by Marla Monroe
Chapter Fourteen
Edward and Porter stretched as they climbed out of the transport. Five had come early after getting up in the middle of the night. Hannah had insisted on getting up with them to fix their breakfast and pack their lunches. He couldn’t say he was sorry either. She was a great cook and it had been nice to be able to hold and kiss her good-bye before they’d left.
Now as they waited for Cam and Phillip to drive up, Edward wondered what she would do all day. There hadn’t been any weeds yet for her to deal with, but they had found a hole where the crafty creature had dug his way through. It worried them that he could come and go. There was no way to keep him out. All they could really do was keep a watch and fill in the holes.
“There they are.” Porter pointed at the slowly materializing dot on the horizon that soon became a transport like theirs.
When the other two men jumped down to greet them, Edward was suddenly antsy to ask them about the stranger animal.
“Hey, we saw an odd-looking thing last night. Hannah had already seen it the night before but it looks like this.” Edward handed them the picture she’d drawn.
Porter filled them in on his take on the creature and how it had reacted when he’d opened the door. Cam and Phillip nodded as they passed the drawing back to them.
“That’s an animal we don’t know much about at all. Actually, we’ve never gotten close enough to get a good look of one before. They were devastating our crops when we first got here, but now we don’t see as much of them or their damage as we did to begin with,” Phillip said. “Cam’s got a theory but it’s sort of farfetched.”
“What sort of theory?” Edward asked. “Is it dangerous? I don’t like leaving Hannah there alone when it can come and go all it wants to.”
“We don’t think it’s dangerous. We’ve never seen teeth on it, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Cam said. “The thing is, it would root up our plants when we first started planting. It did a lot of damage. We staked it out, trying to get a good glimpse of what it was so we could figure out how to stop it. We only saw parts of it though. It would be coming up out of the ground then disappear again.”
“We tried shooting at it, but the thing was fast and just buried itself underground too fast for us to catch it,” Phillip interrupted.
“Then they didn’t seem to be messing with our crops anymore and we thought maybe we’d scared it off and there weren’t enough of them around to bother us with the small area we were cultivating,” Cam continued.
“So it isn’t a problem anymore?” Porter asked.
“No. Actually, if Cam’s theory is correct, we need the little buggers,” Phillip said with a chuckle.
“What do you mean?” Edward asked, frowning.
“Sometimes when you’re out checking the crops and moving the irrigation systems around, you’ll end up with your foot in a hole. It’s one of theirs, so be careful so you don’t break an ankle or a leg.” Cam leaned back against their transport. “They aren’t digging up the plants because they want them to grow. They eat some of the roots beneath the plants. I think that their digging beneath the ground helps aerate the roots in this rich soil, stirring up the nitrogen they need to grow faster. Also, we don’t have bugs or insects here to pollinate the plants. It’s the animals that help spread it so that we get our fruits and vegetables.”
“I had wondered how that happens without insects to spread the pollen. I was picturing us out here trying to germinate plants all day,” Porter said with a sigh.
“That’s why most of the trees around here are so short. The larger animals are what help spread the pollen and again, the seeds. Those mantis things are the tallest creatures we’ve seen so far. Without something taller, there’s no way the seeds would be created,” Cam explained.
“So these creatures that burrow below ground are shaking the plants so that they pollinate each other,” Edward said astounded.
“That’s my theory anyway. So far, we don’t know how else it’s happening. We haven’t seen special bugs come out at night so there isn’t much else that would explain it,” Cam said.
“The only other possibility,” Phillip began, “is that the near constant mild wind helps the process. It’s always windy to a certain degree here, so get used to it.”
“This place is weird,” Porter said, shaking his head.
Edward agreed with him there. Still, they had a better chance at survival here than they did back on Earth. He’d take his chances here. He just had to figure out how to keep Hannah safe. She meant everything to him. He loved her so…
Whoa! Love? I’m in love with her? I can’t be this quick.
“What do you think, Edward?” Porter asked him.
“What? Sorry. I was thinking about that animal,” he lied.
“We’re going to work on moving the irrigation equipment through the fields today while they finish planting the last few fields they have on this side.” Porter watched him with an odd expression on his face.
“Sounds good. How far apart are the wells we’ll be using? Do we need extra water pipes?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t today. The wells are pretty evenly placed so that we don’t weaken the pipes by having to screw too many together,” Phillip said. “Keeps us from having to monitor them so closely with so few of us. There aren’t any leaks to drown a field that way.”
Edward nodded and the four men broke up to attend to their assigned duties for the day. Edward continued to toss around the idea that he’d fallen in love with Hannah. It wasn’t as if there was anything wrong with loving her. He was just worried it was too soon. He didn’t want to inadvertently say something that she’d take as him being flippant about it when he was serious.
“How are you feeling about leaving Hannah alone now that we know she’s pregnant?” Porter asked out of the blue nearly an hour later.
“I don’t much like it, but we don’t have a lot of choice,” Edward admitted.
“Yeah, Phillip and Cam talked about it being hard when Lacy had been pregnant. Still, they said once she got closer to time one of us should stay with her.” Porter pushed on the wheels of the irrigation line they were moving.
“How are we going to know when to start staying home with her? They said she wouldn’t last more than six or seven months at the most. That’s weird, too. Why not nine months like back on Earth? We’re still originally from Earth.” Edward didn’t like thinking that they were already changing to something different.
“I’ve been wondering that myself. I thought about the fact that we have an extra hour in our day, so that would cut a little out of her pregnancy. Then there’s the fact that we’re eating food grown on this planet and have some sort of weird-assed cell or enzyme in our systems now that could have some affect on how long it lasts,” Porter said.
“I sure hope we made the right decision to come here, Porter.”
“What choice did we have? I mean besides the fact that Earth is a ticking time bomb about to go off, they didn’t exactly give us much of a choice when they recruited us.”
Edward nodded absently as he set the break on the irrigation boom. “I hadn’t really thought about that at the time, but you’re right. They didn’t really ask, they just told us where to go and when to be there. I suppose we could have refused, but that would have been suicide.”
“Some of the women weren’t given a choice even when they said they wanted to stay with their families,” Porter pointed out. “I don’t know for certain, but I heard rumors that they actually took some women from their husbands because they were still fertile and their husbands didn’t have any skills they thought would lend themselves to colonizing a new planet.”
“I hadn’t heard that. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d been married and they wanted my wife but didn’t want me. I mean, she’d have a chance at living, whereas, if she stayed behind, she’d die for sure. How do you make that kind of decision?” Edward felt as if someone had walked across his grave with the shiv
er that ran down his spine.
“I guess you don’t have to worry about it since you wouldn’t have been making a choice. They’d have just taken her from you,” Porter reminded him.
“Hell. No more talk like this. It’s depressing and we need to be upbeat and happy that we’re here and alive. We’ve got a son on the way and a wonderful, amazing wife at home waiting on us,” he said, shoving all the negative crap out of his head.
“You’re right. We’re lucky to have her. We could have been stuck with Gladys,” Porter quipped.
“Bite your tongue.” Edward grinned. He had a quick thought that he owed the other woman a thank-you for skipping out on them. Thank goodness he’d never have to tell her though.
“Okay. Last one for the morning. I’m ready for lunch. What about you?” Porter asked him.
“Sounds good to me.” He followed the other man back toward where they had parked the buggy. “Have you seen any of the holes Phillip and Cam were talking about?”
“One. I nearly stepped in it when we pulled that first system over.”
Edward frowned. Had he seen any? He couldn’t remember now. He started paying attention and found that he saw several just between there and where the transport was parked. He seemed to naturally avoid them somehow. He shook his head at the oddness of it. How did he know where to avoid putting his foot? It wasn’t like he normally paid that close attention to where he walked. Normally he was too busy manhandling the danged irrigation equipment to look down at his feet.
If he didn’t step in a hole or nearly step in one by the end of the day, he’d talk to Porter about it then. It all just seemed silly now that he was sitting down and eating. He could clearly see several of the small holes scattered around where they were eating. How could you possibly manage not to step in one when you weren’t paying attention? They seemed to be everywhere.
“Wonder what Hannah will have for dinner tonight?” Porter asked.
“Don’t know, but I bet it’ll be delicious. That woman can cook. She even makes homemade bread better than my grandmother used to. I’d hate to have to keep that a secret when I visited her on Sundays.”
“No kidding. She mentioned something about making a pie out of some of the natural fruits on the planet. I wonder if she’ll do that today for dessert tonight.” Porter licked his lips with a look of anticipation in his eyes.
“You don’t look like someone thinking about a fruit pie. You’ve got sex on your mind,” Edward said with a grin.
“That’s because you’ve got the same dirty thoughts. I can already taste her sweet juices,” Porter said with a smile of his own.
“I still can’t get over how hot and tight she feels no matter where I am inside of her,” Edward said.
“I know. Makes it hard to decide how to love on her. I don’t want to have to choose. I just want to have all of her,” Porter admitted.
“You love her?” Edward asked before he could stop himself.
Porter’s mouth fell open. Then he closed it and nodded. “Yeah. I love her. She makes me the happiest man alive.”
Edward nodded then grinned. “I’m the other happy fool. I love her, too. I was just trying to figure out how to keep from blurting it out to her.”
“Why?” Porter frowned at him. “You need to tell her.”
“I don’t hear you telling her,” Edward snarled. “I’m afraid she’ll think it’s too soon and I’m just saying the words without meaning them.”
Porter sobered. “That’s why I haven’t said anything either. I mean maybe there is such a thing as love at first sight, but telling her too soon might not make it seem as special to her.”
“How are we going to know when it’s the right time? If we wait until she tells us, she’ll think we’re just saying it because she did.” Edward ran a hand over his face.
Falling in love was a lot harder than it looked. There were way too many decisions that were attached to it. Making the wrong one could screw everything up from the beginning.
“Let’s just tell her when the mood strikes us. Don’t try and keep it to yourself. If you feel like saying it, then say it. I would think she could tell that we mean it.” Porter’s words made sense, but Edward had always been more cautious than most people.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think it to death, Edward, or you might screw up and miss out.”
“I won’t.”
* * * *
Nothing had prepared her for how long the day was going to be without the men there with her. She missed them. Their presence filled every room the moment they walked in, and without them she felt more than a little lost. How was she supposed to get through an entire day without them? Day after long, boring day.
Hannah frowned. What was wrong with her? She’d never been whiney or needy before. She needed to call Lacy and ask the other woman about her weird behaviors. She’d gotten busy fixing the men their breakfast and lunch that morning and forgotten. This was a good time.
With that thought in mind, she grabbed another glass of the stone berry lemonade and carried it with her to the office. After messing with the chair so she’d be comfortable, Hannah fiddled with the dial on the base unit until she had it where she thought it was supposed to be. Then she pressed in on the mike and spoke up.
“Um, Lacy? Are you around? Out.” She nearly forgot to say out every time. Seemed stupid to her.
She waited then repeated her greeting again, waiting a minute or two in between each call. Finally, just when she was about to give up, Lacy’s voice greeted her.
“Hi, Hannah, it’s Lacy, out.”
“I got you! I actually had it in the right place. How are you doing? Um, out.” Hannah wasn’t sure how to talk on the stupid thing. Why couldn’t they just use it like a cell phone?
Hannah heard a chuckle come across the speaker. “I’m fine. Julie has been keeping me busy today. She’s down for a nap now, thank goodness. Out.”
“Um, can we not say out after every sentence?” she asked without saying out.
“Fine with me. I never do when I talk to the others. I do when I talk to the guys though. They’re sticklers for following directions.” Lacy’s soft chuckle let Hannah know she was smiling.
“I wanted to ask some questions if you have time,” she said.
“Go right ahead. I’m just relaxing with some tea while Julie is sleeping.”
“Well, I’m not really sure where to begin. Um when you were pregnant, did you get really thirsty and hungry out of the blue?” She stopped, waiting to see what Lacy would say.
“Well, we figured out that I needed to eat and drink a lot more. I usually ate about five or six small meals a day, but I didn’t really start getting that way until maybe I was two weeks along. Are you that far along?” Lacy asked.
Hannah gasped. “No. I’m only a few days. That’s why I’m asking. It’s scaring me.”
“Um, are you certain there’s not a chance you could be farther along than you are?”
“Oh, I’m certain all right. No exposure means no possibility.” She could feel her face heating. It was dumb for her to be embarrassed talking over the radio to another woman about sex and babies.
“They you must just be anticipating the hunger. I don’t think you should be that hungry already.”
“Well, I sort of thought that, too, but I swear it’s like something is telling me I’m dying of thirst and I start heading for the kitchen before I even realize it.”
“Besides the hunger and thirst, is there anything else?” Lacy asked.
“I got sick yesterday after waking up from a nap. I thought it would be too early to have morning sickness, too,” she said.
“Now that I’m not so sure of. I remember getting sick really early, but I’m not sure how early it was. The good thing is that it passes fast, or at least it did for me and for most of the other women. Elissa lives closer to me than you do and she had the same issue of early morning sickness.”
“Is there anyt
hing more I should be on the lookout for? The weird feeling of having someone telling me what to do is driving me crazy.”
Lacy was quiet for so long that Hannah wondered if she’d lost contact with her. She cleared her throat and called out.
“Lacy? Are you still there?”
“Yeah. I’m here. This is going to sound odd, but do you think that maybe your son is trying to direct you to what he wants or needs?”
“But he’s just a little seed right now, right? How could he be able to do that at only a few days old?”
“He’s about four or five days old, right?”
“Um yeah, I suppose.” Hannah was really getting an odd feeling about this.
“Well, that might be more like four or five weeks in Alpha time. I don’t know, but it would be interesting to have an ultrasound and find out what Dr. Jeff thinks.” Lacy’s voice sounded almost excited.
Hannah didn’t really feel that way right now herself. She was more worried about what to expect and how to deal with a kid that was already that advanced if what Lacy was suggesting was true. It scared the crap out of her.
“Hannah? Are you okay?” Lacy’s voice was full of concern.
“I’m going to kill the guys for this,” she muttered.
“Why?” Lacy asked with obvious amusement in her voice.
“It’s their fault. They immediately started talking to him when we got home the other night. I’m sure he never would have started this if they weren’t egging him on.” Hannah felt like screaming.
Lacy’s laughter sounded warm over the radio’s speaker, but it didn’t make her feel much better. She wasn’t the one living with a mini-me inside of her telling her what to do.
“It sounds to me like you’re just really attuned to what he needs and reacting to it. He’s hungry so you get hungry. He’s thirsty so you get thirsty,” Lacy explained.
“But he gets all he needs all the time. My eating doesn’t help him right then,” she protested.
“Maybe he’s attuned to you then and knows when your body is in need of something even when you aren’t aware of it yet. Think of him as an early warning signal that you are getting low on fuel or water.”