Bootstrap Colony (33 page)

Jack called into the base hours
later, giving a tired report. “We have one hundred and eighty one people, but
I’d say six or seven may not last the night. Jacklynn did a bang up job
landing, even taxied the plane right up into the courtyard, saved us having to
mount a crew to get her in. Thanks for the electric landing lights, they were a
life saver. Doc, Dora, and Cassie have their hands full. What about those
supplies you promised?”

“We couldn’t load them on the
plane Jack, it was kinda full.” Mitch responded. There was a squelch of static.
“Paul and Lisa are getting a relief convoy going now. Remember, Sam has four
out of six of the tractors, so it is going to be a light run. They just left a
minute ago.”

Jack grunted. “Ten four.”

“How bad is it?” Mike asked,
entering the conversation.

“Hi Mike,” Jack said tiredly.

“Hey Mike,” From Mitch.

Jack sighed. “It looks bad; the
stragglers took the worst damage. They said that leviathan thing stomped their
village flat a month or two ago. They decided wherever it was going, they would
head in the opposite direction, and here they are. They didn’t experience the
hammerheads until tonight, it seems like they are only indigenous to our
area...Just our luck,” he said in disgust.  There was a squelch of static.
Mitch smiled wryly.

“I can’t put this many up all
winter, we can barely feed ourselves, let along one hundred eighty more!” Jack
finally added.

“Well, we can take a few,” Mike
replied sounding cautious.

“I can take as many as needed
Jack.” Mitch responded. There was another squelch of static.

“One of these days I gotta get up
there and see this base of yours,” Jack finally said.

Mike snorted. “It isn’t a base as
much as a fortress and small underground city.”

Jack pursed his lips in a
whistle. “Damn, that sounds the right way to go.”

Mitch: “Yeah, but we still have a
vermin problem. Scorpions keep killing animals. Fortunately we haven’t lost
anyone yet, though a couple of the kids have been poisoned by stings. Doc and
that biochemist of yours have created an antivenin.”

Jack: “Roger that. But I bet you
don’t have to worry about getting stepped on.”

Mitch chuckled. “No, not by
walking buildings... Piles of kids are a different story. Getting knocked over
by a pregnant lady if she turns too quick is also a hazard.”

There was a chuckle of agreement
from Mike. “Yeah, quite a day care there. Maybe I should make room for you here
if sanity returns?” Mitch and Jack chuckled.

“All right I am off to find Helen
and see if we still have a bed to sleep in. take care.” Jack said tiredly.

Mitch and Mike: “Night.”

Mitch flicked a hand out to
change the channel. On a separate channel to Mike he clicked the mike. “Mike
you still there?”

“Roger.” There were sounds of him
tuning in.

“How many can you really
support?” Mitch asked.

“Twenty, maybe thirty if they are
adults. I can’t handle kids, every hand counts here,” Mike responded.

Mitch waited a moment, processing
that. After a moment he clicked the mike. “Roger that.”

The next day Jacklynn walked
through the group to Angie. Angie was leaning over a woman and child. Jacklynn
scotched down to the kid, tweaked her nose and she dimpled and squirmed as she
smiled. Jacklynn smiled back. “Hi ya squirt. Angie trying to swap jobs with
you?”

The little girl shook her head.
“What does she do?”

Jacklynn snorted. “She is my
copilot.”

“ Oh,” the girl replied in a
small voice as she looked to Angie.

Angie smiled. “At least till I
get my own plane. We are setting up a factory to build more this winter.”

The mother looked up interested.
“A factory?” She nudged the man next to her. “My name is Candy. This lump is my
husband Bill. Bill they are building a factory!”

Dubiously he turned to the girls.
“Where?”

“Oh at our base. We have a
fortress about two hundred eighty kilometers north of here,” Angie replied with
a smile.

Candy blinked in surprise. “How
can you have a factory? I mean, we could only bring what we owned...”

Jacklynn snorted. ”Yeah well, our
boss used all his money and managed to buy enough to build the base. It is
pretty extensive. I imagine many of you will end up therefore the winter if you
don’t stay here or end up at Iron village.”

“Oh,” Candy looked confused.

Bill grunted. “How much did he
bring over?”

“Well he brought over four
hundred loads, lots of vehicles, all packed with gear. Robots, factory modules,
mining gear, animals, prefab buildings, the works,” Jacklynn explained proudly.

Bill’s face cleared, and then he
whistled. “This I gotta see!”

 Candy looked up to him. “Yeah.”
She turned to Jacklynn. “Bill and I worked on the factory floor for Ford.”

Jacklynn nodded. “That is great!”

Angie nodded. “We have been
building small stuff, parts, solar panels, window glass, wind turbines, and
minor things, but we haven’t gotten to vehicles. Mike and Jack have been
clamoring for engines and vehicles.” Bill and Candy looked relieved. “We are
heading back there in an hour,” she added.

Jenny the little girl piped up:
“Can I come?”

Angie ruffled her hair. “Well
sugar, let me check with Doc. I think for today only injured will fly to the
base.”

“Oh...How come?”

“Well we have a hospital there.”

“Oh! Wow!” She turned her pixie
face up to Candy. “A hospi..hospitl.”

Candy smiled. “Hospital dear.”
Bill goosed her sides and chuckled as she squirmed and giggled.

Angie smiled. “Yeah we have all
the comforted of home.” She looked up, poked Jacklynn and they looked to Doc
waving to them.

 Jacklynn got up and stretched.
“We hope to see you there soon.”

Jenny looked up, and then a
thoughtful scowl creased her little features... ”They don’t have a school do
they?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. Angie giggled,

Jacklynn looked over to her then
nodded. “Yup ‘fraid so squirt,” she said with a straight solemn face. Jenny
made a disgusted face; Candy covered her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles.

Bill looked alarmed as his wife
teared up, and then hugged her. “Yeah, I think we will definitely be there,” he
said softly as his wife nodded. Jacklynn nodded in return and waved as she
left.

“I dare say, are you chaps going
to carve up that beastie?” Jack turned from his discussion with Helen, Doc,
Nicole, and Cassie to turn to the interloper. A rumpled slightly balding male,
at least forty, peered at him through thick glasses.

Jack looked annoyed but Helen put
on her best manners. “I think Maggie the vet would like us to ship it to her,
but I am not sure, we may need the meat. And you are?”

“Oh sorry, I am Dr Mallard.
Please call me Ducky.”

“Okay Ducky, why are you
interested?”

“Well, back on Earth I was a
marine biologist, I specialized in sharks. I had a booming grant, and criky I
would love to have been able to write a paper about that bloke and his chaps,”
Ducky replied. Cassie stifled a snigger as her mother punched her arm.

Doc coughed. “Well Doc, you can
ask Maggie for her notes on the autopsy.”

Ducky interrupted. “Not autopsy,
necropsy.” Doc nodded.

Cassie rolled her eyes, but quit
when her mother gave her a gimlet eye. “Okay necropsy. If you can get net
access she might be able to send you her draft notes,” Doc replied, returning
her eyes to the marine biologist.

Helen sighed. “It would have to
be short, power is low and so is bandwidth.”

“I say, you have Internet?” the
good doctor demanded with a dubious look. Mallard fussed with his glasses.

“Oh yes, we set it up a couple
months ago.” Jack pointed to the antenna farm. “Wireless of course.”

“Oh of course,” Ducky took off
his glasses and wiped them with a rag. He wasn't sure if he believed them or
not.

Doc smiled. “If you want, I can
ask Sam if we can bundle the carcass up and you can ride with it to base.” Many
of the surviving refugees wanted a ride with Jacklynn and Angie. Having one
ready and eager to go on the convoy might make it easier for others to agree as
well.

Mallard smiled a brilliant smile.
“That would be peachy! I’ll just have a look see before we take our jaunt.” He
turned and took himself off.

Cassie sniggered. “He even
waddles,” she observed softly. Her mother punched her again, but she was
dimpling, fighting a guffaw. Nicole joined in giggling.

Helen laughed, wiping tears.
“Well, at least Jacklynn will be glad to see a fellow Australian!”

“I think he is from New Zealand.”

“Oh.” She shrugged. “Close
enough.”

“We have a lot of people now,
German,  Indian, French, Asian, and South American. It is getting hard to
communicate,” Jack commented.

His wife gave him a quelling
look. “We’ll make do, everyone is welcome,” she said, making her opinion
crystal clear. He sighed and nodded dutifully.

She nodded her chin to Axel
coming in loaded with gear. “I see you have them out scavenging.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, try to
salvage what we can, maybe there will be food.” He gave the scavengers a bleak
look.

“No bodies though,” Doc said.
Helen shivered. She noted Axel piling it in the middle of the yard yelled and
headed over, waving her hands and hollering about making a mess. Some of the
folks looked, up, and a few duck avoiding the fight while a couple others come
over to sort through the spoils.

It took two days for Jacklynn’s
flying circus to evacuate the critically wounded to base. Each return from Base
she brought back a couple hundred pounds supplies of food. When she was
finished running wounded she took regular passengers.

Jacklynn was flying the Summerset
family and a teen into the base, they were the first group of able bodied to
make the trip. She had one of the teens sitting in the copilot seat, even
giving him a thrill by letting him fly the plane for a while. When they got to
the outside border she took over however.

One of the kids asked where she
got her aviator jacket. She looked over with her sunglasses, and then keyed her
intercom mike. “Well, my friend Roserita made one each for Angie and I.”

“Oh, is that sheep’s fur? Wool?”
the girl asked fingering the neckline.

“Yeah. Yes it is fleece. We had
some extra stockpiled from the spring sheering.”

“Sheep?” Candy asked.

Jacklynn smiled and pointed,
banking the plane into a turn. “Sheep.” The passengers looked. Oohing and ahing
as they spotted a herd of sheep in a walled pasture. Border collies kept them
together. A woman looked up and waved. They passed over other herds, buildings
and farmland, making many oh and ah in pleasure and growing excitement. Candy
caught Bill’s hand, he gave it a squeeze and her a smile.

On the ground they were met by
Mitch. Jacklynn shooed them forward as she turned to meet Lisa to service her
plane for the return trip. The new folk looked around like tourists, pointing
this way and that. Candy had a smile fit to give her jaw an ache. She began to
tear up, Bill patted her on the shoulder, and she pulled herself into his arms.
He muttered soft reassurances to her.

 Jenny began to get upset,
looking around and shaking. She wasn't sure what was wrong but her mother's
tears had her in distress. Mitch scooped her up and she froze, and then began
to cry. He tried to sooth her, but Candy came out and with a watery laugh told
her mommy wasn’t upset, just very happy. Confused the child stopped and looked
at her, then began to smile as her parents smiled and talked. She hugged
herself to her mom, who caressed her hair. “There there love, no need to get
upset.” Jenny popped a thumb in her mouth. Mitch looked on and then at Bill.

Bill sighed. “She has been doing
it since we got here last year.”

Mitch commented slowly... “Yeah,
it is a bit much for a kid to take in.” Bill nodded, patted his daughter.

Mitch got up, gesturing to the
Summerset family and the teen. “Okay folks, Janet has set up the showers so you
can shi...” He glanced at Jenny, “I mean poop shower and shave.”

Jenny popped the thumb out of her
mouth. “You were going to say shit.” He turned and blushed. “Don’t worry, my
daddy says it all the time.” She grinned an impish smile to him and then to her
dad.

Bill looked chagrined, toeing the
ground as Candy glowered his way. The teen muffles a laugh with his hand into a
cough as he passed. Candy glared at her husband then sighed. Mitch chuckled.
“Okay, as I was saying, we have a system set up for new folk, get you all
cleaned up, fed, then give you the ten cent tour.”

“Do we really have to pay?” Jenny
asked, concerned. “I left my piggy bank...”

He laughed shaking his head no.
“No dear, it is just an expression.”

Janet waved to them impatiently.
“Okay folks; let’s not keep the lady waiting.” They moved off to join her.

Mitch stepped over to Jacklynn a
short time later. “How is it going?”

Jacklynn looked up to him. “Okay
no problems with the plane, you sure got a beauty!” He nodded. “Copper town is
still a mess, not as bad as the leviathan attack, but they were clearly
overwhelmed. Paul and Sam are taking as many as he can manage back here. They
should have left by now,” she reported.

He nodded. “I got a call from
Jack, he said they left an hour ago, about sixty five refugees, a quarter were
wounded. We will get another fifty to sixty on the next load.”  Jacklynn
nodded.

“Doc sent Cassie along since she
sent Dora back here to manage things. They should be here in a couple days now
that the road has been improved. They were also bringing a rather battered
predator drone with them,” Mitch added. Jacklynn winced. “Sam is chasing me to
build bridges,” he added with a grimace of annoyance.

She looked at him. “Oh, we can
handle the forms, concrete, and rebar, but I am not all that thrilled about
keeping people out in the field for long periods of time... Or tying every
vehicle up to one project. Mike is already hassling me for trucks, as is Jack.”
He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair for a moment.

“It isn’t like they can use them
when the snow hits,” Jacklynn replied as she nodded. “That young man, Jamal
wanted to be a pilot by the way.”

Mitch nodded. “Can he hack it?”  He
asked looking to where the young man and family had entered the base.

“Yeah he did okay with the stick
on the way here,” Jacklynn replied. He gave her a cool look.

“Okay, another pilot in
Jacklynn’s flying circus,” Mitch finally said. She snorted a chuckle and waved
him off as Lisa shyly handed her a clipboard.

“So which is it going to be?”
Mitch turned and looked to Brian.

“Jack and Mike want vehicles; I
can’t say I blame them. I want a couple more but I also want planes,” Mitch
replied. He shrugged. “Fortunately I have the parts for about nineteen more
tractors, but some were missing pieces. We can put them together first and ship
a pair each out to Mike and Jack. Once they realize they will need electrolysis
machinery they will start clamoring for that next,” he replied as he grimaced.

Brian nodded. “Sam wanted more
construction vehicles,” Brian replied.

“Yeah, we can extend the frames
of some of the trucks to turn them into platforms for dump trucks and with a
bit more modification skip loaders or cement trucks. Graders are out right now
however.” Mitch turned and watched a GP robot trundle by.

“I think if we do two each for
Mike and Jack, let’s say seven for Sam, and maybe five for Paul right?”

Brian nodded, doing the math.
“Yeah, won’t do us any good though with snow when winter sets in.”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, but we won’t
have them put together till winter time anyway. Well, we might squeeze one or
two out,” he replied thoughtfully. He privately doubted it though, there was
just too much to do right now. He shrugged. “It all depends on how much is
there in each kit. If we have to fab stuff it may take longer.”

Brian nodded. “Hey wait, that
leaves two left right?”

Mitch gave him a small smile. “I
always keep an ace up my sleeve...or at least parts in case one of the others
eventually break down.”

Brian nodded and then gusted a
sigh. “Yeah, not a bad idea. We have been pretty lucky, only a couple flat
tires, some tie rods, stripped clutch, and an axle so far. The road is going to
make convoys easier though.”

“Yeah, and these ones won’t be so
beat up. Lisa will be able to do a tear down and rebuild during the winter too
like we did last year.”

Brian nodded, “Yeah, that was
fun, we got to learn a lot about these beauties.”

“I would rather see us go with a
rail,” Mitch commented, looking off to the southern sky.

Brian looked dubious. “..Rail?”

“Train.”

Brian nodded. “Lot of material
there boss, and a lot of exposure to the crew making the track. Plus I wouldn’t
like to see what a train hitting one of those dino’s would do,” he shuddered.

Mitch got a thoughtful look.
“Yeah, but what if we make it off the ground?” Brian looked confused. “Preform
cement part. We could go monorail maybe...”

Brian tapped his foot catching on
and getting into the act. “Hmm possible. We could build the parts in sections
using jigs here, and then ship them out to assemble in the field. High enough
up and they would be out of the way from the animals.”

“Hmmm. Sounds good, but a little
out of our league right now,” Mitch sighed wearily. “Yeah, so trucks and planes
it is. At least for now,” he said coming to a decision and then shrugged. “Maybe
we can use preforms for parts of the bridges Sam wanted to build.”

Brian nodded. “According to
Jacklynn those two that just came in, the Summersets are factory workers. I
think we should look them up after they have a little time to settle in and see
what we can arrange.”

Mitch nodded. “Good idea. Don’t
forget the bridge stuff!” He hollered as Brian retreated. Brian waved, not even
looking back. Mitch snorted and got back to work.

The Summersets came over after
dinner, eager to get to work. Together they worked out a plan. First they would
assemble the two dune buggies, and then the tractors closest to being finished.
Hopefully they could get the tractors out before the snows to get some use out
of them.

They decided to build six planes
plus parts, and then switch to vehicles. This way they could still use the
planes during the winter, while building the vehicles, which were almost
useless in the deep snow without special equipment. The new vehicle bodies
would use carbon fiber, but would have a steel tube cage to protect it against
roll over’s and animal encounters.

Bill and Candy were excitedly
looking forward to the job. They told Mitch about the Lings, they were
Taiwanese factory workers. “I heard that they lost the baby,” Mitch told them
quietly. Candy sighed and Bill patted her hand, and then pulled her into a hug.

The refugees and villagers agreed
to establish a Mountain lake village at the edge of the sulfur deposits next to
the chain of mountain lakes in a dormant volcano north of Copper town. Due to
the late time in the year they decided to wait, sending the bulk of the
refugees to base and twenty or so to Iron village. They could train and prepare
the new village with an extensive survey and plans, and implement some of the
plans early stages during the long winter.

Mitch was at his desk when he
heard someone knock. “Enter.” Four people came in. He looked up from the report
he had been reading to study the newcomers. Three of them were male, one was
Asian, most likely the Korean Akira Tenaka. The five foot eleven bald guy built
like a tank must be the Seal, CPO Roberts. The guy with the crew cut must be
the Gunny; he looked down, Gunnery Sergeant Raphael Hodges. He was drawing a
blank on the blond woman with the pony tail though.

He felt a smile tug at his lips
as he noticed they were standing at attention. “All right folks, why don’t you
pull up a chair and have a beer?” He smiled as he pulled the six pack of green
bottles out of the cooler beside his desk and set it down on top.

The Gunny snorted, but the woman
smiled and reached for the beer, then hesitated when the Seal did too. Mitch
handed them one each, then watched as they twisted the top off. Akira was still
at attention. The Seal looked over to him. “Ease up son.” Gunny snorted and
took a beer, then sat down.

They each took a sip, and then
glanced at the bottles. “We make our own here,” Mitch explained.

Gunny smiled. “Bush it isn’t, but
it still cuts the road dust.”

The Seal chuckled. “That it
does.”

“Okay, Chief? May I call you
Chief? Or do you prefer Travis now that we are in never never land?” Mitch
asked.

The Seal snorted. “Chief or
Travis will do.”

“Okay, we have two people
handling security here, Brian and Sergeant Phyllis. Brian however is itching to
go full time with the college courses, so I think you might be able to slip
into his post. Gunny, I am sorry, I don’t have much artillery, just a couple of
mortars on the robots.”

“Mortars?” The Gunny asked.

“Robots??” The woman echoed, as
did a stunned Akira.

Mitch nodded. “Robots. I brought
along quite a few, you may have noticed a few in the halls.”

Akira nodded. “I see androids
like...Honda, Toyota, Sony.”

“Well, they look similar, but
they are actually my own design.” Mitch smiled as Akira’s eyes widened. “I also
brought along a handful of UAV’s, choppers, a plane, and vehicles. Most of the
vehicles are also automated.” Akira whistled softly.

The Seal looked dubious. “You’re
trusting tin cans and a kid for security?”

Mitch gave the Chief a look. “I
will show you the security robots I brought along. They are the latest
generation.”

“We were playing with robots back
home, but they couldn’t keep up with Seals,” Travis sniffed.

Mitch nodded and then glanced up.
“Computer, have one of each of the reserve robots report to the garage in ten
minutes.”

“Understood,” the AI replied.

The woman looked up to the
ceiling and whistled, and then sat back. “I think I am going to like it here.”

“And you are miss?”