Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 3

 A happy early Mothers Day to all of the ladies out there!

Chapter 3

 

Outback, Bootstrap Colony

 

A team of scientists sat on the top and inside their vehicles as they observed the distant herds of animals. From their vantage point, they were upwind and reasonably safe at over a kilometer away. The herds were slowly moving on their migration path; individual herds had started to merge together into larger and larger herds. The scientists used binoculars, a scope, and drones to observe a T-Rex family as they interacted and hunted a nearby herd of Hadrosaurs.

The predators were the usual mix of ages. There were at least two adults and two subadults, plus some rambunctious teenagers and some juveniles. The youngest had the most energy and tried to hunt smaller game near the family.

A clack of jaws and a look from mom made them stop and slink back to the tree line. Their antics had gotten the herd looking in the direction of the predators, something that the adults obviously did not want to happen.

“You’ll note there is no sign of a beak on any of the animals,” Doctor Diego Fuentes said as he manned the main scope and took a series of images with the camera attached to his scope. He had been a zookeeper in Mexico before he’d been brought to the new world. He had existed with his wife Dora in the south as ranchers under Jack at Copper Town for several years. When the science community really took off at the Capital, they’d moved to the Capital base to take over the Zoo and work in the university and museum.

He had started out knowing very little English and having to rely on his wife or electronic translators to communicate with the others. However, over the years, he had picked up enough English to communicate fluently, albeit with an accent.

He wanted scientific observations of the animals in order to better know how they will interact in the Zoo and also to report back to the scientific community on Earth. The last thing he wanted was a report with his name on it making him a laughingstock in that community. He wanted respect.

“Yes, I’m certain Mitch will appreciate that,” Sean replied in exasperation. Mitch had observed a family of T-Rex that had a growth like a beak on their snouts. He of course hadn’t spent a lot of time with detailed observations at the time having such a close encounter. After that he’d managed to keep encounters at a much further distance which had not made for easy observation.

Other animals had been observed with a beak-like structure on the front of their muzzles. It had been later determined to be a mix of coloration and keratin structures. The animals, however, had lips for the most part. Only a few dinosaurs were known to have a beak like the ceratopsians and oviraptors.

Sean was a teen but had qualified as a vet, shooter, and rancher. He had agreed to take the group out since he knew the area. That had saved security from sending an additional detail to guard them.

They had yet to spot an elusive stegosaurus. There was one maddening video of an animal in a migration but none since. It was one of many questions they wanted resolved. Given that Stegosaurus were supposed to be extinct at the time of the Chicxulub impactor, the asteroid that had killed the majority of the big dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous period, it was an anomaly that they wanted to resolve before presenting it to the scientists on Earth.

The vets and biologists had set up camera traps and drones to monitor and observe animal populations in various locations. They too were mostly too far away to get a lot of detail to resolve the “great beak debate.”

However, now that the team was closer, they had confirmed that not only did therapod dinosaurs have lips, but they lacked the beak structure that Mitch had observed.

Paleontologists on Earth had debated the existence of lips on dinosaurs for some time. Soft tissue didn’t normally fossilize so it was theoretical for the most part. They now had definitive proof that, yes, they had lips.

The running joke about chickens with lips might hit a few people from time to time … right up until you saw a Rex or other predator curl said lips to show the mouth of sharp teeth hiding behind them. If anything they were even scarier.

Seeing a rex nibble a mate with those lips or display against rivals was something they were excited on reporting. The stuffy Doctor Fuentes was amassing all sorts of evidence to show off to the scientific community.

Doctor Fuentes wasn’t shy about calling that beak issue out every chance he could get, however. Sean wasn’t certain if it was to tweak Mitch, who wasn’t even there to appreciate it, or to just show that their fearless leader was in error and therefore mortal. The good doctor wasn’t above being caustic about pointing out the disparity in “proper documentation” between citizen scientists and professional scientists.

“I’m certain he’ll be grateful that you’ve confirmed that observation, Doc. Though in his defense, he was right about the feathers, and the structure in the video we have does confirm something on the muzzles of the animals he had such a close encounter with, Doctor,” Marjorie Jordan said patiently. She was a vet tech out of the East Village. She’d been taking classes to upgrade her qualifications in the capital and one of the courses was observing the animals in their native environment.

Steve Wasabi sighed and shook his head at that. The teen was also a student from East Village and just starting on his career in veterinary medicine.

“We have not found those animals though.”

“They could have died. If it was a parasite or abnormal growth, it could have made it harder for them to hunt and therefore detrimental to their long-term health,” Marjorie stated.

They were all talking at a stage whisper, being out in the bush meant that they had to be quiet to not disturb the fauna and in some cases, flora around them.

“You are pitching theories without any proof,” the doctor said in rich disapproval.

“Actually, Doctor, I am using what little observational evidence we have to pitch a hypothesis,” Steve stated flatly. Doctor Fuentes and Doctor Mallard were a bit stroppy about the difference between a hypothesis and theory. “But, I’ll welcome any additional evidence if and when it comes in.”

The doctor gave the student a bit of side-eye as if to show his disapproval and then sniffed and went back to glassing the predators.

Marjorie exchanged looks with the teen and then shrugged slightly and went back to their own observations. Sean stifled a chuckle from his seat nearby.

Marjorie had an old-fashioned clipboard with a cover. They’d tried using a tablet but the new batteries didn’t have the life span. The screens were also not bright enough to handle the glare of being out in the open. So, the old tried and true methods of paper and pen prevailed.

It just meant that the students had to type everything up back in base camp and tag photos and video clips or other evidence with time codes and such for later peer review, whenever that happened.

Doctor Fuentes wanted to house a Rex at the new zoo. It would be a crowning jewel if they could accomplish it. It would most likely have to be more than one though. You can’t have a pack animal live in isolation, and it wasn’t good for their mental health.

Getting solid data on the habits and habitat of the Rex and other animals that they preyed upon was therefore important.

The great migration would be underway soon enough. They would get a rough count of the animals as they passed the capital on their way south for the winter. The students were excited but dreading it. Excited to see so many animals up close but dreading having to film them. And also dreading having to take samples if possible.

Sean was dubious about that idea.

They were also dubious about having to go over every video feed and count animals. Sean had been working with the computer geeks to create some sort of tracking software to do it for them. Doctor Fuentes still wanted a personal check by the students.

They were dreading that most of all. It meant hours of boring viewing and note taking.

Marjorie checked the time and noted an observation. The Rex adults were trying to find a way to isolate an older Hadrosaur that was cropping at the branches of a bush. It seemed wise to them.

She wondered idly if it dangled itself out there out of some Lemming response or as deliberate bait to draw the predator's attention away from the babies in the herd. Certain birds were known to do that, act wounded to draw predators away.

She frowned and jotted the idea down and a note to herself to look up references if and when she brought it up with the class later.

They all jumped when the radio went off. “Turn that thing …,” Doctor Fuentes said crossly in Spanish before switching to English.

Marjorie had already turned the volume down and then plugged the jack of her headphones in. She cradled the headphones to one ear to listen to the report.

The doctor was already back to watching the herds. “Hopefully you didn’t disturb the hunt,” he grumbled in a stage whisper.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“Probably another radio check-in,” Doctor Fuentes grumbled, still intent on the herd. They were fanned out in a circle with the young in the center. Every other adult was looking up from time to time to watch the area, calmly chewing their cud.

One of the Hadrosaurs was near an embankment of sand and berries munching away. They’d already proven that the animals had a crop and gizzard and collected sand and gravel in it to process the plant matter that it ate.

Marjorie put the radio down once she’d heard the report twice. “The expedition is back.”

“What expedition?” Doctor Fuentes asked absently. She pointed up. He looked up and then frowned at her, clearly puzzled.

“The one to Earth,” she clarified.

Sean and Steve’s eyes lit with pleasure at the news.

“Oh,” he said and then blinked as he caught on. “Oh!”

“Yeah. They’ll be coming down at the next window. Oh, and by the way, there is a storm coming up from the south. Expect high winds tonight and then it to hit tomorrow sometime.”

The doctor sighed. “Always something interrupts us. I swear,” he muttered.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 2

 

Chapter 2

 

Ianna Imperium, Colony World

 

For a guy who was maybe a king, okay, prince consort? King Consort? He wasn’t sure nor did he particularly care about the titles. But he should be happy. And he was, to a degree.

It was all about fronts, Eugene Ryans thought as he looked out from the tower over the battlements of the capital castle.

If he’d been a woman, it would be a storybook fantasy come true. Prince meets and marries a woman making her his queen. Except, in his and Diedra’s case, the roles were reversed. She was the queen, and he was the outsider. He wasn’t even from this world.

He looked over to the kids playing with the nanny and smiled briefly. He went back to brooding. It seemed the day for it—moody, overcast. Cold, he thought with a slight pang for the poor serfs still stuck in hovels across the planet.

He glanced at the reflection of his wife in the chair reading by the fireplace. That was something that he liked about her; she liked to read. She had taught herself English and read some of the books that the printers printed ferociously.

Especially the romances that the girls had put them up to printing, he thought in amusement. What was it with women and reading romances? He thought with a slight shake of his head.

The slight movement attracted his wife’s attention. She glanced up but then went back to her reading.

He noted the movement and went back to brooding. Okay, a recap woolgathering he thought with a mental snort at his inner narrator.

He had found and captured the wormhole in the Atlantic with the help of Max and other engineers and scientists. People had thought they were crazy, which was why they’d kept it all quiet until they were ready to announce the gate was stable.

Then of course the U.S. government had gotten involved. They had insisted on joining the expedition. He’d welcomed the military support, even if it came with strings.

Fifteen civilians and fifteen military personnel of different stripes had crossed over. Unfortunately, some like Colonel Richards hadn’t made it. At each transit, the wormhole portal on this end of the wormhole had moved backwards along a cliff. The very last hummer had unfortunately come out midair, alla something like a Looney Toon cartoon.

It might have been funny for the horrified watchers, a bit of black comedy except that a group of people had been in the hummer. Colonel Richards had died along with his driver and three others.

The explorers had been cut off from a quick escape. They’d been forced to go inland, to wait out when the wormhole would inevitably be attracted to the cliffs once more and return.

In returning to the original mission they had met their destiny. They had wandered into a warzone of medieval cultures clashing in a classic siege. Well, classic if you replaced the animals with alien animals for the most part and if you mixed up the architecture and weapons from different cultures on Earth.

Apparently, the wormhole had been bouncing around Earth for some time. It had sucked up thousands of people over that time period. Those that had banded together and survived in the alien world had learned to thrive … to a degree. But they’d been stuck in the dark ages of technology. Newcomers called gaijin were highly prized for their new blood and knowledge.

The main country was called the Ianna Imperium, founded primarily by Romans with a smattering of other cultures thrown in. To the northeast was the kingdom of Duluth settled by Vikings and Celtic tribes.

Sometime in the past, the Imperium had begun to expand and eventually inevitably fractured. Two duchies were formed beyond the mountains to the north and south. A third tribe, Nuevo Imperium, had set up their own kingdom in the southwest.

The continent looked vaguely like Great Britain. It even had an island off the west coast of comparable size to Ireland that was home to slavers and pirates.

Duluth, who had a bad winter, had decided to invade in the early spring of their arrival. It had turned into a full siege of the Duchy of Emory. The group of explorers had tried to avoid it only to be drawn in when they stumbled on a group of Vikings busy raping and torturing a refugee party. The party’s survivors turned out to be Princess Deidra and her sister Zara. Their little brother had been killed in front of them.

They’d had a bunch of adventures getting the girls back to where they belonged. Along the way, they had lost more people, mostly to the local alien wildlife. He had saved the girls a few times. The others had jokingly coined the Princess Rescue Inc tag line.

In the capital, Eugene had been told that he was to marry the elder princess and become king. The king died and well, he’d been stuck in a moral quandary. Abandon the girls to be torn apart by the local court or the Vikings or help.

He’d pitched in to help and help they had. They’d made a deal with Deidra and her people to share some of their knowledge. In doing so, they’d revolutionized the Imperium. They’d also slaughtered the poor Viking bastards.

Poor, he thought in disdain as he sniffed softly. Okay, maybe a few, but most had been all full of zeal to loot, rape, and burn. He shouldn’t feel bad about stopping them no matter what it took. It was his modern western ideals that such one-sided slaughters should be limited.

He knew where it came from, comic books, cartoons, and movies, and the idea that the hero didn’t go off slaughtering people. They had to have chivalry, a sense of restraint.

He snorted again softly to himself. Funny how it was always expected for the good guys to show restraint.

Well, they had to a degree. The surviving Duluthians had been patched up. Zara had been put on their throne and sent there to get their house in order.

Eugene had been intent on returning to Earth but it hadn’t worked out that way. A plague that had come from exposure to his explorers had swept through the Imperium. Worse, a fire had killed the queen leaving the two teenage princesses as orphans.

He’d sent his team back, all that wanted to return to Earth anyway, and then settled in to be with Deidra.

His lips twitched. It didn’t have anything to do with falling in love with Deidra and vice versa. Such romantic crap only happened in those tawdry romantic novels and movies the girls loved.

They had made great headway in slowly modernizing the Imperium. Zara had been sent to the northeast and Duluth to bring some of their tech there to help with their famine. But the locals there had turned on her and taken her captive.

Eugene had tried to stay out of conquest; it had been a part of his deal with the queen after all. But he’d found himself with a commando unit rescuing Zara in the cold winter. Plus dealing with crap from Earth and other shit.

His chest heaved in a soft sigh. That was it. Earth was bugging him. That and dealing with the other nation states on the continent. He was doing exactly what he did not want to do.

Damn them, he thought as his jaw flexed.

He saw Diedra’s eyebrow quirk up a little. Either she’d read something interesting or she was watching him closely. His fingers flexed a little.

No sooner had they gotten Duluth under control then spies from the two duchies had started to get blatant about trying to steal their tech. At one point, even kidnapping some of his people.

He’d tried to quell such things by agreeing to send a diplomatic delegation to the southeast and the duchy of Calliope. But again, the natives there had broken their word, taken the delegates hostage, and then tried to squeeze them for information about how to make modern gunpowder weapons.

He winced slightly.

Well, it hadn’t worked. Oh, they’d updated and upgraded their tech with what their spies had given them, but it hadn’t been enough to stop his people. They’d invaded and taken the kingdom apart like a chicken. His people had been rescued and well, Calliope was playing very nice right now.

They’d better, he thought moodily.

That still left their partner in crime, the Duke of Medicini, to the north of them. He’d played the duchess of Calliope against them and then left her hanging in the wind. Cold, he thought. Machiavellian, he added.

In other words, a smart ruthless bastard.

They had been cleaning up Calliope when humans from Earth had returned and seized the gate and the fortress nearby. They had killed some of his people.

His … well, their military had responded in kind, taking out the fortress and gate. He saw motion and turned just in time to feel hands rub his shoulders and then wrap around his waist from behind.

“Hi,” he murmured. “Done your book?”

“The chapter for the nonce,” Deidra murmured. She snuggled against him. He lifted his arm and she moved to snuggle under it and against his side. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just … getting my thoughts in order,” he admitted.

“We have too many enemies,” she agreed.

“I know. You’d think they’d get smart and back off,” he grumbled.

“Tis fear that makes them lash out in unexpected ways. Fear and desire to take what we have,” she said as her tone darkened slightly.

“I know,” he said with a slight sigh.

Duluth was a bit of a problem still, restless. For that matter, the Imperium was too. They had the occasional lord who wanted more or wanted to play stupid games. Stupid dangerous games like assassination or the like.

Then there was the restive natives of Calliope, and now Medicini. Factor in the humans from Earth and the pirates off the west coast and well …

He felt Deidra rub his back. “We’ll take on all comers together. And we’ll kick their arses,” she growled.

Despite himself he laughed. She was right. As long as they took on each foe one at a time, they could do it. If they had the right mix and had the right pieces in the right places at the right time.

But damn them all, they’d do it, he thought as the kids came over and hugged their legs. He chuckled and his rumble made Deidra respond. She tickled him and then they began to play with the kids, their problems of state momentarily forgotten.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 1

 Here we go!

Chapter 1

 

Mitch Chambers, president of the Bootstrap Colony was getting heartily tired of politics. It was a series of endless meetings that talked subjects to death without really getting anything done. And trying to keep it all straight was a chore.

Fortunately, he had only 2 weeks left before he and his pilot Jacklynn Smith departed for space and their own world once more.

They hadn’t made much headway on the various fronts and agendas he’d set for them. Goals, he reminded himself. The asteroid, trade, immigration, and so on.

Things were moving faster now that he’d made it clear that it was a hard deadline. People were starting to actually pay attention to it. He was serious. The hill and certain parties seemed to focus better when there was a hard deadline. What was the line about the prospect of a hanging focusing one’s attention? He snorted softly to himself.

He sometimes wondered why they’d come to Earth at all. Oh yeah, the asteroid, and yeah, kicking humanity into the next phase of their civilization. Hell, if they just kept the asteroid from hitting it would be a miracle at this stage, he mused darkly.

When they had arrived in orbit they’d made contact with the International Space Station. It had taken a lot of negotiating to get them to the ground safely. But after that the plan had been derailed for a bit as they’d been isolated and poked and prodded. Certain authorities had made it clear that they were no longer in control of the situation and that they wouldn’t honor the agreements they’d made.

Mitch however had an ace up his sleeve, the alien constructs called Memes that had brought him back to Earth.

The Memes looked like flying squid jellyfish. Glowing ones, some tiny, some ginormous. The one that was assigned to their mission had a tongue twisting name. He just called it MRE.

The Memes were ancient alien AI energy beings that were programmed to bring flora and fauna under threat of extinction to a series of alien terraformed worlds. The colony worlds had near circular continents with different populations of species on them.

Through a bit of luck and some shrewd guess work, hell, a lot of it related to his background as a Sci-Fi nerd he had accurately identified what they were. In doing so he had triggered a new program in the Memes and he and his people had been reclassed as Inheritors. They were now helping him and the humans on the colony he had tentatively labeled Bootstrap.

What they were helping with was still in flux. Obviously moving back and forth between Earth and the colony was one big thing. But they had their limits.

Before he had left he had given Bob as much power and money as he had left over in order to warn the population and get them to act. Bob had managed to get his transit recorded by the media. The major media networks had scoffed at it.

Bob and his family had unfortunately died in a car accident so he couldn’t push the issue and get mankind mobilized. But he had managed to get certain parties to actually find the damn rock and do something about it.

So far they had tried three times and failed. It was becoming something of a running joke. Which was one reason Mitch was there.

Mitch had realized he had to do something to resurrect his old company in order to look out for his colony’s interests. He had ended up hiring Perry Jackson to represent their interests and get things back on track. He sat down with Perry and his assistants for an afternoon and outlined their objectives.

Perry was keen on stopping the asteroid of course, and was professionally interested in moving people. But he warned that they had a lot of legal and technical hurdles to cross. “Legal as in getting you legal immunity. Full diplomatic immunity, not the paper they gave you.”

Mitch frowned.

“And then the other things to shield you and the company from liability. After that we can get into the nuts and bolts about how to fund that station you want, and set up a balance of trade.”

Mitch nodded. “One thing at a time I guess.”

“So, three thousand… nine hundred and seven people allowed? Why that number?” Perry asked.

“Not my call. The Memes told us that. It is based on the original number of people they brought over. They brought ten thousand, only three thousand three hundred and twenty-one of us survived. Since then we’ve had some kids born, and well… they will allow that cap to ten grand. I’m hoping to change it, but we’ll see.”

Perry nodded and made a note.

“Still on that subject, everyone who wants to apply has to pass a series of medical checks by them. Again,” he spread his hands apart in supplication. “Not my call. Assumption, it is to make sure those that come over are viable for a stable population and so on.”

“Not passing on bad genes?”

“Something to that effect I believe.” Mitch nodded.

“Right,” Perry made another note. “On the subject of Ryans Corporation…”

Mitch cocked his head.

“I’d tread carefully.”

Mitch nodded. “Anything in particular I should watch for? Land mines?”

“Oh tons,” Perry said as he sat back. “There is a shadow corporation, a series of shell companies that no one can trace. They bought up Ryans Corporation. All of the publicly available stock I mean.”

Mitch frowned thoughtfully. After a moment he nodded.

“Beyond that, most people try not to get too nosy.”

“Ah?”

“They are the sort of people that do not play nice with being in the spotlight.”

“Cockroaches do tend to scurry when you shine a light on them,” Mitch growled. In his mind he was picturing giant centipedes like those he’d encountered in the back caverns of his base a few times.

He had to be wary of them too. They too bit and could kill a person very easily. “Can you dig into them a bit? And their story?”

Perry grimaced but then nodded. “You aren’t going public right?”

“Hell no. Not if I can help it. We’re big about being independent. Scrappy and independent,” Mitch replied with a sniff.

Perry nodded. “Good to know. I’ll look around. But quietly.”

“Thanks. I generally tend to look before I leap whenever possible.”

Perry gave him a look and then snorted slightly.

>>>*<<<