Legend
Chapter 03
Charles W Bird
[email protected]
Astronomers have discovered that the incredible gravitational strength of supermassive black holes can tear planets away from their star systems and hurl them through space at incredible speeds—as fast as 30 million mph.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The story is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced by any means without the express, written permission of the author.
***************************************************************
From Book 2; They all knew it was going to be a long struggle to recover from this disaster, but they already discovered that they had wonderful support from The People and the Humans who had come to live with them. Whether it was association with The People or an effect of the Cosmic Wave, the humans were gaining the powers of their cousins, The People. They knew they were related, but none ever suspected that Humans could acquire such powers so quickly. They truly were becoming ONE FOLK.
RECLAMATION
While rescue efforts led by Dennis and Gila ranged further and further afield, the two farm boys, John and Joe asked if they could experiment with growing plants in the sterilized soil. They had the support of the Refugee Council and Captain Hay agreed it was an important undertaking.
They gathered a group of teens of both races and hauled soil working machines over to the area near the lake that covered the former site of Globe. They worked the soil and set a small pump to irrigate their planting beds from a nearby stream that had appeared. They first planted corn and beans and, within the germination period of three weeks, they had both varieties sprouting in the warm sunshine.
Their instruments told them their new elevation was 2,600 feet above sea level, about half it had been before “the event”. They felt the sunshine seemed stronger than before. They asked the ship’s Navigator about that and he set up his instruments outside.
They were shocked when he told them they were only 10 degrees above the equator! That could only mean the axis of the planet had shifted! It was no wonder then, that so much damage to the land had taken place during the passage of the Cosmic Wave.
The plants grew fast and in a month, the corn was higher than a man’s head and ears were beginning to form. The green beans had already started to produce and, when they were introduced on the menu in the Eating Hall, there was a near riot of folk asking for seconds!
The experiment was deemed a success; Joe and John found themselves in charge of a full scale farming operation. Within weeks, they had much of the valley under cultivation.
A small herd of cattle had been saved in the caverns and Peter suggested planting grass and hay for the cattle. Milk production had fallen way off and, what little they had was saved for the small children and babies among them.
The Council gave Peter the “Go ahead” and James and Bart were out the next day plowing fields and drilling seed in the valley of the former Refuge, which had not survived the Cosmic Wave.
They cobbled together an irrigation system with nozzles and plastic pipe and soon there were green fields. As soon as the grass was well established, the cattle were turned out to graze, for the first time since the wave hit, all the children had yellow butter to put on their morning toast and a glass of milk to go with it.
It would be some time before the herd grew large enough to give everyone a taste, but it was important that the growing children benefit immediately.
Once it was proven that plants could survive in this new environment, trees and shrubs were set out and the hills gradually became cloaked in green. They still had the occasional violent rain storms, but, as the trees and grasses took hold, damage and washouts became fewer.
A few predators had survived the calamity and were occasionally seen roaming the nearby hills, but they seemed to avoid areas where there was mind-speak. It was thought that, perhaps, they were sensitive to it and it bothered them. In any case, nobody minded the fact that such creatures avoided the areas that they were inhabiting.
Progress was slow and, for a while, the inflow of survivors brought in was greater than they could accommodate with food grown in the fields, but, as the inflow began to subside, and the growing plants were catching up rapidly, fresh food was served at every meal.
Being so close to the new equator, the growing season spanned nearly the entire year. There seemed to be no diseases to attack the plants and very few insects had survived the cataclysm.
One morning, they went out to start the irrigation pump in the corn and Joe discovered parts of the field had been trampled! They followed the prints and discovered a stallion and his harem of three mares.
Joe and John mind-sent for help and Peter, with his other sons, James and Bart, spent the morning coaxing the horses into a small stockade. When he checked them out, Peter was certain all three mares were in foal. The next morning, they discovered two more mares crowded up to the fence of the paddock. They went willingly inside to be with the other horses.
Over the next few months, the horse herd grew to forty mares and six stallions. They had to be separated as the stallions got to fighting over the mares. Some of the mares were already broken to the saddle and all three stallions were also saddle broken, somewhat. They had begun to go wild and it took considerable effort to remain in the saddle at first.
After they had devised some saddles patterned after those the Native Americans had used, Peter and his sons held riding lessons for the searchers so that they could go out on patrols to rescue survivors still lost in the wilderness of stone and upheaval.
As grasses began to take hold, the cattle started to roam. James and Bart applied to manage the herd. Their first love had been cattle and they were in delight to be able to start again. Neither brother could sing worth a hoot, but they were frequently heard warbling out a serenade to the cows at night. They both sounded like love-sick crows!
As calves and foals were beginning to drop, both boys spent their nights tending animals in labor. Some of the younger teens looked on in envy and were invited to come and help. As the herds grew, so also did the group of cowboys.
Some were better singers than others! FORTUNATELY!
The searchers were beginning to roam far afield in search of refugees, they crossed the new equator, headed south into what had once been Mexico. They discovered a huge valley with a wide river flowing through it. At night, there were dots of lights showing small campfires along the river.
They plotted them on their charts and flew the fliers to each the next day. With mind-speak, they had little trouble communicating with those they found trying to survive in the new wilderness. As with those found further north, the majority of survivors were teens and older children. The survivors were all bewildered by what had taken place and had no problems coming onboard a flyer and taken to a place of safety.
The searchers came to a convergence of two rivers, where they discovered a large community of teens, children and young babies huddled in makeshift tents.
Les and Ton were leading the group of flyers as they landed. A tall teen boy, carrying a spear and a club blocked their way. He threatened them and demanded that they leave. Ton sat on the dirt and held out empty hands to the teen, indicating he wished to communicate with him. Ton pointed to his own head and then to the teen’s head as he sent simple messages to him.
The Teen Leader’s eyes popped wide open and he staggered, “I, I. uh. I hear you in mmm my head. What are you?”
Ton sent, “I am of The People and cousins to your folk, but my friend is an Earth Human like yourself. We wish to help you, we have food in our flyer, are your people hungry?”
The teen thought, “I am Yosel, I lead these who have been wandering in search of safety. Will you feed us and not hurt us like the others did?”
The teen’s thoughts alarmed both Les and Ton and they mind-called for assistance. Immediately, three teams responded, “We Come, Wait for us!” Within minutes, three flyers came screeching out of the sky, their repulsers glowing bright red in overload as they landed beside their own flyer and the six rescuers joined Les and Ton.
When they understood the first need was food, the newcomers started hauling out containers of fresh food and milk, something the refugees had not seen since the upheaval. As soon as the food was laid out, children came running from all directions, some were crying as they saw real food being handed to them.
The older teens were hanging back until the children had been served, then they dove in, their own hunger was now almost beyond control.
Yosel sat with Les and Ton while he was wolfing down a hunk of fresh bread and pieces of roasted meat. Yosel asked, “Who are you and what is the cost to us for this food”
Ton sent, “COST? There is no cost, we bring this food so that your people do not starve.”
Yosel was having a difficult time believing what Ton had told him. He sent, “Bbb But the others took teens and boys in payment for the scraps of food they gave us. They took my eer er, Friend too”
Les asked, “From where did those people come?”
Yosel pointed to the river that joined the main river the searchers had been following, “From somewhere up that river, some were riding horses and others were on foot. They took twenty of our people and tied their hands as they led them off. What they left us for food was scraps and gnawed bones.”
Les mind-sent the information Yosel had given them to the three flyer commanders and the three flyers leaped into the air at maximum thrust and screamed their way up the smaller river, disappearing in the thunderclap of sonic booms.
The smaller children, their tummies now full, were looking for a place to nap. Ton and Les motioned for the small children to come to them and they snuggled the little ones until they had fallen asleep.
Yosel, who had been sitting beside Ton and Les, did the same. With three small children in his lap, his tears started flowing down his face, he struggled to talk and Ton sent, “Try just thinking what you want to say, we can hear you.”
Yosel thought, “I have tried so hard to keep my children safe and free. The ones who those people took, volunteered so that the little ones could have food. I was so foolish to believe they actually had food for us and now I have lost those and will never see them again.”
Ton sent to the grieving teen, “Not so, our comrades will get them back, did you not see our flying machines race up that river?”
Yosel thought back, “But, you have no clubs, no spears to fight those people.”
Ton pulled his stunner from his holster and sent to the young leader, “No, we do not use clubs or spears, but this weapon will stop those who raided you and my friends will bring your people back to you. Just be patient until they return.”
Yosel was so tired and weary, his eyes had started to droop like the smaller children when he overheard mind-speak between Ton and a flyer Commander reporting that they had smashed a slaver camp and were bringing the captives back to the camp. He reported that he had sixty teens and children, plus four adults, one of whom was elderly and needed assistance as he had been badly abused.
Les and Ton put the children they were holding down and stood to watch for the incoming flyers. Yosel also stood and scanned the sky, Les spotted them first, and at his shout, the three of them went to the landing area to meet the crews and those they had rescued.
The folk the Flyer crews had rescued smelled abominably, they had running sores and encrusted filth all over them. The flyer crews emptied their craft of anything remotely like a cleansing agent or hand wash and brought it to the rescued folk so that they could bathe in the nearby river.
None of them hesitated, boy and girl children, teens of both sexes and also adults, they flung their filthy clothing from their bodies and raced into the water to scrub the slaver smell from them.
One older teen girl shouted, “I would rather go naked than smell of those foul animals!”
An older teen boy emerged from the river after cleaning himself and Yosel screamed, “Jer” and went racing to the soaking wet boy, throwing his arms around him.
Yosel brought the young man to meet their rescuers, Les and Ton. He said, “This is Jer, the one whom I love. We will go away, if you wish us to.”
Ton replied, “Love is love and we are happy for you.”
The elderly man they had rescued had been beaten nearly senseless by his captors, the flyer crews washed him gently and appraised his injuries, as soon as they had seen how terribly the old man had been beaten, Ton mind-screamed back to Rescue Command that they needed Caregivers, RIGHT NOW!
Dennis was on duty, by the time he finished calling for help, the entire ship’s Medical Department was awake and on the run.
A flight of fifteen flyers, led by Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord took off with their thrusters smoking, they never dropped their throttles below EMERGENCY the entire flight.
As they arrived in the area, sonic booms were smashing at the hillsides, causing small rockslides. The flyers sat down, the thrusters still glowing from being run the whole distance above design sustained thrust.
The hatches were opened and Medical Technicians and Caregivers leaped to the ground. Ton and Les were waving them on, to come and help the injured.
Yosel and Jer helped where they could, these were their people and they felt a great responsibility for them. Ton and Les ferried medical supplies from the flyers to the Caregivers and Technicians with the three Caregiver Surgeons, they worked past daylight setting fractures and sewing up body parts.
Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord was in high rage as he surveyed what had been done to the refugees. He demanded of Flyer Wing Commander Bork to take the flyers and destroy the animals that hurt these people so horribly.
Commander Bork saluted the Chief Pilot and said out loud, so those without mind-speak would hear, “Sir, there are none left to destroy, we swept their camp with the flyer thrusters as we departed, none survived. We left the earth scorched as a warning to others!”
RAGE
It was decided, with Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord demanding, that the flyers search out refugees and slavers throughout the former nation of Mexico.
Chief Pilot Cord demanded that no slaver, no bandit, or any abuser be left alive!
They gathered a flyer squadron of sixty flyers and they took off with Chief Pilot Cord in overall command. The rescued folk began to arrive at the confluence of the two rivers in droves. Every Flyer was overloaded as they brought them in, many flying in Emergency Overload to carry the additional weight!
Ton and Les had to mind-speak with Ship’s Captain Hay, requesting more help. They needed shelters, Caregivers, Caregiver Surgeons, medicines and most of all, food!
Before Pilot Cord would release the flyers, there were twenty-six hundred refugees in the camp.
The pain and suffering was beyond what only the most dedicated Caregivers could handle. Babies and children wailing into the night, teens trying to hold in their pain and fear until it became too much and their shrieks and screams shattered the dark. Even the abused adults could not hold back their cries, Caregiver Chief Surgeon Mot was sure he was going to have nightmares for all time, he, like the other Caregivers, were getting by on little or no sleep as they fought to save the lives of their patients.
The group of Flyer crews and medical personnel had seen things and heard even more that would make even the stones weep. They told Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord and Captain Hay that they would not leave until the entire area was cleared of slavers and bandits. Every person was to be rescued and made whole.
The flyer traffic in and out to the camp was continuous, day and night, whole camps of former drug cartel members were wiped clean and their captives brought in for treatment.
The Caregivers saw diseases and injuries they had only ever read about.
Word began to spread that help had arrived in their land and the local folk, who had been hiding in the mountains, began to trek to the camp at the confluence of the two rivers, a small city of tents and shelters had sprung up.
Despite a language barrier at first, most of the teens and children adapted to mind-speak in the first few weeks they were there. Yosel and Jer remained the principal leaders of the local Earth Humans and they proposed to build a city in that place and provide for their people. They were offered seeds and plants to get them established and they agreed. They now knew that no unforgiveable payment would be demanded of them.
The next flight of Flyers brought James and Bart, along with crates of seeds, blocks of sod and packaged trees and bushes already rooted. They showed Yosel and Jer’s people how to establish irrigation canals and, when the settlers were ready to plant crops, the crews flew in a dismantled cultivator and a grain drill that was the villager’s for the keeping.
Within a few weeks, corn, beans and squash were forming on the plants and the folk living there were counting the days until picking.
Yosel and Jer offered their new city as a base for the flyers and their crews that were expanding their search area into the southern continent. The first building they erected was a hospital that the Caregivers could use to treat the sick and injured.
In time, the town of Dos Aguas was to become the principal city in the area.
The rescue crews pushed into the isthmus that connected the two western continents, they found the area that had once been Panama gone. The two continents were no longer connected.
With the equator having moved, much of South America was cold and in permanent winter. The rain forests of Brazil had died of the cold or the wave itself and there was little that remained alive in the area.
The low lying coastal areas fared a little better, they found survivors in Columbia and Venezuela. The coastline along the Pacific Ocean had dramatically altered and they found few survivors anywhere.
In much of Venezuela, a local warlord had enslaved what population remained and the Rescue Crews called for assistance in scrubbing him out. The Earth Humans freed there were very primitive and had to be shown how to survive without a master and his whip.
The land was sufficiently temperate to support farming and, with assistance from the Earth Humans from the caverns and The People, the natives finally did become self-supporting.
Northern Brazil had already thrown off the yoke of slavery by the time the Rescue Crews arrived, the Great River Amazon was no more, but the northern part of the former country was already beginning to show farms and farming communities. The Rescue Crews assisted some of them and they traded seeds and plants wherever they found a congregation of survivors.
A new town was beginning to rise in the north of the country, the Earth Humans there called it O Domino because of the tumbled down mountains in the area. There, the Rescue Crews built a great hospital that was to serve the entire region.
The local Earth Humans adapted rapidly to mind-speak and the new town became a place of importance. Trade in fruits and minerals brought a new kind of wealth to the people there and the frenzied pace that preceded the Cosmic Wave was left behind.
As the isolated communities of Earth Humans in the Americas were brought into the fold, The Rescue Command began looking at Europe and Asia. Much of Africa was now frozen in snow and ice and it was unlikely there were Earth Human survivors, except around the Mediterranean Sea.
They were drawing heavily on the resources of new communities that surrounded the Caverns, The People were a long lived race that historically multiplied at a slow rate. The Earth Humans were beginning to notice that their lifespans were increasing. Dennis was turning seventy-five years old and looked twenty! It hardly seemed possible to him that he had been occupied in the rescue of the scattered members of humanity for nearly sixty years!
Others were beginning to notice, also. The scientists among The People could not explain the phenomenon, nor could they explain the laid back and easy going attitude The Earth Humans were developing. They were becoming much the same as The People.
A LOOK INTO EUROPE
Dennis and Gila proposed to send a flight of Flyers to Europe as an exploratory expedition. Their first objective was England. They sent forty Flyers with Caregivers and Technicians on board, along with Security Personnel and observers. As they flew over what had been London, for as far as they could see was wreckage. Even at night, they found no pinpoints of light indicating fires of the survivors.
Down in the southwest of the island, they saw their first signs of life. They marked on their charts the tiny pinpoints of campfires and the next day, Flyers landed in those locations.
Here, they found Earth Humans engaged in simple agriculture. The land had warmed beyond historic temperatures because of the shift in the equator sending warm rains northward and they were growing row crops, corn, squash, melons and beans.
They had the beginnings of a large dairy herd of cattle and goats and they had large flocks of sheep. The island was isolated and they were not troubled by bandits or slavers. They had some problems with cattle and sheep theft from some of the clans located in the north, but they did not feel threatened by them.
They overflew the island of Ireland and found no sign of Earth Human activity, it was obvious the entire island had been swept clean by a tidal wave, it was barren and devoid of life of any kind, not even plants seemed to grow there.
They went on to the mainland of Europe where they discovered the small Earth Human cities for the first time. In Germany and France, areas well away from the coast had small towns that were thriving. Their basis was agriculture with some limited trade between the towns.
They found small, self-sufficient communities in Northern Europe who neither needed nor wanted their assistance.
As the flight traveled south, towards the Mediterranean they started to find isolated groups of Earth Humans struggling to stay alive on a daily basis.
On the South Coast of Spain they first encountered problems. In a small cove on the coast they discovered a band of refugees huddled around a fire. Two Flyers landed and the frightened Earth Humans cowered in fear. Their leader, a teen of about eighteen or nineteen years, held a broken boat oar and pushed the younger ones behind him.
The Flyer Team, Met of The People and an Earth Human, Paul, held their hands out to show they carried no weapons. Paul pointed to his own head and then to the teen’s head. He wiggled his fingers as if they were a mouth moving then sent a strong thought to the boy, “I am Paul, my friend Met and I wish to help you. We have food and medicines in our craft. Let us help you and the children.”
The teen got a perplexed look on his face, “UUuuh how can I hear you in my head?”
Met sent, “We have mind-speak, just think to us what you want to say and we will understand.”
The young man dissolved in tears, he told them he was Odun and they had been raided by Arab slavers who had taken all the adults and older girls as slaves.
Paul’s hackles went up and he mind-screamed for assistance. Within minutes, six Flyers came screaming across the sky and slammed down on the beach, their repulsers still glowing red-hot and smoking from overload.
The newly arrived crews leaped from their Flyers with food and medical supplies in their arms and ran to the children huddled behind the young man. Odun looked on in wonder as the children were treated, their wounds bandaged and served real food, the likes of which they had never before seen.
He finally sat in the sand and hid his face in his hands, wracked with sobs and tears running down his face. Paul went to the teen and held him until his sobs slowed. Odun told them, “They took my woman and my little baby son. I will never see them again; they are slaves now to the Inman.”
Paul asked, “Who is this Inman you speak of?”
Odun replied, “He is the ruler of the Arab pirates who have conquered the city of Malaga on the great inland sea.”
Paul relayed the information to Rescue Command and Dennis immediately called out Security. Hardly had his mind-call finished, Rescue Teams were racing for their flyers.
A flight of forty flyers made ready to fly. They loaded foods and clothing, medicines and bandages into the waiting Flyers. Caregivers and Caregiver Surgeons gathered their instruments and tools before jumping into the waiting flyers.
As soon as all were loaded, the Flyers took off, scorching the earth beneath them as the pilots crammed their throttles up against the emergency stops. They screeched across the sky at maximum thrust in their race to save the Earth Human Folk living around the Great Inland Sea.
They crossed the North American continent and the Atlantic Ocean in record time. As they landed at the little village that Odun had started near the former town of Alcaidesa, the villagers looked on in wonder, flying machines were only known in their legends.
The Flyer crews began unloading supplies and food for the villagers, hungry children crowded around when they discovered crew members passing out sweets and savory treats.
The Security Team was led by an Earth Human, Preston, and he sat with the villagers to get as much information as he could about the Arab raiders.
When he felt he had sufficient knowledge of the situation, he led twenty Security Flyers as they leaped into the sky, their thrusters screaming in protest as the angry pilots wrung every bit of energy from their repulsers they could produce.
Toland, another Earth Human, was Dennis and Gila’s representative. He assured Odun that their troubles with Arab Pirates had ended.
Odun asked, “How?”
Toland smiled, “Cinders and ashes do not capture children!”
When the Flyers returned, the Pilot Leader, Gosh, reported that there were more Arab communities further up the coast. After Paul, Met, Odun and Toland discussed the matter, it was decided that they would build a base near Odun’s village and station a flight of Flyers and crews there permanently.
***************************************************************
TBC
The People and The Human teams will battle Arab slavers around the great inland sea for many years.
Coming soon chapter 04: The Flyers spent several days ferrying survivors back from the slave pens of the Pirate Town to the town near Malaga. Among the survivors were Odun’s woman and their small son, Toran. Odun gathered his small family and went in search of Toland, the new leader of the Crews. The young family stood before Toland and Odun asked, “Is it possible for you to marry us, I no want my son to be bastardo!” Toland reached down and picked up the child, “I can say the words, but I tell you, NO CHILD IS SUCH! Any child here who is not wanted, I will take them and make them mine own!”
[email protected]
Astronomers have discovered that the incredible gravitational strength of supermassive black holes can tear planets away from their star systems and hurl them through space at incredible speeds—as fast as 30 million mph.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The story is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced by any means without the express, written permission of the author.
***************************************************************
From Book 2; They all knew it was going to be a long struggle to recover from this disaster, but they already discovered that they had wonderful support from The People and the Humans who had come to live with them. Whether it was association with The People or an effect of the Cosmic Wave, the humans were gaining the powers of their cousins, The People. They knew they were related, but none ever suspected that Humans could acquire such powers so quickly. They truly were becoming ONE FOLK.
RECLAMATION
While rescue efforts led by Dennis and Gila ranged further and further afield, the two farm boys, John and Joe asked if they could experiment with growing plants in the sterilized soil. They had the support of the Refugee Council and Captain Hay agreed it was an important undertaking.
They gathered a group of teens of both races and hauled soil working machines over to the area near the lake that covered the former site of Globe. They worked the soil and set a small pump to irrigate their planting beds from a nearby stream that had appeared. They first planted corn and beans and, within the germination period of three weeks, they had both varieties sprouting in the warm sunshine.
Their instruments told them their new elevation was 2,600 feet above sea level, about half it had been before “the event”. They felt the sunshine seemed stronger than before. They asked the ship’s Navigator about that and he set up his instruments outside.
They were shocked when he told them they were only 10 degrees above the equator! That could only mean the axis of the planet had shifted! It was no wonder then, that so much damage to the land had taken place during the passage of the Cosmic Wave.
The plants grew fast and in a month, the corn was higher than a man’s head and ears were beginning to form. The green beans had already started to produce and, when they were introduced on the menu in the Eating Hall, there was a near riot of folk asking for seconds!
The experiment was deemed a success; Joe and John found themselves in charge of a full scale farming operation. Within weeks, they had much of the valley under cultivation.
A small herd of cattle had been saved in the caverns and Peter suggested planting grass and hay for the cattle. Milk production had fallen way off and, what little they had was saved for the small children and babies among them.
The Council gave Peter the “Go ahead” and James and Bart were out the next day plowing fields and drilling seed in the valley of the former Refuge, which had not survived the Cosmic Wave.
They cobbled together an irrigation system with nozzles and plastic pipe and soon there were green fields. As soon as the grass was well established, the cattle were turned out to graze, for the first time since the wave hit, all the children had yellow butter to put on their morning toast and a glass of milk to go with it.
It would be some time before the herd grew large enough to give everyone a taste, but it was important that the growing children benefit immediately.
Once it was proven that plants could survive in this new environment, trees and shrubs were set out and the hills gradually became cloaked in green. They still had the occasional violent rain storms, but, as the trees and grasses took hold, damage and washouts became fewer.
A few predators had survived the calamity and were occasionally seen roaming the nearby hills, but they seemed to avoid areas where there was mind-speak. It was thought that, perhaps, they were sensitive to it and it bothered them. In any case, nobody minded the fact that such creatures avoided the areas that they were inhabiting.
Progress was slow and, for a while, the inflow of survivors brought in was greater than they could accommodate with food grown in the fields, but, as the inflow began to subside, and the growing plants were catching up rapidly, fresh food was served at every meal.
Being so close to the new equator, the growing season spanned nearly the entire year. There seemed to be no diseases to attack the plants and very few insects had survived the cataclysm.
One morning, they went out to start the irrigation pump in the corn and Joe discovered parts of the field had been trampled! They followed the prints and discovered a stallion and his harem of three mares.
Joe and John mind-sent for help and Peter, with his other sons, James and Bart, spent the morning coaxing the horses into a small stockade. When he checked them out, Peter was certain all three mares were in foal. The next morning, they discovered two more mares crowded up to the fence of the paddock. They went willingly inside to be with the other horses.
Over the next few months, the horse herd grew to forty mares and six stallions. They had to be separated as the stallions got to fighting over the mares. Some of the mares were already broken to the saddle and all three stallions were also saddle broken, somewhat. They had begun to go wild and it took considerable effort to remain in the saddle at first.
After they had devised some saddles patterned after those the Native Americans had used, Peter and his sons held riding lessons for the searchers so that they could go out on patrols to rescue survivors still lost in the wilderness of stone and upheaval.
As grasses began to take hold, the cattle started to roam. James and Bart applied to manage the herd. Their first love had been cattle and they were in delight to be able to start again. Neither brother could sing worth a hoot, but they were frequently heard warbling out a serenade to the cows at night. They both sounded like love-sick crows!
As calves and foals were beginning to drop, both boys spent their nights tending animals in labor. Some of the younger teens looked on in envy and were invited to come and help. As the herds grew, so also did the group of cowboys.
Some were better singers than others! FORTUNATELY!
The searchers were beginning to roam far afield in search of refugees, they crossed the new equator, headed south into what had once been Mexico. They discovered a huge valley with a wide river flowing through it. At night, there were dots of lights showing small campfires along the river.
They plotted them on their charts and flew the fliers to each the next day. With mind-speak, they had little trouble communicating with those they found trying to survive in the new wilderness. As with those found further north, the majority of survivors were teens and older children. The survivors were all bewildered by what had taken place and had no problems coming onboard a flyer and taken to a place of safety.
The searchers came to a convergence of two rivers, where they discovered a large community of teens, children and young babies huddled in makeshift tents.
Les and Ton were leading the group of flyers as they landed. A tall teen boy, carrying a spear and a club blocked their way. He threatened them and demanded that they leave. Ton sat on the dirt and held out empty hands to the teen, indicating he wished to communicate with him. Ton pointed to his own head and then to the teen’s head as he sent simple messages to him.
The Teen Leader’s eyes popped wide open and he staggered, “I, I. uh. I hear you in mmm my head. What are you?”
Ton sent, “I am of The People and cousins to your folk, but my friend is an Earth Human like yourself. We wish to help you, we have food in our flyer, are your people hungry?”
The teen thought, “I am Yosel, I lead these who have been wandering in search of safety. Will you feed us and not hurt us like the others did?”
The teen’s thoughts alarmed both Les and Ton and they mind-called for assistance. Immediately, three teams responded, “We Come, Wait for us!” Within minutes, three flyers came screeching out of the sky, their repulsers glowing bright red in overload as they landed beside their own flyer and the six rescuers joined Les and Ton.
When they understood the first need was food, the newcomers started hauling out containers of fresh food and milk, something the refugees had not seen since the upheaval. As soon as the food was laid out, children came running from all directions, some were crying as they saw real food being handed to them.
The older teens were hanging back until the children had been served, then they dove in, their own hunger was now almost beyond control.
Yosel sat with Les and Ton while he was wolfing down a hunk of fresh bread and pieces of roasted meat. Yosel asked, “Who are you and what is the cost to us for this food”
Ton sent, “COST? There is no cost, we bring this food so that your people do not starve.”
Yosel was having a difficult time believing what Ton had told him. He sent, “Bbb But the others took teens and boys in payment for the scraps of food they gave us. They took my eer er, Friend too”
Les asked, “From where did those people come?”
Yosel pointed to the river that joined the main river the searchers had been following, “From somewhere up that river, some were riding horses and others were on foot. They took twenty of our people and tied their hands as they led them off. What they left us for food was scraps and gnawed bones.”
Les mind-sent the information Yosel had given them to the three flyer commanders and the three flyers leaped into the air at maximum thrust and screamed their way up the smaller river, disappearing in the thunderclap of sonic booms.
The smaller children, their tummies now full, were looking for a place to nap. Ton and Les motioned for the small children to come to them and they snuggled the little ones until they had fallen asleep.
Yosel, who had been sitting beside Ton and Les, did the same. With three small children in his lap, his tears started flowing down his face, he struggled to talk and Ton sent, “Try just thinking what you want to say, we can hear you.”
Yosel thought, “I have tried so hard to keep my children safe and free. The ones who those people took, volunteered so that the little ones could have food. I was so foolish to believe they actually had food for us and now I have lost those and will never see them again.”
Ton sent to the grieving teen, “Not so, our comrades will get them back, did you not see our flying machines race up that river?”
Yosel thought back, “But, you have no clubs, no spears to fight those people.”
Ton pulled his stunner from his holster and sent to the young leader, “No, we do not use clubs or spears, but this weapon will stop those who raided you and my friends will bring your people back to you. Just be patient until they return.”
Yosel was so tired and weary, his eyes had started to droop like the smaller children when he overheard mind-speak between Ton and a flyer Commander reporting that they had smashed a slaver camp and were bringing the captives back to the camp. He reported that he had sixty teens and children, plus four adults, one of whom was elderly and needed assistance as he had been badly abused.
Les and Ton put the children they were holding down and stood to watch for the incoming flyers. Yosel also stood and scanned the sky, Les spotted them first, and at his shout, the three of them went to the landing area to meet the crews and those they had rescued.
The folk the Flyer crews had rescued smelled abominably, they had running sores and encrusted filth all over them. The flyer crews emptied their craft of anything remotely like a cleansing agent or hand wash and brought it to the rescued folk so that they could bathe in the nearby river.
None of them hesitated, boy and girl children, teens of both sexes and also adults, they flung their filthy clothing from their bodies and raced into the water to scrub the slaver smell from them.
One older teen girl shouted, “I would rather go naked than smell of those foul animals!”
An older teen boy emerged from the river after cleaning himself and Yosel screamed, “Jer” and went racing to the soaking wet boy, throwing his arms around him.
Yosel brought the young man to meet their rescuers, Les and Ton. He said, “This is Jer, the one whom I love. We will go away, if you wish us to.”
Ton replied, “Love is love and we are happy for you.”
The elderly man they had rescued had been beaten nearly senseless by his captors, the flyer crews washed him gently and appraised his injuries, as soon as they had seen how terribly the old man had been beaten, Ton mind-screamed back to Rescue Command that they needed Caregivers, RIGHT NOW!
Dennis was on duty, by the time he finished calling for help, the entire ship’s Medical Department was awake and on the run.
A flight of fifteen flyers, led by Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord took off with their thrusters smoking, they never dropped their throttles below EMERGENCY the entire flight.
As they arrived in the area, sonic booms were smashing at the hillsides, causing small rockslides. The flyers sat down, the thrusters still glowing from being run the whole distance above design sustained thrust.
The hatches were opened and Medical Technicians and Caregivers leaped to the ground. Ton and Les were waving them on, to come and help the injured.
Yosel and Jer helped where they could, these were their people and they felt a great responsibility for them. Ton and Les ferried medical supplies from the flyers to the Caregivers and Technicians with the three Caregiver Surgeons, they worked past daylight setting fractures and sewing up body parts.
Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord was in high rage as he surveyed what had been done to the refugees. He demanded of Flyer Wing Commander Bork to take the flyers and destroy the animals that hurt these people so horribly.
Commander Bork saluted the Chief Pilot and said out loud, so those without mind-speak would hear, “Sir, there are none left to destroy, we swept their camp with the flyer thrusters as we departed, none survived. We left the earth scorched as a warning to others!”
RAGE
It was decided, with Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord demanding, that the flyers search out refugees and slavers throughout the former nation of Mexico.
Chief Pilot Cord demanded that no slaver, no bandit, or any abuser be left alive!
They gathered a flyer squadron of sixty flyers and they took off with Chief Pilot Cord in overall command. The rescued folk began to arrive at the confluence of the two rivers in droves. Every Flyer was overloaded as they brought them in, many flying in Emergency Overload to carry the additional weight!
Ton and Les had to mind-speak with Ship’s Captain Hay, requesting more help. They needed shelters, Caregivers, Caregiver Surgeons, medicines and most of all, food!
Before Pilot Cord would release the flyers, there were twenty-six hundred refugees in the camp.
The pain and suffering was beyond what only the most dedicated Caregivers could handle. Babies and children wailing into the night, teens trying to hold in their pain and fear until it became too much and their shrieks and screams shattered the dark. Even the abused adults could not hold back their cries, Caregiver Chief Surgeon Mot was sure he was going to have nightmares for all time, he, like the other Caregivers, were getting by on little or no sleep as they fought to save the lives of their patients.
The group of Flyer crews and medical personnel had seen things and heard even more that would make even the stones weep. They told Ship’s Chief Pilot Cord and Captain Hay that they would not leave until the entire area was cleared of slavers and bandits. Every person was to be rescued and made whole.
The flyer traffic in and out to the camp was continuous, day and night, whole camps of former drug cartel members were wiped clean and their captives brought in for treatment.
The Caregivers saw diseases and injuries they had only ever read about.
Word began to spread that help had arrived in their land and the local folk, who had been hiding in the mountains, began to trek to the camp at the confluence of the two rivers, a small city of tents and shelters had sprung up.
Despite a language barrier at first, most of the teens and children adapted to mind-speak in the first few weeks they were there. Yosel and Jer remained the principal leaders of the local Earth Humans and they proposed to build a city in that place and provide for their people. They were offered seeds and plants to get them established and they agreed. They now knew that no unforgiveable payment would be demanded of them.
The next flight of Flyers brought James and Bart, along with crates of seeds, blocks of sod and packaged trees and bushes already rooted. They showed Yosel and Jer’s people how to establish irrigation canals and, when the settlers were ready to plant crops, the crews flew in a dismantled cultivator and a grain drill that was the villager’s for the keeping.
Within a few weeks, corn, beans and squash were forming on the plants and the folk living there were counting the days until picking.
Yosel and Jer offered their new city as a base for the flyers and their crews that were expanding their search area into the southern continent. The first building they erected was a hospital that the Caregivers could use to treat the sick and injured.
In time, the town of Dos Aguas was to become the principal city in the area.
The rescue crews pushed into the isthmus that connected the two western continents, they found the area that had once been Panama gone. The two continents were no longer connected.
With the equator having moved, much of South America was cold and in permanent winter. The rain forests of Brazil had died of the cold or the wave itself and there was little that remained alive in the area.
The low lying coastal areas fared a little better, they found survivors in Columbia and Venezuela. The coastline along the Pacific Ocean had dramatically altered and they found few survivors anywhere.
In much of Venezuela, a local warlord had enslaved what population remained and the Rescue Crews called for assistance in scrubbing him out. The Earth Humans freed there were very primitive and had to be shown how to survive without a master and his whip.
The land was sufficiently temperate to support farming and, with assistance from the Earth Humans from the caverns and The People, the natives finally did become self-supporting.
Northern Brazil had already thrown off the yoke of slavery by the time the Rescue Crews arrived, the Great River Amazon was no more, but the northern part of the former country was already beginning to show farms and farming communities. The Rescue Crews assisted some of them and they traded seeds and plants wherever they found a congregation of survivors.
A new town was beginning to rise in the north of the country, the Earth Humans there called it O Domino because of the tumbled down mountains in the area. There, the Rescue Crews built a great hospital that was to serve the entire region.
The local Earth Humans adapted rapidly to mind-speak and the new town became a place of importance. Trade in fruits and minerals brought a new kind of wealth to the people there and the frenzied pace that preceded the Cosmic Wave was left behind.
As the isolated communities of Earth Humans in the Americas were brought into the fold, The Rescue Command began looking at Europe and Asia. Much of Africa was now frozen in snow and ice and it was unlikely there were Earth Human survivors, except around the Mediterranean Sea.
They were drawing heavily on the resources of new communities that surrounded the Caverns, The People were a long lived race that historically multiplied at a slow rate. The Earth Humans were beginning to notice that their lifespans were increasing. Dennis was turning seventy-five years old and looked twenty! It hardly seemed possible to him that he had been occupied in the rescue of the scattered members of humanity for nearly sixty years!
Others were beginning to notice, also. The scientists among The People could not explain the phenomenon, nor could they explain the laid back and easy going attitude The Earth Humans were developing. They were becoming much the same as The People.
A LOOK INTO EUROPE
Dennis and Gila proposed to send a flight of Flyers to Europe as an exploratory expedition. Their first objective was England. They sent forty Flyers with Caregivers and Technicians on board, along with Security Personnel and observers. As they flew over what had been London, for as far as they could see was wreckage. Even at night, they found no pinpoints of light indicating fires of the survivors.
Down in the southwest of the island, they saw their first signs of life. They marked on their charts the tiny pinpoints of campfires and the next day, Flyers landed in those locations.
Here, they found Earth Humans engaged in simple agriculture. The land had warmed beyond historic temperatures because of the shift in the equator sending warm rains northward and they were growing row crops, corn, squash, melons and beans.
They had the beginnings of a large dairy herd of cattle and goats and they had large flocks of sheep. The island was isolated and they were not troubled by bandits or slavers. They had some problems with cattle and sheep theft from some of the clans located in the north, but they did not feel threatened by them.
They overflew the island of Ireland and found no sign of Earth Human activity, it was obvious the entire island had been swept clean by a tidal wave, it was barren and devoid of life of any kind, not even plants seemed to grow there.
They went on to the mainland of Europe where they discovered the small Earth Human cities for the first time. In Germany and France, areas well away from the coast had small towns that were thriving. Their basis was agriculture with some limited trade between the towns.
They found small, self-sufficient communities in Northern Europe who neither needed nor wanted their assistance.
As the flight traveled south, towards the Mediterranean they started to find isolated groups of Earth Humans struggling to stay alive on a daily basis.
On the South Coast of Spain they first encountered problems. In a small cove on the coast they discovered a band of refugees huddled around a fire. Two Flyers landed and the frightened Earth Humans cowered in fear. Their leader, a teen of about eighteen or nineteen years, held a broken boat oar and pushed the younger ones behind him.
The Flyer Team, Met of The People and an Earth Human, Paul, held their hands out to show they carried no weapons. Paul pointed to his own head and then to the teen’s head. He wiggled his fingers as if they were a mouth moving then sent a strong thought to the boy, “I am Paul, my friend Met and I wish to help you. We have food and medicines in our craft. Let us help you and the children.”
The teen got a perplexed look on his face, “UUuuh how can I hear you in my head?”
Met sent, “We have mind-speak, just think to us what you want to say and we will understand.”
The young man dissolved in tears, he told them he was Odun and they had been raided by Arab slavers who had taken all the adults and older girls as slaves.
Paul’s hackles went up and he mind-screamed for assistance. Within minutes, six Flyers came screaming across the sky and slammed down on the beach, their repulsers still glowing red-hot and smoking from overload.
The newly arrived crews leaped from their Flyers with food and medical supplies in their arms and ran to the children huddled behind the young man. Odun looked on in wonder as the children were treated, their wounds bandaged and served real food, the likes of which they had never before seen.
He finally sat in the sand and hid his face in his hands, wracked with sobs and tears running down his face. Paul went to the teen and held him until his sobs slowed. Odun told them, “They took my woman and my little baby son. I will never see them again; they are slaves now to the Inman.”
Paul asked, “Who is this Inman you speak of?”
Odun replied, “He is the ruler of the Arab pirates who have conquered the city of Malaga on the great inland sea.”
Paul relayed the information to Rescue Command and Dennis immediately called out Security. Hardly had his mind-call finished, Rescue Teams were racing for their flyers.
A flight of forty flyers made ready to fly. They loaded foods and clothing, medicines and bandages into the waiting Flyers. Caregivers and Caregiver Surgeons gathered their instruments and tools before jumping into the waiting flyers.
As soon as all were loaded, the Flyers took off, scorching the earth beneath them as the pilots crammed their throttles up against the emergency stops. They screeched across the sky at maximum thrust in their race to save the Earth Human Folk living around the Great Inland Sea.
They crossed the North American continent and the Atlantic Ocean in record time. As they landed at the little village that Odun had started near the former town of Alcaidesa, the villagers looked on in wonder, flying machines were only known in their legends.
The Flyer crews began unloading supplies and food for the villagers, hungry children crowded around when they discovered crew members passing out sweets and savory treats.
The Security Team was led by an Earth Human, Preston, and he sat with the villagers to get as much information as he could about the Arab raiders.
When he felt he had sufficient knowledge of the situation, he led twenty Security Flyers as they leaped into the sky, their thrusters screaming in protest as the angry pilots wrung every bit of energy from their repulsers they could produce.
Toland, another Earth Human, was Dennis and Gila’s representative. He assured Odun that their troubles with Arab Pirates had ended.
Odun asked, “How?”
Toland smiled, “Cinders and ashes do not capture children!”
When the Flyers returned, the Pilot Leader, Gosh, reported that there were more Arab communities further up the coast. After Paul, Met, Odun and Toland discussed the matter, it was decided that they would build a base near Odun’s village and station a flight of Flyers and crews there permanently.
***************************************************************
TBC
The People and The Human teams will battle Arab slavers around the great inland sea for many years.
Coming soon chapter 04: The Flyers spent several days ferrying survivors back from the slave pens of the Pirate Town to the town near Malaga. Among the survivors were Odun’s woman and their small son, Toran. Odun gathered his small family and went in search of Toland, the new leader of the Crews. The young family stood before Toland and Odun asked, “Is it possible for you to marry us, I no want my son to be bastardo!” Toland reached down and picked up the child, “I can say the words, but I tell you, NO CHILD IS SUCH! Any child here who is not wanted, I will take them and make them mine own!”