Bootstrap Colony (15 page)

The chicks were coming regularly
now; he had switched half the layers and broiler hens to laying fertilized eggs
with the judicious visits by the local roosters. The incubators were kept
running full time. Now he had hundreds of cute fuzzy downed chicks chirping
under sun lamps in boxes and crates. With luck he should have a good next
generation to expand, as well as plenty for later slaughter.

He was a bit concerned about
tuberculosis, according to the books it was a major problem with chickens and
cross contamination. All of the animals he had brought over were vaccinated for
TB, Tetanus, and everything else they could think of, but they could still be
carriers. He had only a finite supply of the vaccines in storage as well.

The geese were laying too, a few
had hatched eggs. The turkey’s were a different story, a bit harder to hatch,
only a few survived. They required constant monitoring, and the damn things
were just too stupid. He had to repeatedly show them where the water was, and
one had somehow found a way to drown in the water tank.

One had been squished in a corner
when its cluster had a panic attack; the bodies had gone to the cheetah. He had
slipped a plastic sheet into the corner to try to round the edge, but they
found other ways to get into trouble. Only a dozen chicks were left, the hens
had stopped laying too. He wasn’t sure about having many more Thanksgiving
turkey dinners in the future.

He had even made the first
harvests, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and others were harvested and stockpiled.
Seeds were replanted. Tomato, strawberries, cucumbers, and other plants were
everywhere; he had hung them in buckets upside down early on, now he had
waterfalls of plants he picked over daily for fresh food. The MRE’s were rarely
used now.

He had made the move into the
cave; it was much roomier, if a bit gloomy. He put the cats and dogs up in the
bedroom wing. He even had a mushroom closet going on the second floor. Most of the
mushrooms would be used to feed the pigs. He only needed a few for a couple
meals anyway.

The base was shaping up; he was
finished with the first planting, and had even poured the cement for the
courtyard, as well as the footings and bases for the giant greenhouses. The
first was almost ready for assembly.

Getting the servers up to the
second level had been an interesting challenge. It had taken a lot of work to
get them broken down into small enough packages to carry up the spiral stairs
the Andy robots had assembled. Two more stairs were planned, one in a nearby
chamber between the Great Hall and the barns, and another in the bedroom wing
leading to the isolated chamber and then the chimney shaft.

Getting the central AI net up and
running was a simple plug and play experience, taking only an hour to get
everything up and booting. Once POST was completed he had it integrate the
network, running diagnostics and checking for errors.

The base AI was a voice address
system networked into all the robots, vehicles, and surveillance systems. With
it up he noted a rapid jump in robot productivity. That allowed him to return
his attention to the base expansion. He turned one of the store rooms into a
walk in refrigeration chamber. It had been a tricky affair, but after going
through the manual a half a million times he got it sorted out. Whoever wrote
the manual must have written the ones for electronics, totally incomprehensible
he mused.

He was amused and deeply
satisfied when the first raptor had tested the perimeter fence to find it a
shocking experience. A few others had tried their luck, now they avoided it
whenever they came out of the tree line. So much the better.

He had deliberately kept the
fence at least ten meters from the nearest trees. This would give him clear
fire lanes and avoid anything trying to climb over or fly over the fence. With
those residual wings, he wasn’t sure if those raptors could glide, and wasn’t
in the mood to find out the hard way.

A marathon session of setting up
the small greenhouses before a storm hit had him exhausted and dragging for
days. It was painful to move by the time he was done, and taking a tepid shower
had been an ear splitting occurrence. The water hitting the new welding burn on
his forearm had hurt like hell.

Mitch crashed in bed that night,
totally exhausted. In the middle of night he felt something crawling on him.
Something prodded him awake; it took his sleepy mind a moment to process what
he saw, a scorpion bug crawling over him. It stopped. Fearful but aware sudden
movement was bad in this situation he stilled. An armadillo rat attacked it
from out of the darkeness. He jumped up, staying on the bed as more of the
scorpions were on the floor. The armadillo rat finished one, and then munched
another. The stingers bounced off its shell with scratching sounds. The others
retreated under the bed. The rat followed, and the occasional wet crunching
sound was heard. His head swam with stress and adrenaline for a moment. Mitch
got down off the bed and carefully checked the area, then decided it was
definitely time to fumigate.

He thought about giving a couple
of the animals to Doc. It would help them out, especially if he sent over a few
chicks, or a couple puppies... But the attitude of some of the women, and their
desperate straits made him reconsider that. They would most likely eat the
animals, cutting down on his planned breeding schedule without as much as a
thank you. He felt bad for the kids though.

A few days later on his way back
from the iron mine he encountered a battered teenage boy being hunted by a
group of women. The brown haired sunburned kid hid in the truck, ducking down
into the seat as they drove off. It turned out the half naked teenage boy was a
scarred kid, covered in welts and bruises. He was wearing only a breach clout
and leather choker. He told Mitch his name was Brian before the jostling of the
truck lulled him into falling into exhausted asleep.

He was an escaped slave from the
village of women Mitch realized. Mitch cut off the collar, fed and treats kid
and then took him back to base. He returned to the village after hearing his
story, angry, wearing body armor, and armed. The kid came too, cringing at the
sight of the women but he held onto a borrowed rifle Mitch had given to him.
Mitch had two trucks follow, each with a war robot.

When he pulled up to the gate he
got out, with a curt word he told the teen to wait in the car. The ED stepped
off the back of the truck, scaring the guard into hastily backing up from her
challenge. He gave her a long look then walked into the village center.

In the village he spotted a boy
hiding and pointed to him. The kid came over reluctantly. It was the boy named
Billy he recognized, but he was now wearing a breech cloth and a tight leather
collar matching Brian's. Angry Mitch asked if he wanted to stay, the little boy
hid face and shook his head no. “Go get your gear then,” Mitch gently told the
boy. Billy beamed up at him briefly and then rushed off.

Soon boys came running. A teenage
female came to stop him, but a wave of his rifle and a look at his set angry
face after he saw another beaten kid made her hastily back off with threats to
tell the dominatrix.

Diane the priestess showed up and
seemed pissed, immediately going into a rant but keeping a wary distance from
him. He gave the brunette a long dirty look. “Frankly lady I don’t give a damn
what you want.” One of the kids giggled at this. A pair of women approached the
car on the other side. He looked over to them and then back to the priestess.
“Just consider me social services, or a concerned citizen,” he snarled to her,
meeting glare for glare as he ushered the kids into the truck.

He warned her if another child
was beaten the dominatrix would regret it. All the boys loaded up. Two orphaned
girls came too in the bustle of bodies, as well as two women ladened with bags.
He asked if they participated in the beatings, the boys confirmed that the
ladies tried to protect them. Janet and Anne joined the group. The hummer was
full; every seat was doing double duty.

Before leaving the compound Mitch
asked Brian if that was all of the boys. Brian did a head count and then
nodded, glaring at Diane. He was nervous but defiant, clutching at the rifle.
Even the insanity of the priestess was pierced by the young man's indignant
rage. Mitch got them out before the kid lost it.

“Clown car,” Mitch muttered. He
took them back to base; they were awed by sight of all the gear. He gruffly
warned them they wouldn’t be playing video games, they would have to do chores
and go to school.

One teen smiled and said he;
“Never thought he would ever want to go back to school till he heard that.”
Everyone laughed at that. There was a lot of tension busting in that laughter
Mitch realized.

Mitch told them they will work
out a system, and school will be practical material. A boy barely 12 heartily
agreed to that.

“I think I am in love.” One of
the women commented.

“Awe, you just like me because I
have hot showers and chocolate,” Mitch teased with a look her way.

“CHOCOLATE?” Janet cried eyes wide.

“Hot showers?” came from Anne. He
laughed, waving them inside.

They took turns in the showers
and bathrooms, Anne hissed in sympathy over cuts and welts, the boys were
relieved at getting the leather chokers off. The chokers had been soaked in
water and shrunk, slowly choking them. If they back talked the Dominatrix or
Priestess would splash water on the leather. The kids piled out of the baths
tired but happy and finally gloriously clean. Mitch had them dress in coveralls
the robots dug out of storage while their rags were put in the wash. He doubted
they were worth saving.

The tentative hopeful smiles were
almost more than he could bear; he knew what hell those kids have probably been
through. “I am sorry about the clothes, best I can do until we get yours sorted
out,” he said again. He waved his hand as a robot brought the laundry to the
laundry mat.

“I am sure we can get things
sorted out soon enough,” Janet replied before she left to take her turn in the
shower.

He had them sit at the table as
he finished a quick dinner of spaghetti with meatballs with garlic bread. Anne
and Janet come out of their showers last; Anne had a towel wrapped around her
head and another around her body. Janet tousled her long wet hair with her
towel, wearing her shirt and no bottom. She sniffed appreciatively. “You cook?”
she asked.

He grinned. “But of course,” he
responded with a fake French accent. Some of the kids giggled. She snorted. “I
have MRE’s, cans of food, and stuff in the freezer and pantry if I am in a
hurry though.” He warned her, and then smiled as she ducked her head and
ruffles her damp hair.

“I thought I would never get
clean again! Thank you!”

“Where is the chocolate?” Janet
asked as she looked up.

He shook his spoon at her. “No
desert until you eat your entire dinner lady,” he mocked her. She gave him a
quelling look at his tease, but the kids were giggling and she couldn’t hold
the look for long.

Janet chuckled and then gave a
token sigh of surrender. “If you insist...” Anne smiled.

The garlic bread was a big hit,
so big he had to bake a second loaf. Janet looked concerned but he waved it
off. “I have over two tons of bread flour left, and the first crop of dwarf
wheat should be coming in within the next two months,” he explained. She looked
amazed, and then nodded.

As the general mayhem of dinner
wore down Anne sniffed the air appreciatively and then smiled. “Is
that...brownies?” she asked. She looked at Mitch hopefully. Janet looked up,
and then gave him a look. The kids were enthused.

He chuckled. “Yeah. I threw a
batch in. There is also some fresh vanilla ice cream.” It took a bit of
jostling and of course some oohs from his audience as he pulled the brownies
out and tested them. A few minutes to let them cool allowed him to fetch the
ice cream and bowls and Janet to police the dirty dishes from dinner.

“It will be a while before the
cacao trees mature, so what is on hand will have to be rationed carefully,” he
informed them, and then took a bite.

“Caccaa?” One of the kids asked,
wrinkling his nose while the other kids giggled.

“Chocolate tree dear,” Janet
replied, pointed back to his dish.

“Oh okay, for a minute there I
thought he said Cacca as in poop,” the lad replied with a straight face. The
giggling started again.

Mitch started to respond, stopped
to swallow and then tried again. “When I first got here I set up small
greenhouses. The third greenhouse has tropical plants that will take a long
time to grow, like the chocolate. Also coffee, lemons, rubber, tea, nuts, vanilla,
and other useful things,” he explained.

Anne looked up interest.
“Coffee?” He shrugged.

Mitch wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, I
don’t do mornings.”

Anne snorted. “Neither does she.”
She pointed her thumb at Janet.

Janet chuckled. “Ain’t that the
truth?”

Mitch ordered an Andy to unwrap
and set up the mattresses for the new crew. The kids were tired but amazed,
awed by the technology. Once they got used to the robots they found them
amusing. The armadillos had them intrigued. Janet lent him a hand loading the
dishwasher, then hustled the kids off to wash up.