So sorry about the delay. I don't own anything.
Carolina woke up slowly. Her head was fuzzy but she felt comfortable swaying slightly, a breeze on her face. Carolina's eyes snapped open and she twisted out of York's arms with a yell and kicked him in the chest. This would normally knock him flat but this time end with her falling to the ground with a throbbing foot. "York what the hell!"
"Sorry Carolina but you passed out and you were to heavy with the armor."
"So you took it off? Why not just let me wake up! Where is it? Don't tell me you let it just laying there."
"It's safe we can go back for it later. I was more worried about finding people. Delta says there is a town another mile up the path." York said quickly hoping to at least keep the redhead from yelling.
"Fine let's go maybe we can get off this god forsaken planet." With that Carolina whipped around and stalked down the path York dutifully following behind. They walked in silence for a while following the winding foot path through the dense forest. When they started to hear sounds of human activity they crouched crawling till they reached the edge of the forest.
The small settlement they looked out on, could barley be more than thirty buildings. People walked up and down the streets going in and out of shops and cafes. Carolina sincerely hoped they were not insurrectionist friendly as they were in desperate need of food and water. After watching for a while York and Carolina decided that it was probably worth the risk to go down there, but first they pulled off York's armor.
"Jeesh Carolina if I had known you were this devoted to seeing me out of armor I would have agreed when we were on the ship" York said jokingly as Carolina determinately pried one of his trickier back pieces off.
"York?"
"Yes boss?"
"Shut up before I do something I might regret later." Carolina's fingers froze just as she pulled the back piece away. Her head whipped around and she looking into the woods. Putting the piece down and picking up her buzz baton slowly stalking towards the woods. Other than a few moving leaves there was nothing just a sheet of metal on the ground. Carolina kicked it and it shifted revealing a small gap. "York come here for a minute.
"what?" he asked leaning over next to her to peer in the hole. Carolina pulled out a dirty cloth drawstring bag.
"Found something." She reached in and pulled out several large coins. The writing was in a different language but it was obviously money and from the year on the face current.
"Looks like we won't have to scrounge to much." York muttered looking deeper in the bag at the large assortment of change. Carolina nodded and pulled out a fistful of coins sorting through to get a large variety of each kind. She left a good amount into the bag. At York's questioning look she explained "Whomever left it here probably needs it to. plus if we need more we can come back for it later." York nodded before straitening.
Now with money in hand they walked out into the town staying on the edges. Carolina saw a woman in a yard hanging up laundry. People still did that? It had been unusual in the twenty first century. Now that she looked closer Carolina realized that the city looked like it had only seen some of the advancements in modern technology. People had cell phones but they looked like ones that had been around several decades ago and the architecture it's self looked like it had come from the twenty second century. "They really take the whole isolation thing seriously."York muttered in Carolina's ear. "No kidding" she replied.
Then getting her self together and putting on a expressionless face Carolina walked to a small store off the main road that had clothes in the window. Inside the woman at the counter looked up startled by their presence. "Quam serviatis vobis?"
"Clothes?" Carolina tried
"Quod?" She looked puzzled and a little nervous. Carolina turned away and started to look at the clothes. The clothes looked normal enough. Carolina picked up a shirt and pants gesturing for York to do the same. He quickly grabbed clothes and they brought them up to the woman who looked at them with both suspicion as if she thought they were going to run off with the clothes and fear that they were about to rob her. Carolina pushed the clothes towards her and pulled out some money. The woman rung up their purchases "sexiginta" Carolina glanced at the coins trying to figure what sexiginta was. The woman reached out and gently pulled six of the large coins out of her hand and handed her a receipt. Carolina and York walked out of the store and back towards the forest a little ways so as to be less noticeable.
"York turn around." Carolina said once they were out of sight of the village.
"What why?" he asked his head wiping around in search of danger.
"Because I am not going to change with you standing there." York's face reddened and he looked away. Carolina was glad he was not going to make a comment right now. "Hey York did Delta figure out what language that woman was speaking?" Carolina could hear the rustling of fabric as York to changed into the new clothes.
"He says that it sounds a lot like twenty-first century English to him but he says the likelihood of there being an entire colony speaking a dialect that has been dead of several centuries is pretty much zero."
"Well it certainly not the English we speak." Once they both had changed they headed back into the village. People stared at them even dressed like civilians. Carolina pretended they weren't and moved to a small café pulling out a seat and sitting down. York sat across from her. A young man placed menus in front of them and darted off immediately. blearily their plan to blend in was clearly failing. Carolina sighed as she opened the menu. It was in that other language. York leaned across the table and said quietly "The AI can translate most languages have Eta or Iota translate for you and tell you the words to say." Carolina internally groaned she didn't like using the AIs more than possible. Delta seemed to never give York any trouble but Eta and Iota were always giving her headaches. Eta you mind translating the menu? Translating now came Eta's soft voice. Carolina looked down the list absentmindedly, she still couldn't understand anything but it helped a bit with the headache Eta gave her. Pullum pulmenti, Carolina almost missed Eta's response trying to get a grip on the headache.
The waiter came back and said something in the old English. "Pullum pulmenti" Carolina said he nodded and looked at York who after a second said simply "idem" The boy tapped on his tablet and then disappeared back in the café.
" What are you getting?" Carolina asked
"I have absolutely no idea but it is the same thing as your's" York replied
"Idem?"
"Delta says that it means the same."
Pullum pulmenti turned out to be chicken soup, a welcome meal after what they had just been through. It had been ages since Carolina had chicken soup, she used to have it when her mother was home but that had been rare and when she was little.
After they had paid which had taken a little bit of gesturing on everyone's part, York and Carolina headed out of town down a road that was aptly called Rus Via or country road. The money they had found was not going to last and they need jobs that wouldn't require a lot of talking. They had not been able to find a satellite that would be able to travel across space and the internet routers were apparently not strong enough ether from what they had seen walking around town. They would need some kind of home base to wait for ether the freelancers to find them or a transport to come, but they didn't know when that would be. Therefore becoming hired hands sounded like the best move for the moment. They were both strong from training and possibly working on the farm would keep them at least partially in shape.
The first farms they came to were nether friendly nor in need of two more sets of hands. The sun was starting to set and the two were considering where to spend the night, back in the forest, on the road, in a field, or back in the village. There was one last farm along the road that they could see. They walked up expecting nothing different that the response they had gotten on the other farms. As they approached the porch they saw a old man sitting in a rocking chair enjoying the mild night. Two children burst out of the house, the screen door banging against the wall "Grandpa Jamie stole my book!" The girl cried indignantly in perfect English as York and Carolina knew it. The old man sighed and smiled at the two children. "Jamie give Ella her book and how about both of you go looking of fireflies they come out during this time of night you know." Both children stopped their squabble and disappeared back into the house with the loudest racquet ether freelancer had ever heard. "Quisque estis?" The man asked us as we approached. "twenty-fifth century English please." Carolina said as she approached. In a instant the man had a guarded look on his face . Carolina knew what he was thinking. "We're not insurrectionists. We are members of the UNSC who are stranded here and in search of work till a transport come this way." This made the old man laugh.
"Well you certainly are not from here. And to us there ain't much different between a UNSC soldier and an insurrectionist." Carolina bit her lip hard so as not to go on a rant "The last transport ship that was not insurrectionist and what ever you are was fifty years ago when my wife and I came here to get away from the rest of humanity." Carolina and York shared a look if the last ship had been fifty years ago and only because this man wanted to come here that they were stuck for a long time.
"In that case do you need two more sets of hands?" York asked laying on the charm. The man inspected them both
"Be here at six sharp I'll give you both a denarii every week and a share of what you harvest. It' ant much but we are working folk. I'll even throw in language lessons and you can sleep in the barn till you get other housing arrangements sorted out." Carolina and York both agreed immediately. Finally they were getting some where and found someone willing to teach them the local language. Not bad for the first day.
Like? Hate? tell me. The whole language thing is that the people of Sherman 9 have been in isolation for so long they no longer speak like everyone else. The old English phrases are in Latin because if I wrote it in normalEnglish you would probably think York and Carolina can't understand their own language. So yes a bit backwards but hopefully you get the point. Also I will be away from a computer for four weeks so don't expect an update till August. Also thank you to everyone who reviews/follows/favorites it really makes my day. I will have email till Sunday afternoon so if you review before then I will respond to you before I leave, otherwise it will be a while. Have a good summer. P.s. People who tell me about mistakes point them out don't tell me I have errors because I can't find them on my own.
Olivecat