Earthbound: Science Fiction in the Old West (Chronicles of the Maca Book 1) (18 page)

To Anna it was like a miracle how rapidly they could be at the top of this huge machine. Llewellyn was touching the panel that opened on the Command Center.

The space in front of the lift was open and wide. There was a huge round table that looked like molded wood with chairs set around it and half-circled by those strange windows that were not windows. She should have been able to see the rock wall, but it was not there—just those dark, smoke-colored panes.

“Why can't I see through the windows?”

“There tis nay to see but rock and those are nay really 'windows.' They are viewers that the scanners can put images on. It can be a panoramic view of the heavens or the terrain below.”

Anna gritted her teeth. “Zeb, I have no idea what you are talking about.”

He took her by the hand and led her to one of the chairs.

“Sit there, my love, whilst I show ye.”

He touched something on the circle enclosing smaller circles and the “window” in front of her showed darkened rock.

Anna gasped. “It's magic.”

“Nay, Anna, tis the technology of the Justines. Twould ye like to see and hear about my world now or after we have used the cleansing room?”

Her back was rigid again. She was practically nude, sitting at some strange table in a strange chair, and nature's functions were demanding that she find a thunder mug on this strange craft.

“I need to use the outside. Give me my clothes.”

“I told ye my quarters have what ye need as tis part of the cleansing area.”

“How can that be?”

“Come, tis quicker than trying to go outside.”

Anna stood. She was ready to demand they go outside anyway when he picked her up and carried her. He went down the hall away from the lift as he called it. The same blue floors were illuminated by that golden light.

The first room she saw was large and open with more of the strange furniture. There were chairs and sofas that were covered with rich material. The tables were sleek, rounded, and gold, burgundy, or green. They looked like they had been molded and were set between some of the upholstered chairs. She wondered why golden globes were embedded in the walls of this room. He walked so fast there was no time to discern more. Then she noticed smaller glowing ovals on the walls.

“What are those strange, little, glowing things on the walls?”

“They are name plates. If there twere a crew, each twould have an assigned quarter and their fingers or eyes twould open it. As tis, I've set them all for my command.” He touched one of the small oval plaques and the door slid open to reveal a bed covered with a golden colored sheet and a flat pillow.

“The Justines dinna bother with frills.” The door slid shut at his touch and they were inside. He walked to another door that seemed to be glass, but she couldn't see through it. Once again his touch opened a door that slid into the wall. This room was as wide as the other, but separated by a two panels decorated with etched suns and planets orbiting them. The back panel went halfway across the room. This side held a basin that looked like black rock had been fused with white. Three black stems protruded from the wall and pointed downward into the basin.

“That tis for washing yere hands after using the facilities.” He set her down and held his hand under one of the stems and water ran down onto his palm. It went downward through an opening in the bottom. “One tis cold water, one tis warm water, and the right one tis the cleansing agent. They dispense whenever ye hold yere hands underneath one.”

There was no answer for this folly, and Anna was gritting her teeth.

“I cannot use that.”

A quick smile lit his face and he led her around the panel that jutted one quarter of the way across the room. He lifted a lid from a square shaped blue box that was made of the same material as the walls of this utterly overwhelming, impossible place.

“There tis where ye sit. When ye are finished, here is the material ye use.” He lifted the lid of a smaller box set into the wall. Later Anna would realize it was not a moveable box, but the cleansing material, as Zeb called it, would automatically refill for any used.

By this time Anna had no choice. She would have rather been outside where she could have hid someplace. She felt exposed even when he stepped back behind the golden panel.

When she finished, she emerged red-faced and flustered. She wanted to leave immediately. Llewellyn was standing there as naked as when they walked in here, waiting for her, and a happy smile spread across his face.

“And now, my darling lassie, we shall use the cleansing room. Ye might wish to take yere hair down as the water and cleanser twill hit yere head area too.”

“What are you talking about? There isn't a tub here or any way to heat water.”

For a response, he stepped closer, tugged her dress upward, unbuttoned her slip, and took as many pins as he could from her hair.

“Zeb, I am not sticking my head under that—that thing.” Her voice was strained and she tried to point at the basin.

“Come, Anna, ye twill see.”

He led her around the other panel and touched another oval. A door slid to the left and revealed a space as large as the springhouse. Other stems came from the wall and ceiling. These stems were wider and had what looked like knobs at the end. The knobs were punctured with little tiny holes.

“When we step inside, this door twill close. I twill press another oval and the water and cleansing agent descends. It twill then switch to pure water to rinse us totally clean. There are pads on the ledge,” he pointed to one side, “for the, er, more intimate areas. When the water stops the warm air begins. Ye can stay as long as it takes yere hair to dry.”

Anna was looking at him with disbelief.

“Please take all those things out of yere hair. I dinna wish them to wash down into the system.”

Anna knew this was insane. Nothing like this could possibly exist, but to humor him, she removed the hairpins. She suspected it was the only way she was going to be able to leave this machine. She could not think of it as a spacecraft.

Llewellyn put the pins on the ledge with the basin and they entered (in Anna's mind) the chamber. He pressed an oval and the water and soap sprayed out over them.

He reached out and took the pads. One he handed to her and demonstrated their use with a wicked grin on his face. Anna was so startled she could not move. Then the sensation of the water, the soap, the clean smell of it all brought her back to normal. Llewellyn demonstrated using his fingers to work the cleansing agent and water through his hair and then he was against her massaging everything through her hair. She leaned into him. It had been so long, so very long, and she felt the maleness of him.

When the clean water stopped warm air came down through those strange stems. Anna tried running her fingers through her mass of curls.

“Wait, I twill retrieve a comb.”

He stepped out of the chamber and returned in less than a minute. “It tis one of the things that tis the same on all four planets. They are necessary for the beings that have hair.”

Anna shook her head. “What are beings?”

Llewellyn's smile was back; the amusement in his brown eyes. “I mean those that inhabit a planet and till the land or manufacture the products. In yere land, ye call yereself humans or people. We all did at one time, however, the Justines, the Brendons, the Kreppies, and the Thalians are nay completely alike. We canna say they are people like us, yet they exist and have the ability to go out into space.”

“And we don't.” It was a snapped reply.

“Oh, but ye twill, my love, ye twill. Look how rapidly yere technology advances. It should have taken yere world another century to produce a steam engine to run ships on the seas and in trains on the land.” He smiled at her and started for his clothes.

Anna was busy working at the snarls and lifting her hair to the warm air. For some reason she felt better than she had in months.

“Zeb, that, ah, the medicine you gave me, how long does it last?”

He turned back to her. “It twill last for over six months, or it should. It depends on how depleted yere system twas.” And he turned again to hide the fact that he wanted her now. Then he felt her hand on his shoulder.

“Zeb, do you think you could hold me now?”

It was too much. His Anna was his again. His resolve to wait until the next time vanished.

“You all ain't welcome here no more.” Malcolm Phillips's anger pushed him back to his younger days before his schooling and entry into the ownership class. His wainwright shop had prospered enough that he had purchased a slave to help him with the heavy lifting, gardening, haying, and caring for the milk cow and chickens his wife had insisted upon acquiring.

“The great state of Texas has seceded. We are at Wah!”

Kasper and Gerde were shaken. This was their home. Their livelihood was here. Surely, this man had to be mistaken. It was the beginning of April and the prairie was filled with green waving grass again. Gerde's garden was planted and completely protected from the rabbits, occasional stray chicken, or any other four or two legged marauder.

“If you haven't pulled out of here in three days, this place will be burned. Your place and Rolfe's! Too damn many Dutchmen have defiled our glorious Cause. The real men of this place will be joining the army.” He turned and stomped out of the store, banging the door behind him.

“Our other neighbors can't be involved.” Kasper looked down at Gerde. “I'm going over to Jackson's place and then over to Rolfe's. I refuse to even bother Jesse with this. The man cannot change that much overnight.”

The people in Schmidt's Corner knew that the Texas legislature had voted to secede on February 1, 1861. Texas had joined the Confederacy on March 2, 1861 and kicked Sam Houston out as governor when he refused to respond to the roll call. The one paper from Austin that they had seen railed against the Congressmen from the German settlements who had voted to remain with the Union. It called them traitors, scum, and warned them to leave the fair State of Texas.

Kasper found Benjamin Jackson at his blacksmith shop pounding on a horseshoe that was on the anvil while Ben Tillman waited with his horse.

“Howdy, Kap. Iffen y'all need any work done, it'll be awhile. Ben's horse needs shoeing.”

“No, I don't need any ironwork. I'm here because Malcolm has just issued a threat. He said that my place and Rolfe's would be burned in three days. I was wondering if that was the sentiment of everyone.”

“Stupid ass,” grunted Jackson as he looked up. “Why burn the one place that has supplies when there could be interruptions in deliveries? His folks must not have talked about the War years at all.”

Ben and Kasper looked blank for a moment and then remembered that Jackson's people had migrated down from Maryland. He was talking about the War of 1812.

“And,” continued Jackson, “I sure as hell ain't going to get someone like Rolfe or MacDonald coming after me for revenge.”

“Well, he did imply that everyone would be leaving to join up with the Confederate Army.”

“Bring that horse around here.”

Kasper stood out of the way as Ben backed the horse toward Jackson.

Jackson looked at Kasper long enough to say, “Tom's leaving to join up, but I'm too old. They don't need old men running up to Washington. Ain't going to be that long anyways.”

“Malcolm's just got a hair up his butt.” Ben Tillman chimed in. “He's mad 'cause he don't have fifteen slaves to avoid going to war. His missus is going into Arles to wait it out, and brother Dooley's woman is goin' down to San Antonio to be with relatives. She figures it's a nice way to visit 'cause Dooley's sure to be back in a couple of months. I'll be leaving too, but Janey's staying here with the young 'uns. Keep the place tidy and all. I sure don't have time to burn other folk's places down before I leave. If Rolfe lived, he'd kill us before we even got to Arles. He ain't been in a good mood since his wife died.”

By this time, Jackson had measured the iron shoe against the hoof and held it over the forge and worked the bellows. He then laid the horseshoe on the anvil and banged away with his hammer.

“Steady that horse,” he yelled at Ben.

Kasper nodded at the two men and walked over to the Rolfe homestead. The house was set fairly close to the road. He figured it would be best to ask Olga where her papa and Martin were. He was never certain whether they were after cattle, horses, or hunting. As he angled across the open space, he saw Martin riding his horse, practicing with a lasso. The youngster's skill was impressive. Thirteen-year-old Martin was blonde, blue-eyed, and stocky like his father; yet, he was more often found working with horses and cattle than Rolfe. Rolfe could find any excuse to go hunting and be gone for days.

Martin waved and turned his horse sharply and sent the lasso twirling onto a post. He must have signaled his horse, for it slowed and braced its hooves, giving Martin an opportunity to pull the rope taunt. He grinned at Kasper, dismounted, and patted his horse on the neck before retrieving the lasso.

“Hullo, Uncle, y'all look worried.” He did not have his father's accent. He could speak, read, and write Deutsche as well as English due to Kasper's teaching, but his speech was forever a blend of Texas and occasional German syntax when upset.

“Do I?” Kasper tried to look reassuring. “I just wondered where your father might be.”

“I think he's hunting.” Martin shrugged. “If he ain't back by tonight, I'll go check over at Uncle Mac's and Tante Anna's place tomorrow. They might need me to help with something.”

Kasper considered. Jackson and Ben Tillman had not been threatening. “Thank you, if he does come back this evening, please tell him I would like to speak with him.

“Is everything all right here? Do you, Olga, and Young James have enough to eat?”

“Ja, we're fine Uncle. Y'all sure nothing's wrong?”

“I'm positive.” Kasper hurried away. He decided a stop at Jesse's was necessary. He was beginning to think a mug of beer might be good since it was a warm afternoon. Gerde rarely drank. It was as though all the pleasures of life had died with Hans.

Jesse looked up as he walked in.

“Howdy, come to jaw or do y'all want a drink?”

“Both, thank you.” Kasper laid a nickel on the counter.

“Has Malcolm been here, Jesse?”

“Oh, he's been here. He wanted me to ride with them to Arles and sign up for the glorious South.”

“I see. Are you leaving?”

“Who me? I've got a place full of beer that somebody has to buy. Young Jackson is leaving from what the old man said, but he's smart. He plans to ride all the way down to San Antonio before joining. It still won't do no good.”

“I don't understand.”

“Hell, y'all are from the North.”

That brought a wry smile to Kasper's face as he took a sip. “Most people don't consider Missouri the North.”

“Yeah, but the iron and steel is shipped from the North through there. What do we ship? Cotton, sugar, hides, and tallow. That don't make much in the way of guns and bullets. Besides, I've been North. That's where I was before I wandered in here. I'd been to see where my grandparents lived and maybe take up a trade there. Y'all have any idea what a place like Cincinnati looks like?” He paused briefly as Kasper lifted his mug. It didn't do any good, Kasper sipped set the mug down.

“No, but St. Louis was definitely growing when we left.”

“Well, sir, St. Louie can't even compare. Leastwise it couldn't about ten years ago. And y'all know what else? I met some of my Yankee cousins. Farmers they are, not a tradesman like me.”

Kasper took a larger swallow to hide his smile. The world considered Jesse a tavern owner—not the more respected tradesman.

“Them boys were tough, and they warn't no slouches when it came to firing a rifle. Maybe they ain't fancy gentlemen riding fancy horses, but that ain't what wins a war.”

“Well, Malcolm and Ben both seem to think one Southerner can whip ten Yankees.”

“What if they did? The North can replace those ten, but the South ain't got that many people.”

Kasper realized that he had misjudged the man. Jesse observed more than people realized.

“Did you, ah, by any chance hear Malcolm's threat?”

“Yeah, he wants to burn you out. I told him if he started a fire here and put us all in danger, he better run damn quick. Besides, the last thing I want is someone like MacDonald coming after me. Hell, Rolfe would join in just for the fun of it.”

“Thank you, Jesse, but all the same I intend to keep watch the next few nights.”

“Tell you what, I'll send Cruz over to give you a hand. Y'all can pay him a quarter a night. He'll think it's big money and that way y'all get some sleep.”

The sound of a team of horses racing into town drew their attention. They both moved towards the open door as the windows were too small and filthy to see through. Kasper recognized the MacDonald's rig and handed his mug to Jesse.

“It's Anna, it's her time!” He raced out the door, all other worries forgotten.

The dust was settling as Kasper rounded the corner and ran to the buggy. MacDonald was wrapping the reins around the rail. He nodded at Kasper and hurried to the back of the small wagon. Five quick steps and he dropped the tailgate. He reached for Anna who was scooting towards the edge.

“I can walk.”

She might as well have talked to the sky. MacDonald picked her up and headed for the steps.

“Would ye open the door, Herr Schmidt?”

“Ja, how long?”

Anna looked at him. “Soon, the first one was two hours ago. Now they are very close together.”

They had plotted this last month. Han's bedroom had been turned into a delivery room. The oilcloth was already on the bed and baby clothes, blankets, towels, and a spare nightgown for Anna were in the chest.

As soon as he entered, MacDonald headed for the stairs.

“Mr. MacDonald, I can manage.”

He ignored her and took the steps two at a time. Kasper followed behind to open the door. Then he returned to the kitchen.

Gerde was already filling a basin with warm water from the stove's reservoir. She looked up as Kasper entered. “We'll need one of the buckets filled too.”

“Do you need your bag?”

“It's already there. Is Anna really sure? I don't hear her screaming.”

“If I remember correctly she didn't scream when her others were born. Johanna thought she was unnatural.”

Gerde just nodded. Her face was set, but she carried the water up the stairs. It was like a knife cutting into her to enter Han's room, but there was no other space and Anna was family.

Anna had hung her skirt, blouse, and one of her slips on the chair. She was busy working her shoe laces when pain wracked her face and she gritted her teeth.

“Lie down, Anna, I'll take off the shoes.” MacDonald was exasperated, worry etched his face. Why had he let her carry this child?

“Mr. MacDonald, you will need to leave.” Gerde had firm ideas about such things.

“He can't just yet.” Anna gasped the words out. “He has to support me while I use the mug.”

“That's just a natural feeling, don't you remember? You had five others.” Gerde could not keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“And each time I had to use that thing.” Anna was gritting her teeth again. “I don't want to dirty this oilcloth and then need another one.” She stood.

Gerde hurriedly put the basin down and left. The woman was incredibly headstrong. What if she had the baby that way? She could hear Kasper coming up the steps. Why, she wondered, had Clara Rolfe died? She could have done this. This hurt and hurt, and she could not have another baby.

MacDonald appeared in the doorway. “She says the baby tis coming now.” He carried the enameled thunder mug by the handle. “It seems my Anna kenned what she twas doing. I'll clean this for ye and return.”

“Not in here,” muttered Gerde. The man was as impossible as Anna. She let Kasper in long enough to deposit the bucket and then shooed him out.