Chapter 62

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." R. Frost

It's been six months since we returned from our original timeline. Billy and Maria are going to be parents. Lisa has decided to wait a little while so she can help Maria. They have conspired to alternate years for children. I convinced HAL to help make that happen. Billy now has 5 other wives and they all adore him. I certainly am glad I was able to bring them along.

The village is getting bigger every week as more groups of people apply for residence. We've had to build more public conveniences and we teach every newcomer that we won't allow them to soil our village. If they can't learn to use the latrines, they can't stay.

Many of the original group now have wood frame homes to live in. They still have fireplaces for winter heat, but we are working on that. Billy and Brutus have discovered a vein of iron ore about two miles north of here. HAL did help with the survey and we are now mining 1^st quality ore.

HAL told us about an easy way to make a rock crusher so we could process the ores easier. We domesticated a couple of Auroch to harness and they provide the muscle power, walking the circular path while the giant stone crushes the ore into usable size.

Billy had an idea for a furnace to melt down the iron. We ran it by HAL and he said it was do-able. We built a brick and mortar building with a thick clay lining. By building a fire under the clay and using a big fan with an air flow concentrator, we were able to bring the temperature of our coal fire up to the required 2000 degrees to melt the iron. We built a channel for the molten metal to drain out of the building and we had forms set. When we poured we ended up mostly with 4x4 sheets of 1/2 inch thick iron. With this working the way we wanted, we next made sand molds of the one franklin stove we had. It happened to be in the office of the barn in uptime and when the barn came, it came too.

It took several trials to get the molds of sand correct. We didn't like the way the sand was working so we had to look for a different mix. We finally hit on the fine silicate sand from a dry lakebed 5 miles to the east. A plus was this sand would turn out to be good glass making sand, too. After three weeks of hard work, Billy produced our first franklin stove.

It turns out that that was the easy part. The hard part was making the stove pipe. That took a little longer, but Billy finally came up with a way to get it done. We didn't have any bailing wire to spare and were running low on duct tape, but we fixed it up anyway. (There's a saying in Texas, "If you can't fix it with bailing wire or duct tape, it ain't worth fixin'!" ) In the log run, these Franklin stoves would be better heat sources than the fireplaces.

We also got the aqueduct finished about this time. Using the same techniques the Romans used, we had running water from the River to the compound. We dug a pond over by the Barn and it was kept full by our personal water service. We also made some ponds for washing, so the women wouldn't have to carry clothes to the river. We found it was easier as well as more efficient to make a laundry facility. Once the roof was finished, it became an all weather Laundromat. We used some of the natural concrete to make the wash pools, which were about eight feet on a side.

HAL had directed us to a nice deposit of borax and we used it as our laundry soap. That allowed the fat rendered soap to be saved for bathing bodies. We still used the spring in the cave for drinking water and the piping we had allowed us to expand our water system with more faucets for the community. Most were located at the kitchen, but several were extended to the areas furthest away from the main hub of the town.

When we found the huge slab of Marble I was overjoyed. I had just the use for it. It had taken two months of work to chisel it into the proper shape. I found that Manaqua had a talent for stonework, so I put him on the task. He gathered together three boys to help him. When he was finished at last we had a party.

I filled the lower chamber with wood and started the fire. You could feel the heat build. The top was filled with water from the cave spring. Still the temperature rose. When it was just right I stepped up to it and climbed in to my very own hot tub. It was designed just the way the Romans had done it. It felt good on my weary muscles and I relaxed. Many of my women joined me. Too many in fact as we demonstrated the principle that Archimedes discovered all those centuries from now. The water spilled over the sides of the tub. Miya made the greatest displacement, being as she was so big with her pregnancy. HAL kept a close check on her and she was doing fine.

Fine isn't the half of it. Her breasts had swollen because of the development of milk. She started leaking early on in the pregnancy, but now, too much pressure would force the sweet liquid from her nipple and anyone close got a shower of breast milk. It didn't bother me, I liked taking her firm nipple in my mouth and sucking the delicious life giving fluid from her. It was a turn on for her, too. She would contract her vaginal muscles when I was drinking her milk. I could get myself milked while I was milking her. Her sister and some of the other wives also enjoyed drinking from her. Many times she would orgasm while they were playing with and drinking from her milk filled udders.

As she slipped down into the water the massive mammaries floated like twin battleships with their forward cannon (her extended nipples) aiming off in the distance. I could see the pleasure on her face as she surrendered her body to the heat of the tub and water. More wives joined us in the large tub, each one also making contented sounds as they slipped into the heated water. They were lazily touching each other or me with soft caresses. As I looked around I'd see a hand stimulating someone's nipple, or a mound covered by a hand caressing the labial folds of another. It was a very sensual scene. I closed my eyes in relaxation.

Inevitably, an emergency came up that needed my immediate attention and I had to get out of the tub. Most of the women just moved to one side or the other to get out of my way but no one made a move to get out. I didn't blame them a bit. It was Brant this time. He indicated that the Roan mare was about to foal and she looked in distress. I apologized to him silently. This was an emergency. I pulled on my jeans, grabbed shirt and boots and lit out towards the barn. I caught up to him after about 100 yards and slowed my pace to match the shorter man's gate. Maybe two minutes had passes since Brant told me about the mare and I was at the barn.

I hurried inside found Billy in the stall with the mare. I couldn't have wanted anyone else there. I don't think anyone was more qualified than Billy when it came to horses. He'd lived them every day since the time he started high school. My heart resumes it's normal pace.

"Looks breech to me" he said, his concentration fixed on the mare. "She's having a rough time right now. I am going to give her about five more minutes and then I'm going to pull the stubborn little bastard out of there. I'm not loosing my best mare today."