Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3) (13 page)

What a wonderful afternoon. It seemed to last as long as a full day on Earth, but I’m estimating that I began logging data when the sun was at it’s midpoint of our rotation. Now the sun has just set and I’m calling an end to daylight.

My evolving maturity is helping me understand. When I wanted to interrupt my father and talk to him about how many trees seemed to be coming down, I didn’t. Instead I waited and watched.

On multiple occasions dad told Liam to stop, one tree or another did not need to come down. They were not slashing and burning, they were selectively thinning. I am not the only person cognizant of human’s impact on the environment.

I have some ideas for an irrigation system but it is going to be difficult with no wood or masonry products or piping of any type. I know that in various agricultural areas of the United States there were earthen channels used to divert water to fields. The water will need to be moved using gravity and we will need to store water within the area of the crops.

We all know that the tides are dramatic and easy water will only be nearby about fifty percent of the time. Sofie found that out first-hand this afternoon.

Grace stayed with Sofie and was able to get her into at least her underwear. While we worked the two of them splashed around in the water and took time to wash their hair and dry out in the sun. I think it was a good chance for Grace to blow off some steam too.

Sofie is now in the hangover stage of her ‘fun water’ experience. Grace is still with her, and while I don’t know if Grace has ever been hung-over before she seems like a pro.

This highlights an area where my maturity is not shining through. I continue to plot my revenge on Cassandra. She intentionally provided tainted water to Sofie and left her to embarrass herself and take unnecessary risks.

It’s one thing for Cassandra to be confused and unsettled. Even if she doesn’t know how to contribute she doesn’t need to disrupt. She will pay for her actions; it just has to be fitting and more mature.

My father and brother have fallen into their work routine from Ames. They are a little team and work together and take breaks together. About thirty minutes ago they knocked off for the day and strolled down Main Street.

I can tell that my dad is working on an idea because you can almost see the wheels turning in his head. By the way he was not just dropping trees but also organizing them I think it’s a building project.

As he walked down the center path of our intended town he looked for something. I could see him mark a few points in his mind. If I followed them correctly, he’s looking for symmetry.

It’s a little weird to think that he’d want a grid layout. One of the things I remember him saying about cities is that he liked the old ones like Boston, New York, and London more than the western cities like Los Angeles and Denver. The fact that old cities had streets laid out based on old cow paths is what gave them character, was his claim. Grid cities are efficient and easy to learn, but they have no heart.

Over the course of the afternoon my attitude about cutting trees and modifying the landscape has ebbed. Humans find a way to carve out an existence. This is a strength, and should be considered so. Earth may not have been in perfect shape when we left, but it was not our environmental impact that caused us to flee.

Creating a comfortable life with zero waste is not going to be realistic. However, if Remmie and any future children are raised to consider their impact on the planet before they act, we have a shot at keeping Locus healthy longer.

While I ponder how much thought the cavemen gave to crafting a society Liam approaches from out of the shrubbery. Leave it to him to avoid the lanes mom has been laying out.

“Hey Seamus. Me and Cassandra are going to go… exploring.” He lifts his eyebrows and smiles.

“You know what she did to Sofie, right? She’s going to regret it, and you can tell her I said that.” My anger begins to boil again.

“Hey, she screwed up. That’s half the reason I’m trying to get her out of here and away from you guys. She doesn’t know how to deal with all this and she needs to vent and think without seeing you perfect people acting like it’s a summer camp.” My brother has lost his smile.

“Being freaked out and being a bitch do not have to go together; that’s her choice. If you’re not helping her figure out how to apologize and make things right I’m going to have a problem with you, too.” I jab my finger into Liam’s chest.

It’s been a long time since Liam and I had a physical disagreement. When we were much younger we fought all the time. I was quick to learn when I had lost the advantage and started using my other skills to deal with him. He’s stronger than I am, but right now I have rage on my side, which creates a pretty good advantage.

“Fine. Now I have three reasons to get her away from you guys.” Liam’s smile is creeping back.

“Venting and thinking, apology, and what else?” I’m curious.

“For a genius you are a complete idiot. Most guys our age would know why I want to be alone with a hot chick.” He’s wiggling his eyebrows and he looks ridiculous.

“Well good luck with that. Remember to be a gentleman though, there aren’t too many fish in the sea so to speak, and mom will hear about anything that happens.” I caution him even though I know he’s not aggressive like that.

As my brother walks off I think of this other valuable human trait: the need to explore. We have seen the tiniest fraction of this planet. I am sure that once we are established and feel safe, people will want to set out and explore.

Even before that, we need to know where the edge of our containment field lies. What are the resources we have access to without being exposed to radiation? Are there geographic features better suited to an encampment?

Without realizing I was heading here, I’m standing in front of Sofie and Grace. My sister is sound asleep; I can hear her gentle snores. Sofie has her eyes closed, but I get the impression she’s not asleep.

“Hey Seamus.” Sofie says without opening her eyes.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“Like I got hit by a bus. No talk. You sit.” She feebly pats the ground beside her.

The message is clear, she wants me close by but not for conversation. I sit beside her and put my hand on her leg. She has her clothes back on, but as I doze off to nap visions of her walking out of the water fill my head.

The sound of Dad’s voice wakes me. I can’t see him but I sit patiently, waiting for additional words.

“You left her!” My dad’s quiet whisper is gone.

“No.” Liam responds. “She decided to stay there.”

“Let’s go. You better be able to get back there.” Dad is clearly agitated.

I heft myself to my feet and shake the aches out of my arms and legs. Grace and Sofie continue to sleep soundly and I don’t want to disturb them. This living on the ground thing is getting old. I want a bed.

From my standing perspective I can see dad and Liam. They are no longer talking, but they are gathering something up off the ground. I walk towards them and remember that Liam had gone out with Cassandra earlier, which must be who was ‘left’ somewhere.

“What’s up?” I surprise them both a little.

“I found something cool. I wanted to come back and tell dad about it but Cassandra wanted to stay and investigate more. She wants to find a way to help out and has it stuck in her head that she can do something important with our find.” Liam has concern on his face.

“What did you find?” I ask critically. It’s annoying that I have to probe.

“I think we found where the rock posts came from.” Liam moves his hands like he’s revealing a surprise.

“A quarry?” I try to clarify that it is a place where rocks are exposed and not just an area that sort of feels, to Liam, like a post came from.

He looks at me puzzled. Back home there was a quarry where some kids went swimming. It was dangerous because of the uneven bottom and a few dead trees that had fallen in. I bet that’s all he thinks is that quarry and swimming hole are synonyms.

“Maybe it’s a mine and not a rock quarry.” Dad tries to clarify and give Liam a chance to figure things out.

“Yeah, it’s like a granite ledge but on the ground. And there are square spaces that look like the post we found over there.” He points in the general direction of the second monolith.

“Dad’s right, you better be able to get us back there.” I grab a bottle of water from the pile at their feet and start walking in the direction Liam had set off in at dusk.

I’m not convinced that Liam led us directly to the quarry. The circuitous route was not intentional but dad was pretty frustrated with the number of turns we took.

The two of them never made it to the edge of the containment field, which is interesting. I was guessing that it would cover a wide area, maybe 3 or 4 acres, but now I may have to scale that estimate up to 10 or more.

At first there wasn’t any difference in the jungle we were walking through. The plants and trees were identical to the ones we were cutting down back at the village.

Eventually we hit a path. It was clearly an anomaly, though I can’t say if it was cut in or if it developed through use, just like the one near the second C-5. In my mind it’s clear that something intelligent lives here, though I have no proof.

The path leads us directly to the quarry. And it definitely is a quarry.

I check my watch and look up to the sky. Opening my notebook I record the new data points. How long it took us to get here, the location of the two moons in the sky, and the time.

“Seriously Seamus? Stargazing now?” Cassandra ridicules me.

“Watch it, I’m ready to snap on you.” I can’t look at her or I might lose it.

Dad is walking around the pile of rocks and looking outward. I’m not sure where he gets his investigative methods from, but they are interesting. He likes to find the outer boundary of things and then work his way in. My approach is almost the opposite, there is nothing interesting outside of the sample so why not start in the middle and work out until you find nothing interesting.

The four of us walk around the site in silence. I am the only one with a notebook and therefore the only one recording information.

There is a rustling in the woods and I cannot determine if it is the animals again or another quake. Standing still I try and feel the ground beneath my feet to detect the shakes that may be coming.

“Liam, did you follow the path back to the village?” Dad asks him above a whisper but more quietly than in normal conversation.

“Part of the way, but then I turned off the path when I thought I was getting close.” My brother has no logical inclinations.

Standing in the center of the quarry I look out at the trail the leads away and try to gauge our location with respect to the village, the lake, and the two monoliths we’ve found. The lake is to my left, and our village is straight ahead, which makes the second monolith slightly off to my right. The trail leads roughly towards the water’s edge but would hit well before the location of our emerging infrastructure.

In short, the trail hits the shore before it hits our village. What’s at the end of the trail?

“Did you see any other monoliths in the jungle?” I ask him, trying to adopt the soft tone of my father.

“Why do you have to be all mysterious? Monoliths, give me a break. We should call them stone posts.” Cassandra is not trying to be quiet.

“Cassie, stop picking fights, it doesn’t help. But no, Seamus, I did not see any more things in the jungle.” Liam searches for a middle ground in both tone and volume.

I make my way to where the monoliths were clearly extracted from the ground. There are two large voids that seem to match the size of the monolith I found in the lake and at least six smaller voids that appear to be the size of the monolith in the jungle.

Inspecting the stone, there are no visible tool marks. However, the way the perfect ninety-degree edges were cut it wasn’t with a simple chisel and hammer. Even with our sandy rope technique for cutting the almost stone-like trees, I cannot imagine how this stone was cut so clean.

Rustling that is louder and closer than before snaps me out of my thoughts. I can see trees moving and what ever is causing it is coming this way.

“Seamus we need to get out of here. Now!” Dad yells at me, full of fear.

Pushing Cassandra ahead of him Dad takes off down the path. Liam is not far behind him, but it takes me too long to get moving, and they are quickly out of sight. I leap from the rocks and take off at my fastest sprint, worried that it won’t be enough.

There is a constant noise behind me but it’s not getting closer. It’s impossible to know if the creatures are physically similar to humans in terms of speed and endurance or if they are superior and just consider us a plaything. I want to check on them desperately to see if I can find out what they look like, but I don’t want to look back for fear that I will trip and fall.

In front of me Liam catches my eye as he hesitates before diving into the undergrowth. He wanted to make sure that I saw him and am able to follow. I feel as though we should continue on down the path, it feels faster and safer. But I don’t want to get separated from the others so I dive into the jungle.

The pace is much slower and the noise is much greater, two things that will make it difficult to evade pursuers. Liam has caught up to dad, who I am sure is slowed by Cassandra.

Not leading whatever it is to the village crosses my mind, but I don’t have the breath to speak. Our village is not far from where the first encounter with the creatures occurred. If they are intelligent, they already know where we live. If they are not intelligent, we will only have to survive the first attack and then we can return to obscurity.

Now that I know there is a rustling several minutes before the creatures attack I can share with the others what to listen for and when to evacuate an area. Though I’m not sure it can be termed an attack. We have not been injured and still have not made visual contact with whatever species is behind us.

Liam stumbles, and I look down to see if there is an object I need to avoid. There is not, but I notice a change in the soil, almost like someone has drawn a line through the jungle.

With my focus in the ground I do not notice the tree until too late. My head hits hard and I spin off to the side before falling to the ground. Going from speed to zero is a difficult adjustment, and it takes me a second to get my bearings.

Being last, there was no one to see me fall. The sound of the other three quickly fades into the jungle. They’ll realize I’m not with them soon, but hopefully they won’t come back shouting for me.

The quiet is eerie but telling. Whatever had been chasing (or is it following?) us is no longer moving in our direction. I feel safe for the moment and slowly get to my feet.

The soil around the monolith in the jungle was different as well. Even with that first encounter the creatures did not come onto the soil that seemed to hold more moisture. Is it possible that the moisture in the soil is a repellant?

I try and figure out where I am in relation to the jungle monolith, but I can’t. All that running and crashing through the trees has me disoriented. I believe the village is directly in front of me, which would make the monolith still off to my right.

“Psst. Seamus.” Liam is behind me.

I turn to face him and he waves me towards him. I shake my head in response. I don’t want to lose this location. Following the line between types of soil will provide answers to something. I just don’t know what.

I use my hands to instruct him to come to me, but he refuses. As an alternative I signal him to stay still, and he nods. Placing my notebook over a branch to mark my place I walk towards him carefully.

“Liam, did you notice the change in soil while we were running?” I ask my brother.

“No, I was watching where I was going.” He whispers back.

“I think there’s a significance to the monoliths and changes in soil. I’m going to try and follow the line and see where it leads.” I tell him before turning away.

“Dad wants you back at the village. You can go all Seamus on this later.” Liam is holding my arm and is not letting me leave.

How dare he. He and Cassandra went off and found the quarry. Now he expects me to follow along when I am onto a potential new discovery. Not only that, he’s going to try and physically stop me?

“Let go of my arm.” My growl is probably too loud.

“Seamus, being alone out here is a bad idea. The temperature is dropping and those creatures are definitely around. Just come back now and you can go crazy in the daylight.” My brother has some logic to his words.

The temperature has fallen significantly. Once I stopped running the sweat on my head started cooling me too fast. I want to wrap up in a blanket, and I guess that’s Liam’s point.

When I was pursuing my reactor back home I could work crazy hours with a complete disregard for time. There was plenty of food and water and my bed was just up the stairs, I could sleep comfortably whenever I wanted. Now staying full and warm require work and I cannot just run off chasing an idea.

“Fine.” I still walk away from him and gather my notebook.

Liam stands and watches me. He won’t move until I am in front of him and heading back to mom and dad. My little brother is an escort, and for the first time in our lives it’s him stopping me from doing something stupid.

Walking gives me time to think. What could it be that causes the soil to change consistency around the monoliths? Does it happen only at their base, like a reaction between the material and the soil? Or does it happen along their line as if an unseen force connected them?

In addition to gathering data about how the monoliths exist in the jungle, I need to figure out ways to test the rocks for a variety of physical properties. Are they magnetic, conductive, porous,
etc.
Geology never interested me, but now I wish that I had spent more time learning about it.

The physical activity warms me up and Liam and I get back to camp without incident. It feels odd that there are tiny groups of people huddling together. There aren’t that many of us and I thought we would all unite into a single clan.

I find Grace and Sofie sitting with mom and dad. Sofie still looks green, and I feel even worse that, after she suffered the affects of radiation poisoning, she had to suffer the pain of a hang over.

“A heat-free energy source doesn’t seem so smart now, does it?” Dad greets me with a shiver.

“Well I figured that having unlimited electricity would make electric heaters a smart solution.” I snap back.

“How did we not think of that?” Dad looks at mom as if everything was her responsibility.

“We did. There are electric heaters on both cargo planes. But in case you forget our reactor is generating a containment field to keep us alive. If we want heat we need another reactor set up to generate electricity.” Mom continues to have a handle on the organization and implementation of our survival.

“I guess we’ll be going for another paddle. I suppose we needed to salvage some food anyway.” Dad’s shoulders sag with defeat. He hates paddling the life raft and I don’t blame him.

“I don’t know how far the containment field reaches. Heading back to our plane may lead to exposure.” I know this information doesn’t really help, but it’s good to know.

“Well then we should limit who suffers. I’ll go and see if I can get Henry to volunteer with me.” Dad says.

“Why not check out the other plane? I think someone should assess both craft so we can make an assessment of which one is easier to work from. Right now only Liam and I from our plane have seen theirs.” I pick my words carefully to mask my concern about Cassandra and Jane’s judgment.

“So you think Cassie is lying?” Liam sticks up for his love interest.

“No. I think she says her plane is in bad shape because she hasn’t seen ours.” I snipe back at him.

“Enough boys. Even if we can’t carry everything, which we can’t, we should have an inventory of what is left intact on both planes. That would allow us to have more prepared and well-thought supply runs. Whoever goes to the plane in the river will need to bring a notebook and enough patience to be thorough.” Mom is basically telling us that I am one of the people going to the river plane.