Cold and Dark

by Marc Neuffer

  We walked in through a tall open doorway. I saw a thick wooden rotating shaft running through the building. Wide leather belts connected the shaft to provide power to the furnace blowers and other primitive mechanical equipment. Noisy and hot.

  Leaning in towards us, Riley shouted, “Water power. A waterwheel out back spins the shaft.”

  Two men, one young, one old, were working on pouring and smoothing thin planes of clear glass. I saw some colored panes stacked up nearby. If the galaxy ever fell apart, these people would do just fine. When I get back to Shangri La, I’m going to talk to the Bears about starting an intergalactic primitive artisan colony or two. It won’t be on Shangri La.

  We could develop long range plans to put one in each of the more stable galaxies, to foster interspecies appreciation and cooperation. Another slice to add to the growing pie. Slices that needed to outlast me.

  Noah and Sarah respectfully nosed around. The men had looked up, but couldn’t stop to chat or their efforts would be ruined.

  Most of the outbuildings were lined up along the banks of a rapid creek, wide enough that it could be called a river. Large waterwheels abutted several of the buildings, turning lazily. They must have some gearing system to turn the slow, powerful torque of those wheels to gain more useful speed for their equipment.

  Next we looked into their small blacksmith shop. “Why don’t they just put all this in one large building?” Noah asked.

  “Fire.” Riley replied. “Better to lose only one building than everything all at once, besides, the smaller ones are easier to cool in the summer and heat in the winter.” I didn’t think the refractory was anything but hot inside, but I did notice some wide, wooden paddle fans rotating in the back peek of the building.

  Anticipating our question, Riley told us the iron ore was mined and refined at a regional bloomery to create wrought iron. They were always located close to sources of iron ore, coal and water for power. The wrought iron could be further refined in smaller smelters, but that was more expensive and most villages relied on a few blacksmiths for the harder steel items required for new equipment or repairs to old.

  While we were standing in the yard between the refractory and the house, a young, attractive woman, carrying a woven basket, approached us. I watched as she made a bee-line for Noah. I’ve seen nature shows, that depict predators cutting the weak and young from the herd for a kill, but I’d never seen a tactic that worked as well as the one used by that farmers daughter. Noah bought her entire collection of eggs, including the basket. When the young lady had finished smiling and chatting, she moved off to continue her chores., Noah watched her go, making sure she didn’t trip and fall, I’m sure.

  Sarah walked up behind her brother and gave him a more than gentle smack to the back of his head. “Dumbass,” was all she said.

  Caught, Noah’s only reply was, “What? We can use the eggs ... for breakfast tomorrow.”

  Moving around to face him, she waggled her finger in his face, again, repeating, “Dumbass. You paid enough to buy their entire chicken house.”

  I turned my gaze away. Riley bent over laughing, then attempted to stifle her reaction. Martin had found something interesting on the horizon to study.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  We moved along the river road to the fisheries, just above the alluvial area where the river flowed into the ocean. According to Riley’s guide patter, the facility served both seasonal salmon catches and ocean-going sailing ship trawler hauls. Teams of employees cleaned and gutted the incoming harvest, making them ready for salting or smoking, to preserve the flesh. The remnants were turned into dried fertilizer, sold to the farmers.

  We reigned up when we saw a very young, very skinny girl, in a worn and tattered homespun dress running barefoot along the road toward us. Fifty yards away was a man, who looked to be in his twenties, in fast pursuit. Riley dismounted and met the girl.

  “Help me please, those men are after me. I can’t go back there, help me!”

  The running man slowed as he approached us. “Hey, let go of her, she ain’t yours. Let ‘er go!”

  Behind him were three men on mounts, trailing an empty saddled horse. They pulled up, facing us. The oldest one looked us over.

  “Hey, you’re tourists. You know it’s illegal to interfere with us locals, gets you locked up and kicked off the planet. Let the girl go, she ain’t yourn.”

  The men were carrying long sheath knives on their belts and looked like experienced brawlers. Their saddle bags were packed full, heavy looking. I motioned Sarah to dismount and join Riley and the girl. Martin, Noah and I had dismounted, standing in a line facing the men. We had no weapons, but we did have our fast twitch training. And a cloaked Ranger was on the way.

  Attempting a defusing, “Sir, let’s just take a breather and figure this out. It looks like she’s afraid and doesn’t want to go with you.”

  Noah had drifted further to my right as I talked. My preferred option was to get enough separation between the two groups, providing Ranger enough space to get low enough for us to board, while blocking the men with his invisible, but very solid presence.

  “Foreigner, we don’t need no breather, we need the girl and we’ll be going on our way. Give ‘er up. Now!” I saw the men fingering the hilts of their knives.”

  From behind me, the girl screamed in anguish and anger, “Don’t listen to them, they’re bandits and thieves. They burned out my family, killed my mother, father and brother and stole me away. Please don’t give me to them. Please!”

  Ranger was overhead but needed more room to descend. Stepping forward, ahead of me, Riley challenged the men, hands on hips. “So, you say she belongs to you. How did that come to be?”

  “She’s my sister’s kid. She run away, don’t like to do ‘er chores. Now, no more delay, give ‘er up.”

  Riley, standing relaxed, asked, “What’s her middle name?”

  The leader was visibly surprised by that question.

  “Come on fellas, any of you know her middle name?”

  Two of the men spoke up at once, one said “Daisy” and the other spoke “Mary,” After their pronouncements they looked at each other, then to the leader.

  “Thought so. Well, guys, you’re not getting your prize back, in fact, you’ll be lucky to make it out of here alive.” The way Riley spoke, I knew she was serious. We had the high ground with Ranger, but she didn’t know that, I held him as a last resort.”

  “Well, missy-miss, I beg to differ wid ya. You’re the ones who should be fearin’ for you lives.” He’d drawn a wicked looking curved blade, his partners followed suit. I looked back at Sarah, who was comforting the girl, her head in Sarah’s shoulder, crying.

  I was sure that Martin, Noah and I could disarm and disable them, but I needed to get Riley out of the way first. “Riley ...”

  A blur. She had instantaneously transformed. She was wearing some sort of black tactical gear, webbing and vest. Holding Riley’s hand, her sister, Haley, in similar garb, stood beside her. They had hand weapons pointed at the men on horseback.

  In quick succession, the women fired two loud shots each. Three men fell from their saddles, the one who had pursued the girl on foot had a similar fate. A single hole in each of their heads, dead center.

  13 Reduction

  Reduction: the process of making a specified thing smaller or less in amount, degree, or size. A chemical reaction that involves the gaining of electrons by one element from another.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  In my time, I’ve seen very few dead bodies. I did see my own long ago. As a general rule, I avoid funerals. The four bodies lay in the road dust, blood dribbling from their punctured heads. Once the heart stops, there’s nothing but gravity left to motivate blood to leave the body. Vascular pressure is quickly relieved, leaving a static corpse.

  Riley and Haley, backs to us, holstered their weapons and turned inward to each other. Haley gave her sister a brief hug and kiss on the cheek. “You got this, sis?”
/>
  “Yeah, I’ll do the cleanup. No sweat. See you in a few, and thanks for the backup.” Haley disappeared. Turning back, Riley stretched out her hand toward the fallen men. One at a time, they and their blood also disappeared.

  “The girl’s story checked out. She told me where she and her family had lived. Total burnout, charred corpses. Let’s see what we can recover from their saddle bags. You men give me a hand unsaddling the horses so they can try to make their way back home, I’m sure they’re stolen. Dump everything, bridals and blankets too.”

  We piled everything on the road side. Released, the horses trotted away. I guess they knew where they were headed.

  Wiping a bit of sweat from my brow, I asked, “What happened to the bodies?” She had reverted back to her guide outfit. No visible weapons, except her thigh knife and staff.

  “I sent them to a bad guy reunion. Atoms between here and the moon.” Pointing at the pile, “Call your ship down so we can get rid of this evidence. Don’t want our DNA found at the scene of the missing men.” She saw my questioning look. “I felt the wind from it … where no wind should have been.”

  We stood back as Ranger descended, uncloaked. Riley eyed my ship, “Mine’s bigger … and shinier.”

  We loaded the saddle gear while Sarah and the girl went through the saddle bags. She set aside a few things she recognized from her family home. A hairbrush, small mirror, a child’s toy that had been her brothers. She clutched a simple dress that had belonged to her mother, grabbed a work knife; her father’s. A few other things; meager remains of a once happy family. Everything stuffed in a small canvas collection bag Noah had offered her.

  I pulled Riley aside. “So, what now. What about the girl?”

  “Well Sarah’s going to help her get cleaned up and fed; better clothes too. Then we’ll take her to the village to report the butchery those creeps committed. I’ll have to report it to the Conservator AI too.”

  “And after that? What if she has no relatives, no one to take her in?”

  Pausing, she said. “We have options. Let’s see what happens in town.”

  We mounted our horses, turned toward the village, guided tour over.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Riley rode point, the girl mounted behind her, arms around Riley’s waist, head resting on her back. Sarah rode next to them. My daughter didn’t seem affected by what had happened. Noah kept eyeing Riley, but not like he’d done before. He was processing. I was too. This was a dangerous woman. Martin had vouched for her, but I reminded myself, AIs weren’t infallible.

  We rode straight to the stable, handing off the horses to the stablemaster’s assistant. Walking outside, Riley looked around.

  “We need to find Thomas, the blacksmith.”

  In a few minutes, he was located, not hard to do in this small village.

  Thomas was the unofficial constable here. He listened to Riley and then questioned the girl. Satisfied, he said he’d ask around about accommodations for the girl, but her family had no relatives in the area. They had moved here from the east, from over the mountains, five years ago.

  Thomas promised to get a detail together to bury her family. I envisioned a final shovel pat, over their common grave, as their only last rites. We took the girl to our cabin for the night. We were leaving tomorrow, and from hearing her conversations, so was Riley. I wasn’t sure whose trip back was further. Time and space had sepatation.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  In the morning, Riley sought Thomas. I was hoping the family had some close friends that would take the girl. She needed familiar faces. I walked with Riley.

  “So, what sort of weapons were those?”

  “Springfield ... XD9 ... semi-auto, twenty rounds.” Seeing I hadn’t fully understood, “Kinetic, chemical propellant, metal slug. I don’t like the Surron weapons. Too much delay in deciding whether to kill or stun. Delay gets you killed. I’ve had a bit of tactical training.” That had been self-evident. We walked the rest of the way in silence.

  Thomas hadn’t found any takers for the girl. At fifteen, she was too old for any family to feel comfortable adopting her, or even take her in. On the walk back, Riley was deep in thought. She reminded me of Sandy, in her pensive moods. Before we stepped inside, she turned to me.

  “I’ll take her with me. We have plenty of room on the island. She’ll have less culture shock there than out in the galaxy, in this time. Plenty of young folks to socialize with, good school. If we left her here, a young girl on her own, nothing but trouble. So, it’s not an option.”

  I hesitated.

  “Hey, don’t worry, it’s no problem. Back in my time, I’m almost as rich as you. We own the entire island. Haley, her family and our folks live there too.”

  “You can take her back in time with you?”

  “Yeah, sure. I took Sarah back the night before last. We spent a couple of days at the beach. Didn’t you notice the tan she was getting? And, before you bring up the quantum-smoothing you faced in the past, we’ve solved that little problem. It’s just physics. There’s always a work-around.

  Sarah and I were going to have a talk.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The girl gratefully accepted Riley’s offer. I think she would have taken any offer. I had agreed with Riley. Taking her to the highly technological civilization of my time would be difficult for her. As Riley had described it, her island was closer in line with what she had been used to, minus the hard farm work. Riley had not gotten or asked for permission from the Conservator. What would have been the point?

  After leading our donkey train back to Ranger, we said our farewells. Sarah hugged the girl and Riley, we men stood back and wished her well. The girl didn’t need close contact with men before she had a chance to process what had happened. Riley told me she had experience with traumatic stress herself and could get her help. She and Riley held hands and disappeared. Her name was Angela.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  After Riley left, we boarded Ranger and lifted off for a four day out-system transit.

  Riley and I had discussed the Surron situation. She and Michael, back in her time, had no clue how to contact them again. It had been a combination of events that sent her there the first time. Non-repeatable events. Martin and the Bears were going to have to dig deep to find and unravel that puzzle.

  Martin had been interested in the tech that allowed Riley to do her tricks. Apparently, it was effective for only a few select people back in ancient times. Something that had to do with the periodic mass extinctions of intelligent races and the Surron’s attempts to control it. A lost bit of Surron wizardry.

  Our first day aboard, I found Sarah alone in the ship’s lounge. “Riley told me she took you on a little trip.”

  “Yes, it was marvelous, nice beach, warm salt water, tropical breezes. They have some big nut-like fruit that just falls from the trees. She bought me some swimwear and we did what Riley called snorkeling; big flippers on our feet. At night, the galaxy looks nice from there. No light pollution.

  “Of course, I didn’t understand anybody but Riley and Haley. Still, everybody there was so nice. It’s not at all primitive like our data says it was, before the exodus. Just a lot more hands-on way of life. I liked that.

  “She had me watch a favorite vid show of hers, one her Dad and she had watched when she was a young girl. While I didn’t understand the language, it was easy to follow. We both laughed at what they thought the far future would be like. Their fake starships were weird looking.

  “Oh, and I invited her and her husband to visit the ranch. Her husband is a big handsome guy. I bet Mom and Riley will hit it off.”

  Knowing both women, I doubted it, I doubted it very much. I’d been hit with a one-way conversational fire hose.

  “Well, I’m glad you had a good time. Just think about telling me sooner about any adventures like that. Riley said you stayed for a few days?”’

  “Yes, but here, only a minute had passed here, between when we left and when we got back.”r />
  “Did Noah go too?”

  “Nope, it was just a girl-trip. He would have been dragging his tongue in the sand if he’d seen how the women dressed at the beach, or didn’t. You need to keep an eye on him. He gets clueless around good looking women. His brains start leaking out his ears. You weren’t that way, were you?”

  “Certainly not, young lady.” I hope Sandy had kept my failures and indiscretions to herself.

  14 Entropy

  Entropy: a quantity representing the unavailability of a system's energy for conversion, the degree of a gradual decline into disorder. The second law of thermodynamics states that isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards equilibrium

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Before returning to Shangri La, we’re stopping by Satchel so the kids can see Sandy and share their experiences. I wasn’t skipping work. With my constant connection to the relay ships outside Shangri La, I can work anywhere. Work on the growing mountains of things that needed doing. Mountains that don’t need to be climbed; they needed to be moved.

  I skipped the protocol for system arrival transit. With Ranger cloaked, we popped in just above Satchel’s atmosphere for a leisurely, undetectable re-entry. Too much atmospheric disturbance would be easily picked up by ground monitors, leaving a trail pointing to the ranch.

  Direct pop-in, to an atmosphere, created a lot of heat as the volume of air is almost instantaneously displaced by a ship’s emergence, melting anything within fifty meters. I’d done it before, but only when it wouldn’t hazard life or property. Popping in-system like this, I broke a few laws. But how do you arrest a dead man?

  When I’d first purchased Ranger, there had been no windows or view ports, all external looks were by a series of small cameras, linked to bridge screens. Until recently, windows, in human built ships, were weak points in the hulls.