Westward3

Westward Bound (part 3)

Setup: Takes place a week after part 2. On the road to New Pacifica.

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Voice of Morgan Martin "It's been a week since Julia and Alonzo left to return to Devon. I must admit that the group is much happier since a cure for Devon has been discovered. Julia left a supply of the anti-dote with us in case someone else is misfortunate enough to stumbled upon the bush. She also instructed Yale on how to make additional anti-dote should the need arise.

I'm happy that Devon may be back with us soon. I honestly do not look forward to the colony ship arriving and Devon not being there. I have serious doubt, which I keep to myself, that we can even have the colony up and ready for it's new inhabitants and I just as soon have Devon there to take the heat. I am concerned that Julia has left the team. Bess and Yale have only basic medical training and I for one would be much happier if we had a doctor on the road with us."

"John." After 6 weeks of being under Danziger's care, Uly had finally taken him up on his offer to call him John. "Do you think that my mom will get better?"

"Sure I do Uly. Julia is a great doctor. She has already found a cure for what is making your mother sick. At worst case, your mother will be sick and still need to wait for the colony ship. But Julia is confident that now that the cure is found, your mother will get better."

"How long do you think it will be before they get back here?"

"Well, it took us five weeks before Julia found a cure. But Julia and Alonzo should be able to make it back to the ship in about 3 weeks. Then Julia will want a week or so checking out your mother. Then it will be another 3 weeks for them to get back to the location that we started from. By that time it will have been seven weeks since we started moving so it will be a while before they join us."

"Can we wait for them?"

"No Uly, we need to keep moving. Remember that your mother will get better but she might not be coming back with Julia and Alonzo. We need to get the colony started as soon as possible. Besides, if your mother is with Julia and Alonzo, she'll be mad that we waited."

"Yeah, you're right. I should just be glad that my mother is going to get better, and remember that she will be back with me. I can be patient, I guess."

"I know you can champ."

Danziger and Uly were interrupted from their conversation by Baines. Baines had taken the ATV to scout ahead. "Danz, you're not going to like this."

"What's wrong, are you OK?" concern for his friend had even over rode concern about one of his vehicles.

"I'm fine but I've encountered a canyon. It's big and I haven't been able to find a path down."

"How far ahead are you?"

"About 5 clicks. This looks like a decent place to camp. There is a water fall and some vegetation near by."

"OK, wait for us there. We'll see you shortly"

"I can see some light reflecting off something near by. I'm going to check it out. It may be another pod"

"OK, keep in touch"

"Will do"

Danziger informed Yale of the problem. "I don't recall seeing a canyon on the maps"

"Neither do I" Yale replied.

"Do you think we got off course somewhere along the line?"

"I don't believe so. We have been constantly heading westward, following the path best for the vehicles. The worst case is we might be a little farther north or south of our projections. In that case, the canyon can't be that big and we can just traverse along it until we can find away across or down"

"Or the maps are just wrong and we are screwed"

"Come on John, no need for pessimism. " the tutor reprimanded.

A short while later, the group reached the canyon. Upon seeing how large it was, Danziger asked Yale, "Is now a good time for pessimism?"

With a laugh Yale replied, "Well, I can see how it would be hard not to be pessimistic."

"OK people, let's set up camp and then try to figure out what we're going to do about this thing"

"Do about this thing, what does he think we can do about this" Morgan whined.

His wife ignored him and started to set up for the night.

Just as they started setting up the camp, Baines returned. "Hey Danz, it's not a pod. It's an old ship. Looks like it crashed. Not sure if there is anything to salvage off it."

"How far is it?"

"About 2 clicks."

"We'll head over tomorrow and check it out. "

After camp had been set up and dinner was over; the group met around the fire to discuss the situation. "We'll need to scout to the north and the south to see if either direction has a way across." Yale noted.

"We'll have to scout one direction at a time, since we only have the ATV. That's going to slow us down" Danziger replied.

"But which direction to look into first" Morgan asked.

"Baines, did you see anything when you went to look at the ship?" Danziger questioned.

"Nope, right near the ship, it looked like it was narrowing a bit but then it widen again."

"Anyone have a preference or should we just flip a coin to decide the direction?" Danziger asked.

"Flip a coin, what does that mean? " Uly questioned.

"It's an old Earth custom. When you can't decide between two choices, you flip a coin to decide which one you should select. It's is completely arbitrary way to decide."

"I have a coin. Commander Broderick gave it to me. I'll go get it." Uly rushed to the tent to retrieve the coin.

"Well, unless there are any objections, it looks like it is going to be a coin toss"

When Uly came back with the coin, True called 'heads' for North. Danziger flipped the coin into the air. "Well it looks like someone will be heading north. Anyone want to volunteer?"

Several hands shot up. "OK, there are too many hands for a coin toss or even paper, rock, scissors. So do you want to pull straws?" All agreed to it. Then the six volunteers, Walman, Baines, Cameron, Mazatl, Denner and Magus, each selected a straw. Cameron drew the short straw. "OK tomorrow Cameron will take the ATV and head north. If you don't see anything in 5 days head back and we'll try south."

The next morning, Cameron took the vehicle and headed north. Danziger, Walman, Baines and Magus headed towards the ship that Baines had discovered the previous day.

"Wow, this thing is old. Even older then Bennett's ship" Walman offered.

"Well let's see if there is anything worth taking from it." Danziger suggested.

After some effort, the group managed to get into the cockpit. Upon entering, they found 3 bodies. "Guess this was the crew" Baines offered.

"Magus, ask Yale to send Zero over here. We need him to dig some graves." As Baines had suggested the previous day, there wasn't anything to salvage.

"How big would you say the gap is?" Danziger asked.

"Little under a 1/4 mile." Offered Walman.

"Do you think that there is enough metal to build a bridge strong enough for the transrover?"

"Danziger, you are not serious, you want to build a bridge!" Walman exclaimed.

"Well, unless Cameron finds something close, we are here for 2 weeks minimal. Longer unless there is something near by to the south. We may as well do something useful with the time."

"Hey, it's worth a shot. But how will we know it the metal is strong enough or even how to design the thing. None of us are architects" Magus stated.

The group was quiet for a moment. All remembered that they had an architect on the team, a good one, but that they had to leave her behind. "Zero could probably do an analyze on the metal and Yale could probably dig up a design for the bridge." Danziger suggested.

Magus and Walman started to warm to the idea. "It would be good to build something again," Walman stated.

"OK, lets go back to camp and see what the others have to say."

Danziger presented the proposal to the group over lunch. The Ops Crew was over whelming in favor of the project. Since some of the other colonist thought it would be worth a try, the bridge was on. It was agreed that if a path down or around was found, the bridge project would be suspended. They decided to call the bridge "The Eden Advance Bridge", this way it was named for all of them.

After lunch, everyone headed over to the ship. Zero had removed the three bodies and placed them in their graves. Yale said a quick blessing for the lost men. Once the short service was over, the task of analyzing the ship began. After much discussion, it was decided that the bridge would be built near the wreckage for two reasons. One reason was that way they wouldn't need to send a lot of time transporting the material. The second reason was it was the narrowest path of the canyon that they had encountered thus far. The initial report from Zero was that the metal was strong enough to support the weight of the rover. Yale began to search his records for a bridge that would meet the needs of supporting the transrover and would work with the material that they had.

The group returned to the camp for dinner. When dinner was over, Yale presented everyone with several choices for the bridge design. Some were rejected right away as being too difficult. Finally, after much hemming and hawing, it was down to three choices that the Ops Crew felt could be built with the material and equipment available to them, in a reasonable amount of time. Bess, supported by Gomez, argued for the most decorative of the three choices since it was the first structure built for the new colony. When put to a vote, the decorative design won.

Danziger suggested that everyone turn in for the night since they would need to get started on the bridge right away. The day, which had started off with much despair due to the canyon, had ended on a high note. Everyone felt an immediate purpose. Until that point, the purpose each day had been more or less to get closer to New Pacifica so that they could begin to build something. Now they would actually be building something.

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END OF PART 3