Bootstrap Colony (29 page)

“Yeah that should work, the damn
things have figured out how to untwist the wire ties we were using on the
latch.”

Mitch chuckled. He should have
known with nothing to do the racoons would figure it out. “Roger. How is the
farm?”

“Well Ivan and the others have
finished planting, and the botany team is harvesting the greenhouses now. We
are itching to make the first production greenhouse; we have plenty of glass
and plastic panes now. Hejira’s wants to do a run of veggies in the first,”
Pete replied.

They left the next morning, less
than twenty minutes before noon. The sky was ominously dark. Doc and Cassie
were subdued, eyes scanning the sky and horizon. They made it to the pass two
hours before sunset. They rushed through the pass, warily watching the caves on
either side. With the sun almost down, the low valley pass was shaded, making
them all nervous. Luckily nothing popped out to try to bite them. Relieved they
continued on.

Sam called, they were fifty
kilometers ahead. They followed the dirt road, crunching through the occasional
gravel patch. Doc was reluctant to pull over; swapping with Mitch to drive in
the dark, but was finally forced to give up after a few close calls with
snoozing animals. She stopped under a tree and they got as much rest as they
can.

The next morning Cassie had a
close call with a pack of tiny therapod scavengers while answering a call of nature.
A little unnerved her mother tried to talk her out of driving but Cassie
insisted. “We could have KITT drive,” Mitch said, then shrugged, “or not.”
After he got a look at Doc’s face. They moved onward. Pete called in, the storm
had made landfall. They race on, trying to catch up to the convoy. “Safety in
numbers,” Mitch said, and smiled.

Doc grimaced and apologized. He
looked to her. “Don’t apologize Doc, every life here is precious.” She blushed
and nodded, turned her attention to their path. After stopping for lunch Doc
insisted on taking the wheel while Cassie rode shotgun. Mitch stretched out in
the back and took a snooze.

Pete called in, “The storm is
getting worse, they are predicting the creeks and rivers to rise.”

Doc smiled, “We just forded the
last one between us and Sam I think,” she reported. Pete sounded relieved.

“Good, glad to hear you’re
catching up,” Paul called in; they were stopping for the night on high ground.

“Good idea,” Mitch replied from
the back, not even opening his eyes. “We might have to do that too. Cassie you
may want to plan ahead just in case.” He heard the rustle of fabric and then
the soft beep as she turned the navigation on to check the terrain.

They took a break an hour before
sundown for a quick sandwich. Mitch glanced at his fuel, then grimaced and
switched tanks. “Okay last tank. We have about forty kilometers left; I think
they are only twenty kilometers ahead,” he said. The solar panels were only
providing a trickle of power during the day. Doc nodded. He pulled out his
NVGs, and kept them in his lap.

While Cassie and Doc ate he kept
them going. The darkness, occasional animal calls, and the sometimes jerky ride
had both girls awake and alert. “The wind is picking up,” Doc muttered.

“There is a rise nearby,” Cassie
said looking longingly at it but Mitch shot it down.

“We passed it. I don’t know about
you, but I am not going back to play king of the hill with the raptors on top
of it,” Mitch said dryly. The women both grimly agreed it wasn't worth it.

They noted the light on the
horizon, just as the first big plops of rain hit the windshield. Muttering a
curse Mitch flipped the wipers on, while he maneuvered around a rock and then
up a defile. They spotted the lights of the convoy perimeter and Cassie sighed
in relief. “Doc let them know we are coming,” Mitch ordered.

She called Paul who sleepily
acknowledged, then hollered to the guard to let them in. Mitch flicked the
headlights, and Paul said they had a fix. He warned them around a warren of
gopher creature dens, a natural pit trap, impossible to see in the dark even
with goggles. When they entered the perimeter the rain began to pour, making
them sigh and slump in relief. Paul came up, wearing rain gear and patted
Mitch’s arm as Mitch opened his window.

“I know you ladies want a shower,
but I am not going out to get wet just yet,” Mitch observed. They groaned but
agreed. Paul started to give his report but Mitch waved him off. “Paul, it is
pouring out! Go get some rest, it’ll keep till morning,” he ordered. Paul a
little chagrined agreed with a choppy nod. He made his way through the sudden
slippery mud; the trio guffawed as he slipped and fell on his ass. He had a
hard time getting to his feet, but when he did he gave them a dirty look and
then climbed into his cab. Doc snorted.

Out in the darkness they heard
the muffled crunch and thump of something big moving. The wind screeched and
howled, making many had a restless sleep. One of the guards called in,
something was moving out there. He suppressed a scream as a giant lobster
centaur creature moved through the rain, antenna wiggling as it moved. The arms
were up like a mantis, but suddenly lashed out, striking a sleeping hammerhead
herbivore to the ground, then cutting off its bawl of terror with a wet crunching
snip of its claws. He shuddered and called it in, making sure he filmed it.

The south perimeter called, one
of the creatures was approaching fast. Nervously he fired a few shots off but
it kept coming. Paul hit the flood lights, bathing the thing and the rainy
night in a white glare, it stopped. Mitch got a look; it was a pale almost
white armored leviathan. Its shell rippled in colors after a moment, and the
creature gave off a low vibrating moan before it turned and moved off. Sighing
in relief they turned the lights down, and added more along the perimeter to
cover all directions. Animals began to converge into the light, instinctively
seeking it out as protection against the leviathans.

“Think it has anything to do with
that creature Vanessa and Phyllis spotted?” Doc asked.

Mitch nodded. “Could be. Could
be,” he said. They spent an uneasy night there.

The next morning, the rain
continued remorselessly. Animals around the perimeter moved off to graze. Paul
quietly told Mitch that they used up a lot of juice with the lights, and were
low on fuel even before they had to recharge the batteries. With the sun
blocked by clouds the solar blankets were working at ten percent.

“We are going to have problems
tonight,” Paul finished.

Grimacing Mitch nodded as he
thought about the situation. “Okay, here is what we do. Dig through the back of
the lead truck. You’ll find a spout on the side by the fuel line. We are going
to have to catch rain water, filter it the best we can, then pour it into that
tank.” He paused in thought for a moment.

“We can take the charge from the
wind generators and solar blankets to power it,” Mitch said and then nodded to
himself.

“It?” Paul asked.

“The micro electrolysis chamber.
I had one built into every other tractor.” He pointed to the lead truck. “Dump
water in there and it will split it with an electrical charge. It won’t be
much, it isn’t very efficient, but the best we have. Sara knew about it, sick
her on it,” he ordered and then sighed. Sara had the portable hydrogen maker already
working but it wasn't keeping up with demand.

“Then it feeds the hydrogen to
the compressor and engine, while the oxygen is dumped. Make sure no one has
anything electric or flammable nearby,” Mitch explained as he finished. Paul
looked up in the rain then back at the boss as if he said something stupid.

Mitch smiled. “Yeah well, I had
to say it.”

Sam came up, slapping Paul on the
shoulder. “Heard about your trip, did you have a good fall?”

Paul grimaced. “Very funny smart
ass.”

“Thought it was your ass that was
smarting?” Mitch laughed.

Paul snorted then chuckled.
“Okay, you got me there.” Mockingly rubbed his fundament. “Okay, boss we will
try it your way.” He went off, whistling in the rain.

“So that is it?” Sam asked.
“Doesn’t seem like it will work.”

Mitch shrugged. “Well we don’t
have much energy, but we do have plenty of well...” He pointed to the sky.
“Water.”

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, got more of
that then we need.”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah. Split it and
we have hydrogen. Compress it and run it through the engines and they can
recharge the batteries.”

Sam nodded, now catching on.
“Okay, sounds good. Pete called and said we might have a couple days of this.”
Sam grimaced. “Glad we are on high ground.”

“Yeah, crossing the waterways
between here and home isn’t going to be fun,” Mitch said, already thinking
about the next step in their journey. Sam sighed. Stretching as he got out of
the truck, Mitch left to check the perimeter.

“I want to get a better look at
our intruder.” Mitch said, picking up a camera the guard had used and heading
to the truck. He found the girls stretched out in the front and back, muttering
about being homeless he headed to the nearest cab. Paul looked up as he walked
up, waved and let him know they were using the water filters to handle the
water. Mitch nodded hefting the camera.

“I am going to take a closer look
at our lobster friends,” Mitch said.

Paul chuckled. “If they only made
a pot and pad of butter big enough. “

Mitch chuckled. “Yeah, well just
remember, it is probably thinking the same thing about you.” Paul snorted.
Mitch got into the cab, and fishing around pulled out an usb cable and hooked
it up.

He angled the LCD display to view
the movie. Paul stepped up, hands on the grab bars so he angled the monitor so
they both can see. Paul whistled softly as the creature attacked the herbivore.
“I must have missed that part,” he said. The approaching one made him shake a
bit.

“Easy bud,” Mitch said. Mitch
paused the image. “See, it has a lot of things similar to Terran animals, it
has lobster claws, but acts like a mantis. See this? It has eyes on eye stalks,
looked like...” He counted silently, “Four, no six. Four antenna too.”

He pressed play, watched as it
froze as the lights lock onto it. “See the rippling? In the dark it is dark,
but the shell seemed to be able to change color and texture. How much you want
to bet it has some sort of chrometaphore ability?” he asked and then sighed.
Paul grunted. The creature turned and tried to amble away.

“Hmm slow moving, but its attack
is fast. Ambush hunter. Look.” He paused the video again. “See that?”

“What the branches?” Paul asked,
confused.

“Not just branches, but possibly
symbiosis. It is either growing those plants on its back, or cutting branches
and placing them there.” Mitch answered.

“Why would it do that?” Paul
asked, now intrigued.

“Probably camouflage. Wanna bet
this thing imitates a tree during the day?”

Paul got a faraway look then
paled. “Yeah, stock still with that skin looking like bark...” He shuddered.

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, we have to
pass that along, be careful in the woods. This thing might be what Phyllis and
Vanessa ran into earlier.”

“I am just glad we didn’t run
into one while we were on foot last year,” Paul said softly.

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, I went wood
cutting with Brian a few times too, glad I didn’t run into one of these.” Paul
shuddered a little. “They may need the water to be more active. I don’t know,”
Mitch mused and then shrugged.

“Another predator though! How
many are we going to find?!” Paul replied, bewildered at the thought.

“Well, remember, the aliens said
this is a reserve. Kind of like a zoo. I think of it more like an ecological
dumping ground. They said they have been dumping species from many planets here
just before they go extinct. What makes you wanna bet we have quite a
combination here? Dozens of worlds? Plants, animals... The food chain in some
areas is probably a snarled mess,” Mitch observed.

Paul nodded. “Yeah, I can
gather.”

Mitch shrugged. “Well, I bet they
have evolved into that migration thing as well. The temporal herds migrate
south for the winter to warmer climates, while the arctic animals go south into
this area. When the seasons turn the reverse happens, the arctic crew pulled
out and the temperate herds return.” He paused in thought. “Same for predators
most likely they follow the herds.”

Paul looked quizzical, and then
grinned. “Yeah, sounds possible.”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, we haven’t
seen any wolves lately. During the winter no raptors.”

Paul nodded. “Yeah, now that you
mention it, I do remember that.”

“Yeah, and in fall the hell cats
and demon dogs disappeared according to Jack,” Mitch added.

“I bet the furry creatures head
north or up the mountains to beat the heat just like everyone else. This planet
has a pretty strong plant cycle; I mean everything is extremely rich in
nutrients, so I bet it helps the fauna grow fast.”