Chapter 20: Did She Say Why?

Shadow touched down and I was out of the hatch in a flash and jogging over to the hangar. Inside I could hear shouting coming from our patient. I entered the medical tent and found Ana crouched behind the procedure table and holding a sharp instrument probe. One of the mobile units was tipped on its side in front of the table and appeared damaged. Ana was looking at me wide eyed, so I stopped and held my hands palm up towards her.

“Easy there Ana. You are safe. I won’t hurt you,” I said calmly. I could hear Agent begin speaking Portuguese translating what I said. She began speaking back to him while shaking her head.

“Do we have any clothing for her? I asked.

“Yes, there are garments sized to fit Ana waiting in the crate by the hanger door, John”

I went and got the crate and returned, setting it on the floor and slowly opening it. I held up a pair of pants to show her the contents and then pushed the crate over towards the table. I then left the medical tent to give her privacy to change. I returned to the power kite hangar to where my sleeping chamber had been set up and noticed that there was a new chamber constructed in the hangar opposite the toilet and bathing room. It looked like Agent had been busy preparing a room for Ana.

I took a quick shower to wash the remains of my camping trip away and changed into a fresh set of clothing. Agent had asked me to select my meals a few hours beforehand so there would be time to prepare everything, so I spent a moment considering supper. I wonder if she could make a decent fried chicken. I gambled and opted to include potato salad and biscuits. I added a couple slices of key lime pie for dessert thinking that Ana would probably enjoy the sugary tart taste.

I then left the hangar. The clouds were closing in and it looked like rain would begin falling soon so I stood nearby the entrance. Ana had dressed and had left the first hangar and was walking around the parked aircraft looking them over and occasionally gesturing. I noticed that she was wearing a pair of googles and must have been involved in an animated discussion with Agent.

Occasionally she would look my way keeping track of where I was. I noticed that she was also carrying her makeshift machete tied to the waist of her pants. After a bit, it began to rain, and she jogged awkwardly towards me. I stepped back inside the hangar and took a seat on a crate by the living area. She looked around the hangar a bit, noticed the temporary rooms and went to inspect them.

Agent must have been instructing her who the rooms were for because she ignored my room and only investigated the bathroom chamber and her sleeping tent. When she returned from her tent, I hoisted the beer I was drinking and pointed at the cooler. She thought for a moment but shook her head. She sat on another crate and we just sat there looking at each other. Eventually, she began to speak in Portuguese looking at me as she did.

“Your machine told me your name is John and that you traveled down to the Amazon from America to rescue me. Thank you, John.” Agent’s translation sounded in my headband. Agent had even modulated the voice to be a bit higher to separate it from its normal voice and closer to Ana’s.

“You are welcome. Are you feeling better? Recovered from your injuries?” I asked.

“Yes, thank you. I feel well enough although I am a bit unsteady. Your machine says that it will take a few days for my legs to respond as they once did.”

She then ignored me for a moment and engaged in a few sentences with Agent. Soon a mobile unit came into the hanger with a small container of fresh fruit. Ana waited until it had left before looking over the fruit and choosing a banana and a papaya. She ate the fruit while still having a conversation with Agent. I could tell that she was very upset and occasionally had to wipe tears from her face. She eventually started speaking towards me again.

“I would like to bathe; would you please leave the hangar while I do so?”

I nodded and grabbed my wide brimmed hat and left the hangar.

“John, would you assist in loading supplies and portable energy storage units into the Raptor?” Agent asked.

I walked over to Raptor where a mule had just pulled up with two ESUs. I smiled when I saw that on the mule was also a new two wheeled dolly! Agent had remembered, but as she was a machine I’d be screwed if she hadn’t. I helped attach the crane hook to the cylinders to lower them to the ground. When four were gathered, I used the dolly and wheeled them up the ramp and into the cargo hold.

“Shall I install these into the sockets?”

“No, the ESUs already socketed are mostly energized, these are spares. Please secure them with tethers,” Agent answered.

We must be already getting the aircraft ready for the relocation trip. I worked for an hour and we loaded a total of eight ESUs onto Shadow and Raptor but only six in Raven and Flipper. I assumed this meant that Ana would be riding in Raven while I rode in Flipper. After the ESUs were moved, I assisted Agent as we extended long umbilicals from the power junction in the kite hangar building to each aircraft. These would recharge any partially depleted ESUs and ensure they were returned to full capacity.

“Thank you, John. Mobile units will load the remaining crates into the aircraft.”

I returned to the hangar, pausing a bit at the door before entering. The bathroom chamber door was open which meant Ana must have been in her sleeping chamber. It was 16:20 and when I asked, Agent said that supper would be brought up at 17:00. I took a quick shower and found some clean shorts and a shirt and went back out into the hanger. I made a table out of a few larger crates and brought my chair out of my sleeping chamber. Soon, a mobile unit delivered a metal serving box and a crate of utensils.

I noticed that there were other items in the box besides my chicken and potato salad and figured that Ana had placed an order also. I grabbed a container of juice and fixed myself a plate of chicken and potato salad and buttered a warm biscuit. I asked agent to let Ana know that the food was delivered and was informed that she had been told. In a few minutes, she left her sleeping tent and hesitantly joined me at the table. She made up a plate for herself which included a steamed root of some sort. I pointed at the root and shrugged.

“Manioc,” she said.

“It is a tuber similar to Cassava and is a dietary starch similar to potatoes,” Agent explained.

I nodded and offered up some of my chicken. She looked at me for a bit before taking a medium sized piece, nodding thanks as she did so. We both resumed eating. I noticed that she was very attractive and that the shower had done her wonders. Her spiky short hair was neat and trimmed and although she was not wearing makeup, her face had a fresh clean glow.

“Agent did a pretty good job getting the flavors right this time,” I said, trying to break the silence.

Agent understood that I meant that towards Ana and started speaking to her in Portuguese. She listened and then nodded towards me, although her expression led me to believe that she did not agree. She had picked at her tuber and had finished just half when I started on the pie. I slid the second piece over to her which caused her to speak an obvious question. Agent must have explained what flavor the pie was because she took a small bit with her fork. Her eyes widened and a hint of a smile appeared as she continued eating the pie.

After the meal was finished and the dishes taken away, I tried to engage her in more talk, but her answers were always short. The sun had set, and I sat on a crate in the open hanger door sipping a beer, watching the twilight deepen. Ana had gone for a walk around the aircraft landing area working the kinks out of her repaired spine. She even started doing light calisthenics which caused me more than a bit of guilt. After a short hour of exercise, she reentered the hangar and went to her sleeping room and closed the door. I could hear her talking with Agent, sometimes with clear angry tones. I went to my sleeping room and lay for a while, listening to music, eventually falling asleep.

I awoke on my bed still dressed at around 3:00. I extinguished the light which had been left on and in the darkness, got up and undressed fully. I had to use the bathroom and when I returned to my sleeping room, I noticed that Ana’s door was closing. She must have heard me moving about and got up to see what I was doing. Either living in the jungle had made her a very light and cautious sleeper or she had demons in her past. The sun was up when I awoke a second time. I got up and used the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready for the day. I noticed that Ana had already gotten up and was gone from the hangar.

I dressed and found a new food box had been delivered with toast, eggs, and a meat patty. Agent informed me that Ana had already eaten and was out loading cargo onto the aircraft. I ate my breakfast and went to see what I could do to help. Agent had a mule’s worth of crates near Flipper and more by Raptor and Raven. I loaded the crates onto Flipper and noted that they were the standard travel gear ... camping supplies and other emergency survival items in case the aircraft went down.

I then went over to Raptor and Raven. Agent had pulled up a mule and parked it below Raven’s port lift fan and I saw another mule driving towards us with what looked like a new lift fan motor.

“John, would you assist the mobile unit in replacing the port lift fan on Raven. The existing motor was showing signs of imminent failure.”

I spent the next two hours playing aircraft mechanic which, I had to admit, was fun and interesting. What surprised me was the lack of nuts and bolts. Most of the parts were glued into place and to remove them, the correct solvent had to be applied to the correct spots. Also, there was little wiring with the power and circuit paths being printed on the surface of or integral to the parts.

I suppose that when you can print or create parts as needed, there are few subassemblies as everything is produced simultaneously. Ana wandered over to watch about midway through the process, although she mostly sat quietly in the shade of a wing. She occasionally spoke to Agent but that was not translated so it must have not been meant for me to hear.

When the lift fan replacement was complete, I saw that she had returned to Raptor and was excitedly talking to Agent while loading more cargo from the mule. I went to help and noticed the cargo was a very complicated looking device about the size of a large washing machine. It had a crystal-clear hatch and appeared to have a large interior tank of some sort. I asked Agent what this was.

“John, the unit is similar to a medical crèche but instead of bio-suspension, it is used to nurture and sustain life and grow embryos to term. You could describe it as an artificial womb.”

I noticed Ana was watching me with a nervous or anxious expression as I asked, “What the heck is that for and why do we need to take it to Mexico?”

Agent hesitated before answering. “This medical unit and this aircraft will be going with Ana to an area of the Amazon basin west of where we rescued her from.”

“What! You mean we are going back down to South America? Why did the plans change?” I asked.

“John, Ana refuses to follow the plan of going to Mexico to enter bio-suspension. She does not wish to endure the process again and instead will go to her ancestral home to live out her remaining days there.”

I was stunned and just stood staring at her, questions popping into my mind. She just stared back at me with an enigmatic expression on her face. Was she scared of me? She was certainly agitated.

“I thought the world was not stable enough to support humans yet, Agent?”

“The Amazon rain forests near the equator are among the more stable areas of the planet, John. It is clear that more animal species survived in the warmer latitudes. She stands a good chance of surviving and living a long life there.”

The rain forests! I did not know if I wanted to live there as I enjoyed my occasional winters and cooler weather. I tried to picture myself rafting up and down those buggy, crocodile infested rivers. My frown must have betrayed my thoughts as agent continued.

“Ana will be going alone, John. Following the original plan, you will be returned to Tennessee and re-entered into bio-suspension.”

What!

“I can’t let her go back down there alone Agent!”

“She will not be alone John. She will be the start of a new family and tribe as the medical unit has the ability to grow up to two human embryos at a time to term. She will become mother to those infants and after a few decades, will lead a community as elder. I will also be monitoring her and will remain in communication. In addition, the asteroid base will remain available to deliver long lead items as required.”

I just stood there digesting that. I looked at the artificial womb and back to Ana. She was still just staring at me with a strange expression. Was it nervousness? It almost looked mischievous?

“Where will the embryos come from?”

“There are cryogenic storage containers with frozen fertilized embryos already aboard the aircraft John.”

To live in the jungle and rear children alone will be incredibly hard for a single person, I thought. I relayed that concern to Agent.

“John, Ana does not want you to join her there. She had made that point implicitly.”

Ana must have noticed my hurt and confused expression and she asked a few questions to Agent. Agent answered and she just frowned and shook her head, walking away. I asked Agent if Ana hated me or something.

Agent hesitated a long moment before answering.

“I suspect she has suffered a traumatic experience in the past which you remind her of.”

The news had thrown me for a loop, so I just put the whole business out of my mind and focused on getting the latest supplies loaded aboard both Raptor and Raven, trying to use simple hard work to avoid the issue. Ana eventually came back, and we finished loading the aircraft together. Agent then had Ana board Shadow to take a short instructional flight and let her have some practice flying the aircraft. I stood at the door opening to the power kite hangar and watched them rise and fly off to the east.