Chapter 7

Things were subdued amongst the now smaller group over the next few days. Hannah had recovered remarkably well, perhaps due to the fact that David hadn't actually succeeded in raping her.

The twins were cautious and only went around in pairs - just in case David did decide to do something stupid, but no one saw any sign of him and it seemed he had taken their warnings seriously.

The first clay bricks dried out enough for Ben to begin building the oven and it was taking shape quite rapidly. He fashioned the base out of a thick layer of stones and then smoothed clay over the top of that so get a good finish. At some point he knew they would need to sweep the leftover ash out of the oven and he allowed for that in the design. He had finished his bellows and left a space in the brickwork for them to fit later. In the meantime he shaped a smaller clay brick that would be used in the hole to stop heat escaping.

Shaping the roof of the oven into a dome proved to be the most difficult part of the construction but Ben managed it by using additional water to soften the clay and then some wood as a scaffold to support the dome until the clay hardened enough to support itself.

One of the first things Ben intended to 'fire' was a clay door that he had shaped for the oven. Once that was fitted, he was sure the kiln would be ready to turn out the first pottery.

Elizabeth had already started to shape clay to make the first bowl. She used stones from the beach to get a smooth surface on the inside of the bowl and her plan was to use the first one as a mould to then prepare enough for all of them to use. She also had a go at shaping some clay beakers so they would have something to drink from and two large clay jugs/pots that would hopefully be able to carry water.

Elizabeth's final 'pieces' were four large pots that she hoped would give them something to cook in. Their foraging had tuned up quite a lot of vegetables and herbs growing wild and she longed to try to cook some of the dishes her memory told her were possible. The pots were much thicker in their construction and would probably need to be fired for longer than the other pieces, but that would be worth it if they functioned as she hoped.

Once Ben was satisfied with the oven door, he let Elizabeth place all of her pieces on the various ledges and then loaded additional coal to feed the fire. All six of them gathered to watch the first pottery being brought out of the oven and the fact that this was another success did something to begin to lift the mood.

"Well done Elizabeth, those things are going to make life a lot easier," said Adam.

"Thank Ben, he's the one who came up with the idea of making an oven," she replied.

"No, thank everyone, it was a team effort," said Ben, glossing over the fact that Thomas had contributed virtually nothing to the work.

One of the jugs lost its handle almost immediately and Elizabeth decided not to bother with that feature in future. That was the only failure however, and they now had bowls in which to eat the venison 'stew' that Elizabeth was attempting to make.

"Mmm, this tastes fantastic," enthused Thomas, giving his twin a smile of gratitude.

They all agreed that this was by far the best thing they had eaten so far, made possible by Elizabeth's pots and she enjoyed their praise.

More than two weeks had now passed since they had emerged from the propagation systems and Ben was gradually slipping into the role of their leader - whether he wanted to or not. The fact was that he was the one most likely to use what was in his memories to drive them on to their next breakthrough, he was the one most confident about making decisions and the others were keen for him to shoulder the responsibility.

He asked Adam to join him in a journey to explore further than they had up until this point. He was desperate to find metal of any description so they could start to make tools that would speed their progress even more.

Ben had also come up with another project that he hoped the girls would work on while he and Adam took their trip. He was keen for them to make paper if they could - the idea had occurred to him when he had thought of making a map of the area he and Adam would explore.

All of them had the necessary memories that told them how paper could be made and Ben hoped the girls and Thomas would be able to show some initiative while he was gone.

"But what will we use to make a screen and where are we going to find a press?" Elizabeth moaned.

"I'm sure you'll come up with something," Ben encouraged her.

"I've made you both up a parcel of food and you can take the water bag," Sarah said.

She and Hannah were not looking forward to being without their twins for a number of days, but she could see why Ben felt it was important for them to explore the planet they were on more than they had so far. Progress depended on it, but she didn't have to be happy.

Ben gave her a hug and Adam followed suit with Hannah.

"Look after them Thomas and keep an eye out for David. No one is to wander around on their own, is that clear?" asked Ben.

He got nods of agreement and could see that Sarah's eyes were beginning to water now that the time for his departure was here. He turned to go before he lost his resolve and Adam joined him. Once they were twenty yards away from the fire, far enough that they wouldn't see any tears, they turned and gave one final wave.

"Which direction are you planning on going?" Adam asked.

"That's a good question and I wish we had some way of navigating, but we don't. I'm not even sure that the sun rises in the East here like our memories tell us is the case on Woden.

"The best I can come up with is that we climb the escarpment and then go straight ahead. I thought we would pick out landmarks we can see in the distance and aim for them so we don't end up walking around in circles."

Adam was impressed that Ben had thought things through as much as he had. He had been worrying about getting lost if they went too far from their campsite, but Ben's explanation was reassuring.

"What should I be looking out for in particular?"

"Anything that looks as if it might be useful, but what I most want to find is a source of iron-ore if possible. I'm planning on us being away for three days so we need to think of walking in a triangle with the apex being the escarpment.

"Any further than that and the job of moving the ore to the oven, or if we relocate, moving the coal to wherever we end up, will be impossible."

Once they climbed up the cliff, Ben took a fix on a high peak off in the distance and they started out heading in that direction. He made sure to stop and look backwards frequently so they wouldn't get lost on the return journey.

The seeding of the planet was still recent enough that the trees hadn't grown enough to form any dense forests. That meant that the land they were walking through was easy enough going and they were making good time.

The countryside certainly wasn't tropical, but it was still very warm. There hadn't been any rain since they had 'emerged' and although the youngsters knew in theory what rain was, they would be surprised when they first felt it fall on them.

"Look over there!" cried Adam at one point.

He had spotted a small herd of horses and both of them immediately knew that catching and taming some of them would be a huge benefit for the group. Horses would extend the distance they could travel in a day and would also help with heavy work.

"I wish we could get our hands on some of them. Imagine what a difference they would make," said Ben.

"It would certainly save my poor feet," laughed Adam.

By mid afternoon they were starting to climb and the peak they were heading towards was considerably closer. Both boys were scanning every inch of the ground they passed, looking for signs of the ores they were looking for.

"Ben, something's just occurred to me," said Adam.

"What?"

"We've all agreed that this planet isn't Woden, it's another planet in another galaxy. How do you even know this planet has iron-ore? The elements on this planet might be completely different."

Ben stopped walking. Adam's question was a killer. He was right of course and Ben hadn't thought of it.

"You're right and I hadn't thought about that. I guess my memory told me about the way Woden 'seeds' planets, so I expect all of the things we 'know' about to be here. But that might only apply to organic things and the rocks and minerals might well be different."

"That just goes to show that you can't think of everything," Adam laughed. "Ben, don't worry about it. From what we know about gravity and atmosphere, I'm sure the make up of this planet is pretty close to Woden's.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Think about how much progress we've made in only two weeks. According to our history, the things we've done took our ancestors hundreds if not thousands of years to learn. I think we're doing well."

Adam was right again. They did of course have a massive advantage over their ancestors, as they held all the information in their heads telling them what could be done and how. Still, for a group of twelve year-olds (although that was one of the things they didn't know, their age) they had made good progress. Their super-intelligence helped of course - they were much more advanced than a human twelve-year-old.

"Well, let's keep going and see what we find," Ben said at last and they started walking again.

They found a place to camp for the night well before the darkness fell. Ben had explained that it would be too risky trying to find a spot in the dark so they stopped at the first suitable spot while there was still enough light and ate some of the food that Sarah had wrapped up in leaves for them.

The spot they had chosen was by the side of a fast moving stream, which must have its source somewhere up in the mountains that were now quite close by. A dip in the ground and some large boulders provided some shelter and the water would allow them to replenish their water skin.

When night did fall, they found it was noticeably colder than they were used to and without a fire they were uncomfortable and didn't manage to get much sleep. Ben was up as the sun started to rise and he walked down to the stream to drink and fill up the water skin.

As he was about to stand up from the water's edge, the morning sun glinted on something on the streambed. Ben kept his eye on it and waded out so that he could pick up whatever it was. When he brought it out of the water, he found that he was holding a nugget of almost white metal.