Chapter 5

I was starting to understand that no matter what I did, I was going to have to think, and plan, before I killed things. Tonight I killed a bull, because it was near my cave, and because I knew I had freezer space. Should have thought about how much freezer space I had first. I put a lot of work into cleaning, and splitting him into "primals" as the butchers used to say. I still only managed to fit about a third of the meat in my freezer. The last load I carried about wore me out. I spent the whole day walking, with butchering and hauling kept for last. I decided to leave the other half of the bull outside. I'm sure some animal will be glad for the meat.

I spitted the last piece of meat, and set it to roast over the fire. While that cooked, I unloaded the pantograph. I had set it to make backup parts to keep the cold fusion system running, so I put it all under the cold fusion wagon, after making sure that the brakes were well locked. I checked the mass reserve, and it was half full. Good, that means I can get the next thing I want now, rather than waiting.

I set the pantograph to make a bed. After consulting the medical AI, and the engineering/construction AI, I figured out what I needed. The latter AI had recommended a leveling kit. It was a combination of a base paint and expanding foam. The foam would expand until its entire upper surface was level, and then harden. Due to its interaction with the base coat, it would remain over the base rather than expanding sideways. They were both simple and small, so I only had to wait about fifteen minutes for the pantograph to produce both items.

Once I had extracted the first two items from the pantograph, I set it to making a mattress while I set up its platform. It took me ten minutes to get the area covered, and then I spread out the foam. While that was leveling itself, I spent a couple of minutes tending to the fire and adjusting the meat. I was very impressed when I went back to look at the foam. It had expanded about half an inch, and the entire surface was as flat as a pool table. It was also as hard as rock. There were a couple of sharp edges, so I took a couple minutes with a hammer to blunt them down. Can't expect simple foam to do everything.

I headed back to the pantograph, and it had produced the first two rolls of my bed surface. They were two-inch thick pads, each three meters long and one meter wide. I would have had it make them wider, but that was the limitation of my pantograph's assembly chamber. The two were designed to bond together when set side by side. It would take them a couple of minutes to bond fully, so that I could adjust them until I had them right. I let the pantograph continue making more. I wanted the bed to be a foot thick when I was done, and two meters wide, so I would need a total of twelve pads. I really wished I had been able to bring a pantograph with an output hopper, and a conveyer to empty the chamber. I probably could have, but it would have meant no cold fusion, so in the end it would not have been worth it. Because of that, the pantograph could only make four pads at a time. I would let it make four more before I went to bed.

I placed the first two, and got them aligned. While they bonded I checked on the meat. It was done, so I pulled it off the spit, sliced it up, and served the dogs and myself. They didn't eat much, and I assumed it was because they had eaten their fill of raw meat, less than two hours ago. After eating I went and checked out the bed. It was long enough for me, the dogs, and a second person if I ever found someone. It was still a bit hard, as expected. It was only two of the final twelve inched deep. Tonight I would sleep on it at six inches. I was sure it would be better than the wagon floor or the ground out in the woods had been.

I spent an hour researching astronomy. I wanted to figure out what part of the season it was. It felt like spring or fall, but I wasn't sure. I had aimed for a particularly warm interglacial, so this could be any time of year. I wanted to know, because it would alter my plans quite a lot. From what I saw today on my walk, it looked like the site I was at had been used recently. That meant that humans were around. If it were spring, or summer, I had plenty of time to contact them. If it were fall, I would need to work quickly, before they migrated, or wait until spring.

After an hour, with no easy solution found, I gave up. I pulled the next four rolls of bedding out of the pantograph, and set it to make another freezer. At the rate I was using it, I would need to refill the input hopper soon. Luckily, that wouldn't be very hard to do. I had already found the route to the ocean hospitable, and had made the gate large enough to pass the wagons easily. I figured I would get the freezer done by midday tomorrow. A quick trip to the ocean for sand and water, and I would set the pantograph on finishing the bed. By tomorrow night I would have a safe and soft bed, would have enough freezer space, and would have had a day to figure out my next steps.

I am so glad I got to work on my bed. Having a soft surface to sleep on, after three nights of sleeping on the ground, was heavenly. I slept until the sun came in through the opening in the cave ceiling. When I woke I realized that there was another thing I needed to put on my to-do list: an outhouse. I could use the pantograph for recycling, but that would be a bit of a messy job for my tastes. Besides, I could use it for fertilizer, when I finally set up a farming area.

I dragged myself out of bed, slipped on some clothes, and headed for the exit. Hey, The gate was open! Oops. Looks like I wasn't very careful last night. Have to remember to close that thing. No point in creating it if I left it open.

When I reached the gate, I had one of the biggest shocks of my life. Outside, barely fifty feet from my cave, was the last thing I ever expected to see.

A girl, lying sound asleep in the sun.

It took me a moment to see the rest. Slightly in front of her was a simple travois. On it was a large collection of slightly charred bundles. Looking more closely I saw that at least one was slightly unwrapped, and it looked like there was cooked meat in it. I examined the travois, and it appeared to be made of untanned animal hide. I realized that the piece I could see looked a lot like one of the sides of the bull I had killed last night.

She was, from what I could see, quite attractive. She had relatively short hair, tied under some sort of headband. She was wearing a tunic and pants, which looked to be carefully cut and sewn animal skins, and she wore a soft looking moccasin-like shoe. The amount of detail in her clothing surprised me, though perhaps it should not have.

I realized, standing there, that I had made a mental mistake. A mistake of snobbery, or stupid presupposition. I had assumed that, because these people did not farm and were nomadic, because they had no written language or currency, and because they had not learned to make tools of metal, that they were savages.

The detail I saw, the care in cutting the hair, the line and shape of her garments, the tassels and dyeing, these were not the clothes of a savage. These were the clothes of a proud, skilled people. They may be illiterate, but in a world with no written language, that was irrelevant.

In those moments, staring at her, my picture of the future began to rearrange itself. The people she came from were not a people that needed leading out of ignorance. It was obvious to me that they worked hard, and lived well. I still had a lot to teach them, but now I realized that I would have just as much to learn

After several moments more, I saw that she was no longer asleep. I watched her eyes open, and her pretty face went from serene to afraid in a moment. She stiffened slightly, and then held still, watching me. There was no surprise in her face, only fear.

After watching me for almost a minute, the fear began to slip from her face. It was replaced with a mixture of hope, and resolve. She had been afraid of me! I noticed that behind her there were two tracks in the grass, leading back towards where I had shot the bull, and it came to me in a flash. She knew I had killed the bull. She had probably seen me do it, and watched me collect some of the meat. Rather than fleeing in terror she had worked hard, somehow managed to cook all of this meat, and had brought it here to me. She had waited here, tired, for me to wake. She may have been here for hours, waiting for me.

I had not really thought this far ahead. I had thought to make first contact after observing them for a while. I did the only thing I could think of. I told the dogs to heel, walked forward several paces, and sat down. She watched me carefully, and after I was seated for a couple of moments she sat up herself. She gestured toward the bundles in front of her, and then pointed behind her, toward where I had killed the bull. I smiled, and nodded, trying to indicate my acceptance. She mimed eating, and again I nodded. Finally she pointed at me, and then at Tricksie and Ralph. I smiled, and rubbed my stomach.

She smiled at me, and reached forward to grab a package. She opened it and took a small bite. After she swallowed it, I saw a look cross her face that I can't describe as anything other than impish, and it blew my mind.

She looked at Tricksie, and said, plain as day "Come here, Tricksie", and then to Ralph "Come here, Ralph". She waved the rest of the meat she had unwrapped at them, and then placed it off to her side. The two dogs whined a little, and I looked at them. They were looking back and forth between the meat and me. I said, "go", to them and they both trotted over, and started eating.