Chapter 20

I'd like to say that things were quiet for a while after that now famous trip to DC but Beth's giving birth was just the first of my pregnant wives. Over the next two months Fran, Prissy and finally Sam gave birth. Rebecca was followed five days later by Fran's little Ann. Just when I thought I would have nothing but girls Prissy gave birth to twin boys. Against my better judgment I gave in to Prissy who wanted their names to be Thomas and Jefferson after me. I turned out to be right when less than two weeks had gone by and they were being called Jr. and Jeff.

That left Sam, and two weeks after Prissy, and a bit early, she gave birth to Samantha. Before little Sam was a week old our next door neighbour Red Hawk had nicknamed her Little Bird with Big Voice. A name she earned and maintained any time she was displeased. Usually she was the first to squawk but never the last. Before she had finished she was leading a chorus of crying. I learned very quickly that more than one mother-in-law was not the only punishment for bigamy. I had only one mother-in-law, but five crying babies more than made up for it.

We continued to have problems with some of the Pawnee. I say some because many of the women who had been widowed after their husbands tangled with our troopers had, with their children, joined us. They had even been joined by a few of the braves who disagreed with the warring councils of the Pawnee.

But life wasn't all roses. It was an early morning in late April when the alarm sounded. We'd had severe weather several times that spring, enough so that we had started building a few storm shelters; far too few as it turned out. We had just made it into the hospital shelter with the kids and the three wounded from the hospital when it hit. We were all safe save for Mia. She was spending the night with her mother who was suffering from a bad case of the flu.

Narith's people had been very good to us. At the same time they insisted we learn on our own. Doppler radar was not something we had got around to. It was only at the last moment that the warning went out for something that had not been seen much at this time. That was a mile wide tornado. Back in my old time it would have been called an F5, but for now all it could be called was disaster.

Our house was badly damaged but thankfully the hospital was untouched. I wanted to go check on Mia but the flood of wounded prevented that from happening. Mae's aversion to being the doctor in charge was buried in the flood of wounded and dying that came into the hospital. Sam, Fran, and Beth were attempting to do triage — I say attempting because in practice all they were doing was first aid until the next badly wounded person came in, and boy howdy did they come in.

The size of the town around the fort had exploded as it had found itself the de facto capital of the Band. Unfortunately that explosion of building had been in the traditional wooden construction of the 1850's. In an F5 tornado wooden buildings are nothing more than raw material for making wooden missiles. Missiles from tooth pick size all the way up to the house itself.

Quite frankly I didn't have the time or inclination to think about it. I had more than plenty to do. There seemed to be a never ending stream of injured. Red Hand, Elizabeth, and Mom brought in their neighbours and stayed to help. It was sorely needed. The clock slowly marched steadily towards dawn and still the injured and maimed flowed through our tiny hospital. Around 0500 it seemed that we were getting caught up, but with the first light of dawn a new wave of wounded.

A bruised and bloody Red Hawk came in carrying Fanny. I thought she was tied to a board when I first looked at her, but then Red Hawk moved the tail of her buckskin shirt. Then I saw the piece of a board that had pierced her abdomen. Fanny was nailed to the board that Red Hawk was holding. About that same time I realised that Red Hawk was in shock. Beth and Jana wrestled the board and Fanny away from Red Hawk and got her into a stasis field. Prissy and Sam took the shell shocked leader and started examining him. It was late the next day before we knew for sure that Fanny would survive.

It was 1600 before we had a chance to go out and see all the damage done by the tornado, and boy was it bad. Two hundred and twenty three of our friends lost their lives. Those deaths were tragic but there were two additional deaths that hit closer to home. Mia and her mother were found the day after the storm hit. The small house that Mia's mother had lived in had been completely destroyed, leaving no trace that it had ever existed. Mia and her mother were found over two miles away by one of our patrols. So like so many of our friends we buried our dead and mourned

Most of the town was a splintered mess, so for the rest of the spring we rebuilt, but it did give me an idea. I had always believed that it was foolish at best to build above ground houses in this part of the country. It didn't take anywhere near as much convincing as I thought it would. It seems that the long time residents had seen more than enough twisters in the past three years. They knew that the underground houses would be far and away safer than any above ground structure. I think they were just hoping for some of our, well actually Narith's, technology to make it easier. I had to smile; from now on we would live like Hobbits.

Many of the new immigrants to Freeland found the idea of living underground a bit strange. But seeing how the borders of Freeland and the area of North America known as the "Tornado Alley" were basically the same, it wasn't that hard of a sell and after one good thunderstorm they were usually plumb tickled.

We wondered if word had got out about our little disaster. That question was answered on the fifth of May. One of our helicopter scouts reported that a very large group of men estimated to be between five and six thousand were gathering on the other side of our border and it appeared they were intent on attacking.

The first thing we did was to assign everyone that could write to write a letter asking if the men had written a last letter to their families and for them to let their widows and orphans that they were welcome to come and live with us. These letters were dropped from five low flying helicopters. Red Hawk sent an emissary with an official letter to President Polk.

Since he had no knowledge that we were about to be attacked he was outraged and asked our Emissary to take him to see the men in question. The Emissary along with President Polk and three of his top military advisors lifted off for the long ride back to Freeland.

They had been in the air four hours when the men in question began to cross the river into Freeland. We had no desire for a blood bath so Red Hawk ordered the alien supplied stunners to maximum. Our troopers were spread out all along the ridge above the river. We had hoped that if we made a show of force it would make them back down. The letters had caused some desertions but the enemy still numbered over five thousand. They spread out and prepared to charge. As soon as they started forward Red Hawk ordered our troops to fire the stunners.

With them at maximum and at the distance we were from them it got men, horses, and all. While they were unconscious we went down and took everything they had. The horses being bigger were the first to come to so we led them back over the hill. When the men came to they found themselves, surrounded, unarmed, afoot and buck naked. By the time we had stripped most of the men President Polk landed and he and Red Hawk walked over to the shade of a cottonwood tree and talked for over an hour. When they finished they called for horses and rode over to group of naked men.

"I am Red Hawk leader of the people of Freeland. This is President Polk leader of the United States. Who are you people and why were you attacking us?"

There were a bunch of angry shouts before the three men that we already knew to be the leaders came forward. Not bothering to introduce himself one of the three shouted back, "We came to get the slaves that came here."

Red Hawk shook his head, "We do not have any slaves in Freeland."

"That's bullshit I can see at least a dozen niggers behind you!" the man shouted as he pointed at the line of troopers.

Red Hawk turned in the saddle and motioned for the troopers in question to come forward. While they were coming forward President Polk cleared his throat to draw attention, "You men have broken federal law The United States government does not recognise private armies. These Freeland Troopers along with their companies will be escorting you men to the Marshal in Independence."