The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) (5 page)

"Any microbes that tried chewing on my insides would probably get a stomachache." Firebrandt grinned, then slapped Roberts on the shoulder. He saw that Roberts was still worried. "Look, we won't know whether or not we can survive here unless we're willing to take chances. The water tastes great, by the way."
"It's a big river," sighed Roberts, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop his captain from taking chances. The sun was on the horizon. The reddish light played across the water.
"What'll we call it?" Firebrandt sat down on the sandy bank and let his gaze travel up and down the length of the river.
Roberts looked back toward the river. "When the first conquistadors came into New Mexico on old Earth, they called the big river they found, Rio Grande."
"I'm not up on old Earth languages," said Firebrandt, absentmindedly. "That's Spanish, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Roberts wryly. "It means 'Big River.'"
"Well, if there's a Rio Grande on Earth, we can't call this Rio Grande. No matter how much we like the name." Firebrandt grinned.
"Who else'll ever know?" When he saw that his captain was unconvinced, he made a new suggestion. "How about Nuevo Rio Grande—New Big River. Besides, this river's bigger than the Rio Grande of Earth."
The captain took another drink, then stood and brushed pinkish sand from his trousers. Turning in unison, the two returned to the ship. On the walk back, the captain looked around at the countryside. "So, if that's the Nuevo Rio Grande, are we in New New Mexico?"
"Don't give me that 'New New' shit." Roberts cringed. "They did that on New Earth. There's New New York, New New Delhi—it's the least original planet in the galaxy." As they topped the hill and started walking across the meadow, Roberts said, "How about Nova Granada?"
"Sounds like an explosion on a white dwarf." Firebrandt's bushy eyebrows raised in unison.
Suki looked up at their arrival. "What sounds like an explosion on a white dwarf?"
"The name Roberts suggested for this continent," said Firebrandt. "He wants to call it Nova Granada. We decided to call the river Nuevo Rio Grande."
She smiled. "After the Rio Grande of Earth." She nodded approvingly.
"On the ancient Spanish maps, what we call New Mexico was then called Nova Granada," explained Roberts. "I happen to like the name."
"I do too." Suki's gaze swept the countryside. "It has a certain flair."
Firebrandt finally acquiesced. They built a fire as the stars began to appear. The captain and Suki sat, arm in arm, creating names for the new constellations they saw. Finally, they decided to set up watches while the others slept. So far, they hadn't encountered any potentially dangerous animals, but it wasn't worth the risk to find out if there were nocturnal predators. Suki took the first watch while Firebrandt and Roberts crawled into their sleeping bags.
* * * *

That first night in Nova Granada proved uneventful. Suki hadn't seen anything, but both Roberts and Firebrandt reported seeing nocturnal animals in the glow of the fire. The captain never got sick on the water.

Roberts and Suki spent the next several days testing plants in the area for poison. The soil tested good for growing Earth plants. Reed-like plants growing a short distance from the river proved to be a grain. "You know," said Roberts. "I think we could malt this grain and make an ale of sorts."

"You would need to find some yeast cultures for fermentation," commented Suki doubtfully.
"The admiral didn't take all the ale stores from the ship," said Roberts, brightening. "We can culture yeast from that."
"So we'd just need to get the cultures to be fruitful and multiply." Suki looked at Roberts. To her surprise, he blushed. "I've never seen you embarrassed, Carter."
He cleared his throat. "Let's check out that grove of fruit trees," he said to rapidly change the subject.
The stand of fruit trees was about three kilometers south of the ship. He was silent during the walk. When they arrived at the grove, Suki picked a fruit. It was slightly rubbery and purple. "It looks kind of like a pomegranate, but it feels a little like a citrus," she said.
Roberts nodded. He took the fruit from her, touching her hand slightly. She felt a slight thrill and watched him as he began cutting into the fruit. The fruit itself had much the texture of an apple, only it was red and juicier. He sat on the ground cross-legged and began testing for poison.
"Do you ever get lonely? Jealous perhaps?" asked Suki as she leaned against the tree. "Do you ever wish you had a woman here? It's such a lovely place to be with someone."
Roberts looked up, his brow wrinkled. "Do I ever get jealous of the captain, you mean?" He sat back. "Suki, you are a beautiful woman." She smiled warmly, knowing he never made an idle compliment. "However, I'm his first officer. I swore loyalty to that man nearly twenty years ago, when we first joined up aboard a privateer. We were only fifteen then, but I saw his potential. I knew he was going to be a captain."
Suki knelt down and took Roberts' hand. "There have been times in the past week when you've looked so lonely. I'm sure Ellison would be willing to consider a group arrangement."
Roberts laughed and squeezed Suki's hand. "Ellison Firebrandt may be my closest friend, but I have no desire to make him my sexual partner!"
Suki's hand moved up Roberts' forearm. She moved behind him and began stroking his neck and shoulder muscles. "That's not the only arrangement we could make." She kissed him lightly on the neck.
Roberts sighed. "Did he put you up to this?"
"No," said Suki, perhaps a little too quickly. She paused and took a deep breath, then moved around and sat facing him. "Ellison loves you in his own way, just as you love him. It wouldn't be in his nature to be jealous."
"I know that," he said, seriously. "Suki, you really are a beautiful woman and believe me, the offer is tempting. However, it's not right. Not now. Maybe in the future."
"I know most people are not comfortable with polyandrous relationships. But why wait?" She began to move closer to him.
Roberts sighed heavily. Seeing the look on his face, Suki stopped short. "When I was thirteen, I saw two men from the Coma Navy rape and murder my mother." His brown eyes glazed over slightly as he stared past a tree. "I yelled and got one of the bastards in the kidney with my pocket knife." His voice took on a razor sharp edge. "The other one grabbed me by my neck, threw me over his knee..." At that, his voice cracked. He rubbed his smooth head. "He scalped me," he said, his voice almost inaudible. He looked at the stump where a Coma hepler had removed his hand. His face turned ashen. "I don't know who found me or took me to the hospital." He leapt to his feet and turned away. Suki stood and put her hand on his shoulder.
Roberts took several deep shuddering breaths. "I simply can't think of sex without thinking of that day. I've tried to get around it, but I can't."
"I don't know what to say." Suki found her own voice trembling. "I ... I didn't know."
"Only Ellison Firebrandt knows. In a very real sense, I owe him my life. He's the one who gave me hope, who taught me that I could live with the memory." Roberts turned and faced Suki, again. "He gave me purpose. My life is the captain's."
Suki nodded and began to understand a little better. "Roberts, if anything happens to me, you'll take care of him, won't you?"
He smiled. "I have to. I only hope you do the same."
"Barbara Firebrandt was right, we both love Ellison and we're loyal to him to the death." She sat back, heavily.
"You love him, but you were worried your love would drive me away." He smiled admiringly. "I always knew you were the woman to be at Ellison's side."
"And you're the man to be there," she said. "But I didn't just do it for him. I find you a very attractive man. I would share your bed or—" she looked around "-a soft bed of grass, with you anytime."
Roberts leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She blinked several times, surprised. "Let our emotional relationship grow some, first," he said. "Then maybe I can get around this wall buried in my subconscious."
They stood slowly and made the hike back to the ship, holding hands.
* * * *

During that first week, Firebrandt began working on the graviton generator. He would occasionally scour the landscape where wreckage of the ship was scattered. He set up a makeshift scaffolding on one side of the ship. On it, he mounted the deck plate amplifiers.

Roberts noted that his captain seemed to be going out of his way to make work for himself. He tried to understand what was going on in Firebrandt's mind. His crew was gone. His ship lay as a virtually useless wreck. Survival had become a challenge. Even so, Firebrandt seemed unaffected.

Suki, on the other hand, knew exactly what was driving her friend and companion. He may have lost most of his crew, but two still did survive. As captain, he had to assure their survival. Like Roberts, she worried that if survival became easy, Firebrandt's energy and vitality may begin to whither.

After a week, the three survivors of
Legacy
never referred to the planet as anything other than Sufiro. They began eating some of the natural plants to supplement the ship's provisions. A few did make them sick, but most plants that did not test poisonous proved to be edible.

Firebrandt announced that his project was ready for testing. Roberts had an idea of what the captain was trying but Suki shook her head. "I still don't get it."

"I'm going to right the ship," announced Firebrandt with a quiet flair.
"But the generator and amplifiers are only designed to simulate Earth gravity." Suki shook her head. "Sufiro has slightly higher gravity. How can you right the ship?"
"I've boosted the power output of the amplifiers," he explained. "They will now generate a larger gravitational field than the one of the planet. When the ship rolls most of the way to right, I'll cut power."
"You'll burn out the graviton generator again," complained Suki.
"What other use do we have for a graviton generator on this planet?" The captain shrugged.
He activated the switch on a small clipboard-sized control pad. The ship shivered and quaked. It finally began to roll toward the graviton amplifiers. The captain touched the pad and turned off the amplifiers. The ship rolled over atop the equipment and smashed the scaffolding. Sparks flew from the generators. "I guess I got it a little too close," Firebrandt mused.
Still, he had managed to right the ship, with the deck parallel to the ground. Neither Suki nor Roberts could help themselves; they applauded. Roberts' good hand pounded his knee as enthusiastically as any two hands coming together. The captain took a bow, then winked at Roberts. "I think you may just have answered an age-old question."
"And that is?" asked Roberts.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
"So," asked Roberts, with a vaguely annoyed look, "why did you right the ship? I mean, there was no real reason, as far as I can see. We got in and out, and had access to our food and supplies."
"That's why I'm the captain," said Firebrandt, smugly. "You're thinking short-term. Now that we have found food and know that we can survive here for some time, I'm looking at creating a home."
"In the ship?" Suki gazed in wonder.
"The ship's just a starting point." The captain glanced back toward his handiwork. "We can build around the ship. But we have bedrooms and a kitchen aboard ship, so why not use them?"
"There's no power to the ship anymore," protested Roberts.
"There's no more fuel," corrected Firebrandt. "There's plenty of power." He pointed to the Nuevo Rio Grande. "It'll just take a little bit of work to get it connected." Again, he looked back at the gaping hole, now in the side of the ship. "First we should try to get that hole dealt with, to keep the animals out."
Suki and Roberts nodded. Most of the animals they had encountered on Sufiro seemed frightened of humans. However, some were interested in tasting human food, just as humans were interested in tasting their food. While most of the animals looked reptilian, many did not have scales. In Roberts' and Suki's exploration, they never found any eggs. The largest animal they saw was a "reptile" that looked like a monitor lizard about the size of a terrier. It was obviously predatory as it hunted the furry flying creatures that flitted around the river.
Firebrandt had an extensive library aboard the ship. As he dusted off fallen books and put them back on their shelves, he searched for a way to build a house with the materials on hand. Originally, he thought of a wooden house.
Unfortunately, there were not enough trees to build both supports and walls. He found the answer in a book about the Pueblo Indians of Earth.
The captain and Suki found shovels and began digging up large piles of sand around the ship. The grain size of the sand was sufficiently small that it made good mud. The high grass, when dried made good straw. They started making adobe bricks. There was a slight axial tilt to the planet, so there would be seasons. Fortunately they knew from Roberts' scans, taken before they crashed, that winter was a long way off. The three decided that a mansion was in order. They began laying out the first layer of adobe bricks, devising a floor plan.
There was an abundance of trees along the river at various places. They began chopping, using laser cutting equipment they had aboard the ship. They formed the trees into supports. Scattered Erdonium from the ship was collected for roofing and floor material.
The next two months were busy. Suki made bricks throughout the day. Firebrandt lay and mortared the bricks in place. Meanwhile, Roberts worked out a scheme for anchoring the adobe structure to the ship. After the first level was completed, they put in an Erdonium floor and began the second story. When it was finished, the three stood back and examined their work.
Legacy
had once been long, black and sleek. She had jumped from star to star with ease. Now, the cylindrical ship sat scarred and matted with what appeared to be a two-story, mud-colored growth protruding from its side. "It's not pretty," said Firebrandt, "but it's home."
"I think it's beautiful." Suki stared at the homestead, lovingly.
Next, construction began on a water wheel. They made the wheel and the supports, referencing books in Firebrandt's library. They connected the wheel to a shaft and gears. As they worked, the last of the battery power on the ship waned. The hardest part of the wheel construction was unloading the ship's electrical turbine and hauling it down the hill. Using logs, they did their best to roll it.
"It's too bad the graviton amplifiers were destroyed," grumbled Roberts. Firebrandt was forced to agree.
They connected the water wheel to the turbine. As it turned, Roberts checked the output with a meter. It produced ample electricity. The three cheered. As they stood, congratulating themselves, they noticed that the wind was cooler than normal. Autumn had arrived. Roberts had been charting the sunset along the horizon. Indeed, it was moving noticeably south and setting earlier each day.
They began construction of an adobe structure to house the turbine. Next, they used their hand lasers and dug a trench to the ship. They lay wires and covered the trench. The ship had electric power the night the first snow fell on the humans of Sufiro.
Electric heat supplemented the wood-burning fireplace in the adobe part of the structure. Firebrandt and Suki nestled on a couch they had pulled out of his quarters. Roberts read by the fire. They were secure with food stocked in the hold. They still had the ship's stores as well as a large supply of fruit and vegetables they had acquired from the countryside. * * * *