Jack and Jill IV
Chapter 28
Alexis woke up only to find Jayne gone but George and Gracie were still in her bed. Just swinging her legs off the bed to get up told her what today was going to be like. Small steps and shuffle her feet day.
She found her top and shorts and picked up both puppies and took them outside. She left them next to the water and puppy food and went back inside to take a shower and get dressed. They still had things to do today.
oOo
Pool chemicals were easy. They were just up the road and the bed of the truck was filled with buckets of chemicals meant for the pool.
To get the resistance bands, ankle weights, dumbbell hand weights, and maybe a ball like Melanie had brought meant going back into Panama City. This time Jayne had a request that Storm had come up with which meant taking both trucks.
After the exercise equipment for Rick came ratchet straps to tie stuff down to the bed of the truck. That was followed up by a trip to a motorcycle dealership. Storm wanted dirt bikes to get around with at least until the gasoline ran out. Which also meant finding gas cans and filling those with gas.
With help they got both dirt bikes up into the bed. They had to leave the tail gate down so Jayne strapped them down. Suzuki DR-Z50. Championship yellow No.2. Jayne would have preferred black but they were going to be heard long before they could be seen so it really didn't matter. And at US$1,749 each, they were a steal.
oOo
"Pool chemicals, Dad's exercise equipment, and Storm's motorcycles and gas that we have, so what's left?" Alexis needed to think. "Think, Alexis, think."
"SWIMSUITS! CHICKEN FEED, HAY, AND OATES." Alexis yelled since she was losing her mind. That had to be it. That meant finding shopping and there actually was a place that was close that they could start with some of this before driving back into Panama City again. "A line for drying clothes and clothes pins with springs." Alexis rolled her eyes at herself.
Everyone found everything including three swim suits each and they were home again. At least until Jayne thought of something. "The grill uses charcoal. How many bags do we have?" That resulted in him and Alexis leaving again while Kate got Rick into a new swimsuit. She followed that by putting on one of her new ones and helping Rick into the shallow end of the pool.
"The water should support your weight so you can try swimming and use some of those muscles. It's good therapy and I'll be right here watching you," Kate told him.
Rick smiled at her. "My lifeguard?"
"If I lose you it will kill me, so yes, I'm your lifeguard. Now swim. You have a lot of muscles to build up." Kate swam with him and never took her eyes off of him.
oOo
Jayne was pushing one cart filled with charcoal briquettes and Alexis had another. They had just bought all this store had and it went into the back of the truck. They drove home. When they ran out they ran out.
oOo
Kate still had Rick in the pool swimming when they got back though what Alexis saw was her dad moving very slowly. When he reached the shallow end Kate helped him to sit up on a lower step so he was still mostly in the water and not trying to hold himself up.
"Not bad, babe, for your first time." She had plans to get him out there a lot. He might even start growing webbing between his toes.
"I'd forgotten what it even meant to move," Rick murmured. He was tired but happy to just sit there. Then suddenly the puppies showed up and besides being interested in Rick and Kate, they were interested in this pool.
"You want in the pool?" Kate crooned at one that happened to be black and reached out quickly so he couldn't get away. She put him on the very top step that meant he was up to his chin in water.
It took time but he was having fun which got the other three to come over and look. It took Kate to get all three into the pool and it wasn't until someone fell off the step into the deeper end that anyone started actually swimming.
Kate rescued her and put her up out of the water and watched her shake herself to get dry. Then she raced back and forth barking – actually more yipping – at the ones still in the pool. "Well jump in, chicken."
"Good grief." Kate moved toward her. "Come on. Come over here. That's it, keep coming. Gotcha. In the pool you go." She put her on the top step and now all four were walking back and forth and tasting pool water but not really drinking.
"Looks like you need out, babe." He looked tired and in need of a nap. "Okay, all the puppies out of the pool." One by one they got lifted out and Kate got out herself. She lined his chair with towels then carefully lifted Rick up and helped him get settled in his chair.
"Bedroom for you," Kate told him. He guided his chair to their bedroom as the puppies followed while shaking off more water.
oOo
Everyone but Storm was outside under the large permanent awning, sitting at a table drinking ice cold whatever they wanted. Jayne even had a beer since they had several cases of the stuff. And Kate had vodka secreted away somewhere.
Then Storm walked out with his own cold drink and joined them. He had to step around or over sleeping puppies to do it. "You wouldn't believe the workshop out past the hydroponics area. It doesn't have a blacksmith shop but it has every tool we'll ever need. There's also an older ATV out there. It has a bed behind it so it's more work ATV than anything. I still prefer the dirt bikes, though.
"This is a nice place. So when are the solar installer and blacksmith coming out?" Storm took a long drink.
"A month or so if they come at all. Depends on what happens, I'm guessing. The blacksmith is more local so he's more likely to show up. The other one? I don't know. They're based in Rome, Italy so I don't know where he's coming from. My first guess is Texas or maybe Florida but I suppose we'll see." Alexis didn't really know. She knew she had paid half already so hopefully they would show up.
"What have you been up to?" Kate was curious. He didn't go shopping and he almost never left here so what was he doing?
"Preparing for the worst. Jayne brought a number of very useful things so I've been placing them and getting them ready," Storm said. "They're all remote controlled so no trip wires to worry about."
"Can you be more specific?" Kate asked him. "We all saw your really big gun that shot down that fighter. You got new stingers and a mini gun but they're back in New York City. So what do you have now? Besides the HK-47 you're carrying."
"Mine." Jayne jumped up and was gone.
Storm waited for Jayne to come back so he'd know about this as well. "The lone RPG is out at the horse stable. Claymores are at all the gated entrances and a few more scattered around here and there." Kate rolled her eyes and was almost sorry she asked.
"I've buried some of the C4 with remote detonators in the roadway at all three entrances. The drone is ready to be deployed. It's out in your carport actually." He looked at Alexis since her apartment had a carport for a car to park under.
"The extra HK-47s are presently in my guest bunkhouse that way toward the front entrance, Stable and workshop. I've placed ammunition for the HK-47s in the stable, workshop, vegetable garden, and hydroponics.
"One dirt bike is at my place and the other's at the stable unless you have a better location." Storm looked at Jayne.
"Her carport. It's centrally located and between the vegetable garden and the greenhouse," Jayne said since it was looking like he would be spending a lot of his nights in her bed instead of his bed and Storm nodded his approval to move it.
"Greenhouse." Storm almost slapped his forehead but didn't. "I'll move some of the ammunition to the greenhouse tonight.
"I only have one request. We have four pistols with suppressors in addition to everything else. I would like for you to keep them close if not on your person after the shooting starts. If things look to be going south I may demand that you carry it with you always.
"This place is a perfect target and I don't mean for the Amplitur. I mean the locals. They could kidnap the women and demand we hand over whatever they ask for. Likely food and weapons. I want to prevent that.
"That or a simple armed raid using bikes and trucks. Hence the claymores and buried C4. Some time tonight I'm going to use those bike chains and chain the gates closed. Everywhere else trees block the way and are too dense for a truck. The only clear area has claymores to guard against that."
Storm headed off any complaint Alexis might have. "You called me, granddaughter. Let me do my job."
"I am, I just wish you didn't have to is all." Alexis knew he was good. That was why she had called him in the first place. That and he was her grandfather.
"Maybe nothing will happen and maybe something will. We wait and see and be ready for it. If there's something we're missing, now is the time to get it." He looked around at everyone.
No one could think of anything they had missed so didn't say anything.
"It's a nice place, I like it. Not too hard to defend. Grow your own food, hydroponics even, workshop, lots of water, and comfort while we wait. It's nice." Storm did his best to actually smile. He was as ready as he was going to get using what he had.
"Grow food." Alexis shook her head, annoyed that she'd forgotten something so important. "Guess what all of us are doing tomorrow first thing? I'll give you a clue. Greenhouse." They had all those plants and all those seeds and pots and fertilizer and a garden to tend to.
Kate looked at her nails. "Good thing I keep my nails short." She wasn't like some women who had to have long well manicured nails. She was used to working for a living. Those long nails would have broken long ago while lifting Rick in and out of his chair. She might have even scratched him with them.
"Am I cooking tonight or is someone using the BBQ?" Kate queried. "I saw someone putting away a lot of charcoal earlier." Kate hinted at what she wanted.
"I'll go start the grill." Jayne got up and took his half finished beer and HK-47 with him.
"Good man." Alexis approved.
oOo
Supper had been grilled everything so Kate didn't have to lift a finger. Jayne even went into the kitchen to get everything he needed. "Do we even have BBQ sauce?" Kate asked since she didn't remember buying any herself.
"Bottles and bottles," Alexis answered. They were sitting pretty as far as she could tell.
Alexis had her mouth full when suddenly their satellite phone rang. Her hands were a mess and so was her mouth so she just pointed at the thing. Rick reached across to pick it up. He wasn't going to be able to hold it long but he could at least answer it as Kate wiped his mouth clean of BBQ sauce.
"Madam Secretary, I presume," Rick said.
"Hi, Rick. Just calling to inform you that whatever Jack did worked to perfection. Every car and truck and maybe everything else in North Korea that we can monitor just suddenly stopped moving. Their airbases are all buzzing but no one is flying.
"I was told to say thank you, so thank you." Having to fight the North Koreans maybe starting tomorrow and that was going to be a headache of epic proportions.
"We're happy to help, Elizabeth. Good luck tomorrow," Rick told her.
"I trust you people are ready. Once this starts this planet's going to be interesting." They had never had an alien race from space attack them before so if they thought riots when word got out was something, wait till things got really bad.
"We're all set. We don't plan to move unless we have to. Take good care out there." Rick hung up and Kate took the phone from him and set it on the table.
"Nice work, Jack." Rick was happy.
oOo
It was day zero and it was all out of their hands now. So today was working in the greenhouse day and checking the hydroponics. They were hoping that once they had it all set they would just need to go over there and check it instead of work it. At least until it came time to actually farm the vegetable farm, greenhouse, or hydroponics.
They had been a little overly optimistic about the fruit trees. They were lemon trees, all of them. "We can make a lot of lemonade," Kate shrugged since it was too late to make a change. Besides it would take years and years for any little trees to grow big enough to produce fruit.
"Your puppies better not like to dig," Storm warned.
"Bite your tongue." Kate looked around but didn't see a single puppy. They had followed them to the greenhouse so they should be there somewhere. They were too young to get too far. They would find them.
oOo
Since everyone was in the greenhouse including Rick, it actually went pretty fast, freeing up everyone to do what they wanted next.
Since Storm wanted to get used to his new toy he had the remote and the drone was in the air so he could get used to flying it. As well as using some of its automatics so it would circle most of the area Storm had any concerns over. Followed by landing it and plugging it back in to recharge the battery.
"I assume that it works?" Alexis did live there and she had her two puppies so she could feed them.
"Perfectly. Where's everyone else?" Storm questioned since it was his job to keep track of everyone or at least he thought so.
"Rick and Kate are in the main house and Jayne said something about giving one of the horses a bath and checking their hooves. Does he really know much about horses?" If he did so much the better for them.
"More than me. Since it's day zero and anyone wants to attack us it will be at night. I'm going to hit the pool then get some sleep. It will be interesting what happens now. We should be safe for weeks, maybe months. Though when things start to go bad we're all going to have to keep our eyes open." Storm wasn't worried about today. But one day he was certain that was going to change.
"That's why I called you. I may not approve of your life and what you do but I'm very glad that you're here. Jayne said Columbia. I'm sorry if I ruined something important." Alexis put her puppies down since they wanted down.
"Nothing's more important than being here. You and Richard are all I have. I owe it to Martha. Have fun with your puppies," Storm told her and turned to leave.
"Thank you, Gramps." Alexis gave him a hug and that had Storm pausing for a moment.
"I… You're welcome. I will be here till you release me. Here or back in New York and your Penthouse apartment." Storm started to leave again.
"You had video cameras everywhere, did you not? Can't you have Jack monitor them for you?" Alexis inquired.
That had him spinning to look at her. He actually hadn't thought of that. "Thank you." He owed her for that.
oOo
Storm was getting out of the pool so he could eat lunch with everyone else before going to bed and getting some sleep so he could stay up tonight and monitor their site.
They were eating when Jack and Jill both showed up. "The Amplitur fleet is here. Your ability to monitor your orbit which keeps track of all the space junk you have, has noticed a number of new items and their size suggests troop transports and heavy support ships," Jack reported.
That got all of them to stop eating. "Damn. I hate being right," Kate leaned back and tossed her napkin on the table.
"Let's hear it, Jack. How many?" Rick asked him.
'Two hundred and twelve."
"Holy crap!" Alexis blurted. It was what most of them were thinking. "Two hundred and twelve times eight thousand is, is…" Alexis tried to do the math.
"Keep in mind some of them are support ships," Jill cautioned.
"Okay so even if it's half that's one hundred and six time eight thousand is…eight hundred forty-eight thousand. HOLY CRAP!" Alexis suddenly lost her appetite.
"Is this the normal number of ships they or even the Weave send?" Kate queried.
"No, the first arrival is usually smaller." Jack hypothesized a possibility for the number sent. "However if you are attempting to take an already held planet you send a force larger than this. They may have diverted part of a force meant for a different planet. One already held by the Weave."
"We may have underestimated. This is not good," Storm said grimly. "We better be ready."
"Keep us apprised, you two. Roughly two weeks till the Weave fleet gets here," Jayne said. "It's a big planet but is there really that much space up there for both?" he questioned.
"As we stated earlier, space fights do not typically happen. It depends on what ships have been sent by both sides. Most space fighting is what you people call hit and run. Exit FTL and attack to clear space for the transport ships then withdraw if necessary," Jack explained.
"So we get to hope you sent fewer transport ships and more combat ships." Storm sighed. "Still they haven't fought us before. As you say, we are different."