New Homeport Island (34 page)

pounding, glass was not suitable and it would take more practice
 to make anything more from glass.
Mike had a new position amongst the militant he was seen
 as in charge. Artimus having been specifically relived of his
 station would, as an older man point out things that need to be
 done and would have to be seconded by someone that had not
 lost faith. Some of the militant didn’t mind that type of
 leadership since they gained all of the social credit for the tasks
 performed, but Artimus knew how to play those games. He
 primarily kept himself to the fishing they were doing with the
 boat we had provided them. They wouldn’t let him set to sea for
 fear he would somehow recapture the grandeur of being ‘The
Captain’.    
Our hunt for boar continued with a definite desire to trap
 and ranch the boar so as not to run out of them. We found they
 eat the young sprouting’s of the Japanese knotweed amongst
 various other odd plants. We were prepared to cage them and
 hold them in a pin rather than in Artimus’s cage. We, the
 diligent, bought the cage at a price of twenty extra loaves of
 bread, which were about the length and width of my hand, and
 an inch tall. Once we captured another we would cage it and
 have plenty of reason to build a pen that was inescapable to a
 natural born digger.
I watched from the mountain top while Artimus pointed out
 things that needed to be done and wandering the beach, and they
 would just stroll away from him. He was socially shunned
 throughout the day but he still had his pentagon in which he
 found some relief with his cabin boy and the junior officers.
At a north point on the island concealed away from view
 was what had become an enlisted club. They would tell stories,

mock and berate each other, and when no women were present
 they would wrestle and fight.
As the ribs for the boat were cut Mike’s guys focused on
 making planks. I told him we would also need a barrel we could
 seal with smoke for fresh water to which he replied, “I got my
 own thing going on now dude.” I felt a little betrayed by that,
 once again it seemed it’s not about results or the objectives, but
 how your ego feels while it’s going on .  
I spoke with Athena, Michael, Jennifer, and Michelle we
 were going to have to institute some system of government or
 they would over run us with pageantry and image and we would
 go back to starving to death. So, we divided the work and used a
 union format but shifted it over to a Roman style senate just as I
 suspected we would need to; like in India we had working casts.
It had been a few months on the island at this point and we
 held our first senatorial meeting. I was appointed governor, to
 manage civil law and resource development. Each Senator
 represented a type of work; fishing, farming, wood working,
 masonry, and ship building.  
Michelle spoke for the wood working cast, “The wood
 working cast, expresses there concern for the high consumption
 of wood due to lack of use of the charcoal. This increases our
 workload needlessly and increases our need for food and water.”
I spoke as the governor, “I understand, if there are no
 objections the charcoal stockpile will be split for food cooking
 with charcoal and maintaining fuel for the boilers since I can
 clearly see from where I am seated it is an obscene amount of
 charcoal we have mustered. We need to start using it, we don’t
 want to have to carve giant statues of people in the hopes that
 any ships that pass by will realize there are people here without
 trees and therefore need help.”    

Athena laughed and said, “I guess that’s what
 happened at Easter Island?” I chuckled and said with a hiss,
“Yesss.” Athena said, “The mason cast objects to the
 thoroughfare our living quarters have become to the workers
 from the militant camp.”  
Mike was there as a representative of the ‘military’
 and yelled out, “Shut the fuck up bitch!” I quickly and sharply
 respond, “Don’t speak to a senator that way!” Mike
 flabbergasted inquired in disbelief, “That’s a senator!!!?”
Athena responded indignantly, “I represent the masons, we
 make the cement, we set the stone, we work the clay, and we
 continue development on the glass working.” Mike looked
 around and asked, “Don’t we all do that?” I replied, “Mike you
 left us and went over there, you’ve been practicing your own
 agenda and frankly you aren’t doing anything but being an
 ambassador to us over here. A lot has changed, I was the one
 that attempted the glass working and managed to make that
 shard and everything else we all did together, but it was far too
 much work for one person to keep track of what he should be
 working on at any given time.” Mike stood up in outrage and
 demanded to know, “What do I get!!?” Michael said, “I speak
 on behalf of the ship builders. Mike you have a lot of influence
 over there, the captain is not a captain anymore and they need
 what you can get them from here, but you don’t bring us
 anything from them and they just won’t work. They’ve had that
 boat for a while and they just don’t seem to fish, it’s like they
 only use it to taunt Artimus.”
Mike replied daunted, “Ahh…they catch a fair amount
 of fish, so I don’t know why you would believe that.” I as the
 governor interjected, “So recognized! Rations of fish to the
 militant camp are halted.” Mike said, “Wait! what!? you think

you don’t work for them or for me!?” Michelle shouted out,
“We absolutely don’t! You declared us natives remember?”
Mike said, “Ahh, Okay…wait. You guys are
 separate…that explains some of the things I’ve been hearing.
Ya, stop the fish, they’ll still need some water but I think they’re
 about to figure a lot of things out.” Tammy asked, “Didn’t we
 help them build a still?” Mike blurted out, “They broke it.”
Mike stood there frozen in a way that gave us all
 pause. Then he said, “Okay, I’m the ambassador from the
 military. You guys are separate. I need to go talk to them to
 figure out how they thought this was going to work…this makes
 no sense.” Tommi stood up and joseph sitting next to her goose
 necked to look up at her startled by how quickly she popped to
 her feet, and she said, “So recognized!!”
Mike got back to the landings and announced, “Okay
 guys, here’s the thing. I just got back from their ‘senate meeting’
 and we have been collecting fish rations despite the fact we are
 now catching fish. That stops.” McCree said, “What?!! How
 many fish are they catching?” Mike replied, “About the same as
 us, they are still making the water because you guys broke your
 still and they going to keep doing that. No one has collected
 grain since the first time. They are separate.” Eric Milson
 retorted, “I should’ve known you would fuck it up.” Mike
 laughed and pointed at Eric and said, “Ya, and that’s not all. I’ve
 been over there with our work crew and seen you guys just
 hanging out in their cabana’s because our lean-to’s suck. That’s
 their homes you’re just wandering through. That also stops.”
Atrisia blurted out, “Or what!?” and Mike just glared
 at her. She repeated more respectfully, “Or what?” looking
 around for social support and shrugging in genuine naiveté.
Mike replied, “Look bitch, don’t take it there. We are making

planks for that boat they told us how to do that and they are
 bending the ribs for it, they are doing the hard part. They
 showed you how and helped you make a still and you broke it
 and just waited for them to make more.” McCree said,
“okay,okay..okay” holding out her hand signaling mike to calm
 down and Atrisia pulled at McCree’s arm to turn her slightly
 leaned into to make eye contact then peered around in the hopes
 everyone could see the seriousness in her eyes and she said, “Or
 what?” with a dismissive facial expression.
Mike was so frustrated tears came to his eyes and he
 cried through the statement, “Look bitch stay away from them.”
Atrisia in a hyper active fit of frustration herself demonstrating
 the demeanor of a kindergarten teach nodding her head with a
 passive aggressive smile repeated, “Okay” several times then
 added, “Or what?”    
Artimus stepped up and said, “Or we’ll build a cage
 for you.” Atrisia was perplexed, the captain being stripped of his
 station had translated in to his being shunned which she would
 destroy be engaging in a conversation with him or by responding
 to what he had just said. She wagged her finger at him with a
 single flick and said, “Fuck you.” and walked off.  
Artimus looked around and thought everyone
 appeared angry and confused so he asked mike, “What is it they
 want?” Mike responded, “Near as I can tell, some fairness. They
 shouldn’t have to feed us or provide us water. We are helping
 with the boat, but that’s to get out of here, we aren’t even
 handling our own survival.” Artimus looked around and several
 of the people there were shaking their hands with pursed lips
 indicating he wasn’t supposed to speak. Artimus asked, “Is that
 too much to ask? Would you expect anything different?”

Hudlow stumbled up and said with the tone of a
 remorseful confession, “I’m different. I have spiders, or crabs,
 or both.” Artimus looked at him and said, “Now that’s
 something we can all get behind.” and everyone stormed off.
As the sunset there was a haunting song on the breeze.
Athena had managed to make from clay an Ocarina. She played
 form the mountain top and it was a soothing song. The holes had
 been placed just ring for binaural tones that were just hypnotic.
The stars raced across the sky as puffy clouds drifted by, with a
 beautiful woman atop a mountain singing a lullaby.
The weather was changing toward the cold and we had
 only taken small scraps of hide from that boar, too small to turn
 into refined leather. I started working on heavier clothing the
 next morning. Dave Miles asked, “What’s up?” I replied, “It’s
 going to get colder at least at night, season is changing.” Dave
 said, “Alright.” I worked on that vest for the first half of the day
 and Michelle did the same she said we’d probably need some
 hats and they’d probably look like oversized socks.  
Tim was looking for more boar with Tommi, Mitch
 was on the boilers and tammy had the mountain watch. The
 work detail for the planks was taking a sabbatical and Mike had
 sent word they had something’s to straighten out first before
 they had anymore going on.  
Our sundial that doubled as a farmer’s almanac would
 have to be marked for the seasonal change and any change in the
 food producing plants, including what the boar ate and hopefully
 the sea wouldn’t be affected, but it was flying fish we were
 catching.  
I still had a secret project in a secluded place on the
 island that I needed to be able to slip away to. Working on my

thicker vest and as the governor there were simple management
 tasks to attend to.
Our farmers were cutting away some grass for an
 agricultural field and for some reason the term ‘farm’ just wasn’t
 catching on. It was more sorghum they intended to plant since
 there was an outside risk that the militant group would over
 harvest or even slash and burn to gain leverage.
Artimus was breaking the ice and trying to end this
 social shunning he was being subjected to. He had found that
 emotional pleas were well received; he figured it solicited some
 kind of guilt. He had seen ship board gangs in previous duty
 assignments and decided that was the way he needed to go. Even
 in the face a federal prosecution for thing that were obviously
 crimes they maintained their place within their gang and stayed
 loyal.    
The work on the boat continued it looked as though it
 would take about two weeks per rib and we had several planks
 but there thickness was really only good for decks. We natives
 were in a steady maintainable pace making progress and living
 our lives, but over at the landing site in the militant camp things
 were getting tougher.
Artimus was beginning to play the militants against
 each other and was renewing political adversaries . During the
 day Artimus was out to be seen by the remnants of his crew and
 at night he was within the confines of the pentagon with the
 closest thing to peers he had. Midday whilst Artimus was
 campaigning, the junior officers were talking about the hell he
 was about to bring on them and their fears of a civil war with the
 natives.
Swishzel said, “One thing I can’t emphasize enough is
 that if he isn’t a captain any more than we aren’t officers at all,

not ensigns, not lieutenants, just more beach trash like what’s
 out there and I’m not sure we can hold our own.” Clarkson
 replied, “You don’t know what he is really like, admiral Dufsin
 made me his baby sitter and instructed me to always present in
 the way he had presented to the admiral…just as an obnoxious
 pain in the ass.” Spayner commented, “I thought that was just
 how you were.” Clarkson sniped, “He makes it easy for me.
He’s a two steps forward three steps back guy.” Capes
 interjected, “I think the phrase is ‘two steps forward one step
 back’ or is that what you meant.” Clarkson sighed, “That is the
 phrase but I did intentionally get it wrong.” Mr.Lees had been
 laying low sulking but was once again engaging in social
 activities, he seemed to break his vow of silence and said, “We
 don’t have a lot to stand on, I figured nothing like this would
 ever happen but if I lived back in the days when it could have I
 knew what I would do and I turned out to be dead wrong on both
 counts. I would normally think we just need to snap them back
 into order, but the captain tried that and it was a mistake. I’ve
 been dead quiet thinking of joining the natives but what Dave
 did blew that and I have the fact that the good guy I had over
 there came back and has been leading here. I thought that was
 my way in, but it turns out he burnt his bridges over there
 because he has an agenda too.”
Spayner said, “I don’t think we need to worry about
 them attacking us we don’t have anything they would want.”
Lees responded, “That’s the problem that’s keeping me up at
 night, we have nothing over them but we have so little we’re a
 threat. We need to make enough headway ourselves so that there
 is no conflict, then over produce somewhere so that we have
 something for trade. I overheard them talking at the opening in
 the trees and they expect that boat they are building to take as