Chapter 18

Our newcomers were quickly integrated into the community -- and into the work force. We had developed the habit of sending two- and three-person groups out on foraging expeditions on a regular basis, seeking to replenish supplies of food, bottled water, fuel for cooking and for running small machinery aboard ship, and the like.

Dr. Montoya had urgent requests for a variety of medical supplies. Since he knew well where to find what he needed, he usually participated in these expeditions himself.

Umberto Gomez suggested, early-on, that we needed ship-to-shore communications for these trips away from the ship. He and his foraging partners soon had secured us top-of-the-line battery-operated walkie-talkies, suitable for keeping in touch, at least at short-range, with our people when they left the protection of the ship.

Martin Kazner, operating from the radio room in his wheelchair, served as "dispatcher" during all the expeditions. He would keep in regular contact with our people, relaying questions that arose about desirable "finds" and assuring continuing security liaison with our foragers. Martin also helped me with our continuing evening short-wave broadcasts, as did Uncle Harry.

Almost everyone -- men and women alike -- participated in the field excursions. They were an interesting diversion from our lives aboard ship. Constantly finding dead bodies everywhere was a significant downside, but almost all of us still were eager to participate. It was necessary work, it was often absorbing, and it gave us a chance to interact in small groups. Nobody was forced to go out, but the alternative duties aboard ship were frequently less interesting and consisted more of plain-old boring labor.

The foraging was, increasingly, organized and controlled. It was a poorly kept secret that sometimes our co-ed foraging teams had combined "shore leave" sexual hi-jinks with their work efforts. Ingmar said nothing to discourage this, but lately his work assignments frequently seemed to involve three people when two might have done as well, and I thought I saw a pattern of combining "odd couples" who were, perhaps, less likely to engage in sexual play away from the ship.

Making the offbeat assignments wasn't a universal practice, and it was accomplished with sufficient subtlety that nobody ever quite felt certain enough about it to raise a direct challenge.

But if Ingmar's objective was to cut down on the horseplay, he was probably succeeding.

Dr. Montoya suggested, at a regular group meeting ten days after his group's arrival, that we might want to start planning to establish a land-based community. "This ship won't accommodate very many more people," he said, "and I've heard Ingmar say this is as big a vessel as he wants to try to take to sea."

"There would be greater security problems ashore, wouldn't there?" Avril Scott asked. "At least, here on the ship, we've got a water barrier, and attackers would have trouble, just getting aboard."

"I have been thinking about this," Dr. Montoya told us. "What Avril says about security is true, but we all know that, eventually, we will have to go ashore to make this society work, long-term. What about -- a hospital?"

"What about a hospital?" Roald asked. "I'm not following."

"Think about it," Montoya said. "A hospital has ample medical supplies and equipment. Lots of beds. Storage areas. Hospitals have excellent, powerful back-up generators used to keep the power supply going when the main generators fail. Were we to find a building with good generators, we could adapt them for our use as our regular power source."

"What about defensibility?" Ingmar asked.

"We would need to find a place with open space around it," Montoya said. "Possibly a rural area, even. Ideally, there would be close proximity to farm land, and the potentiality of growing our own food nearby."

"But close enough to big cities for foraging," I said.

"Yes. Foraging will remain a way of life for us, for a long time," Dr. Montoya agreed. "But, increasingly, it will diminish in importance. Greater self-sufficiency, at some point, will become essential."

"Hospitals -- they're going to be full of dead people," Raymond Pryor offered.

"True. And that's a substantial drawback. But in a hospital, the dead can be removed, beds-and-all, and the place reconditioned to accommodate the living. We would have to invest more of our resources in security, it's true. But such a building would accommodate a variety of vehicles for our use, and would have a fully-equipped kitchen, and a laboratory -- many of the things we have a repeated need for, and inadequate resources for, here on board ship."

"All right," Ingmar said. "We'll give it serious consideration. Dr. Montoya, you're the chairman. I'd like Brenda, Emily, you, Raymond, and Carter to join in studying this idea. You can look at some maps, try to guess where the best location might be. And you can send out a party to explore."

"Carter perhaps should not be included in such a party," Dr. Montoya said. "As some of you know, there is a possibility that Carter is -- more susceptible -- to infection from remnants of the Virus than are the rest of us. He must avoid contact with the dead bodies, whenever possible."