Bootstrap Colony (28 page)

Axel and Helen came up behind
Jack and nodded to Mitch. Jack turned and nodded to Axel while giving his wife
a hug and peck. Jack and Helen commented about how this could all be some sort
of government conspiracy. Axel chimed in as well. He had received a package the
morning of the thirty first; low and behold it had been a bunch of duffels with
survival gear.

“I am glad that helped,” Mitch
commented.

Axel, “Yeah it did, saved my tush
till I hooked up with Jack here.”

Jack however gave Mitch a look.
“What did you mean?”

Helen caught the look, and then
did a double take as what he had said set in and she put the pieces together. “
YOU
sent them??”

Mitch toed the ground like a
school kid caught doing something naughty and then shrugged. “Yeah.”
Realization dawned with the group. He ducked his head, blushing a bit.

“See I set up a system to
identify people who said they were abducted that matched my own visit. Then I
set up the packs to be delivered to everyone they could find. I wanted everyone
to have a survival pack and at least a fighting chance,” he sighed.
“Unfortunately we only found four hundred thirty three people.”

Jack patted his shoulder. “Yeah,
but those people will have a better chance of survival,” he observed. Axel and
Helen nodded.

“Jack, what say we go see if we
can find one of those carcasses and get a better look?”

Jack gave him a long look, and a
slow nod. “Might be a good idea at that. I want to know what we are up against.
It might be a good idea to reinforce the perimeter, maybe add some features now
that we have better tools.”

Mitch nodded. “We still have a
day, so let me get my crew on that then we can do quick road trip.”

In the field they were surprised
that the carcasses were gone. Not picked over...literally gone. Not a splinter
of bone left. They hit upon the idea of hunting one of the close caves. Mitch
shot a wompi deer for bait. The crew rigged a lasso with the winch cable.

They tossed the deer near the
opening. Chattering and low noises could be heard, and then a paw hesitantly
came out to try to drag the carcass in. Using his goggles Mitch shot the animal
in the head. It dropped. The chittering increased as they heard scrambling.
Quickly they tossed the noose out; it took three tried to get it to loop around
the paw. The winch dragged it out, but suddenly the line bucked like it had a
fish on the hook. Checking the scope Mitch noted other creatures tearing at the
fallen one. He tossed in a flash bang, it went off and they scattered to the
back of the cave. They extracted the slightly chewed corpse and bundled it in a
tarp to take it back to base.

At the village Doc came out and
took a quick look with the crowd of lookie loos... “You’ll have to run it by a
biologist or Mags, but this is the damnedest thing I have ever seen. Look,” She
used a stick to pull the mouth open. “It has sharks teeth, the whole bit,
triangular, rotating for replacement... but look here.” She pointed the stick,
the end now dripping drool to the front feet. “It has four legs, but the feet
are tridactyl toes. The front feet have an opposable thumb that scissors into a
pair of claw toes. I bet it acts like a raptor, grabbing the victim to pull it
to its mouth,” she observed. She pantomimed the action with her hands and
teeth. Jack and Mitch nodded.

She pointed to the underside neck
flank near the root of the hammerhead. “Those look like gill slits. I bet this
thing is amphibious. See this,” She tapped the melon. “I would bet this is
ultrasonic.” Mitch nodded.

“Rubbery skin more like a dolphin
then a shark,” Jack commented.

Diego Fuentes pulled fins on the
tail. “Check this!”

Doc nodded “Yeah probably fins,
for thermal control or swimming.” She poked around a bit. “… Not much skeleton,
I wonder if it has a cartilage skeletal structure?” she mused. She pointed to
the shark fin. “Classic dorsal fin. Damn, scary sob. From the claspers I would
say this was a boy.” She looked up as Cassie came over to check it out.

”Yeah, it looks like one of those
things from that sci-fi movie, the one with the bald guy with the weird eyes?”
Cassie said. Doc nodded.

“More like aliens,” Jack replied.
They looked up and over to him. “The skin is black, melon head... sharp
teeth...” The group shivered.

Doc, Cassie, Diego, and Dora
Fuentes went off to the side, muttering about this or that feature. The Fuentes
tried to keep up with Doc and Cassie, Their English was still rough. Frequently
Diego had to pause to translate something his wife had said in Spanish into
English.

Some of the villagers came to
see, shudder, and then move off muttering darkly. A few made weak jokes, trying
to get over the shock of the creature. Mitch had them bag it back up in the
tarp for transport back to base. “So, can we kill them?” Someone finally asked.

Mitch shook his head. “Do you
really want to go into those caves after them?” The group vehemently shook
their heads. “No? Neither do I.” He grimaced and shrugged.

“That’s it?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. I would suggest keeping
your crew on a strict curfew, no one outside a half hour before sundown, and a
half hour past sunup. Best I can suggest,” Mitch said.

Jack looked dubious for a moment,
and then sighed. “Yeah, sounds about right.” He grimaced, looking around before
his face cleared. He turned back to Mitch. “Wait, why didn’t we see them last
year?” Jack asked suddenly.

“They may have been in another
area, like across the river," Mitch pointed out.

Jack nodded. “So you are thinking
they are nomadic?”

Mitch cocked his head. “From what
Doc said about that carcass, maybe,” he replied. “They might also have hunted
in other parts of the area, further south along the coast line, or East and not
gotten this far inland.” Mitch commented, looking out to the sparking river a
kilometer or two away.

“Then again, since they attack at
night and are a little photo phobic, they might have been around the entire
time.”

Jack shuddered. “We lost a few
people at night the first couple of weeks. I always thought it was raptors,” he
grimaced.

Mitch nodded in sympathy, patting
the man on the arm. “We will never know for sure,” Mitch muttered.

Jack looked up for a minute then
asked, “What about explosives? Seal the caves?”

Mitch shook his head no. “There
were a couple dozen caves there, and we would have to get pretty close to toss
a satchel charge in... with no guarantee that it would close the cave. Rigging
the cave would work better, but I do not have that much explosives, and that is
dangerous as all get out. Hell, just getting them
here
would be a
bitch.”

Paul paled a bit. “Yeah, bouncing
around in a truck filled with explosives isn’t what I would call fun.”

“Then we have the other question,
are there other cave entrances?” Mitch asked thoughtfully. Jack wearily sighed
and nodded in surrender. He thanked them and moved off to help the perimeter
team.

Jack came up to the knot of women
around Mitch later and commented, “So, iron, copper, salt, plants, animals...
Not bad for a beginning.”

Angie looked up. “Plastic, carbon
fiber, carbon, oil, and spider silk as well.” she replied proudly.

“Plastic?” Jack asked, looking
dubious.

“Yeah, we have several kinds,
bio-plastics made from synthetics, and cellulose, plus a polyethylene made from
gene engineered bacteria,” Mitch explained.

“Okay, I heard about that on TV a
long time ago, but spider silk?”

Sara and two other women joined
them. “Spider silk. In the nineteen nineties there was a breakthrough in
genetic engineering, scientists managed to engineer goats to produce spider
silk proteins in their milk,” Sara explained and then shrugged.

One of the women shuddered “I don’t
like that, tampering with gods creations.”

Mitch smiled politely. “Do you
eat food?”

 “What kind of question is that?”
she asked glaring.

“What about clothes?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So all of that is
gene-engineered. It just took longer,” he replied patiently.

She looked dubious, and slightly
offended. “No it isn’t.”

“Ma’am, yes it is. Farmers have
been using genetic engineering in the forms of cross pollination, selective
breeding, culling, and other techniques to shape plants and animals to what
they wanted,” Mitch replied patiently. Jack slowly nodded at this, as does
Angie and Sara.

“Gene engineering in a lab is a
short cut and more scientific. They take the desired traits seed them into the
RNA or DNA, and then mature it. It still has trial and error of course, but
much faster since they mapped the genomes,” Sara pointed out. The woman
shuddered.

“Scientists can now find specific
traits they want to enhance, or change,” Mitch added.

Sara looked on, and then turned.
“What about cross breeding?”

Mitch nodded. “Yes, before
genetic engineering farmers would cross breed animals to get desired traits,
like donkeys with horses to get mules, or cross pollinate plants.”

Jack nodded. “I remember seeing a
Discovery channel thing where they used cuttings from buds.”

Mitch nodded. “Yes, they can do
that too. But now they can select genes from one type of animal, and inject
them into the base animal or plant. Some of it sounds silly, like glow fish,
and such, but this allowed scientists to learn things, things about biology and
how the process worked.”

Sara nodded. “It isn’t like we
can do that now; we don’t have the facilities, training, or real need.” Some of
the women look relieved. “With our small population we do not need to maximize
crops, or create new designer dog breeds,” she said dryly. Angie snorted a
giggle. The women left, muttering a bit.

Doc came up, quietly informing
them that Nicole had a light fever, but the baby was nursing fine. Sam had gone
out with the crew, and graveled a road for three kilometers. They returned just
before dusk, making a few worry until they spotted their vehicles on the
horizon. A tense guard watch was mounted, but the hammerheads were not seen
that evening much to their relief and fear. It was always the predator you
didn't see that could get you many said.

The next morning the convoy
loaded up, Sam, Paul, and Angie took the convoy back to the base. They would
try to only stop to do a little work on the way where necessary. Jack watched
as they loaded the dump trucks with gravel. “They will be okay,” Mitch said
from behind him. He turned to Mitch.

“Sam is a good guy; he will use
the gravel only sparingly. Once they get through the mountain pass they should
be okay,” Mitch replied to the questioning look.

Jack nodded; smacked dust from
his hat and put it on. “Yup.” They watch them leave, and then turn to the
defenses. The gate was a makeshift thing, made with stripped of metal mounted
on a frame with crude wheels. The day before the crew had been busy working on
the perimeter, but the gate itself had been overlooked. Mitch pulled at it a
bit, and they decided to do what they could to improve it. CJ, one of Jack's
teenage group helped form a rail for the wheels to ride on. Jack dug a trench
for the rails and then embedded them while Mitch worked out a truss system to
strengthen the door. Without acetylene fuel for Axel’s welder they were forced
to use drills and bolts, getting creative with the cuts while draining the
batteries.

They called a halt at lunch.
Cassie came out to check things over. She helped them muscle a beam into place,
then decided to haul water and do laundry with some of the ladies. Jack snorted
at this. CJ chuckled. They managed to beef up the door a bit, and blocked out a
plan for Jack and his crew to continue improvements. The latch and arm bar were
worked on, making it easier to move and secure the door. Axel worked out an
idea to power the door with a pair of garage door openers, which he dug out of
a pile of parts and began tinkering with. CJ said they would have to have
power, and be able to sync the motors to a controller, Axel agreed, they went
off talking about the idea.

Jack wiped his brow with his
forearm, gauged the sun and decided dinner was a good idea just as one of the
women hollered. “Nice timing,” Mitch observed, laughing. They slapped each other’s
shoulders and head off to get cleaned up. The convoy called in, letting them
know they were through the pass and were making good time.

“That was fast,” Jack commented.

“They probably didn’t want to
stick around the pass with those creatures, especially when it was getting so
close to nightfall,” Axel replied. Jack nodded.

One of the women paled. “Yeah,
good point,” Jack said quietly and pointed to her with his chin and changed the
subject.

The farm crew came in as the sun
set, as did the copper miners. Axel’s lumberjacks, thinned by the convoy
leaving returned, glad to be inside, saying they were a bit jumpy because a
raptor pack had made a kill nearby. Terri paled and shivered.

In the night they heard a battle
of screams, yowls, yips and tussling plants. The guards were jittery. Jack and
Mitch made some rounds, and looked out to see the bushes and grasses sway. It
wasn't the nearly absent breeze that was causing it either. A raptor suddenly
came out of the night to the side of the wall, thrumming in fear; it turned in
place, not even looking at them. Out of the darkness the hammerhead creatures
came, strolling apart. One of them, more massive than the others chittered. The
raptor seemed to curl into itself, fluttering its wings before hissing and
thrashing its claws out.

They watched as the hammerheads
charged, one feinted to the front while the other circled and pounced to the
rear. It triumphantly tore into the raptor. One of the guards muttered an oath
and fired a shot into the air. Jack belted him, calling him a moron for wasting
a shot. The hammerheads turned to view the humans on the wall, giving off
wailing yips. The fallen raptor was now forgotten. “Oh shit...Oh shit...” the
guard and Jack exclaimed in dismay as one of the creatures seemed to gather
itself for a leap. Suddenly sounds in the tree line followed by angry snarling
made them stop and turn in a flash, pulling the raptor into the darkness.

“Damn... I mean, damn,” the guard
commented, clearly shaken.

“Amen,” Jack said, patted his
shoulder. “Amen. Just be glad we are in here and they are out there.” Mitch
nodded.

They managed an uneasy sleep,
sleeping in a few hours past dawn. After breakfast they surveyed the perimeter,
wincing at the blood splattered around the area. Jack had a couple of the
ladies bring buckets of water to try to wash it off the wall and away from the
perimeter before more flies found it. TJ and CJ yawned and went out, chopping
and cutting the trees too close to the perimeter.

Mitch had them leave some
selected trees. He asked Axel for outdoor lights; Axel looked up from the motor
project and pointed to a clipboard. They pulled out a few lights with solar
panels. “What are you up to?” Jack asked curiously.

“We can use the trees as poles
and mount these to them. Point the lights to the ground with perimeter sensors.
If one of those creatures or anything else comes into its field and it will
turn on.”

Jack nodded. “Ah. I get it. Good
thinking.”

When the “J” brothers were done with
the cutting Mitch brought out a lunch pail and then explained what he wanted as
they ate. Muttering they shimmied up a tree and hoisted up tools and the gear.
It took some fumbling before they get the first one set up. Once they figured
out what he intended, they get enthused by the project and moved off on their
own to the next tree. Jack pointed out that they would only have enough for a
dozen trees; there would be spots all along the perimeter for them to slip
through. But Mitch shrugged it off. “Some are better than none.”

Mitch dug a pit on either side of
the gate, and stuck a surplus oil barrel in each. He stuck in a pad of Semtex,
electric squib in the bottom, and then packed it with gravel and waste oil from
Axel’s supply. Axel muttered about this, until he noted Mitch burying a line to
the base. “What is that?”

“Fougasse cannons,” Mitch said,
burying the line.

“For what?? Sounds French,” Axel
said wrinkling his nose. Ned came over, handed him a pair of wire strippers
Mitch had asked for.

Mitch looked over to Jack and
Axel. “It is a nasty mortar. Shoots napalm, gravel, whatever you want. Stick an
explosive in the bottom, top it with whatever you have on hand and set it to
face the enemy. Like grapeshot or a fireball when it went off.” Jack nodded
thoughtfully. “I set up a bunch of these at base,” Mitch added with a hint of a
smirk.

Axel got an evil grin, smacked
his hands together, startling Mitch who growled and looked up. Axel was rubbing
his hands together in glee. “I like it! I LOVE IT! Serves the evil sum bitches
right! Hammerheads on TOAST!”

Mitch snorted. “I will leave you
a pound of Semtex Jack and a sketch of how to rig it.” Jack and Axel nodded.

“We haven’t found large deposits
of sulfur or nitrates, but we have charcoal. The chickens you have can give you
a small supply of nitrates.” Mitch waved his hand to them. “The Dinosaur dung
might have it as well.” He wrinkled his nose. “If we can find a volcanic area,
or even a hot water spring we should find sulfur. Nitrates are the key though.
With those three you can make black powder,” he explained. Axel grinned.

“That copper you're mining is
copper sulfide, so somewhere around here, most likely upstream is a hot spring
or volcanic deposit. There should be sulfur there. I will ask the UAV crew to
take a look,” Mitch said. Axel nodded.

Cassie came up; she informed them
with a smile that Nicole’s fever had broken. Axel nodded, tipping a finger to
his hat in salute and took himself off to play with his tools. Jack got a call
from one of the guards and went to investigate. “Cassie, how much longer?”
Mitch asked, searching her face. “I don’t want to travel this countryside that
distance outside the convoy,” he warned.

Cassie nodded. “Yeah, not a good
idea. I will check with mom,” she replied. After the incident with the shark
things she really didn't want to be all alone with them at night. She trotted
off.

Mary Anne called him, letting him
know Pete was on the radio. Pete reported the convoy was working on a steep
stretch and would be therefore a day or so. “Piotr told me to tell you the
Doppler is reporting a weather front moving in with the wind, South by South east.
Should be overhead Copper town tomorrow night,” Pete said. A squelch of static
ends the report.

“All right, thanks Pete. How goes
things at home?” Mitch asked, sitting in the driver’s seat watching the nearby
kids playing.

“Janet is driving us nuts, while
Kathy and Jolie have stunk up the place after messing with some chemicals.
Janet is PISSED,” Pete said with a disgusted sound. Mitch chuckled at this. “We
had to air the base out, it was BAD! Um, one piece of bad news, Maggie said
those scorpion things got four more turkeys. Also the ones in the outside range
all disappeared, but there are feathers everywhere. She isn’t sure we will be having
turkey dinners much longer.”

“Roger that,” Mitch sighed, then
thumbed the transmit button again. “What about the other animals?”

“Well right now she said the
cattle and goats are okay, some of the horses still have colic, whatever that
is. She lost a mare too it. The raccoons are driving everyone nuts... boss I
gotta ask, why did you bring them?” he asked exasperated.

Mitch chuckled. “Well, I like
them, and they have nice fur.”

“Ooookay, whatever. Well, Sean is
about ready to kill you, these varmints are smart!” Pete said. Mitch chuckled.

“Tell Sean to look in the green
section, tote three hundred and twelve I think, maybe three thirteen. Check
inventory if I've got the number wrong. There should be locks in there. Lock
the cages if he can.” Mitch waited as Pete jots the information down.