Chapter 590

The Prison Planet

While working on construction jobs, Morales had frequently been a floater, or fill in, or flunky, whatever the boss or his immediate supervisor decided to call him at the time. However, he had managed to learn quite a few things while employed at the construction company. Sometimes he pulled wire for an electrician, or mixed mud and brought bricks for a bricklayer, put up drywall, unloaded trucks, on and on, whatever the boss needed him to do that day or that week. He had been willing to learn, and didn’t gripe as long as he had steady work and the money was coming in. The tractor he had run while the operator was on vacation had a diesel engine, so he was familiar with starting that type of engine in cold weather. Although he would use that knowledge tomorrow after the crawler had set out all night, the engine was still warm from being used only a little while ago, so all he had to do this time was to turn the key.

He had never operated a dozer before, but he had been allowed to sit in the cab of one while the operator had shown him the controls. Since there was no blade on the crawler, the controls were even simpler to operate, consisting of just one joystick, and one pedal that was used to lock the machine in place, plus a throttle.

The superstructure around the open cabin of the crawler was made of round steel rods that completely enclosed the cab and seating area. In addition, the windshield had a thick wire grill in front of it that should protect the glass from any limbs that made it between the rods while the machine was driven through brush.

Each seat was equipped with seatbelts and even a three-point harness that Morales thought might come in handy while traveling over rough terrain, which there was plenty of between the cave and the plains.

The engine came to life but was not nearly as loud as the equipment Morales had been around, mainly because the crawler’s engine was smaller than was standard on the monster earth moving equipment he was familiar with.

Coaxing the wolves onto the crawler took a few minutes, but eventually, their curiosity got the better of them, and they scrambled aboard. Hesitantly, they obeyed Morales, and each laid between the seats with him cautioning them not to get up until he told them it was safe to do so.

Once he had the engine idling, he decided to drop the trailer until he gained a little experience operating the crawler by itself. Detaching only took a few seconds. As he settled back into the driver’s seat, “Ready ladies?”

With their acknowledgments came another comment, “There’s heat,” Jasmine exclaimed as the engine reached operating temperature. “There’s a vent that can be opened beside the seats. I suppose it won’t help much while we’re moving, but it will probably warm cold hands when we’re not.”

Morales eased the joystick forward, and the crawler obediently began to move. The wolves came to their feet, but with a look from Morales, they again laid down. A hundred yards or so farther along the ridgeline, and the women realized why Morales had insisted that they fasten their seat belts even though they were only doing five miles an hour according to the display on the screen. Any hump they went over meant a bump on the other side. As with a dozer, there was no suspension to absorb the shock. Unlike a dozer, though, this thing would go. Or, at least, it felt like it while sitting virtually in the open and feeling any uneven dip or bump in the snow-covered and hard-frozen ground.

After a few minutes, Morales stopped the vehicle, moved out of the driver’s seat and motioned to Jasmine. “Your turn.”

“I can’t...”

“Bullshit. Push the stick in the direction you want to go. The farther you push it, the faster the crawler goes. You can set a constant speed with the little thumbwheel on the side of the joystick, but we’re not going to use that today. The crawler will actually turn on its axis, but that will leave one hell of a divot when you do. Bringing the stick back to center stops the crawler. The pedal down by your feet locks the machine down. Just think emergency brake. Under normal circumstances, you don’t need to press that unless you are stopped and want to lock the crawler down before getting off, or if for some reason you want to do an emergency stop.”

Jasmine, tense, to put it mildly, started off at a “blinding” one-half mile per hour, but it wasn’t long until she had gained confidence, although she did shake them up a couple of times by bringing the joystick back past the center before the machine had time to stop. The result was a very abrupt halt and an instant reversal of direction. “Oops,” she said as the girls laughed.

A few minutes later, Jasmine brought the machine to a stop, released her belts, stood and turned to Ashley. “Your turn.”

“What? No way,” she exclaimed. “I wouldn’t know what to do.”

“Neither did I, but it’s easy. Just stay away from trees. If you want to stop, bring the joystick back to center, or even turn it loose. The stick will come back to center automatically and stop the crawler.”

Ashley was even more tentative than Jasmine – if that were possible.

An hour later, each had driven the crawler along the ridgeline, and Christine confidently brought them back to stop beside the trailer.

“Move us over by the diesel fuel cube, and I’ll top up the tank,” Morales told her.

“Nope,” she said as she got up. “No way am I going to get near anything of value with this monster.”

Laughing, Morales swapped seats with her and moved the crawler to where he could top up the fuel.

As soon as they were off the machine, the wolves dashed around acting as if they were puppies. “Liked that, huh, Guys?” Morales said after finishing the fueling. While clapping his hands, he crouched and fake-charged the wolves, which delighted them immensely. After a couple of minutes of playing with them, he moved the crawler back and reattached the trailer before plugging the block heater into one of the electrical outlets that Jeff had installed – this one on the back of the outhouse.

“What’s that for?” Ashley asked.

“The crawler has a block heater that will make starting the diesel a lot easier in the morning when the engine is cold.” Then to everyone, “Well, Ladies, shall we try the hunting trip again?” Addressing the wolves, “How about you two? Ready to go hunting?”

The women instantly agreed, and Lobo and Lila were hyper and ready to go, so he had to explain to them that he hadn’t meant to go today, but first thing in the morning.

The wolves, still excited about the trip, dashed off on what he suspected was their own hunting expedition, which was proven correct when they returned licking their muzzles a half hour later.

Ship’s last “shake” came with Morales’ evening meal. He had no idea what the shake was supposed to do, but he had never felt better.

Again, they checked and laid out their equipment for the morrow, but now they could take more and not worry about trekking five miles – one way – through the snow with a load on their backs.

“When is this damn winter going to be over?” Morales griped as he stood waiting for his women to finish their last call of nature before bedtime.

When Jasmine walked past the whiteboard, she stopped, hurried over and wrote, “THANK YOU!!!”

Later as they lay snuggled in bed, Morales cleared his throat and said, “You know that we probably aren’t going to get very close to any deer with the crawler. In addition to the noise the engine and tracks make, they’ll smell that diesel for a long way.”

“Yeah,” Jasmine sleepily replied, “but if we do get one, we won’t have to worry about trying to skin it out while it is laying on the ground. Heck, if we wanted, we could just gut it and bring it back here before skinning and dressing it.”

“I had rather not do that,” he began.

“Oh, I would never do that, either. That would invite predators and scavengers to come for a visit. I was just commenting. The crawler and hunting trailer are going to spoil us. All we have to do is hook the winch to the kill and raise it as high as we need.”

Morales was quiet for a few minutes, but he knew that his women were still awake. “Remember when Jeff took me aside before we left Ship?”

“Yeah,” Jasmine returned sleepily.

“Uh, he asked me about something that he has alluded to before. It’s supposed to be on the hush-hush for now, I think, but he wanted to touch base with me – us, and check out our thoughts on the idea.”

“Ummm,” Jasmine said, only halfway paying attention as her body relaxed.

“Jeff said that he and his family would eventually go with Ship in search of the race that built her brain. Uh, after whatever is going to happen with that alien ship he told us about, he wanted to know what I thought about us going with them. Nothing definite, just something to think about. Of course, the General would have to okay it – pardon me, or whatever – but Jeff wants me to talk to you three about it.”

The women were suddenly fully awake.

“Go with them? But...”

“He said that we might know something about primitive planets that they didn’t, particularly you, Jasmine. He said that even the wolves might be of use on the trip since they have abilities that humans aren’t equipped with. Ship could provide us with any environment we wished. We could even take the chickens with us and keep them on one of those pocket planets he talked about.”

Jasmine turned partially onto her belly and snuggled up to him, propping her chin on his chest to look up at his face. “I don’t know, Baby. We have everything we need, particularly with what the General just sent us.”

“Jeff said it wouldn’t be forever – maybe a few months – if Ship can figure out how to communicate with Earth while they are gone. He said that they couldn’t leave unless they were able to. Even if the aliens were totally defeated, they might have communicated with their home world, and Earth might still be attacked again at some point in the future. Without Ship, Earth would be lost.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere, “Ashley said.

“Me neither,” Christine agreed. “We love it right here. This is a beautiful place.”

“Where could you find those majestic trees and scenery as beautiful as it is here?” Ashley asked. “Besides, our man and sister-wives are right here, and heck, we even like to play with the chickens. Junior is funny strutting around and trying to crow. Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. I tossed a piece of gravel roughly the size of my thumbnail, and Junior went after it. When I told him to bring it to me, he did. I threw it a half dozen times, and he really got into it, just tearing out after it, then hurrying to bring it back so I could throw it again. I wish we had a small ball.”

“I’ll ask Diana to bring us a couple. Heck, while we’re at it, I imagine the wolves would love to play with a ball, too,” Jasmine offered.

After laughing about Junior having played fetch, they got back to what Jeff had talked about. “Well, he said that he just mentioned the trip to see what we thought about it, but everything hinges on what the alien ship will do, and the General, but Jeff thinks that Whitworth might be talked into letting me – us – go with them. Not back to Earth, but on the trip. Before that can happen, though, they have to somehow overcome the communication problem as well.”

There was quiet for a minute or so before Jasmine said, “We have equipment now. We can raise a lot of food come spring and summer. We couldn’t lose that time, or we won’t have food next winter.”

“Just something to think about,” Morales insisted. “Won’t happen unless we all agree, and that’s after all the other things happen that Jeff mentioned. Certainly not something to worry about now.” After a yawn, he chuckled and said, “Let’s get some sleep. We have to be up early for our trip tomorrow.”

After sleepy acknowledgments, they drifted off.

The Retreat

Arlene spent an hour with Kei encouraging and giving tips as she field-stripped and reassembled her pulse rifle. The first time Kei broke the one-minute mark, she enthusiastically hugged Arlene, thanking her over and over.