Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) (2 page)

“Okay.” He sighed. Suddenly tired, he sat down on the edge of the bed. “May I join you in creating your homestead?”

Catherine smiled and crossed the room to sit on the bed next to him. She glided her finger along his jaw line, which drew his attention to her. “Yes, you may.”

Renewed energy flowing through him, Jason rose to his feet with a broad grin, pulled her up into his arms, and hugged her tight. “This will be great! I can see it now, our own little house on top of a hill with rolling hills all around us. We’ll have…”

“Attention colonists!” The PA system shattered the moment. “We will be arriving at Haven soon. Prepare to disembark.”

Jason and Catherine looked at each other and cried in unison, “We’re here!”

The colony ship approached its destination, one of the moons circling the large gas giant in the g Lupi star system, and established a geosynchronous orbit over the designated drop zone. The flight crew sent the signal indicating the ship was in position.

The announcement echoed through the halls
as people began moving out of their cabins, “Attention colonists! Please gather your belongings and report to your designated drop ship.”

Catherine leaned in toward Jason and lightly kissed him on the lips. “I need to gather my things. See you on the surface!”

All Jason could do was smile and wave while she departed. A few seconds later, he quickly packed his clothes, stuffing his dirty garments into his carry-on bag, and checked the cabin one last time to make sure he had not forgotten anything. Satisfied nothing had been left out, he lifted the bag with ease and headed out.

Despite prior planning, the area where the drop ships were docked appeared disorganized. People moved in just about every direction. Some small groups of two or three were gathered in the middle of the wide corridor, interfering with the flow of traffic, while individuals moved against the flow. Through it all, uniformed soldiers wearing UN armbands pushed their way through the crowd and tried to direct people where to go and what to do when they got there.

Fighting through the chaos did not look too difficult, so Jason waded into the throng and forced his way to his designated spot. It turned out to be pretty easy to join the crowd, but reaching his target proved to be more of a challenge.

Finally reaching the airlocks a few minutes later, Jason broke free, jumped into the line, and boarded the ship. He found a seat, paying no heed to the older man sitting next to him reading something on his personal computer. After stuffing his carry-on under the seat, he leaned back and closed his eyes to daydream about his future in the colony.

A few minutes later as more people filed in and claimed seats, the man next to him said, “Well, it appears that the Lord has brought us together again.”

Opening his eyes, he discovered it was Reverend Peter sitting next to him, e-reader in hand. Looking at the younger man with a smile on his face, the minister continued, “Or, did you choose to sit next to me?”

“No, I just picked a seat, and it happened to be this one.”

Peter nodded knowingly. “I see. Then, it appears that the Lord is guiding you back to me for some reason.”

“I don’t know about that,” shrugged Jason. “But in either case, I don’t mind sitting next to you.”

The priest nodded again and glanced at his e-reader as though to resume reading, but stopped short and turned back to Jason.

“If you don’t mind, perhaps we could talk on our way down to the surface.”

Jason shrugged again. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

The PA system interrupted them. “Attention, passengers! This is your pilot speaking. Please find your seats and make sure you are secured, as we will disembark in a few minutes.”

“Here we go.” Jason fastened his seat belts and glanced at Peter, who followed suit. He took a deep breath, breathing it out slowly through his mouth, and closed his eyes to wait for the ship to detach.

“Are you okay?”

Opening his eyes, Jason saw Peter looking at him, a look of trepidation on his face. “What?”

“You look nervous. Are you feeling okay?”

Jason released his death grip on the armrests. “Sorry. I’m not good with orbital drops.”

“How so?”

A nervous laugh escaped through the young man’s lips. “I get nauseated.”

Peter frowned, pulled a bag out of the seat in front of him, and handed it to Jason. “Just in case.”

“Thanks.”

* * * * *

The two men engaged in a lively conversation during the uneventful trip to the drop zone, a wide expanse just west of a large lake. Touching down in the tall grass that waved gently in the wind, the four drop ships powered down and opened to let the colonists disembark.

One by one, each of the drop ships that followed appeared in the sky and descended to the ground not far from where everyone else waited, including Jason and the reverend along with some of those that he recognized as his neighbors while aboard the colony ship. Several minutes after the last craft landed, Catherine broke through the crowd and ran to him, joyfully wrapping her arms around him.

“We’re here! We’re finally here!”

Jason smiled back as they embraced. “I know!”

The voice of the administrator boomed out over the crowd, amplified by a portable audio system. “Attention! May I have your attention, please?”

The sounds of multiple conversations quickly faded off. Jason sighed as he released Catherine from the hug and turned to focus on the speaker.

“Thank you,” Ms. Armstrong said after the voices stopped. “Let me be the first to welcome you to your new home, Haven.” The colonists cheered and applauded together at the announcement.

“First, I need to inform you that, since Haven does not have a standard day and night cycle like we’re used to having on Earth, we will be using an artificial twenty-four-hour cycle like back home to make our lives a little easier. So, there’s no need to change your watches at all.

“Second. Although we are all glad to finally be here, we have a lot of work to do first. Two more shuttles should be arriving soon with our prefab homes. As soon as they touch down and are offloaded, we need to erect them quickly, so that we can move in. I have a welcoming celebration planned for when we get our village up and running, so let’s get this party started!”

As promised, the two shuttles containing materials sufficient for dozens of buildings set down not far from where they were gathered, and several cargo walkers distributed the kits to various locations dictated by the administrator and her assistants. Within a few hours, the landscape transformed from a large, grassy plain to a small town of gray and silver metal buildings nestled against the edge of the lake. Jason and Catherine helped with the construction of their dwelling and moved their belongings inside after its completion.

A short time later, Jason and Catherine arrived, hand-in-hand, at the town square, where long tables and benches had been set up for the dinner party. Groups of other colonists were already congregated at various places around the square. The couple found a gathering of people they recognized and joined them to wait for dinner to be served.

One young woman in the circle leaned toward Catherine while they walked to the tables. “What do you think of your house?”

“The house is a little cozy,” Catherine said as they sat. “But, it seems to be the perfect size for me and Jason. It does need something decorative to liven up the atmosphere, though.”

“No doubt about that!” The woman giggled and glanced away from Catherine at the woman sitting to her left. “I don’t think they had comfort in mind when they were designed.”

“Did anyone bring anything to decorate their home? I sure didn’t!” queried a brunette sitting a couple of seats from Catherine.

Turning to Catherine, Jason whispered in her ear, “I’ve got a couple of pictures in my bag that we could hang up. I’m not sure if they’re what you’re looking for, but they’re something for now.”

She grinned as she rested her hand atop his. “That sounds great.”

“Hey! Any of you guys having any troubles with your house?” It was a man seated at the end of the table. Along with the others, Jason shook his head.

“What’s up?” another man asked.

“None of my home systems will boot up. It’s like there’s no power.”

Jason glanced around the square at the other tables as he continued to listen. After a few seconds, he noticed that the colonists mixed together pretty well, but the military had separated themselves out and were sitting together as a group at the end of one of the long tables. Dressed in green camouflage, they were not hard to miss against the one-piece navy blue uniforms worn by just about everybody else.

“Did you try the battery backup?” Thinking the question a bit odd, Jason glanced at the speaker. The tools nestled in the man’s shirt pocket told him he was a technician of some sort.

“Yeah, and that’s the odd thing. It looks like the battery is dead, too.”

Leaning in, Jason interjected, “I hope it’s not contagious.”

Several colonists around him laughed at the comment, and he joined in a couple of seconds afterwards.

“…test. Ah, here we go!” Jason turned to see Ms. Armstrong standing at the top of the steps of the newly-built main hall, a two-story building that looked like a metal version of the town halls commonplace in many rural communities of the United States. “Hello, again! I’m glad we all made it to our first official dinner together on Haven.”

She waited for the applause to die down before adding, “Tonight’s main course will be roast turkey served at any of the buffet lines we have set up at this end of the square. It’s probably going to be the last time we eat this for a long time to come, so hop in line and enjoy your meal.

“Please remember that if you have any questions or concerns about anything at all, feel free to approach me or my assistant, William. We want our colony to be the best it can be, and we can’t do it without everyone’s support.

“One last thing before I turn the evening over to your stomachs, I need to see all of the hunters and foragers at the town hall steps after dinner is over. Thank you!”

“Uh oh!” the man sitting next to Jason exclaimed. “I wonder what they did.”

Jason shrugged. “I’m one of the foragers, and I don’t have a clue about it.”

“Well, good luck. I hope it’s nothing serious.”

After things started winding down
about a half-hour later, Jason joined the group of hunters and foragers at the town hall steps. Just like him, the rest of them did not know why they were called together and wondered what could be the issue.

A few minutes later, Ms. Armstrong emerged through the hall doors with a smile on her face. Making her way to the middle of the crowd, she asked for some room and addressed them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, first let me thank you for taking on such an important role in our society. What you find and bring in will help sustain us long after our initial supplies run out.”

She activated a handheld holographic projector and displayed a map of the general area. Jason stepped in to get a closer look, noticing the river spilling out of the lake on the east side.

“Now with that in mind, the reason why I called all of you together is to warn you. The colony ship sent me their initial scan results of the moon’s surface, and they did not pick up very much in the way of indigenous life forms. There are some scattered to the east across the lake, but we have several more detected to the south and west. When you go out on your initial expedition tomorrow, I want you to concentrate on the south and west. But, I still want a couple of hunters to search around the lake and see what you can find. Do I have any volunteers?”

At first, nobody reacted. Only the sounds of the collection of dishes and scraps wafted through the group as they reflected on her words. Unsure of what everyone was thinking, Jason studied the expressions of those around him and found them just as confused about the situation as he was. He looked back at the map again, focusing on the river. Remembering his foraging lessons back on Earth, he determined what he needed to do.

Jason raised his hand. “I’ll go.”

Ms. Armstrong frowned. “Jason, you’re a forager, not a hunter.”

“Yes, I know. But while I’m searching for food east of the lake, I can keep my eyes open for any animals and report their locations.”

The administrator smiled. “Not a bad idea, Jason.

“Anyone else want to volunteer, hunter or forager?”

After a slight pause, a woman on the far side of the circle raised her hand. “I’ll go, too.”

“Excellent! Thank you, Lesley. With these two covering the east side, the rest of you can fan out to the south and west. Unless anyone has anything else to add, happy hunting tomorrow!”

Several hours later found Jason and Catherine in bed making love with the lights out. Their cries of passion filled the room
while they repeatedly consummated their relationship, until Jason finally grunted loudly for a few seconds.

“Computer, lights at twenty percent,” Catherine ordered.

In an instant, the lights faded on, dimly lighting the room as Jason collapsed on the other side of the bed under the sheet they shared.

Catherine grinned and rolled over to face him, while he folded his hands behind his head and looked back at her.

“That was the best you’ve ever been.” She stroked his chest with her fingers.

He laughed. “Must be something in the air.”

“Maybe. We should probably get some rest before morning comes. Is it still light outside?”

“Probably. Let’s take a look. Window, seventy-five percent opacity.”

The window changed from a solid black to a dark gray, enough to let the sunlight filter in and brighten the room a little.

“Yep,” he sighed. “Still light outside. Window, one hundred percent opacity.”