Multiverse 1

by Chris Hechtl

  Roy intervened when they went to toss the hides outside the walls of the camp. Instead he had them scrape off as much fat as possible from the underside and then hung them out further down beach in the sun to dry. Klinger approved with a nod.

  “Hopefully it'll draw the damn mosquitoes and scavengers there and away from us. Downwind of course,” he said.

  “Yes, but that wasn't my whole purpose. If it doesn't rain, the sun should dry the skins out. They won't be premium leather, but some hide would help,” Roy explained.

  Klinger nodded thoughtfully and then left.

  ~~~~~O~~~~~

  The next day Roy and his apprentices used pieces of aluminum skin and the forged tools to hammer a primitive frying pan and pot out for Cookie. They even turned down the sharp edges for her and added a handle. She gladly accepted both items and was ecstatic. They ran through most of their wood though. Quinn took a break with the guys, and then headed into the woods with Roy's axes to cut more.

  Roy showed the laundry girls how to make a clothesline out of vines and braided grass rope, drying racks out of branches, as well as washing boards.

  ~~~~~O~~~~~

  Walt reported success with the sap polymer. “It looks weird I know,” he said, holding up the purple string, “But I've tested it in the water and it's good. It's a bit stiff, and I'm not sure about the tensile strength…” he handed it off reluctantly to the skipper.

  The skipper tugged on it, then wrapped an end around each hand and tugged harder. He nodded. “Looks good enough for me, Walt, I'll sure give it a shot,” he said. “We're down to six lines now,” he said.

  “I don't know how long a piece I can make,” Walt said. “We need a steady supply of sap and…” he waved a hand.

  “A tower, pot, heating element, cooling element, and spool to wind it around,” Roy said, cocking his head. “I can work something out. We do need a better more scientific tensile strength test and a wear test. Long term, I don't want to put a lot of effort into it and have it go to mush and break in the sea after a day or two,” he said.

  “Something is better than nothing, even if it is for a day or two,” skipper said. “Sure, it's no monofilament, but it'll do in a pinch. Beggars can't be choosers after all,” he said. Roy nodded.

  Roy charged several other devices when word got around. Phones people were using for listening devices, iPads and tablets, and even a couple rechargeable lights. It was annoying to have to break for every little interruption, but they did seem grateful. Even Susan, who came forward hesitantly with her phone. She didn't say anything, and he didn't either. She didn't thank him either, just left.

  Just before dinner he got his clothes back. A little damp, but better. Some of the stains were set in, but that was fine. He put his clothes away in his shelter and then fell in line for dinner.

  “I have a problem,” Shawn said firmly to Klinger after everyone had gotten their meal.

  The corporal nodded but didn't say anything as he picked at his tray. Shawn nastily complained at the bonfire dinner, stating Roy assaulted him. He held up his wrist bandaged in a rag.

  “I stopped you from taking and damaging what didn't belong to you,” Roy pointed out. “We've had some theft remember?” he said. “I do recall you're wife accusing me of theft earlier. And yet when I went to take a bath you went after what didn't belong to you,” he said.

  “That's right,” Quinn said, nodding.

  “You stay out of this,” Catrina growled, eyes flashing.

  “The hell you say, lady,” Quinn said, puffing up. “I was there,” he growled.

  “Okay, since you were there, let's hear it from you from the beginning,” Klinger said, turning to the welder. “From the top.”

  “Okay,” Quinn said. He laid out the story, how Roy had set up the solar blanket and laptop, charged the girl's device and she had reciprocated by doing his laundry. “It needed to be done,” he said with a sniff. Roy waved an embarrassed hand as others nodded.

  Klinger looked at him and then back to the welder. “Continue.”

  “Well, that…person,” Quinn said, obviously censoring himself due to the presence of Dennis, Wendy and the other kids. “Came around when the rest of the guys went off to cut more wood for the forge and Roy had gone off for a bath. I guess I fell to dozing by the forge in the sun. Taking a break,” he said defensively. “Working metal is hard work,” he said.

  “Continue,” a voice said. They turned to see Gunny Usher sitting up. Quinn nodded.

  “Well, I heard someone near, thought it was someone charging their stuff or Roy back. But then I opened my eyes and saw him,” he pointed an accusing scarred finger at Shawn “Taking the solar blanket down and trying to make off with it and the laptop. I tried to stop him. That's when the professor showed up and intervened.”

  “I see. And what then?” Klinger said.

  “Well, he,” Quinn pointed to Shawn, “said he was confiscating the stuff for the good of the community,” he said in disgust. “As if he had any right,” he growled.

  “Skip the editorials and opinion,” Gunny Usher said, voice cool.

  “Sorry, Gunny,” Quinn said. “Anyway, Roy pointed out that it was his personal property and grabbed his,” he pointed to Shawn, “…arm and made him let go. That guy said some crap about getting even and then stormed off,” he said.

  “Ah,” Klinger said nodding. He looked at Roy. “Is that true?”

  Roy nodded. “I didn't give Mr. Roberts or anyone permission to take the equipment or use it for their own purposes. I was using it for the good of the community,” he explained.

  Klinger looked interested but several of the religious faction were upset over the "unwarranted attack." There was a bit of muttering among them and others until Klinger and Usher waved them to silence.

  “So, what are you going to do about it? he admitted he assaulted my husband!” Mrs. Roberts said, voice rising. “He should be punished,” she said, eyes flashing. A few nodded or looked away. Shawn nodded though, eyes flashing triumph as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

  “You're right, lady,” the welder agreed, surprising a few people. “Roberts should be punished for trying to take something that didn't belong to him.”

  “That's not what I meant at all!” she screeched. “He assaulted my husband! He hurt him!” she said, hugging her husband. She pointed a finger at Roy and hissed he was Satan spawn. “He's evil I tell you! Evil!” Many people recoiled at the sheer venom in her voice.

  “Easy,” Susan said, urging her to calm down. “Madam, you are overwrought by the situation,” she said.

  Mrs. Roberts looked at her aide and then sniffed, head down. After a moment she nodded. “Perhaps, perhaps I am,” she said, voice foggy with tears.

  Roy frowned. She was one hell of an actress, using tears to garner sympathy, he thought in cynical disgust. She very well could be upset, probably was, but he could tell she and her husband were milking the situation.

  “Okay, hang on a minute,” Klinger said, holding up a hand as he interrupted her tirade. “What have you and the others been doing that is so objectionable?” he asked. He turned to Quinn and then back to Mrs. Roberts. “We'll get to what you've been doing with your time in a moment…just as a comparison,” he said then turned back to Quinn.

  “Well, it's like this,” the welder said slowly off balance by the sudden spotlight again. He told him and the listening group that they had cataloged a lot of gear for later use, and made some basic tools and weapons. He indicated the lances, spears and bows. Many nodded in appreciation. “We've had to cut more wood, and we made some more ax heads and tools to do so too,” he explained. Klinger nodded and motioned him to continue. “As you know, we've got a forge going to make better tools and weapons,” he said, nodding to the lance behind Klinger. The corporal nodded sagely. “But we're a long way away from making a radio, gun or other things,” Quinn ended lamely.

  “So why did you need the laptop?” Klinger asked.

  �
��Well, first off Roy said, interjecting himself, “For the record, it happens to be my laptop,” he said, pointing a thumb at his chest. Klinger blinked and then nodded. “It has a lot of useful things on it, CAD and engineering programs, tools, tutorials, and an electronics design program. It even has some tools to let me use this,” Roy held up a USB stick with ports in it. “This is a multitester. I plug it in to the USB port, and I can do all sorts of stuff with it. Oscilloscope, volt ohms meter, all kinds of things,” he said. “And yeah, the solar blanket is mine too,” he said firmly, glaring at Shawn.

  “It's a toy. He was fooling around with it instead of doing real work. I bet he's got it filled with porn,” Catrina said with a sniff and glower.

  “Okay,” the corporal drawled, still confused Klinger. “Setting aside the property issue, why were you using it?” he asked. He waved off Mrs. Roberts’s huff. “Why do we need it now?” He waved a hand to indicate their surroundings. “It's not like we can use it here,” he said.

  “Well, some of that is true but not all,” Roy stated. Klinger nodded and motioned him silently to continue. “What I'd like to eventually do is to make a set of walkie-talkies or a transmitter that can work with the cell phones we have. Cell phones are really just walkie-talkies; they transmit and receive radio signals,” he explained.

  Klinger blinked and then cocked his head thoughtfully as the crowd murmured. “Oh,” he finally said. “Go on.”

  “The aircraft has its own radio network, including Wi-Fi and a set up for phones. I'm going to work on that eventually. With it on high ground, say a tower, we can communicate with the groups in the field, or they could communicate and coordinate efforts among themselves,” Roy explained.

  Klinger nodded at this idea; he knew it was a good one. Judging from the reaction of the crowd, some did too. But others were skeptical that their resident genius could do what he wanted to do.

  He frowned thoughtfully, going through the big four. Shelter, fire, water, food were the main priorities. Then tools and better shelter, food and so on. It was a cycle of improvement, never ending really. One of the third set of secondary priorities in a survival situation was communication.

  “So, you're saying with a way to communicate we can talk to parties outside of camp?” Simmons demanded. Roy nodded. “Heck, I'm all for that,” she said. Klinger heartily agreed as did many of the hunters. Elsa's gather folk nodded as well.

  “Good. Work on it in between other priorities though,” Klinger ordered.

  “Will do,” Roy said. That seemed to be a dismissal, Klinger looked around to the crowd. They noted his look and slowly melted away to other chores or to talk among themselves. From the sound of it, they were discussing the ideas and the hope that Roy had. It was obvious he wasn't defeated, he took their situation as a challenge, one they could overcome in time. That made a few buck up.

  “And just what have you and your group been doing?” Klinger said, turning on the Roberts. They stiffened in defense.

  “I've seen them,” Gunny Usher said. “They have been doing some good towards moving things around camp and improving the shelters. I know they are getting water too.” His unexpected defense of the Roberts surprised a few people including Roy. “But only just enough to get the job done; they aren't going out of their ways to do other things or bring more in,” he said.

  Shawn sniffed. “No one said I had to kill myself to get the job done. I flat out refuse to do so. I'm contributing my fair share to the community. That and more,” he said.

  “Sure you are,” the skipper said, eying him. Captain Grumby, like a lot of the fishers, was suntanned or sunburned. He shook his head. “Whatever you say,” he growled mockingly.

  “He does say,” Catrina said, coming to her husband's defense.

  “Well, if he's so busy, then he can damn well leave other people's things alone and go about his business,” the skipper said. “And if anything of mine turns up missing,” he turned a glare on the three of them. “I'll find it, and then I'll use whoever took it as bait,” he growled.

  Catrina's eyes widened to saucers and then she turned to the gunny. “Did you see that? He…he threatened me!” she said, voice rising again.

  “Calm down, I'm sure he didn't mean you personally. Unless you do have other people's things,” Usher said. “Perhaps those who have been taking things will return what they “borrowed” soon. That should smooth things over,” he said. The crowd muttered.

  “Yeah, if they don't go and put their stash in someone else's shelter to frame them,” Roy said in an aside to the skipper and Quinn.

  “Yeah, someone like you,” Quinn said. “Watch your back, man. I don't know what they have against you, but they sure got it out for you,” he said. The skipper nodded.

  “Ah, it all started when I refused to give up my seat on the plane,” Roy said with a sigh. The skipper snorted.

  After dinner the religious crowd got together for their services. They took front stage in the center of the camp. Shawn Roberts started a sermon on the evils of technology and those who worshiped it over God.

  Roy listened for a bit but got tired of the dark looks and repetitive tirade. Shawn had stolen the stage and was using the desire to form a sense of community bond for his own ends, he realized. He too wanted that community, to know that the others cared about him and shared with him. It was human to feel empathy and want others to feel it for you. But this was too much he realized in disgust. Despite his fatigue and body aches, he and several people got up from where they had been resting and left to their shelters.

  Shawn noted their departure and drew attention to it. A few paused in embarrassment, but Roy kept going, uncaring what the man said. But the would-be priest's vitriol sparked other departures as well.

  Catrina was dismayed when Cookie and Lita got up to leave. She and Susan quietly tried to stop her betraying departure, but Cookie turned on them, brandished her pot she had been sitting on, and said if having someone make her a pot was evil to them, they can make their own food. “We came to listen to God’s comfort and support, not this,” Lita said with dignity. “Not to those who would twist his words to their own ends,” she said. Lita nodded and then took her friend by the arm and left with the others. The meeting then broke up as Shawn sputtered incoherently.

  ~~~~~O~~~~~

  The next day Roy worked again with the smiths to sort out things. They had a system now, a series of wood and metal boxes stacked in racks made of wood to keep the parts sorted out.

  The aircraft was a bonanza of parts and supplies. Keeping it sorted was of course an issue. As was keeping the various fluids and other things in containers. They knew that there wouldn't be replacements coming anytime soon.

  Most of the fuel and hydraulic fluid had leaked out into the surrounding sands and water. The beach had stunk of fuel for the first day until the waves had washed it mostly clean. They still told people to be careful where they placed their fires on the sands though.

  Before he left to hunt after breakfast, Klinger came over to them. “I don't have a lot of time, but you needed to hear this from me,” he said grimly, making them pause. The two guys working on an overhead shelter to keep the sun at bay stopped to listen. “Last night, a pair of people approached the wreck in the night, but since most of the fuel had drained out the remaining fuel tanks, I'm not sure what they were going to do. Make sure that your tools are hidden or guarded,” he ordered.

  That sparked a murmur among the apprentices. “Be careful, I don't have the manpower to spare to keep an eye on you and the forge,” he said. “I just don't know where the loyalties lie in those that remain behind in the camp. I know the Roberts are stirring up trouble.”

  “Can you take them along? Make them work?” Quinn asked. He waved a hand. “Force them away from their base of support or something? Out of their comfort zone?”

  Klinger shook his head. “I wish. And I'd dearly love to throw them out. But they've got too many supporters. It's all politics,” he grumbled dar
kly. “But if they really do cause a lot of hate and discontent or do damage to the community, yeah, I'll toss them out. One way or the other,” he growled. He eyed them for a moment. “But don't go looking to set them up. We need people.”

  “Not them,” Al said in disgust.

  “Even them. Look at it this way. Sure, they may not survive out there, but I'd rather have them here instead of out there raiding us or competing with us,” Klinger said.

  Quinn sniffed. “Wasn't it Roberts who was quoting Genesis? Something about the snake in the garden? It seems to me a clear case of the pot and a certain color…” he said, hefting a pot they were working on.

  Klinger smiled one sided. Roy shook his head. “Anyways, I thought you should know. Work something out between yourselves,” he said. He nodded again and then hefted his gear and left them to their work.

  “Come on, we've got work to do,” Quinn grunted. He nodded to the others to get back to work.

  “Isn't it bad enough that the whole damn world is trying to kill us? Can't we all get along?” One of the apprentice smiths demanded in disgust.

  “It takes all kinds. Come on, we've got work to do.”

  Roy had picked up another six smiths, but Quinn handled most of the training. As a veteran welder, he knew metal much better than the engineering professor. He knew all the tricks. He even experimented with burning some of the jet fuel in order to get the fire hotter.

  Most of the apprentices were more interested in scavenging than the forge. Scavenging gave them the chance to find something useful; something they could hide for themselves or gain them credit for finding something everyone could use. Most apprentices admitted interested in getting better stuff for their own shelter. Sheets of aluminum skin were hauled off to be used as roofs. Even Quinn and Roy did it.

  Roy's smiths made nails from cut lengths of thick four gauge wire. They were crude, but better than nothing. Some bits of wire were used as wire ties.

  With axes, hatches and willing help, people put a lot more effort into cutting wood for the wall, fires, and the shelters. The shelters improved quite a lot almost overnight from simple lean-to shelters to huts and teepees. The animal hides they had saved and sun dried were used as tarps. A few of the ladies complained they stunk, but they didn't complain about the shelter they provided over the latrine area or other locations.