Junkyard raiders, p.20
Junkyard Raiders, page 20
part #5 of Junkyard Pirate Series
“You are right to be suspicious,” she said. “We need better equipment to know for sure, but it is certain the substance you found is the residue of an accelerant.”
He sighed. Memories of ‘Nam were inescapable. He busied himself by removing the shed wreckage, trying desperately to escape his thoughts. At first, he believed the generators were a complete loss. As he removed more roofing, he was thrilled to see that one of the two interior machines had escaped damage when the roof collapsed and created a tiny bubble around it.
“Well, lookee there,” he said as Beverly called up one of the suit’s menus that allowed him to select tools that could be equipped at the fingertips of the suit. “Thank you,” he grunted with satisfaction. Crouching, he set himself to removing the generator from its slagged connections.
“AJ, lunch is ready.” Lisa interrupted him sometime later.
“Just need a little more time,” he said. “I almost have it.”
“Food’s gonna get cold.”
“Your food is great, cold or hot.”
“Suckup.”
It took another twenty minutes, but he was finally rewarded with a generator, free from its cradle. Even better, the mech suit was more than powerful enough for him to carry the heavy piece of equipment to their camp. When he got there, however, only Jayne and Greybeard remained. Seahag, Darnell, Lisa, and Purba were gone.
“Lisa wanted to get going,” Jayne offered as an explanation when she saw him looking around. “She left a couple of sandwiches on that rock we’re using as a table.”
“She said the food would get cold,” AJ said, walking the generator to the back of the cave where he planned to install it. “Sandwiches don’t get cold, do they?”
Jayne smiled and shook her head. “I think she was annoyed you were still gone.”
He shrugged. Lisa had her own way about her. It seemed like no matter what he did, he was always in trouble with that woman. “What are you doing this afternoon? Want to help me a little?”
“Doing what?”
“If you use a rocket belt you could help me salvage stuff from Big Max. If you prefer to try a mech suit, you could do that too. It’s just going to be a little close, so it might be helpful to have someone who can squeeze into smaller places.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for a mech suit,” Jayne said. “I’d love to help, though.”
Together, they made their way to Big Max and moved into any open spaces they could fit through. Big Max would never sail again, given the overwhelming damage to its superstructure and hull. But she also wasn’t an entire loss.
“Did Nit ever figure out what Lago were looking for?” AJ asked.
“They cleaned out the biologicals,” Jayne said. “Especially stuff that was high in nitrogen.”
“Like what?”
“Human waste.”
“Sorry I asked. They like our poop?”
“Other systems also have high concentrations of nitrogen and carbon,” Jayne said. “That might be why they burn things. There’s a whole slew of useful chemicals released after a burn.”
“You don't believe they want technology?”
“The fuel cells were torn open, but as you already know, they were bone dry,” Jayne said. “Refrigerant lines were drained. We’re working on a list with estimated volumes. Maybe we can figure out what it is they can manufacture with the chemicals they’ve recovered.”
“Maybe they just wanted a snack,” he said.
“That’s gross.”
AJ pulled at the hatch leading to their quarters. They’d taken the mattress for use in the compound’s stone house, but he extracted the bed frame and a small textile washer that had been left behind. There were linens in a closet and extra clothing. They worked together and after a couple of hours, they’d transferred several piles of useful items to just inside the cave’s mouth.
“If I get this genny running, I can turn on the atmospheric handler and we can get rid of some of this humidity, especially once I install those screens across the front,” AJ said. “We’ll have lights and appliances up by tomorrow.”
A few hours later – well past sunset – Jayne and AJ had settled onto seats he’d carved from the soft sandstone. They’d found a bottle of fruit wine and were sharing it when the familiar light pattern of Seahag drifted into view. AJ flipped a switch, illuminating a makeshift landing pad and Darnell set down on the rocky outcropping above the cave.
“You were sure productive,” Darnell said after he and Lisa had walked down the path. “That landing pad’s a nice touch.”
“Got a couple of seats for you, too,” AJ said, standing and pouring glasses of wine for his friends. “How’d your search go? Where’s Purba?”
“She decided to stay back,” Lisa said. “A group of survivors have banded together. Farno is helping them set up a camp. They could probably use our help and supplies.”
“How many?” AJ asked.
“Fifteen,” Lisa said.
“Why not offer the compound?” AJ asked. “There’s another generator down there that isn’t completely slagged. I bet between Farno and me, we could get it going, especially if we take salvage from Big Max. We could also free up that front-end loader that was trapped under Big Max. It was likely saved from the fire.”
“I wasn’t sure what you would think about that,” Lisa said. “Darnell and I wanted to come back and talk it through with you both before we offered too much.”
“I only briefly looked at our water reservoir,” AJ said. “It’s down, but I bet we have at least twenty-thousand gallons.”
“We’ll go back in the morning and propose the move,” Lisa said. “Purba wanted to return to her tribe’s camp and see about gathering more of their crops. She was pretty upset about her garden being destroyed. I thought we could take her out there if you think it’s safe.”
“It’s hard seeing people like that. They have nothing. I’m glad you guys are on board for bringing them up here,” Darnell said.
“How could we not be?” Jayne asked.
“Why don’t you make a pass out past Purba’s old village when you head out tomorrow – just to see if it’s safe,” AJ said. “You know better than I do about what to look for if Lago are building nearby.”
“Giant smokestacks in the middle of nowhere,” Darnell said, draining his glass and pouring another. “Not hard to pick out.”
“We have air conditioning and beds set up,” Jayne said. “No mattresses, but we did what we could with linens. It should be better than sleeping on the ground.”
Darnell arched his back in a stretch. “That works. I’m bushed.”
“I was thinking about taking that laser turret off the front of Big Max and bolting it into the rock above the landing pad tomorrow,” AJ said. “I doubt it’d put down one of those Lago ships, but I’d rather have something than be completely defenseless. Especially when Seahag isn’t home.”
“Who knows, maybe lasers are the way to go against Lago ships,” Darnell said, yawning.
It was the beginning of the end. Soon, the four friends retired to the cool, dry air of the cave.
“This isn’t that bad,” Lisa called over the partition separating the small bedroom spaces from each other.
“Don’t you two be getting frisky,” Darnell added, earning him a loud slap from Lisa.
“Why you gotta say things like that?” she whispered, but the cave’s acoustics were enough for AJ and Jayne to hear them.
“What? They’re young. You know how things go. I’ll never get to sleep if they … you know,” he whispered back.
“Oh, just shut up and go to sleep,” she whispered. “And stop that. I think they can hear us. We’re not doing that right now.”
Jayne snuggled back into AJ, and her body shook with silent laughter. He buried his head against her neck and struggled not to laugh out loud. Wrapping a protective arm over her, he held her against him. Sleep was slow to find him, and he was glad when Jayne’s giggles transformed to the rhythmic breathing of sleep.
They woke the next morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. Jayne pecked AJ on the lips and scootched out of bed.
“What’s got you jumping up out of bed this morning?” he asked, watching as she quickly changed out of her nightwear.
“The stuff coming out of their smokestacks,” she said. “What if they are trying to terraform? Maybe what they’re spewing out is some sort of catalyst.”
“To what?”
“I need to do some analysis,” she said. “They leave clues behind by what they take and what they leave behind. I just need time to look at the data.”
“Take all the time you need,” AJ said. “After I make sure we’re not leaking water and I get that laser turret installed, I want to clean up the compound. Maybe I could get that front-end loader freed now that I have a mech suit.”
“That sounds lovely,” she said, leaning over and planting another kiss on his face. He’d learned when he was being blown off and surprised her by pulling her onto the bed with him.
“You’ll need to do better than that,” he said, trapping her under him with his arms. “You didn’t hear a word I said.”
“Something about suits and loaders?” she asked, grimacing. AJ rolled his eyes. “Right?” She grabbed the sides of his head and pulled him in for a longer, more passionate kiss.
Pleased with the additional attention, he rolled off. “You’re free to go,” he said, chuckling.
After pulling on his own clothes, AJ joined his friends in their makeshift kitchen, which Lisa had further organized. She caught his eye when he arrived. “Any chance we could get running water back up here?” she asked. “Maybe some sort of wastewater system?”
AJ sighed. It seemed to be his lot in life. The stone house and Big Max both had different types of waste management systems. Big Max had systems designed to deal with extreme cold and shifting gravities which were overkill for their new home. He didn’t think it likely the Lago had ruined the stone house waste system, given it was buried. Unearthing it, however, was not going to be much fun.
“I can work on it,” he said. “I’ll prioritize freeing the frontend loader.”
“Whatever you need,” she said. “None of us are going to love using a bucket for too long.”
“A reasonable point,” he said with resignation. He exchanged a grimace with Darnell and was at least satisfied to see that his friend understood the crap task that had been handed to him.
Skipping breakfast, AJ donned the mech suit and marched downhill to the compound. Crouching next to the back end of Big Max, he discovered that the thrashing the ship had taken from the Lago attack had pulled it almost completely off the loader.
It was a good news, bad news moment. The good news was easier access. The bad news was that the fire had affected the underside of the loader. After clearing the scree, however, he was pleased to discover a little power left in the old battery.
It took some finagling, but after an hour of digging and pushing rock out of the way, he’d freed the articulating arm enough that it moved. After another hour the old, banged-up machine flopped onto its treads, throwing a wide arc of rock bits as it violently settled.
AJ extracted himself from his mech suit. He’d considered digging out the septic controls using the suit, but the idea of damaging the valuable system had prompted him to first try to free the loader.
Lost in a cloud of dust and thought, he was startled when he noticed Jayne seated on a rock several yards from where he worked near what was left of the stone house. He was just about to pull the main tank up from the hole he’d spent most of the day excavating, but he waved instead and turned off the machine.
“I didn’t see you there,” he said.
She was gesturing in the air, clearly working on an invisible screen projected by Nit. “I was getting lonely,” she said, smiling. “You make quite a mess. Has anyone told you that before?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said.
“Any chance you’d like a sandwich before you get into those buried tanks?”
“Sold,” he said, his stomach growling loud enough that he was sure she’d heard it.
The pair sat in companionable silence as they shared the simple meal she had prepared. “Find anything on the chemicals?” he asked after a while.
“I thought I had something this morning,” she said. “We need a sample to know for sure. It could be anything from ammonia, chlorine, or just simple carbon dioxide. I could also be chasing a rabbit.”
“A lot hinges on what we figure out,” AJ said. “I’ll be honest. I’m concerned that they'll come for us in earnest once we figure out what the Lago are after. I’m not sure if this planet is big enough for us to hide if they want to root us out.”
“Root us out. That’s a good pun,” she said. “Do you think it’ll come to that? How much threat do we pose to them? You should have seen how poorly Lisa’s bullets were against those ships. She might as well have been throwing spit wads for all the good it did us.”
“Did she change up her loadout and try new things?” AJ asked.
“I’m not following.”
“She had soft bullets and incendiaries,” he said. “Did she try armor piercing? It makes a difference depending on what your target is. I had her set up for what I thought would work against those Lago if they were running around on the ground.”
“I don’t know. It’s all Greek to me.”
“I’ll talk to her about it. An armored ship like that needs a special kind of bullet. If she was using armor-piercing bullets, we’re going to struggle.”
“How close are you to moving the waste system over?”
“If we don’t need it buried, I could probably have something running in a couple of hours. Digging on the mountain might be tough with all the rock. It could take a few days to bury it.”
“I vote to leave it out for now,” she said. “If we stay here long, maybe we look at burying it.”
“It’s funny. People always think about tanks and planes and big warships as winning wars. Turns out its latrines and mess halls that do the job,” AJ said.
“My hero,” Jayne fawned.
“You might want to step back,” he said. “Once I get started. It’s likely to get ugly.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to connect a shower, first?”
“Where would the fun be in that?”
“It might be the only way you get in my bed tonight.”
NINETEEN
NOBLE PURSUITS
AJ lowered a large barrel of drinking water onto a flat rock shelf next to where the Fimil refugees had set up their camp next to Kasic’s junk pile. He’d offered to relocate what was left of the Fimil survivors and then handed control of the front-end loader over to the city engineer, Farno, so they could salvage whatever material they might need from the junkyard. With precious few possessions left from Darabu, the junkyard represented the possibility of starting over and gave the beleaguered, emotionally distraught people a task to focus on.
“I don’t know what you’re planning to do next,” Jayne started, sitting down next to AJ with a simple plateful of beans and a starchy vegetable. “But I’m not leaving these people. Some of them have been severely burned and they need my help.”
AJ nodded. It wasn’t something he’d anticipated, but upon hearing it and seeing the plight of the refugees, he knew she wouldn’t be able to leave them. “Can you get by with what you have?” he asked.
“Not like we have much choice,” she said. “We need a medical team or at least a small manufactory to help us synthesize treatments. They’re so dependent on modern technology, they’d be lost if I wasn’t here.”
“What about getting help in Babnush?”
“That’s an option,” she said. “The people are afraid of attracting Lago attention and they’re worried they’ll lead the Lago to Babnush.”
“I don’t think Lago would have any trouble finding Babnush if that was their goal,” AJ said. “Work with Nit and see what we could maybe pick up in Babnush and bring back.”
“I will help you,” Purba said. She’d inconspicuously seated herself near Jayne and AJ, even though she had refused to fill a plate for herself.
“Thank you, Purba,” Jayne said. “AJ, I’ll have that list for you by morning. Will that be soon enough?”
“As soon as you have it,” he said, handing his half-finished plate to Purba. “Kid, you need to eat. Doc needs you to stay strong.”
“I could not,” she said.
AJ set the plate in front of her and walked away. “Be a real shame if that food got wasted.”
Working well into the wee hours of the morning, the team reached a sort of equilibrium where cramped housing was available for most and the wounded were assessed and treated to the degree possible.
“I’ll never take a shower for granted ever again,” Lisa said. “AJ, you’re some kind of hero for this.”
Even though he was seated against the cavern wall, waiting his turn in the makeshift shower, his eyes were closed and he was lightly snoring.
“I think we lost him,” Jayne said, crouching next to AJ. “Help me get him to bed. He’ll have to worry about a shower tomorrow.”
“Are you sure you want all that dirt in your bed?” Lisa asked skeptically.
“The linens will wash.”
Together, the two women roused AJ enough to get him to walk to the makeshift bedroom. He made no complaint when they laid him down and didn’t so much as stir when Jayne pulled a light blanket over him.
“Men are kind of cute when they’re asleep,” Lisa said. “Mine’s already passed out in the bedroom. You did good today, Amanda. Those people needed you.”
“You were a big help, too,” Jayne replied.
“Big difference between bein’ good at cleaning up and knowin’ what to do,” Lisa said.
“Thanks,” Jayne said, not sure what else to say. “I hate to think what would have happened to some of those people if you and Darnell hadn’t found them.”
“Hopefully, we haven’t just put ‘em all in one place for the Lago to find.”
