Before long Kiera showed up, wearing pajamas and with her hunter in tow.
“Roger told me to come pick up my laptop and keep it on our shuttle. And he also said to make sure the rental equipment is locked up.”
“Already done,” I said. “They didn’t get to those.”
“Oh, good.” She went over to the table where her laptop was sitting. “You got the book back from Kevin. Amazing! I’ll work on digitizing that one while over with the Great Plains group this week.”
She glanced around the library. “Change of plans, Bael’k. I’m going to help clean this up.”
Together, with many hands, we got to work.
Chapter 8: Ror’k
“I’m glad you decided to stay in New Franklin a little longer,” Roger said as we walked underneath the covered walkways toward the building on the opposite side of the settlement.
The sun was almost over the horizon now, and the calm of the night was settling over New Franklin, but the humans were still bustling about. They wouldn’t stop until the artificial lights turned off for the day.
“It’s a good change from the food production facilities.”
“I’ve visited one of the island facilities once,” Roger said. “The quietness was great at first, but it got old quickly. Boringest two days of my life.”
Roger was not wrong. For the hunters at the facility, there was work to keep them busy. And like the hunters usually working on the mothership, they were older and no longer able to fight as well as they once did. They were, however, more than capable of fighting off the occasional group of scourge that made it to the islands or whatever remote location our mothership decided to place our food facilities on that particular planet.
“It actually isn’t so bad here on Earth,” I said. “Each island facility is unique, and the hunters working them could switch locations to change the scenery. On one of the other planets, wehad to put the food facilities on these plateau formations, high up on the planet’s mountains. There was nothing around but air and clouds, and the plants and animals we were raising. And every location looked nearly identical.”
“Damn! The hunters there must’ve felt like they were stuck in a time loop. At least our islands have tons of plants and wildlife to study for those who like that kind of thing. Kurt and Bailey seem to like it there. It was a great idea to build our research labs and facilities on the islands. That was why I was visiting. The researcher types didn’t seem to mind living there at all. They love it. It just isn’t the kind of place I could stay in for more than a few days. Maybe to heal up or relax.”
I understood. “The idyllic life isn’t for everyone. I realized when I was there that it didn’t suit me.”
“Isn’t it quiet up on the mothership as well?”
“Not at all! We didn’t have many places to go, but there were always hunters visiting either because they needed work on their shuttles, or they were injured. And there were always new hunters to train. Many faces cycled through, and there was never a lack of interactions. And when one friendly face left, another came to take his place. Plus, we were constantly getting communications and requests from the hunter groups on the ground. Someone always needed us for something. It was busy work.”
“That makes sense, actually. Especially the part about always being needed for something. I know the survivors, especially in the main survivor building, consider me their leader. It wasn’t really my choice; the role just fell in my lap. I was injured and couldn’t forage, and no one else wanted to do it, so I had to stand up and do what had to be done.”
I was surprised at how familiar the story sounded. And it was only now that I realized how young this human was. When we arrived on this planet, we researched their civilizations to facilitate communication with the hope of becoming allies in our fight against the scourge. Many of their world leaders had been old males, stuck in their ways. This male did not look like them.
“You did very well,” I said sincerely.
He paused for a moment, like he didn’t know how to respond, then he simply said, “Thank you.”
“Humans must be difficult to lead.”
That had him chuckling. “Yes. Yes, we are.” He opened the door and gestured for me to step through.
We were greeted with a stench of too many bodies in one place. It reminded me of the mothership at the end of a long journey through the stars. I hoped I’d be able to recognize and pick out the scents.
“Ugh, I can’t wait for the weather to get warmer so we can air out these buildings. This one is worse than the main survivor building. It needs to be ventilated.”
As we went through the halls, some of the humans scurrying about watched us with curiosity, and others gave us a wide berth. We stopped just outside a set of closed doors with clear windows on them. A handful of lanky young males, still not yet fully grown, were inside. Two of them were training with sticks like they were swords as the others looked on.
This type of training, while not directly translatable when fighting the scourge, helped hone a warrior’s reactions and improve discipline. It also kept a ship full of hunters entertained as we flew through the stars to our next planet. I found it oddlyencouraging that human youngsters entertained themselves in the same way.
“Wait,” I said, stopping Roger before he opened the door. “You are one of the leaders; the youngsters will be on guard. Let me enter alone.”
Roger shrugged and stepped back away from the door and out of sight. I turned on the translator at my belt since these males would not have in-ear ones implanted.
The moment I stepped into the room, I knew we’d found them. These were the boys outside the storage room. But we still had no proof that they were the ones who had broken into the library.
