Junkyard raiders, p.10
Junkyard Raiders, page 10
part #5 of Junkyard Pirate Series
AJ turned and saw that indeed Tog was on the porch and looking through the front door. It was hard to know exactly what the large brute was thinking, but AJ also knew he’d been clear about where Tog was allowed to go. “I’ll take care of this,” AJ said, anger tinging his voice.
“Careful, AJ,” Jayne warned.
AJ placed a hand on his pistol but didn’t draw it as he stalked up to the door. “You are not allowed on the porch,” AJ growled as he approached the door.
“Storm. Hide,” Tog said.
Looking over Tog’s shoulder, AJ saw nothing but the pale blue sky common to Fimil Alpha. “I don’t see a storm,” AJ said.
“Storm,” Tog repeated.
“Trouble?” Darnell asked, approaching carefully from behind.
“Not sure,” AJ said, grabbing his rocket pack vest. “Can you keep an eye on Tog? I need to check something out.”
“I’ve got it,” Darnell said, standing in the doorway, pistol in hand. “Tog, you need to get off the porch.”
As soon as AJ exited the main house, he felt the static charge of electricity in the air. Flying away from the hillside, he looked toward the peak. At first, he didn’t see anything, but after gaining two thousand feet of elevation, he discovered giant black clouds gathering behind the mountains that made up the front range. Lightning bolts danced through the clouds in the distance. Just as he was making up his mind to return home, lightning sizzled through the air only a hundred yards from his position and struck the ground.
“We need to open the cisterns,” Beverly said, appearing in front of him in a yellow rain slicker.
“Open them?” AJ asked.
“Kasic has a collection system,” Beverly said. “Jayne found reference to them in his notes. The water is captured during these rare, heavy-rain events.”
AJ knew better than to argue and followed the blinking directions Beverly provided. Even before he could get to the ground, a deluge of rain swept down the mountainside. At first, the dry mountain soil absorbed the water, but rivulets formed and grew wider and wider as the intensity increased.
Between water converging as it rushed down the slope and Beverly’s indications, AJ saw that Kasic had gone to great lengths to channel runoff toward the cistern entrance. The problem, of course, was that the tops of the cisterns were already covered by rushing water filled with rocky debris.
“Won’t we clog up the water with all this mud?” AJ asked.
“No,” Beverly answered. “There’s a system to clear the water once it’s captured.”
Setting down on the first cistern cover, AJ struggled with the wide handle, pulling against it so the water could enter. “It’s no good,” he said. “It’s stuck.”
The temperature of the rain shifted as the storm intensified. At first, the drops hitting his face were almost as warm as the atmosphere, but several minutes in and the sheets pelting him had become colder and colder, causing AJ to shiver as he struggled against the panel.
An explosive crack of lightning struck nearby and he jumped away instinctively. Simultaneously, Tog’s large hulk splashed through the accumulating water, stopping just next to AJ.
“No safe,” Tog insisted.
“We need to open this,” AJ said, tugging on the wide handle meant to open the cistern’s lid. Without a word, Tog nudged AJ aside and grabbed hold of the thick handle, straining to engage the mechanism. At first, nothing happened, but then a cracking sound accompanied movement and the lid pulled back as if it had never been stuck. As the water level fell, AJ looked down and realized that a latch had been holding the lid closed. Tog hadn’t known it was there either as he’d broken the latch with brute force.
“One more,” AJ said, racing twenty yards to the second cistern. After a short search, he uncovered the latch and removed the locking pin. This time when he pulled, the lid opened without force.
At that moment, lightning hit somewhere very close to Tog, throwing the twelve-hundred-pound beast ten yards. “Tog!” AJ cried out, racing to the dim-witted but loyal beast.
Another bolt of lightning struck on the hillside and then another and another. The lightning strikes were increasing in intensity. AJ knew he had to move Tog before he could check for damage, but the problem was, Tog was heavy. The cistern openings weren’t that far from where he’d left the loader when they’d been freeing up the runabout.
Racing across the mountainside with his rocket pack belt, AJ dropped into the loader’s open cockpit and started back towards his fallen friend. “We’re gonna be paste if we get hit by one of those bolts,” AJ said to no one in particular.
“It would not be ideal,” Beverly agreed. “But there is less conductive material in this loader than common Earth machinery.”
AJ laughed mirthlessly. “You know you talk a lot when you’re nervous.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that flaw,” Beverly said. “Electricity is very hard on the Beltigersk nervous system and can interrupt my life cycle.”
“We’ll go fast,” AJ said, trundling across the rocky slope.
Somehow, he avoided being struck by lightning as he approached Tog’s still form. With a careful scoop of the front bucket, he lifted Tog along with a hefty amount of muddy scree. Turning back toward Big Max, he pushed the loader’s speed, bouncing across the forbidding terrain.
At the ship, AJ extended the loader’s bucket and dropped Tog next to the closed airlock hatch. Bolting from the machine’s cockpit, he raced up and struggled to open the hatch. Once inside, he pulled on Tog with all his strength. Even with the help of the rocket pack belt, he was unable to slide Tog’s body inside. Sailing back to the machine, he adjusted the bucket and slid Tog over, unceremoniously dumping him through the upended hatch. Finally, arriving back at Big Max, he closed them both in as the storm continued to intensify.
“AJ, you need to locate a medical scanner,” Jayne’s voice filled his ear. “My backup is in our quarters in my large case.”
“I suppose you watched all that?” AJ asked.
“You were very brave, AJ,” Jayne said. “I need you to move quickly. Tog is hurt.”
He flew through the ship and with Beverly’s help found the medical scanner. He also grabbed a few items Jayne thought might be helpful. Returning to Tog, he found the Chordatile was stirring, a pained growl emanating from his throat.
“That’s gotta be good, right?” AJ asked.
“Hard to tell,” Jayne said. “Start the scan under his chin. His back armor is too thick.”
For several minutes, AJ's hands worked as extensions of Jayne’s. Finally, she had no further instructions.
“What now?” AJ asked.
“We wait,” she said.
AJ felt a small vibration in the ship and looked around suspiciously. “Did you feel that, Jayne?”
“Feel what?”
“Movement? Like the ground was shaking?” As he spoke, the vibration intensified and soon, the ship bucked up and down, tossing and slamming AJ and Tog around. “I think we’re in a mudslide!”
There was nothing anyone could do as, indeed, the ground around Big Max succumbed to the massive amounts of rain. Big Max jerked suddenly and twisted around as massive cracks sounded outside the vessel. AJ feared for the ship’s integrity as he tried to steady himself, to no avail. The ride turned into a game of dodge the semi-conscious rhino man. Fortunately, AJ’s reflexes were sufficient to keep from being crushed.
“AJ? What’s going on?” He’d heard Jayne calling for him, but it wasn’t until the ship stopped moving that he was able to respond.
“I think we were in a rockslide,” he said, sitting back against the airlock’s bulkhead. Looking up, AJ realized that the ship’s orientation, while angled, was now correctly aligned. “Tog got tossed around pretty good. I’m going to make sure he’s okay.”
AJ struggled to roll Tog over, so his position was more consistent with how he typically rested. The Chordatile’s breathing evened out. He was unconscious, but AJ was unable to find new injuries.
“You’ll appreciate knowing that the compound’s water reserves are topped off,” Darnell said. “Seamus says we have enough water to last more than half a year.”
“Are you guys okay? You’re watching for Lago tendrils and all that?”
“We haven’t seen anything,” Darnell said. “Are you going to stick out the storm in Big Max?”
“Yeah, I don’t think I can move Tog unless he’s conscious. The good news is, I think the rockslide rolled Big Max onto her belly. We’re leaning over some, but I imagine that’s the slope of the hill.
“I bet that was a fun ride,” Darnell said.
“Changes our priorities. We’ll have to remeasure the amount of cable needed to get an umbilicus hooked up,” AJ said. “After the storm passes, that is.”
“It’s already slowing down,” Darnell said.
AJ swung the airlock door open. With the change in ship orientation, the rain no longer fell directly through the door and was blocked by the leaning fuselage. Mud still flowed beneath Big Max and AJ became concerned that it would form around the hull, locking the ship in place. His mind moved to the loader, which he’d last seen downhill from the ship.
Using his vest to keep himself out of the mud, AJ flitted beneath the ship. His heart sank as he located the loader pinned on the downhill side of Big Max. Her cockpit was filled past the seat with a mud and gravel mix. He sighed, accepting the situation. It seemed that no forward progress would be made without losses.
The sound of something plopping in the mud drew his attention. His eyes lit on Tog, who was struggling in the muck, working hard to move out of his slimy trap.
“Are you stuck?” AJ called over to him, slowly becoming aware that the rain had diminished to a drizzle.
Tog didn’t answer other than to puff out excitedly as he thrashed against the mud and rocks. From AJ’s perspective, Tog wasn’t making great progress until, all at once, Tog’s powerful back legs contacted something solid and he propelled himself onto more solid ground. Tog looked over his shoulder at AJ and ambled downhill toward the plains.
AJ shrugged and flew clear of Big Max. With the discovery of power at the compound, they’d been able to recharge the rocket pack vests, restoring their value. With Beverly’s help, it took only a few moments to orient himself. An almost giddy feeling quickly replaced his disappointment at losing the loader as he discovered his proximity to the compound. Big Max had slid to a stop only two hundred yards from the generator shack. He covered the distance and knocked on the locked entrance to the residence.
“You live a blessed life, Albert Jenkins,” Lisa said, taking in his mud-covered body. “Most people have the sense God gave them to get in out of the rain. And who the blazes told you it’d be a good idea to ride out this storm in an unstable ship on the side of a mountain!?”
AJ looked at her with surprise. Lisa was spitting mad and he couldn’t figure out why. “Uh, well …”
“We were so worried,” Jayne said, embracing him. “We got glimpses of what was happening to Big Max. You could have died.”
“Tog needed my help,” he said, holding his hands up defensively. “I couldn’t leave him and there was no way I could make it back to the compound. The ship was too far away.”
“Not a very good excuse,” Lisa said, irritation evident in her voice as she turned and walked away. She continued to mutter, but AJ only caught part of her words. “I don’t know why I even care.”
“Did you see where Big Max landed?” AJ asked. “It’s a damn miracle. Well, it would be if it hadn’t buried the loader.”
Darnell stepped outside and chuffed out a laugh. “Now that’s a pretty sight,” he said. “Shame about the loader, though. Guess we can’t have everything. It’ll save us a bunch on cabling to get her some power, though.”
“What are you fools going on about?” Lisa asked, pushing her way through the open door. “Well, I’ll be. Maybe that ride of yours was worth something after all.”
AJ winked at her. “You know it’s okay to say you were worried about me.”
“You’ll keep that smart mouth of yours closed if you know what’s good for you,” Lisa shot back. She shook her head. “I suppose that makes our priorities easier. We’ll price out some cable and if that fails, we’ll look for a junkyard to see if we can piece something together.”
“Feel like we should go in the other direction,” AJ said, earning him a withering glare from Lisa. “Or what you said works fine, too.”
“Darn right, it does.”
“Purba, have you ever been to Darabu?” Jayne asked, eyeing the nervous Fimil girl.
“Yes. At the end of the summer season, we stopped to trade on the way to our winter grounds. I was not allowed to go into the great village, but I saw much from our camp,” she said.
“I hope they have decent food,” AJ said.
“Purba, was the city lit up at night?” Jayne asked.
“Oh, yes, the light traveled for a long distance. Our elders did not care for how it blinded us against the night. I thought it was beautiful, though. I wished I could be allowed to walk on their perfect streets while the lights kept the dark back in the sky.”
“There’s plenty of fuel in the runabout,” AJ said. “We might as well go check out the sights. I’m dying to get back in Big Max and see what kind of repair bill we’re looking at.”
“But you’re going to work on powering the confinement field first, right, darling?” Jayne asked, her voice soft.
AJ smiled as he nodded. “That does seem like a good idea. If we get power to Big Max, though, we’ll have air conditioning and lights in our quarters. We could even power up the artificial gravity. Oh, Lisa, I need some flexible tubing, six-millimeter inner diameter, twenty feet or so.”
“Okay,” she said, marking it down.
“Also, I’d like to see if they have anything like hops and barley,” AJ said. “I was thinking I might take a run at making beer while we're stuck here. I saw some old bottles over in the junkyard.”
“I say we get cleaned up and run over there,” Lisa said. “Looks like the next, larger town is over six hundred miles south. It’s probably in our best interest to find out what’s local.”
It didn’t take the group long to get ready and twenty minutes later, they were flying low over the foothills toward Darabu.
“Looks like lightning started a fire over there,” Darnell said, pointing out across the plains. They were only a few miles from Darabu and a thick column of smoke was rising thirty miles perpendicular to their flight.
“I suppose it’s no harm as long as it doesn’t come this way,” AJ said.
“Must not have gotten the rain we did,” Darnell mused.
Daylight was slipping away as the Fimil Alpha star descended toward the uninterrupted horizon over Gauder Plains. The lights of Darabu started turning on just as Darnell sailed to an open spot where several old wagons were parked.
Opening the hatch, AJ was first through the door and was immediately met by a husky teenage Fimil boy. “Would you mind parking over there a bit more? You’re making the mounts nervous,” he said, a friendly smile on his face. “Other side of the fence should be okay.”
“I got it,” Darnell said. “Let the ladies off first, and then I’ll move.”
“Thank you,” the boy said. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“What gave us away?” AJ asked, smiling.
“You don’t look like Fimil,” the boy said innocently. “And not too many gliders around these parts. That looks like a nice one. What brings you to Darabu?”
“Trading,” Lisa said, stepping around AJ. “We’re hoping to find parts for our generator and maybe cable and other things.”
“You’ll want to talk to old man Yakna,” the boy said. “He’s got a shop full of stuff. Fair warning. If he’s been drinking, it’s best to avoid him and talk to Pakna, his wife. He can be a handful.”
“What’s your name, son? I’m AJ.”
“Balkna.”
“Any relationship to Yakna and Pakna?”
Balkna looked at AJ like he’d lost his mind. “Kind of obvious, don’t you think?”
“I suppose it is,” AJ said. “Thanks for the tip. I don’t suppose anyone around here has a terminal to exchange Galactic Credits.”
“There’s one at the bank,” Balkna said. “Most people around here trade with chits if they don’t have anything to barter. They say the exchange rate is bad, but I don’t know about that.”
“Well, Balkna, I owe you one,” AJ said. “You keep your eye on my glider over there and if she’s in good shape when we get back, I’ll make sure to pay up.”
“You don’t have to do that. Most people don’t cause much trouble around here,” Balkna said.
“Easy money then,” AJ said. “Did you get the rain this afternoon?”
“Came down real hard for a good long while,” Balkna said. “People be in a good mood tonight. Our reservoirs got filled up. It’s been a while since we had a good rain like that. Did you get stuck in it in your glider? Those storms can be dangerous, you know.”
AJ didn’t feel like correcting Balkna about the nature of the runabout not being a glider. Instead, he just acknowledged the friendly advice. “We do now,” AJ said. “Could you point us to the bank?”
“You can’t miss it,” Balkna said. “It’s the tallest building on the mercantile strip.”
TEN
DARABU
“I say we shop first and then stop by the bank since we don’t know what prices look like,” Lisa said as they walked along the dusty path past small groupings of homes.
“What do you suppose people who live here do?” Jayne asked. “What kind of industry keeps this many people on the side of a mountain like this?”
“I imagine they scrape by,” AJ said. “I saw a road headed east up the mountain, probably toward civilization. I didn’t see any anti-grav vehicles. It’s promising they have power, though.
“Why’s that?” Jayne asked.
“It takes a lot of energy to power three hundred homes and a couple of dozen businesses,” he said. “Someone will know where to find heavy gauge power cables.”
