Chapter 50

My early to bed the night before had me all set for early rising and I did. I even got a jump on Rose, but when she felt me moving she put on a burst and beat me to the bathroom. It didn't matter since I had my urinal to use now and I washed my face in the giant double sink I'd brought along from the get go.

No matter the state of our pseudo race I let Rose beat me to the coffee pot to get it going. I knew damned well she made coffee better than I could and besides, it's never wise to get into it with the head cook.

By the time coffee was ready most of my other girls were up and dressed. We had some good-natured teasing at first and they accused me of nearly everything except getting up early to get a good start on the day. Well, it wasn't the reason either because the actual dirty truth was only I'd had plenty of sleep. I could think of things we needed to do though

Most of the main things we needed before the upcoming cold weather were already taken care of, but of course all of them weren't. With our expanded numbers we needed a bigger supply of meat to last us through the cold. It wouldn't be a problem, but the hunting and processing needed to be done.

Firewood was big on the menu too. Living in a cave should help us out tremendously there, but it didn't negate the need completely. We also needed to do some logging. We had a working sawmill and we could use it during the winter when most other duties would be uncomfortable or impossible.

Horse catching and training needed to go forward too. My guess was we had more than a hundred horses still unmolested up here on our shelf. I didn't see any point in having wild horses up here with us. We might as well catch and train them all. At least we should get them all to the point of being able to lead them around with a halter and lead rope.

My in-head planning came to a halt then since Rose put a plate of bacon, eggs, and biscuits in front of me. Kita and Chiqa were still sleeping so I dug in. Rose took a seat beside me, and all the usual sleep mates sat down too. After we'd finished eating Rose woke the babies and put them in their custom chair beside me.

Catla had fixed their breakfast and it arrived as they did. Kita took time to show me Chiqa needed a little shot of her bottle first and then told me she could concentrate on her own food while Chiqa was sucking. In other words it was time for me to feed her. I did an excellent job if I do say so myself.

We finished just in time too since Chiqa had polished off her bottle and was anticipating something gooey and delivered via spoon. Chalta furnished some sort of meaty paste and Kita went to work - she even let me guide a few spoonfuls into safe harbor myself and Chiqa was pleased with out attention to detail. She was also full soon enough and I put the two of them back into the furs for a short nap to help digestion.

"Well, what's your plan for the day?" Rose asked, as soon as the two were napping.

"There are a few things I could be getting organized, but I thought I should let you decide what you thing should come first."

"Let me in on the choices and I'll make them."

I went over the mental list with her, but before I could finish our computer system made a noise. It was a message from Sigfried and Rose sat down and responded. There was about fifteen minutes of typing back and forth, but it ended and Rose went to the cave's door and opened it.

Two more German Sheppards were outside and they came inside and began sniffing around when Rose called them. She shut the door behind them and came back to the table. Layta gave us all a coffee refill and I sipped and kept quiet until Rose spoke up.

"It's a damned shame, but Sigfried and the others have been called back to their base, wherever it is. He didn't know why and they didn't put any more experiments here. The entity above him in rank allowed him to come here specifically to deliver your dogs, but he was instructed to do nothing else to change the situation.

"Apparently they are satisfied with the way things are going now. The bad part is he has your pickup and horse trailer, but wasn't allowed to leave them. The boss, who or whatever he, she, or it is wasn't upset in the least by the extras Sigfried gave us, but they did cut us off from any more help for now."

"Well, I'm glad to get the dogs anyway. Did Sigfried share any more information with you? He didn't leave any hints about things we should be doing did he?"

"No. Sigfried isn't much for hints. He did give me a sort of status report on the other four who came when George did. All of them are consolidating their positions now, much as you did when you were first put down. None have tried capturing horses yet, but they are all in areas where it won't be too hard to get mounted when they put their minds to it.

"All but one of them has acquired at least one female companion, but none seem to be trying to understand the female's language. They all intend to make their woman learn their language."

"It worked for me," I said, grinning but noticing right away no one else thought I was funny.

"Even you tried much harder than any of them did. But try to restrain yourself for a few more minutes. There is other information.

"Sigfried was indeed responsible for the ramp and bridge we're using and he didn't give us a way down or across to the other side because it didn't occur to him - possibly because he wasn't specifically looking for ways to make our life easy.

"He can't do it now because of his new orders. He can tell us they aren't roaming for reconnaissance yet and none of them have contacted any of the others yet. The closest of them is more than fifty miles from the nearest of the earlier pallets remaining on their side of the river," Rose said.

"At least it lets us know what we need to do next," I said.

"And that is?" Rose asked.

"We need to get the four pallets while the gettin' is good. It's not so much we need the stuff, it's just because we don't need to let them have it. One of those pallets was heavily swayed toward ammunition and firearms even though the idiot probably didn't even get them out before he got killed," I said.

"You're right, he didn't. He was another one they set down in the middle of a predator feast. Cave lions took offense to him for crashing their party."

"We might as well saddle up and head out. The skidder can probably make it across the river again, and we'll take plenty of the big casters to make heavy-haul travois."

"Why don't you take your extra dolly wheels and something to make an axle or two out of?" Rose asked.

"Good point. I also think the skidder's forks can carry two pallets if we tie them together tightly. Even if none of it works we can doodle the pallets out of range quickly with the skidder, even if we only carry one at a time," I said.

We spent the next two hours gathering supplies and any equipment we thought we could use. George wanted all his women to stay at home, but they raised hell about it. Finally he managed to get by with only taking Zeeta, Meita, and Taeta. No matter my protest about her condition Catla was leading my women who were going. Chalta, Layta, Keeta, and Leita were coming along.

We didn't even wait to start the next morning. An hour after lunch we left with the skidder, a mount each, and six travois horses. An hour later we were crossing the river and we headed straight for the pallet closest to the other men.