Second Chances (95 page)

He waited the murmurs out then nodded. “And since Sam and Paul aren't here....” He went on to give the brief of their progress, complete with images and the map behind him. Then his tone turned dark as he gave them the full details about how they'd been screwed by the Tropic Village and what they were doing about it.

“Shunning. It's hard, but we've got to do it,” Anne said with a grim nod. “I don't like what it does to their kids, but their parents aren't thinking of them in the same way we are. So, we'll adapt. We've gone this long without them,” she said.

“Yeah, but they got away with it,” Ivan said sourly.

“Did they? Sure they got the seeds and help from us, but did they in the long run? Now we know what they are up to. Now other communities do too. They won't trade on credit anymore with anyone. I've overheard even Dunn refuse to come to them or trade unless they paid up front,” Jolie said, smiling darkly. “Then there are the other communities. They are getting the benefit of trading and talking with us. Just the intel we provide for free is a major boon,” she said with a nod to Mitch.

“But they can then sell it to the Tropics or the Tropics can listen in,” Lisa said.

Jolie looked at Mitch but he shrugged. “We're not going to cut them off or stop them from listening in. If someone wants to resell to them, we'll take note of it. At least they'll profit from the exchange. We'll still get paid.”

“Could we have done things differently?” Bill asked.

Mitch shrugged. “Could have, would have, should have. It's done now folks; we can't change what happened. The best we can do is learn from it,” he said. They nodded or murmured.

“The burned hand teaches best,” Anne's voice said, cutting over the discussion. The room quieted.

“What about the aliens?” Candy asked from the front row.

“Which ones?” Piotr asked, looking up from where he had been studying his tablet. “The ones on this planet or this continent or out in our system?”

Candy stared at him, clearly taken aback.

“I think she means the squids. The ones that transported us here. By the way, I heard about the floating ones around Crash Town. Any relation?” Bill asked.

“Not that we know of,” Jolie said, shaking her head. “I've talked with Warrant Brown. I know Ducky spoke with Laura Hinkley their Aussie zoologist in Crash Town. She's pretty sure they aren't related. From the images we've got, they look like Man-o-war. But they use lighter than air gasses to float in the air.” She frowned and tapped at her tablet then turned as the image on the main screen changed to that of the Meme on one side, then the floating jellyfish. She grimaced when she realized the image of the jellyfish she'd pulled up was that of one feeding on a luckless Hadrosaur. “Sorry,” she said, taking it down.

“But what about the Memes? Aren't they coming back?”

“So far we know of only the one return,” Mitch said. “The alien didn't say anything; it just marked up our map and then took off,” he said. He turned and used his tablet to change the main screen to the map with the alien markings. “And Arby and Adrian are still in the dark about what it means,” he said, shaking his head.

“But when are they coming back?” Candy asked. “Are they going to just leave us like this? What about Earth?”

Mitch exhaled slowly then shrugged. “I have no clue when they'll show. It could be in a minute, in a month, year, no clue. They are
alien
robots; they do things on their own timetable apparently.”

“But they said we're inheritors. Isn't that supposed to mean something?” Tao asked.

Mitch spread his hands. “Did it in Halo? No clue. Again, no idea. Aliens, folks, they have their own minds, their own ways of doing things. They may be watching us and judging us. Or they may be busy working on other things. I don't know. They could mean that our kids will inherit something. Again, no clue. All we can do is speculate right now. We'll have to wait and see to find out. Until then I'm going to do my best to live my life and take care of my family.” He turned to indicate Cassie holding Tucker, then Sandra.

“Here here,” Bill said.

“We're all set for winter, Ivan and Hejira already told you we've had record harvests,” Mitch said, nodding to the two of them. “And I know Mags has started culling, so we'll have plenty of meat. Dark meat, but we can't have everything,” he said, teasing her.

“Bitch bitch,” she said but there was a twinkle in her eye. “No one's forcing you to eat a drumstick. Though I'm tempted,” she said. He snorted and turned to the watching audience.

“We've stockpiled plenty of materials like carbon fiber cloth for the winter manufacturing. Our energy budget is only 10 percent greater than what it was this time last year since we did so much exporting of solar panels and wind turbines, but we're good.” He looked over to Bob as he came in the room. The man was disheveled and a bit put out over missing the meeting.

“I think we've covered all the bases,” Anne said, rising to her feet. “I know the breakfast crew and the vets have a lot of work in the morning. Ivan and Hejira too,” she said, smiling to the farmer and botanist. Like the cooks and vets they were up before the crack of dawn to do their chores. “So, in consideration of them, let's call this. Those of you who want to stick around and talk, have at it,” she said, waving a hand. “I'm for bed.”

“This little guy is too,” Cassie said, bouncing Tucker. The little boy yawned, then curled a fist in her hair and tugged. “If I can get the little imp to let go,” she said. Candy chuckled and smiled indulgently to her. One by one they broke up, murmuring thanks to Mitch and the department heads.

------*------

“Sorry you didn't get a chance to talk, Bob,” Anne said. “I didn't see you come in. I did let you know when,” she said. She felt an insistent tug on her hands from the twins.

“I was busy,” he mumbled. “I forgot. You should have waited,” he said.

“We can't wait for everyone. I thought you had something important to do and we went on without you. Next time,” Anne said.

“You should have waited,” Bob said petulantly, then walked off. Anne shook her head and took the twins off to bed.

------*------

When Jolie got tired of the whining from Tropic town she went on the radio with Phyllis and some of the Amazon survivors. They took turns and described their first encounter with Mitch, how the Amazon Village had been set up, how he'd tried to help, been supportive, provided food, advice, and gear, and how Mistress Tabitha had returned his generosity by whipping him.

“Yes, you heard me, whip. She was a bitch, so was Diane. I'm not sorry they are dead. I'm glad. Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Jolie said, tears streaking down her face. “What bothers me is I
watched
. I stood there and watched it happen. I did nothing, I was scared. This good man, noble in his own way. He didn't deserve that. He's trying to
help
! Even after he'd left for what he thought was the last time we talked him into going back. He braved a blizzard and animals to rescue people who hated his guts! Can't you see that?” She paused when she felt Phyllis massage her shoulders.

“No, you
can't
. You can't see past your greedy noses. He's being fair; we all are. We listen to your bullshit, your excuses and it makes me
sick
,” she snarled. “You are getting just what you deserved. Live with it or change, your choice,” she growled, cutting the channel.

“That's telling them girl,” Phyllis said. Jolie looked up all water eyed and then smiled a wan smile. The other ladies all nodded as they filed out, patting the girl on the shoulder in passing.

Chapter 44

Just before mid-fall when the leaves had changed into a riot of beautiful colors but before they finally started to fall from the trees, Jackie found a community 700 kilometers almost completely due east of the Jewish settlement. It was quite impressive, built on the steep foothills of the local mountain with a river on the east side and a growing series of castle walls made out of earth, wood, metal, and stone. Their water wheels along the river, turning slowly. A wind turbine was on the side of the mountain behind the fortress, up the steep cliffs. From the look of things they were doing quite well for themselves. She noted the location and then programmed the drone to return. Then she picked up the radio and alerted Jolie to the good news.

The next morning after the long range drone returned she staged her plane there and landed nearby.

She found the settlement was made up largely of Europeans and people from northern Africa. There were a hundred people, a number that surprised her until she noted a lot of the people were newborns or toddlers. Apparently they'd had a bit of a baby boom in the past year. Hopefully they had enough supplies to keep everyone fed all winter she thought.

They were happy to see her, eager for the new contact. A few people were familiar faces she'd seen when the aliens had called them during the winter. She hugged Anna Huber and Yulia Peeters. The blond Yulia was from Belgium; she'd gone to the states on vacation a few times and spoke English. She was a tall woman, thinner than the shorter and plumper Anna. Anna was from Austria and spoke English slowly. She looked like the classic milk maid with her long brown braids and dusky freckles on her cheeks. Anne like a lot of the women wore a simple brown dress, stained and patched here and there. She was self-conscious about her opinion, wiping at her apron and smoothing out the wrinkles. Jackie smiled politely to her. “Sorry about just dropping in unannounced,” she said. Anna smiled back. She let Yulia do a lot of the translating and introductions.

Jackie shook hands with Sebastian Mayer, the crag faced leader of their community. At first Jackie was a bit put off by the acne scars and cold look, but when Yulia translated that they had beer she'd perked up. “Beer!” Jackie said with a grin. That got Mayer chuckling enough to break the ice.

She took the tour as they secured her aircraft in the courtyard of their fortress. It was nice, a bit medieval, but it worked. She nodded and murmured approving noises. They'd done their best to integrate ideas they'd picked up from the one reunion but were eager to improve themselves even more. That reminded her of her care packages, so she went back to the plane with a quizzical Yulia and then pulled one of the duffels out. She handed it to the woman.

“Inside is a med kit, a flash stick with everything we've learned about the planet and other useful stuff, and a bunch of other survival tips and tricks,” she said. Yulia blinked in surprise. “Sorry, it's all in English though, so you'll have to translate.”

The tall blond woman nodded, smiling politely as she took the bag. She peeked inside and then smiled even more when she pulled the box with the red cross on it. “To have such things and...” she nearly teared up. She wiped at her nose as she turned away. Jackie patted her on the arm.

“What are friends for?” she asked. Yulia nodded.

That evening they had a feast of celebration of her arrival. She took the guest of honor seat in the great lodge and listened as the natives chattered in various languages. She knew a few words, but they spoke so fast she was quickly lost. She ate daintily; they had a lot of dishes she wasn't sure about. She didn't want to insult them, but she also didn't want the trots ten thousand feet up either.

Yulia told her they were in contact with a group 350 kilometers southeast of them, behind a small mountain just on the edge of a desert. That community was from the Middle East; they brought caravans of goods by animals once or twice a year.

Yulia reported that they were also in trade with another community, this one made up of Siberians somewhere far north of them. They had only the one trade from the previous year though, and it had been some time since they'd last made contact. “Yuri Gagoravich made it all the way here on his own. We thought him half mad, and we were certain he was all mad when he insisted on returning alone,” she said, shaking her head in memory. “We saw him and a few of the others in his community at the meeting, so we know they were okay then. I hope they survived the winter; it was hard,” Yulia said. Jackie nodded and made a note.

To her surprise they also informed her they were in regular radio contact with a group across the sea 400 kilometers to the east. These were from Iceland and Greenland. They had explored their territory and had reported that they were on a large crescent shaped island. They were also the only community there. Jackie kicked herself for not having the long range drone with her. It would have been a hop over the water to see the other community. She sighed to herself.
Next time
, she thought.

“That stacks up with what our intel people have turned up,” Jackie said out loud to the group with a nod. “So, we've just got the southern communities left.” She smiled.

“Excuse me?”

“Scouting. We've been in a bit of a competition on who would find and contact each of the communities,” Jackie explained with a whimsical smile. “I'm in the lead.”

“I see,” Yulia replied. She squirmed a bit, adjusting the dusky brown bodice she had on to contrast the plain brown dress and stained apron. Jackie shook her head. Damned if she'd ever wear such an outfit. She silently thanked Mitch again for saving her ass and letting her do what she was doing.