A Long Time Until Now - eARC

  Doc said, “Well, once the hot tub is done, we can bathe a few and get it on at the same time.” He grinned broadly and snapped his fingers.

  “It’s funny because you think you’re joking.”

  “It’s hilarious because you think I’m not.”

  Doc added, “Or that I am. Anyway, I’m serious. I want some flesh as much as the next man, but we need to keep in mind all that social stuff Dan and Spencer talk about, and we have no idea what diseases they might have.”

  “You haven’t seen any symptoms on them, right?”

  “No lesions, no noxious odors other than sweat. But there’s strong evidence, for example, that one form of syphilis was a mild skin ailment among the Native Americans. It turned virulent when it had to deal with clothing. You don’t want to die with your dick and your bones rotting.”

  Felix said, “Americans tell jokes about ‘Black Syph’ in the PI and Korea. You’re being serious.”

  The medic looked very serious as he said, “I’m serious that we have no idea what diseases there might be. We have to be cautious. I recommend not getting into any wild orgies.”

  “Hell, I only need one. They’re eager, willing to please and want to make us happy. As long as she’s warm I’m good. They’re almost all very hot, and your height.” That put them about six feet taller than Felix.

  “And are you planning on having lots of kids? The only birth control is pulling out, or the two dozen condoms I have in the kit. I guess you can turn it inside out afterward, shake the fuck out of it, and reroll it for reuse.”

  “Wait, wasn’t that a Scottish joke? ‘The Regiment has voted to replace’?”

  Doc nodded and smiled. “That’s the one. But those are our options. Otherwise, we can make condoms out of goat guts.”

  Oglesby said, “Just remove them from the goat first.”

  Doc grinned. “Sure, we’re not Afghans. But there will be diseases here in addition to that virus we all got; some are likely to be venereal. We have no background for them, or them for us, and pregnancy is a guarantee if you go at it.”

  “So what you’re saying is it’s a one way-trip to settle down and a home in the suburbs?”

  Felix had figured most of this out before, though the potential virulence of infection was disturbing.

  “The women will want families, too,” he said. “They lose a lot in birth and growth, accidents.”

  He would really enjoy a woman, but he didn’t want a family just yet.

  But porn and the spank tank was getting really old.

  Martin Spencer felt old. Between his guts burning, and the agony of creaking joints when he woke up in the morning, he had long bouts of misery. He hadn’t done any smithing in two days, because his right arm ached too much.

  Midshift was never good for him. He always had trouble getting back to sleep afterward. He huddled inside his goretex and layers, and tried to keep his focus.

  Dalton was next to him, sitting next to the turret.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  “Settling down,” Dalton said. “I guess we have our word from God. So I need to find a woman who suits me, and see about becoming a husband and father.”

  “Good that you’re considering it seriously. I guess Doc had a talk with some of the guys.”

  “Yeah, I overheard some of it. No free sex here.”

  Martin replied, “Heh, it’s never free. Just the way you pay for it changes. But I do agree it’s a serious matter. Some of these kids, back home I mean, I know one chick, sergeant now, who pulled a train with a squad of Marines. We had one boy in the shop got three women pregnant in a year, and that’s with modern birth control and knowledge.”

  “Oglesby’s the one I worry about.”

  “Yeah, Trinidad and Ortiz are more rural, take things more seriously. I think some of that’s cultural in other ways, too. Doc’s just incredibly shy and uncomfortable around women.”

  “He does like women though, right?”

  “According to his phone he does, yes.” Martin thought you could have enough boob. Armand did not.

  “Then he’ll get over it.”

  “Probably.”

  “You and the captain?”

  Martin said, “He’s not my type.”

  “Yeah, you know what I mean. Our women and you guys?”

  “They don’t seem very keen on the idea so far. I hope Gina comes around.”

  “Someone you can settle down quietly with?”

  He thought for a few moments in silence before he said, “We’ve talked. I don’t know what you think ‘old’ people do, but I’m pretty sure she’s not quiet, and probably ten times as versatile as the local women.”

  “Oh.”

  That had shocked the kid.

  “Just because I agree monogamy is a good idea doesn’t mean I’m a prude, Rich. I’ve probably done a lot of things you’ve only read about. And we’re not old.”

  Dalton looked suitably embarrassed and Martin let him change the conversation.

  “I’ll take a while to see which Urushu have compatible personalities. They’re all decent looking. Trying to develop communication is going to be a task.”

  “Then trying to convert her to Christianity?”

  Dalton looked stubborn.

  “I have to try, at least. I even think that may be why I’m here.”

  The man was solid.

  “I’m not criticizing you. I respect determination and faith. You’ve held onto yours a lot better than some others.”

  “Thank you,” he said as he picked up the NVG.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Dalton stopped in mid scan to the west.

  “That’s . . . ”

  “What?”

  “Did a herd come through earlier?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Flat grass. Very flat.”

  “Romans?” he asked.

  “I don’t see anything. But I get the impression it may have been a cart.”

  That was disturbing. “Okay, then we keep a steady watch and tell relief. I’ve got the gun, if we decide we need it.” He patted the beast and gave the belt a visual check.

  “Hooah.”

  “Let me see.” He raised his carbine and looked through the image intensifier. Yes, that was a swath. The hair on his neck bristled.

  “That bothers me.”

  “I didn’t hear anything.”

  “When did you last check?”

  “I didn’t see it a half hour ago, but I wasn’t really looking. I go mostly by ear, you know?”

  “Yes, it’s easy to follow most animals and the wind, now that we know what to listen for.”

  “When Caswell comes on, do we want to go take a look?”

  “I say we wait until daylight.”

  “Scared?”

  “Yes. I am,” he admitted. He’d been scared since they arrived, more than a year.

  “Okay. I won’t joke about it,” Dalton said, sounding sympathetic.

  “Thank you.”

  “But a look would be useful.”

  “It’s a swath in the grass. Remember my theory about two outcomes to everything?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If whatever it was isn’t there, no problem. If it is there are still two possibilities. If it can’t get through the wall, no problem. But if it can . . . ”

  “So you want to be up top looking down with guns.”

  “Yes.”

  “Hooah.”

  They both had to remind themselves to look at the rest of the perimeter. This one was fascinating, and creepy.

  Caswell relieved Dalton. She was not a good match for him, emotionally. They could be professional, though.

  “So you think it might be a Roman incursion?” she said, when shown. Her voice was slightly muffled by hood, and it rustled as she moved.

  “It might be. I don’t think it’s wild, but it could be.” He hoped it was. With the damp, cold, foggy air, silence and location, he was
shivering from fear. It was like a horror movie. Add in four log cabins, a tent and the outbuildings . . .

  “Could something have rolled downslope?”

  “Possibly, but it’s not that much of a slope.”

  She asked, “Do you want to check it out while I cover you?”

  “Thanks, but no. We’ll watch until daytime.”

  “Okay.”

  Dalton went below and to his cabin. Martin figured when it was his turn for relief he’d stay on watch. He didn’t think he would sleep. He needed to piss but didn’t want to take his eyes off that disturbance.

  “Anything planned for dinner tomorrow?” he asked Caswell.

  “Bob said something about garlic buttered crayfish.”

  “I’ll try it.” New food was usually welcome, though some things didn’t quite work out. “Any luck with the sprouting?”

  “It’s going to take a few years,” she said. “I thought we discussed that.”

  “Yeah, but talking keeps me alert, and that crop circle imitation is bothering me.”

  “I’m not going to hold your hand.”

  “I’ve got Doc for that,” he blurted out, then realized she wasn’t one for wisecracks.

  She replied, “Do you know where that hand of his has been?”

  Was that actual humor?

  “On duty or off?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I think I’d rather not know.” Humor, but she was very reserved about it.

  “You have that luxury.”

  She actually snickered, bit down and tried not to laugh aloud.

  “I’d rather not know what you know,” she said.

  “Good. Friends?”

  “No. But we do have to live together.”

  “Okay. I’ll erase your number from the outhouse wall.”

  “I thought Alexander put that up there.”

  “Is she trying to get rid of you?”

  “Not as such, but we’re only roomies because we’re both female. We’re not particularly friendly.”

  “I won’t tell the younger ones that. Let them keep their fantasies.”

  “Yeah. That was predictable.”

  “What, my comment, or their thoughts?”

  “Both.”

  “Yeah, it’s one of those things.”

  “And it shouldn’t be. Does anyone assume Ortiz and Trinidad are going at it?”

  “It has been joked about.”

  “Sure. But who’d want to see it? Who secretly thinks it might be true?”

  “I’m not disagreeing with your position,” he said. “I’ve told a couple of them to cut the comments, when they got out of hand.”

  “It’s not just the comments,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “I’ve seen you stare at me.”

  “Yeah. And Gina. And a couple of the Urushu. Ai!ke, I think.”

  “Ai!ke.”

  “Yeah, her.”

  “And you don’t understand why that makes me feel vulnerable?”

  “I do. I don’t know how to stop them looking. I realized Oglesby was going to try to seduce you at least. So I followed him.”

  “Partly because you’re interested and don’t want him cutting you out.”

  “Jenny, you’re pretty good at half of it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Yes, part of me is interested, because you’re physically attractive.” He chose his words carefully. “We’re alone without company. Males are visually oriented. You must know this.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, you want me to be honest about it? Yes, you’ve featured in a few of my late night pity parties. My brain goes where it goes. We don’t do thoughtcrime. What I think and what I do are different.”

  “So I’ve been fantasy raped. Nice to know.” She was cold and distant again.

  “Apart from your looks, you’re not at all my type. You’re too young, different emotionally, and aggravating. There’s an image of you I like. Personally? I don’t like you as much as you don’t like me.”

  “Because I’m female.”

  “No, because you draw attention to the fact you’re female. Gina is just one of the troops. She happens to be shaped funny under her uniform. You draw attention to yourself.”

  “I draw attention to behavior I find objectionable.”

  “Part and parcel.” He wanted to be diplomatic so it would have some effect, but damn, she was irritating.

  “So I should shut up and take, it, is that what you’re saying?”

  “No. You should acknowledge it exists, and ignore it unless it becomes a threat.”

  “It will always escalate to a threat.”

  “Has it? Oglesby was trying to be comforting. It was more than you wanted, but he was looking for validation, not conquest. Has anyone else laid a hand on you?”

  “No. I’m sure a couple of them would if there was a chance.”

  He admitted, “If there was no one else? Maybe. That’s why the buddy teams are the way they are.”

  “Your doing?” she asked.

  “Elliott’s and Alexander’s.”

  She faced away as she said, “I know some of these creeps have photos of me naked, too.”

  He remembered some images he’d deleted, and hoped she couldn’t see his ears burning.

  “Probably. Luckily there’s no internet.”

  “That is a thing back home, you realize. Getting photos or video without consent, and uploading.”

  “Yup. Seen the sites. I avoid them.”

  “I’d like to stop this conversation now,” she said, her voice flat.

  “Sure. Anything else? Or stop entirely?”

  “Please leave me alone,” she said.

  “Understood. Duty only. We need to make a sweep.”

  He used his rifle optic one way, she used NVG the other. The goats were mostly sleeping. Some distant leaves rustled slightly.

  He came back around to the cut in the grass. It didn’t seem to have changed. He stared at each stalk he could see.

  He wasn’t going to sleep until he’d examined it.

  CHAPTER 34

  Sean Elliott was tired.

  He’d slept well enough, but once again, problems cascaded up to him. He hadn’t planned on spending his life as an officer. In fact, he’d considered at some point releasing everyone and letting them vote on a mayor. He’d since realized that wouldn’t work. They were a unit, and needed to remain a unit.

  Dalton and Spencer took him out to the incident site they’d noted overnight. It was visible once they were about a hundred meters out, in the scrub and grass. The three were buttoned up and armed, his Bluetooth was live, and Alexander had them on speaker.

  The growth was always chaotic, windblown in waves, flat from rain, crushed under beasts from goat to rhino sized. This, though, was a straight line.

  Dalton said, “Something came through here. It was large, quiet, and I didn’t see anything on night vision.”

  Sean insisted, “It must have been there somewhere.”

  “You’d think so. But neither of us saw it.”

  Whatever it was had lumbered across the landscape, but didn’t seem to have left distinct footprints. He could well believe it had been some kind of sled.

  “Well, keep an eye out. Whatever it is, it’s respectably large. I wonder if it’s the Romans again, or some culture with horse-drawn drags.”

  “We’d have seen horses, or heard or smelled them.”

  “Probably. Dogs or people then?”

  Spencer said, “It could be more mammoths. If they have wide enough feet and long enough hair. They were pretty shaggy.”

  “I’m hoping it’s not a dinosaur,” Dalton said.

  “It can’t be. They’re thousands of times farther back.”

  “There’s Scripture that might contradict that.”

  Spencer said, “The Behemoth bit? No, there are too many reasons that’s not supportable, and we can’t debate it now. Where does the track go?”

  Da
lton said, “It seems to disappear over the west ridge. Toward the Roman settlement.”

  He looked behind them to the reassurance of a picket wall with a gatehouse, standing up from the weeds.

  “Yeah, I see it. I don’t think it was them dragging something, but that’s not impossible. Some kind of platform for a weapon. Except they’d use it.”

  Dalton said, “Dunno. Let’s just keep watching. But it’s creepy as fuck.”

  “Yes it is.”

  He went back inside and out the east to supervise the tiling for the deep freezer. The tile would run into a secondary trough for the goats, so they’d have additional water. He was trying to decide how much fence to put around it after that, to keep predators from raiding the fridge.

  The tiles were split timbers, and that had gotten much easier with the froe. Spencer said it was the ugliest tool he’d ever made, but it worked, mostly.

  The man had made a tool from dirt. There was no shame in that.

  It was heavy, dulled easily even after carburizing. He’d likely have to do it again. But hafted with a cut-down baseball bat from the Hajji-Be-Good box, it split shingles and planks.

  The planks were laid out in step from the bottom up, and some notched ones at the bottom led into a scraped out log. He was sure they’d have to oil-soak some wood within a year or two as these ones rotted, but one step at a time.

  “Good,” he said and gave a thumb up. It was decent looking. “Now split some more, and we’ll take them over there.” He used more gestures and pointed at the new sweat lodge, which had almost enough wood for a hot tub, and he wanted that done by Thanksgiving.

  The place was starting to feel like a village. Add some actual fields if they could, and some other herds and birds, and it would be like something out of history.

  He hoped they could grow some kind of grain. A walnut butter sandwich would make him feel a lot better. Or ham and cheese.

  He looked around and let data soak in. He was wondering if the timbered palisade was enough for the duration, or if they should work on stone walls. If so, here, or elsewhere? Realistically, the ten of them were not going to create an empire. That would be a nice story, but wasn’t feasible. They could make themselves as comfortable as possible, and expect any children to grow up native. Oglesby and Trinidad were already flirting heavily with the women. He also needed to figure out if that would mean moving their wives in, or building a village outside, allowing them to shelter if attacked. That village would need another wall. That could be lower, of piled stone.