Still Falling: Book 1: Solstice 31 Saga (7 page)

With the help of the suit, in the back room, he covered the broken window with a door on the outside.

“Barcus, these windows are standard sizes. I think we could move a window from elsewhere in The Abbey to make this weather tight.”

The suit was assigned the job of collecting firewood and stockpiling it in the cooking pavilion that was just to the left of the gatehouse on the opposite side of the courtyard from the stables. To facilitate that work, Barcus took time and repaired the south gate door. The suit had solvents and lubricants on board that allowed him to get the gate door working smoothly. The drop bar was gone, but they could fabricate one later as time allowed.

Soon after the gate door was open, the suit was easily walking back and forth carrying logs, more trunks than logs in that they were five or even ten meters long. One of the claw cutters made quick work of cutting perfect fireplace sized logs.

The suit soon had multiple cords neatly stacked. The remains of the broken furniture was also collected and broken up for perfect kindling.

As night fell, Barcus had fires burning in both fireplaces to heat both rooms. Stew was heating up inside the two liter camp pot.

“Em, let's make a list of things we need to salvage or make. Things like basic furniture, pots and pans, utensils, tools, and damn, I wish I had snagged a couple cases of wine at The Stone Cauldron.” Anger flared. He choked it back.

Em seemed to walk out of the other room and look around. As if to prove the point about furniture, she ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire. “I have had the BUGs doing a detailed survey in all directions. They can inventory as they go. There are so many abandoned farms and villages within 100 clicks that we should be able to collect whatever you need before the snow flies. After a few days’ work around here to secure this site, I will head out for a salvage run.”

“Do you know how to use a cauldron? There are six big ones in the cook’s pavilion,” Barcus said.

“Actually, yes. But there is no need. They were used when The Abbey was fully populated. They are only here now because they were too heavy to move and too strong to break, like the anvils in the stables.”

“This camp pot is great. It can bring two liters of liquid to a boil in no time. No fire required. How long will it continue to work?”

“We can recharge it every month in the spider. It will last for years. Don't forget the Thermos. It can heat or cool liquids.”

“Dammit. Wish I had that wine...” Barcus sat on the three legged stool and stared at the fire.

CHAPTER NINE

Autumn Rest

“The Emergency Module turned to long-term survival. The narrative, if accurate, seems to indicate that Barcus was not the psychopath that earlier analysis indicated.”

--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Emergency Module Digital Forensics Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team.

<<<>>>

Even though the cot was narrow, musty and uncomfortable, Barcus soon fell asleep and didn't awake for a full ten hours, and even then he was slow and quiet. The energy of the previous day was just as gone as the heat from ashes of the cold hearth that he stared at.

Barcus was sitting on the sagging edge of the cot with his elbows on his knees, his chin supported on his fists, staring at the floor. He had remained like that, unmoving, for a few minutes before Em spoke to him.

“Good morning, Barcus. What's the plan for the day?”

He looked up to see her sitting on the floor, cross-legged again. His answer was a long sigh.

“I think we should replace that window and explore this place some more. I have a few places I'd like to show you,” Em chirped, trying to encourage him.

He made no reply.

“You should eat some breakfast.”

He stood and walked out without a word, out of the gatehouse, out south gate, and straight into the woods.

“Barcus, where are you going?” She looked like she was running to catch up.

“I just need to take a piss for god’s sake!” he snapped.

She appeared to skid to a stop and let him go.

“Add that to the fucking list. I am not coming out here when the snow starts to fly,” Barcus yelled over his shoulder.

When he returned, he made some instant coffee in the Thermos. After quaffing two cups, he took the third with him. He spent the morning first removing an intact window from a ruined section of the barracks that had somehow not been broken in the blast, and then installing it in the gatehouse.

Both of the gatehouse windows faced the inner courtyards. One was in the willow yard. The other was on the opposite side of the wall on the kitchen side. Both were under a roof that created a walkway so if it was raining, they could move about undercover.

When he was done, he spoke aloud, knowing Em would hear him. “I want to explore now. I'm not going to do this all via HUD.” He heard the rocks tumbling as the spider emerged from the garage.

“We will leave Faceless here to work via remote while we explore.”

“Faceless?” Barcus asked.

“I am trying names out. So far 'the Suit,' 'Beast' and 'Elvis' don't seem right.”

“Elvis?” Barcus raised an eyebrow.

“What? You like Elvis?”

“No!” Barcus snapped.

“I will keep trying. I could give it a complete persona if you like. It would be just another me though,” Em offered.

“Don't bother. I already know I am alone and you are simply programmed to keep me sane,” Barcus complained.

“I am cut to the quick, sir. To be simplified so.”

“It's true.”

“Just get in, grumpy. Hey, we could call the suit 'Grumpy!' It looks the part,” Em said cheerfully.

“'Scary' is more like it. They were not built for beauty,” Barcus observed.

“Get in, dammit.” Em seemed to be calling from inside.

The spider moved smoothly over the rubble to exit The Abbey. She followed the wall all the way around to the west side before moving away. There had once been a road here. It wound through the trees, following the contours of the land instead of a straight cut through. They were four meters high, tall enough that the saplings in the road constantly brushed the belly of the EM. Soon they came to a small set of stone outbuildings.

“This is where the beekeepers lived and worked. The hives are all still full and active,” Em shared.

Barcus could see them - domes scattered twenty meters apart. Clouds of bees flying about their business. Soon the cool weather would bring them all into the hives.

“Know anything about beekeeping, Em?”

“Enough, I think,” her avatar replied from one of the seats.

They walked past the hives and over a hill to what was obviously an orchard. At their approach, a herd of about twenty deer looked up from eating fallen apples. They didn't run only flicked ears and tails.

They moved through the massive orchard to the far end near the encroaching forest. There was another stone building, but this one was much larger. It was long and narrow and had a long sink-like trough that went the entire length of the building.

“It's a sugar shack,” Em stated.

“What the hell is that?”

“It's where they boil down maple sap into maple syrup or maple sugar, an occupation of early spring.”

“One thing at a time, dammit,” he barked.

Barcus did notice a sturdy table and chairs there.

They continued their tour to find grape vineyards gone wild. Instead of neat rows of grape hedges, there were simply acres of grounds overrun with grape vine. Trees had been covered and some of them had even been killed. Buildings that would support a vineyard were easily located.

They found fields gone fallow. And more abandoned buildings.

Barcus got out and went into a small house that had an intact roof and almost all the windows unbroken. It even had some decent furniture.

“Maybe we should move in here?” It was a question and a statement.

“The gatehouse is a little bigger and water is better there. Plus once we fix things, it will be better hidden and defensible,” was her instant reply, followed by, “Barcus, can you climb up and stand on the stone mantel? I have found something.”

He looked up to see Em sitting on a rafter. She was pointing to a spot he couldn't see.

He climbed to the mantel with ease. He had become used to the light gravity. His head peeked just above the rafter where he could see that Em was looking at an old leather bound book.

He grabbed it and leapt down easily.

Blowing the dust off, he could see it was a well-made book in good condition. As he opened it, he noted that the pages were not dry or brittle and turned easily.

It was in English.

Barcus learned quickly that it was a book about beekeeping. It covered how to establish a hive, keep it, harvest the honey, and there was even a section on making honey mead. Without thinking, he was smiling wide.

“Em, have the BUGs look for more books.”

Their tour continued north for several hours until they stopped for dinner at the edge of a large fresh water lake. This was the northern most point that they would explore today. The BUGs had found a stone cottage with a domed grass covered roof near the edge of the lake. It was dry but empty inside.

“We should cache supplies here once we get established.” Em was looking around the circular room. “In case something happens and we have to run, this would be a good remote place to hide.”

She paused. “I could hide the spider and the beast in the lake if we needed to.”

“Is there anything further north from here?”

“Only where we left Chen.”

“Did they ever come back?”

“I don't know. We are out of range. I don’t dare risk detection by communicating with Stu from here.”

Barcus stormed out the door and toward the water. The beach was all rounded stones. He picked one up and threw it as hard as he could with a grunt. He was amazed at how far it went.

“Who did this to us, Em?” he said through clenched teeth.

“I don't know. Not yet.”

Barcus was about to throw another rock and stopped.

“You have been trying to find out?”

“Of course. It's the best thing I can do to protect you. That's my job.”

“What have you discovered so far?”

“Well, the satellite network supports comm traffic. The traffic is probably voice, video, and data. I believe I know the encryption type, but it will take a long time to break it.”

Barcus was toying with his growing beard while he was thinking, a new habit he had acquired.

“I have located all the SATs and all of the ground stations on this side of the planet. We are 800 kilometers from the nearest ground station, which is good. I am doing all I can to analyze passively the traffic. I don't want them to find us the very same way I located them.”

“But aren't you broadcasting now to me? To the BUGs?”

“Yes, but that is local, low power, directional and has high contemporary entropy encryption. We sound like background radiation. We are not using the SATs. Just point to point.”

“I want you to tag and monitor this site. Name it ‘The Northern Cache’ for now. Let's head back. I have some things to think about. I want you to include this site and any updates regarding Stu in the daily status display.”

They rode back another way so they could see more of the surrounding area. It was after dark when they reached the broken wall.

On the outside of the wall, half the rubble was now gone. The spider could still easily climb over the damaged saddle in the wall, but a man on foot would be hard pressed to do so.

“Faceless has been busy,” Barcus said as he exited the spider and it retreated into the shadows of the lower levels.

The area in front of the garage had also been cleared. All the saplings were gone. It was no longer a struggle to move through the inner spaces. The broken doors had all been removed to somewhere. As he rounded the arch to the gatehouse, he could see a warm glow from inside.

When he opened the door, the first thing he noticed was that the flagstone floor was covered with a large rug of deep reds and blues. Then he saw two overstuffed leather chairs which faced the fire. A finely carved, dark oak table and four chairs were under the window. A small table between the overstuffed chairs matched them.

There were candles in jars on all the tables and the mantel. There was also a long, heavy, wool blanket tied to hooks so that it separated the front room from the back.

Drawing it aside, he saw another fire in that hearth, a large ornately carved bed against the wall, a side table with more candles and a smaller area rug of mostly deep green.

Looking back, he saw Em standing there smiling.

“Do you like it?”

“Thank you. I don't know what to say. Why two overstuffed chairs?”

“I hate sitting on the floor.” Em’s avatar sat in the farthest chair and drew her feet up under her.

Barcus looked around everywhere now, even up to the rafters. “How the hell did you get it so clean?”

“The suit has an onboard power washer. You know that. The tank is only 30 liters, but it made quick work of this space. It took longer to dry than to clean.”

“Where did the furniture come from?” Barcus was amazed.

“We collected it last night while you were sleeping. There is an estate not far to the southeast. The main manor building was destroyed, but a small servant cottage remained.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“And ruin my fun?”

“We also found the closest midden.” A map of The Abbey appeared in a HUD window. It was a six-holer, just around the corner, off the kitchen pavilion. “There is also a chamber pot under that table in the bedroom.”

“So now I have a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out of.” Barcus was thoughtful, a touch of sadness in his voice.

“We found something else.” Em gestured to a small chest he had not seen before. She obviously wanted him to open it. He did.

There were four more books in there.

They were all leather bound like the beekeeping book. The first two he opened looked like Student textbooks. One was a text on remedial reading and the other grammar. The third looked like a reference on forging steel. The last was a small, beautifully hand-written book of poems.

Looking up at Em, he could see she was still smiling.

“Thank you, Em.” He paused. “For everything.”

“We will watch for books wherever we go. I guess we should find a bookcase. What else?”

“Blankets and sheets and towels and more clothes.” Barcus started ticking things off. “...and some boots for winter.” He looked at his shoes. They were his on-ship footwear, like climbing shoes. “And tools of all kinds. Rope. Nails...glasses, cups, and plates. Maybe a small desk.” Barcus was running out of steam.

He sat at the table and looked at the clean surface and said, “Keyboard.” It was not part of the list, but a command word. A virtual keyboard appeared as a projection on the table. The standard 312 keys.

His fingers flew over the keyboard. Anyone watching him might have thought he was just tapping the table rhythmically. He was doing research. He was studying the layout of The Abbey.

After searching the archives for a few hours, he finally spoke.

“Em, I think this Abbey may have been one of the original Redoubts from the first wave of the colonists. Tomorrow we will find out.”