Bootstrap Colony (40 page)

Paul cleared his throat. “I think
it was an anklasaur from the size and shapes of the dents. We passed one
stumbling along on the way in.” Mitch looked over to him and then laid back as
Dora pressed on was chest with a hand.

“Why did you slow down?” Cassie
asked suddenly.

“I knew something was wrong, but
couldn’t tell from where. If it had attacked from the front, that tail would
have smashed the windshield or banged up the engine,” Mitch replied, sighing.

“Oh,” Cassie softly commented.
“Still didn’t help though.”

“No, it didn’t,” he replied,
sighing again, this time in frustration.

“Well, you won’t be meeting up
with that anklasaur again,” Paul commented, a curious note to his voice, almost
satisfaction. Mitch looked over to him, raised an eyebrow.

“And why is that?” Nicole asked,
not looking up from her work.

“It is dead,” Paul replied, a
slightly smug expression.

Mitch sat up abruptly. “You
didn’t...”

Paul waved him off. “Nope, passed
it on the way back, it was down and a raptor pack was around it. I don’t think
they killed it though.”

Mitch sighed and sat back. “I
think we did.” Cassie made a querying noise. He cleared his throat. Anne gave
him a sip of water. “Thanks.” He looked over to Cassie. “I think the zap messed
up its heart.”

Nicole looked up, and then slowly
nodded. “Yeah, give an animal a jolt and it can do damage, even a milliamp can
stop a heart.” She returned to Cassie’s shoulder. “Cassie, we are going to have
to put you under to reset your shoulder,” she warned. Cassie nodded.

Dora scanned Mitch. “It looks
like you were right, the knee has a lot of swelling, but it doesn’t look like
anything is broken or any soft tissue damage. You’re going to be sore for a
couple days though.”

He chuckled, “Not as sore as Lisa
will make me when she is done.”

Dora laughed. “Yeah, that girl is
pissed!” She checked over his neck. “And you lucked out again; it looks like
some swelling in the muscles on the right side, but nothing broken.” She
scanned the arm. “Yup, broken. It looks like a good clean break though, you
lucked out there, nothing poking through the skin.” Paul gulped a little, he
turned pale.

Mitch looked over to him. “Paul
why don’t you check and make sure everything is in for the night. Check with
Travis, Lisa, and Phyllis, pass on a warning.” He felt the collar being removed
from his neck. Maggie touched his foot, removing his boots.

“I’d rather face a raptor,” Paul
muttered but left. Mitch and Maggie snorted.

“You think Universal Studios will
have that on the tour?” Mitch joked when it became too quiet in the room.

“NO!” Cassie, Doc, and Nicole all
answered in unison, not even looking up.

“God I hope not.” Cassie said
with a suffering sigh. Dora giggled.

“Quiet you,” Doc gave her a mock
growl, then soft groan. “Can you turn the lights down? They are kinda bright,”
she groaned. She squinted, and then tried to cover her eyes. Nicole brushed her
arm aside.

Nicole examined Doc’s head injury
and then muttered about having a scanner. A scanner was thrust into her field
of view. “Thanks.” She took it, and then squeaked in shock when she noted the hand
handing it to her was artificial. She looked up into the robotic camera lenses
of the J five medical assistant droid. “Yipe!”

Cassie looked over, grimaced then
sighed. “Just a bot Nicky, you’ll get used to it.” Doc groaned an affirmative.
Nicole turned a wondering glance to Mitch, who smiled. Behind him an android
came in, carrying fresh linen. Nicole looked up at this, then shook her head
and returned her attention to her patient.

Dora completed a full scan of
Mitch, double checking his torso and head. “No sign of any other damage, just
the cut, swelling, and broken left ulna. We can give you some Motrin for the
pain until the swelling stops.” She looked up at him.

“UMM, I am allergic to Motrin,”
he warned her.

Cassie called out “Just give him
the placebo.”

Her mother hushed her. “Dora,
check the database for...”

Mitch interrupted. “If it is all
the same with you, some Advil or aspirin will be fine.” Dora looked up. He
shrugged, and then winced as she helped him sit up.

She checked the scratch on his forehead,
noting that the foam had stopped the bleeding. “The foam works better than
stitches, it acts like glue,” Mitch answered her unasked question.
“Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of it, and just started making it so we can't
export it yet,” he sighed. He took the sling from her hand then pointed to
Cassie. “Triage Dora, Triage.”

Dora did another scan of Cassie,
taking her time, and splinted the broken ankle with a Velcro strap the robot
handed her. More used to robotic help she called out what she needed. “You're
running a slight fever, Bp is slightly elevated,” Dora said as she worked.

“Meds are wearing off,” Cassie
replied, gritting her teeth as Dora gently poked at her right side.

“Couple fractures, mostly
hairline. Your spleen is a bit swollen. You lucked out there,” Dora observed.
She looked up at her. “The shoulder...”

Nicole called over. “We’ll set it
in a moment. Doc here has a pretty good concussion, but no sign of a bleed.
Minor swelling so far, we will treat it with meds.”

She looked to Dora, asking if
they have this or that, when the robot commented. “One moment Doctor.
Accessing...accessing.” Nicole watched it. “Inventory complete. We have four of
the five specified medications on hand, and the fifth is in deep freeze. I will
get them for you.” Putting action to words the robot backed up and trundled
off.

“Well!” Nicole said, and then
gave Mitch a wondering look.

He shrugged. “Best money could
buy.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I’ll bet it
cost a mint.”

He snorted. “I based the androids
off of a toy believe it or not. Sure Honda, Toyota, and MIT all had versions,
but I went the cheap route.” He shrugged. An android came in and handed him a
cup of coffee.

He took a sip. “This one and the
smaller version are based off the toy, as the medical and GP robots are based
off of a more... Hollywood style.” She cocked her head at him. “I had just
started mass production of the androids here before our little jaunt.” He
pointed the cup to the retreating robot.

“They are pretty inexpensive to
make, we had got the cost down to ten grand each before we left,” Mitch said
proudly. Nicole’s right eyebrow lifted at this news. She shook her head and
looked over to the returning medical droid. “Don’t worry; when we get things
sorted out we should be able to make them for each of the villages. They only
have about a day’s worth of energy, but that is pretty good for basic tasks,”
Mitch replied. She nodded, picked up a hypo spray from the droids tray, checked
the dosage and misted the Doc as she dug into her work.

Janet came in, she told him they
had rounded up a few armadillos, but they had a serious problem, insects and
scorpions have infested a lot of the furniture. He sighed. “I was afraid of
that,” he rumbled. She nodded, washing her hands with her apron, then trying to
straighten out the wrinkles she caused.

“The damn scorpions are
everywhere, in the ducts, crawlspaces, in the couches, chairs and mattresses. I
even killed one in a kitchen cabinet this morning,” Janet said and then
shuddered.

Dora looked up alarmed and then
glanced down at Cassie’s mattress; Cassie started, and then groaned. “I am so
sore I don’t care,” she said. Dora gave the mattress a wary glance then got
back to work.

“We only have a handful of the
armadillo critters, I guess the rest vamoosed pretty thoroughly when they were
evicted,” Janet said.

Mitch sighed. “Yeah, I was afraid
of that too.”

Nicole didn’t look up from
stitching the head wound. “What are you talking about?”

Janet sighed. “We had a bit of a
scorpion problem. We had some armadillo creatures that took care of them, but
we didn’t think they were needed so we got rid of them.”

Nicole looked up, then back down.
“Oh.” Janet wrung her hands.

Dora sighed. “We found out they
were back when they killed four year old Mateo.”

Nicole looked up startled. “Damn,
I am sorry to hear that.”

Mitch sighed then got up. “Yeah,
me too. Life went on though, we have to learn to live with our mistakes and
learn from them.” He got up and hobbled out of the room. Nicole wanted to
protest, but Doc grabbed her arm and softly said to let him leave.

Maggie came in looked around for
him. “Where’d he go?”

Janet wrung her hands and sighed.
“He is okay, just went for a walk.” She wrung her hands again, and then sighed.
“I am going to get back to work; do any of you need some dinner?” she asked,
turning to business. Doc groaned.

She looked her over. “From the
look of Doc here she has lost most of hers, might not be wise to give her
anymore for a little while.” She wrinkled her nose. Maggie took a look,
wrinkled her nose as well and then offered to go get her a change of clothes.

Mitch ran into Travis in the
hallway. Travis was decked out in his usual gear, looking every inch the
soldier. “What are you doing up and around, thought you’d be harassing nurses?”
Travis asked, eying him.

Mitch snorted. “I am the least
banged up, except this bum wing here, scratch, and the twisted knee. Going to
go take some Advil, a shower, then go to bed.” Travis gave him a long look.
“Thanks for the backup out there, I heard you out doing security,” Mitch said.

Travis shrugged. “Wish we had
Tina handy.” Mitch nodded, and then winced.

“Mike needed her at his place
after that last accident. Nicole, Dora, and Mags are doing okay. Doc and Cassie
are in good hands.” He waved his good hand as he limps off to his room. The
Seal snorted and went back to work.

An insistent knock at his door
woke him. He looked up blearily, banged his arm and then swore as pain lanced
through him. “Damn! WHAT?”

The knob rattled, then Dora came
in. “You okay?” she asked tentatively. She had a stethoscope around her neck
like all the medics like to do.

“Yeah. I WAS getting some sleep.”
He couldn’t help the reproach in his voice.

She blinked. “Sorry, Doc wanted
me to check in on you just in case.” She felt his forehead, then pulled out an
instant thermometer and put it in his ear.

“Tell Doc I am fine, just the
busted wing remember?” Mitch growled testily. He had a headache now. Dora
nodded.

He gave her a long look. “How is
Doc doing?”

She sighed. “Nicole has detected
some swelling; we are giving her some meds to try to combat it.” He looked
concerned. “Cassie is okay, we put her under and reset her shoulder, she will
be pretty sore for a few days. I have no idea how her ribs didn’t break totally
and chew up her insides.” She shuddered and then continued, “Swelling in her
spleen, ankle, and knee are pretty bad, so the ankle cannot be put in a cast
yet like your arm.” She motioned with her hand to his bum arm. “Any pain?”

“Yeah, when I banged it a moment
ago,” Mitch growled. She smiled.

“Nicole is hoping we will not
have to drill a hole in Doc’s skull to relieve the pressure.” She wrinkled her
nose, and looked thoroughly worried. “God I hope not. We can’t lose her.”

He patted her arm with his good
hand. “Doc is pretty tough,” he said, modulating his voice to a more normal
one.

She sniffed, and then nodded,
wiping her eyes. “Yeah. But looking so helpless like Mateo...God.” She almost
sobbed, fighting tears.

He sighed. “Mateo wasn’t your
fault. Remember, you’re a trainee, and it is a long hard learning curve, that
can be brutal,” he cautioned gently. She nodded. He brushed a tear from her
cheek. “Honey, we are all proud of you and Cassie for sticking with it.” She
let out a sigh. “Don’t worry about Doc and Cassie,” Mitch finished.

She nodded. “One question, why
didn’t you put airbags in the car?” she demanded.

He shrugged. “There are frontal
ones, but they only go off in case of a front end collision. I put them on
manual since I was bouncing around so much. I didn’t need an air bag flying up
in my face if I brushed a tree or hit a pot hole.”

She snorted. “Good point.” She
patted his leg and then left. “Good night,” she replied softly as the door
closed.

Travis, Janet, and Maggie came to
him the next morning after Nicole finished putting his arm in a cast. “We have
found five armadillos,” Maggie reported as she scowled. “I lost four animals
during the night, two goats a promising foal and a rabbit. These things are
scary; they can slip through cracks, under doors... and are quiet.”

Janet looked scared. “We killed
one early this morning. It went into the boy’s dorm room.” Mitch looked
alarmed. “Anne saw one of the cats chase it, it flattened under the door. We
got the boys out of there, then stuck one of the armadillos in and shut the
door. I peeked when we stopped hearing noises, it was crunching the sucker.”

Maggie sucked in her breath, and
then blowed it out. Terror for her son still lingering on her face. “Good.”
They all felt relief, but knew it was not going to last for long. “We looked
all day yesterday and last night, the other armadillos have left the area.”

Travis nodded. “So we are going
spelunking?” He shot a questioning look to Mitch. Mitch nodded. “Thought that
was dangerous?” Travis asked.

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, but the
hammerheads are on the coasts. Ducky and Mags here aren’t sure if they can
tolerate fresh water.”

Mags shook her head. “I think so,
but we aren’t sure.” She shrugged. “We can use the scout robots, if we spot a
couple armadillos we might be able to lure them out, or herd them out.”

“If the cave is big enough we
could send a CAT in,” Mitch mused. Travis nodded. “I would rather stay out;
those damn scorpions could drop from above,” Mitch said darkly. Travis gave a
wary nod.

Maggie looked concerned at Mitch.
He waved, “Don’t worry so much Mags; I have no intention of entering the caves
in my condition. I just want to be on hand.”

“And underfoot,” Travis muttered.

“That too,” Mitch dead panned.
Travis snorted.

“I have some second gen dragon armor,”
Mitch said after a moment of silence. Travis looked up surprised. Mitch smiled.
“It is the latest thing. It combines artificial spider silk webbing with the
ceramic disk armor. Very light, extremely tough. Of course it doesn’t protect
stuff it isn’t over, so they can still sting exposed skin,” he cautioned.
Travis nodded.

“Get with Gunny, Paul, Henry, and
Piotr. Let’s get this show on the road. I will go pull a CAT in and load up a
couple trucks,” Mitch ordered. Travis gave a sharp nod and took off at a trot.
“We have a narrow window before hibernation began,” Mitch said, turning to Mags
for confirmation

Maggie nodded. “Yeah, that is
both a blessing and a curse. The scorpions will go dormant too, unless they get
into our warm areas. The ‘dillos will be out. When spring comes the scorpions
will be all over us.” Janet shuddered and hugged herself.

The hummers tooled up to the cave
mouth and parked in a triangle. An ED stepped off the back of one, then stomped
off a few meters and stopped, spread its feet apart and then pivoted left and
right. Travis got out. “All clear,” he called.

The others got out of the
vehicles and stretched, carefully checking their surroundings with tense looks.
Henry grimaced as he tried to itch around the body armor. Gunny looked around
warily; he was going to keep an eye on things out here. Mitch keyed his Bluetooth,
“Jolie were at cave three no sign of predators.”

“Ten four,” Jolie responded.

They had been at it for a while;
this was their third cave so they now had the routine down. The first two had
come up dry, they were either to shallow or too small to get inside beyond ten
meters. They could hear the scorpions and centipedes, but when they flashed
lights around the animals retreated.

Mitch had been worried about
running into a denning dire bear or other animal, but after the first year they
had become scarce in the area. They were getting a bit gloomy about finding any
armadillos. The sun was getting low; they had less than two hours of light.

“I think this is the last one for
the night. Let’s get crackin.” Travis ordered as he pulled his rifle out of the
rack and checked the safety.

Piotr stretched, and then elbowed
Henry to get busy with the scouts. Travis looked on, then out surveying the
area around them for signs of trouble. The robots whirred through their post
check list, then into the cavern. Henry’s excited cry of “Pay dirt!” made
Travis and Mitch turn and approach him and the LCD controller he had in his
lap. They looked, watching the feed from the robot as a rather annoyed
armadillo family chittered and ran around trying to avoid the interloper in
their midst.

Travis nodded. “Piotr, were going
to need the cages.” Piotr nodded and got the cages out.

With a bit of fumbling they
managed to stretch tarps over the mouth of the cave, pinning the bottoms with
rocks and the tops with stakes. The tarps formed a chute, leading to the cages.
When they were ready they had Henry push the scout controls to drive it to the
back, dodging around the ‘dillos, then turned he flipped the lights on. The
‘dillos scattered, chattering annoyance. One stood on its rear four feet,
pawing the air at the intruder. Its whiskered face twitched. The four eyes were
closed, it chattered like a machine gun. Henry smiled. “Wakey wakey mate. Sorry
bout that, but we need to borrow you.”

Mitch looked over to the image.
“I think it is a girl Henry.”

Henry looked again. A baby poked
its head out of the marsupial pouch. “Oh right, my bad. All right love; let’s
get you and your baby out here so we can have a look at you.”

He fish tailed the robots back
and forth, driving the animals to the entrance. A few turned and ran; some
tried to stand their ground. When he bumped one it rolled into a ball. “Okay,
this will be fun.” He pushed the ball, rolling it down the chute. When the
first cage was full they swapped it for an empty. A baby chattered as it got
out, but Mitch gave it a smack on the back to make it roll into a ball.

He chuckled as he scooped it up
and set it into the empty cage. “Where do you think you're going huh?” Mitch
said, pleased with the catch. Travis lugged the first cage back to the bed of
one of the trucks. He swore suddenly making the others look up. “One of
critters bit me! Are you sure they are worth this?”

Piotr chuckled. “Live with d’em
or da scorpions. Besides d’ey make great basketballs and footballs,” Piotr
replied.

The Gunny snorted. “Make them an
American style football and their okay with me,” he growled. Travis snorted.

Mitch dodged grasping paws from
the cage and called for another empty. The third and final cage filled in a few
minutes and then they took down the chute and cleaned up.

“What about the ones that got
away?” Henry asked.

Mitch shrugged. “Let them find
their own litter boxes to play in.” Henry snorted. Mitch clicked the radio.
“Jolie, we have a winner, we have...” He looked at Travis as he counted. After
a moment the Seal indicated a number. Mitch grinned and hit the transmit key
again. “Twenty, no looked like twenty two new additions to the base.”

A squelch of static and then
“Roger that. Thank god. We had another one, it killed a cat. Wayne got stung
killing it, he is in the infirmary.” The men looked up grimly.

“How is he?” Mitch asked wary.

“Doc Nicole said he is responding
well to the antivenin, looked like it was more of a scratch then a full dose.
His hand is all swollen though.” They heard her sigh, and then static.

“Ah, roger that base, were glad
he will be okay. We’re on our way,” Mitch replied. He nodded at the team as
Travis waved his hand over his head.

“Okay, saddle up!” Travis
ordered. He watched the robot dock and then racked his rifle and got in.

“Janet said to hurry up, she
isn’t holding diner,” Jolie said over the radio. Travis grunted.

“Roger that,” Mitch replied.
“Well, you heard the lady, let’s get a moved on!” They returned to base in a
much better mood then when they left.

“I said I was sorry.” Mitch
looked over the hummer, sighing. It wasn’t his command hummer, but it was
essential to the base. Until they repaired it they would have to use the
ambulance in its place. Lisa’s scowl made him feel like an errant child under
Janet’s eyes though.

“Look, I said I would fix it,” he
sighed. The hummer was pretty beat up, all the windows were smashed, body panels
battered and torn. The frame was definitely tweaked, and the tires were
shredded.

He stepped past the fuming young
woman and dug into the tools. She had gotten a start on repairs, getting the
wheels off and the hood was up, obviously she was working on diagnostics still.
He attached the chains to the frame straightener then chained the other side
down. She just watched him work, her arms crossed over her chest.

It took nearly an hour of careful
pulling, pausing, hammering, and pulling to get the frame and rocker panels
pulled out and straight. It would have gone faster had he had both hands... or
help but he didn't complain. The groaning and occasional pop of the metal was
sometimes startling.

He used the trim tool to remove
the trim around the windows, then the grommets holding them in.

It took a bit of maneuvering to
get the side windows out; his left arm ached after the second one. When he
began to struggle with the rear window he felt the slipping end suddenly lift.
“Here let me help,” a familiar voice said. Brian pulled the window up and
helped him move it away to the recycling pile. A robot would occasionally come
in the garage to pick up a load and carry it off to the recycler.

“Do we have replacements?” Brian
asked.

Mitch grunted under the strain of
the front windshield. “One more of each, going to have to make some this
winter.”

Lisa watched them covertly, and
eventually sighed in exasperation and dug in. The damage to the engine was
minor Mitch found out, a ruptured fuel line, some wiring, and ruptured exhaust.
The U joint damage was a bit harder to fix, they had had to call a Donk in to
move the truck to the lift to get under it.

Janet came in, grabbed Mitch’s
free hand and smacked a sandwich in it. He took a bite, grimaced at the taste
of metal, and then mumbled a thank you. He turned but she was already gone.
Lisa giggled.

At the end of the day they
managed to get most of the damage repaired. Dora came in, took a look at them
trying to do minor body repairs and chased them out and off to bed.