Scrambled, page 10
part #14 of Directorate Series
"Huh. Funny. You don't look like rabid warmongers. Accountants, eh?"
"Most of us."
The biker looked over his shoulder. Two of the bikes turned and roared off. One of them was carrying a passenger.
"There were some vehicles back there. They'll try to get one of them working." The biker eyed all the containers and shook his head. "Man, we've gotta get some water wells drilled, or maybe we should all just move."
Harrison walked back to stand by Lou. "Glad we ran into you, instead of soldiers. All we know about you is that you attack on sight."
"We attack? You attacked one of our colonies. Captured our gate."
Lou snorted at this twisted view. "You nuked us. We lost all of our colonies. All of our mining worlds. Hundreds of them. We've only found seven worlds, since then. All new. Probably all our marooned people died."
Harrison thumped his shoulder. "Stop it. That was fifty years ago. We need to deal with this . . . situation, right now."
The biker nodded. "Yeah, umm, call me Enough."
"I'm Lou, this is Harrison."
Enough looked over his shoulder. "They've got a truck running. We'll leave you with it. Good luck!"
"Thanks, and, umm watch out for dinosaurs."
The electric runabout was perfect. They loaded the water and a few people, and lurched and thumped their way back across the prairie at little better than a walking pace. They traded off who rode and who walked and stayed fairly close together.
They were home by mid-afternoon . . . and hungrier than hell.
The old geezers hadn't been idle. They'd collected wood and had a bonfire ready to light, plenty of extra wood set by. A small fire smoldered in its own ring of stones on the far side of the pile.
Paulette Hill limped up to meet them, looking pleased. She flourished her cane, and pointed.
"We've set up what ought to work for a sand filter, so we don't all get sick drinking who-know-what bacteria and viruses in the water here. We can also boil it, but the one pot we found is awfully small. But with luck, we can keep those things away tonight."
Lou contemplated the totally untreated water he and three fourths of the office had just drunk, and shrugged. Too late to worry now.
Mr. Ferguson rolled up beside them. "If you boys can hunt, I know how to field-dress a deer. We found a few fruity things that might be edible, but we need to go slow and test tiny amounts."
Harrison perked up. "Did you see any deer?"
"Tracks. Those things last night may have chased them off though."
Lou bit his lip. "Right . . . Okay. You two are in charge here. Harrison and I will see if there are any edible critters around here.”
Chapter Twenty-four
It’s a Gas
13 Jumada 1400 nyp
By the time Nick got back to their first camp, the truck had been back and forth several times, and the Redstone miners had spread out and laid claim to their part of vane 5 with the apartments, their part of vane 7 with the offices and all the grasslands in between.
Kirk was sitting by the fire, his arm around the woman from the Redstone offices.
There's one problem resolved happily.
The Red Zone folks were mingling, and it looked like their chunk of vane 5 was going to join in with the miners and reach both ways to engulf all of vane 5.
Kirk nodded. "The tip's from Dust Bowl, another mining world. Probo and Denta clans went there to work, but there were only about eight of them in that little slice. And a couple of Purp supervisors, including the guy you kicked out yesterday. I figure he can go find some Earthers to kiss up to."
"Vane seven is empty from the Black Horse people all the way to the hub and we didn't see anyone on vane 8 so we might as well stake a claim to it too. And if the Black Horse types bother us, we just leave." Gamer was looking happy, the campfire was mostly coals with some large roasts suspended over it.
Nick sniffed. "Deer?"
"Yep. Native I think. So tell us about Versalle."
All the Red Zone people perked up and listened.
"It's a complete loss. The barracks pancaked, the barns were cut in half, the arena lost a corner and is sagging. It all happened slowly enough that everyone got out, and most of the horses. Then most of them headed for Government House while everything was still coming and going. The group left here is small, and most of them, again, went in search of Government House. Seven people there, ten or so out on horseback. We spotted them riding up the far side of vane seven. They should be nearly to Government House by now. If it's there."
The buzzing of bikes from the south.
Nick and Kirk walked out to meet them.
The first Skinner in was grinning like mad. "Wait till you guys see what we found."
Nick squinted into the dark. Moonlight glinted on something large and metallic.
"We had to go slow, and find a flat path."
The grill of a big truck slowed to a stop, barely into the firelight. Nick walked the side . . .
"You found a tanker?"
The head Skinner, Enuf opened the door and climbed down. "Almost full of gasoline."
Nick contemplated the difference several tens of thousands of liters of fuel made to their mobility. "Enuf? I think you have just made yourself the richest man on the world."
"Yeah. All I have to do is figure out how to keep it."
Nick nodded . . . "Let me take a look at what part of the One world came with us. There are several places big enough to hide it. . . . The car wash on Kaito has a high metal roof. Tall enough, but no walls . . . What parts of the Red Zone are here?"
"Long stretches of Diego and Kaito running north-south. Rouge, Azul, Cinnamon, Kohl, and Verde east-west.". Enuf turned and waved in a rider. "Check the car wash at Kaito and Cinn. See if the roof's up and if we can get there."
"There's some mid-sized warehouses off that alley between Kohl and Verde. Might be better." Gamer joined them. "Nick, let's get a good long ramp up to the streets."
Enuf winced. "Yah. We'll need a bulldozer, our ground is higher."
Nick and Gamer grinned at each other, and angled toward their home patch. The gibbous moon rose higher, and they could see the meter high edge of the vane.
"I'll slice off the lip about halfway up, then we can shove it off and use it to fill in the rest of the ramp."
Gamer nodded. "Keep it shallow, the truck is pretty long."
Nick jumped up to the road and backed off, calculating the angle.
"You can't cut through all that! It's, what, four or five meters!" Enuf edged cautiously to the side. "Can you?"
Nick sliced carefully across the entire width of the road at a low angle. Then he and Gamer shoved at it, mentally. The plane of the slice was slick, as close to perfect as he'd been able to steady the molecules-thick force. It slid down the plane of the slice, gravity helped, and it fell off the edge, where it broke up into large chunks.
Enuf climbed over the chunks and jumped to the sliced ramp. His feet slid and he landed hard.
"Whoops. Going to need to texture that." Nick scratched his chin.
"I'll get it. Very shallow diamond pattern slices should work on the concrete, the gravel’s got a slick top, but if we rough it up and then pack it down, it should be fine." Gamer frowned down at the slope.
Nick slid down, very nearly muffing a leap to the rubble as his feet had no traction to speak of. He offered a hand up to the flailing Enuf and then got to work breaking the largest chunks and packing it all down.
Pretty soon anyone with any pretense of power was helping them. Or trying to. They broke for dinner. Put the kids to bed in a nearly deserted camp as the people with homes to go to left.
Home. We can finally just make a home. There are enough people around . . . we need to get close enough to them that if we leave, a bunch of them will come with us. Gamer and the kids can marry, have kids . . . Damn the One.
Kids. There’s more kids here than I can account for. Did they come home from school, but their parents couldn’t get through the debris from the quakes? No matter. We’ll feed them.
Nick's gut gave a twinge.
Assuming I don’t die of appendicitis.
We need a doctor. I wonder if any of the other groups have any.
He checked that Abbas was on duty, then crawled into his bedroll.
We'll need predator fencing . . . not that we have any livestock . . . I wonder if any of the black horses escaped . . . I should keep an eye open for them, get to them before the predators. Either find an empty house or start building . . . Find a doctor in case this really is appendicitis . . .
He gave up after an hour and sent Abbas to bed. Tried another slug of that wine. It just made his gut hurt worse. Enough to keep his mind off women and sex. Mostly.
A wolf approached the camp . . . no, the ears flopped. A dog. Nick whistled and it came right to him.
"Hungry boy? Bet we've got some nice meaty deer bones around."
In a big soup pot . . .
"Don't tell Gamer."
A snort, and Gamer got up, petted the dog and got him some raw bones.
"She's sweet. Not a purebred, but she must be part german shepherd. Good job. We'll need guard dogs and hunters."
"She?" Nick checked. "Probably spayed, the things these people do to their animals." And themselves.
He winced as he straightened. "So . . . I figure we should collect all the domesticated animals we find, kill the local predators, and hunt. Maybe a wildlife survey, see what sort of world we've gotten ourselves marooned on."
Gamer nodded. "Keep an eye open for dinosaurs like the one you killed. I really don't want any of them around."
"Yeah." It came out in an irritating squeak. He cleared his throat. "I'd best clean guns and count my ammunition. I'll go hunting tomorrow morning."
Chapter Twenty-five
Hunting
14 Jumada 1400 nyp
"Lady Fang" turned out to be ridiculously friendly, begging tidbits from everyone. But she slept at Nick's feet and followed him when he headed out of the camp early the next morning.
"I'll see about locating water, get a look at the wildlife. See if the Black Horses are doing anything." He carried one of the rifles he'd acquired during the fight at the gate. Ten rounds.
I'll slice whenever possible. And I ought to practice—and show the others—the things I learned from that merge with Ebsa. From seeing him fight.
He headed for a hill a couple of kilometers away. Not very high, but it gave him a better view around.
Trees marked the line of a stream to the east, and south a large clump of trees in a swale between hills might indicate water as well.
Moving dark spots. The binocs turned them into cattle. Lean, with serious horns. Wild, not feral. He spotted a doe with two fawns. Something startled some large birds into flight.
This world is looking really good.
There were mountains on the southern horizon, pale in the distance, capped in white. A single tall peak a bit separate, to the west of the main range of mountains.
He headed down the hill to check the swale first.
A mixed grove of oaks, pines and something that might be a nut tree of some sort, surrounding a large pond. Something large and dark moved in the shadows . . . Nick lowered his gun. A big black horse. Lurching awkwardly away from him, then standing still as it recognized a human.
Nick whistled as he took in the animal's injuries.
"Standing in the wrong place when the change happened, weren't you?" Nick reached to pet the horse's injured face carefully. Her teeth on the left were exposed where the lips and outer edge of the nostril had been sheared off. A slab off the hindquarters, a good chunk off a hind hoof. "I'm surprised even panic could get you this far. So let's just see if Ebsa's potion will fix you up. If you can drink it."
The mare sniffed the tiny bit he poured into his hand, then licked it. She relaxed with a sigh.
Pain killer spells? Nick poured a bit more, and another bit.
"Let's see how you do on that much. And I'd better add winemaking to my list of things I wish I knew how to do."
Lady Fang wuffed a little, and also licked his hand when he lowered it to pet her.
"I don't think you need that stuff. And the other effects, well, you'd probably just run off to find a wolf to seduce." Nick put the jar away and circled the pond. Nice clear water. It looked like limestone under a half meter of soil. A steep edge around most of it, ten cems or so above the water level. A low spot and a wide game trail leading to it. Excellent. He picked up a fallen branch and probed. A couple meters deep just off the edge.
"The question is, Fang, is this runoff or is there a spring?" The south side rose a bit, a ledge of limestone overgrown with vines, a seep of water running from between layers in the undercut ledge. "Spring fed. Excellent. This might be a sinkhole. We should move here. Or see if there are any more like it, further away from the Guards."
Instead of circling around to the east like he'd planned, he climbed the hill to the south. The horse limped partway , then stopped and started grazing
There were several other groves of trees in swales.
"Oh yeah. I think we've landed on an excellent bit of a very nice world. It's mid-summer, and the springs are still dripping, there's snow on those mountains . . . The closer to the mountains, the less likely springs would dry up. Right Fang?"
Fang flopped on the ground, panting.
"You fat old city dog. Let's take a look at that grove down there, then I'll drag you back home."
The fat city dog raised her head and growled, sniffing.
Nick turned, raising the gun, firing at the big cat that charged out of the grass . . . sidestepped as it collapsed and surveyed for more . . . "Leopard? Jaguar? You know, we don't even know what continent we're on. I just assumed Europe, because we started in Paris. But that's not actually a safe assumption, is it?"
The dog was bristling and growling as it sniffed the big cat.
"And I'd better start paying attention magically, hadn't I? If the wind hadn't switched around a bit . . . good dog!"
She grinned and wagged her tail.
"Waste not, want not. Although I'm not sure leopards are edible . . . "
And damned heavy to tote home, even after he'd gutted it.
But it impressed the heck out of everyone.
And with enough spices, it was edible.
There were plenty of jokes around the campfire about "cat tacos" and the Skinners told everyone about their encounter with Earthers.
"Pathetic. About a hundred women traipsing through the grass in white blouses, short black skirts and high heels. Trying to haul water back to their office building, that was way out on Vane eleven. Oh, there were men, too. But not as many. About half-and-half fat old guys and skinny office boys. Two guards. With pistols, not a rifle in sight. And they warned us to watch out for dinosaurs. We jacked a little electric truck for them. It looked like it had solar cells on the roof, so they ought to be able to keep it running."
His girlfriend, Pits, snorted. "I heard what they told you. They were all grudgy over the Nuke. Like we had a choice?"
"He said they'd only found seven worlds since then." Enuf shrugged. "They won't last long."
Mona snickered. "I checked out those Black Horse People, today. They have over a hundred horses. Half of them loose. I'm surprised your leopard didn't nab one for dinner."
"Heh. I found one out at a sinkhole. Injured. Pity. I hope the guards get along with the Earthers . . . " Nick bit his lip. "Seven worlds. Kirk? You guys were on one of those, right?"
"Right, and there was another mining world . . . "
"I read about a dinosaur world." One of the other Purps chimed in. "And one they were going to colonize." He glanced out at the dark grasslands.
Nick nodded. "This one, I'll bet. So with Earth and One, there were nine worlds swapping slices around on these eight vanes . . . Plus the world they were dropped into. Those nine worlds? Connected by gates? I won't say it makes any sense, but the numbers are right." He stood and picked up his rifle. Walked out to check the large warm thing approaching . . . the black mare had followed him home.
Meisha laughed. "Well, we all followed you, why not stray animals as well? Can you find a milk cow next? Perhaps some chickens?"
Nick's laugh was cut short by a sharp pain in his lower abdomen.
But "Black Beauty" was oooed and ahed over.
"She must have had her left hind quarters just over the boundary, and her head turned left. Oh, poor baby!" Karima was stroking the horse, who seemed to be collecting a halo of teenage girls.
Nick shook his head. "I think I'll go talk to your Earthers. They sound . . . like a helping hand now could yield some decent neighbors down the road."
Chapter Twenty-six
Home . . . for now
14 Jumada 1411 yp
"We worked two days straight . . . and for better or worse, they've run out of people to rescue in the ruins of central Paris." Ebsa rubbed his face, and hoped he didn't look as tired as he felt. "Paer's still helping out in their hospitals, and they've got the Joy Juice. Their roads are cleared, and all the large dinosaurs either dead or captured."
Ajha snorted. "I hope they aren't trying to keep any of the carnivorous types for zoos."
"No, well, other than some avian precursors. But they're not too big."
"Good. Ra'd's expedited the prisoner exchange . . . Idiot Earthers sent a tank through the gate Q made to send their people home, and he immobilized it. Q closed the gate, and reopened one in their Paris and sent all their people through, then located where they were holding all the people from the other One World and scooped up the lot."
Ebsa sighed. "Earthers make us look so good. Pity they're so obnoxious we can't even thank them for it."
"Very funny. Go sleep and eat. Report back when you're rested. I haven't the faintest doubt that there will be something for you to do."
