Bootstrap Colony

by Hechtl, Chris

  “When I started making money women around me changed. Those that were single were all of a sudden interested. More interested in my buying something for them, or paying a bill,” he said. Disgust momentarily crossed his features.

  “I wasn’t up for being used, so some women became bitter,” he sighed. “When I started getting really up there models started coming to call. I even had an undercover FBI agent.” He laughed softly looking off into the past then back to Doc. She had her eyebrow lifted.

  “Well, see, when I started winning the lotto and making huge killings in the stock market the IRS and FBI got interested. They thought I was a laundry man for the mob or drug cartels. He shrugged. “They sent this hot looking...” She growled a little. “Um I mean well developed.” Her lips purse “Um... Let’s just say a female agent to try to seduce my secret out of me.” She looked shocked. He shrugged.

  “I had hired Bob by then; he got suspicious and put a private investigator on her. She kept to a normal profile, but when he ID’d a guy as an FBI agent, well, they brought that to me. He chuckled. “You should have seen the look on her face when I confronted her!”

  Doc looked shocked. “You told her you knew? Wasn’t that dangerous?”

  He shrugged. “Well, by that time I had gotten the alien visit.” She nodded. “I was more interested in getting a window into the government to pass on a warning.” His face turned bitter again. “I told her, and then gave her a set of lotto numbers to prove it.” He sighed. “I dunno what happened, she disappeared.” He shrugged again, still tracing freckles with his fingertips.

  “By the time the aliens had arrived to transport us I was working eighteen hour days getting things ready.” He indicated their surroundings, and then shrugged. “I didn’t have time or energy to play.” She looked away.

  “And the girls?”

  He sighed. “Honestly, after having women chasing me for my money, do you think I am going to fall for someone chasing me cause they are bored or power hungry?” he asked. She sniffed. He chuckled. “Get real, besides, I would much rather wrestle and play connect the dots with you.” He leered as she blushed and dimpled right on queue. The leer suddenly ended when a pillow smacked him in the face. The rest of their discussion dissolved a guffaw and shriek of laughter and into a play fight.

  Sometime later they came up for air. She was sitting on top of him, smug. He wasn’t sure who had who, after all, he had one heck of a view of her naked right now, truly a breath taking sight. She bounced on him, making him oaf. “Pay attention!” she ordered and ran a hand through her hair. His heart fluttered.

  “So what are we going to do, just live together?” she asked, exasperated. He realized she had been trying to talk with him, and he had been admiring the view.

  “Hey, at least half the female population isn’t chasing me anymore. Were you waiting for your opportunity?” He watched her face, tracing a finger over the freckles on her arm.

  She twitched, dimpling. “That’s in the past. I am talking about the future,” she said, finger combing her hair. He nodded and kissed her finger tipped. She began to purr.

  “Speaking of future...” he murmured.

  Sometime late the next morning they came into the kitchen out of dire need for refueling. Doc was wearing one of his shirts, and precious little else. He rubbed her shoulders as she paused in the kitchen. Cassie was sitting at the table with a smug look on her face. “And just what have you been up too?” she interrogated mockingly. Her mother blushed.

  Mitch smiled and quirked an eyebrow. “None of your business little lady.” Doc turned and then pulled his head down for a kiss. When they come up for air he sighed. “Okay, maybe a little bit of her business.” Doc smirked.

  Cassie snorted. “Took ya long enough.” Janet, trying to ignore the conversation began to chuckle as she finished clean up with Wayne and Hyu.

  She turned to Cassie. “You're one to talk, wasn’t it you under the skip loader with Vance last night?” Cassie began to turn beat red and looked away. “What were you doing, practicing mouth to mouth standing?” Janet teased. Cassie gave a choked chuckle.

  Her mother gave her a gimlet gaze. “Cassie...” A rumble of dire motherly wrath began to appear in her voice. Mitch’s chuckle quickly turned into a discrete cough as Doc elbowed him.

  “I wonder how many people are still alive?” Doc asked, looking out the window.

  Mitch stretched. “Three thousand three hundred and twenty one,” Mitch answered absently. She turned to him in shock as he yawned and poured a cup of coffee. Janet, Anne, and the rest of the people eating breakfast stopped and stared at him. “What? I told you I am good with numbers,” he replied when the stares registered. He shrugged.

  “Your psychic thing?” Anne asked. He shrugged as he gave Doc a kiss and then left.

  Sam called in a day later. “The damn herd just stomped all over the bridge we have been building. One of the sauropods took a crap right in the middle,” he said, sounding thoroughly exasperated and annoyed. Jolie was giggling. “It’s not funny! The ones behind it just stomped through it. I have crap smeared all over the place!”

  Despite the exasperated annoyance they could tell Sam was laughing too.

  Mitch laughed. “Well, I guess we will have to let the rain wash it away.” Sam muttered something they didn't quite catch. “What was that Sam?” Mitch replied, smiling at Jolie.

  “I said, IF it will clean it up,” Sam sighed in disgust. “Okay, base, I was going to grade the new road a bit more, but with the cold and the weather turning the way it is, I think...” Mitch nodded.

  “Say no more, get your team back here before the first snow storms hit.”

  “Roger that,” Sam sounded relieved. “I don’t like the look of some of these creatures; some of the predators are looking at us like we may be lunch,” Sam replied.

  “Roger that Sam. Try to stay off the menu.”

  Chapter 22

  “Pete look out!” Travis said, hauling the kid back from danger.

  “What what is it?” The kid looked around, suddenly on the defensive.

  “That.” Travis pointed his muzzle at the plant Pete had been backing up too.

  “It looks like an overgrown artichoke,” Pete observed, taking a look. The plant was squat, over two meters in diameter, but over a meter tall. It was blackish at the bottom, with what looked like layers of hard branch like leaves arranged in concentric circled to the center. The leaves varied in size and width, giving a sort of damaged look to it.

  At the core of each leaf was a splotch of purple, which radiated out to form veins the further it got from the core. The soft looking parts were a pale, almost flesh like color.

  “Faugh what’s that smell!” He waved his free hand in front of his face ducking his head away. Flies were dancing around the plant. A moment later tentacles came out from the core and began to whip into the cloud of insects. “Oh,” Pete said in surprise, backing a little.

  Travis stopped him again. “What did I say about backing up?” He gave Pete a look.

  “Don’t unless I know what is there,” Pete replied dutifully and then looked behind him.

  Travis nodded. “We ran into one of these things on the march. It grabbed a kid.”

  “Grabbed a kid? Are you kidding me?” Pete stared at the plant.

  “One of the tentacles got his shirt. It is super sticky. Then it tried to drag him back to it. We had to cut the shirt off of him,” Travis replied, looking around and then back to the plant.

  “Oh. What do you call it?” Pete asked.

  Travis’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Why a purple people eater, what else?” Pete laughed.

  The old village was a mess, a burned out wreck of cabins and rusting metal. Anything organic was gone or smoldering from the acid. “Careful there,” Travis urged, watching Sara as she stepped over a log.

  “We don’t know how long that acid lasts,” Gunny muttered. The vehicles were parked in a row nearby; they had been salvaged for
parts before the village had been abandoned.

  “Think there is much to salvage?” Pete asked looking at the charred remains of the cabins.

  “Oh sure, we can recycle the vehicles and metal easily,” Sara replied, and then checked a cabin. “Clear.” She called and moved on. Gunny had his rifle down he carefully checked another. “Clear.” Pete got with the program.

  After securing the perimeter they called Jacklynn in. Gunny marked the landing area or LZ as he called it with red markers and stakes. “Why the streamers?” Pete asked nodding his chin to the closest.

  “For judging wind direction and speed,” Gunny replied, pounding the last one in. “Nice timing,” he commented, stretching as they heard the distant sound of rotors approaching.

  The next morning the robot announced that they had company. Travis and Gunny checked it out, and then told Pete to call base and let them know the eastern village convoy had arrived. Pete nodded and called it in.

  The eastern village convoy had three beat up trucks, two of them sported an external roll cage. One was an off road vehicle, what was probably a rock crawler at one point. Travis greeted them with a case of beer Mitch had sent along for the occasion.

  The easterners told them about how things were in their area, swapping story for story with the scouts in front of the bonfire. Travis handed over manuals about what they had learned about the planet and animals so far. Evan, the leader of the easterners dictated a into the camera his own impressions, then had the others do so too.

  “Where did you get the robots?” Evan asked Gunny.

  Gunny smiled and related the story of Mitch, and how he had planned ahead. “The kids call him a pack rat,” Gunny finished.

  Pete looked up from his MRE. “Yeah, pack rat. SMART pack rat,” he replied, and then ducked at the good natured laughter.

  The next morning they exchanged loads, Mitch had sent along a trade pack that they had requested. They turned over nearly a ton of tin and lead ingots. Jacklynn flew in with a load, a tank of ethylene for their flex fuel trucks. Evan thanked them as he watched Sara hook up a load of salvaged gear.

  Gunny waved Jacklynn in, signaling wind speed and direction as well as ground distance with hand signals. Pete watched fascinated. Sara ducked through the rotor wash, dragging a cable and hose with her. She dropped the cable and flipped the fuel cap open, then locked the end of the hose in. She signaled Gunny with a thumbs up and then began clipping the load into the lines.

  This would make their fourth load; they had managed two per day so far. They had it down now, it was all routine. Gunny flipped the pump off then signaled to Sara. She unhooked the hose, and then put the cap on, making sure it was tight. Keeping her head down she dragged the hose back, making sure it didn’t tangle the lines.

  Pete watched as Gunny waited until Sara was clear, and then signaled Jacklynn. Jacklynn gave a thumbs up, and then began to pull back on the controls. The helicopter's engine picked up speed and it lifted off the ground and then the cable began to tighten. In a few seconds the nets tightened and then pulled the load off the ground. ”Cool,” he muttered, watching her gain altitude and set a course for home. He shivered, it was getting chilly. “Not much longer,” he muttered.

  Evan asked if he could take some of the salvage back. Travis agreed. They picked through the piles of gear, and then set the selected bits aside. If the weather held they would be back for more.

  Gunny took a hummer out and killed an Elk at the river; they have a barbecue that night. It was cold around the campfire though. “Next time we do this, let’s do it in the spring or at least when it is warm out,” Evan commented with a shiver.

  Evan finagled a ride from Jacklynn to base the next day. Mike had taken a ride back with Paul. When Mitch found out that Evan was on his way he radioed Angie to ask Jack and Axel to come back with her if they could.

  Evan was a short guy, brunette with glasses Mitch noted when they first met. He was deeply impressed with the base and its workings. Angie arrived while Mitch was giving a tour of the outside. Axel gave a long low whistle when he climbed out of the plane. Jack looked around, gave a nod to Angie and then he and Axel waved to Mitch and came over to join the tour.

  Evan recognized the robots during the tour. He commented about them, amazed to see them. Mitch admitted he owned the manufacturing company. Evan was surprised and impressed. “Are you going to build them?”

  Mitch nodded. “After we get the industry sorted out, more will be built.” Evan nodded. “Right now I am building Repraps and expanding the factories,” Mitch admitted. Evan and Axel nodded.

  “Don’t forget the vehicles,” Axel added.

  “And playground,” Janet piped in.

  Mitch sighed. “Next year we have quite a few expansion projects here, Maggie and the vets want to move out of the caves and into their own concrete barns, Lisa and the mechanics want to take over the old barn and expand the garage out.” He shook his head and sighed again.

  “We have the playground to build, as well as more of the sub basement here to explore and occupy,” he added when the visitors nodded but didn't say anything.

  “Can we do a racquet ball court?” Janet asked. He gave her a look. She shrugged. “Not all of us think playing the Wii or weight lifting is all the exercise we need during the winter you know.”

  He chuckled. “Point. Put it on the list, if you can find a room,” he said. She nodded.

  Inside, they found Mike kicking back in the Great Hall with a beer. Janet left for a moment she returned and handed out beers to the others. They sat down and talked. Each swapped stories of their landing and history before they turned to the future.

  Evan told them about his village, how he was a junior college professor of engineering and had built a Reprap and CNC machine. “The Reprap has been a godsend. I am almost out of plastic though, we recycled everything we could,” he commented reverently.

  Mitch snorted. “I have a few here, and some updated ones... and a few other toys.” He snorted as Evan nodded.

  “I saw a few, was that the portable molecular furnace off by itself in the factory area?” Evan asked. Mitch nodded.

  “Okay so obviously Base is going to be a city, and center of learning as well as industry for a long time,” Evan commented with a faraway look. “You said you have iron?”

  Mike nodded. “We have an open pit iron mine two kilometers north east of us,” he volunteered. Evan nodded then turned to Jack.

  “We named our place Copper Town. We have a copper mine North West of us. Also plains and savannah all around, and a good deposit of salt.”

  Evan nodded. “So I guess all roads lead to Rome, or at least Base,” he said and saluted Mitch with his beer.

  Mitch shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. “I was lucky; I had deeper pockets then the rest of you.” He shrugged again.

  “Don’t forget you grubstaked my outfit too,” Mike added. Mitch nodded.

  Anne came in and handed Evan a three ring binder. “What’s this?” he asked looking at it curiously.

  Anne smiled. “This is more of all the useful stuff we have accumulated over the past three years.” She nodded to Mitch.

  “We also added material on survival and industry too,” Mitch commented, pointing to a flash stick taped to the inside of the cover.

  “They gave each of us one,” Jack commented, and Mike nodded.

  Evan gave them a running commentary on some of the animals and dangers his village had faced. He included a report on the death of a woman by what he called a Tremor worm. Mike looked confused, but Mitch nodded. “A Tremor worm is a creature from science fiction. It is an underground beast that burrows through soft earth and attacked people from below,” Mitch informed Mike.

  Mike nodded. “I used to play a game like that, where we would have to stay on rocks or stuff, if we touched the ground we would get eaten,” Mike said and then shivered.

  “I did too,” Mitch agreed softly.

  “Too bad we didn’t know about the
m here though,” Evan sighed.

  Axel came in behind Lisa chattering about engines. He had a sort of dazed expression on his face. “Damn, did you see that machine shop and factory set up?” He sat by Jack on a stool. Anne handed him a beer. He took a sip, and then suddenly looked down at the bottle. “BEER? HOLY SHIT!” The others started laughing.

  “I gotta admit, I like it here,” Axel said taking another pull on the beer.

  “You just like the beer,” Anne teased.

  “You betcha!” He got a faraway look. “It isn’t just that though. It is exploring, building. Seeing new things.” Axel looked down at the beer and then up to Mitch who nodded.

  “The thrill of a challenge and new frontier,” Jack said as he nodded.

  “That too,” Mike said.

  “And, no politicians,” Evan added. They chuckled.

  “No taxes, no lawyers, no bills!” They laughed again.

  The tumult of noise alerted Anne and Mitch. They both looked up. “I guess school is out,” She observed. Mitch nodded.

  “All this and a school too?” Evan asked, clearly impressed.

  Mitch nodded. “And a college program.” Evan was now wide eyed and clearly envious. “Don’t worry professor, once we get you dialed in you can teach through video.” Evan nodded enthusiastically.

  “One of the things I missed the most was teaching kids,” Evan said. He looked a bit sad. “I mean, we had to teach a lot of things at our village to survive, but it has been simple survival stuff, nothing advanced.” Anne patted his hand.

  “Okay, I have a plan for next year, but it is tentative. I thought we should put our heads together and see where we can help each other and fill in the gaps,” Mitch said, looking at each of the leaders in turn.

  Mike took another pull of beer. “Well, since we aren’t going back till tomorrow to give our sinuses a rest...” He jerked his thumb to Axel.