Brian came to him later. “You’re going to let me get into the college program now?”
Mitch gave Brian a look. “I thought you already were?” he asked. Brian blushed. “I was never stopping you lad, you could do it at any time.”
Brian nodded. “Yeah, but I was pretty busy. I am glad you brought those guys on board, they are serious business! I feel like a piker next to the Gunny.” He cocked his head. “So how about it?”
Mitch shrugged. “Okay, so, phase out of the security, but keep on call in case of emergency. You can start taking more classes in a day or two. I think you’re a bit behind Lisa, Angie and the others though, but we shall see.” Brian nodded and walked off whistling a tune. It seemed like a weight had been lifted from the teen's shoulders. Mitch reminded himself that a lot of the teens were still kids, they could handle some responsibility but it wasn't right to force them into molds or force them to grow up too fast. This new alien world would do that for them enough as it was.
After diner the two military experts reported in. Mitch nodded at their critique, taking notes. When they finished they offered suggested changes. He noted these and told them to implement the simplest immediately. “I checked with Lisa, she checked the inventory, we only have one hundred meters of fencing left,” Mitch commented. “Not enough to do the entire stretch along the river.”
“Any chance of making more?” Travis asked.
Mitch sighed and rubbed his brow. “Yeah, but it might have to wait till next year. We have two more convoys scheduled to make the rounds.”
“What about the choppers?” Gunny asked.
Mitch shook his head. “Sorry Gunny, one is down. Lisa and Jacklynn spotted a flaw in the rotter shaft, a clean hairline fracture all the way up.” He gusted a sigh when the Gunny's face fell.
“We don’t have the tools to make the tools to make a new one just yet. Jacklynn is a bit leery about taking the other bird up until she has time to tear it down and double check everything,” Mitch cautioned. Both men nodded.
“We have seven Hummers, one command hummer five normal hummers, and one ambulance hummer. We need at least two hummers for the convoys, to act as flank security. I keep five here for emergencies, three for local security, one is the ambulance, and one in reserve for repairs. The ambulance is being used to transport injured back here right now though.” They both nodded.
“I do however have a couple dune buggy vehicles that we can put together, they are in storage. You can use them for local patrol. I don’t recommend them outside of the perimeter; they do not have any protection against a raptor or other predators,” Mitch cautioned.
Travis nodded. “Yeah, we used them in the sand box. Great speed, can hump the gear, but fuck all for protection if it got to hot.” He sipped his beer.
Gunny looked over at him. “I saw bikes too?”
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, and quads. All are electric, but again, not enough protection against predators,” Mitch answered.
“How about out running them?” Travis asked.
He shook his head. “We clocked the raptors doing over thirty kilometers.” Travis whistled low. “Those shark hounds are even faster, possibly cheetah speed,” Mitch said. He sighed. “I sent a pair of quads and a pair of bikes to Mike. He ran them hard, so parts are getting scarce,” he sighed again.
“Janet has already instituted a crackdown on vehicle use, anything that isn’t urgent within the walls we ride horses or walk.” He wiggled his rear a bit. “Trust me; it isn’t all that it is cracked up to be. I have the saddle galls to prove it,” Mitch observed dryly. The others chuckled.
Travis pulled a pretzel out of the bowl on the desk. “Sourdough. Nice.” He examined the pretzel.
Mitch smiled. “All natural too. Janet got the recipe. The salt came from Copper town; they found a cleaner salt deposit. The one we have here isn’t as pure.” He shrugged. “Recipe is from the cooking library I think, though it might be one of Janet’s.” He picked one out and took a bite. “I prefer mine soft. These work though.”
“We are going to put the last of the vehicles together soon. In fact, I am going to sick Lisa and the factory group on it in the morning. I am hoping they can turn out a couple tractors to use before the snow hits,” Mitch said. They nodded. “By last year’s reckoning we have about a month before winter sets in with a bang.”
The Gunny shivered. “Give me a hammock in Tahiti any day.”
Travis saluted him with the beer. “OOo Ra!”
Mitch snorted. I’ll take the snow. They both looked at Mitch as if they thought he was crazy. He shrugged. “Most of the animals head south for the winter. We only have a couple predators running around after the first blizzard. Dire wolves, some weird snow demon creature, and a couple others. Only the wolves moved fast. Give me a beer and a warm place.” He waved to the cavern. “And I am set.” They both looked him over and then shrugged.
“To each his own,” the marine murmured. Mitch nodded.
“Jack and Mike have been hassling me for equipment, fencing, animals, and seeds. Are you two staying on here or heading to that mountain resort?” They both shuddered.
“I like to ski and snowboard,” Travis started...
“You like the ski bunnies you mean," the Gunny interrupted with a good natured retort.
Travis chuckled. “Them too. I like to ski, but I like warmth better.”
Mitch nodded. “Fair enough. Maybe next spring you can check the South eastern villages and see if any are better and suit your tastes.” They snorted at that idea.
Travis looked up at the ceiling then back at Mitch. “Why do you call them eastern villages?”
Mitch took a sip before he replied. “Cause we don’t know if they named them. So, since they are east of us...” He shrugged.
“I noticed you're not doing much to set up an economy,” Travis commented. Mitch looked him over. “Not complaining, just commenting,” Travis said. He spread his hands.
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, we have a barter trade going now, Iron village mines iron and cuts timber, Copper town has copper and salt, and some basic tools. We are the capital center, food, knowledge, processed goods, and tech.”
Gunny nodded. “Sort of like Alexandria or Rome,” he commented and then took a sip.
Mitch nodded. “Yeah.”
Gunny looked over to Travis. “Remember that bozo when we found gold?”
“What gold?” Mitch asked, now interested.
Travis chuckled. “You just remember it cause I fell on my can in that creek.”
Gunny chuckled. “Yeah,” He looked to Mitch. “Travis here fell on his kiester while we were crossing a stream. He came up sputtering clutching his rifle and a rock. One of the guys saw the sparkle and went nuts. Gold! Gold fever.” He sighed ruefully and shook his head in disgust.
“Morons were packing their rucksacks with the crap till we pointed out that they were unpacking food for a rock. A couple had sense, couple didn’t,” He sighed a raspberry in annoyed disgust. “That one idiot went nuts, tossed everything to carry nuggets. We of course scooped up what we could. Hell if I was going to let it go to waste. When it came to make camp he was tired and sore... and realized he had thrown away all his food for rocks.”
Mitch nodded. “The choice between greed and survival.”
Travis nodded soberly. “Yeah. We made him go without dinner. Next day we found the rocks strewn all over the side of the hill.”
“The guy kept his head down for the next day, even helped carry a kid, so someone took pity on him and shared their food.” Gunny snorted. “I don’t know who was more the fool, the fool for the gold or the fool for saving his ass,” he said.
Travis shrugged. “Both of them bought it when the hammerheads hit us.”
Gunny looked down at the bottle. “Yeah there is that.” He sighed. “I would have traded some pretty important parts of my anatomy, or better yet his...” He pointed the neck of the bottle to Travis, “For a damn flash bang or two.”
&
nbsp; Mitch nodded. “Yeah. I am glad Sam had them handy.” The three of them killed the beers then headed off to bed.
The next afternoon, Candy, Bill and the others took a look in the giant cavernous interior. “Okay, so now what?” Candy asked.
Mitch pointed to the plastic wrapped pallets of vehicle parts. “There are the tractors. We have nineteen to put together.” They nodded. “Travis and Gunny want those too.” He waved to the buggies on their pallets. The duo studied the pallets of pipes and parts.
“I think we should start with them, they are the simplest to put together,” Mitch suggested. The others made various affirmative noises. “Most of you know where the machine shop is and where the factory is. If we have to fab up parts we will try to make several.”
“You, I mean we can do that?” Candy asked hesitantly.
Mitch smiled. “Yeah, I brought along a pretty good tech base, and we are up to making simple electronics.” Candy looked at him, clearly startled.
He waved his hands, “Oh, not Intel or AMD level by a long shot, but getting there. We lack a lot of exotic materials though, so it is basics right now,” he explained. She nodded. “We can also do plastics, and have that ironed out.” He waved in the direction of the factory. “I brought along a prototype molecular smelter, it can separate any substance into component molecules allowing us to sift for materials from the soil or low density concentrations.”
Bill looked confused. “You can do that?”
Mitch sighed. “Yeah, but it sucks power like crazy.” He waved to the waiting palettes. “Okay folks let’s get busy, the lady is done waiting.” He smiled at an impatient Lisa who was already heading for the buggy pallets.
As the sun set later that evening the throaty rumble of a hydrogen engine was heard in the courtyard. The crew cheered, following the two vehicles out. Bill slapped Brian on the shoulder, Brian grinned.
Janet looked on with her arms crossed. “If you folks are done playing with your toys, we have diner waiting.” Some chuckled at that. “WASH UP FIRST!” She ordered. The quiet chuckle turn into laughs as they moved obediently off.
Mitch shut the doors and watched Lisa drive the one of the vehicles while Gunny followed behind her. “Couldn’t wait for a test drive,” he chuckled as he walked through the gates to the courtyard.
Chapter 18
Maggie got into a heated debate with Doctor Mallard when he arrived. He was enthused but a royal pain, causing her to roll her eyes constantly when he got going off on a tangent. Their verbal sparring had many thinking they were going to kill each other until one morning Janet was amazed to see them kissing. Stranger things have been known to happen was her only comment.
The two of them came up with a temporary idea of the animal migration patterns, though Ducky was pretty empathetic about the limited data to support their conclusions. Mitch waved them off while listening to their lecture.
They pulled up a map of the area, and ran it through the seasons. They pointed out that in the winter arctic style animals like the dire wolf, mammoths, mastodons, and other creatures ranged south into the area while more temperate creatures headed deeper south. Come spring the animals head back north or back up into the high mountains.
Predators like the raptors seemed to follow the herds, as do the carnasaurs and Rex's. The alien creatures with little data to go on were a mystery. Both experts were certain that the shark hounds were also seasonal, heading out to sea when the weather turned to cold for them. Ducky’s necropsy of the two carcasses had added to their limited knowledge of the creatures, they were definitely warm blooded, and gave birth to live young. “Well, we surmised they were warm blooded since I got a peek at them with my thermal imager,” Mitch teased. This threw the good Doctor for a moment. Maggie dragged them back on topic, pointing out that the dinosaurs all head south in the winter. The dinocrocs and amphibians most likely hibernate or head south as well.
Mitch had them summarize their conclusions and send a copy of the report to each of the other villages. Ducky began to hem and haw, but Mitch waved it off. “Don’t worry Doc, everyone knew it is still early, you won’t have to face a faculty board or anything to show your evidence and defend your conclusions,” he assured the man.
Maggie snorted. “Also this winter will allow us plenty of time to see how much is correct, and add additional data,” she said. Ducky nodded.
Jack called Mitch, he asked him over for a meeting. Mitch flew out with Angie and Maggie the next morning. Mitch and Maggie came back with Paul a week later with the next load of refugees. Base now had over one hundred twenty two refugees; twenty two were in Iron Village, and thirty five in Copper town. A few of the families from Copper Town offer to return to their home but Anne waved them off with a no.
Iron village and Copper Town have mostly singles or paired couples, all of the families, injured, or pregnant were now in Base. Fortunately the year’s expansion had given them the room for everyone. Mitch made plans to put everyone to work as soon as possible. He didn't want or need a repeat of cabin fever from last winter.
Janet got into hourly arguments with the French restaurant chef and nutritionist who came with the refugees. The chef tried to rule the kitchen, but Janet put her foot down, he was in her domain. Eventually they worked out a compromise; he cooked one meal a day, giving her time off.
Two of the recovering injured were loggers; they and their families would be heading up to Iron village to expand the timber industry there next spring. A lot of the refugees were slotting in nicely, from the optometrist to the x-ray tech. Mitch made it clear, all skills were valued.
Little four year old Mateo, one of Roserita’s kids was found in a back hall of the cave unconscious as the weather started to turn to mid fall. Anne tried to wake him and was horrified when a scorpion crawled out of his mouth. Doc rushed to the scene and took charge. Mitch heard the code blue over the net and rushed in and carried the kid to the infirmary.
One of the kids was hysterical saying they had been playing hide and seek. Anne was hysterical as well. She told Doc about the scorpion, pulling her aside and away from the others in a low tone. Cassie passed them with a “What are you waiting for, come on!” yell.
Doc administered the antivenin, and then asked the robot for the endoscope. They set up an IV drip, and then checked the kid over. His face was blue, his respiration was shallow. The endoscope arrived and she checked inside the mouth.
She was horrified by the eggs and damage. Mitch waited outside; he spotted a scorpion as it scuttled under a chair. Roserita arrived and howled, throwing herself into his arms. He tried to comfort her, but he really wanted to kill that damn thing. He told Roserita what happened, tried to calm her and let her know Doc was on the case. Maggie arrived and was worried. Anne came in, still tearful.
Janet came running, noted Roserita and Mitch's efforts to struggle to get away from her. With a grim face she took her in her charge. She was at first reproachful of his insensitivity. He turned and grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall. “What are you...?” she asked alarmed as he lifted the chair away. She hissed at the sight of the scorpion, it chittered angrily and thrashed its pincers and twin tails. He slammed the butt of the extinguisher down; he felt and heard the satisfying crunch. Roserita screamed and Janet pulled her into her arms and rocking her. Anne bit her lip.
“What happened to the armadillos?” Mitch demanded. He turned giving Janet, then Anne a look.
Anne squirmed, face red. “Well...” Candy arrived.
“I said, what happened to the armadillos?” Mitch snarled. He was growing angry. He got up, standing straight, towering over the women. Anne looked down and away.
Candy looked on confused. “I got rid of the ugly things. They were a constant nuisance, under foot, chewing on things. The kids were roughing them up too.”
Mitch froze. He turned and gave her an angry look. “Did it occur to you that there was a REASON we left them alone?” he snarled, voice rising in his fury. She stopped, and then
stepped back. Her husband came up behind her.
Anne snuffled. “I thought since we hadn’t seen any of the scorpions it would be okay. I mean...”
Mitch turned and gave her an angry look. “Damn it Anne you should know better! Those armadillos were best line of defense!”
The new folk looked confused. “One of those scorpions may have killed that kid because you didn’t like our only protectors around! Damn it!” Mitch roared throwing a hand up in the air in disgust. Cassie came out, angrily shushing them.
Candy started to tear up, she turned sobbing; her husband rubbed her shoulders and glared at Mitch. “She didn’t know, she didn’t know,” Bill said. Mitch gave him glare for glare.
“You know you don’t just come into a place and turn it upside down overnight. There are reasons for things. Those armadillos killed off the scorpions and other pests. Hell, they were even using the litter boxes!”
He glared, and then as Candy pulled herself into her husband’s arms and sobbed he relented. Paul and Brian came running up. Mitch turned to them, face set. “Get with Anne here and round up some armadillos. Get the kids to help if you need them.”
“What happened?” Paul asked.
Anne bit her lip. “Anne here will explain on the way. I DO NOT want a repeat of this. Do I make myself clear?” Mitch snarled. Brian nodded, knowing Mitch was in a foul mood. Janet patted Roserita’s head as she cried. Mitch looked over and sighed. “I am sorry. You know Doc, Cassie and Dora will do what they can for him,” he said, trying hard to modulate his tone to console her. He knew the effort was futile though. Paul turned to leave. “Paul!” Paul turned. “Get Maggie here with a specimen bag,” Mitch ordered.
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