Chapter 17: The girls

Extra Month #2, Day 27,

Day 273, Year 0001 DA

Walter

I turned and looked at the two women passed out on the floor, but my first thought was to check the Captain's Cabin to see if anyone was still hiding in there. Picking up my dropped pistol, I holstered the empty one and stepped into the spacious room. A huge bed dominated one wall. A desk was in the center. Two eight-pound cannons were on either end of the desk.

Checking the standing closet, I found it full of clothes that I wouldn't be caught dead in.

Turning, I stopped as I looked at the skeleton hanging in an iron cage. The man was wearing the remnants of a blue and white uniform.

Stepping out of the room, I reloaded my empty pistol and holstered it. Carlos was lying beside the bulkhead where he fell so I knelt beside him and rolled him over. His left arm was defiantly broken, because the arm wasn't supposed to rest in that direction. I checked his chest area where the man's boot print was on the dusty jacket. I thought he had some broken ribs. He started to wake up and I told him to lie still while I checked him over.

"Carlos, do you hurt when I touch you here?" I asked as I checked his ribs.

He cried out in pain and I knew the ribs where broken. I helped him out of his shirt and jacket and opened my medical pouch I carried on the back of my belt. Pulling out the large roll of gauze I was carrying, I started wrapping his chest so his ribs wouldn't move when he got up.

While I was working on him, the two women woke up and I apologized that I wasn't able to check on them, but the boy needed help first. They gave me a dirty look and pushed me out of the way to tend to him. I sat and listened to them, and realized that one of the women was his older sister and that they had been traveling on the San Cristobel to Cartagena when she was captured.

While the women worked on Carlos, I picked up the dead captain and carried him upstairs and stripped him. Tossing his body overboard, I did the same with the rest of the bodies so they were not in sight when the ladies came up. I figured that we could use the jolly boat to get everyone ashore.

I had no idea how to get them home where they would be safe. I was sitting there thinking and then went to look in the cargo hold to see if anything in there would work. I was surprised when I found two old fashion hand sleds, but then I realized it was to drag game with, because of the dried blood on the boards.

Dragging them upstairs, I dropped them on the deck and went looking for something to wrap the woman in when we were ready to go. I was startled when a voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Who are you? What do you plan on doing with us?" said a voice behind me.

I turned and was looking at the older of the two women and said, "Well, for one, I want to get home to my wives. For two, I want to get you to where you both will be safe. My name is Walter Brakes."

"You speak with a funny English accent," she said.

"That's because I'm an American. We don't speak the 'Kings English', in the time I come from. What is your name?" I asked.

"Louise-Maria Angelica Gonzales and the young man you rescued is my son Carlos. The other is my daughter, Rosita-Carina Gonzales. You said 'to your home', can you send us home to Spain?" she replied as she stepped out on the middeck.

"No. The planet Earth is far away from here. I'm sure you have noticed the two moons," I said. When she nodded her head, I continued, "Well, people from another world kidnapped you and the fleet, and dropped you on this planet. Now a different group of them are recruiting humans from my time to help the natives build a civilization. But first, I must deal with the pirates, before they ruin it all. Already three ... no four times, they have attacked us. This is the final straw! I won't have it! I won't put my wives and children in danger anymore!"

"Wives?" she asked.

"Here, if you kill the mate of a woman, the wife and child become your responsibility. I now have six wives, while my friend Mike has four. We each have several children, including several boys rescued from a pirate ship," I replied.

I lowered the first sled into the longboat boat I had found tied to the other side of the ship. I climbed down the side of the ship and secured the sled, and climbed back up to get the second one.

"What are you doing with that sled?" Louise asked once I reached the deck.

"It's for the two of you two sit on so my snowmobile can pull you around the bay to my home. There we can treat Carlos' wounds, and save his arm," I replied as I walked towards her.

I froze as she pulled out a pistol and pointed it at me, "Don't come closer!" she demanded and I stopped and raised my arms.

"Look I mean you no harm. If you want, you can stay here for all I care. I care that Carlos sees our doctor so he can save his arm..."

"His arm will have to come off, there is no saving it," she said.

"Yes there is, all we need to do is get him to our doctor. She will do the rest," I said as I lowered my arms.

"You can save his arm?" she asked and I nodded and she lowered the pistol. "Then please do so. I believe he will need them both when he grows up here. It will be a very hard life," she added as she tucked the pistol into her pocket.

"First we need something to keep you all warm, so let's see what we can find," I said and we went below where Rosita was tending to her brother.

Going into the Captain's cabin, I stripped the bed and searched the chests. I found a small bag of gems that I thought Mayra would like and tucked them in my pocket as I pulled out several long jackets. Handing them to the girls, they carried them up to the deck and I followed with Carlos. I helped all three of them down to the boat and then I climbed in, rowing around the sloop, we grabbed the lead line for the bigger boat and we towed it to shore.

With the girls carrying the bed blankets and wearing the coats, I picked up the sled and carried it over my head. Stopping before I reached the crest of the hill, I set it down and took a peek over the top. The snowmobile was sitting right where I left it. So I grabbed the sled and carried it down to the cart and turned it around to point it the way we wanted it to go. Starting the vehicle scared the two women, but they didn't run away which was good. While I was tying the rope handle to a long rope, I explained what was going to happen so they wouldn't be too afraid. I got the girls sitting and had Carlos in front of them. I piled my pack and the extra clothes behind Louise so she could lean back. Tucking the heavier blanket around them I started the snowmobile and drove slowly until the women were used to it. At the pirate's camp, I found a few more blankets that I wrapped around them and then we headed home.

We arrived as dark was falling. I was starving, and I knew my passenger's were as well. I hurried the last mile to home, once we hit the paved road. As we approached the cave, the doors opened and we drove in to everyone cheering me. Mayra was shocked to see her former seamstress and dragged the two woman off to the house for a hot shower while Amber took Carlos to the medical trailer and an hour later, he was sleeping in a warm bed with his ribs taped and his arm in a plaster cast after eating several grilled cheeses and several bowls of soup. By one am, we were in bed and sleeping.

Extra January, Day 11,

Day 273, Year 0001 DA

Walter

For the next several weeks, everything was ok. Using the fishing boats, we towed the sloop Cutter's Teeth to the bay and anchored her where the winds wouldn't drive her ashore. We stripped her of her supplies, and made several trips with the gunpowder to the powder magazine. We anchored her next to where the cruiser was. We lifted her cannons off her deck with a crane we had made, and stored them off to the side to be melted down. I had a plan to using the iron for a rail line, so I wanted to save the iron. First, though, we would need a foundry and tilt hammers to pound the metal into rails. That was a project for later. For now, we finished packing the freezer trailers, and got everything ready to go.

Extra January, Day 21,

Day 273, Year 0001 DA

Walter

It was ten days after that, when the shit hit the fan. I looked out the door and saw a canoe beached there. There were twenty-seven people sitting on the beach with most of the adults sporting bandages. One of them was carrying a rifle and I knew who it was so I opened the door, and walked out.

Walking over I said "Napoleon, what are you doing here?"

"Hi, Walter. We were attacked, five days ago, by pirates. They have taken the island. We need your help," he said.

"You have it. Let me get our doctor to look at your wounded. Come inside and have some coffee," I said.

He smiled at that and nodded his head. While he turned to his people, I went inside and sounded the alarm. Our people came out and my wives ran to their family members and we helped the wounded inside. The kids dragged the other kids away to the living room, to play computer games. My women went to the kitchen, and started making food for everyone.