Chapter 22

While the drama between David and the other two boys was playing out, Elizabeth and Hannah busied themselves putting the metal Ben had brought back into good use. The plan all along had been to try to replicate a hover vehicle to help them improve their ability to travel further and quicker.

"We should perhaps start with something modest and see how we get on before trying something bigger," suggested Elizabeth.

Hannah agreed and they compared 'memories' before agreeing on a personal hover transporter called an A3000. The vehicle had one feature that none of the other Woden personal hover vehicles had — it completely enclosed its driver. The girls felt that would be important for their group. Most travel on Woden was undertaken under cover, with the main thoroughfares all covered and air controlled.

"You know, there's one thing that continues to bug me about being here and having to cope. I know it's only a small thing, but we should have fixed it ages ago," said Hannah.

"What?" asked Elizabeth.

"Think about it. We've just discussed what kind of vehicle we need to make. We took into account the climate here as compared to what it's like on Woden — and you have to agree that's really important. The thing that annoys me is that we continually have to refer to 'here' when we talk about this planet. Why haven't we given it a name yet? Don't you think it would make things a lot easier when we're talking about this world we live in?"

Elizabeth laughed at first and then thought about what Hannah had said.

"You know, you're absolutely right! Now that you mention it, it is annoying. We call it 'here' or 'this place' or even sometimes 'this planet'. Why haven't we given it a name? We were quick enough to give ourselves names, why should the planet be any different?"

Hannah was pleased that her friend was now agreeing with her. It seemed such a silly thing to have continually bugged her, but it had led to confusion when things were being discussed.

"We should wait until Thomas and Adam are back and then discuss it as a group. The name of the planet is something that everybody should be involved in," suggested Elizabeth.

"You're right, now, how about we try and replicate an A3000?" said Hannah.

All of the new resources that Ben had gathered had been loaded into the bin of the much bigger replicator and the girls were standing before it, nervously looking at each other to take the lead.

"You do it," said Hannah.

"No, you," replied Elizabeth.

"Maybe we should get Ben to do it?" suggested Hannah.

"That's a good idea, but both he and Sarah seem to be spending most of their time in their own cave these days. Goodness knows what they're spending their time on in there, but we hardly see them."

"At least Ben's able to keep us up to date with how Adam and Thomas are getting on. I don't care how much time he spends in his cave so long as he can keep watching them for us. I'll go and fetch them. This is a big moment," said Hannah.

Elizabeth fussed with the children while Hannah made her way to the cave that Ben and his family had taken as their own.

"Ben? Sarah? Can you come and help us with the replicator?" she called from the cave-mouth.

There were some sounds of movement within and eventually Ben came into sight. Hannah thought he looked a little guilty for some reason and put it down to the probability that she had caught Ben and Sarah being intimate.

"What's the problem?" Ben asked.

"Elizabeth and I want to know if Adam and Thomas are still safe. We're also ready to try to replicate a vehicle, but neither of us feels confident enough to do it on our own. Would you do it? You've collected all the materials after all."

"Adam and Thomas are both fine. They nearly caught David, but he jumped into a river to get away from them. I think they might be starting for home soon so that should make you both happy.

"As for the replicator, that's just plain silly! All you have to do is place your order and the machine will do everything else. What is there to feel nervous about?" Ben laughed.

"What about Lillian? Have the boys found her?"

Ben took a moment to choose his words carefully. So far as he knew, none of them were aware that David actually had Lillian and he had to answer in such a way that didn't give away the fact that he did.

"No, I'm sorry. Adam and Thomas haven't found Lillian, but I think you expected that. Didn't you?"

Hannah had suspected that Adam's finding the boot-print in the woods had been an excuse all along. She believed the excuse had been created to allow Adam to justify going after David as a way of channelling his feeling helpless at the loss of his daughter.

"It's been a wild goose chase from the very start. I'm glad that Adam hasn't been able to kill David, particularly for something he didn't do.

"Will you help us with the replicator? We're really worried about getting it wrong? Please? Would you do it for us? It would be a terrible waste of all the metal you've gathered if we were to mess it up. We'd both feel much more comfortable if you did it."

Ben welcomed the distraction, as it moved the conversation away from having to talk about Lillian.

"Okay, just let me tell Sarah where I'm going. She's got her hands full with the children."

It only took Ben a few moments to speak to Sarah and then he joined Hannah and they made their way to the cave that housed the huge replicator. Elizabeth herded the children out of the way when she saw them coming and then joined Hannah to stand behind Ben as he placed the order.

"We decided to go for an A3000. That seemed like the best choice given the weather we have to cope with 'on this planet'," said Hannah, "and that's another thing, we were wondering why we haven't named the planet?"

Ben considered Hannah's words. The choice of the A3000 made sense. When he compared the various models that were in his inherited memories he could see it was the only one that afforded any protection from the elements. Hannah's question about naming the planet also surprised him. It was such a simple thing, but he could see that it was important nonetheless.

"The A3000 is a good choice. Why don't I try to conjure one up?

"One top of the range A3000 personal hover vehicle," he ordered.

The A3000 appeared in front of Ben without any delay. Hannah and Elizabeth squealed their excitement and dashed past Ben to begin to examine their new transport.

It was bubble shaped and barely big enough to carry two passengers. The metal bodywork gleamed and the glass windows glinted in the torchlight inside the cave. The girls peered through the glass at the interior and dredged up their memories to identify how to get it to open.

"Door open," said Hannah and the right hand side of the A3000 swung upwards to allow entry. She climbed inside excitedly and Elizabeth rushed to the other side to repeat the process so she could join her.

Woden hover vehicles were ridiculously easy to operate — all instructions and manoeuvres were controlled through a neural net that tapped into the driver's brain signals. Hannah quickly had the thing hovering above the floor of the cave. Ben hastened outside to make sure the children weren't in any immediate danger of being run over and he watched as the A3000 zoomed past and headed down towards the lake.

Just as the vehicle seemed set to swoosh out over the water it came to a juddering halt. Hannah reversed and then mentally directed the craft out over the lake once again. On its second approach the same thing happened and Hannah decided that the vehicle wasn't able to travel over water. She directed it to swing around one hundred and eighty degrees and soon had it racing through the trees and up the hill that faced the caves.

Ben allowed himself a little smile of satisfaction. When he realised the hover craft was heading for the lake, he had immediately grabbed the pouch with his nuggets and used all of his enhanced mental strength to stop the A3000 crossing the water. He knew that if the twins realised the craft could cross water, it wouldn't be long before Adam would want to use it to cross the river in search of David. Hopefully his quick reactions would stop that from happening.

David decided to change the direction he was leading Sally and instead of going north, he turned to the east. Now he was walking parallel to the great river and whenever he reached higher ground, he could see it off in the distance. His infrequent glimpses suggested that the river was actually widening and he guessed he must be heading towards where it flowed into the sea or ocean.

"Look at how fertile this land is little Beckie! God has indeed been good to us, he's blessed us by leading us into a paradise!"

The little girl looked around. The soil did indeed look rich and fertile — although they didn't know it yet, it was enriched by the river flooding the plains each year, depositing minerals and silt as it did so.

There was plenty of vegetation around, but it was much different to what David had come across so far. There were trees and bushes, all of them bearing vivid flowers of red, purple and pink. David even noticed some vast fields of what looked like wheat and other cereals.

He had been relieved that God had somehow re-united him with Beckie and with the horse that carried the replicator on its back. One of his first tasks had been to quickly order up another P14 handgun to replace the one he had dropped before jumping into the river.

Now as he walked David had his eyes scanning for any suitable game he could kill to keep himself in food. He was also on the look out for a suitable place to set up a base from which to operate. Already he had come across several large herds of what he thought were antelope — hundreds of them at a time — and he had no worries about being able to survive in this new land.

"I think we're going to be happy here little one," he said.

"Can you get Sally to fly again," she asked excitedly, "it was such great fun the last time!"

"I think that only God can do that, Beckie. What he did was a miracle. Somehow he made it so that I could breathe underwater and then he carried you and Sally through the air so that you could be with me again. Nothing is beyond God. We should worship him and give thanks that once more he was watching over us."

"Hannah and Elizabeth are out joyriding in an A3000 and I need to keep an eye on them," Ben said as he herded all of the twins' children into his own cave.

"What's the problem?" asked Sarah looking up from cleaning one of their own little ones.

"If they find out the hover craft can cross water then Adam will immediately want to go after David. We need to make sure that he has a few weeks to get lost in the wilderness on the other continent before it will be safe to allow the possibility of Adam crossing the river."

"Oh, I see what you mean. You keep an eye on the girls then and I'll take over minding the children," said Sarah.

Ben sat by the fire and closed his eyes to bring up his 'worldview'. It was easy to pick out the point of light that represented the two girls and he quickly zoomed down to the planet's surface to check what they were up to.

He could see that they were having great fun in the hover craft — zig-zagging across the fields and just having fun with their new toy. There was no water close to where they were and Ben thought that it was safe to leave them for the moment.

He zoomed out again and searched for the points of light that represented Adam and Thomas. When he zoomed in to watch the boys, he saw that they were following the tracks that Sally had left when she had bolted.

"Well boys, you're going to be in for a surprise when you find the horse's tracks just come to an abrupt end!" he laughed to himself.

Ben could see that it would take them perhaps another hour to reach the spot where he had lifted the horse into the air and he decided to check on David.

Zooming out, he paused while looking down at the planet's surface. He examined all of the points of light to identify the various resources that were fairly close to David. If the boy was going to survive he would need materials for the little replicator unit he had and Ben decided to help him find what he needed.

One spot stood out in the landscape below him. It seemed particularly rich in minerals but also in wildlife and Ben decided to investigate it. He took his view down to a point where he could pick out the features of the surface below and gauged how suitable it would be for David and little Lillian.

There were hills here that led down to flat plains stretching all the way to the banks of the great river. Game and plant life were plentiful so food wouldn't be a problem. There were also a good number of sources of metal ore and large swathes of woodland that would be useful raw material for David to use. The only thing that was missing was a cave, but David should be able to use the materials available to build a house for himself.

When he checked, Ben estimated that it would take David around a week and a half to walk to the spot he had found. That should put enough distance between himself and where he had crossed the river to make it unlikely that Adam would aver find him. An idea of how he could speed the boy's progress came to him and he smiled to himself once more.