Chapter 20: Treaty and New Life

Extra Month #2, Day 30,
Day 278, Year 0001 DA
Walter

I ran down the ramp, and rolled Mike over; I cut the rope holding his bonds, and went to Katia. She was curled up in a ball crying as I held her. "Shhh, it's ok. I'm here," I whispered as she clutched me tightly.

"Not ok. You must banish me," she replied as she wailed.

"For what? Never!" I asked as I picked her up. Turning, I held her in my arms and looked at the carnage around us.

"I'm soiled. Even the mother will turn from us if you don't, it must be done. I will pack the items I'm allowed to take with me, and go out into the wilderness for a year. If I live, I will come home, otherwise I will die," she replied.

I stood her up and held her arms. She refused to look at me and I released her left arm. Taking her chin in my hand, I turned it so I was looking in her eyes.

"You were raped, that is all. Yes, it is a crime that happens to women, but it's not worth being banished. We will talk about it. I will love and support you. You are not going out into the wilderness. I won't let you. Mike won't let Nakita go, either. We are going to go clean the house, get rid of the bodies, and rebuild our life. Got me?" I said and kissed her hard.

With tears running down her face, she nodded her head.

"Ok," she said as her tears dried up.

I picked up Mike's rifle and handed it to him as well as handed Nikita her .30-30. We were about to head for the house when we heard the splash of ores. Turning, I raised my BAR and saw a white flag waving for my attention.

"What do you want?" I shouted.

"Parley," was shouted back.

"Come ahead. Any funny shit and I will kill you all," I shouted.

The girls slid behind their weapons as Mike and I walked to the shore after I picked up Blacks head and set it on the ground next to a body that was ripped apart from the mines we had planted. With my foot just under Black's head, and my rifle in the crock of my arm, we watched as a cutter approached us. A man wearing a dark blue shirt and a gold sash was in the bow of the ship. The boat touched the sand bed, and he jumped out of the boat. I watched as he waded through the water towards us. He stopped at the edge of the waterline and looked around at the damages, the bodies and then finally he looked at the two girls behind us with their weapons ready.

"Spit it out," I said.

"Surrender. You cannot win," he replied.

"I can't? Sure looks like it," I replied.

"Captain Black offers you the chance to join..."

I started laughing, and his face went red in anger.

"Captain Black will kill you for laughing at him," he snarled.

With a flick of my foot, I said, "Your Captain Black is dead."

He caught the head, and looked at the face. I saw fear in his eyes.

"Now listen to me. Go home to your island. Free your slaves and create a civilization and prosper. You have no way to go home. You are just like us, and I'm tired of killing people that we need. The aliens that brought us to this world have played a cruel joke on you. They ripped you from the seventeen hundreds, and dropped you on this world. So now you know. It is now two thousand and eight. Almost three hundred years have gone by. I know it only seems like months for you. But it isn't."

"Your weapons don't scare us. We will take you all," he snarled.

"Listen asshole, your weapons have been outdated for two hundred years. Where we come from, we have bombs that could destroy entire cities like London, with one detonation. In the twentieth century, we fought two wars that encompassed the entire world, millions perished in both wars. We have ships that make your ship of the line that we sank, look like a rowboat. We have planes that fly through the sky faster than you can see, and drop bombs thousands of miles away," I replied and pointed at the cruiser and said, "That ship was built in eighteen eighty-seven, her weapons are so far out dated to our modern ones, that all they are used for is museum pieces. Yet you saw what two hits did to the ship of the line you built. You saw what my machine gun did to the other! It took out its main mast with one burst. Your wooden ships are obsolete compared to ours. You have to use sails, while we use engines that can take us in any direction. So I tell you once more. Go home! Live in peace with the people around you. Make a new nation. Do that, and I will pardon you of all your crimes, committed here and back home. Don't, and I will hunt you all down, and kill every one of you."

"I will kill..."

The discharge of a pistol startled me, as he took a step forward, and then fell dead. My rifle was in my hands, and pointed at the man who shot him.

"My name is Avery, John Avery. I had to do it. He was the brother to Captain Black. We accept your offer. We will go home and build. It's not like we have a way home, to go back to," he said as he stepped out of the boat and walked towards us.

"John, my name is Walter Brakes, welcome to the right side of the battle. Now take your people and go. We will deal with the dead and bury them," I said as he came to a stop in front of me.

"Agreed, but let us deal with the bodies. I promise you no trick. We will use the cutters to gather the dead and bury them at sea," he asked.

"Very well, but if you want, you can bury them to the north. That's where we have been burying them. I will even dig the grave for you," I replied.

"Very well, and thank you. What can we supply you with as in compensation?" he asked.

"Nails, would be nice, and rods of steel say about twenty feet long, and a half inch thick" I said as I thought of the items we would need to build houses and rebar for concrete.

"We can do that. Can we send our kids to learn from you?" he asked.

"Yes, but we will need to build a school first. Send the kids from age's seven to twelve and we will teach them," I replied.

He spit in his hand and offered it to me. I spit in mine and we slapped them together as I he said, "Deal."

"Deal. Now, let's get this work done," I said and he went to his former captain and hoisted his body on to his shoulder and grabbed the head of Captain Black.

After the battle

For the next seven days, we cleaned up the battle area, gathered the bodies, and stacked the debris against the cliff wall. Using one of the sloops, we hoisted the cannons off the top deck of the sunken ship of the line and then Mike and I placed explosives in the hull and blew the top deck apart. Then using the manpower we had, we lifted the 32-pound cannons off the bottom deck and stacked them with the rest of the guns to be melted down. The rest I would gather over the coming months with the scuba gear, nets and the two cutters I had claimed.

I planned on using the two cutters as a floating dock. I would anchor them seven feet across and build a dock that ran from one boat to the other then plank the frame. I planned on mounting two of the spare motors on the back for power, and with the spar crane from the cruiser; she would make a floating repair dock for the inner harbor.

The first thing I did was stretch canvas across the open part of the ship after I removed the masts. I then sealed it down with glue and tar. With the two cutters waterproof, I started nailing the frame together. With the help of some of the pirates, we had the deck planks down on the third day, and the crane in place the next. Using the motors we motored out to the sunken ship of the line and anchored her there.