Second Chances (94 page)

“You got me in trouble! Damn it...” Brian swore, shaking his head.

“He means all the girls are going to want to settle down. And he's got a choice to make.”

“Why make it? New world, new rules,” Vance said. “If they want to be together, who are we to tell them no?”

“True,” Mitch said, looking to Sandra. She hadn't said anything yet, just watched her daughter and her friends. Cassie's groupies finally wound down a bit in their excitement to see the red head staring at them. That sobered Jolie and Lisa immediately.

“We're going to get married when I turn 18, Mom, so don't flip your wig,” Cassie said, grinning at her mother to take the wind out of her mother's sails.

Her mother opened her mouth then closed it. After a moment she nodded. “All right,” she said. “You have my blessing then,” she said. “But if you are pregnant young lady, I'll...I'll...”

“She'll leave that dire threat hanging and let you think of all sorts of horrid punishments she could inflict on you,” Mitch said, intervening.

“Yes,” Sandra said, shooting him a look.

“No worries. I want to have a baby, but after seeing what you went through with Tucker, not to mention the other ladies, I'm not in any hurry,” she said, shaking her head. She held up a restraining hand to stop her mom again. “And yes, we're using protection.
And
I'm using birth control. Happy?”

“I'd be happy if you were in a nunnery,” Sandra muttered. Mitch snorted. She poked him. She felt his arms wrap around her to squeeze her. She gasped, making him loosen his grip. She rubbed his back. “I guess it's okay,” she mumbled. “But I'm serious!” She warned shaking a finger at Cassie.

“I know mom, you are too young to be a grandmother,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “You'd better get over that sometime,” she warned. “I'm not waiting forever,” she said, taking her partner in her arms. Vance smiled at her as they kissed. “Right lover?”

“Definitely,” he murmured.

“Good answer,” she teased, pinching his chin as she kissed him again. He chuckled as his hands dropped. That caused Cassie to giggle, still kissing him. When he squeezed that instituted a play fight.

Mitch and Sandra watched indulgently before Sandra turned them away. Mitch looked down at her and she dimpled, blushing slightly. “Don't you dare get any ideas,” she mock growled. He chuckled. “I mean it!” She warned as they walked out.

He closed the door behind them and then grinned. “Mitch...” she said, seeing that grin and knowing what it foretold. She shook a finger at him, backing away. “Don't...shit!” She turned, sprinting away with a laugh. He chuckled again and gave chase, just like she wanted.

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

I think she's too young,” Sandra said later that night after they went to bed. She stared up at the darkened ceiling. When Mitch didn't respond she poked him. “Aren't you going to say something?”

“You want an answer you want to hear, the truth, or do you want me to stick my foot really far down my throat?” he asked.

“You'd better not lie to me,” she growled.

“I think she's wise to realize that and put it off for another year dear,” Mitch said to Sandra. “They both are. It wasn't like we didn't see this coming honey.”

“This isn't...I mean, it's not dating. One guy. That's it. That's not checking the gene pool, that's limiting your options to what is immediately available. That's not right.”

“Gene pool?” Mitch asked. She shook her head. “I admit, he's a nice guy...”

“But she could do better?” Sandra asked.

“Nope, I wasn't saying that at all. I was going to say that if they do break up, they've got a lot of time to do it in. Both of them are young.”

“True.” She pursed her lips.

“I hope they don't. They make a cute couple,” Mitch said.

“True. I remember a few high school sweethearts that stuck it out. I'm not sure all the reasons, but they did.”

“Happy together being miserable. Well, we'll see.”

“And it's better to get it done while they can. The future...here, on this world...anything could happen.”

“Now don't you turn all maudlin on me. I'll have to find interesting ways to get you out of the mood,” he warned her. She rolled on top of him and hugged him as he stroked her back. “You're just lucky I'm wore out carrying Tucker on my shoulders.”

“You did?” Sandra asked. “When?”

“This afternoon. He liked being taller than everyone else after a while. He also liked the drop. That got him really going,” Mitch chuckled.

“I'll bet,” Sandra said, laughing softly herself. “Our son the dare devil. He's going to give me gray hair and he's not even a year old yet.”

“Yeah. Just think of what he'll do when he's Cassie's age,” Mitch murmured. That exited a groan from Sandra. He chuckled, hugging her tight.

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

Winter was fast approaching in the north; they'd already had a couple light dustings of snow. The dustings chased the herds off. Fortunately their larders were full of smoked and frozen meat.

Eric, Carlene, Adam, Trisha, and the others led the community to work feverishly on winterizing the buildings. John had something else in mind.

With the bulk of the animals gone, John wisely reasoned they had a small window to do some prospecting. So he and Earl went out with a team to prospect for gold along the river at the base of the foothills. They immediately found some huge nuggets in the clear water. Earl set up a perimeter while John took Gerald and a couple of the volunteers to pick the river clean of shiny glittering metal.

An hour before dark, Earl made them stop. John cracked his back; he'd been bent over so long he was fairly certain he'd be stuck in that position permanently. It felt good though, and they'd got a lot of gold despite the frigged water. He set his people to eat and gather firewood then bed down for the night.

The next morning he woke to look up at the sky and didn't like what he saw. Dark ominous clouds were on the horizon, a sure sign of another storm. He'd promised Eric and the others they'd leave if a storm moved in, so rousted the team and had a quick breakfast. They worked hard to gather as much gold as they could through the morning.

John found a particularly enticing glittering rock at nearly noon. Gerald called a break for lunch, but John waved him off. “In a minute,” he said, working at the stone. It was in deep, possibly embedded in the mud or stone. He pulled his pick ax and worked at it. The more he dug the more excited he became, the thing was huge! He gasped as he pulled a stone and stared at it. “Now that's what I'm talking about.” He felt the pick ax drop limply from his hand to hit the embankment nearby. It slithered to touch his calf but then stopped short of falling into the water.

“Um, guys,” Earl said, voice rising. John looked up but was still distracted by his find. “We need to go,” Earl said firmly. John frowned, consciousness returning as he heard a low growl and then animal sounds in the bush across the river.

Earl fired a shot in the air with his rifle but that didn't stop whatever was coming. “Yep, time to retreat folks. Whatever it is, it sounds big, hungry, and not in the mood to play games,” Earl said. He splashed through the creek to John, grabbed John by the arm and manhandled him away. John spun in his grasp and grabbed his pick ax and then ran with him to the truck. Earl heard the crashing behind him and pulled a grenade from his vest. He pulled the pin, tossed it over his shoulder and then kept going. “Shouldn't you have said fire in the hole?” John asked.

“Hell, I knew I was forgetting...” Earl and John hunched instinctively as the flashbang grenade went off behind them. The beast chasing them bellowed, then they could hear the sounds of stumbling as it limped away. Earl turned to see trees swaying and bouncing as the thing careened around in the forest. “I love those things,” he said grinning.

John snorted. “I think that was close.”

“Too close. I think we're done for now,” Earl said. “Let's call it. Take our gold and split while we can,” he said. John sighed and then nodded reluctantly. His wife was pregnant; she'd kick his ass if he came home hurt or worse again.”

“It goes against the grain. In the Yukon we dug until the ground froze and the equipment broke and couldn't be fixed,” he growled, eying the forest.

“Yeah well, that was on Earth. Here things are trying to eat you. And they are a bit bigger than a grizzly,” Earl said, slapping him on the back. “What'd you get?” he asked as they walked to the trucks.

“Oh, this,” John said, holding up a chunk of gold half the size of his fist. The damn thing was heavy. He watched Earl's eyes turn to saucers. “Yeah, I know. A million bucks,” he said. “Probably three or four kilos here.”

“Four
kilograms
?” Earl demanded.

“Here,” John said, passing him the nugget. “Sure feels that way. Of course once we smelt out the impurities it'll be half that,” he said. “It's easily twice as big as all the other slivers we found yesterday and this morning.”

“I'll say!” Earl nodded dumbly, turning the gold over and over in his hand. It was smooth, no doubt from the river John had collected it from. He shook his head. “What...what are we going to do with it?”

“Melt it down and trade it. I know some people who could use it. And we could use some of the stuff they've got. Fresh flashbangs for one,” John said. He heard Earl laugh as he unlatched the door and swung it open.

“Better get a lot of them ‘cause I know we're going to go back!”

“Damn straight!”

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

“Did you say, seven kilograms??” Pete asked just as Mitch came into the radio room. “And...hang on a minute, Mitch is here,” the teen said, looking up. “Boss, you are never going to believe it,” he said.

“Try me,” Mitch said dryly.

“John at Yukon called. They said the herds have migrated so he took a team out to prospect for gold in their area. He brought back a lot!”

“Really?” Mitch asked, raising an eyebrow. “Wait, seven kilograms?” he asked. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah!” Pete said, all smiles. “He said it was just lying there for the taking!”

“Wow!” Mitch said, turning the number over in his head. “Raw ore...”

“No, that's smelted. He's also got a couple ounces of slag and about fourteen ounces of silver.”

“Wow,” Mitch said, echoing his earlier sentiment. He nodded. “Good for them.”

“They want to trade for it,” Pete said. “I can tell, just the way he's talking.”

“Okay, find out what and let me know. I'll let Paul know. That much gold...we can finally do more microchips. We'll have to process the gold, refine it further...thread...” he frowned thoughtfully.

“I'll let him know.”

“Don't show too much interest, Pete,” Mitch said, looking up. “If he knows we want it bad enough, he'll want everything under the sun.”

“I won't sell us short boss,” Pete replied, nodding dutifully. “Um...” he pointed to the radio. “You want to do it?”

Mitch shook his head, headed for the door. “Nope, you've got this one. Tell them great work.”

“I will,” Pete said, turning to the radio again. He flipped the transmitter on and then grinned. “So, what do you want for the glitter, Gerald?” he asked just as Mitch walked out.

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

Anne called Mitch in to have a meeting on the Memes. He frowned. “I don't know anything more than you do, Anne, we haven't seen them.”

“Well, you need to tell them that. Everyone's asking questions,” she said, playing with the twins. “A community meeting is long overdue.”

He sighed and then nodded. They called it for later that evening in the great room. Bob was the only missing department head; for some reason he had decided to skip the meeting. Mitch wasn't sure why, perhaps the man didn't want to talk in front of a crowd? He shook his head and put the thought out of his mind as the group settled down.

Each of the department heads spoke, giving their report on how their department was doing. Anne was amused when she described the domestic duties, then nodded to Ester. The woman blinked and then rose with her adopted daughter in her arms. She softly told them the kids were growing as expected and then faltered. She looked imploringly to Anne.

“The school is doing fine; the kids are their usual bratty selves,” Anne said, raising her voice. Ester blushed and then nodded as people chuckled. She sat, turning the spotlight on the mechanic. Lisa stumbled as she rose, but Brian smiled to her and helped her through her very short speech. Sandra smiled and patted the girl's hand as she sat down next to Brian with a sigh of relief. “Glad that's over?”

“For now. Something tells me I've got to do it again sometime,” Lisa grumbled. “I'd rather do an engine swap. Or rebuild a tranny,” she grumbled. “In the dark. With one arm.” Brian snorted and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back.

Mitch let people talk for a bit before he stood. The room quieted. “What I'm about to tell you is old news, but some of you haven't heard it direct from me, or haven't heard my perspective, so bear with me if this is boring,” he said. He gave them a speech about the council session, then went on to describe the scouting sessions Jamal, Jackie and the others had performed. He pulled up the map, then split the screen so the other half had a slide show of the new faces from each village. The computer indicated each image's location on the map by highlighting a dot, then worked through the slide show showing grinning faces. “They've gone the extra lengths needed to contact the other villages’ folks. By our numbers, there are seven left.”