Chapter 16: Girls, Wives and Others: Many, <i>Many</i> Others

When Ty, Mila and the others returned, they were essentially besieged. The girls and the returnees tried their best to shield him, well-aware of how much crowds bothered him. Yet those seeking his attention weren’t easily dissuaded.

“Ty, we have so much to tell you!” “You’ll never believe what we’ve accomplished during your absence!” “We owe you our lives and we’re eager to help you in any way we can!” The questions posed overlapped, until there was no discerning one from another.

“Hold on?” he pleaded, holding up his right hand, his traditional signal to back off or freeze, to no avail. Frustrated, he turned, commanding, “Tigger, SPEAK!”

The loud roar of the terrifying and fearsome beast froze everyone—and probably a few either wet or beshat themselves, many both.

“Now, quietly,” he soothed, in a quiet tone, “respond only when I point to you,” he instructed, pointed at the first to speak when he first arrived.

“Uh ... never mind,” the woman said, “It can wait.”

“Speak!” he insisted, his rise rising.

“We ... we’ve achieved so much since you left. We’re, eager to tell you, but again, it can wait.”

“Anna, raise your hand. Please tell Anna and she’ll convey what’s essential, as well as helping you herself.” He pointed out someone else. “Next!”

“I, I wanted to know how I can best help, but I’ll talk to Anna about it.”

“If she’s busy, try Tanya, standing beside her. Next.”

They then made steadier progress than everyone shouting questions at once. Once they’d addressed the various issues, Ty actually learned a fair amount he hadn’t already. Everyone was eager to contribute, whether already knowing how, just wanting to help in some way or had a particularly useful skill. And whatever they knew, they’d likely teach the others too, working for everyone’s mutual benefit.

“Nicely done,” Till said, sidling up to him.

“It’s all about redirecting, prioritizing and organizing people. They’re all eager to assist, they just don’t know how to, yet. By refocusing them, I allow those who know to teach the others, helping everyone. The more who know, the more that can.” He then turned, considering her, leveling her with his most intimidating glare.

“Your new task is figuring out specific tasks for everyone, aside from learning how to defend themselves and the tribe, I want everyone learning specific tasks, so we can distribute our knowledge, protecting us from losing anyone essential. For instance, I’m sure Mila could use some assistants to help review everyone’s health issues.”

She beamed, saluting. “I’m on it, Boss!”

“Great, as there’s plenty of people to organize. And don’t be afraid to delegate. Pick whoever you need, give them a specific task and let them prove their value. Once they prove themselves, we’ll further increase their responsibilities, allowing them to grow into the job.”

“Aye-aye!” she happily responded.

“This is a village organization effort, as such, it’s non-military, though the responsibilities will likely overlap over time.”

“I’ll instruct them where appropriate, Sir.”

“You do that.” They both smirked at each other and he turned to the side. “Methinks it’s time for yet another feast,” he called out. “I’ll start the fire, someone bring me some meat to grill.”

“And I’ll locate some chefs for you to train,” Till suggested.

“We likely already have a few cooks, so make it a mixed set: newbies and old-hands. We need several cross-trained, so they can fill in for each other or specialize.”

“I can help, especially with the women,” Li-Odli, the Tillar Chief’s wife offered, “though I’d appreciate working with the men as well. I’ve watched my husband screw things up enough, I know what to avoid and figuring out the rest on my own.”

“Done,” Ty responded. “Work with the others splitting the tasks.”

“Uh,” Beks said, shifting uneasily a few yards away. “Any idea on when we can start plowing?”

“Soon. But again, meet with Till and let her locate some help. It’ll be hard, tedious work, so the more working, the better for everyone. Plus, once they’ve learned, we’ll choose a dedicated farm crew.” He turned. “We need someone to gather dried wood for a fire and spread out, so we don’t make them harder to find.”

They soon had a wide variety of people engaged in various activities. Ty was again pleased, washing his hands of a few more tasks with minimal effort.

Once again, things change, as he was no longer doing everything himself, with a few adaptable, trainable girls lending a hand. Now, it was time to pass the reins to others. With each then further leading things, this aspect of his life having a life of its own, independent of him. He could now focus on other things.

He now only needed to determine what it was. Training, like on Earth, no longer seemed sufficient. Acting as an unofficial diplomat, traveling to still unknown villages and creating a new empire, one town at a time, unlike politicians, achieving everything via raw power, inevitably tearing everything apart every alternate election.

Striking out on their own, seeing where this land fit into his knowledge of the future planet and possibly discovering all-new resources, an erasable prospector no one else can stand. Or, something else. Collecting new exotic animals not really an option, especially once he died.

Yet as Beks mentioned, his biggest responsibility lay in establishing agriculture and feeding these, his people, for the next millennium. That sounded more his style, at least until he again passed it onto someone else, yet again trying something new. That approach also providing these and others after them, ever more opportunities.

For now, he just had to bide his time, constraining his restlessness long enough to accomplish it.

“Okay, Beks,” he began, approaching the girls on the morrow, after a feast where the meal turned out just as fatty as intended and more delicious than ever. Ty was sure he’d converted everyone here to properly cooking their food, though they still needed to train more how to cook themselves. Having a local sous chef everyone rely on certainly wouldn’t hurt the community. “It’s time to put Biscuit to work and start clearing some ground, so we can begin plowing fore long.”

He waved Till in to join then. “Have you found anyone to help, either guiding Biscuit, moving the heavy boulders or eventually plowing the field. Whoever volunteers, will have a lifelong occupation feeding not only our village, but allowing it grow significantly over time. After all, man does not live by meat alone. We’ll also need people to help collect useful plants we can plant, cultivate and grow.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few, a mix of men of women, not boys and girls, your wives notwithstanding. Between them, we’ll get the job done.”

“Good, we’ll use our longer spears as prybars, hoping we won’t shatter them. Though if we do, they can always be replaced as we train more people how to prepare them. More hands, more work, across the board.”

Till cocked her head. “I thought you didn’t want to let anyone know where you get the spears from?”

“Strangers, yes. But it’s in the interest of those working for us to keep our secrets. Not just cause we’re cute, but because no one else is growing nearly as fast as we are, so there’s little point is selling our secrets to anyone else. But a necessary component is providing these new workers with heavier working poles, as opposed of actual spears, to separate the different uses. Everyone should know how to defend us, yet not everyone needs to be a hunter/fighter.

“Now Beks, let’s get to work. This’ll take considerable time and the more often we take breaks, the shorter it’ll take.”

As anticipated, it too quite a while. After getting Biscuit rigged to the humongous plow—cast to suit his stature—they struck rock almost immediately. It then took some time digging it out, using their spears as levers, while the others scrapped out the dirt. They’d then use the spears to dig deeper, before using them to finagle the boulder, loosening it further. Finally, they got several to push, while other’s leveled it, while yet more dug.

After twenty minutes or so of heavy, sweaty work, they were able to leverage the boulder out, finally awkwardly rolled it aside. The first of many, as Ty anticipated.

The next wasn’t any better, yet everyone slowly acclimated to the process, and with the canteens, they posssessed plenty of water, which helped. They made steadier progress afterwards, working together as a unit, anticipating each other’s actions.

It was still wearying, exhausting work, yet as expected, the heavier boulders were mostly congregated together. So after clearing a few, the rest were easier as they made greater progress before eventually hitting the next few. Ty began wishing he knew the recipe for dynamite, before putting it aside. Progress made, pointless, hollow dreams deferred.

Frustrated, Ty sent the others out to gather and weave the vines together, before employing Biscuit in the task, easing the time required to move the boulders, though it also requiring more time. Unhooking him from the plow to help unearth boulders, before reconnecting him and beginning again. At the end of the day, they were exhausted, only covering a small portion of the field. Still, it was significant steady progress, well and honestly earned. Biscuit especially appreciated the work, after being restricted for so long.

Tomorrow was another day and apparently, they had new people to relive those exhausted or heavily blistered today.

The next day was similar, yet everyone fell into an established pattern, saving their greatest efforts for when it most mattered, rather than powering though each task though sheer force of will. For most, unable to do much besides eking out a meager existence, never developing a work ethic. Now, they embraced it.

The day began easily enough, as they were again past the major concentrations of buried boulders. However Dr. Mila insisted on checking everyone, either treating or refusing to allow them to continue due to work-related injuries. As she did so, Ty spent time with the others.

Tanya faced him, observing his reactions. “Mila concurred with your observations, discovering everyone here is incredibly healthy considering the timeframe and lack of proper medications. So she’s now accepting your nano-bot theory. Though now she’s worried how long before you exhaust your supply. She’d like to test you, but doesn’t know how.”

“Yeah, I can see how it’d be problematic. Without something as simple as a microscope, it’d be impossible, aside from making simple, crude statistical observations. Though, if they’re actually nana-bots, by definition they’d be too miniscule to observe with anything other than an electron microscope.”

“How so?’ she inquired, intrigued.

“Since the nano-bots are located in actual living cells, they’re sub-atomic, slipping into each cell with the water they absorb and begin a self-regeneration cycle, where each cell begins producing more of them to replace those which naturally die off or decrease in effectiveness.”

“That’s fascinating, but ... if you’ve forgotten everything, how the hell do you know this technological gibberish?”

“As before, it’s general knowledge, even if highly specialized. What I can’t recall is where I learned it. In school? Given my background, I seriously doubt it was part of my training. It’s entirely possible I learned it as part of this assignment, though that’s doubtful given how much we forget and how it appears no one planned for that particular effect.

“My only guess is it’s something I was fascinated in and started paying attention to. Then, whoever sent us back likely selected me because I was so familiar with the topic. As I was thus better qualified than anyone else.”

“Except you’re no science nerd, by any account.”

“Though, why do I remember so many esoteric engineering, biological and training methods? Clearly, despite my more humble ‘soldier-in-the-trenches’ background, I was surprisingly well-trained across an expanse of different fields.”

“Yeah, I’ll definitely give you that, as your explanation is better than any I would’ve guessed. Sorry, but I can’t picture you as a scholastic intellectual. You’re too much a ‘common’, down-in-the-dirt man of the world.”

“Am I?” he poised. “Or was it part of my mission, disappearing and then reappearing in another area of the world to start nosing around foreign research compounds? Figuring out what they were up to and if they were suspect, sabotaging them or calling in specifically targeted bombing runs.”

“Again, you make a surprisingly convincing case for someone who can’t remember his past. Thus, you may be right,” she countered, “yet could also be dead wrong. Either is a hunch and little else.

“Either way, I’ll need to gather the women and discuss these ideas, seeing what we can make of them.”

“Yeah,” he teased, “I can see Tiss and Lor weighing in. Though Beks will probably enjoy arguing, whatever perspective she arbitrarily chooses.”

“Stop it!” she playfully slapped him. “But still, don’t underestimate those girls. They may not know quite what we do, yet they still follow everything we’ve explained. There’re no dummies They may not have our formal education, yet they’re all exceptionally quick studies.”

“And again, if I’m breathing out these nano-bots, they’ve spent more time near me, breathing in more of them than anyone else. That has to have an influence and I think the results are fairly obvious.”

“I see what your sister says about you, always having a response to anything, needing to keep a step ahead of everyone else.”

“It’s not a need to keep ahead of anyone, instead I need to keep ahead of whoever we’re currently unaware of, anticipating unexpected attacks from other directions.”

“That’s another thing Mila observed. Your mind is always spinning, generating few pleasures. If anything, your fears consume you. Yet, like yesterday and today, getting down and doing physically exhausting work, seems to leave you more satisfied than sleeping with each of your wives.

“By the way,” Tanya continued, “I’ve spoken to them, so expect a nocturnal visit soon. They’ve approved, as you requested I ask. With luck, I may be joining them long term, and Anna’s likely to join us too.”

“If it works out, I couldn’t be more pleased. Though, I prefer you and the other returnees acting as a safe-guard, watching and questioning my actions. Since the girls don’t know what to watch for, you’re responsible for everything they’ll never notice.”

“What we notice is you’re more satisfied as a stinky sweaty mess, covered in dirt and filth, so have at it. Let’s see how many boulders you can personally move today, while we sit back, observing your rippling biceps and six-pack abs. For an old man, you still have quite the body.”

Standing, he faced her before moving away. “You know, if you did join us, breathing in the air I exhale and exposed to my sweat, you’d likely earn the same physical benefits—either directly though good honest effort or indirectly due to my nano-bots.”

She considered it for half a second. “Damn you, you’re right. Besides, if I’m hoping to marry you, I’ll need to be by your side no matter what stupid things you undertake. You’re on, though I’ll mainly concentrate on bringing everyone water, rather than exhausting myself.”

“Let’s put it this way,” he playfully leered, to Anna’s and the others’ twittering, “you’ll either be sweating by my side or under me. You can pick your preference, but I think a combination of the two is best.”

“Damn you, you’re right again!” she sighed, standing and peeling off her top, ready to get down and dirty with him and his many, younger, workers. Her face aglow, her expression beaming and her nipples taunt.

As she noted, the oft exhausting efforts proved more rewarding than the analytic ones. However, they finally figured out alternating the brute force of Biscuit’s efforts with the counter of Tigger’s pulling the rocks from an alternate direction. Accompanied by Biscuit’s chuffs and Tigger’s low, intimidating growls. As usual, the most obvious direction isn’t the most direct.

Again they made progress, though it was unsteady. The earlier volunteers were replaced by all-new volunteers, who having heard of Ty’s crowd issues, merely waved and smiled as they worked together. He was fine with that. He always preferred being a teammate rather than a leader.

After a while, Mila confronted him. “During a break, Tanya told me about your nano-bot theory. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but how can we confirm it?”

He smirked. “Frankly, like this, with you and I openly discussing it.” Both brows raising at his declaration. “We’re convinced those who sent us here, are regularly monitoring us. How else would they know so precisely how long I was gone on each trek or the specific day I return? And once I encountered Biscuit, and suggested how useful a plow would be, one perfectly crafted for his precise size showed up. Trust me, that’s no accident.”