Day 34 6:30 AM

Frak us all. It is the morning after the worst day of our Alchibah lives, and let’s hope forever more. It is literally a disaster area here. I look out and I don’t even know where to start. Luckily there are others who are taking control of their respective areas, so they can bark orders to those like me. Frankly, I want someone to tell me what to do right now, otherwise I’ll just crumble.

I don’t have much time. Didn’t sleep much and need to get back to the community center to see what is next on the list of things to do. Now that it is light again (beautiful day too, figures) I think we need to start seeing what we can salvage.

One thing is for sure, we are really going to need to explore more and find food. I have a feeling there’s not enough left that we can use.

Day 34 4:00 PM

It is a beautiful day, though a somber one. Fortunately, we got a little pick me up this afternoon. A flock of devils came to visit, and brought some “agi” for us. Agi appears to be a fruit of some kind — the skin is odd lavender purple and the meat is a lighter version of the skin. I ran them over to the lab and did a quick test.

Everyone was busy with injuries, but luckily Mariana has been showing me how to use some of the equipment and set up an easy program for me to use on this kind of stuff (less work for her!).

The fruit turned out edible so I started passing them around (with Dobi, the ring leader of this flock; he always likes to follow me around, often on my head). The agi taste strange, of course, but they are a welcome change to the usual grub and a perfect distraction from the surroundings.

I was able to find out from Dobi that the fruit came from the other side of the continent (SE of us), where the devils went when they sensed the storm coming (has anyone mentioned how badly we need a weather satellite??). Looks like a trip is in order once things calm down here — perhaps we can find more food there.

Day 33 9:03 AM

I had spent the last two hours treating scrapes and bruises that were more psychological than physical; when a breathless kid that must have been 10 years old came running up.

“Doc,” he said, “The Soldier Lady says she needs you on the path on the other side of the ridge down from the Community Center. She said to tell you Code Blue and STAT.”

I started towards our tent immediately to grab the Trauma Kit. In the tent I looked at the interior frame that I had thought Andy had been paranoid to have built. All I could think of was his continuing mantra, “Logistics Capt. How can I defend something that hasn’t been built. Logistics First, everything else second.”

Moving over the ridge line I could see that Mariana at least had a Primary Care kit.

“Good to see you Kurt,” she said “Sally and Hilde dropped off this pack and Sally is on the way to Treatment to get ready. We have a really bad one here.”

I took one look and agreed. “Let’s get a full board under her and find some way to cut that damn thing flush so we can transport her. Shit we are going to need a litter and two people who know how to carry one.”

Mariana calmly announced, “That’s taken care of, transport is on the way and I will handle the trim.”

I watched her show me one of those energy knifes that I had seen Andy cutting dovetails with. That darn sure should work. We got the board under her and strapped up; then rolled her over on the opposite side from the penetration.

Mariana then proceeded to trim the wood on both sides. Like the Surgeon people forgot she was I swear she took off one layer of skin on both sides. We then packed on all of the surface antibiotics we could. We then used field dressings to cover and stabilize the object.

We had just finished when Andy’s voice said, “I was told you need me here.”

“This Lady needs to get to Treatment and I mean fast,” she said

“That’s what I was afraid you were going to say.” Andy groaned.

I watched him squat down and pick the woman up, I could hear the breathing ramping up. I could see his eyes as the pupils distended. Suddenly he stood and began to move, he was a blur disappearing into the distance. It dawned on me why people thought of Mariana as small, you always saw her next to that huge man.

“Well, pack up; it’s time to go.”

I started packing our gear into my now nearly empty pack, “How long is it going to take him to get there?”

She just looked into the distance, “He’s probably there by now, we need to move.”

We went the short way over the top of the hill, and slid down the slope not twenty feet from the entrance to Treatment. As we entered Sally and Hilde had the woman on the surgical table with hers clothes cut back, sterile field started and two IV lines already in. Sally was laughing, “Andy said you two would be along in a day or so. He left with some kid babbling about somebody caught under a tree.”

Mariana dropped the outside clothes for a smock and was scrubbing without a word. I had to hustle to catch up. We finished and the nurses snapped surgical gloves on our hands.

“I’ll get this sucker out and you back me.” She said. “ Then you start closing bleeders and I’ll back you, you are better with a suture and we both know it.”

There was not much I could say as she took the energy knife and carefully cored the tree limb. As soon as the central core came out and the pressure released we were in a race.

Three hours later I was standing in the lee of the hill trying to keep a smoke going in the downpour and Mariana was trying to work kinks out of her shoulders. I told her, “Well, now it all depends on how well that miracle snake oil you made from the slizzard works; what are you gonna call that stuff?”

“Steal a line from old Sci-Fi and just call it quick heal. Beats explaining where it came from!”

I could not help but laugh, try telling some of the die hards that the miracle cure came from an extract from slizzard gonads.

Day 33, 7:26pm

Summer, Maylee and Ryu were nearly at the spaceport when the east side of Windmill Hill collapsed in on itself, sliding, a liquid torrent of earth and stone, toward and over the spaceport. The cacophony was deafening, louder than even the tsunami itself had been. The three young soldiers skidded to a halt and watched in horror as the last hope of finding their two friends was washed away with the better part of the very first piece of land on Alchibah that a human had seen fit to name.

Ryu stared intently at the flow and started, “I…” but then trailed off, as if unwilling to tempt fate and proclaim hope again so soon after it was snatched away. Then all at once he was shouting and pointing, “I see them, I see them! There, pinned against the shuttle, the furthest one!” He started forward.

“No,” May shouted above the din, grabbing him by the arm, “there’s no way we can make it through there. We have to go around and wait for it to stop or we’ll be in worse shape than they are.”

“She’s right!” Summer yelled, starting away, along the edge of the hill. She turned and yelled over her shoulder. “May, stay there and watch them until it stops. We can’t afford to lose sight of them. As soon as we get to the other side go to the lab for help. Ryu, with me!”

As they rounded the far end of the hill, battling the still torrential rain and hurricane force winds, the slide stopped and it seemed as if all of the hill that intended to move had. The light coming from the lab was tempting, only a few hundred feet away, but it would have to wait. When they reached the other side they found that Jai and Emily had been moved only slightly, pushed into a corner in the hull of the shuttle. Jaisa had hugged Emily to her and seemed to have shielded her from the worst of it. They were better than waist deep in the hardened sludge, and what miracle had kept them from being sucked under or downstream no one knew. They were thoroughly caked in mud, though because Jaisa had been pinned directly in front of Emily it seemed that both had avoided having their faces fatally covered. The shuttle to which they were pinned was on the very edge of the slide – it tapered off to inches deep not twenty feet downhill from them. Jaisa groaned.

“Jai! Over here!” Ryu bellowed. She strained to turn her head towards his voice.

“Ryu,” she shouted as loudly as she could manage, “She, the mud, bl…” she shook her head to clear it. “Need to get out of here. Attacked. Emily’s loosing blood. No time!”

He charged onto the newly formed ground with Summer at his heels, sinking only slightly as he did. The clay-based mud had formed a dense pack that would be hard to dig through. They both knew they were probably risking another slide, but they had no choice. As soon as they got to their friends they started digging furiously with their hands and knives. Maylee had already disappeared from view, sprinting towards the lab.

Jai seemed to have been successful at shaking off her daze. She actually grinned. “Glad you two could show up. I was starting to think you didn’t care about us.”

“Well, we couldn’t let you get dead, now could we? Then the Colonel’d have more time to pay attention to the rest of us.” He glanced up briefly, grinning back at her. “And you know we don’t want that!”

She laughed. “Knew there must have been a good reason you came looking for us. Shit! This has been one hell of a day. A hurricane hits, then we get attacked by a friggin pack of catamount things, then there’s a god damn tsunami breathing down my neck. And as if that wasn’t enough we get caught in a mother fucking mudslide. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Santa Clause did a fly over so Rudolph could shit on my head right before the goonies nuked us!” Ryu and Summer both burst out laughing, but they were close to tears as well. By now they all had seen her shoulder and realized that if they didn’t get them out soon they were going to lose both of girls, and the work was slow going no matter what they put into it. She was doing what good leaders did when they had to – keep their soldier’s morale up when the odds were long. It was no “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” or “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” but it wasn’t bad for someone so new to the role. The one small consolation in the whole mess was that the thick layer of mud and clay seemed to have slowed their bleeding to a trickle.

Five minutes later they had managed to create enough of a gap that, with the help of the pelting rain, was enough to pull the now unconscious Jaisa free. Once that was done it was relatively easy to get Emily out of the muck. Summer gasped when she saw the extent of her wounds and then checked the girl’s pulse. It was faint, but still there. How much longer though? And where was the help May was supposed to bring?

“Take her. To the lab, as fast as you can. I’ll be behind you with Jai. GO!” Ryu took the unconscious girl in his arms and ran, heedless of the uneven, slippery ground. Emily had minutes, not hours. If he tried to pick his way safely to the makeshift hospital he might as well have left her where she was. Behind him Summer hoisted her charge over her shoulder and began making her way as best she could in his wake.

From the log files of Karl Nash.

Joe Fortson found me at Hanna’s shortly after I sent Summer, Ryu, and May out looking for Jaisa and Emily. He was carrying a heavy plasma rifle and accompanied by his Bot R. Dan Daily. I knew better than to warn him that plasma rifles were too dangerous for use in town. I was just about to go over to the community building to inform Reye that Joey Dawson had turned up, and that his mother was here with him,. After that I had planed on doing a quick survey of the storm damage before heading over to the Biolab. From up here on the high ground where the First Inn was situated it was impossible to tell how much if any damage had been caused by the wave that had just rushed up river and dissipated most of it’s energy trying to make the falls in front of Liberty City run backwards. That plan was put on hold while Joe told me about the Washington kid and Kathy Osborne.

It was just as well I hadn’t left yet because Andy Stuart showed up while Joe was finishing.

“Well I guess searching for the Osborne rapist takes second seat to the rumbler problem.” I said.

Andy informed me he wasn’t as sure about that as I was. The kind of fear and mistrust that that kind of a crime, in a community as small as ours, and on the verge of disintegrating anyway, was sure to hinder any efforts to work on the other problems. He then said, “That’s your Baby, I got Rumblers to kill.”

Fortson said he would be heading out with Stuart and I objected. “Joe we don’t have a clue about where the second rumbler is, what it’s up to, or where it might strike next. We’ve got to somehow secure the Liberty City complex and get our guard working again. To do that we need to make sure that any directions or orders given are followed. I think that’s gonna take a ‘Guy with a Gun’ and that looks like you in spades.”

Fortson thought about it a moment then said, “Yeah I see your point.” Then turning to Andy said “Good huntin’ Colonel Stuart. And try to remember you’re a little too senior to lead from the front.”

“What now Joe? Any thoughts?”

“Let’s do it this way. I’ll see if RoDan can get in touch with Gene Washburn’s bot R. Krebbs. If he can we’ll get Gene to boss the perimeter guard. Then we find Jack the Blade and get his people working on getting the tents down and policing up the wind and water damage. I don’t trust him on anything else. You and I will swing down past the community building, fill in Reye, and then over to the Biolab to see if they’ve come up with anything.”

“Pretty good plan for a ‘Guy with a Gun’. Let’s do it.”

On our way to the lab/hospital we passed the by northern part of windmill hill and saw the damage to the wind generators. It could have been worse. With Andy having completed the main feed run into town, one of the windmills had already been taken down with the intention of moving it further south to where we hadn’t yet run power lines. The blades had been removed from another but it along with the third generator were both still on their towers when the side of the hill collapsed. They hadn’t toppled exactly but slid down with the rest of the under burden during the landslide. Maybe, just maybe, we could make one working unit out of those two damaged ones. But that would be a job for later.

Arriving at the hospital we found a rather orderly chaos. I couldn’t tell if Kurt Kellerman or Mariana Stuart was in charge but that didn’t matter as they made a good team. Kellerman told me that he had given Kathy Osborne a sedative and she would be out for at least another six to eight hours and told me that Mariana had run the DNA tests. With a look on his face I couldn’t interpret he advised me to talk to her about them.

“Ok, Mariana, who did it?”

“Your not gonna like this Karl but there is no DNA evidence and the woman can’t recall a thing about her attacker.”

“What do you mean no DNA evidence?” I asked, “There’s always something even if the rapist uses a condom isn’t there? Hair, flakes of skin or even clothing fibers, something is always present. What do we need to do? Do we need to get DNA samples from everyone that‘s not already in the database?”

“No Karl,” she said expression very somber, “What I mean is that there really is no DNA evidence, none! Sure we can pick up some fibers and the indications of casual contact, about what you would expect from shaking someone’s hand or sitting in a chair recently vacated. But nothing even approaching what ought to be present in the case of a rape.”

“So is she faking it? Or having some kind of psychological reaction?” I asked.

“That’s a question I can’t answer,” Mariana said. “Kathy Osborne has all of the physical signs, including the tearing and abrasions I would expect from the description she gave of her attack. I know she could have just imagined this or even invented the story on purpose, but I can’t believe that she could have set up the rest of the physical evidence to be so, well…. convincing. After listening to the recording we made when she told us about it I’m sure you’ll agree that what ever is going on here is much more than some hysterical woman crying rape in order to get attention.”

“But if it wasn’t her for what possible reason would anyone else fake a rape that wasn’t?” Fortson asked.

I looked at him and replied, “I guess that’s the question you and I will need to answer. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah. So what next?”

“I think we get down to the river to see the damage there, and then head back north for a look at the scene of the crime.” I replied.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s do it.” was Fortson’s response as he hefted the plasma rifle and we left the lab.

Day 33, 7:13pm

“Emily!” Jaisa screamed, rushing over to her friend. “Emily, talk to me!” She didn’t respond. There was already a stream of blood and water winding away from the fallen girl towards the river, mixing with the mud as it went. Blood was pouring from the base of her neck, her shoulder and her side, and it looked like she had hit her head as well. It was small consolation to her friend, but the wounds on her legs seemed relatively minor in comparison.

Holstering her revolvers, Jaisa quickly grabbed her knife. She was operating on autopilot; at some level she knew that if she let her mind or heart take over she wouldn’t be able to do what she had to. Emily’s life depended on her being perfect and being fast. She didn’t have the luxury of letting herself comprehend the situation. She flung off her raincoat and quickly took her shirt off and cut it into ragged strips, doing her best to shield it from the rain. It would be soaked soon enough, but better that it be soaked in blood than in water. She rapidly field dressed Emily’s wounds as best she could, which was unfortunately not saying much. With the newly made rags absorbing as much rain as blood she had no doubt that the girl lying before her had less than twenty, maybe thirty minutes to live unless she got her to the Lab.

She should have been faster.

7:16pm

Summer was furious. That Dawson woman was now happily reunited with her little brat. That Alchibah had attracted so many sheeple never ceased to shock her. It was her duty to protect them, one that she would (she suspected, for you never really know these things until the time comes) give her life to fulfill. But giving your life for another’s and risking your life because of a hysterical woman’s stupidity are two very different things. And now her Lieutenant and Emily, two of her best friends, were out in this blasted gale doing just that. She glanced at her com. Four minutes and counting until she’d have to tell Nash that they were missing. At least the damn coms were still good for telling time. Frack!

7:18pm

Jaisa had hoisted Emily’s unconscious form into her arms and was staggering as fast as she could manage towards the lab. Her shoulder was ripped wide open, blood running down her left arm and all over her side and back. She had left her raincoat forgotten by the tents and the rain pelting her bare skin made dark pink rivulets that flowed relentlessly downwards. All this went unnoticed amidst the adrenaline coursing through her veins and her desperate need to get her friend back to camp, and had she been aware of her wound she would not have cared. The question now was rapidly becoming how sufficient a substitute for blood adrenaline really was.

She heard a roar swelling behind her, overwhelming even the sounds of storm. Half turning to look she saw the wave rushing up the mouth of the river, engulfing the banks and tents as it went. She thought she had been pushing herself as hard as she could, thought she had done so on more than one occasion in the past as well. She was wrong. Charging up the hill now, the minor ache in her should forgotten completely, she thought she might actually outrun the edge of the crushing tsunami ripping the world apart behind her. About that too she was wrong.

7:21pm, Hanna’s

“All right, take Ryu and May and find them. And be back soon, damnit, I don’t want to have to send a search party after the search party looking for the search party!” Nash ordered Summer. He could almost literally not believe how bad a day this had turned out to be. He thanked his lucky stars that things, at least as this day went, seemed to be settling down. Jaisa was as capable of taking care of herself as virtually anyone on Alchibah (which was saying quite a lot, thank you), so he really wasn’t too worried on that count. It also seemed that the rumbler had decided to sit this one out. He sighed and started for the door Summer had just left.

The sound was immense. It was as if someone had gathered every rumbler that ever lived and decided to run them up the riverbanks through Liberty. The huddled colonists rushed as one to the windows overlooking the falls. Nash stared on in disbelief as none other than a tsunami brutally roared up the river, crashing itself to pieces as it hit the base of the falls, for an instant sending the river shooting back up the cliff. God he hoped no one had been down there. Then he went back to work.

7:21pm

She almost made it. Almost. The rushing wave just caught her with its last gasp as she clamored up Windmill Hill towards high ground. Even then it had enough power to pitch her and her precious burden through the waterlogged air and slam them into the mud. Somehow though, through some force of instinct or reflex, somehow she twisted herself so she bore the brunt of the impact, not her friend. Her body crashed to the wet earth, making an unpleasant squelching noise which she never got to hear. Her head hit the ground and everything went dark.

Day 32 0430

The day started as expected, first the the call to Bill Bartlett and then the long slog with the Guns to bring this place up. I kinda liked the look on Hanna’s face when we turned on the lights and brought all the freezers up at once. Even better was when we told her that her Microwave oven was in play.

The first glitch was when we brought up the Lab / Hospital complex. The accumulator there had been stressed hard; with only the solar cells to provide a charge it took to the new feed like a hungry dog. We had red lights every where as the Lab control unit sucked charge out of the system.

“Alpha Group, we have to pause and let the Lab charge a bit. It’s 0645, those who wish to can go down to the Space Port and be in the ceremony; of course if you want to take a nap do so!”

Day 32 0700

Standing beside Mariana I thought Travis’s speech was short and to the point. During Lester Reyes bloviating I had to make a couple of snide remarks to Mariana.

“Shut up and thank your blessings,” she said. “Even he can only talk so long!”

“Thank God,” was my reply.

When the ceremony was over Ash and I immediately cornered Travis. His first statement was a doozie.

He produced an Ice Cube and said, “Monroe said here is the Manual Set; and if I have to teach Ash Andrews how to fly this thing or Andy Stuart how to maintain it, we are lost already.”

I gave him a grin and said, “Well give us the nickel tour anyway, when you produce this you should have the right to brag a bit!”

Travis said, “Note the increased shielding, guys. We applied an extra layer of lead for increased radiation protection but there’s also a network of copper substrate to bleed off energy weapon attacks. Best of all, though, Hibbes then thought to coat the entire ship with nano-paint. There’s a control on the dash console to change the color of the ship for better camouflage and concealment.

“What was originally the forward crash-bar has also been altered; we drilled the beams out and in one is mounted a laser cannon off the old Lancer.” Travis chuckled and then said, “The old Lancer. A couple months ago – minus cryo sleep – it was saving our asses from the Goonies! The other forward beam will hold the plasma ball gun the mad scientists are working on. There’s a hatch on of the body of the ship that pops up to reveal one of the 100 millimeter guns – also from the Lancer.”

Travis lit a cigarette and then continued, “We ripped out six seats to make room for additional fuel capacity and the ship stores of food and materials supplies – the emergency rations and clothing, medical, what have you, — are also mostly gone. The cabin is a lot smaller but the extra fuel, as well as some improvements to the engines, give you far greater range. The little galley is still there, though, and of course the john. Ash, your shield field plans are incorporated as well. These shuttles will never be as fleet as a battle cruiser but they are now tough little son-of-a-bitches.”

I paused to light up also, “Travis, I don’t know how we can thank you. I went into harms way in a lot worse. Remind me to throw the appropriate feast someday. Histy is waiting for you up at Hanna’s and we have work to do.

“By the way, it’s a whole lot easier to see up there now. The lights are on and all of the freezers are working. We have to go light up the rest of this place.

“Again, thanks Buddy.”

I told Ash, “Get over and move the Master Repeater, we will bring up the Control and Security Center as soon as we have the street lights going.” We both paused as Bart’s shuttle lifted into the sky.

“Damn,” I muttered, “I would rather be up there.”

Ash grimaced, “So would I, but like you said; you can’t defend a garden before you build it.”

I just stared at him; the Hound Dog had really come to ground. “Don’t worry, sooner or later it will be our turn.”

Day 32 1300

The work went on; nothing posed the challenge that the Lab / Hospital did. The rest was just dirt-ugly labor. We were testing the streetlights for God’s sake when Ash’s call that we had lost contact with the shuttle came in. Sending LT. Benjamin to finish the necessary power run; I went to the spaceport and was helping Ash download the camera data when Travis and crew arrived to return to the Mayflower in the colony’s old shuttle.

“What’s the energy here, Andy?” Travis asked.

“We lost contact with Bartlett’s shuttle and I am not sure if it’s because something went wrong; Bart just found something he wanted to go look at or it’s the communications problems we seem to be having lately. Anyway it goes; Ash wants the security cams downloaded before the local storage starts looping over last night.”

“What happened last night?” Travis asked.

“Tell you the honest truth Glen, I don’t know anything did. But, that naturally suspicious cousin of mine wanted to download the data before we lost it.

“We powered up the cameras yesterday and they only have 28 E-hours of storage before they start to overwrite the old data. If we hear from Bart we may never look at it if not well, let’s say it might get looked at hard.

“But, on a more cheerful note; do you guys have a spare growing room on the ship? One you could raise the temperature of a few more degrees? Cause if you guys can grow coffee, ya’ll got the cash crop from hell. I may humbly point out that someone has a supply of Arabica seed beans.

“You can reach her at Stuart M., whenever the comms get back to normal.”

Travis laughed and started for his shuttle.

I went up on the Alpha Group link, “OK, anybody who looks female. There is now enough hot water to do a real hair cleaning. Get outta here and we will see you the day after tomorrow. Guys, suck it up; it’s a fact of life.

“By the way, anybody who tells Mariana about this conversation is dog meat.”

Judith Reye barged into the community building, the grounds around it were battered but due to the fort like construction the building itself showed now signs of damage. She charged straight through the meeting area, packed with noisy colonists and into the small windowless office and conference room where her husband was standing talking with Joe Fortson. Fortson had just been passing by looking for Andy Stuart, but had stopped just long enough to let Les know what had happened to Kathy Osborne and about the rumblers. Ignoring Fortson Judith demanded, “Lester! make them get in touch with Michael!”

“Please Dear, one moment and I will be right with you.” Les replied in a distracted tone, keeping most of his attention focused on the conversation with Joe.

“Don’t you even care that I can’t talk to our son? He can’t be reached and might even be in trouble!“ Judith yelled totally out of control.

“Not now Judith, not now! Mike is probably fine. Since the storm we’ve lost all radio communications with everyone. Kathy Osborne has just reported being raped, Joey Dawson and the Washington kid are missing, and Burke likely killed and eaten by rumblers. I can only handle one crises at a time!

“Oh dear, oh dear. It’s always about power isn‘t it?” The transformation of Judith Reye as she latched on to one of the lode stones of her personal belief system was instantaneous and near miraculous. “I am going over to see what I can do to help the poor Osborne woman. Get a hold of Mike, Lester, and I will talk with you later!”

As Judith left Les turned to Fortson and said, “Joe I am very much regretting being here right about now and,” with a nod to the meeting room, “ I am sure I am not the only one. Go ahead and get with Stuart on the rumbler situation and looking for the Washington kid. You should probably help out there. But first find Karl Nash and alert him about the rapist in our midst. And let him know that according to my dear wife he can forget the sex angle and confine the search to men lusting after power. Whoever did it wasn’t thinking worth a lick, or at least not with his brain. With DNA evidence, finding the guilty party should take all of a minute or two. Also ask him to try and organize some folks to take down any of the tents still standing. Half of the people outside just ran in here and left their tents full up and waiting for the winds to rip them to shreds. The bots should be able to handle most of the work on that detail.

“If you run across Sabbu send him this way. I am going to stay right here and try and work out some way to at least be an informational clearing house now that most of our communications are down.” He nodded once more to the main meeting area and said, “Now I have to have to start by filling in that mob out there on everything we know, or think we know, right up to the present point. And all I‘m gonna get back from most is what I should of known.”

“Better hope they have a sense of humor Les. But then that’s why you get the big bucks ain‘t it?” Fortson commented as he headed out the door.

Bam! Went the gavel. Bam! “Quite everyone,” Reye said. And as the room did quiet down he began reading from his notes.

Day 32, Late Afternoon

Emily and Jaisa walked slowly along the riverbank as the sun hovered just over the edge of the horizon, slowly setting. Both girls were undeniably beautiful in the twilight, each in her own way. Emily, with her milky skin and long, brown hair, was just starting to show a hint of her pregnancy. Jai walked beside her, lithely moving along the path, golden skin illuminated by the sun’s last rays, silky black hair braided, hanging just past her shoulders. A pair of heavy, rosewood handled revolvers rode her hips, with another partly hidden by her jacket. Her face was hard, but now that she was with Emily her eyes had softened, if only a little.

The two teenagers walked along, talking quietly, laughing and smiling. For Emily it was a relief to find that even here, on an alien planet with few more than a hundred and fifty other humans, she had friends. She had felt so alone at first, but her friendship with Jai had changed all that. In the month since they landed she had gotten to know (and like) most of the other colonists her age, but Jaisa had been her first friend, and she was sure she would remain her best. For Jai simply having a friend her age was a luxury she had not had since she was eleven, and that she had met someone she had connected so thoroughly with so quickly here, light years from Earth, was almost too much to be believed. The two had been through a lot in the one short month they had known each other.

A gentle breeze rustled through the trees up ahead, adding to the sound of the rushing river and the waterfall crashing a ways downstream. The breeze seemed to be bringing some perhaps not so gentle storm clouds with it. The girls wandered inland a little, nearing the edge of the forest. A small island of trees lay off to their left as well.

“Can you believe it?” Emily asked, sitting down on the grass. “Bart and Janie, married! I’m so happy for them. Sometimes you just know two people are meant for each other, you know?” Jai sat down facing her friend, her arms resting gently on her knees. She just shrugged.

“Oh come on, don’t you believe in true love, soul mates, all of that?” Emily prodded.

“I never really gave it much thought,” Jai replied. She sat in silence for a moment. “I suppose I do though. My parents had that, so I suppose I do. I take it you do too?”

Emily laughed. “You know I do. I just said so, didn’t I?” She got quiet. “I thought I had that with Jace. Maybe I did. I’ll never know for sure now, with him back on Earth.” She groaned. “I married him, eloped, and then I left the solar system. I’m never going to see him, never going to see my husband, ever again. What am I supposed to do, be single and alone my whole life?” She gazed off into the distance. “I loved him Jaisa. I love him. But there’s not going to be any reunion, any miracle bringing him here. What am I supposed to do, pine after him all my years and die lonely?” She managed a wan smile.

“I don’t know, Em. I’m sure everything’s going to turn out all right. It’s not like there’s a rush or anything. Right now the half a dozen or so eligible bachelors even close to our age are all hopefully too busy to think about pairing off.”

“I wouldn’t place money on that Jai. I doubt even Andy is capable of working your average teenage guy hard enough to get him to ignore girls like you and me.” She giggled. “And lucky for us the guys here seem to be quite a bit above average, too.” They both laughed. After they sat in silence for another few minutes Jai got up, extending her arm to Emily.

“Come on, we should go. It’s starting to get dark, and we should be getting back. Besides, it looks like it’s going to rain.” She hoisted Em to her feet, glancing up at the gathering storm. “That looks like a bad un. Guard duty tonight is going to be miserable. Lucky you get out of it on account of you learning to be a nurse, eh?”

“Right, ‘cause that’s a walk in the park, of course” Emily laughed. “Come on, you’re right. Let’s get back before we get soaked.”

Day 33, 7:00pm, Liberty Community Center

“I can’t find my Joey, I can’t find my baby!” the woman sobbed, clutching at Emily’s shirt. She was bleeding from a small gash to the side of her forehead. The Center was a wreck. Rain and hail was hammering on the roof and walls while the wind screamed its way over, under and around the building, creating a deafening, and to many there, terrifying din. Families were huddled together, children (and more than a few adults) were crying, every other person had some sort of a cut or scrape that needed tending to and there wasn’t a dry scrap of cloth to be had in the place. Several of the Young Guns and Guard members had taken on the task of shepherding this weary flock, doing what they could to make the storm bearable. And now this. Emily thought that everyone had been accounted for by now, certainly all the children.

“Are you sure Mrs. Dawson? Did you ch-” the woman cut her off.

“Yes, I’m sure! I’ve looked everywhere! Please,” she whimpered, “please find him.”

“I’ll find him, I promise.” She turned to Kiyoshi Maeda, one of the Guard members helping with the more minor injuries. “Could you get her patched up? Jai, over here!” she yelled to her friend as the man gently started tending to the woman’s wound.

“What is it?” Jai asked as she came over.

“She can’t find her son, Joey. He’s about four, sandy hair – I took care of him during the day care. She says she’s looked everywhere…”

“You know where her tent is?” Emily nodded. “Summer! Over here, now!”

“Sir!” was the only response the teen gave when she got there.

“Check Hanna’s for this woman’s son, Joey Dawson. He’s four, has sandy hair. If you find him get his mother and bring her over there, then report back here. If not, just report back and wait for me. Em and I are going to check her tent. If we’re not back in twenty let one of the Stuarts, my dad or Nash know we’re in trouble. Go!”

As they dashed into the night the full force of the gale hit them. It was damn near impossible to see where you were going or even walk, let alone run or rush. The rain drenched them within seconds. If not for the wind and hail they could have been forgiven for thinking they were running underwater.

They finally made it to the riverside tents, yelling for Joey the whole way. They dashed inside the Dawson’s tent. There was no one there, no Joey.

“Damnit!” Jaisa exclaimed, slamming her fist into her palm. “He was probably just at Hanna’s. And with the god damn coms out we have no way of knowing for sure. Fuck! All right, we’ve got five minutes to search the tents. He could be anywhere and we don’t have any frigging choice but to go back after that! Damnit!”

“Let’s search then. And I’m sure you’re right, he’s probably at Hanna’s right now. Come on.” Em replied, pulling open the tent flap and thinking it was a miracle the thing hadn’t simply blown away.

They seached in vain, struggling through the howling wind and pelting rain near the Dawson’s tent just north of the spaceport. As they headed back Jaisa started to get an uneasy sense in the pit of her stomach. She realized what it was almost too late. She felt them before she heard them. Time almost seemed to slow. She could see every drop of rain around her in exquisite detail as she whipped around, drawing her guns. It was almost as if the world had turned into a giant tunnel; she was fully aware of the darkened sky above her head, the mud beneath her feet and everything in between, all at once. As movement exploded from the high grass she was already starting to pull the triggers. The first bullet hurdled forward as the dark, sleek figures shot from the night, then the second, and the third.

The creatures were jet black, the size of catamounts, their hides a dull gloss underneath the splashing raindrops. The first three creatures crumpled to the ground with gut wrenching yelps of pain. She hated killing them. Hated it, but accepted it. They weren’t evil, just hungry. And she was just doing what she had to. She shot again, and again. They didn’t have hides, they had scales, she could see that now. Their faces were flattened, snake-like almost, with burning green eyes. She fired once more before one crashed into her, toppling her over. She shot it twice as she fell. She rolled backwards, sending the beast into the ground as she landed in a crouch.

What she saw next would haunt her as she tortured herself, loathed herself for being too slow, for breaking her promise to protect her friend. The rest of the pack was retreating into the storm, but one of the creatures had its teeth in Emily’s neck and shoulder, its claws raking her side and legs. Jai’s arms felt as if they were pushing through molasses, inching the revolvers towards their target. Finally she pulled the triggers, sending the thing sprawling off of its prey. Time snapped back into place.

7:13pm

Day 33, 5am, Takeoff

In the background was the low rumble of the jets and the faint vibration as our shuttle left the landing area and climbed for altitude. Janie, sitting in the right-hand seat, was entering control sequences and initializing them one by one as set up and ordered on her timeline checksheet. I watched the progress on the real time side and double checked each entry and then Janie made and validated the go command.

We had worked out the flight plan together and run through it several times as an internal simulation using the former lifeboats comp as the host. The experienced wasn’t quite as true to life as the simulators we had used on the Mayflower, having no visual or auditory inputs, but still excellent practice. My side of the control system was now in command mode and Janie’s side set for entry and verification. In effect what we were doing was pre-running the canned routine 15 seconds before the real system ran the exact same inputs. As each validation segment completed it was compared to the pre-programmed inputs and the double green check lights winked in agreement.

What would we have done if we didn’t get a double green? In this case we would have trusted the comps and their triple redundancy but kept a very close track of the next sequence and be ready to terminate if necessary.

The weather looked like it was going to get nasty later in the day. That’s why we decided on such an early start. This was an easy ascent with plenty of time between control inputs so we had plenty of time to spend looking out the front view screen. Nothing much for us to see in that direction but up, though we could select the screen view from any direction. Mike Reye and Laura Seaworth, sitting in back, watched out the side view ports as everything below became toy-like in the distance and the sky changed to ever deepening shades of blue, and then to black, as we rose above the last vestiges of the atmosphere.

“Ok Janie, we’re high enough, do you want to take over and from the autopilot and do a manual burn to put us into our orbital path?” I asked when the radar altimeter had us up at 60 miles.

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for,” she replied taking over the controls and punching in numbers copied from her flight notes into the loading queue for our pre-programmed orbit. It would have gone in automatically but this was the last chance for a preplanned abort and so a good place to do manual entry. I verified her numbers as they were entered and said, “Looks good. Watch the time tick… and enter.”

We were pressed back into our seats as the thrust vector switched from near vertical to more horizontal but we were still gaining altitude as the burn approached completion. I watched Janie as she watched the readouts and it wasn’t long till we had gained another 20 miles and were almost set for the polar orbit we had decided upon. The path display and everything else was in the green. I sent a brief message to those below announcing the fact.

The shuttle, which we had named the Dora, was only about half the size of the pre-nuclear drive Space Shuttles used by the old United States space agency. But it had twice the payload and twenty times the delta V and of course no solid fuel boosters. If we stripped payload for fuel storage she would have had a hundred times the total velocity potential. There was enough life support to keep a crew of 4 in space for at least 2 months or carry 8 for shorter durations . We had planed for just two days in orbit before we set her down the first time.

The shuttle was heading towards an hour and a half orbit taking us over both of the poles. This would let us scan in greater detail the polar regions that the Mayflower’s observation sats hadn’t been able to map with any degree of accuracy. Our plan was to spend the next 30 hours or 20 orbits completing our world map and then choose the initial landing site. We were firm in one thing though. The first touchdown would be no further than 500 miles from Liberty City. The weather was bad right now to the north of Liberty city with spring thunderstorms and much lightning. But the forecast showed that by the time of our scheduled touchdown the front should have blown far to the east. If anything went awry we would be close enough for easy pickup by one of the other fliers. Our preparation had been so compete that the chance of anything going wrong was miniscule at best. About another minute left on the initial burn and we would be in our comfortable orbit.

Janie looked at me and I nodded thinking, weightlessness would be fine with me and Janie but a couple of minutes after orbit one of us would need to made a quick check of our two young passengers and see how they were handling it. I made a mental note to keep watching them for at least the first several orbits because in those 20 percent of cases where ‘0’ gee intolerance does show up the symptoms are often delayed.

Fifteen seconds till shutdown. Janie’s hand hovered over the manual cut off; ready just in case, and then.

Alarms lit up the board! A muted thump followed by a crashing explosion and we were tumbling wildly! There was a tornado sweeping through the cabin as we lost pressure and our air swept out a rent in the aft bulkhead. I had time to hear the start of a scream from in back as I yelled, hoping my voice would carry, “Seal the suits. Now!…” and to Janie “I have the Control!” and slapped my visor down. As I wrestled with the controls, it wasn’t physical but sure felt that way, I found half of the thrusters were off line. I caught sight of, as we tumbled, the diamond bright glint of light refracted by the Hydrogen spewing out behind faster than it could vaporize. Thank god we were high enough above the atmosphere that there was not enough oxygen to react and cause another explosion.

Janie was shutting down every system, but that of the emergency thrusters, that showed red on her panel. And that was almost all of them. The main engine controls showed no signals at all as even the sensors were dead. I almost had the tumble out but we were still doing a lazy spin when the cabin lights cut off and we lost all power. Reflexively I hit the breakers and kicked in the backup.

The lights flickered then steadied and the controls, or what was left of them, lit up also. But much dimmer then before. Janie spoke into her suit mike, “You ok in back?” There was no reply. I motioned for her to go back and check. I had tried to talk to her over the suits com system but she hadn’t heard a word. I could hear her, but nothing else seemed to be going in or out of the network. By the time Janie got back and gave me a thumbs up I had the spin off and my pulse rate had started to come back down again.

Captains Travis and Monroe had both said “If you can survive the first minute of a disaster in space you’re probably home free. Just take your time and don’t make things worse. If you can’t fix it yourself someone will be along to help.” That might have been true for space but we hadn’t quite reached there yet. Fifteen seconds short, it might just as well been a lifetime. I could already sense and almost hear a high pitched keening whine, vibrating through the ships structure and into our suits as we started to reenter. From a pocket in my suit I pulled out a section of wire with jacks on either end and plugged one into my suit and the other into Janie’s and we could talk again.

Altitude 80 miles. “Is it as bad as I think it is,” were the first words she said.

“I don’t know Babe, but I sure hope it’s not as bad as I think it is. I used up almost all of the thruster fuel just getting us stabilized. The shuttle’s a naturally orienting lifting body so if none of the ablative coating came loose and nothing else breaks off we can make it down in one piece, but I sure don’t know about our landing.”

“What about the aerodynamic controls?”

“They’re shut down now and we can only hope they function when we get low enough to where we can try and use them. If this doesn’t work Janie…” and then I couldn’t say anything more. Looking at her I saw dark eyes tear up through her visor and felt the pressure of her suited hand in mine as we continued the fiery descent.

Altitude 60 miles. The body of the shuttle should have been level across the wings and slightly nose up but it was all too easy to tell we were canted about five degrees to starboard, and that was a dead giveaway that structural damage was affecting our aerodynamics. We were coming out of the zone of highest heating. I had used up the last of the thruster fuel in order to keep us only five degrees from level.

Altitude 50 miles. Speed 5500 MPH. Our tilt was at 9 degrees. I tried the ailerons. They seemed to move but no change in attitude. Too early, not enough bite.

Altitude 35 miles. Speed 3200 MPH. Tilt at 14 degrees. We were dangerously fast for atmospheric control but there were no choices left. If this didn’t work we would roll over and over till we broke up. She seemed to grab as I pulled the stick back and left.

Altitude 20 miles. Speed 1650 MPH. Tilt holding at 14 degrees and I started the nose down. We could see a blanket of storm clouds and flashes of lightning below.

Altitude 50,000 feet. Speed 600 MPH. I cranked in some left rudder and some down on the port flap. We leveled off and were headed in straight. There was a loud cracking noise in the back and then a sudden jump and the overall volume seemed to double, something else must have torn loose. I tried to start the air burners. Nothing, probably no hydrogen left anyway.

“So far so good.“ I said for Janie’s benefit. “Now all we gotta do is pray she stays together long enough for us to find a big, flat, soft spot to land in,” I said with a hint of, “We just might, maybe, make it through this after all,” in my voice.

Altitude 25,000 feet. Still level and speed down to 325 MPH. We were flying blind in the cloud layer. Nothing but a dull grey mist, no rain yet but flashes of lightning on every side.

Janie had cycled through the shuttles systems again and had repeatedly tried the communications gear. No go. She said in a tone of voice much calmer than I think I would have managed, “Except for emergency systems we’ve got most of the flight controls Bart but that’s about it. And only enough backup power for another six or seven minutes until we lose everything.”

Flipping my visor back up, I said, “And the good news is… We’ll be down one way or another long before we run out of power, this thing glides like a brick refrigerator. Check on Laura, and Mike, make sure there belted in. Tell them the landing might be a bit rough but that everything’s under control. Oh and make sure the Jeep and EmyCee are tied down too.”

“On my way,” she replied, unplugging the voice cable. She was back seconds later and strapping herself in. “They’re fine, a little shook up but otherwise ok.”

By now we were in the heaviest part of the rain showers. Outside the clouds had turned from grey to almost black and the lightning kept flashing and hail began pelting the windscreen in a staccato tattoo. The thunder was loud enough to hear through all of the noise we were making as we whistled towards the ground around. Even with the noise coming from the tail we heard the nearer strikes. Then even more rain and the Dora’s windscreen was completely obscured by the torrent.

Altitude 8,000 feet. Speed 200 MPH. We briefly broke out of the cloud layer and with the rain easing up could just make out the ground, now some 5000 feet below then back into cloud again. At 4600 feet we came clean once more and saw a washboard pattern of forest covered ridges with snow on the higher elevations, and one small river fed lake ahead and to our right. Not a clearing in sight.

“I guess it’s time to see if she floats,” I said, making the only decision I could. The lake, really just a wide spot in the river, was almost too close for touch down, but with the nose up and bleeding speed for all I was worth I managed somehow to splash in a couple of hundred feet from where it narrowed back down to the river mouth. Then I saw the rocks. Then nothing.

Sometime later:
Someone was swinging a lead filled cricket bat, striking me on the left side of my face, just above the cheekbone, again, and again, and again. As each new blow fell, and the pain ripped through, I could somehow tell the timing was exactly the same as the pounding of my pulse and beating of my heart. I tried to raise up–and mercifully– faded into black.

I don’t know how long I was out before I came to the next time. The pain must have receded a bit because I got my eyes almost opened and turned my head at least an inch or so before the waves washed back in and I passed out once more. The third time I awoke though I felt all warm and fuzzy, as if swaddled in a pile of blankets that was just too high and all encompassing to struggle against. Something was pressing on my shoulder, rocking me ever so slowly. I opened my eyes. Or at least one of them.

Janie? No that couldn’t be Janie, Janie had a face, with eyes, a nose and a smile, she wasn’t some kind of a faceless blur like blob. I slid away another time.

I would swear that it was on my fourth try I finally stayed conscious, but Janie says there were at least three more times that I don’t remember. Well… she was there and I wasn’t.

When It Rains, it…
Day 33, Late Evening, Liberty

Waiting, with all the others, huddled in one of the few structures still standing, I jotted some notes for historical purposes.

The last 48 hours have been a living hell. It finally makes me wonder if this voyage of ours was a mistake.

There’s an old philosophy back on Earth, the GIA theory, that the entire planet Earth is a living organism.

If that is true, then it is also true that planet Alchibah is trying it’s damnest to reject us, the invading virus called humanity.

As always, I’ve gathered my notes into a chapter but will let the individual colonists tell their stories here.

–Historian