR, definitely human,” Mitch answered as he opened his
door.

Brian grunted. “Lucky we just
dozed around the garage door!”

Mitch smiled and flipped the
communications channel open. “We will keep an open channel. Tell Doc and Janet
to prep for incoming.”

Doc immediately came in over the
radio. “I have Cassie and Dora setting triage one up now with plenty of
blankets and thermal packs.”

“Roger Doc.”

An hour later Janet called, “We
have a storm front brewing.”

“Bush Amoy! DA! I know dis!”
Piotr answered sounding vexed. Mitch grimaced. They would have to make this
rescue quick. They pulled up on the ridge. Piotr asked why and Mitch pulled out
a pair of binoculars.

“Okay, got them,” Mitch said
after a moment. He passed the device to Piotr. The Russian looked.

“Hmm three to six kids, five no,
six men? Maybe two or three women?” They pulled forward, breaking trail ahead
of the other vehicles. The lead male spotted them and waved, another smacked
him on the arm.

They met a wary exhausted group a
minute later. They had furs covering their body for warmth, and primitive snow
shoes. Like Mitch and the other base males the refugee males all sported
beards, though theirs were a bit ragged.

“You folks need a lift?” Brian
asked just as one of the males pulled a gun. Brian’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Don’t mind if we do. I guess
you're going to walk though,” the man snarled. They heard a loud click of a
gun.

“I don’t think you’re being very
nice son. Put the weapon down,” Mitch snarled.

The stranger turned arrogantly to
look at Mitch and froze when he noted Piotr and Mitch holding Bushmaster rifles
pointed at him. “I think you need to stand down now,” Mitch observed. The pilot
buzzed the group, the strangers duck for cover, but Piotr said, calmly, “D’at
one is ours.” One of the men looked up and spotted the UAV. He pointed to it.

Slowly the male with the gun
lowered it. “All right your move.”

Mitch looked to the stranger. “I
don’t like people pointing guns at my people,” He growled. He was still coming
down from the adrenaline, not happy about how badly it could have gone.

The woman near the apparent
leader whimpered and another looked to her and then turned and begged. “Please,
don’t blame him for being wary.” Mitch dared a quick glance to her, still
angry.

“At least he didn’t shoot him,”
Piotr added. Brian nodded. The lad now had his gun out.

Mitch slowly nodded, looking at
the woman. “You okay miss?”

“Okay? We are starving. Sasha is
sick, and pregnant.” One of the kids stumbled and fell crying. The males ignore
him but one of the women bent to help him.

“Put your weapons down. All of
them,” Mitch ordered. The other men looked at him. Mitch got a look at the
woman, she was gaunt and the bulge on her back was a child in a pack. The males
were lightly loaded. He scowled. “Miss come here.”

One of the males protested but
the first stranger waved him off, eyes narrowed but watching Mitch. “Buck stand
down.”

The woman came over. Mitch put
the rifle on safety and then checked her and the child. “You have frostbite.
The child is sick,” he observed. “Hell you both look like you haven’t ate in a
while. Strip,” he ordered curtly. She looked at him as he stared at her.
“Strip. Your furs are wet, and cold.” He took his parka off. “Strip.” he
ordered again. She needed no further urging. She quickly stripped and he handed
her the parka. “Get in.” He pointed to the truck. He could feel the cold wind
through the sweater; he had no intention of remaining exposed with only it on.
He tossed her furs in the trunk and then turned to the huddling group.

“There is a storm coming folks.
Here is the deal. I am in charge.” He looked them over for a moment. “You’re
more than welcome to come back with us. We can take you back to my place and
after the storm you can continue on your way.” He reached up and tripped his Bluetooth.
“Base, we have multiple people, standard cold reception.” One of the teens
looked up and smiled tentatively.

“Anyone wanted to sit the storm
with a hot meal and shower best get in now,” Mitch ordered. The wind picked up,
almost on queue and the light changed. The lead male hesitated, the woman with
the child near him didn’t. She placed the child in the car, and then she came
back without the kid, grabbed the pregnant lady and pulled her to the car.

“Come on!” Brian scooped up a kid
and carried her to his truck. The nearby teen just about jumped and ran for a
truck.

Mitch snorted. “Y’all going to
stand around scratching your asses?” The men looked blearily at him. “Now that
the ritual chest beating is over, let’s get the hell out of this shit hole and
somewhere warm!” Some of the men cheered wearily at that.

The male leader turned and barked
to the teen to help with the kids. The teen tossed his gear into the truck and
grabbed a kid. “Come on snot nose!” the teen said, hoisting the kid up into his
arms. Mitch picked up his rifle, flicked on the safety and nodded. With this
signal everyone loads up.

The entire trip back no one said
a word. They arrived at the base, the teen give a low whistle. “Major! A real
castle!”

Mitch nodded. “Complete with
drawbridge.” He pointed to the waterfall area.

Piotr looked at them. “Mitch did
it. He saved us too.”

Mitch looked at him for a moment,
and then shrugged. “I had a bit of help after a while,” he commented as they
pulled into the plowed home stretch.

In the garage as the door went
down Doc met them. Mitch waved her to the sick pregnant woman and she
immediately checked her over. Dora moved to one of the kids, Paul and Frances
Fenn, Cassie, and Vance assisted. Walter and Janet handed out mugs of hot tea.
“Anyone with a medical problem let Doc know. She has her hands full now so if
it isn’t serious, get a shower first,” Paul said as he maneuvered a kid into a
wheel chair and wrapped him in blankets.

 Doc checked the woman with her
stethoscope. The woman coughed feebly. Doc frowned. “You have pneumonia. We
need to get you inside and to the infirmary.”

Cassie blinked. “Mom, the little
girl is out, I mean O-U-T out, and not responding. She is still cold and barely
breathing.”

Doc took over, used her
stethoscope and blanched in concern. “Her temp quickly,” she ordered not
looking up. Cassie pulled out an electronic thermometer and stuck it in the
kid’s ear. Doc took a look and blanched again, swearing softly. “Okay people,
let’s move!”

Henry helped Doc get the woman
onto a stretcher; Mitch made eye contact with one of the males and nodded for
him to follow. Janet grimly smiled. “All right you grimy lot! I think the first
order of business is a hot shower. Who’s first?” she asked. The teen rushed
through the door after Walter and the three kids. Piotr snorted.

Janet handed out homemade hot
pockets to the others. “With everything frozen, we only have enough hot water
supply for three showers at a time right now. So eat up while you wait,” she
said. Some of the people nodded, others dug in. Janet got them organized and
out of the cold garage bay. Lisa looked relieved.

The new people looked around in
awe, some still huddled under blankets and were just too pure tuckered to care
as long as it was warm. They took them to a living room and settled them in
front of the fire.

Jolie came in and handed Mitch a
tablet. He looked at it, thanked her and handed it back. “From the Doppler
radar report it looks like we have another three day storm ahead of us, hope
you people didn’t make any appointments,” he joked. One of the males snorted.

“So what is all this?” Mitch
looked to the young woman who had asked the question.

“It is a cave,” he answered and
smiled.

“I know that, I meant this?” She
waved to the furnishings.

“Well, when we were warned I took
it seriously,” Mitch smiled.

“Oh,” she replied in a small
voice and blushed.

Mitch smiled. “I invested most of
my money into outfitting myself with the most equipment, animals, and gear as I
thought I could get away with,” he explained. The male leader nodded.

“Luckily it was all transported,
the aliens said something about everything we owned, and I took them
literally,” Mitch finished with a diffident shrug.

She nodded. “Hope it gave them a
hernia,” she growled. Mitch chuckled at this.

“Most of the people here are from
an abandoned village sixty kilometers north of here. Piotr and Henry were walk
about like you folks.” Piotr waved his hand with the missing fingers. “A few of
the kids were found nearby too.” One of them looked up from playing in the
corner and waved and then returned to more important matters.

Doc's voice came in over the speakers:
“Sarana is in bad shape. The little girl is in a hypothermia bath but she
doesn’t look good. Her core temp is below seventy, and she has pneumonia. I am
not sure she will survive the night. I set IV’s up for both of them. The young
man, um Ivan? He has mild hypothermia and mild frostbite. I had to amputate a
toe. I am ready for the next group.”

Janet wiped her hands on a towel;
“Well I have a roast to check on.” She nodded politely to the group as she
left.

“Piotr, Vance, can you show these
three to the Infirmary?” Mitch asked, pointing to the teenage girl and two of
the males. They got up wearily and left.