Bootstrap Colony

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Look at it this way Anne. They get the comfort of each other, and they are both candidates for the bank.”

  “Bank?” She looked at him confused.

  “Yeah, they can have Doc implant sperm or even embryos.”

  “Oh.”

  “You see,” he turned to Janet who had stepped up quietly. “According to the computer models I ran, it would take all five thousand women to have four kids each by a different parent to have a healthy sustainable population down the road. Of course that didn’t happen. We were hammered. Now we have to tap the back up.”

  “I doubt Vanessa and Nicole will have any qualms about tapping that bank,” Janet added and then nodded. She patted Anne’s hip. “You said you wanted a kid, how about you?”

  “Me?” Anne squeaked looking up in alarm. She gave Janet a look, and then Mitch before she ducked her head. “Maybe,” she mumbled.

  “You don’t have to be next. Or we can go together?” Janet suggested.

  Mitch rolled his eyes. ”Just what I need, two cases of morning sickness and midnight cravings.”

  Janet glowered at him. “Hush you. Your bright idea... Unless of course you’re volunteering to do it the old fashion way...” she suggested.

  He put his hands up in surrender. “Actually no, I’m good, and glad you’re thinking about this. The more the merrier.” He retreated as Janet and Anne chuckled together.

  Doc came up to him and sat down next to him. The breeze ruffled her hair, he smiled. “Long day Doc?” he asked. She hadn't been back long. She shivered a little. He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders. She pulled it around her, taking in his scent, and then leaned into his arms.

  “Yeah. You could say that it was an interesting one. Seems Hanna, Natali, and Anne want to be impregnated,” she said.

  He smiled. “Yeah, I heard.”

  “Yeah, I thought you had something to do with it. Janet, Phyllis, and Vanessa are behind them too, and plan to get pregnant as well,” she reported. He nodded. “Vanessa still wanted to go with Mike to expand the iron village though, so she wanted to wait until next year. Hanna is going to stay here where it is safe. Mike made it clear he didn’t want kids there.”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “How the hell can he be so cold about it?” she demanded.

  He sighed. ”Triage dear. Triage.” She suddenly clutched his arm. “You know the drill. Save the ones you can. Mike felt it, felt the hurt, but he is a naturalist, an Indian, and a survivor. He knew that a child in nature can be replaced. Self preservation is the most primal of instincts,” he explained. She shivered again. He patted her hair and side.

  “Are you going to take the plunge?” he asked. She didn’t say anything for a while. He watched the kids playing a scratch game of soccer. Henry was nearby, cheering them on.

  “Maybe,” He heard the soft reply. She felt the rumble of his soft chuckle. “Maybe. I am just not sure about bringing a kid up in this world. It is scary.”

  “Yeah, having another Cassie around is downright scary,” he teased. She chuckled at this. “Much better now than before though, you have to admit that.” He felt her nod. He patted her shoulders. “Give it time, give it time.”

  Chapter 16

  Janet's Friday night movie night rolled around and the kids were restless. Some wanted a cartoon, others an action flick. Anne gave Mitch a hard time about not planting popcorn. Teasing him unmercifully he shrugged it off. “Hey, it wasn’t a priority.”

  Janet came up. “She still on to you about that?”

  He shrugged. “Are you kidding? Every week.”

  She chuckled. “Maybe it is a craving.” He gave her a look, and then turned to Anne who was suddenly blushing.

  “You did it?” His tone was questioning, but there was a light excitement in it. Anne nodded.

  Janet grinned. “She is officially knocked up,” she said with a smirk. He hugged them both.

  “With TWINS!” Janet announced.

  “TWINS?” He gave both of them a wide eyed look. “...Okay wow! One Anne is bad enough, but three?”

  Anne gave him a mock glower. “Oh shut up and watch the movie,” she growled poking him.

  Entering the dining area a few days later, Mitch overheard Anne, Janet, and Frances talking. “What’re you ladies up to?” he asked warily.

  “Were just picking out names,” Anne said. He smiled. Frances patted her belly.

  He gave her a look. “Not you too?!?” he demanded, sounding aghast.

  She giggled. “Yeah, but ours is the old fashioned way. A lot more fun for both of us.” She giggled again and then glowered at him. “It’s all your fault anyway.”

  He looked affronted. ”How can you construe that that was my fault?” He indicated her belly. “I didn’t do it!”

  Paul came in behind him and leaned over to kiss his wife soundly. “Nope that was all me.” He grinned at her; she smiled back and then looked at Mitch.

  “If you weren’t chasing Paul here out so often we wouldn’t have to make up for lost time.”

  Mitch sighed in surrender. “Okay, you got me there.”

  Paul smiled and gave his wife a leer. “Yeah, but we more than made up for it...” Janet cleared her throat, and then did it again when they didn’t notice.

  Anne giggled and patted her belly. “Don’t worry dear, your turn is coming,” she teased. Janet sighed.

  Angie piped up: “I do not want a kid now, I am not ready.”

  Paul looked over to her. “That is good. I am glad you realize that.”

  Janet nodded. “Right now you’re on the go, learning to fly, and bouncing all over the area. Getting motion sickness in the air would not be fun.” She grimaced at the thought.

  Anne nodded, and then patted her hand. “You have time dear.”

  Jacklynn agreed with a nod. She had walked in while the others were talking, poured herself a cup and was leaning against the counter. “Right now you have plenty of time. For those of use with our clocked closer to the stop mark though....” She gave Anne and Janet a nod.

  “Once things settle down a bit I may have a go too. We have a day care, so we can still do our jobs,” Jacklynn admitted

  Mitch nodded. “You’re not flying beyond the second trimester though.” She gave him a look. “Unless it is an extreme emergency. I do not want the air pressure change to cause a miscarriage ten thousand feet up,” he said pointedly. She gave a wary nod. He shrugged. “Don’t think of it as being grounded. You can still fly the drones, and tear into the planes to do maintenance.” Both pilots nodded. They had salvaged the remains of his long range drone and putting it back together was going to take a lot of hard work.

  Midsummer arrived and they finished another round of harvests. Hejira reported the vanilla vines were doing well, growing strong and tall, wrapped around one of the artificial trees in the hot house. Most of the other hot house plants were doing well, the vanilla were the ones closest to the edge of extinction before she had come along.

  Sam called in: “Uh, Jack this is Sam, we have ourselves a situation here.”

  Helen answered. “Wait one.” Pete heard and called Mitch in. Mitch arrived at a trot just as Jack did on his end.

  “This Jack Sam, what's up?”

  “Well, it looks like we have a bonified refugee column headed in your direction,” Sam replied from his location overlooking the village.

  “Refugees?” Jack’s return was of mixed weariness, resignation, and wariness. “Ten four.”

  “Looks like they got chewed up pretty good, they are hauling butt from the coastline and it is damn near sunset. It looks like...God! There are hundreds of them!” Sam said. The others muttered in the background.

  Jack came back almost frantic: “I can’t support that many! Where the hell are we going to put them all!”

  Sam grunted. “Worry about that later; let’s get them inside before the damn shark hounds show up.”

  Jack clearing throat. “Yeah, ten four. Good point,�
�� he muttered. “Shit! Go tell Axel we have company coming in and get Nicole prepped. Damn. Damn. Damn. Double damn!”

  Mitch picked up the mike. “Jack this is Mitch, we copied that. I will have Jacklynn and a med team out ASAP.”

  “Med team? Yeah but we need food!”

  Mitch nodded as he clicked the transmit button. “Don’t worry about it Jack, get them undercover and we will get a relief convoy out to you to help out and resettle any who want to do so.”

  “Roger that,” Jack sounded relieved.

  Mitch snapped his fingers to Pete. Pete looked up startled. “Page Jacklynn, and the infirmary. Let them know the situation and to mount up.” Mitch pulled out his Bluetooth as Pete started punching numbers. “Lisa? Hi, we need the plane, loaded and fueled.” Lisa grunted an okay. “Jack has refugees. Okay darlin, thanks,” Mitch said.

  Pete talked in the background. “Okay I will tell him.” He looked up. “Jacklynn said okay, she is on her way to the hangar now. Angie is going to go with her, as are Doc and Cassie.”

  Mitch nodded. “Okay. We really need to bump up a priority for more planes.”

  Pete made a wry face. ”I’ll take it up with management.”

  Mitch smirked and tousled his hair. “Yeah right. “

  “Okay, glad Henry just got that complex done. I think this winter we are going into the factory business,” Pete observed. Mitch nodded. Pete looked thoughtful for a moment. “Thought we needed aluminum?”

  “Yeah, but we can do a lot with carbon fiber. We also have some aluminum and other materials we recycled from the Amazon village.” Mitch nodded to the distant warehouse.

  “Carbon fiber?”

  “Yeah, remember that graphite deposit Phyllis found?”

  “Yeah,” Pete looked dubious. “But isn’t that used to make lead pencils?”

  Mitch chuckled. “It is actually carbon. We use it for a lot of factory stuff, and we can process it to make carbon fiber. Made right it is stronger than steel and lighter then aluminum.”

  Pete’s face cleared. ”And with carbon fiber we don’t have to process bauxite!”

  “Yeah kid, you're catching on. I see you’ve been paying attention in Geology one oh one,” Mitch teased. Pete blushed and grinned.

  “Bauxite is an energy intensive thing to smelt to get alumina. So we do an end run around the problem. Hell, we make the jigs for the plane, we can make as many as we have material for!”

  Pete grinned. “Does that mean I get to get my flying license?”

  Mitch chuckled. “We’ll see. But banging up a plane is a lot less forgiving then denting a fender!”

  Pete wryly grimaced in painful memory. ”Never going to let that go,” he muttered. Mitch waved as he left.

  At Copper Town Jack watched through binoculars as Sam’s road crew met up with the refugees, and then quickly began loading them onto the trucks and vehicles. Jack paused, trying to figure out why. He looked around until Helen nudged him. “Suns almost down, they better get in soon.”

  “Yeah. Get a moved on,” Jack muttered softly. People began dropping their belongings to run as the trucks filled up. People hung from the sides and roof.

  “Damn, like a South American bus!” Jack commented. Helen chuckled. The gate doors opened and people began streaming in. A few stragglers still trying to struggle with their worldly possessions began to scream for help. The trucks stopped outside the walls and Sam yelled for people to get off. They scrambled to obey.

  He turned around as the last refugee got off and ran for the sheltering walls, and then pealed out get to the stragglers. The dreaded hound yips made Jack grimace and Helen pale and clutch at his arm. Another truck finished unloading and rushed off after Sam.

  A third finished and tried to follow the people inside, but Jack waved at him to get back to the stragglers. Reluctantly the driver turned, and then slowly moved off.

  Pops of weapons fire could be heard in the distance. Sam didn’t slow down, barreling through the attacking pack, smashing hammerheads down as his headlights blinded them. He turned, feeling the vehicle almost tip he instinctively leaned the other way. “Not now baby! Not now!” He felt a smash as one of the creatures hits his door, and then talons smashed out his window. He screamed in fright, but popped the truck back into motion and felt the satisfying crunch and bump as the creature was run over.

  He pulled up just as the second truck arrived, pointing in the wrong direction. “Get your asses in!” Sam screamed. People scrambled to obey. One guy tried to climb into the driver’s door, but a hound pulled him off, and then tore him apart. Another hound set in, fighting over the body. Sam pulled his gun and fired, killing one of the animals.

  He fumbled with the satchel at his side, and then pulled out an egg. He pulled the pin with his teeth, and then tossed the grenade out over the heads of some of the people near and in front of the pack. The flash bang went off with a loud boom and flash of light. The people screamed, as did the hammerheads.

  Someone banged on the hood, screaming to go. He pulled out as the third truck pulled up. People screamed for him to stop, he frantically waved for them to move, blaring on the horn. He pointed to the other trucks, but they suddenly turned, some fighting a retreat against the charging predators while others climb on the trucks.

  The fourth flatbed arrived; people climbed on frantically, some tossing their weapons up and then struggling to get aboard. The driver popped it out of neutral and began rolling back to the safety of the walls just as the pack reformed and began to follow. Several of the animals were tearing into the belongings and fallen people. Another flash bang went off, this time the pack ducked or turned away stalling them briefly.

  Jack had the lights flipped on, and then got a volunteer to toss flares out along the path. The creatures chased the trucks in; the screams of those on board and those left behind could be heard over the pops of weapons. Jack bellowed to get the courtyard cleared. Axel rushed about with John the blacksmith, pushing and shoving people aside, cussing all the time. They cleared the yard just in time for Sam to barrel in, slamming to a stop and sending some of his passengers to the ground. Benny pulled in beside him, as did the other truck and two flatbeds. The last flatbed got an unexpected passenger just as it entered the lights; a hammerhead leapt on board and began savaging people. People fled to the back of the cab. The creature hung on, but was blinded by the light. Nictating membranes closed over the eyes as it continued its attack.

  A shot from the wall wounded it, but it didn’t go down until the truck stopped. Axel clicked the remote to close the doors. A tense group investigated the hammerhead to make sure it was dead. The cries of the frightened injured, and dying soon gathered the attention of everyone. Jack grimaced. Axel came up, smacking his hands together. “Well, that was fun!” Jack gave him a dirty look. “Well, you can’t beat that for livening things up here, unless we get another visit from the six legged office lawyer building...”

  “Lawyer building?”

  “Yeah, sucks the life right out of you worse than my last divorce.”

  Jack snorted then shook his head. “Okay, you got me there. We are going to need triage.”

  He watched as Helen moved among the injured. “We are going to need a volunteer team to rescue the air crew if they land in the dark too,” Jack said.

  Axel looked a bit shaken, and then muttered a curse. “Forgot about that. No hope they can’t parachute in?” he asked hopefully. Jack raised an eyebrow. “Thought not,” he said with a Gaelic shrug. “Okay we’ll get’r’done.” Jack nodded as Axel moved off.

  Smoke billows from the chimneys, Cookie came out with a pot of soup. His eight year old daughter balanced a stack of bowls while his three year old clutched a bunch of spoons. People began to exclaim and those not busy with injured rushed to help. The tumult of voices ebbed to the occasional cry of wounded and murmured voices. Jack nodded and moved in to help as well.

  Jack called into the base hours later, giving a tired report. “We have one hundred
and eighty one people, but I’d say six or seven may not last the night. Jacklynn did a bang up job landing, even taxied the plane right up into the courtyard, saved us having to mount a crew to get her in. Thanks for the electric landing lights, they were a life saver. Doc, Dora, and Cassie have their hands full. What about those supplies you promised?”

  “We couldn’t load them on the plane Jack, it was kinda full.” Mitch responded. There was a squelch of static. “Paul and Lisa are getting a relief convoy going now. Remember, Sam has four out of six of the tractors, so it is going to be a light run. They just left a minute ago.”

  Jack grunted. “Ten four.”

  “How bad is it?” Mike asked, entering the conversation.

  “Hi Mike,” Jack said tiredly.

  “Hey Mike,” From Mitch.

  Jack sighed. “It looks bad; the stragglers took the worst damage. They said that leviathan thing stomped their village flat a month or two ago. They decided wherever it was going, they would head in the opposite direction, and here they are. They didn’t experience the hammerheads until tonight, it seems like they are only indigenous to our area...Just our luck,” he said in disgust. There was a squelch of static. Mitch smiled wryly.

  “I can’t put this many up all winter, we can barely feed ourselves, let along one hundred eighty more!” Jack finally added.

  “Well, we can take a few,” Mike replied sounding cautious.

  “I can take as many as needed Jack.” Mitch responded. There was another squelch of static.

  “One of these days I gotta get up there and see this base of yours,” Jack finally said.

  Mike snorted. “It isn’t a base as much as a fortress and small underground city.”

  Jack pursed his lips in a whistle. “Damn, that sounds the right way to go.”

  Mitch: “Yeah, but we still have a vermin problem. Scorpions keep killing animals. Fortunately we haven’t lost anyone yet, though a couple of the kids have been poisoned by stings. Doc and that biochemist of yours have created an antivenin.”