Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (17 page)

“I missed you, too,” as I tried to kiss her again, but she laughed and pushed me away telling me I needed the shower first.  I had barely finished the shower when I heard Lunnie crying.  I walked into our cabin and went to her.  As soon as she saw me, she stopped crying and smiled a huge grin and started to wiggle her arms.

“See, Tibby, I told you she was upset you were gone.”  Kala said.  I looked over to see her sitting on the other side the cabin nursing Reidecor.

I picked up Lunnie and immediately she started cooing and looking at me intently.

“She’s cooing! “ I exclaimed.

“Yes she started doing that the day you left.”

“You didn’t tell me that!” I exclaimed

“I thought it would be a nice surprise when you got back.”

By now, Lunnie had gotten a grip on my thumb and was pulling it into her mouth.

“What is it with babies wanting to put everything in their mouths?”  I asked.

“It’s just natural for them.”  Kala said.  That’s how they start learning.

“Is Reidecor cooing too?”

“Him?  No he’s too busy wanting to eat, sleep or poop, to coo.”

Lunnie had now started chewing on my thumb aggressively.  “You want me to feed her?” I said as I started toward the food synthesizer.

“Good grief, no!” Kala responded, “She just finished eating before you got back.”

“Well I would never know that from the way she is chewing on my thumb.”

“I think that’s her way of venting her frustration about you being gone so long.”

“I’m afraid she is going to have to get used to it.  I’ll need to make a lot of trips back and forth taking supplies up there.  It's going to take some time to get all the things there we will need, and I don’t see any easier way to get the stuff up to the plateau.  I’ll have to try to time my treks between dust and rain storms and when the water in the canyon is low enough to permit travel through the mountain canyon.  All in all, I am going to be very busy over the next few months.”

“Well at least you are rid of that woewe thing,” Kala said as she carried the full, and finished eating, Reidecor back over to the bed.

The next two months went by quickly; I would spend two days transporting preserved foods and other supplies in a backpack up to the plateau and then two days back, followed by two days spending time with Kala and the babies before turning around and making the trip again.  Three times the trips were delayed for several days because of rain, dust or solar flares, and on one occasion, I was required to spend three days on the plateau because of heavy rains and a flooded canyon.

During that time, I had an opportunity to explore more of the underground building but there wasn’t much to see as floors under the top one were flooded, and cave-ins blocked off most of the other sections of the building.  There were a few places where I could see bits and pieces of old painting, but it would be difficult to imagine what they would have looked like if complete.  On my second day there it had stopped raining, but the stream was still too swollen and prevented me from going down the canyon.

One of the items I had transported to the site with me was a solar stove, and I decided to give it a try.  The item was a standard piece of survival gear on most ships.  It was small and interesting, consisting of two plates attached to each other by a hinge.  One plate was blue in color, and the other was black.  It worked by opening the plates like a book and placing them in the sun so the blue plate was exposed to direct sunlight.  The second plate would then heat up enough to boil water or cook foods in a special two part pan that also served as a carrying case for the stove.  I was curious to discover how the device worked and found it used a similar technology as the thermocouples in the sleeping bag, but then I didn’t really understand that either, so my knowledge was limited.

I felt it was about time that I try some of the local resources for food, and I collected several dozens of the boilatee creatures from along the stream bed shortly before sunrise.  I didn’t have any idea how they were supposed to be prepared, so I boiled them and ate them much like one would crab or lobster back on Earth.  I was expecting them to taste something like Earth shell fish, but they were nothing like that; the flesh was sort of like that of a crab, but it had more of a nutty flavor that reminded me of roasted chestnuts, another treat from back on Earth.  They also had a salty flavor, and I wondered if it actually was from sodium chloride or if it just tasted that way.

I was afraid that I might have some problems digesting these alien foods, but my stomach seemed to take them quite well, and my body gave me no complaints.  One other thing the ship had was an emergency radio.  I had transported the radio to the plateau on one of my earliest trips and would listen, hoping to hear some ship passing locally that I might contact, but I never heard any.  With the radio on the ship still functioning, there was no need for this one there.  It was small and portable and could be powered by multiple sources.  One way was to solar charge it; another was it could be plugged and recharged from outlets on the ship, and another was by an internal battery that could be activated by adding water into a special port, but the water method only provided power for about two weeks and after that you would not be able to use that method again.

Finally, the day came when the fusion reactor simply died, and we needed to make the exodus to the plateau with the children.  Kala had managed to get the synthesizer to manufacture backpack like harnesses that we could carry Lunnie and Reidecor in, since they still were not able to walk.

I had found a flat rock weeks earlier, and using a laser pistol, burned a message on the surface of the rock. I wrote that we had relocated to the plateau and tried to give a description where we were with a crude map.  Other than for Lunnie and Reidecor and some water, we only carried laser rifles.  I had stationed supplies along the route on my last few trips so that when we made the final trek, we would not be burdened with too much to carry; this turned out to be a very wise decision. 

This was a big adventure for Lunnie and Reidecor, as neither of them had ever been outside the ship before.  It was sunset when we left the ship, and Lunnie was all wide eyed, looking about, and she was squealing and cooing at all the things she was seeing for the first time.  Reidecor didn’t seem to know how to react, and while he didn’t show any fear, his overall reaction to everything was far more sedate as he looked about in wonder.  Kala thought it best that I carry Lunnie because she always wanted me to hold her if I was around, whereas Reidecor didn’t seem to show any preference as to who held him.  I think Kala was getting the better of the deal because Lunnie was constantly squirming and kicking as she would turn and stretch in one direction and then another, trying to see everything that was going on.

As the Sisoma began to light up, Lunnie squealed with laughter, while Reidecor looked on slack-jawed.  While it was still light enough to see at a distance fairly well, we saw a muralam chasing after one of the small shelled creatures that scurried across the desert floor.  That really captured Lunnie’s attention, and by her reactions, I think she wanted us to follow it, and she jabbered in baby gibberish and kept waving her arms in the direction it had gone long after it was out of sight.  I was glad the weather was holding out and there were no signs of a dust storm or rain.  It had been almost two weeks since the last rain, so the dry washes were easier for us to cross.

We stopped twice that night to rest.  It was Kala’s first trek out, and while she was in good shape physically, she hadn’t had the level of exercise that I had been getting traveling back and forth between the ship and the plateau.  We rested about 20 minutes on both occasions, fed the babies with rations from the ship, gave them something to drink and saw to their sanitary needs.  On the ship, we had the advantage of disposable diapers that would be recycled, we still had a small supply of those, but now we had to leave them to nature to recycle into something else.  I had managed to pack a small supply of them up to the plateau, but we both knew they would not last long, and once we were out the babies would be running around relatively naked until they became potty trained.

Even with the two stops we still managed to make it to the way point I had been using for shelter on time.  On my last trek, I had needed to enlarge the space a bit so all of us would be able to fit in it.  I had dug out sand by hand and discovered as I did that as I got deeper, the space widened a bit.  I also uncovered some more alien writing on one of the rock faces, but they still were unfathomable to me.  By the time we arrived, both Lunnie and Reidecor had fallen asleep and they were just dead weight on our backs.  It’s strange how a baby actually seems to be lighter when they are awake than when they are asleep.

At one point Kala turned toward me and said, “Tibby, you know, seeing how things are out here I realize what you have been seeing every trip you make.  I think if we need to stay here it won’t be so bad after all.”

“I’m glad you see it that way, but it's not going to be easy and there are lots of dangers out here.  We have some food stockpiled and preserved, but it won’t last long, and we will need to rely on food we catch and gather on our own, and only use our supplies when we can’t get out to collect more.  I’ve tried some of the local items, and while they do not taste bad, I fear we will grow quite tired of them in a short period of time.”

“Do you think we will run into any woewe?” she asked with some concern.

“I’ve not seen any signs of more since I killed that one on my way back, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more out here.  I think they are territorial and until another one discovers the ones that were here before are gone, we won’t see any more.”

“I certainly hope you are right, Tibby, from what you told me of that last one, I don’t want to encounter any.”

I thought we would have a good sleep until evening, but I forgot about Lunnie and Reidecor.  They both woke intermittently wanting to be fed, changed or simply to play.  Kala and I took turns caring for them during the day, but when night finally rolled around again, and it was time for us to head out, I was still exhausted and wanting to sleep more.  Nevertheless, we packed things up, got the kids strapped on our backs and started off to the
valley of death,
as I had begun to call the canyon through the mountain after my ordeal with the woewe.  Along the journey, I pointed out to Kala the spot where I had encountered the friendly muralam, and the place where I discovered its body on my return, as well as the ledge the woewe had climbed up to and hidden on.

When we came to the stair like rapids, I was pleased to see that the flow of water was greatly reduced, and most of the rocks on the upward climb were less slippery.  Even with this new advantage, it was a precarious assent with the babies on our backs.  When we had started out that evening, both Reidecor and Lunnie had been awake but Reidecor had nodded off about halfway into the trek, and Lunnie fell asleep just as we reached the rapids.  It took Kala and me twice as long to make the assent with the babies as it normally did for me alone.  After all the trips I had made, I had pretty much figured out the safest route for the climb, but it was complicated this time by the shifting weight of the babies.  When we got to the top, it was already starting to get light, and at Kala’s first sight on standing up and looking about she exclaimed.  “Grass?  Tibby you didn’t’ tell me there was grass up here?”

“Ah, I guess I never thought it was important.”  I replied.

“Tibby, I can weave grass into cords that I can then use to make baskets and mats and all sorts of other things.”

“You know how to do those things?” I questioned in astonishment.

“Yes, I can… When I was growing up on Gosney my mother taught both Lunnie and me how to weave grass into cords and to make baskets.  I told you she was a botanist; she was always telling us all the ways various plants had been used throughout history and showing us examples.  Lunnie and I used to spend hours making grass cords and then weaving them into baskets and mats.

“I’m impressed, even though you told me about your family, I guess I just assumed that with all the scientific marvels of the Federation that things like basket weaving and other manual methods of doing things would have become lost arts.”  I replied.

“Not so, Tibby, for a while major manufacturing did take away a lot of talents and skills, and in many areas they still do.  However, people became disenchanted with the look-alike manufactured furniture and household items, and artisans began making goods. Many people started buying these things because they wanted something unique and handmade and decorative at the same time.  Oh, there still are plenty of factory assembled goods around, but today there are far more craftsmen making items by hand than there were 400 years ago.”

“That’s interesting to know, so if we ever get back to civilization, and for some reason, we lose all our wealth, it’s good to know you will be able to support us weaving baskets.”  I said jokingly.

“Oh Tib!”  Kala said as she took a fake swing at me.

“Well, here we are,” I said as we reached our underground home.   I had sealed the opening over the dirt ramp that sloped down into the chamber with one of the self-sealing tarps, like the one I used down in the desert, and I needed to peel it back so we could enter.  Kala looked about and nodded.

“I know it's not much Kala, but its shelter, and behind that stone door, there are several other rooms.  There also is a hole back in one chamber where water seeps in, and we can get fresh water.  We’ll have to illuminate the place with solar lights, and we will have to take them outside to recharge in the mornings.  Unfortunately, the place doesn’t come furnished, so we’ll be sitting on the floor a lot.  I figure that during the day we can keep the door between rooms open and when we sleep, we’ll use that second  room and seal this one off to protect against stray animals and solar flares.  We should be safe from flares in there, but I’m not sure about out here as some radiation might come through the opening in the top, and even if we’re not directly under the opening could still affect us.  If we had real trees with wood trunks, I would have been able to make us some sort of furniture, but as it is, I’m afraid we will have to do without.”