Chapter 157

We went to the table and sat down, waiting for the food to come to us. It didn't take long and when she brought my plate Shelalliea was more solicitous than normal. Apparently Geera had clued my other mates in to my agitated state. I had hoped it wasn't too obvious, but I could hardly expect to be slapped in the face with this kind of major development and keep my worries from showing.

The women in my life did their best to make me feel better with a big lunch. I declined coffee and had a mug of beer and I noticed some of my leaders were casting sidelong glances my way.

I couldn't help it. I felt like having a beer and in fact I felt like having about twenty. There was no time for it though. I had a lot of things to get started on and Danlo had just given me some more news.

Seems things had happened in the horse/mammoth cave too. He'd told me a lot of new things were there this morning and he didn't know what most of them were. I told him I'd visit him right after I looked at the new rifles Racaato had told me about.

After lunch was finished I went to the practice cave with Racaato and he showed me the new rifles. They were like the one I had come with except for the scope. The flexible part on the end was a rubber eyepiece and it was there now because these were different scopes.

They were a little larger than my original and they had night vision capabilities, but could function during the day also. This would surely cure the problem I'd had during my night patrol around the camp while we'd been on our way back from the mammoth hunt, and I assumed Argent's people had made sure they would serve well in normal conditions too.

I explained things to Racaato as we were examining the new equipment and then I left for the horse cave to see Danlo.

There were several new things here. Most obvious were three new vehicles. They were sleighs with wide runners for traveling over snow instead of tires and wheels.

Two of them were the same size as the largest wagons and one was buckboard sized. Argent had just pulled these out of his ass because I hadn't even thought about sleighs. I really didn't want to do any traveling if there was enough snow on the ground to use them. I guessed we could hitch them up for a pleasure ride or use them in case some emergency came up.

There was also some harness for Big Mother. Danlo had already figured out how it worked or how some of it worked anyway and it was a good thing he had. I didn't know diddly about mammoth harness.

He told me there was even a miniature set for Darta and finally I got a smile and a pleasant thought, my first for the day. I tried to picture Deimeta leading Darta around, harnessed and pulling a little log. I almost laughed.

I was wondering when this new stuff had arrived and I asked Danlo about it. He told me he didn't know for sure, he had just noticed it this morning.

On the way back to my cave I went in to have a look at the sawmill. There were new things here, but not that many. I did see some type of scanning station was in place now.

Apparently it was added because the ship would no longer be able to scan for harmful inclusions in timber since the ship was no longer up there. A little area had also been set up with tools and equipment to sharpen the saws. It was a very good thing and a welcome addition since the aliens wouldn't be around to take care of the saw sharpening for us. I left and went back to my cave, deciding it was time for some coffee after all.

Jaada came to me with a mug of coffee as I sat down. She bent over to give me a kiss and I pulled her into my lap and held her for a few minutes. I've often heard sometimes a woman just liked to be held.

I have some news for women - sometimes a man just wants to hold one of them. I don't know why, but having her in my arms made me feel better and when I thought about the new life growing in her it strengthened my resolve to see us through whatever came next.

I needed something to perk me up. To be honest I knew I was feeling sorry for myself. Sure, Argent had saved me from the cancer which was going to kill me. His cryptic remarks about earth indicated he had saved me from whatever happened which would have killed me before the cancer had a chance to. I wondered what could have gone on there, but I couldn't get up much interest since I was worrying about what was going to happen here.

I felt sure we could get along just fine without Argent for as long as his absence lasted, but it didn't stop me from worrying about what would happen when he got back. I still didn't have the faintest idea why they wanted to do all of this in the first place, and I think it is pretty normal for humans to be curious about what is making a difference in their lives.

Knowing I needed to kick my own ass into motion and doing it were separated by a wide margin. Somehow I didn't have the get go to get going. I just wanted to sit here, hold Jaada, and drink coffee.

Maybe women could get enough of being held quicker than men could get enough of holding them. Jaada got up and went back to the kitchen, to cook I guess. Maybe she just had enough of sitting in the dark cloud of my mental funk. Shit, I was wallowing in self-pity without saying a word and really without a good reason. I hadn't lost a thing yet and in fact Argent had been generous with his going away gifts. I had to get up and do something.

I headed for the practice cave. I didn't really need any practice I knew of, but I decided to try out the new riflescopes. As I entered the cave I saw it was only dimly lit and from the reports I knew someone was firing. I waited at the entrance for them to finish.