Chapter 441

The Retreat

... After a moment, Jeff quietly said, “Too bad Morales isn’t trained. That man would never leave his partner when the chips are down.”

The General just stared at Jeff for a moment before adding, “Neither would the wolf.”

In silence, the two sat watching as Morales discovered the absence of his thumbnail, but instead of bandaging his small wound, he repaired the ballista. The two passed an approving glance when he saw to his weapon first, as a true warrior would. Both grinning, they continued to watch as he bitched while he skinned and cut up the monstrous bear, his knife strokes practiced and efficient.

“He never let a single piece of meat touch the floor of the cave while he dressed out the bear,” Whitworth finally commented. “Granted, I know little about quickly skinning animals, but how does someone with a city background become so efficient in such a short period of time?”

Jeff didn’t know much, if any more, about skinning and dressing out animals than the General did. They had both hunted a few times, and had skinned and field dressed their kills, but this animal was huge, yet Morales had quickly completed the job with practiced ease.

When Morales finished taking the meat to the ice cave, the two continued to watch as he scraped, then stretched the heavy hide, both men grinning as he and the wolf eventually sat to eat breakfast, with the bear steak a primary part of it.

“Not bad – for a city boy,” Jeff joked as he made another pot of coffee. “Well trained, that man would give an enemy hell.”

The General frowned as he turned to his Colonel. “I know what you’re thinking. But ... there is no way I’m bringing that guy back here to turn him loose on society. He killed...” Whitworth waved his hand to stop Jeff’s protest before going on, “Granted they fucking needed killing, but he did kill. What will he do when he comes back and somebody else needs killing, at least in Morales’ mind?”

“So? Train him and put him on one of the exploration teams. How many people from those teams do we lose in a year? And not all of them are lost to enemy fire. As you well know, some of them are killed by fauna – and even flora occasionally – on new planets. I strongly suspect that Morales’ survival on 2214 is enhancing his primitive instincts along those same lines. And that wolf is obviously smart as hell. They make a great team. The regular army uses dogs to supplement front line soldiers, and the police use them, too. We’ve talked about how well Morales and that wolf...”

“Lobo,” the General offered.

“... Lobo communicate. There’s obviously something going on there other than verbal. Somehow, they seem to know what the other is – oh, hell, let’s just say it – thinking. What better mode of communication could there be? We’ve watched the two move along those game trails. I didn’t say walk, and used the word move on purpose, because that’s what they do. Morales hardly makes a sound – even when he and Lobo are just going to the fields, and of course, neither does the wolf, but I suppose that just comes naturally to the animal. But, dammit, I think the wolf has somehow taught Morales to move quietly. I wonder if he even realizes it. I’m telling you, Sir, that we’re wasting resources. Those two – both of them – can add to our exploration efforts.”

Whitworth sat looking at Jeff for a moment before responding. “Okay. Suppose we bring him back, train him...”

“Both of them,” Jeff inserted.

“ ... Train both of them, and ... Morales gets pissed at a fellow team member? Think he’ll play pat-a-cake with the guy?”

“‘Pat-a-cake?’” Jeff asked with a grin.

“You know. The nursery rhyme. Pat-a-cake. Pat-a-cake, baker’s man. And so on.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t say a fucking thing,” the General growled. “You know what I mean.”

Jeff wiped the grin from his face before he pissed Whitworth off. “I don’t think that will be a problem, General. I think he’ll behave himself.”

“Sure enough of that to put your life on the line for it?”

Jeff sat looking at his superior. “Yes, Sir. I think I am.”

Whitworth just stared at his Colonel before mumbling, “Well, shit.”

Time drifted on as the two enjoyed themselves watching Morales. Whitworth clicked one file after another, eventually watching Morales discover the new arrows and bolts in the bottom of the case. Jeff leaned back and grinned at his superior. “I thought you said that you didn’t add more equipment to what you originally sent with the prisoners. You’ve updated Morales’ database, and given him more professional arrows for his bow, and bolts for his crossbow ... What else did you give him?”

“Yeah,” Whitworth chuckled, “I gave him enough yeast to make bread for years, but he hasn’t found the damn stuff, yet. I also gave him more of the freeze-dried products too, as well as a couple of other things, but he hasn’t found those either. He doesn’t look in his supply cases unless he needs something from them.”

“So, he’s a bit special after all?”

Whitworth turned to look at his Colonel. “I gave all the prisoners extra. The ones that are still alive, that is. Most of them, as you know, don’t last through the first few months, let alone the first winter. They’re too fucking lazy to do what they need to do to survive.”

Whitworth didn’t bother to say that the extra he gave to the other surviving prisoners was given after he gave Morales his extra items, instead of something routine that he had implied to the Prime.

As they continued to watch Morales’ daily activities, Jeff commented. “It was fortunate that he found the cave. Without it, he might well have not survived.”

The General paused the video. “There are caves – granted, some better than others – and fields planted near where we dropped every one of the prisoners. I meant for their survival to be possible. They would have to work at it, but if they persevered, they could survive. They all had, and continue to have – with the ones that are still alive – what’s basically an even chance. Morales just got off his ass and went to work while most were still griping about being dropped on the prison planet. It certainly didn’t hurt that he used his jail time after his sentencing to begin learning to use the bow and crossbow, either. And even though his public education certainly wasn’t the best it could have been, while in the cells, he did make every effort to read about the planet and prepare for his first days there.

“Most of the prisoners who died early on 2214 had attitudes similar to Robinson’s. In other words, they were lazy or spent their time griping instead of working, and wound up dead because of it. As you implied, you can’t live long on 2214 without a secure place to sleep. Some of the survivors have built high in the monster trees, and two built a log cabin together and have just finished double-walling it. Even the cave bears are going to have a hard time getting to them, but Morales has, by far, exceeded any of the others with his efforts, and I’ve rewarded him with a little extra because of his hard work. But... I did give all of them a little something extra.”

As they watched Morales diligently searching for cameras, the General grinned. “You can’t find with the naked eye what you can’t see. He might not be able to see one of the cameras if it were floating two inches in front of his face, but he’s damn sure systematically tearing the place apart looking.”

When Morales built the box in order to run his hands over every square inch of the ceiling, they were even more impressed.

Jeff observed his commanding officer as he avidly watched Morales on the big screen. “I think you’re beginning to like the guy,” Jeff commented. “And I’m not just referring to the possibility of his coming back. I think you ... respect him just a bit.”

“What?” Whitworth said, turning to Jeff. “No way. I just get a kick out of seeing what he’ll get up to next.”

Jeff shrugged. “If things turn out the way I’ve planned, there will be a tour of the galaxy coming up as we search for the race that built Ship’s brain. No telling what we’ll encounter during our travels.” There was a pause as the men thought, then, “If we gave Morales an education, we might be able to use some of those skills he’s been acquiring,” Jeff offered.

Whitworth, a cup of coffee an inch from his mouth, stared at the Prime as the video went on unnoticed by either man.

Jeff didn’t push, but as he came to his feet, “Could you, please, forward the file about the bear attack to my system. When Diana and Selina get back, I want all my people to watch the vid.”

“Sure,” Whitworth said, turning to do just that.

It was getting later in the day as Jeff jogged out to Ship. As soon as he entered, “Ship,” he projected. “I need to talk with Bill and Kathy if they aren’t busy just now.”

“They are in the viewing area of the academy as they watch Arlene and Ann battle the aviators.”

“Would you...”

“They are waking in the simulator area. I have asked them to meet you in the lounge, if that meets with your approval.”

“Excellent,” Jeff responded aloud as he turned in that direction.

He was sitting near the bar drinking a ... soft drink, mostly to get Bill and Kathy to comment, and they did.

“What? You’re not drinking coffee?” Kathy teased.

“What can I say? I was thirsty,” Jeff responded with a laugh, “and besides, I do drink something other than coffee on occasion.”

“I’ll bet I know what this is about,” Bill said, ignoring their comments as he stopped at the bar to get drinks for Kathy and himself.

When he put the drinks down and sat at the table, Jeff tried to look sheepish, but didn’t pull it off. “Okay, so I miss her. Well, both of them, actually.”

“And ... you’re worried, too,” Kathy added after taking a sip of her drink. Then going on, “I understand that. I would be, too. But the scouts’ AI’s are smart, and Ship’s technology is well ahead of the aliens’ – at least as far as we can tell. Other than that one incident, they haven’t given any indication that they’ve detected us, and they have darn sure tried.”

Jeff sat turning his drink around and around. Finally, he sighed and said, “Eileen and Jill (Bill’s other wives) are going to be pissed that I’m sending you back so soon, but Dave and Evie are at Midville working out a problem with one of their assistants.” As Kathy took a breath to respond, Jeff went quickly on, “I’ll push Ship to certify more people on the scouts. I know that everyone can fly them, but with the aliens moving now and the problem with rendezvousing with the other scout, I had rather have you two out there...”

Bill put a hand over Kathy’s to calm her as he continued to Jeff. “We set up a schedule with Diana and Selina. At intervals, they will drop out of warp and direct a pulse behind them. When we receive it, we’ll tight-beam our response and they will send coordinates for a rendezvous. Since they have been traveling above light speed, it will probably take a few micro jumps before we get close enough to receive their transmission, but with a some patience, we should have very little trouble finding them – if the aliens are still limping along barely above lightspeed.”

“We need a better way to communicate over distances,” Jeff grumbled.

Ship had been waiting for the opportunity. “I have had a limited breakthrough on the instantaneous transmission of data by using proton entanglement as a basis for my research,” Ship broke in to say. “As we speak, I am assembling two working prototypes of the much larger lab versions I have been testing. The lab versions have performed as expected under limited testing, but ... field trials might well prove quite different. However, using my theory as a basis, I expect that their range will be limited, but they appear to transmit and receive messages instantaneously – again, in the lab. I have not been able to detect any loss of time between sender and receiver while testing. But ... with such short distances, there might be variances too small for my equipment to detect. Nevertheless, I am almost certain that transmitter and receiver will work, at least, over limited astronomical distances, but you two, along with Diana and Selina, will be the test of that.”