CHAPTER FOUR: THE COLONY

Early the next morning Ian was summoned to Justin's quarters by one of the colony guards. They were on the same level as Ian's own room but on the other side of the main hall, so it took quite a bit of walking to get there. Once there, the guard left Ian alone with Justin.

The leader of the rats lived more comfortably than most of his people. Justin's chamber was hung with ornate tapestries that sectioned the place off into three rooms, including a bathroom with a hot tub big enough to swim in. Most of the clay floor was covered with animal-skin rugs, and all of the furniture was of finely-crafted wood, the chairs with plush cushions. Ian noticed a human-built radio set back into one wall.

"Good morning, Ian," Justin greeted him. "How are you feeling?"

"Better all the time. That feast yesterday gave me some much-needed energy. By the way, was it my imagination, or did those festivities end on a down note?"

"Oh, that," Justin shrugged it off. "They were just a little upset that they won't be able to eat as well as they have in the past from now on. I keep trying to tell them that fresh meat isn't a necessary part of their diet, but they won't listen."

"They'll have to listen now."

"Yes, well … " Justin rubbed his forepaws along the front of his tunic. "Sometimes compromises are necessary. Now then, I called you here to discuss your future with the colony. I don't mean to sound stern, but we work hard here, and we can't have any freeloaders. Uh, those are the Council's words, not mine. What I'm trying to say is, you're most welcome here, but we have to find something for you to do."

"I suppose so," said Ian.

"Everybody has to work," Justin continued, "and there's the problem. It simply wouldn't do to send an honored guest like yourself out to work in the fields, but unless you've acquired some specialized knowledge or skill that we can use, I may have to do just that."

"You could always make me a guard," Ian suggested.

"I could, and I might. But even then you'd spend most of your time in the fields, helping to keep birds away from the crops. I had higher hopes for you."

"So did I. If we can get off this subject a moment, I understand there was a death in the colony yesterday."

"Yes, there was," Justin affirmed. "A young boy. I see Barnes told you."

"I didn't think it proper to ask a doctor about a patient he had just lost," Ian explained. "Could you tell me what the boy died from?"

"It was a stomach virus. We call it Simmons' Disease, named for the first one of us to die from it. Barnes could tell you anything about it you want to know - except how to cure it." Justin sighed. "It only affects two or three of us each year, but it's always fatal. It's most discouraging, especially for Barnes. He feels so helpless."

"I can imagine. Justin, before I'm assigned a place in the colony, I would like very much to see the rest of it."

"Of course! How unthoughtful of me!" Justin went to the door and motioned for Ian to follow. "I'll show you around myself."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to take up your time like that. You surely have more important things to see to."

Justin waved a forepaw. "Never you mind. I'm quite proud of all we've done here, and I welcome any chance to show it off. Now, come along."

The tour started in the boiler room on the lowest level. The boiler itself was a huge metal tank with pipes and shafts running all around it. A crew of male rats stood watch over the machine to keep it working properly.

"This is our main source of power," Justin stated admiringly. "Water pumped from the stream is heated to become steam, which turns turbines to give us electricity. That's also how we get our hot water."

Ian was impressed. "But where did you get the parts for it?"

"A year or so after we started the colony," Justin explained, "a small airplane crashed farther up the valley. Both humans in it were killed. We were terrified that others would come to investigate the accident and we would be discovered, but they never did. Some rangers came and took away the bodies, but the wreck was just left there in the forest. So, we took from it what we could use. As far as I know, the rest of it is still there, rusting away. That was the only time in the past four years that humans have come to Thorn Valley."

"Quite a story." Ian looked the boiler over. "But, wouldn't it have been wiser to put it on the surface? As it is now, if a fire breaks out, it could burn right up through the rest of the colony."

"True, but in the winter we use the heat rising from the furnace to keep the upper levels warm. We couldn't do that if the boiler were on the surface. Besides," Justin pointed to a nozzle on the ceiling, "if a fire does break out, we've got a sprinkler system to put it out."

"You've thought of everything, haven't you?"

"I'd like to think we have," Justin nodded. "We even branched the chimney so that the smoke isn't too noticeable on the surface. We don't want to draw any more attention to ourselves than we have to. Come on, I'll show you the rest of the level."

Justin led Ian through corridors that ran past giant clay doors, as tall as three rats and twice as wide. Ian asked what lay behind them. "Food storage," Justin said. "Grain and corn on the left, meats and vegetables on the right."

"Well … you certainly won't be going hungry in the near future."

"I don't expect to." They passed beneath an archway into into another spacious chamber. "These are the workshops. I find them especially fascinating. Anytime anyone gets an idea for a useful invention, they can come down here in their spare time and spell out their ideas to our engineers. Or, if they prefer, they can work on it themselves. Let me see if Hugo's here. He's our only full-time inventor."

Justin called out, and a black head popped up from behind a workbench. "Ah, Justin!" Hugo displayed a smile of gleaming white fangs. "What brings you down here?"

"I'm showing Ian around the colony. Do you have anything interesting to show him?"

"Not really," Hugo shook his head. "I was just working on the lances." Hugo hobbled over to them with one of the weapons. Ian noticed for the first time that he was hunchbacked. Hugo held the lance up for inspection.

"This craftsmanship is extraordinary," Ian murmured, and reached out to feel the polished blade.

"Don't touch it!" Justin warned.

It was too late. As Ian's fingers came into contact with the metal, a jabbing pain ran down his arm, making his entire body tingle and turn numb. He fell back a few steps and shook his head to clear it.

"I should have told you," Justin apologized. "These weapons are electrified."

Hugo laughed as if the whole thing were funny. "Lucky for you, the charge was low. Otherwise, you'd be flat on your back right now."

Ian studied the device more closely. "How does it work?"

"The charge is carried in here," Hugo ran a forepaw along the handle. "It's insulated, except for the blade. That's so our somewhat less-than-bright guards don't electrocute themselves."

"A very good design," said Ian, "but it could be improved upon."

Hugo drew the lance away. "Who asked your opinion?"

"Uh, we don't want to take up any more of your time," Justin cut in, leading Ian away by the arm. "Keep up the good work, Hugo."

The hunchbacked rat only grunted as they left.

Justin took Ian back up to the living levels. "There's not much to see here. You've been in the main hall already, but when there aren't any meetings or banquets being held, the hall serves another purpose."

They entered through the main doors. Ian was surprised by what he saw. The tables had been moved into bunches around the chamber's walls, and at each group a class was in progress.

"We have to teach our youngsters all we can," said Justin, "so the hall doubles as our school." Justin went to one of the "classrooms," and Ian realized that the teacher there was Elizabeth. Justin gave his wife a peck on the cheek. Her students giggled.

"What are you doing here?' she asked.

"Showing Ian the sights." Justin turned to Ian. "Elizabeth's the best speller in the colony. We teach every child to read and write."

Ian glanced around the hall. "How is school run?"

"As you can see," said Elizabeth, "there are six groups, and each group is a different subject. Mine is English. Each day, every student spends an hour and a half on each subject. That way, they learn a little of everything all the time."

By that time, every head in the hall was turned toward Ian, and the teachers had given up trying for the children's attention. "I think we're disrupting the classes," Justin observed. "We'd best be off." He gave Elizabeth another kiss, which made her blush beneath her fur, and then he and Ian left for the surface.

Outside, Justin was disappointed to see another sunny, cloudless day, and cursed under his breath. Ian caught it. "What is it?"

"We need rain," Justin said, "and badly. We've already lost some of the harvest to this drought."

Standing beside the entrance to the colony, Ian could look over the fields. He saw that the plants did indeed appear dry, and several rows had died off and turned brown.

Between the colony and the fields, a waterwheel spun slowly at the edge of the stream. "Hydroelectric power," Justin announced. "The flowing water turns the wheel, which is attached to turbines that generate electricity. The turbines are in the small structure next to the wheel. Trouble is, if the stream gets much lower, the wheel won't turn."

"And if that happens?"

"Then it'll be a lot darker down in the colony. Would you like to see it?"

"No, thanks," said Ian. "I've seen so much, I'll leave that for some other time."

"Well, do you have any ideas on what job you'd like to have?"

"Yes," Ian nodded, "I know precisely what I'd like to do. I want to be Barnes' assistant."

Justin was surprised. "But he already has a female apprentice."

"This colony should have more than two doctors," Ian argued.

"Do you know anything at all about medicine?"

"I picked up a little at NIMH. And I'm willing to learn whatever Barnes has to teach me."

Justin stroked his whiskers. "I'll have to talk to Barnes. It's up to him."

"I really think that's how I could best serve the colony."

"In that case," Justin clapped his forepaws together, "let's go see what Barnes has to say about this."