Second Chances (93 page)

“Hear here,” Mike said in a rare show of support. “And this is from a guy who was one of your start-ups. I traded fair and square, as did you. I've got no complaints. I paid my debt,” he said.

“You are an honorable man, Mike; I'm proud to do business with you,” Mitch said.

“Ah shucks, the Injun's probably blushing,” Jack teased. Mike snorted but didn't rise to the bait.

The Tropics found it harder to trade with other communities; they could get to Crash Town or Dunn but not any further. None of the other groups were willing to go the distance Paul had done to trade with them without getting paid in advance. Also, other communities realized it was better to stay in Mitch's good graces and benefit from the industry and knowledge of Capital Base.

Mitch also put off “urgent” radio requests from Dunn. “Sorry, I'm busy making up for my losses. You want to know it, get someone's ass up here and look it up. Or hell, I sent you a copy of the information, look it up yourself!” Mitch said.

“I see how it is,” Dunn said in a different tone.

“Like the man said, he's busy,” Jack interjected.

“I'll do what I can to help,” Evan said, adding his two cents into the conversation. “What is the problem again? I just got here,” he said.

“Have at it,” Mitch said, signing off. He got up and looked at Jolie. “Unless it's medical or a genuine emergency, Dunn and the others who supported the tropics can wait their turn from now on. We're done catering to them to generate goodwill,” he ordered. Jolie nodded, eyes wide. He nodded curtly then left the room.

Chapter 43

In the last week of summer and the first week of early fall, Jacklynn relocated to the Jewish Mountain settlement and then ranged out from there scouting with the long range drone. Jamal had wanted to come, but he was stationed at Copper Town. Jack had made it clear that he'd had enough of not having a pilot nearby. He'd been put to work flying goods and people between the communities in that area.

Sam was also in the area; his road crews worked on the road to the community. They built two new bridges over the rivers to make access to the remote community easier. As Jacklynn was flying overhead, she saw the road crew had an encounter with a Rex family. Before she could dive to distract the predator, Sam tossed a flashbang out in between his the humans and the dinosaurs. The loud noise and bright blinding flash chased them off.

“You get that often?” Jacklynn radioed as she orbited the group. She kept the camera pod on the crew on the ground. She saw Sam look up and then go over to his truck. He stood on the running board and pulled out a radio before he looked up. “Say that again?” he asked.

“You get that often?”

“Only every other day. They are wising up that we're not a chew toy,” Sam growled. “Mitch promised flashbang mortars and lasers but he hasn't delivered.”

“Yet,
” Jackie amended. “I know. I wanted more aircraft. All the trading and playing catch up has been a distraction,” she said.

“Yeah,” Sam said, sounding not quite convinced. “You going out?”

“I was, but Rabbi Weiss asked me to map the area for resources for his community. As soon as I'm finished, I'll head out again. Hopefully before the fall storms hit.”

“Heh, yeah,” Sam grunted. He looked over to a roadie and waved to indicate they get back to work. “If you're going to orbit for a bit, let me know if anything else comes calling. I could use the advanced warning,” he said.

“What about your medium drone?” Jackie asked.

“What drone?” Sam asked. “Damn pterosaur shredded it for some stupid reason months ago. We never did find the wreck. Mitch promised me a replacement, but it went to Jamal and you,” he said sourly.

“Sorry,” Jackie said, frowning. “I'll um...see what I can do,” she said, biting her lip. She felt a bit guilty; her scouting was endangering the road crews. She shook her head. “As soon as I'm done, I'll send it to you.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sam said, waving a hand. “Whatever. Look lady, we're burning daylight,” he said gruffly.

“Roger. Good luck,” she said.

“We make our own. Out,” he said, signing off and hanging the transmitter up. He waved to the orbiting drone and then went back to work.

They had been remarkably lucky with the animals, she thought. From what she'd heard there had been only two fatalities this year, an impressive improvement over the first year. A lot of people had survived to receive medical treatment, and of course they now understood a lot of the threats in the area and had gear to deal with them. But still, she was pretty sure there was an element of luck involved. She wasn't sure how long it would last.

She wrote herself a note to finish the medium drone and then pass it on down to Sam's crew. They really did need it more than she did, having eyes in the sky to watch out for potential predators...not to mention scouting the terrain for their work...she shook her head. Mitch should have made them the priority. He was pushing the scouting though...she frowned. So was she. It had gotten into her blood, the itch to see their new home, to explore, and to contact the other communities. It wasn't going to last forever.

What got to her was the division it caused. Each time they found someone new, it diluted the production of Capital Base. They just couldn't keep up with demand; everyone wanted something and wanted it
now
. The basics she could understand, and each community added resources to their civilization, but some of them like Dunn were pushing for stuff that really wasn't a priority. She shook her head. And that crap from the Tropics. That galled her. She was pretty sure it galled a lot of people, but no one seemed able to do anything about it.

She frowned thoughtfully as she programmed the drone to do a spiral orbit out from Sam's crew and to keep a running feed to his computers until it was out of range. She checked the map, then the feed from the long range drone. She'd planned to keep the medium drone in close and the long range drone out further afield, but if she altered her planned courses from spirals to strips she could pass the medium drone over to Sam tomorrow and just use the long range drone. It would cost her some time but that was fine.

She nodded to herself as she came to the decision. She checked both feeds then went back to staring at the map and Mitch's vectors to where the other communities were. “Where are you,” she murmured, tracing a line he'd drawn.

------*------

Sandra came in from the infirmary and smiled indulgently from the doorway at the sight on the bed before her. Mitch and Tucker were there, Mitch was stretched out on the bed with his feet crossed and his back propped up by all the pillows.

Little Tucker was tucked into his father's left arm, eyes gamely trying to remain open as his father softly read to him. Mitch flipped a page, flicking a look up to her and then back to the book. He'd printed the things for Anne, now they had a growing library of books to read to the kids. The parents exchanged the books weekly to keep things fresh. Reading from a tablet just wasn't the same. It didn't have the same feel, the same...tradition, she thought, resting her head against the door jamb as she savored the image in her memory.

Tucker loved to snuggle down with Cassie, Sandra or Mitch as they read to him. It was the easiest way to get the little imp sleepy enough to take a nap. Come to think of it, it was an easy way to get his father sleepy too, Sandra observed as Mitch fought a yawn. She smiled fondly, then turned and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

As she washed up and changed, she thought about the kids. Aimee Fen was already talking and reading simple things. She was barely an Earth year old and quite the little pixy. She had extraordinary motor skills, her mother was quite proud of the fact that the little girl was well on the way to being completely potty trained.

Anne's twins weren't far behind Aimee. They were quite the chatterboxes, taxing Ester and Anne. Sometimes Sandra thought the community had collectively decided to hold off on having more kids until the current crop were up to potty stage level just to keep from overwhelming the day care ladies. She smiled at herself. Well, that was what she was telling herself anyway. The respite wasn't going to last forever. Candy was already looking to have another kid from what she'd heard. With the winter fast approaching, people were going to be stuck together more and more, work would slack off and they'd have more together time. Which meant love was going to be in the air. She snorted as she picked her hair and then shook it out. Pheromones. She'd better have someone check the air filters.

Janet reported her son was walking and talking, much to her amusement. All the new kids were just remarkable. She turned as she heard a soft shuffle from the bedroom. She leaned over to peek smiling as Mitch scooped his son up and then carried him off to bed. Good, she thought.

“Quite the kid,” he murmured a few minutes later when he came in behind her. She smiled slightly at him in the mirror. He leaned over and brushed her hair aside to kiss the nap of her neck. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Todd's tissue rejection stopped. He's recovering nicely now, I think he's done playing guinea pig. Anne thought Mirrim had measles, but it turned out to be a false alarm.”

“Oh?” he asked, rubbing her shoulders and neck. She groaned greedily as the tension ebbed and seemed to drain out of her.

“Yeah,” she murmured softly. “Someone got cute with a marker,” she said, smiling slightly. He snorted as he went to the water closet to empty his bladder. “How was your day?”

“The usual,” he said, fighting to keep his voice low since he was further away. She heard him close the lid and flush, then he went to the sink and washed his hands. “Brian's got Laurence running loads of graphite in, stockpiling what we can while we can. The same for the other materials. Vance has shut down construction. I know Bob's being a pain about making flashbangs, so I need to make more on my own. Sam needs them; he's low.”

“I hate it when you play with explosives,” she murmured. He hugged her from behind with his wet hands. She reached up and held his wrist. “Seriously,” she said, turning to look him in the directly instead of through the mirror.

“It can't be helped. Someone needs to do it; we need the things. It's the best deterrent with the animals to keep them at bay.”

“I know. I still don't have to like it though,” she grumbled.

Mitch reminded himself not to fill her in about the little details like the work making gunpowder, explosives for the mines, or some of the work with Jim's rocket crew. He frowned. “We all do things to support the community. And besides, if something does happen I know I've got the best of medical care coming,” he said, then immediately felt like kicking himself as her hand dropped and her eyes flashed dangerously.

“You do get yourself burned or important bits blown off and I swear I won't reattach them. Even if they are bits you and I are particularly fond of,” she said, rising to her feet. He grinned at her. She ducked away. “Don't look at me like that. You're terrible you know that?”

“I have a beautiful wife, our son is asleep...what's wrong with sneaking a little nooky nooky time?” He asked wickedly, coming closer to her. “Better get it when we can lady,” he said, voice dropping.

“You are impossible,” she murmured. He kissed her neck again from behind. She sighed.

“But I'm noticing you're not saying no,” he murmured in her ear before he kissed her there. She twisted away from his breath into his arms.

“You're right, I'm not. You bring out the best and worst of me you letch,” she murmured into his chest. She felt him rumble as he chuckled. She felt him hug her, but before he could scoop her up and sweep her off her feet she dug her fingers into his sides. “But you aren't taking advantage of this lady so easily,” she said wickedly.

He guffawed, trying to muffle his laugh as she tickled him, pushing him off balance. She got him turned around so his back was to the bed and then one good push got him bouncing on it. She climbed on top, pinning him and then looked down at him. “Now, where were we?” she asked.

He reached up but she caught the errant hand and pinned it firmly. “Oh yeah,” she murmured, leaning down to kiss him. “Somewhere around here,” she said huskily. She drowned out his chuckles of amusement over the turn of events with more kisses.

------*------

It was common knowledge that Cassie and Vance were something of an item. What everyone didn't know was how deep the relationship was getting. They had moved beyond puppy love into a comfortable relationship, even rooming together with Sandra's reluctant approval.

They announced their engagement over dinner in the great room. That got Jolie, Lisa and some of the other girls cooing. From Brian's expression he didn't look at all thrilled about the looks Lisa and some of the other girls were shooting his way. Mitch couldn't blame the lad.

The girls rushed Cassie, hugging her in their excitement and chattering on. Cassie guffawed as they practically knocked her over in their exuberance of the moment. Vance shook his head indulgently, stepping back to let the ladies have their moment. He winced when a few got a little loud and high pitched in their excitement. He rang out his ear with his pinky, shaking his head as he turned to the others. He found Brian scowling at him. The young man shook a fist at him. Vance blinked in confusion. “What'd I do?”