CH 4
Their first days on this new planet were a dream filled blur. They made a cabin, made a garden, made a few basic tools they didn't bring with them, and made love. Harry was in heaven. Alice was a great friend and fantastic lover. The only days they didn't make love were when they were both so exhausted from the day's work that they could hardly move. Even then, they held each other close.
Time no longer meant anything to Harry. The cabin they build from logs and large branches served as their home while Harry and Alice planned their new home. By now, they had found ruins nearby. Stone blocks became their building material. They planned and dug a foundation.
The seasons here were not harsh, The coldest times of the year, it got down to around the freezing point of water some days. The hottest, they wore little except for the wide brimmed plant fiber hats they made.
They ate from their garden which grew most of the year and trapped the cat-like animals that were in abundance for meat and clothing. Instead of the manufactured clothes they brought, they wore lighter plant fiber clothing Alice wove and the sewn together, and furs and leather from the animals they caught.
The first three cycles, Harry and Alice built their home with their own two hands. Both believed nothing should be wasted. Every animal they caught, they used as much of it as possible. Not because the creatures were scarce, but because they respected the life they took. Fur clothing, leather for clothes and shoes, extra fur was used for insulation, bedding and pillows and the first drive belts and seals for Harry's first attempts at a steam engine were leather. Careful carving and they made bone needles, pins and clothes hooks.
The plants in the garden they treated the same way. Once the large orange vegetables were harvested, the seeds were collected from the inside, and the tough vines they had grown on were dried and used to make hanging ropes and baskets. The berry bushes were great for coloring. The dark purple, the red, green and yellow berries stained clothes permanently. By mixing the colors, they had a large range of color possibilities. Alice liked the light purple the best, and made a leather jacket and stained it light purple to match her leather pants. Harry experimented and made himself a mottled green and brown jacket and pants for hunting.
A windmill to generate some electricity and a waterwheel by the stream to grind grain, and they were fairly set. The dam they made to bring the stream level up to run the waterwheel was also a great place to relax and swim. The deeper water attracted fish which added variety to their diet.
Harry made a real forge with bellows. Finding pieces of metal here and there, Harry melted the metal and reformed it into new tools and parts. The molds he created came from beach sand came from a day's walk away, but the trip had been worth it.
One of the things he wanted to make was a heating system for the cooler weather. It was great to lay with Alice cuddled up in front of the fireplace, but the hearth was not efficient enough to heat the whole house. With some trial and error, he managed to make more wire to form into heating elements. By the time cooler weather did come, they had a heating unit in every room.
Four years after they arrived, they were putting the finishing touches on their home. Stone walls with an insulated wooden interior, the inner walls smoothed and polished, smooth stone floored entryway, closely fit wooden floors and ceilings. Their house was just as fine as any found on Caprica.
All the constant work they did also had a positive effect on their bodies. Harry muscled up and leaned down much to Alice's delight. Alice did not put on much in the way of muscle, but bore a slim and firmly toned body, much to Harry's delight. The fourth year is when they decided to start up 'the old shuttle' and take a tour of the planet. Not to find a place to move to, just to see what else was here.
They had not gone far when they were looking down on the ruins of a spoke shaped city, Alice said, "Harry, I do think this is Kobol. That city has the same shape as the drawing in the book."
"The place all the tribes got kicked out of," Harry said. "Well I don't think there is anyone around to kick us out. I haven't see a soul."
"I find that story odd," Alice said as she circled the city. "If someone does find us, they will make us leave. Maybe we shouldn't go looking around."
Harry winced. "You may be right. If we want to get a closer look, we can always walk back," he offered.
"Maybe we should leave well enough alone," Alice said vacantly and tuned for home.
So Alice didn't feel bad, Harry offered, "I have grain to grind anyway, the last bunch should be just about done. Cool weather's coming. I want to get at least ten buckets full before the end of the season."
"Cats will be moving south soon, we should get a few before they leave too," Alice agreed.
The cold season came again. By the time it was water-freezing cold, Harry and Alice had their supplies in to last through the few cold months. They were coming upon their fifth year here, and loving it. Stuck mostly inside for the winter, in previous years they worked on the house more. This year, they worked at improving their technology. With the parts Harry made in his forge, and the strips of leather Alice saved, they sat down and worked out an air or steam powered engine. What they came up with was a simple engine that had all the cylinders arraigned in parallel circle inside a cylindrical frame. The pistons inside all pushed on a plate that was tipped on the center shaft, mated to another movable plate underneath.
"It's called a swash-plate engine," Harry said. "the pistons push down on the high spot of the top plate, forcing the bottom plate to turn, which turns the shaft. You put pressure on the piston while it goes down through a tops slide valve, and release pressure while it's on it's way back up though the exhaust port. One plate over the pistons puts pressure in, the ring on the side lets it out. Compact, simple, reliable, and the limit to the power it can produce, is how much pressure you put into it."
"It's a good design," Alice agreed. "So, what do we use it for?"
"We don't have a ground vehicle besides the hand cart," Harry said. "And the best logs and stone are a ways away. A vehicle to carry stuff will make life a lot easier."
"We have no roads, Harry," Alice reminded him with a smirk.
"Put tracks on it, and we don't need roads," he countered. "Those are easily made. All they are is metal pads hinged together. I can make those easy enough. I do have that pile of scrap and a mold I can use."
Alice thought about it then said, "Wood frame and oiled leather cover for the rain. It could be useful. Let's do it."
Harry figured the size he'd need for a stable, yet maneuverable vehicle. By the time he was done planning, he had something the size of a small ground car. Two people could comfortably fit side by side in the front, the engine and drive train in the back, pressure cylinder on top of the back. Since he was making things, he made a little piston air compressor. To run the compressor, he designed a windmill that rose up on a telescoping mast. The center of the vehicle was still empty. That would be storage and hold tools.
The going was slow in making everything. Alice made the wooden wheels, the wood frame and designed a cover.
Harry discovered that his windmill could not develop much air pressure. Turning the compressor by hand was too much work. The compressed air idea was not working out well.
Alice grinned at Harry and fitted a slab of stone on the back of the vehicle to protect the chassis from heat if they used a boiler to make steam. Harry moved on to making the steel wheels to drive the tracks. He was also making alot of track pieces.
As the project went on, it turned out the best solution was the steam boiler. Alice finished making seats and the steering mechanism as Harry made the piping. In a half buried building Harry figured had once been a power plant, he found what he saw as a chest of gold. Pipes, parts, salvageable copper wire, and even the rotted wire had enough copper to smelt down in the forge to make some new wire.
An engine test proved their little engine that looked like a chunk of thick cylinder did put out a good amount of power. Steam made the shaft spin fast, and the small boiler more than kept up with the demand.
The vehicle was put together and ready to test as plants were blossoming in the first weeks of warmer weather. Harry opened the storehouse door, Alice got the fire going under the boiler. The gauge set Harry made were simple spring gauges. Harry and Alice watched the pressure rise as the boiler heated. They got in their seats and were ready to ride.
Seeing the pressure go up to what Harry guessed was around 50 PSI, he inched the wooden throttle forward and said, "Here we go."
It moved forward at a crawl. At the pressure went up, it moved faster. Gaining a walking speed, the vehicle crawled away from the house.
Harry let out a happy yell as they went through the light brush field. Harry pushed the throttle open until the pressure stopped rising. At around a hundred PSI, they were moving a little better than a fast walk as they crushed brush under track.
"Try to turn, Harry," Alice coaxed.
Harry pulled on the right side brake. The vehicle responded. He then turned left.
"Harry, the pressure," Alice said in a worried tone. Harry looked, the gauge was at the top of it's limit.
Harry pushed the throttle open all the way. They went faster. Slowly, the gauge came down. "We have plenty of steam. Maybe a bit too much heat," he noted.
"Yes. Keep going fast, I don't want it to explode," Alice said.
Harry ran the vehicle almost out of sight of the house to a tree line, then came back down the path of crushed vegetation he'd made. There was still plenty of water in the boiler and lots of pressure, so he made the run again. Coming back to the house on the third time up and down the track, he noticed the pressure dropping fast.
"Fire's out," Alice noted.
"Well we know it works," Harry told her.
"Two things to fix," Alice said. "Add a pressure relief and make better gauges."
"Right."
The fun project was over for the day. It was planting time and they had to get the vegetable field planted if they wanted food next year.
.
Part of their planting time was fishing. Worms worked well for bait as did larve they found under rocks by the stream. The fish they caught were dried and chopped up into fine bits, then added to the mulch from the 'old' pile. Harry dug up the ground in rows, Alice followed spreading the fertilizer. On the next pass, Alice planted the seed, Harry covered it over. At each end of the rows a fresh stick to mark where the row was. As the were doing this, they decided one future job of their 'work tractor' was going to be plowing and planting.
A week later, Harry was taking a nap outside in the big wooden armchair. For some reason, he dreamed Alice was going someplace in the shuttle. Coming half awake, he realized the engine noise he heard was real. It quit right after he roused himself. 'What was she doing?' he wondered.
Alice came walking around the side of the house with a few fish and the pole. "Harry, were you messing with the shuttle?" she asked.
"No, thought you were," he told her.
Alice put her pole and the fish down, Harry got up. They headed for the shuttle they'd left in a young growth of trees a hundred yards from where they built their house. The shuttle was still there. The tree cover had grown, but with the dead leaves sprinkled over the silent machine, it had not moved and no one had touched it. Harry went to the back of the shuttle and felt the exhaust.
"Cold. It wasn't our shuttle we heard," Harry told her.
"Then we have company. I hope they are friendly," Alice said with a sigh.
"I hope so too," Harry offered.
Hands clasped, the walked back to the house. Coming out of the trees, they saw a few helmeted people out in front of the house. Military uniforms and they carried guns. "This isn't good," Alice grumbled.
"May as well go see what they want," Harry said and offered Alice a tight grin.
Approaching the house, one of the soldiers came towards them. The brown haired man asked them, "Anyone else here?"
"We live by ourselves, we've seen no one in years," Alice offered.
"This planet was deserted when we arrived," Harry added. "If we claimed someone else's land, we're sorry, we had no idea."
The man grinned. "No, Sir, it's nothing like that. The Sargent wants to see you," he said, and motioned towards the house.
Harry and Alice went inside to see who they took as the Sargent, supervising the unloading of the food storage bins.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked.
The Sargent turned to them and asked, "Anyone else living here?"
"No, what are you doing?" Harry asked again.
Firmly, the Sargent said, "Glad to see you folks are still alive. Get clothes for yourselves, we'll be leaving shortly."
"Why?" Alice asked, looking stressed.
"Commander's orders. This is a rescue mission. Do you have any other food stored?" the Sargent asked.
"Rescue?" Harry asked in disbelief. "From WHAT!"
"Cylons," the Sargent stated.
Alice face palmed and grumbled, "Not again."
"Hey, Sarg?" Harry asked, then said, "There's no Cylons around here. There was not anyone around until you showed up. We don't need to be rescued."
"The risk of them finding you is too great. Corporal Lewis will escort you to the shuttle."
"NO! We've got no reason to leave ... And put our food back where you found it!" Harry yelled.
"The fleet needs this food," the Sargent stated.
"So, you rob us AND kidnap us," Harry stated with venom in his voice.
"THIS is a rescue," the Sargent stated heavily. "And bringing your food along will help the fleet. Now move!"
"YOU MOVE!" Harry yelled. "Take your thieving thugs and get out of our house!"
"Cool it, mister, or you'll find yourself under arrest!" the Sargent barked back.
"FOR WHAT? You're the thieves here!" Harry barked back. A rifle butt slammed into his head.
"Harry!" Alice cried, and dropped down by Harry who was holding his head and groaning in pain.
A soldier stuck his head in. "Sarg, we got a shed of metal parts as well as that vehicle."
"Take all the metal you can find. Bust up that vehicle," the Sargent ordered.
"Yes, Sir."
Alice burst out crying. Not again! her mind screamed. First it was the Cylons who 'rescued' her, now Colonials were doing it again! She helped Harry up and guided him towards the bedroom. These men were going to take everything they had worked so hard to build. She knew what it was like to be forcibly 'rescued'. She was not going to let that happen to Harry.
Two soldiers followed her. One grabbed Harry and sat him on the floor. "Get some clothes, Ma'am," he told her.
Tears of rage filled Alice's eyes. In a grating tone, she said, "You ... monsters can steal anything you want. We are not going with you."
"You must."
"Like HELL. Why can't you leave us alone?" Alice asked, quaking in rage.
"Arrest both of them, we don't have time for this!" the Sargent ordered.
Harry gritted his teeth, shot up and punched the closest soldier, knocking him down and out. Another rifle butt to the back of the head put him down. Alice attacked the solider who hit Harry, pummeling him into a wall where he slumped down. She grabbed his rifle. Three shots rang out and hit Alice. She fell to the floor dead.
Wearing a grimace, the Sargent said, "Frackin shame. All right men, see who's alive and get them on stretchers and out of here. Put that man in irons."