He opened his eyes to see a blonde, mature woman with a med-scanner in her hand. “I’m Doctor Lois Strauss. How’re you feeling, Commander?”
He paused and took stock, “Weak, but better.”
“Good. I had a bear of a time flushing those nanites out of your system. We knew the locals had medicine, but we didn’t realize how advanced it was.” She snapped the scanner closed. “The nanites fixed most of your injuries, but they were destroying your red blood cells. In fact, you were just about dead when Lindsay brought me here. Now that they’re out, you’ll be weak until your red blood count is close to normal, but you should be good as new in week or so. In the meantime …” She paused and looked over her left shoulder. “Looks like you have a guest for the next few days.”
Another woman stepped into his view, the one who had come out on the porch with the shotgun. She was no longer wearing the battered jumpsuit. Instead she wore blue jeans and a shiny black t-shirt. Colt noticed she was quite pretty and looked her over appreciatively. Her oval face and high cheekbones perfectly framed her green eyes and wide, expressive mouth. Auburn, sun-streaked hair fell softly on her shoulders. He became aware that she stood almost as tall as he did and had a strikingly feminine figure.
“No way!” the woman exploded. “He’s not my guest. He’s Royal Navy!”
The doctor looked at her, “Lindsay, you know as well as I do he didn’t have anything to do with Ed’s death. You can’t take it out on everyone who’s in the navy.”
“Still, he is navy,” Lindsay grumbled.
“Yes, and he’s human.” She nodded at Colt. “From the med-scanner results I’d say he was injured nearly ten days ago, and very lucky to be alive.” She looked at Colt. “How did you get in this shape anyway?”
Colt hesitated. “I was running away from a pack of rebel militia and fell off a cliff.”
Lois caught the hesitation. “We’re not rebels, so you don’t have that to worry about.” She glanced at Lindsay. “If you don’t want him, I’ll take him home with me.”
“Oh, what the hell! Fine! He can stay till he’s healed up.” Lindsay didn’t seem very pleased, and for a moment Colt wondered if he really wanted to stay.
Doctor Strauss didn’t seem to notice. “Good,” she said. “Tell me, you ride Sarah and Sampson, right?”
Lindsay looked puzzled, “Yes?”
“Your guest will regain his strength faster if he can get in an hour or so of riding every day. Riding will exercise his muscles without stressing them too much. ”
“What?”
“You can get rid of him sooner. Just make sure he doesn’t fall off.”
“But, how do I get him on a horse?” Lindsay sputtered.
“You’ll think of something.”
For a moment Colt wondered if Doctor Strauss had winked at him. “You’ll be all right here until you can travel, Commander.” She pointed to a disk on his forearm. “I wouldn’t do anything strenuous, such as getting out of bed, until your blood count reaches at least fifty on that counter. That won’t take long, two or three hours, but do take it very easy for the rest of the day.”
###
Colt slept through until the next morning. He woke feeling like he was going to live after all. A sound from the hall drew his attention, and a small freckled face peeked around the door frame.
“Hi. Who are you?” Colt asked.
A red-haired boy with bright green eyes eased into the room. “I’m Brady, and that’s my bed. Who are you?”
“You can call me Gus.”
“Is that your real name?”
“It’s my real nickname. It comes from August, which is my real name.”
“Mom says you’re navy. Are you?”
“I am. Doesn’t your mother always tell you the truth?”
“Yes, but she said it funny.”
“Oh, I see. So how old are you, young man?”
“I’m four and a half.”
“That would make you about nine in Earth years.”
“That’s what mom says.”
“And what grade are you in school?”
“Summer third,” Brady answered proudly. Summer meant he had started school in the summer, and third was equivalent to third year on Earth. “Do you have any kids?”
Before he answered, Colt levered himself up and put a pillow behind him. “I did have a little girl,” he responded in a subdued voice.
Brady eyed Colt as if appraising him, “Is she grown now?”
Colt winced, “No, Brady. She died.”
“Oh.” Brady walked to the window and looked outside. “My daddy died,” he said, his voice flat.
“I know. I am sorry to hear that.”
Brady turned back to look at him. His eyes were emotionless. “What was your little girl’s name?”
“Her name was Caitlin.”
“Was she pretty?”
Colt had to pause a second to keep from being overwhelmed. “Yes, she was,” he answered.
Brady walked over to the bed. “I bet you loved her very much. I loved my daddy.”
“I’m sure you did.”
Brady’s eyes filled with tears. “I miss him … a lot.”
Colt didn’t say anything. Instead, he put his left hand on Brady’s head and mussed his hair gently.
“Brady! Get away from there!” Lindsay stalked into the room. “I told you not to bother the commander!”
“He’s no bother, Mrs. Hansen.”
Lindsay ignored him and ushered Brady out of the room. “Scat!” she said, patting him on the rear. Then she looked back at Colt. She growled, “If I ever catch you touching my boy again―” She started out of the room.
Colt pushed himself up in the bed and called out, “Now, just a damn minute! You come roaring in here like I’ve done something awful or you expect me to do something really bad. I’ll grant that you don’t have any obligation to like me; that’s your decision. But I would appreciate a little respect at least. I’m not your enemy.”
Lindsay paused and looked at him, face blank. “No, you’re not,” she said without emotion. “I’ll have your breakfast ready in a minute. There are clothes on the chair. If you want to eat at the table, put them on and join us.” She turned and left the room.
Chapter 16
After breakfast Lindsay reluctantly helped Colt get ready for his riding lesson. Then she sent him to the barn while she finished her morning chores. Outside he leaned on his crutches and studied the barn’s distinctive architecture. Its semicircular roof of corrugated metal rested on a half-meter-thick, two-meter-high wall of fused earth. The service doors at each end stood open to let the early summer warmth escape into the morning breeze. Beside each service door and along the sides of the building, smaller entries in the form of airlocks stuck out like warts. As he hobbled into the front of the barn, Colt noticed how heavily the building was padded. He could imagine that the six month long winters produced some harsh storms and the barn had to be well insulated to protect against them.
Inside the barn, stock enclosures of various kinds lined one side and stalls for the horses and cattle lined the other, each serviced by one of the entry locks. Most of the doors stood open with the animals in their outside corrals, except for one hen that strutted around loose inside the barn, clucking indignantly at the intrusion.
Lindsay came in behind him and walked to one of the stalls where a very large, heavyset black horse that Colt later learned was a draft horse, a Shire mare, stood. Lindsay quickly tossed a thick, russet colored pad with stirrups on the horse’s back, and strapped it securely in place. She then led the horse out of the stall.
Lindsay was wearing jeans and a green plaid work shirt with her hair tucked into a white baseball cap that said “Egrets” in blue letters above the bill. As she walked up with the horse, Colt couldn’t help but be drawn once again to both her face and figure.
“Are you going to gawk or ride?” Lindsay asked with disdain.
He looked at her for several seconds. Her face h
ad started to turn red before he answered. “Look, I know you’ve suffered a great loss, and I’m sorry, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I can because I have some things I need to do.”
Lindsay didn’t ask but he felt a need to continue, “I have to at least try to notify the Admiralty about what’s going on here, and I need to find out what happened to my crew from the Clermont and see what I can do about them. In the meantime, it would be nice if you could at least be civil.”
“You mean you need to tell the Admiralty and the Colonization Board about the natives,” she snapped.
“They both already know about the natives,” Colt responded. “That wouldn’t be telling them anything new. I need to tell them that my ship was destroyed and that I, and my crew, might be the only ones left alive.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” For a moment she dropped her eyes. When she looked up, she said in a quiet, but sullen voice, “Let’s do this.”
She led the horse to a platform along the front wall, and Colt followed her. She pointed at the stairs leading to the platform. “Up there, or do you need help?”
“I’ll manage.” He caught the handrail attached to the wall and laid his crutches on the stairs. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to climb up to the platform. She watched, biting her lip. For a moment a smile flickered across her face when he reached the top.
“Before you mount up, say hello to Sarah.”
Colt reached out and stroked the massive horse’s neck. “Hello there, girl.”
“Okay. Can you swing your right leg over her back? Take hold of her mane with both hands to steady yourself.”
Colt reached out to grip the mane. “I’ve always wanted to try riding, but I never had the chance before. I didn’t realize horses were this big.” He leaned toward Sarah until he got his knee across her back and then slowly slid onto the riding pad.
Lindsay walked around to the horse’s right side and helped guide Colt’s foot into the stirrup. “Can you get the other side?”
Colt leaned forward and reached down with his left hand. A wave of dizziness swept over him, and he slipped forward, catching the horse’s neck with his right arm.
“Hey!” she blurted. “I’ll get it. Just don’t fall off.”
As Colt clung to the horse’s neck, Lindsay led her away from the platform and came around to put his left foot in the stirrup. “There. Are you okay now?”
Slowly he straightened up. He hesitated before responding, “Yeah, that dizzy spell just took me by surprise.”
“If you feel dizzy again, let me know right away. I’m not sure I can pick you up.”
She led the horse out of the barn to a fenced enclosure. As she closed the gate, she said, “Lois says that to do this right I should have helpers on both sides of you to make sure you don’t fall off. Since I’m all there is, you’ll have to keep yourself on.” She looked at him, noting his concern. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep it slow and easy. I don’t want you falling off and getting hurt worse. Then I’d have to keep you longer.”
Lindsay led Sarah around the enclosure for several minutes, allowing Colt to get used to the rhythm of the horse’s movement. Then she stopped. “How are you doing?”
“This is surprisingly tiring, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
“Well, don’t get cocky. That’s when you’re most likely to do something stupid and fall on your …”
“I get the picture! Believe me I won’t get careless.”
“Okay. We’ll make this a short one anyway. We’ll go longer as your blood count gets closer to normal.”
After half an hour Lindsay led the horse back into the barn and maneuvered her up to the platform. Colt very carefully brought his right leg across the horse’s back and put both feet on the platform. Then with one hand holding Sarah’s mane he slowly stood up and reached back for the railing at the back of the platform. Catching his breath, he said, “She was astonishingly calm through all this.”
“They call draft horses ‘gentle giants’ for a reason.” She started to lead Sarah back to her stall. “Wait there. I’ll be back to help you get down.”
When Lindsay returned, Colt was sitting on the platform with his feet on the stairs. “I believe I can do this on my own, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to have you close by, just in case.”
She stood by the stairs, reaching up to hold his free hand as he made his way down the steps. As he neared the bottom, he stumbled slightly. She steadied him with the hand she was holding. He puffed, “Sorry, I’m not as strong as I thought.”
“Lois said it may take up to a week for you to regain your strength, even with the riding.”
He looked at her, and for a moment her face softened. He said quietly, “Thanks.” She dropped his hand. “I’m just trying to get you out of here,” she responded, but Colt noted she lacked the intensity she had before.
###
Later that afternoon, Colt poured the final helping of grain into Sarah’s trough. The big horse eyed him warily and then cautiously moved forward to stick her nose into the trough. Colt reached out a hand to scratch between the gentle giant’s ears.
“What are you doing?”
Colt jerked his hand back. Lindsay was standing in the doorway to the barn, her hands on her hips. With the bright outdoors behind her all Colt could see was her curved silhouette.
“I’m trying to earn my keep. I may be weak, but I can carry food to the animals.”
“You don’t know how much to give them!” She objected.
“Brady told me,” he responded, trying to sound reasonable.
“Brady’s not supposed to talk to you!”
“Why not?” He said, allowing anger to creep into his voice. He stepped toward her, resting his hand on the top rail for balance.
“Because you’re…” She started.
“ … Navy?” He finished her sentence. He stopped half a meter in front of her. So close, he could see the tracks of the tears sliding down her face.
“Normally I wouldn’t pry,” he said, “but since you seem to tar me with the same brush, why do you blame Navy for what happened to your husband?”
She broke down sobbing. Instinctively, he reached forward and put his arms around her. He was surprised when she didn’t resist and instead buried her face in his shoulder. “I don’t. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be blaming you.” She pushed back and looked at him. Her face was no longer angry. “It’s not just losing Ed. He and I started this place, and it has been my home for twelve Earth years. Now that the Colonization Board knows about the natives, we’re all going to be shipped off the planet. I don’t want to give it up.”
He stood in silence. He knew he couldn’t truthfully tell her that she wouldn’t lose the farm. In reality, he expected that all the colonists would have to leave the planet. A fundamental law of the Republic said settlers didn’t take planets away from native intelligences, but she already knew that. He didn’t want to hurt her more by bringing it up. “I’m sorry.” He dropped his arms to his sides.
For a moment she turned but didn’t walk away. Then she turned back blinking away more tears. “I know you can’t do anything about it,” she said as if reading his thoughts. “That’s why I’m angry. It’s so unfair.” Then she looked at the horses in their stalls, “Thanks for feeding the animals.”
He followed her outside the barn where a frightened looking Brady ran down from the front porch.
“Mom, the news says there’s fighting at Woomera!” At nine years he couldn’t fully understand what it meant, but the report on the webcast caused fear and excitement. Lindsay ran to the house, and Colt limped after her as fast as he could. When he caught up, she was in the community room staring into the web screen, where men and women behind a barricade were exchanging blaster fire with an unseen foe. Two bodies lay smoldering in the background. Lindsay appeared to be fighting back nausea, her face ashen.
“What’s going on?” Colt asked trying to catch his
breath. She hushed him with her hand and continued to watch the screen as if she couldn’t turn away. An on the scene reporter announced, “The news from Woomera is mixed as the separatists have surrounded the city. Intense fighting has taken place. Home Guard personnel still control most of the city, but so far they have not used their more powerful weapons. According to Colonel Randall Archer, the Home Guard commandant, the governor general has expressly forbidden using blast cannons and short-range missiles within the city.”
The image switched to Archer who said, “We’re trying to avoid civilian casualties. The bodies you see were rebel fighters.”
The reporter reappeared. “Although we are in contact with the Defense Ministry, they aren’t releasing casualty figures at the moment. Other sources report the casualties for Woomera at about a hundred dead and close to fifteen hundred wounded on both sides.”
The screen switched to a man wearing what appeared to be a uniform. He was speaking but the voice-over continued, “In other news, separatist forces have taken Lexington. The local separatist leader, Daniel Cruikshank, was just on the air declaring the town had surrendered. He promised amnesty for all Home Guard troops and loyalist militia who surrender in the next hour. So far over 350 combatants have surrendered with approximately 80 still at large.”
Over a map the reporter continued to talk, “A group of separatists trying to take Johnstown have been surrounded and have given up without a fight.” Clearly the fighting was indecisive. Some cities and towns had been taken by the separatists, but others had successfully defended themselves. Still others had launched counterattacks with varying levels of success. So far the battles had not affected the people in predominantly rural areas, but they continued sporadically.
Lindsay turned away, “My God!” Then she looked at Colt. “You seem to be shocked by all this. I would think you’d be in your element.”
“Just because I’m in the navy doesn’t mean I approve of wars, especially meaningless ones.” He concluded reluctantly, “People get killed in wars.”
Lindsay looked surprised. “If you dislike war, why are you in the military?”
Peacemaker: The Corona Rebellion 2564 AD Page 12