In search of fountains, chapter 13. (Patreon)

Here we are. Not a large chapter, but it's something. I'm rather happy with how it turned out, I hope it'll be easy to see why. Please enjoy.

"It's fine," Aleksei said. "There is nothing to be worried about. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be that dangerous to humans."

That seemed like bullcrap to me. The thing looked as if it could hurt a human if it wanted, but even past that, if it was as gentle as a lamb, it was an animal. One animal implied more - something that preyed upon the first example. If this wasn't a predator of something smaller, then it implied something and more dangerous existed that ate this one.

"I don't buy any of that. It may not be that dangerous on its own, but the implications suggest danger for us. We have been lucky so far, but this seems like something we should be arming for."

We were not going to be arming the populace. Not yet. That was a move I disagreed with, even understanding why our leaders didn't want to be ruling over an armed community. Lives were at stake.

We'd just have to focus on defenses first. There was no need to go right to rebellion. Not just yet. We were nice and stable individuals.

Those of us on watch would still get stun weapons, as the research so far seemed to show the creature caught wasn't immune to them. But the rest of the people would just be relying on security and the watch for their safety.

No pressure.

My samples of weaving had been fully analyzed now, and the word given that such was acceptable. There was nothing harmful to humans detected in the wood, it was in fact a kind of wood though different from our own, and some improvements had been suggested. As if I hadn't put that rope and twine together with a small knife and my own hands in the first place.

At least I hadn't been weaving together an animal that felt like a plant to me; that would have just been the worst.

I wasn't going to do any more of that, though. We were going to watch again, but this time I'd be paying absolute attention. No matter how boring it got. As bad as boredom was, I knew the price for not being dependable was higher, and I didn't want someone getting hurt because I'd dropped the ball.

Hmm, I wonder if we could set up a ball court yet? I could use a good game. Maybe I'd make the suggestion.

For now it was time to sleep, if I could. the others were already settled in, with the exception of Aleksei. Roe had been the last, worried like I was until Aleksei returned, and then she simply rolled over. She wasn't snoring, but her breathing had changed, and it was clear she was out.

I envied her that. "This whole thing stinks. I feel like there are some things we aren't getting told here."

"There aren't," Aleksei confirmed. "I'm sure of that as well. But so far, what we don't know hasn't hurt us. There may be a good reason for it all."

I disagreed. "I don't think there is a reason good enough."

Back on Earth, the breaches of trust from the old governments, just before they collapsed, led to some harsh repercussions. I was too young of course, but my Dad had told me.

Aleksei thought differently, as his shrug showed. "Whatever it was, we will find out in time. Sleep is our best option right now."

I could understand it, really. Warm, decent bed, some security, a full belly and no thirst... there was no need to throw all that away just yet.

The time might be fast approaching. Those leading us really needed to come clean. But I guess Aleksei was right in that it wouldn't be happening today.

I rolled over myself; sleep was a must, no matter how hard it would be.

Turned out it wasn't hard at all. I went from wide awake... to awake again, just that easily. Less awake, probably, since I strongly felt the need for something warm and stimulating. Coffee, tea, anything. Even an energy drink. Had we packed any energy drinks? If so, I'd love to have one.

Everyone else was awake and stretching. Aleksei wasn't in sight, but all the rest of us were here... and waking up at the same time. That wasn't suspicious at all.

"He's outside," Roe informed me, leaning to her left.

So it really was all of us at the same time.

"Take the chance, change while you can," Shanise added. She sounded a little... hungry? Too invested, somehow. But either way she was right, I wouldn't get a better chance. I stretched myself, shucked my suit, wiped down as best I could, and found a fresh suit waiting for me. When had that gotten here, and how?

The others were also doing their best, but I caught up, at least for the most part. Which made me second guess myself, for a second or two, but no, I smelled fine.

"We will be able to wash up fully tomorrow. It's on a rotation now," Lynn stated. She held up her tablet, as if we wouldn't believe her otherwise.

"Sounds good to me." I'd dealt with greasy hair plenty of times, but nothing this long. I had a feeling shaving it off would not go unnoticed. I wanted very much to stay unnoticed, at least for now. One of the better carpenter sayings my Dad had was: 'the nail that stands up gets hammered down'.

Lynn waited patiently, giving us all one last once over, then abruptly called out: "Alek, we're done."

The answering call didn't surprise me, but it seemed to surprise the others. "Then come on out. Let's check some things out."

Ah, an outing. it was too early for our lunch, so I wondered what was up.

I let the others out of the tent first. Shanise was last to go, and she seemed to hesitate before finally shrugging and going out herself.

I patted myself down to make sure I had all my tools, my tablet, and little stuff, and followed them out.

The sun. Suns, were almost blinding. It was wonderful, and felt nicely warm. I was sure it'd feel downright hot later, but for now it was nice.

The tent city was still there of course, all around us. The toilets still took pride of place, and were still doing a brisk business. Thankfully I didn't feel the need right now... but beyond all that, there were some things taking shape. Actual buildings, made of pre-fabricated metal from the ship and some of the cargo, no doubt.

We hadn't been tasked with it. Who had? The engineers? There were two in our little group, already both shaking their heads. So they didn't know either - what had happened?

The situation could change so fast. At least I still had my bug out bag, just in case.

I'd just need some place to bug out to. I didn't know the rules here, yet. None of us did, really, and that tie was stronger than any glue I knew of back home; even if we hated each other, we needed each other.

This hadn't been the plan though; the people in charge were rushing. Was it the find of animals, or something else? The same implications I'd worked out, maybe?

Beyond the interior, there was something else being made... I could see people working on it, driving what looked to be poles in the ground. A fence of some kind? We didn't have the material for that, did we?

Well, have or not, something like a fence was being made, at the far end of the camp near the ship itself. We'd have to extend it later, as the camp grew on the other side a bit more. Well, if we could.

The command tent was still a tent, but there were people carrying metal sheets, metal poles, and some other odds and ends in preparation for the building to come next. I could even see some flooring there, the rough kind you would risk your bare feet walking on.

I felt rather glad I hadn't been called to do all this, even if the watch was boring. Just going back and forth carrying crap with a partner for hours on end did not sound worse than staring into space for me - I was sure halfway through the night watch at the latest I'd think the other way.

We walked by. I wanted to walk in, and from the looks of things I wasn't alone, but others clearly did not, and the command tent was already packed. I guess I could find out what was really going on later.

We walked, taking in the changes... there appeared to be security checkpoints now, small shacks made of thin aluminum a bit bigger than our toilets were, only they sported windows. Inside I could make out weapons lining one of the walls as we passed, and some small screens.

Another look around, and I could spot the cameras. They were slightly larger than what I was used to seeing, but clearly more sturdy. More obvious, as if those in command wanted us to know and realize they were there.

The introduction of creatures did not seem to go with the need for cameras. The need to see what a populace was doing did. I'd be very interested by the reasoning.

Where I was from, cameras were used to pick likely looking targets. I couldn't feel at ease with them. I could see I wasn't alone in that either; many of us were casting them furtive glances, even though the things weren't in use. At least not yet.

Out on the edge, just before the vine growth began but farther out than the poles being jammed into the ground, There was a mass of security doing something. Something that looked like training. Weapons and hand to hand training.

Again, you didn't train hand-to-hand to fight tentacle creatures. You trained hand-to-hand to fight something that looked like you.

I shouldn't jump to conclusions, but something certainly smelled rotten here. Almost as if command had decided to work with the artificial intelligence, instead of forcing it to change us all back.

"This sucks," Roe said suddenly, loudly enough that some people doing tasks around us jumped and looked her direction before scattering away.

I got closer, and risked a warning hand on her shoulder: "Yeah it does, but we shouldn't comment on it."

Not yet anyway.

Roe blew a breath. "I know. It's just... this was supposed to be different, and it isn't. It's frustrating. Infuriating."

I understood that well enough.

There, on the edge, the very outskirts of the new settlement; what was that? What was that shed for? Storage?

It wasn't storage; there was a sign - a sign that reached from the ground to the roof, written in several languages, one of which was english. "New world bar."

A bar? What? There was no way we had packed alcohol for the long journey. Not drinks at any rate.

Aleksei nodded. "Let's check it out."

I blinked. It still existed, so we should check it out.

It was large, a rectangle like the ones I'd seen back home used to store heavy machinery. There might be enough room for a third of us earthlings, if we all packed in.

As promised, there was a bar. Not one made of dark wood, like I'd seen in the movies, but a long strip of heavy plastic that had to have been pulled from the ship somewhere. I'm sure Roe could tell me exactly what it was, but I couldn't identify it.

At least they had stools, and behind all that were a few people. Women, of course, standing there and taking us in even as we took them in. There were a few people who had the look of customers, some in stools, and some playing some sort of game involving tossing beanbags into holes cut into a panel, set at a forty-five degree angle.

I'd seen weirder.

At each corner was a large screen, seemingly set to display old sports matches. The current fare was soccer, which was a good enough call, everyone loved a good soccer match. Or football, depending on who you listened to.

Aleksei strutted right up as if he owned the place. I suppose we did, really.

"So, what have you got?"

The nearest tender of the bar shrugged in clear disinterest. "Just water so far. The real fun and games come later. Got some selection of powdered drinks coming in later today, and supposedly our cell leader managed to find a pool table on the ship. Hasn't had any luck finding balls or cues yet, but we're hopeful."

If worst came to worst, any of us carpenters could make cues. A chemist should be able to make the balls, I'm sure. Hell, if someone pressed me and we could find the wood, I could make an entire table.

"That... well, the pool table sounds good at least."

The bartender smirked. She was dressed like us, but was wearing a name tag. A blank name tag. She was also fairly tall, nearing six feet, with chestnut hair and a look that screamed easygoing trouble. "Going to try and make dart boards and line the far wall with them, but I think we should focus on flooring first. We don't know what the rains will be like, if we even have any, so any tables at all might end up drowning in mud."

"Working on it, Dierdre. The Captain says the field hospital needs the flooring first. I can't really find fault with that.

The man who spoke had walked into the door behind us, and he was one of the older of us. He had to be, he had lines on his face. They were few and faint, but unmistakably there.

He had a box in his hands, but it wasn't a very big box, and it didn't seem to be very heavy either, since he had some spring in his step.

I'd seen his type... his very look, even cleaned up, screamed rogue. Like the kind of guy who would sell you clean water back home... and you'd test the water and find out it had more parasites than a hidden government lab.

"We met?" he asked me as he passed, his eyes not meeting mine.

"No, I don't think so." He was American, at least. Texan accent.

Former American? I guess we all were formers, now. Had we even come up with a name for this planet yet? If we had, I couldn't remember it.

"Just asking," the man replied. "You got that look that says you know me. Reminds me of my ex-wives."

Surely he was too young for ex-wives? Certainly too young for multiple. "You did remind me of a few people I used to know."

The man stopped for a beat, then continued his way to the bar. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Name is Clint."

He didn't ask for my name, but I'd give it anyway. I knew about texans - or ex-texans. "Dani."

The box went on the makeshift bar with a thunk. "Pleased to meet you, Dani. So what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"Curiosity," Aleksei broke in. "We hadn't even seen this place staked out yesterday, and there wasn't much else to do, so we thought we'd see what it was."

Clint turned and shrugged. "Fair enough, I would be too. This is my brainchild, a place where someone can go to unwind and socialize. A place better than that mess tent, at any rate. Or it will be once it's up and running."

It already seemed better to me. There were games, at least. "Could use some chess."

I know we had a few chessboards on the ship, since I'd used at least one.

"Sure, just need to set up a few tables first."

One of the women from farther in spoke up: "Right after the still."

"Right, the still comes first," Clint nodded along agreeably. As if that wouldn't get shut down in seconds.

"Pretty sure the Captain isn't going to want people getting drunk."

Clint raised his brows in mock surprise. "The Captain doesn't really have a choice. Either he allows me to do it, or a dozen stills he won't know about will pop up and get people drunk, with no regulation at all. Better the devil you know, and all that."

Now I was curious. "Just what did you get included for? What job are you?"

Clint smiled. "Management. Putting the right people to work at the right job."

The woman who'd spoke up before scoffed. "He's a dentist, of all things."

Clint didn't even look, just flipping a casual finger her way, his smile still pasted on. I got the feeling suddenly that the two knew each other, from before the ship.

Dentistry was almost like doctors for importance. Maybe even more rare.

"Now you've done it. Now I'll have to suffer through mouths aimed at me, and people telling me their wisdom teeth hurt, and it'll get worse from there. I don't even have the chairs I need yet."

That meant he had the basic tools he needed, or at least he should.

I had my teeth checked in the physical, before I was assigned a bunk on the ship. I shouldn't need them looked at now. Unless the artificial intelligence had messed up my teeth somehow, by altering me. I didn't think that had happened though, my teeth felt fine.

Clint seemed to agree. He'd stopped, and was watching us. "You don't all need to ask for a check up at once."

"I'm good."

"So far as you know."

So far as I knew. Roe decided to say what we all were thinking: "No pain, no odd feelings. Pretty sure I'm fine for now."

Clint sighed, then straightened. "Right. My time will come. For now, we aren't really open yet, and while I don't mind an audience, I can't be jawing too long. I got too much to do."

I knew a dismissal when I heard it. Aleksei was already turning to leave, and there was more to see. I waved, and Clint and his assistant waved back, one surprised he'd bothered, and the other showing a genuine smile.

Still, this was something. Something good for us; it gave me something to look forward to. There might even be more beyond this place to offer some color to our lives beyond our great work.