Bootstrap Colony (43 page)

 He pulled out his Bluetooth.
“Jolie call Pete, Sam and Paul, let them know the migration is on its way, the
first herd is passing us now.” A woman looked over to him and then waved. He
snorted, recognizing Jolie now. She gave him a nod, and a salute then returned
to watch the parade. “Smart ass,” he commented dryly. Anne and Janet were
nearby and caught that. They chuckled.

He felt something in his hand; he
turned and spotted Doc standing next to him. She had slipped her hand into his.
He watched her shiver, and then released her hand. She looked at him with a
little hurt, but he was pulling his jacket off. He put it on over her shoulders
then slipped his hand back into hers. “Thanks,” she murmured.

“The parade looks better from the
outside then right smack in the middle huh?” he asked softly. She shuddered a
little and nodded.

Anne got a little nervous when a
Rex sniffed the fence. She stepped back, stumbling but Janet caught her before
she fell. Doc was concerned, but she waved her off. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” Mitch
looked at everyone watching then murmured to Doc.

“This looked like an annual
thing,” Mitch said.

She nodded. “Guess we’ll have to
book it as a holiday.” He snorted.

Cassie had a kid on her hip,
juggling her up and down a little. The little girl was
not
happy about
the big scary animals, and let everyone within earshot know with an indignant
and fear laced wail. Doc chuckled, and then stopped when the hammerheads come
up. “Oh shit oh shit.” One of the bigger ones put its head over the wall,
snorted at the child, and then moved on. Cassie turned, carrying the little
girl back to the base.

Mitch snorted. “I doubt she will
be a parade fan anytime soon,” he said with a wry smile. Doc chuckled,
remembering Cassie putting her much the same thing at that age.

As the migrating herds faded into
lower and lower numbers interest began to wane and people began to turn and
walk back to the base.

Anne
took one of the kids back on her horse, Doc walked with Mitch and a crowd of
excited people. “They never get over it do they?” she asked quietly.

He
snorted. “I hope they never do,” he said. She gave him a questioning look. “We
should always have a sense of wonder, and an appreciation of things, especially
nature,” he answered. She nodded.

She hung back, letting the crowd
go ahead of them. They are the last to enter the Hall. It was deserted. “So,
now what?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Life goes on,” he
replied starting off to the distant passage.

“Oh no you don’t you're not
walking away this time,” Doc growled, grabbed his arm and halting him.

He paused to look her over.
“What?”

She scowled. “You’re not getting
away with that. You know we are attracted to one another what the hell is your
problem?” He gave her a long look, and then as she opened her mouth to berate
him further he leaned down and kissed her. When he broke the kiss an eternity
later her eyes and face had softened.

“Well, it’s about damn time,” she
said, pulling her arm around his neck and pulling his lips down to hers again.

 Somehow they made it to his
suite. He was sure they surprised a few people into getting out of the way.
Their love making was intense and seemed to last forever. Finally, exhaustion
set in and they drifted into sleep within each other’s arms.

She woke to see his shyly smiling
face, tracing freckles on her bare arm. Entangled in the sheets and his arms,
she wasn’t going to be able to escape the tickling touch.

“I wish we could have met
earlier... on Earth,” Doc murmured and then looked away.

“I was a scrawny geeky pimple
faced nerd in high school, a late bloomer even though I graduated at sixteen.
More into science and engineering, so I was passed over by most of the girls
who were swooning for the jocks,” he replied, still tracing her freckles. Doc
blushed feeling a familiar heat and tingling.

“When I got to college I had just
started to... Well, you know...” He pantomimed growing up and getting bigger.
“I was still computer crazy.” He shrugged. “I had a couple relationships, but
my love of all things electronics got in the way I guess.” He shrugged again.

“When I started making money
women around me changed. Those that were single were all of a sudden
interested. More interested in my buying something for them, or paying a bill,”
he said. Disgust momentarily crossed his features.

“I wasn’t up for being used, so
some women became bitter,” he sighed. “When I started getting really up there
models started coming to call. I even had an undercover FBI agent.” He laughed
softly looking off into the past then back to Doc. She had her eyebrow lifted.

“Well, see, when I started
winning the lotto and making huge killings in the stock market the IRS and FBI
got interested. They thought I was a laundry man for the mob or drug cartels.
He shrugged. “They sent this hot looking...” She growled a little. “Um I mean
well developed.” Her lips purse “Um... Let’s just say a female agent to try to
seduce my secret out of me.” She looked shocked. He shrugged.

“I had hired Bob by then; he got
suspicious and put a private investigator on her. She kept to a normal profile,
but when he ID’d a guy as an FBI agent, well, they brought that to me. He
chuckled. “You should have seen the look on her face when I confronted her!”

Doc looked shocked. “You told her
you knew? Wasn’t that dangerous?”

He shrugged. “Well, by that time
I had gotten the alien visit.” She nodded. “I was more interested in getting a
window into the government to pass on a warning.” His face turned bitter again.
“I told her, and then gave her a set of lotto numbers to prove it.” He sighed.
“I dunno what happened, she disappeared.” He shrugged again, still tracing
freckles with his fingertips.

“By the time the aliens had
arrived to transport us I was working eighteen hour days getting things ready.”
He indicated their surroundings, and then shrugged. “I didn’t have time or
energy to play.” She looked away.

“And the girls?”

He sighed. “Honestly, after
having women chasing me for my money, do you think I am going to fall for
someone chasing me cause they are bored or power hungry?” he asked. She
sniffed. He chuckled. “Get real, besides, I would much rather wrestle and play
connect the dots with you.” He leered as she blushed and dimpled right on queue.
The leer suddenly ended when a pillow smacked him in the face. The rest of
their discussion dissolved a guffaw and shriek of laughter and into a play
fight.

Sometime later they came up for
air. She was sitting on top of him, smug. He wasn’t sure who had who, after
all, he had one heck of a view of her naked right now, truly a breath taking
sight. She bounced on him, making him oaf. “Pay attention!” she ordered and ran
a hand through her hair. His heart fluttered.

“So what are we going to do, just
live together?” she asked, exasperated. He realized she had been trying to talk
with him, and he had been admiring the view.

“Hey, at least half the female
population isn’t chasing me anymore. Were you waiting for your opportunity?” He
watched her face, tracing a finger over the freckles on her arm.

She twitched, dimpling. “That’s
in the past. I am talking about the future,” she said, finger combing her hair.
He nodded and kissed her finger tipped. She began to purr.

“Speaking of future...” he
murmured.

Sometime late the next morning
they came into the kitchen out of dire need for refueling. Doc was wearing one
of his shirts, and precious little else. He rubbed her shoulders as she paused
in the kitchen. Cassie was sitting at the table with a smug look on her face.
“And just what have you been up too?” she interrogated mockingly. Her mother
blushed.

Mitch smiled and quirked an
eyebrow. “None of your business little lady.” Doc turned and then pulled his
head down for a kiss. When they come up for air he sighed. “Okay, maybe a
little bit of her business.” Doc smirked.

Cassie snorted. “Took ya long
enough.” Janet, trying to ignore the conversation began to chuckle as she finished
clean up with Wayne and Hyu.

She turned to Cassie. “You're one
to talk, wasn’t it you under the skip loader with Vance last night?” Cassie
began to turn beat red and looked away. “What were you doing, practicing mouth
to mouth standing?” Janet teased. Cassie gave a choked chuckle.

Her mother gave her a gimlet
gaze. “Cassie...” A rumble of dire motherly wrath began to appear in her voice.
Mitch’s chuckle quickly turned into a discrete cough as Doc elbowed him.

“I wonder how many people are
still alive?” Doc asked, looking out the window.

Mitch stretched. “Three thousand
three hundred and twenty one,” Mitch answered absently. She turned to him in
shock as he yawned and poured a cup of coffee. Janet, Anne, and the rest of the
people eating breakfast stopped and stared at him. “What? I told you I am good
with numbers,” he replied when the stares registered. He shrugged.

“Your psychic thing?” Anne asked.
He shrugged as he gave Doc a kiss and then left.

Sam called in a day later. “The
damn herd just stomped all over the bridge we have been building. One of the
sauropods took a crap right in the middle,” he said, sounding thoroughly
exasperated and annoyed. Jolie was giggling. “It’s not funny! The ones behind
it just stomped through it. I have crap smeared all over the place!”

Despite the exasperated annoyance
they could tell Sam was laughing too.

Mitch laughed. “Well, I guess we
will have to let the rain wash it away.” Sam muttered something they didn't
quite catch. “What was that Sam?” Mitch replied, smiling at Jolie.

“I said, IF it will clean it up,”
Sam sighed in disgust. “Okay, base, I was going to grade the new road a bit
more, but with the cold and the weather turning the way it is, I think...”
Mitch nodded.

“Say no more, get your team back
here before the first snow storms hit.”

“Roger that,” Sam sounded
relieved. “I don’t like the look of some of these creatures; some of the
predators are looking at us like we may be lunch,” Sam replied.

“Roger that Sam. Try to stay off
the menu.”

“Pete look out!” Travis said,
hauling the kid back from danger.

“What what is it?” The kid looked
around, suddenly on the defensive.

“That.” Travis pointed his muzzle
at the plant Pete had been backing up too.

“It looks like an overgrown
artichoke,” Pete observed, taking a look. The plant was squat, over two meters
in diameter, but over a meter tall. It was blackish at the bottom, with what
looked like layers of hard branch like leaves arranged in concentric circled to
the center. The leaves varied in size and width, giving a sort of damaged look
to it.

At the core of each leaf was a
splotch of purple, which radiated out to form veins the further it got from the
core. The soft looking parts were a pale, almost flesh like color.

“Faugh what’s that smell!” He
waved his free hand in front of his face ducking his head away. Flies were
dancing around the plant. A moment later tentacles came out from the core and
began to whip into the cloud of insects. “Oh,” Pete said in surprise, backing a
little.

Travis stopped him again. “What
did I say about backing up?” He gave Pete a look.

“Don’t unless I know what is
there,” Pete replied dutifully and then looked behind him.

Travis nodded. “We ran into one
of these things on the march. It grabbed a kid.”

“Grabbed a kid? Are you kidding
me?” Pete stared at the plant.

“One of the tentacles got his
shirt. It is super sticky. Then it tried to drag him back to it. We had to cut
the shirt off of him,” Travis replied, looking around and then back to the
plant.

“Oh. What do you call it?” Pete
asked.

Travis’s mouth quirked into a
smile. “Why a purple people eater, what else?” Pete laughed.

The old village was a mess, a
burned out wreck of cabins and rusting metal. Anything organic was gone or
smoldering from the acid. “Careful there,” Travis urged, watching Sara as she
stepped over a log.

“We don’t know how long that acid
lasts,” Gunny muttered. The vehicles were parked in a row nearby; they had been
salvaged for parts before the village had been abandoned.

“Think there is much to salvage?”
Pete asked looking at the charred remains of the cabins.

“Oh sure, we can recycle the
vehicles and metal easily,” Sara replied, and then checked a cabin. “Clear.”
She called and moved on. Gunny had his rifle down he carefully checked another.
“Clear.” Pete got with the program.

After securing the perimeter they
called Jacklynn in. Gunny marked the landing area or LZ as he called it with
red markers and stakes. “Why the streamers?” Pete asked nodding his chin to the
closest.

“For judging wind direction and
speed,” Gunny replied, pounding the last one in. “Nice timing,” he commented,
stretching as they heard the distant sound of rotors approaching.

The next morning the robot
announced that they had company. Travis and Gunny checked it out, and then told
Pete to call base and let them know the eastern village convoy had arrived.
Pete nodded and called it in.

The eastern village convoy had
three beat up trucks, two of them sported an external roll cage. One was an off
road vehicle, what was probably a rock crawler at one point. Travis greeted
them with a case of beer Mitch had sent along for the occasion.

The easterners told them about
how things were in their area, swapping story for story with the scouts in
front of the bonfire. Travis handed over manuals about what they had learned
about the planet and animals so far. Evan, the leader of the easterners
dictated a into the camera his own impressions, then had the others do so too.

“Where did you get the robots?”
Evan asked Gunny.

Gunny smiled and related the
story of Mitch, and how he had planned ahead. “The kids call him a pack rat,”
Gunny finished.

Pete looked up from his MRE.
“Yeah, pack rat. SMART pack rat,” he replied, and then ducked at the good
natured laughter.

The next morning they exchanged
loads, Mitch had sent along a trade pack that they had requested. They turned
over nearly a ton of tin and lead ingots. Jacklynn flew in with a load, a tank
of ethylene for their flex fuel trucks. Evan thanked them as he watched Sara hook
up a load of salvaged gear.

Gunny waved Jacklynn in,
signaling wind speed and direction as well as ground distance with hand
signals. Pete watched fascinated. Sara ducked through the rotor wash, dragging
a cable and hose with her. She dropped the cable and flipped the fuel cap open,
then locked the end of the hose in. She signaled Gunny with a thumbs up and
then began clipping the load into the lines.

This would make their fourth
load; they had managed two per day so far. They had it down now, it was all routine.
Gunny flipped the pump off then signaled to Sara. She unhooked the hose, and
then put the cap on, making sure it was tight. Keeping her head down she
dragged the hose back, making sure it didn’t tangle the lines.

Pete watched as Gunny waited
until Sara was clear, and then signaled Jacklynn. Jacklynn gave a thumbs up,
and then began to pull back on the controls. The helicopter's engine picked up
speed and it lifted off the ground and then the cable began to tighten. In a
few seconds the nets tightened and then pulled the load off the ground. ”Cool,”
he muttered, watching her gain altitude and set a course for home. He shivered,
it was getting chilly. “Not much longer,” he muttered.

Evan asked if he could take some
of the salvage back. Travis agreed. They picked through the piles of gear, and
then set the selected bits aside. If the weather held they would be back for
more.

Gunny took a hummer out and
killed an Elk at the river; they have a barbecue that night. It was cold around
the campfire though. “Next time we do this, let’s do it in the spring or at
least when it is warm out,” Evan commented with a shiver.

Evan finagled a ride from
Jacklynn to base the next day. Mike had taken a ride back with Paul. When Mitch
found out that Evan was on his way he radioed Angie to ask Jack and Axel to
come back with her if they could.

Evan was a short guy, brunette
with glasses Mitch noted when they first met. He was deeply impressed with the
base and its workings. Angie arrived while Mitch was giving a tour of the outside.
Axel gave a long low whistle when he climbed out of the plane. Jack looked
around, gave a nod to Angie and then he and Axel waved to Mitch and came over
to join the tour.

Evan recognized the robots during
the tour. He commented about them, amazed to see them. Mitch admitted he owned
the manufacturing company. Evan was surprised and impressed. “Are you going to
build them?”

Mitch nodded. “After we get the
industry sorted out, more will be built.” Evan nodded. “Right now I am building
Repraps and expanding the factories,” Mitch admitted. Evan and Axel nodded.

“Don’t forget the vehicles,” Axel
added.

“And playground,” Janet piped in.

Mitch sighed. “Next year we have
quite a few expansion projects here, Maggie and the vets want to move out of
the caves and into their own concrete barns, Lisa and the mechanics want to
take over the old barn and expand the garage out.” He shook his head and sighed
again.

“We have the playground to build,
as well as more of the sub basement here to explore and occupy,” he added when
the visitors nodded but didn't say anything.

“Can we do a racquet ball court?”
Janet asked. He gave her a look. She shrugged. “Not all of us think playing the
Wii or weight lifting is all the exercise we need during the winter you know.”

He chuckled. “Point. Put it on
the list, if you can find a room,” he said. She nodded.

Inside, they found Mike kicking
back in the Great Hall with a beer. Janet left for a moment she returned and
handed out beers to the others. They sat down and talked. Each swapped stories
of their landing and history before they turned to the future.

Evan told them about his village,
how he was a junior college professor of engineering and had built a Reprap and
CNC machine. “The Reprap has been a godsend. I am almost out of plastic though,
we recycled everything we could,” he commented reverently.

Mitch snorted. “I have a few
here, and some updated ones... and a few other toys.” He snorted as Evan
nodded.

“I saw a few, was that the
portable molecular furnace off by itself in the factory area?” Evan asked.
Mitch nodded.

“Okay so obviously Base is going
to be a city, and center of learning as well as industry for a long time,” Evan
commented with a faraway look. “You said you have iron?”

Mike nodded. “We have an open pit
iron mine two kilometers north east of us,” he volunteered. Evan nodded then
turned to Jack.

“We named our place Copper Town.
We have a copper mine North West of us. Also plains and savannah all around,
and a good deposit of salt.”

Evan nodded. “So I guess all
roads lead to Rome, or at least Base,” he said and saluted Mitch with his beer.

Mitch shrugged, slightly
uncomfortable. “I was lucky; I had deeper pockets then the rest of you.” He
shrugged again.

“Don’t forget you grubstaked my
outfit too,” Mike added. Mitch nodded.

Anne came in and handed Evan a
three ring binder. “What’s this?” he asked looking at it curiously.

Anne smiled. “This is more of all
the useful stuff we have accumulated over the past three years.” She nodded to
Mitch.

“We also added material on survival
and industry too,” Mitch commented, pointing to a flash stick taped to the
inside of the cover.

“They gave each of us one,” Jack
commented, and Mike nodded.

Evan gave them a running
commentary on some of the animals and dangers his village had faced. He
included a report on the death of a woman by what he called a Tremor worm. Mike
looked confused, but Mitch nodded. “A Tremor worm is a creature from science
fiction. It is an underground beast that burrows through soft earth and
attacked people from below,” Mitch informed Mike.

Mike nodded. “I used to play a
game like that, where we would have to stay on rocks or stuff, if we touched
the ground we would get eaten,” Mike said and then shivered.

“I did too,” Mitch agreed softly.

“Too bad we didn’t know about
them here though,” Evan sighed.

Axel came in behind Lisa
chattering about engines. He had a sort of dazed expression on his face. “Damn,
did you see that machine shop and factory set up?” He sat by Jack on a stool.
Anne handed him a beer. He took a sip, and then suddenly looked down at the
bottle. “BEER? HOLY SHIT!” The others started laughing.

“I gotta admit, I like it here,”
Axel said taking another pull on the beer.

“You just like the beer,” Anne
teased.

“You betcha!” He got a faraway
look. “It isn’t just that though. It is exploring, building. Seeing new
things.” Axel looked down at the beer and then up to Mitch who nodded.

“The thrill of a challenge and
new frontier,” Jack said as he nodded.

“That too,” Mike said.

“And, no politicians,” Evan
added. They chuckled.

“No taxes, no lawyers, no bills!”
They laughed again.

The tumult of noise alerted Anne
and Mitch. They both looked up. “I guess school is out,” She observed. Mitch
nodded.

“All this and a school too?” Evan
asked, clearly impressed.

Mitch nodded. “And a college
program.” Evan was now wide eyed and clearly envious. “Don’t worry professor,
once we get you dialed in you can teach through video.” Evan nodded
enthusiastically.

“One of the things I missed the
most was teaching kids,” Evan said. He looked a bit sad. “I mean, we had to
teach a lot of things at our village to survive, but it has been simple
survival stuff, nothing advanced.” Anne patted his hand.

“Okay, I have a plan for next
year, but it is tentative. I thought we should put our heads together and see
where we can help each other and fill in the gaps,” Mitch said, looking at each
of the leaders in turn.

Mike took another pull of beer.
“Well, since we aren’t going back till tomorrow to give our sinuses a rest...”
He jerked his thumb to Axel.

“I for one am all ears,” Jack
replied.

“Sinuses?” Anne asked.

Axel snorted. “Every farted in a
car with the windows up?” Jack gave him a dirty look.

“Sorry I asked,” Anne snorted.

“I think we should head for
quieter pastures fellas,” Mitch suggested, getting up and dodging a kid.

Mike nodded. “I’m for that!”
Axel, Anne, and Jack got up and follow him out and to Mitch’s office.

“So, as I was saying, my plans
for next year are tentative. We have the basics of industry, knowledge and medicine,
but...”

Evan interrupted. “You have a
hospital too?”