World Wright Incorporated (World Wright Inc. Book 1)

by Vlad ben Avorham

  Preparing Foundations

  Working Together

  Sam was a little irritated that his day was being planned. He had mostly finished up his last project so wasn’t sure what he was going to be doing today, but he was sure he didn’t want to be fucking Davidson’s fetch and carry boy. Why couldn’t he use some of his damn harem for that if he just needed the extra hands? As bad as bad as Sam hated to admit it, at least some of those girls were at least as strong as his new, younger body.

  Still, as frustrated as he was with Davidson, and really just the situation in general he had to admit when he was being honest about it, by the time he was done with breakfast and up the hill with the others Davidson was already hard at work in the saw pit turning logs into planks. From the looks of it, he’d been at it since dawn. Sam heard a giggle and looked behind him. Elena, one of the new girls, and Dr. Young were coming up behind him. The new girl was bringing up a tray of breakfast. Sam sighed. No one ever bothered to bring him breakfast if he missed it.

  Davidson looked up and, seeing everyone approach, he stopped, put down the saw, and picked up his water bottle. He took a seat on the last log, waiting to be cut. “Come on folks, gather up for a sec.”

  Sam looked over to Josh and saw his brother roll his eyes, too. Yeah, here came another speech. That’s what they needed. It is why he was a bit surprised when, after taking his breakfast tray, Davidson just opened up with an exasperated, almost ragged laugh. “Fellas, Y’all lookin’ at me like I planned this.” He shook his head. “I was tryin’ to hold on to a life with a wife that I love very much and three children, and two grandchildren I miss every minute of every day.” The emotion on his face was raw. Sam wasn’t good with emotion, but he hurt for the man’s loss. He didn’t really have anyone back home. He only had his brother, and his brother was at least with him. He never really had thought about what the others had lost.

  Sam didn’t have time to fully process this because Davidson continued at that point. “Trying to hold on to it.” he nodded. “But that is just denial of reality.” He gave a deep sigh, and Sam could see him wrestling with his emotions. “Barring some great miracle. That world is closed to us. We can be happy that at least they live on, but not as a part of our lives. For us to be whole and healthy people, we will need to accept that.” He sniffed and straightened his posture. “That I am no longer closing in on becoming a senior citizen or retirement, doesn’t mean I love my grandchildren any less. Nor does the fact that my new life has certain, eh,” he hesitated looking over at Elena who was watching him intently with concern clear on her face," opportunities, mean that I cherish the time I spent with my wife any less." He rubbed both hands over his face before looking up at them. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about these young ladies. One or all.” He said in a flat voice and looked meaningfully at Dr. Young as he said the last part. As he looked back over the others, he continues, “What I do know, is that I’m not an old man anymore and ignoring them is foolish on many levels. If any of them want to wander off with any of you, I will not be the least bit angry, but it damn well better be because of your sparkling personalities and not because of coercion or some such. Remember, if they’re not interested, this too is not the end of the world. The big fall harvest festival is in just a few weeks if I’m understanding the girls right. They all want to go, and I think that we all should go. Both villages meet there, spring and fall. It will be a good time to find out what else there is on the island. Be adults about this people. There are too few of us to let petty jealousy drive us apart.” He looked again at Dr. Young and oddly at Dr. Godfreed. Sam wasn’t sure exactly what that was about, but decided he would keep his eyes open a bit more.

  Davidson picked up his tray of food as if preparing to eat it, “Last quick matter before I shovel in some food and we get back to work... Winter is coming, and while probably mild, it is still probably more than we want to deal with in lean-tos. So with that and the addition of extra people, I want us to focus on getting at least the central stronghold built. To this end,” he turned to Dr. Young, “please ask Dr. Stone to get the girls gathering stones from the stream with the handcart and piling them over by the build site. She should be in a fairly good mood this morning considering, she should be able to supervise them without being an insufferable bitch to them.” he said rather pointedly. Sam saw the anger flash in Dr. Young’s eyes, but then her face reddened and she only nodded. Davidson just continued, as if nothing out of the ordinary had been said. He didn’t even seem to notice the smug look on Dr. Godfreed’s face. Sam realized that he really needed to pay more attention to what was going on around him. “I number all this lumber. If you guys can help me by getting it up to the crash site while I cut these last few pieces, we should be able to assemble it tomorrow. If everything goes according to plan, this baby should be a modification of DaVinci’s crane. We should then be able to lower crews over the side to recover the salvage that’s at the bottom of the cliff face, and also send parties to collect shells from along the beach.” He looked at Sam and Josh. “I trust that with enough shells, I can trust you two to set us up a functioning concrete manufactory?”

  Sam looked at Josh. They both broke out in a grin. With concrete they could do all kinds of things. Things you couldn’t even think of without it. “Yeah, boss,” Sam said with a grin. “I think you can safely say that”

  Davidson took a quick bite of his breakfast and washed it down, half chewed with some more water. “Then, unless anyone else has some other input? I think we’ve got a plan...”

  Discussion of details was light at that point, and Sam wasn’t really paying attention. In his mind he was already designing a new tool, ok really it was an ancient one, but he was changing it for current context. He couldn’t wait to see how excited the ladies would be when they saw this...

  No Shame

  Anju smiled to himself. Seems Sam wasn’t the only one who was hatching a plan. Anju was born in impoverished India. This situation with these young women wasn’t really a surprise to him. He also was neither intellectually, culturally, nor emotionally, opposed to the idea of marriage being about wealth and standing. He knew that in this world his twenty century technological edge should give him and economic edge, and that should make him as attractive to many local women as Davidson’s square jaw, and wavy hair, or Godfreed’s broad shoulders and deep rumbling voice, and Anju would not be ashamed of taking advantage of it.

  After helping haul up the numbered lumber, and helping to assemble the foot powered crane, he opted to move to the proposed site of their new home along with the Roth brothers, who were supposedly going to work on the new cement production facilities. Anju made the excuse that he would lay out the foundations so that everything would be ready to get started as soon as everyone got back. In reality, he just needed to have space to work on his opening salvo in operation No Lonely Nights. He had found a long threaded rod in the wing's wreckage that had been used to raise and lower the flaps. At just over four feet long and about three times as thick as his thumb, the hard part was getting it away, with no one noticing.

  It worked though; he spent the morning of the first day staking and running string for the layout of the foundations of their new home. After that, he got right to work on his real project. With the basic tools of the workshop, he could use the large threaded rod and the heavy collar that acted as a ‘nut’ to run up and down it to become the main actuator for a large press. Whether olive oil, wine, or cheese, this should make the work of all of those ladies ever so much easier, and who would they have to thank? He smirked. Of course since he finished the press by the morning of day two and everyone assumed that the others would be up at the crash site at least another two days he decided to go ahead and start work on the rest of the outdoor summer kitchen including a tandoor oven a large baking oven, a small pizza oven and even a spot for a grill, griddle, and wok, if the metal components could be fashioned for it. He was just putting on the last decorative touches of embedding s
mooth river gravel into the surface of the clay to protect it when he could hear the other coming noisily back from the crash site late in the evening of the fifth day.

  Growing and Exploring

  Davidson looked over at all that they had accomplished. They really had collected all the shells that they could carry back in a half a dozen trips. They had reclaimed and packed in under some aluminum sheets, all the wreckage that could be salvaged from the ravages of the sea. It had actually been a very productive week. Everyone had really pitched in and given it their all. He saw that all the tired faces around him had satisfied smiles on them. They all knew that they had accomplished something this week. Suddenly he was struck with an idea and even felt a little overcome with a twinge of guilt. “Hey everyone! Huddle up for just a sec, I just had an idea.”

  It took a moment, but they all completed what they were doing and in ones and twos came by with curious looks on their face. Davidson smiled at them all. He really was proud of how well they had worked together, considering how much friction there had been earlier in the week. “First, I just wanted to say thank you everyone for a fantastic job. I really appreciate everyone pulling together and putting in all the hard work. I had originally planned on starting to haul all of this back in the morning...”

  John St. Claire interrupted him, “Uh oh folks, here it comes,” but he had a big smile on his face when he said it. All of those who could understand English laughed at this. Even Davidson gave a soft chuckle. The girls who couldn’t understand what was being said just smiled, kind of blankly understanding that someone had said a joke.

  Davidson shook his head. “No Johnny, normally you’d be completely right, but I realized since we got here I’ve been so into survival mode that I’ve completely set something slip. I haven’t observed the sabbath since I’ve been here and none of the rest of you’ve actually had a day off either.” He shook his head. “Now, I’ve long since lost track and couldn’t tell you what tomorrow actually is, but as of now, I’m officially declaring from sunset,” he looked at the sky, “in about three or four hours, until sunset tomorrow is the seventh day and everyone has the day off. Enjoy it how you will!” He grinned widely as they looked at each other then let out a cheer. “As for me, I think I’m going to do a little exploring along the beach, so last work I have for anyone, please let us down the lift?”

  Godfreed’s smug smirk was frustrating for Davidson as he lowered him and his eight young ladies to the rocks far below. Davidson shook it off. He smiled at them and waved at for them to follow as he led the way. He cleared the cliff area to where the beach opened up. This way, as the tide rose, they would find themselves truly cut off from the others. As much as it was possible to be on this small island, they were truly alone.

  Eli was looking out to sea for a bit, just watching the sun glinting off of the waves. He was remembering a trip he had taken with his wife on their second anniversary to Corpus Christi; they had decided to start their family on that trip. Drawing strength from that memory, and finally confident that he wasn’t betraying, he turned to find eight lovely faces all staring at him expectantly. He couldn’t help it. He laughed, laughed so hard. It felt so good after so long. He took Elena’s face gently in his hands and kissed her softly on her forehead. “I’m not crazy, I promise. We do need to talk though.” He took her hand and gently led her over into the shade of a tree. The others following. Now that he had their attention, he pointed to her, and to himself. Then to himself and to each of the other girls in turn and showed words coming out of their mouths and then shook his head and left a confused look on his face. The girls all nodded. They understood the problem. Then he pointed from one to the other and pointed that they come together, and then made the sign of cradling a baby, and shook his head. The girls all started to get upset. A couple of them actually started to cry. He raised his voice “Wait!” That startled them, but he continued on gently pointing from himself to each of them, then showed talking and understanding. Then showed coming together and cradling the baby and shrugged his shoulders and tried to look hopeful. All around the circle of ladies, understanding dawned and he could see that they saw the wisdom of this, but he could also see the open disappointment on their faces. It was such that Eli couldn’t help but laugh.

  They looked up at him almost accusingly. They thought that his laugh was mocking them. He just smiled. “Oh, you girls are just so innocent. This is going to be so much fun.” He took two fingers and pushed the corners of one of the girl’s lips up into a smile. She couldn’t help but laugh at his antics and, of course, the others laughed at this, too. “I just said we can’t be making babies. There is so much more to teach you ladies about.” He chuckled to himself as he stood up and shucked off his boots and tossed his flight suit under the tree and went running for the surf, whooping like a wild man.

  It didn’t take long before he turned and was greeted with a wonderful sight of eight lovely naked forms running across the sand whooping in an imitation of him, headed for the waves.

  By the time they rejoined the others late in the afternoon the following day, the ladies horizons had broadened as to the alternatives to being with him and even each other, after all even at his age recharge time was a real thing, then they had ever dreamed possible just twenty-four short hours before. Georgia and Evita couldn’t help but notice the change in them. They weren’t nearly as timid as before, nor as unsure of their position in the group. They seemed much more confident, but it wasn’t anything that they could put their finger on. Still after discussing it they both agreed something had definitely changed.

  No Place Like Home

  All coming together

  Davidson had been concerned about wasting the time on it, considering that winter was coming. Looking back on it now, he was glad he had let the Roth brothers talk him into their idea of making two archways in each foundation large enough that a man could crawl through below ground level and mark them on the wall above. They were convinced that after the dams were in place and with enough concrete, they could use some parts from the wreck to create a ram pump to pump water up through concrete pipes to a water tower and supply running water for both indoor plumbing and eventually irrigation. At least to their stronghold and any surrounding out buildings and maybe even a bit more depending. At the time it had sounded like a pipe dream but as the sabbath was winding down for this week and he was looking back over what they had accomplished so far, it didn’t seem as crazy as it had at first.

  The amount of just unusual things these people knew was amazing. He knew he had some eclectic knowledge rattling around in his head. With hobbies that included historical re-enactments you always picked up some odd but in situations like this oddly practical information. Of course the Roth brothers were simply freaks of nature with what they picked up as well as what they just semi magically seemed to “problem solve” their way through. It rose almost to the level of a superpower. Dr. Gupta and all of his work with solutions for the third world, made him a font of useful base knowledge. Most of the ideas presupposed access to small bits of technology that they couldn’t get, but again that is kind of what he had the Roth brothers for. He grinned. Those two never would have dreamed that in the near total absence of a technology base that they would go from public nuisance to humanity’s great hope.

  Dr. Godfreed was the great stabilizing force. His physical size and aptitude for violence meant he was picking up the weapons training that Davidson gave quicker than most. His advanced years and Davidson reluctantly had to admit his sometimes all too personal acquaintance with life’s injustices had left Dr. Marcus Godfreed, an even-tempered and sober man. In another life he would have made an amazing judge. Here he was, just a solid mass that acted as both ballast and counter balance, steadying their little society. Never once fighting against a change in direction that Davidson saw necessary to make, but always making them swing out just wide enough to make it a smooth turn and throw no one over board. A rare talent, especially given the frag
ile egos involved in the individuals on the level that they were dealing with. It was one thing to interact professionally on a limited basis; it was quite another to literally live in each other’s back pockets.

  Poor John, and the women, seemed to be hit the hardest. Even so, John St. Claire was rising to the occasion as a true credit to himself and his family. He was getting downright scary with that crossbow. John was now the principal supplier of meat for their crew. Davidson made a point of praising it regularly during meals. With some help from Melina, one of the young women Elena had acquired ‘for Eli’. He was even getting good at tanning hides. Many of their trade blades, tiny bits of wreckage, roughly hammered into a vague knife shape and pinned with wooden pins into a natural branch handle coated with pine tar and ash, and wrapped with wet rawhide that was then sun dried to shrink fit. They weren’t pretty by modern standards but when he sharpened up the first batch of them and put them in a makeshift butcher block in the kitchen, the way his girls reacted, you would think he had invented the dishwasher.

  Georgia Stone too had come around. She could work with his girls, and yes, he thought of them as his girls now, just as they did, with humor and respect. They were teaching each other. While it had been Godfreed’s idea, and he had done the actual work, because Dr. Stone had supervised and showed its use the first time, as far as the ladies were concerned she got the credit for the small concrete quern hand flower mill. Davidson couldn’t help but smile. He’d been talking to Godfreed one evening about setting up a water wheel powered mill to handle all the grain on the island, when the man said they should make a small one in the meantime. Dr. Stone put herself in charge of the project, which mostly meant just standing over him watching him work then using it for the first time. So of course to his girls, she was the genius. To his credit, Godfreed watched the entire scene with tolerant amusement and just ate his fresh bread, and took a happy Dr. Stone to bed that evening.