Bootstrap Colony (32 page)

Mitch rolled his eyes. ”Just what
I need, two cases of morning sickness and midnight cravings.”

Janet glowered at him. “Hush you.
Your bright idea... Unless of course you’re volunteering to do it the old
fashion way...” she suggested.

He put his hands up in surrender.
“Actually no, I’m good, and glad you’re thinking about this. The more the
merrier.” He retreated as Janet and Anne chuckled together.

Doc came up to him and sat down
next to him. The breeze ruffled her hair, he smiled. “Long day Doc?” he asked.
She hadn't been back long. She shivered a little. He took off his coat and
draped it over her shoulders. She pulled it around her, taking in his scent,
and then leaned into his arms.

“Yeah. You could say that it was
an interesting one. Seems Hanna, Natali, and Anne want to be impregnated,” she
said.

He smiled. “Yeah, I heard.”

“Yeah, I thought you had
something to do with it. Janet, Phyllis, and Vanessa are behind them too, and
plan to get pregnant as well,” she reported. He nodded. “Vanessa still wanted
to go with Mike to expand the iron village though, so she wanted to wait until
next year. Hanna is going to stay here where it is safe. Mike made it clear he
didn’t want kids there.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“How the hell can he be so cold
about it?” she demanded.

He sighed. ”Triage dear. Triage.”
She suddenly clutched his arm. “You know the drill. Save the ones you can. Mike
felt it, felt the hurt, but he is a naturalist, an Indian, and a survivor. He
knew that a child in nature can be replaced. Self preservation is the most
primal of instincts,” he explained. She shivered again. He patted her hair and
side.

“Are you going to take the
plunge?” he asked. She didn’t say anything for a while. He watched the kids
playing a scratch game of soccer. Henry was nearby, cheering them on.

“Maybe,” He heard the soft reply.
She felt the rumble of his soft chuckle. “Maybe. I am just not sure about
bringing a kid up in this world. It is scary.”

“Yeah, having another Cassie
around is downright scary,” he teased. She chuckled at this. “Much better now
than before though, you have to admit that.” He felt her nod. He patted her
shoulders. “Give it time, give it time.”

Janet's Friday night movie night
rolled around and the kids were restless. Some wanted a cartoon, others an
action flick. Anne gave Mitch a hard time about not planting popcorn. Teasing
him unmercifully he shrugged it off. “Hey, it wasn’t a priority.”

Janet came up. “She still on to
you about that?”

He shrugged. “Are you kidding?
Every week.”

She chuckled. “Maybe it is a
craving.” He gave her a look, and then turned to Anne who was suddenly
blushing.

“You did it?” His tone was
questioning, but there was a light excitement in it. Anne nodded.

Janet grinned. “She is officially
knocked up,” she said with a smirk. He hugged them both.

“With TWINS!” Janet announced.

“TWINS?” He gave both of them a
wide eyed look. “...Okay wow! One Anne is bad enough, but three?”

Anne gave him a mock glower. “Oh
shut up and watch the movie,” she growled poking him.

Entering the dining area a few
days later, Mitch overheard Anne, Janet, and Frances talking. “What’re you
ladies up to?” he asked warily.

“Were just picking out names,”
Anne said. He smiled. Frances patted her belly.

He gave her a look. “Not you
too?!?” he demanded, sounding aghast.

She giggled. “Yeah, but ours is
the old fashioned way. A lot more fun for both of us.” She giggled again and
then glowered at him. “It’s all your fault anyway.”

He looked affronted. ”How can you
construe that that was my fault?” He indicated her belly. “I didn’t do it!”

Paul came in behind him and
leaned over to kiss his wife soundly. “Nope that was all me.” He grinned at
her; she smiled back and then looked at Mitch.

“If you weren’t chasing Paul here
out so often we wouldn’t have to make up for lost time.”

Mitch sighed in surrender. “Okay,
you got me there.”

Paul smiled and gave his wife a
leer. “Yeah, but we more than made up for it...” Janet cleared her throat, and
then did it again when they didn’t notice.

 Anne giggled and patted her
belly. “Don’t worry dear, your turn is coming,” she teased. Janet sighed.

Angie piped up: “I do not want a
kid now, I am not ready.”

Paul looked over to her. “That is
good. I am glad you realize that.”

Janet nodded. “Right now you’re
on the go, learning to fly, and bouncing all over the area. Getting motion
sickness in the air would not be fun.” She grimaced at the thought.

Anne nodded, and then patted her
hand. “You have time dear.”

Jacklynn agreed with a nod. She
had walked in while the others were talking, poured herself a cup and was
leaning against the counter. “Right now you have plenty of time. For those of
use with our clocked closer to the stop mark though....” She gave Anne and
Janet a nod.

“Once things settle down a bit I
may have a go too. We have a day care, so we can still do our jobs,” Jacklynn
admitted

Mitch nodded. “You’re not flying
beyond the second trimester though.” She gave him a look. “Unless it is an
extreme emergency. I do not want the air pressure change to cause a miscarriage
ten thousand feet up,” he said pointedly. She gave a wary nod. He shrugged. “Don’t
think of it as being grounded. You can still fly the drones, and tear into the
planes to do maintenance.” Both pilots nodded. They had salvaged the remains of
his long range drone and putting it back together was going to take a lot of
hard work.

Midsummer arrived and they
finished another round of harvests. Hejira reported the vanilla vines were
doing well, growing strong and tall, wrapped around one of the artificial trees
in the hot house. Most of the other hot house plants were doing well, the vanilla
were the ones closest to the edge of extinction before she had come along.

Sam called in: “Uh, Jack this is
Sam, we have ourselves a situation here.”

Helen answered. “Wait one.” Pete
heard and called Mitch in. Mitch arrived at a trot just as Jack did on his end.

“This Jack Sam, what's up?”

“Well, it looks like we have a
bonified refugee column headed in your direction,” Sam replied from his
location overlooking the village.

“Refugees?” Jack’s return was of
mixed weariness, resignation, and wariness. “Ten four.”

“Looks like they got chewed up
pretty good, they are hauling butt from the coastline and it is damn near
sunset. It looks like...God! There are hundreds of them!” Sam said. The others
muttered in the background.

Jack came back almost frantic: “I
can’t support that many! Where the hell are we going to put them all!”

Sam grunted. “Worry about that
later; let’s get them inside before the damn shark hounds show up.”

Jack clearing throat. “Yeah, ten
four. Good point,” he muttered. “Shit! Go tell Axel we have company coming in
and get Nicole prepped. Damn. Damn. Damn. Double damn!”

Mitch picked up the mike. “Jack
this is Mitch, we copied that. I will have Jacklynn and a med team out ASAP.”

“Med team? Yeah but we need
food!”

Mitch nodded as he clicked the
transmit button. “Don’t worry about it Jack, get them undercover and we will
get a relief convoy out to you to help out and resettle any who want to do so.”

“Roger that,” Jack sounded
relieved.

Mitch snapped his fingers to Pete.
Pete looked up startled. “Page Jacklynn, and the infirmary. Let them know the
situation and to mount up.” Mitch pulled out his Bluetooth as Pete started
punching numbers. “Lisa? Hi, we need the plane, loaded and fueled.” Lisa
grunted an okay. “Jack has refugees. Okay darlin, thanks,” Mitch said.

Pete talked in the background.
“Okay I will tell him.” He looked up. “Jacklynn said okay, she is on her way to
the hangar now. Angie is going to go with her, as are Doc and Cassie.”

Mitch nodded. “Okay. We really
need to bump up a priority for more planes.”

Pete made a wry face. ”I’ll take
it up with management.”

Mitch smirked and tousled his
hair. “Yeah right. “

“Okay, glad Henry just got that
complex done. I think this winter we are going into the factory business,” Pete
observed. Mitch nodded. Pete looked thoughtful for a moment. “Thought we needed
aluminum?”

“Yeah, but we can do a lot with
carbon fiber. We also have some aluminum and other materials we recycled from
the Amazon village.” Mitch nodded to the distant warehouse.

“Carbon fiber?”

“Yeah, remember that graphite
deposit Phyllis found?”

“Yeah,” Pete looked dubious. “But
isn’t that used to make lead pencils?”

Mitch chuckled. “It is actually
carbon. We use it for a lot of factory stuff, and we can process it to make
carbon fiber. Made right it is stronger than steel and lighter then aluminum.”

Pete’s face cleared. ”And with
carbon fiber we don’t have to process bauxite!”

“Yeah kid, you're catching on. I
see you’ve been paying attention in Geology one oh one,” Mitch teased. Pete
blushed and grinned.

“Bauxite is an energy intensive
thing to smelt to get alumina. So we do an end run around the problem. Hell, we
make the jigs for the plane, we can make as many as we have material for!”

Pete grinned. “Does that mean I
get to get my flying license?”

Mitch chuckled. “We’ll see. But
banging up a plane is a lot less forgiving then denting a fender!”

Pete wryly grimaced in painful
memory. ”Never going to let that go,” he muttered. Mitch waved as he left.

At Copper Town Jack watched
through binoculars as Sam’s road crew met up with the refugees, and then
quickly began loading them onto the trucks and vehicles. Jack paused, trying to
figure out why. He looked around until Helen nudged him. “Suns almost down, they
better get in soon.”

“Yeah. Get a moved on,” Jack
muttered softly. People began dropping their belongings to run as the trucks
filled up. People hung from the sides and roof.

“Damn, like a South American
bus!” Jack commented. Helen chuckled. The gate doors opened and people began
streaming in. A few stragglers still trying to struggle with their worldly
possessions began to scream for help. The trucks stopped outside the walls and
Sam yelled for people to get off. They scrambled to obey.

He turned around as the last
refugee got off and ran for the sheltering walls, and then pealed out get to
the stragglers. The dreaded hound yips made Jack grimace and Helen pale and
clutch at his arm. Another truck finished unloading and rushed off after Sam.

A third finished and tried to
follow the people inside, but Jack waved at him to get back to the stragglers.
Reluctantly the driver turned, and then slowly moved off.

Pops of weapons fire could be
heard in the distance. Sam didn’t slow down, barreling through the attacking
pack, smashing hammerheads down as his headlights blinded them. He turned,
feeling the vehicle almost tip he instinctively leaned the other way. “Not now
baby! Not now!” He felt a smash as one of the creatures hits his door, and then
talons smashed out his window. He screamed in fright, but popped the truck back
into motion and felt the satisfying crunch and bump as the creature was run
over.

He pulled up just as the second
truck arrived, pointing in the wrong direction. “Get your asses in!” Sam screamed.
People scrambled to obey. One guy tried to climb into the driver’s door, but a
hound pulled him off, and then tore him apart. Another hound set in, fighting
over the body. Sam pulled his gun and fired, killing one of the animals.

He fumbled with the satchel at
his side, and then pulled out an egg. He pulled the pin with his teeth, and
then tossed the grenade out over the heads of some of the people near and in
front of the pack. The flash bang went off with a loud boom and flash of light.
The people screamed, as did the hammerheads.

Someone banged on the hood,
screaming to go. He pulled out as the third truck pulled up. People screamed
for him to stop, he frantically waved for them to move, blaring on the horn. He
pointed to the other trucks, but they suddenly turned, some fighting a retreat
against the charging predators while others climb on the trucks.

The fourth flatbed arrived;
people climbed on frantically, some tossing their weapons up and then
struggling to get aboard. The driver popped it out of neutral and began rolling
back to the safety of the walls just as the pack reformed and began to follow.
Several of the animals were tearing into the belongings and fallen people.
Another flash bang went off, this time the pack ducked or turned away stalling
them briefly.

Jack had the lights flipped on,
and then got a volunteer to toss flares out along the path. The creatures
chased the trucks in; the screams of those on board and those left behind could
be heard over the pops of weapons. Jack bellowed to get the courtyard cleared.
Axel rushed about with John the blacksmith, pushing and shoving people aside,
cussing all the time. They cleared the yard just in time for Sam to barrel in,
slamming to a stop and sending some of his passengers to the ground. Benny
pulled in beside him, as did the other truck and two flatbeds. The last flatbed
got an unexpected passenger just as it entered the lights; a hammerhead leapt
on board and began savaging people. People fled to the back of the cab. The
creature hung on, but was blinded by the light. Nictating membranes closed over
the eyes as it continued its attack.

A shot from the wall wounded it,
but it didn’t go down until the truck stopped. Axel clicked the remote to close
the doors. A tense group investigated the hammerhead to make sure it was dead.
The cries of the frightened injured, and dying soon gathered the attention of
everyone. Jack grimaced. Axel came up, smacking his hands together. “Well, that
was fun!” Jack gave him a dirty look. “Well, you can’t beat that for livening
things up here, unless we get another visit from the six legged office lawyer
building...”

“Lawyer building?”

“Yeah, sucks the life right out
of you worse than my last divorce.”

Jack snorted then shook his head.
“Okay, you got me there. We are going to need triage.”

He watched as Helen moved among
the injured. “We are going to need a volunteer team to rescue the air crew if
they land in the dark too,” Jack said.

Axel looked a bit shaken, and
then muttered a curse. “Forgot about that. No hope they can’t parachute in?” he
asked hopefully. Jack raised an eyebrow. “Thought not,” he said with a Gaelic
shrug. “Okay we’ll get’r’done.” Jack nodded as Axel moved off.

Smoke billows from the chimneys,
Cookie came out with a pot of soup. His eight year old daughter balanced a
stack of bowls while his three year old clutched a bunch of spoons. People
began to exclaim and those not busy with injured rushed to help. The tumult of
voices ebbed to the occasional cry of wounded and murmured voices. Jack nodded
and moved in to help as well.