Dayel’s face was as radiant as ever when he opened his eyes. “Be still, are you hungry? I will bring you some food.”
“Wait,” he said, surprised how quiet his voice was. “Is Dil o.k.?”
“He has a broken arm, but he will be fine.” She replied, sweeping out of the room.
When he woke up again Gomez was sitting by his bed. “How long have I been here?” He asked.
“Oh, two days,” she said. “And we’ve been busy. We checked out the basement. There’s a shelter down there, but it’s been looted. And there is a back-up generator; Michael has a team working on it now. Come on, Dayel says you need to get out of bed and start walking today.”
He swung his feet off the bed with her help. “Where’s Dil?”
“On the beach,” Gomez said.
“What about Dannis?” He asked.
Gomez smiled. “He’s on the bed on the end, how’s the ankle?”
“Stiff and sore, but it seems functional,” he replied.
He was limping slowly along when she pulled back the curtain on Dannis’ bed.Dannis was propped up against the head of the bed, reading a book. He set the book down when they walked over to the side of the bed. “Greetings, Lieutenant. I see they patched you back together.”
“Yeah, I guess so. And how are you? We all thought you were gone,” Lewis said. “And I thought you couldn’t read.”
“They plugged me into some reading training program while I was out,” Dannis grinned. “I like it, but it is a little strange and I am still struggling with it some. Thank you for saving me back there.”
“You were part of the team,” Lewis answered. “We don’t leave anybody behind if we can help it, so you’re welcome. How long are you going to be in here?”
“I’m supposed to bring him with us,” Gomez cut in, extending a hand to Dannis. “Come on, let’s go outside.”
Out on the dock a cheer erupted from the small crowd, and Lewis felt a little embarrassed, but mostly he was happy to see the rest of his team alive and well.
That night the on the beach there was another big party. Faldar’s family had decided to stay, with Tempura taking over the cooking, so Dayel and Martha could start establishing a school for the children.
Lewis talked to Dayen about Faldar and Dil. “Dil’s skill with that big game rifle of his is quite sufficient to provide cover for the new team you need to put together. And Faldar really is a military man and would make a good team leader. Have you arranged for Jarn to stay? He and Mary work well together.”
“Yes, Inu has agreed that Jarn may stay. Tomorrow Thilson and Cope are going to assemble a strike team for the suburbs. We will send a runner to Ladzoo to post flyers announcing employment opportunities for members of the construction trades. This place should be jumping by the time you return, which reminds me, Captain Inu’s been here five days. He really wants to get going. And I think some of your team members are getting restless, Mack and Shawn were in a scuffle with some of the knights last night,” Dayen said, then seeing the concern on Lewis’s face added. “It was not a big deal, Sir Trun and I were both close and we intervened, nobody is in trouble.”
“So you want us to go,” Lewis said. “Before there is real trouble, right?”
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“Come on, John,” Dayen said. “We are all part of the same company, and we would fight an army of knights for you guys. It would be more diplomatic if we do not have to do it. Your team is not dishonored in any way and it really is time to return to the task at hand.”
Lewis nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
“By the way,” she said. “You need some new clothing, since the leatherwings tore up pretty much everything you were wearing except that vest.”
“They ruined my field jacket?” Lewis was shocked. “Where am I going to find another M-65 jacket? And my boots?”
“We have some clothes to choose from, military, civilian or primitive. I am sure you will be able to find something to suit you.” Dayen looked sympathetic.
In the morning Lewis went to look at the clothes. On the way there he saw the rest of the team hanging out by Captain Inu’s ship. “Hey,” he said when he reached them. “I have to go find some clothes, Dayen said they have a clothing store set up on the cargo ship, wanna go?”
When they reached the ship one big room was full of tables piled high with folded clothes, shoes and other items. Everyone spread out to look through what was there. Lewis found some black leather pants that looked like they wouldn’t be too tight. There was only one pair of boots that fit him, ones that laced up almost to the knee. They were scuffed and dusty, but when he rubbed his hand across the uppers they looked like they used to be shiny and black. For a shirt he chose a dark brown, long sleeve shirt with plenty of room and laces half way down the chest.
Gomez found a trench coat that was almost black and went down to his knee. On the arm it had an insignia that looked like major’s bars. She found a hat similar to a fedora and tossed it to Telini.
Lewis tried on a pair of goggles with a slight yellow tint. When he looked around he saw that his entire team had gotten into the spirit and they each had an armful of clothes.
At a table by the door the woman with the cash box told Lewis. “Your clothes are on the house, but the rest of these items I’ll have to charge for. We take any currency and I might consider some type of trade, so don’t be shy.”
“What’s our uniform policy now?” Roquette asked him.
“I really don’t see that it matters here, but I’d say no bright colors in the field and nothing that makes noise when you move,” he said. “Oh, do keep your body armor as long as it is still functional.”
The woman at the table counted the items and calculated the cost of each of them, looking pleased at having made such a large sale.
Lewis went back to the Star Skipper and changed, and then he went to see Captain Inu.
Inu was busy organizing his crew and loading small plastic crates aboard.
“Greetings Lieutenant,” The captain said. “Will you be ready to leave at midnight? We need to travel to Port Mist quickly.”
“Yes sir,” Lewis replied. “I look forward to leaving soon. Do we stop in Haldon or go straight to Fort Dilson?”
Inu looked pleased. “I see you have been studying. We do indeed need to stop in Haldon. I must return to work now, see you tonight.”
He ensured that everybody on the team knew that they would leave that night, then went to see Michael. The little man was working in his dimly lit computer lab on the cargo ship. Two small windows threw some light on part of the room, and Lewis could see Michael and Larry with their heads close to different machines. When he approached Larry was startled by his quiet approach, but Michael had turned and was watching him.
“Hello Lieutenant,” Michael said. “Look what we located.” With a few taps on the screen, he brought up an image which Lewis recognized as a schematic similar to the one he had been using in Ladzoo for the vehicle, except much more detailed. A few more screens and he saw that what they had was the manufacturing specs for every part of the engine.
“Are you going to share these with Fingers?” Lewis asked. “It would give her a big boost.”
“We are going to share it with everybody,” Michael said. “But she will get the first copy. What do you need?”
“Batteries, we’re leaving tonight and I’d like to have fresh batteries for everything,” Lewis told him.
“No problem, there’s batteries over there in that cabinet;” He said, pointing. “But take a look at this first,” He produced a sheet of flexible plastic with a wire attached. The wire ran two feet to a small box that Michael flipped open. “It is a charger; you put the batteries in here. Then you place the panel up against your abdomen under your clothes. It takes about one full day to charge one battery and it only works with the native batteries, not the modern ones we brought with us. Take four chargers from the top drawer, and in the second drawer are some adapters I built to use the old batteries in our equipment. You can have two of those. Take ten batteries, of the old style, they are all fully charged.”