Chapter 503

Back inside, Jeff spent some time with both Jasmine and Morales, allowing the young woman to work through the simple equation herself. The light went on for her, but she still seemed amazed that she should hold low for an uphill shot.

When they were finished, Jasmine and Morales found a place farther along the big room, took out the cleaning supplies, spread the ground cloth and began cleaning their rifles.

After returning from outside, Jeff had noticed that Selina was sitting in the midst of the chickens, obviously having made friends with them. Of course, some of that “friendship” might have been the result of the tidbits of leftover steak she was feeding them.

The Prime walked over, folded his legs and sank onto his butt next to the seven-year-old, noting that some of the chickens were taller than Selina while she was sitting on the ground and surrounded by them. He also noted that there was no chicken manure anywhere around. “So, what are you up to, My Bonny Lass?” he asked with a grin.

Selina giggled at his fake Irish brogue, but answered, “Oh, I was merely researching the Brahmas’ intelligence,” she returned as she held up a tiny piece of steak and instructed, “Dance for me, Gertrude.”

Obediently, Gertrude stood as tall as she could while turning in a tight circle with her wings spread a little for balance. A smiling Selina gave the hen the morsel after she completed the turn.

“How long did it take you to teach her that?” Jeff asked, amused.

“Oh, approximately one minute,” Selina replied offhand while instructing Abigail by voice and hand motions to do her dance routine.

The hen obediently turned in a complete circle, albeit not quite as smoothly as Gertrude had.

“The Brahmas are truly beautiful, are they not?” Selina asked, her voice touched with a hint of amusement as she gave Hortense her instructions.

“Brahmas?” Jeff asked with a frown as the chicken did her thing almost as perfectly as Gertrude had.

“Certainly. The feathers on the feet and legs are quite distinctive for the breed. Of course, since this breed did not originate on Earth, there are several differences when compared to Earth Brahmas. These,” she said with a sweep of her hand, “are even taller, but are thinner overall, and in addition, they have a longer wingspan as well as a wider wing. Note the thicker muscle structure there,” she said, pointing. “The combination gives them additional lift and strength to fly better and farther, hence their ability to excel at flying and maneuvering in comparison to Earth fowl. Their markings also vary from that of Earth Brahmas. Although there are several varieties on Earth with mixtures of browns and reds, and even a variety that is snow white, the colors are much more intense and vivid here than the pictures I’ve seen of Earth chickens. But ... they are definitely Brahmas – at least this world’s version of them, as I have already stated. In addition, because of their increased size, they must, indeed, lay truly enormous eggs.”

Jasmine, having finished cleaning her rifle, came over, smiled, and knelt with them. Selina told Gertrude to dance again, and she obediently strutted around in a turn while holding her body fully erect with her wings partway out, just as she had done previously. Jasmine held her hand over her mouth to keep her giggles from distracting Gertrude during her “dance”.

Junior and his sisters were half grown, agewise, although he still weighed less than half what his mother did. The hens, even his sisters, appeared ... thick in comparison, while he was slimmer overall, but it seemed obvious that he would wind up taller than the females. The chicks now had most of their adult feathers, and like the hens, were truly beautiful with their intense and very distinct coloration.

“Did I hear you say that the chickens were Brahmas?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes. They certainly appear to be, but as you and Mr. Morales have previously mentioned about the other animals, they seem even larger than the Earth variety. And, of course, they also appear far more intelligent than Earth chickens, at least from what I have read about chickens and the little I have personally observed. But, I have a minimum of direct knowledge of the subject other than seeing some on a farm.”

Jeff smiled at the seven-year-old. “In addition to having ... friends who live on farms and have chickens, Selina is – shall we say – an avid reader. To say that she remembers everything she reads doesn’t quite convey the true concept. It takes a while to get used to our little genius, here,” he said as he pulled Selina to him for a loving hug, “but we love her anyway,” he teased.

Selina hugged her Prime back before locking eyes with Jasmine. “I am going to marry him when I am sixteen, and ... perhaps even earlier if I am able to convince Diana,” she finished while blushing deeply.

Jasmine almost came back with a condescending comment that an adult might sometimes say when a child said something about marrying an adult when the child grew up, but Jeff broke in before Jasmine could embarrass herself or worse yet, irritate the little genius while doing so. “Selina is an adult, but just not in body, yet. Never forget that,” he cautioned, stressing the point.

Jasmine noted the sincerity in Jeff’s voice and realized that she had come close to making a very grave error. Struggling for something to say, she finally came up with, “I’m sure he will make you a fine husband, and you will make him a wonderful wife.”

“Thank you. That is very considerate of you,” Selina responded as she reached to take Jasmine’s hand for a moment, the gesture that of an adult.

As Selina returned to teaching the female chicks how to “dance,” Junior pushed his way in front of them to spin in place. “You must await your turn,” Selina scolded, but Junior stood on one foot, flapped his wings and spun round and round. Giggling, Selina called him a showoff, but rewarded him, anyway. “Now, behave yourself and allow your sisters a chance to dance,” she scolded.

Jasmine just stared at the chicks, amazed at the way they were responding to Selina, and not knowing what to say. Finally, she turned to Jeff. “I need to send Morales to get more meat for lunch, and then I need to get started thawing it.”

“I remember the comment about how difficult it is for one person to bring the full cooler past some of those rough places, so I’ll go with him and lend a hand,” Jeff offered.

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate that,” Jasmine returned with a smile, her eyes drifting back to the chickens where Junior, now standing behind the other chickens, was again spinning on one foot. I need to hurry and get a video of this. If I don’t record it, there’s no way the committee will believe it really happened when I present my dissertation.

After spending a couple of minutes recording Selina training the chickens to dance while Jeff and Morales were gone for more meat, Jasmine began sorting through her new things. The General went outside to confer with his men and smoke a cigar. Jeff’s women were sitting in a circle near the cook fire area making plans, or conspiring, as Jeff would laughingly say.

“We have a pan that would be suitable for frying a batch of doughnuts,” Arlene offered.

“True. And we brought hand mixers,” Kayla agreed.

“We’ve gotten used to our doughnut maker which turns out perfectly shaped doughnuts every time.” Diana wistfully inserted.

“Yeah, but we don’t have electricity to run the maker, and, of course, we didn’t bring it because of that,” Arlene grumped before suddenly sitting up straight. “Hey, the General said he was going to compensate them for their discovery of the column thing, and for putting up with the scientists passing through their living area, right?”

“Sooo...” Diana prompted.

“Well,” Arlene continued, thinking her way through as she spoke, “there’s a humongous rock that’s partially above the front of the cave, right? And there are sections of the nearby hillside that don’t have any trees. And, remember a couple of weeks ago during supper when the General was talking about some new alien technology he was going to adapt and sell – advanced solar cells, or the alien equivalent? What better place to test them?” she finished with a gleam in her eye.

“And,” Diana said, getting into the act, “we have certainly been experiencing wind, and lots of it. Surely, a wind generator mounted in the top of one of those gigantic trees would produce all the electricity Jasmine and Morales could ever use. With a big bank of batteries and both systems feeding them, they should have plenty of power day and night. If the wind wasn’t blowing, then the solar cells could charge the batteries, at least in the daytime.”

“ ... and if it was a cloudy day, the wind generator could do the job,” Kayla contributed.

“I certainly agree about the wind,” Arlene grumped. “My butt felt numb for ten minutes after my last trip to tinkle,” she exaggerated. “The wind was gusting so hard I almost fell on my rear while I squatted.”

“That could be ... embarrassing,” Kayla said with a giggle. “Hmmm. What’s that I smell?” she teased, sniffing.

“I said nearly,” Arlene spat back with her own giggle. Then after a minute, “So, how should we go about this?”

“First, we need to get your dad on board with it, then he can approach the General with our idea.” After a slight hesitation, she went on, “Maybe we should wait until the scientists are here and doing their thing. Hmmm, I just had another thought. Morales has a spring that he uses for a water source in warm weather, so with power available, there would be no reason Jasmine couldn’t have running water. Of course it’s frozen now, but it could be covered, and with power, it could be kept warm enough to keep it from freezing.”

“Yes,” they all hissed out at the same time, then leaned forward and high-fived.

Jasmine and Diana sat in the cooking area, the other women having moved to another part of the big room to give the two privacy.

They had laughed and chatted for a while when Jasmine’s expression changed, “Diana, we need to be serious for a moment. I need to know how much all this cost,” the young anthropologist said as she motioned to the piles of goods seemingly stacked everywhere.

“As far as you’re concerned, nothing,” the Clan Queen said with a smile. Then before Jasmine could argue, Diana went quickly on. “Look, we just grabbed things from our backup supply, and I had Dave go on a somewhat wild gathering spree to Winter Park. Our time was limited, so there were things I knew you could use but I didn’t have time to order them, let alone have them shipped. We did what we could in the time available. It’s no big deal.”

“Diana, please, just stop. It is a big deal. There must be at least several hundred dollars worth of kitchen items alone, as well as many other things we can use to make our lives easier here. And that doesn’t even include the big boxes you won’t let us open yet. I can’t allow you to spend that much money on us without repaying you...” Seeing the look on the Clan Queen’s face, Jasmine went quickly on. “Look, as I’ve mentioned before, I obviously don’t have anything to spend my salary on here. Darnit, Diana, I have the money, and chances are I’ll never use it. Please, let me reimburse you. I brought my checkbook with me just so it wouldn’t be left in my room at the base. Now how much...”

Diana reached over and squeezed Jasmine’s hand. “Stop, please,” she gently said as their eyes locked with Jasmine’s that were beginning to moisten. “Swap things around. What would you think if someone tried to repay you under the same circumstances, hmmm? Now, let’s stop this foolishness and talk about something important.”

After a frustrating moment, Jasmine finally grinned at the Clan Queen. “I’m going to get you back, somehow, someway,” she said with a forced grin.

“Fair enough,” Diana said. “Now, like I said, on to something important. Since we’re leaving this afternoon, I need to ask if you had a chance to talk to your lover about your marriage.”

Jasmine let out a soft sigh. “A little. He’ll come around in time, but this has hit him too quickly, I think. He’s more or less stuck in the prisoner mode, I guess you could call it, and can’t seem to realize that the General really will permit us to marry.”

“Did you remind him that the General said it was none of his business? His only rule for this place has to do with prisoners ganging up on each other. He says you two marrying or not has nothing to do with him, and he couldn’t care less one way or the other.”