Chapter 20

Lunch at the women's mess was great. The burgers were like the ones mama used to make, sometimes. All I could think of as a tip for Yolanda was a smile and thank you so I let that make do and headed outside.

Even though Charlie was lined up to begin investigating the wrongdoings of our prisoners there was still plenty that I needed to get a handle on. The houses for permanent residents were only the first things. After all these years of imported people the planet still had basically nothing for most of them to live in and no facilities for growing food. If you couldn't kill it or gather it in the woods you didn't get it.

The new mess hall for the women and Charlie's basic rations for most of the men were real progress but it was still him providing the food. He'd just have to keep it up for a while, and while we were at it there might as well be a mess hall for the men.

After a little silent conference with Charlie we decided the facility for the men would be more like an actual mess hall. There'd be no central counter seating and no table service at all. The building could be a little smaller and the men would serve themselves from cafeteria-style lines similar to the ones available in the women's place. They would also get no special orders. They'd eat what was there or they didn't have to eat at all, their choice.

Actually I didn't expect much bitching over this since it was a lot better than the way they'd been eating, or the way most of them had been eating. I knew a lot of them had been fed by having their captive women make the meals out of things the women could gather or the men could kill, but that was over with for now. Charlie said he could have it in place in the morning.

I gave Jim Bob and Hank a tour of the women's mess and they were suitably impressed. I asked if they'd take over running the upcoming men's, and after Charlie showed them some pictures in their heads they agreed. They also ok'd Charlie to install internal phones for them too, so they could make plans and order food and such.

By now I felt like I was making good progress, but I wasn't done by any stretch. I still intended to make horses the main means of transportation after things settled out, but for the building push we'd need at least a showing at a road or two.

We had trees to harvest, bricks to make, sand and gravel to procure, and concrete to mix, and pour. I wasn't about to take on an asphalt topped road-building project, but we did need at least some gravel roads and we'd have to have some equipment to build them. Likewise we'd need logging equipment, a concrete plant, and several mixer trucks. We'd have to depend on Charlie to provide any steel we needed because I damned sure wasn't going to try cobbling up a steel mill.

Charlie and I spent most of the rest of the afternoon working on plans and specifications for these things. We came up with plenty of wants and Charlie said he could provide them but he was worried about who was going to run the equipment.

"Any men that we let live are going to take care of that. Women can do some of the jobs too and no matter how long it takes I'll just have to train them. Surely there are some people who know something about things like this," I said.

"I can inventory their skills and knowledge when I go through their minds for crimes. Just so you'll know, I can wipe their memories back to any date. I don't see why you'd ever need to go back past their pickup time but it is possible," he said.

"Can you remove specific events instead of just wiping out everything to a certain date?" I asked.

"Yes, that is possible too, but it leaves them with gaps that are sometimes noticed," he said.

"Does it do their heads any damage?"

"Not usually. Sometimes, if they figure out what has happened, they make it into and obsession. Results are undefined if that happens," he said.

"Undefined? What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means we don't have any way to know what will happen," he said.

"What the hell, we don't know what's going to happen anyway. If we need to do it, at least I know we can."

"Do you know what you'll want to do first, equipment wise?" he asked.

"Roads will probably need to come first. Even gravel roads will require a lot of work. We'll also need some logging equipment so we don't waste any timber we have to remove. That leads to equipment for a sawmill so we don't waste the logs," I said.

"The equipment won't be much trouble, but men to operate it will take time," he said.

"We'll just have to wait and see if we have anyone that is already qualified."

"Yes, but perhaps I should study some of those activities on your home planet. It's possible that I could put together some training scenarios that would help us along," he said.

"Can you do that from here?"

"I know that they have a permanent automated station around the planet. As far as I can tell it monitors nearly every activity. I can request information, and if it isn't available I can ask for a specific survey. It will take a little time, but I can have everything already known within two days. Any new surveys will probably take two weeks or so," he said.

"That's much better than I imagined. By all means, find out all you can."

"I will," he said.

That was good news. To me, the speed of the construction wasn't a big factor. If we needed more temporary housing Charlie could provide it. As a matter of fact I was considering the ever unpopular Quonset hut for the men.

Damn the men, they'd be better than large tents for the women too, and if they were properly constructed they could be weather tight. During World War II they had been made in the thousands with sizes ranging from 16 by 32 up to 40 by 100, and probably every size in between. I called Charlie right back.

"I've had a brainstorm, and no, nothing was damaged. Are you familiar with the Quonset hut, from earth's World War II?" I asked.

"I know what they are and I'm sure I have the specifications somewhere, ah, here they are," he said.

"Can you make some?"

"With no trouble. What size and how many do you want?" he asked.

"I think we'd get the best use out of the forty by one-hundred size and I'd like them split up as four separate apartments. These will be for the women. Make sure to furnish a separate bath and kitchen for each unit.

"I want them on wooden floors so when we are able to get rid of them they won't leave much behind. Please try to make them as homey inside as you can," I said.

"Maybe I should ask some of your mates for help with the homey directive. I'm afraid I'm not qualified for that," he said.

"Maybe so. I know I'm not qualified for it either."

That little detail made me happy. Quonset huts were perfectly serviceable as shelter. They weren't something I'd want to make a permanent town out of but they would be much better than large tents. We might even make some for the men after they had the ones for the women assembled.

The women's mess was in business for supper shortly and my girls surprised me. They caught me in the bus an announced that we'd be eating together in the mess hall tonight. They even made me take another shower and put on clean clothes. I didn't mind at all, hell they had to do the washing.

By the time we made it to supper there were plenty of people in line already. Since the lines seemed to be for the cafeteria-style serving I figured we'd go on inside and be served by one of the waitresses that Jane had been getting organized. No such luck. My mates let me know we'd be standing in line like most everybody else. That was fine with me too, since it gave me a chance to listen to the conversations going on in the lines.

I didn't really learn much of what was happening but I was relieved that everything seemed pretty normal now. The women weren't what you'd run into at a place like this on earth, but I could tell that the couple of days they'd spent here were doing them worlds of good. The first day many of them had seemed tense and were constantly looking around to make sure one of the assholes wasn't sneaking up on them. By now they understood that the assholes were the ones that would end up tense for a while, if they got to live at all.

After we'd been through the line and loaded our trays I was feeling even happier. The main dish tonight was fried chicken and Jane had mountains of it ready. The cooking was perfect and there were plenty of mashed potatoes, creamed corn, pinto beans, and turnip greens to go with it. Since this fare was right down my alley I ate like a pig.

When we were back at the bus Karen, Stacy, Sherry, Wanda, and Katy tried to get started talking about their upcoming tasks of going over what the captured men had been up to. I wouldn't let them.

"We're going to be sick of all that before long and there's no sense in going over it before the information has even been gathered. I'm going to sing you a few songs and then we're heading for my favorite place, the bedroom," I said, and it didn't take any more convincing.

Even after a hard night's work I was still up first the next morning. After shaking a shoulder or two I found I'd be the only one moving in the bus for a while yet.