Chapter 11

"John, Adel, can you give me a few minutes. I've had a brainstorm, and I'd like your opinion."

"Sure, fire away."

We walked over into a corner away from the others who were still madly asking and answering questions about life here and before they shifted. I said, "I have not had any chance to check up on my idea, and I'm not really sure that I know how to do that, but I have wondered if I panicked too much over the idea of the asteroid. It seems to me that the dry land we are standing on proves that it must be a million or more years before the asteroid strike. The asteroid landed in salt water not far from where we are standing, so there must have been time for the continents to drift apart a lot more than they are now. Continental drift isn't all that fast, so there must be plenty of time before the asteroid hits."

The two thought about what I said, and Adel commented, "I think you must be right. All of the destruction caused by that asteroid would have been a lot less if it had struck dry land, so there had to be plenty of water where it hit. Thank you, Jimmy, you have just taken a big load off my mind."

John said, "I have to agree with Adel. I think that you have the right idea. This frees us up for a lot of things that I want to do, including that search for sulfur. In the next few days, I would like to organize an expedition of exploration just to see what we can find. If I remember correctly, there was a lot of volcanic activity in this era, so sulfur may not be too hard to find."

"Well, I wonder if my panic that kept us from establishing a home back where we first landed caused a big screw up. I wonder if we would have been better off staying where we were."

John answered, "I doubt it. This cave complex is certainly safer and more convenient than any house that you could have built. For one thing, you don't have to worry about a dinosaur battering down your walls in this cave, and that was always a possibility with your wooden walls. I think you made the right decision, even if it was for the wrong reason.

"Look at it this way: your wall remnants made it easy for us to know you were here, and the skid tracks you left made it easy for us to find you. I'd say that was a good payback for several weeks of work."

"Thanks, that makes me feel better. A few minutes ago, I was feeling kind of foolish for over reacting. I think that the trip of exploration is a good idea, but I am concerned about you being the one who makes the trip. You are our midwife, and Angie is about to deliver. On top of that, a lot of other women hopefully will be delivering their first child pretty soon, so your services will be needed for a while. Angie can help you deliver the other babies, since she's had some ob/gyn experience."

"Dammit, you're right. Somebody else will have to lead the exploration trip. Well, we can talk about that later.

"Now, to other things. I have talked to Amos and Ezra about the way they should treat the girls they service tonight, and both of them have agreed to let the girls lead the way. Amos did ask for a Black girl for his first. He said that he would not feel quite so awkward that way. Adel, is that possible?"

"Yes, I can fudge a little on that and assign him to Mary. Her peak is not until tomorrow, but I think that we can bend the rules that far to accommodate him. She is a virgin, but says that her hymen was broken in a masturbation accident over a year ago. I'll talk to her a few minutes before she meets Amos so that she will know what to expect.

"I am assigning Julia to Ezra. Julia is already pregnant, but we don't have a pressing need for another peaking girl, so I thought that they would make a good pair to break Ezra in to our way of doing things. Julia will know what she wants, and she is experienced enough to make sure that Ezra has a good time.

"Jimmy, you are getting Linda. I had better warn you that she is sensitive because of her small breasts, but I know that you can cope. John, you are getting me, again. Before you say anything, I am claiming you because I am the one making out the schedule, and I intend to keep claiming you as much as I can." John perked up at this and did a Groucho Marx impression with his eyebrows.

Linda and I had not made love, previously, so I was not quite sure what to expect. Linda was of Chinese ancestry and, at best, was a small A-cup. I knew that not all Chinese women had small breasts, but that was the stereotype, and Linda lived up to it. I didn't know, yet, if she was a virgin, but its a rare champion volley ball player who still has her hymen. Well, we would find out tonight.

The next morning, Linda was happy and I was happy, so there is little more that can be said. On the other hand, we were all curious how the two new men had made out, or, more importantly, how their partners had made out. Julia and Mary both gave glowing reports on Ezra and Amos, so that worked out very well. With everybody happy, we were on our way to a very compatible group.

With four men and 17 women, a lot of the pressure was off. Actually, it was only 16 women, since Martha was still resisting efforts to get her to join in the breeding program (I know that sounds crude, but that's what it was). However, she was beginning to be attracted to Ezra, so she would probably break down pretty soon. We were all dead set against rape, but she was not pulling her share of the load, and we would have to start putting pressure on her if she didn't cooperate pretty soon.

A week or so later, John suggested that I lead an expedition to check on our original landing site to see if anybody else had arrived. I thought that would be fun, so I suggested we build another mobile ballista to take with us. We could take the three in the ballista crew and another hunter and figure on returning within three weeks. This time, we built another ballista and darts in 10 days and were ready to go. This ballista did have some difference in firing characteristics, so a whole new crew was trained specifically for it. Helen was the aimer, Janice was the loader, and Linda was the shooter. It only took a little bit of practice for them to become as expert as that first crew.

Sue, though pregnant, was still completely mobile, so she was the hunter selected to go with us. We took a small cart to carry our supplies and bring back a few thing from John's boat. If it looked worth while, we planned to take a large contingent back to salvage everything movable from that boat. We should have done that sooner, but something kept coming up. Oh, well, nothing was likely to be stolen.

Finally, we were ready to go. We figured to be "on the road" for four days, each way because of the bulk of the ballista. The women informed me that I would be expected to service each one on successive nights until we returned. They reckoned that as their "hazardous duty pay." I was agreeable, after all, how many 19 year old boys would have turned down that kind of an offer.

We started out early one morning and made good time for the first half of the day. We were among some trees when we caught sight of our first trouble. A group of three velociraptors were ahead of us and sure to catch sight of us before we could get away. Sue and I swapped our crossbows for AR-15s and the ballista crew got ready, too. Fortunately, we were partially protected by some of the trees, so we had a good chance of surviving with any kind of normal luck.

Helen lined up a shot on the nearest velociraptor while Janice and Linda cocked the weapon. The dinosaurs were so close that the dart went completely through one velociraptor and struck the one behind it hard enough to penetrate about a third of its length. The crew reloaded quickly because the first animal did not yet know that it was dead and had turned toward us to charge. The second raptor was trying to pull out the dart and not having much luck.