A New Beginning Ch. 08

The next morning at breakfast I decided to hold meeting. I wanted to discuss safety measures and possibly a re-deployment of the weapons. The first thing I did was to ask Joseph to get the list of the weaponry and tools we brought with us.

While he was upstairs getting the list an odd looking marsupial wandered into our camp. It looked somewhat like a forest green armadillo with a black face and knob on its tail, reminiscent of a miniature Ankylosaurus. It also had some small spikes sticking out of its side; these were a darker shade of green in color. The cabbage size knob was also darker green.

The creature was a little larger than a Cocker Spaniel, measuring about a meter long from its head to its tail. The tail swung from side to side as it wobbled along presumably looking for food. It looked at us, stood up on its hind legs and sniffed the air in our direction. We saw a baby's head sticking out of its stomach pouch when it reared up. Then, ignoring us, it proceeded to sniff around in the surrounding foliage.

The PrimusPrimates didn't seem to be bothered by the animal so I knew it wasn't any danger to us.

Thomas asked me if I thought he should kill it for our supper. I just shrugged my shoulders. David handed him a meat cleaver and he was about to chop its head off it when it charged him. He jumped out of its way just as it swung its tail at him. Then the beast hissed at Thomas, presented its flank to him and continued to viciously swing its tail back and forth. Juan got up to help Thomas kill the marsupial but it backed away from us and scampered off into the bushes.

Thomas was lucky. I'm sure had it hit him with its tail it would have done some serious damage to him.

Joseph came down the stairs with the list and asked, "What's all the ruckus about?"

"Nothing," Laci answered him. "Thomas just tried to get some supper for us but the little beast proved to be more than he could handle."

"Yeah, well the next time it comes around here I'll be ready for it and its knobby tail. Then it won't be so lucky. I'll blow its head off with the .45."

"That's exactly what I want to talk about y'all," I interrupted their banter. Then to Joseph, "Joseph, will you hand me that list please."

I silently read over the list. Then, "Ok y'all, our arsenal includes 50 steak knives; these only have 6 centimeter blades. But we also have 3 serrated hunting knives with 15 centimeter blades, 14 pocket knives with blades longer than 8 centimeters and one butterfly knife with a 10 centimeter blade. You still have that don't you Josephine?"

"Yes Captain Antoinette," she answered. "I hope you let me keep it. I've grown kind of accustomed to it."

"Yeah, I noticed you cutting up your Utahraptor steak with it last night. Keep it; I don't think anyone else wants it." Then to the rest of my crew, "We have 25 hand axes and Chef William gave us 6 each French knives, boning knives, butcher knives and meat cleavers from the kitchen. That's what we have in the way of cutlery."

I looked around to everyone. Using one hand, Josephine was flicking her butterfly knife open and closed like a pro. How she did it without cutting a finger off is beyond me. I know if I tried it I would need the services of Doc Yves.

I continued, "We also have 2 taser guns -- each with 3 cartridges -- 15 cans of pepper spray and the .45 caliber pistol with 96 rounds of ammunition. But these items are non-reusable. Once we use them they're gone. I would like to conserve their use as much as possible. I believe we should use them only for defense, particularly the .45 ammunition. I hope to use it only against the larger dinosaurs and then only for defense, if that is possible."

I paused and again looked around at everyone. No one seemed opposed to my suggestion that we use the guns and pepper spray for defense.

"We have other disposable items, candles, paper towels, paper plates, garbage bags, three canisters of butane. I'm not going to read the entire list to y'all. But again, I would like to use these kinds of items conservatively because once they're gone they're gone for good."

"How much toilet paper did you bring?" Regina asked.

"I don't know. Joseph how much did you pack"?

"We got eight cases with 48 rolls in each case. For you ladies, I got 500 tampons stored with the toilet paper."

"Thank you, Joseph. Does that answer your question Regina?"

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

"Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday we lost three good crew members. I hope that was a wakeup call to the rest of y'all to be more diligent. I don't want to loose any more. This is an unforgiving land. If you're not careful y'all could end up dead too."

I paused again to let the information sink in. Then, "Don't go wandering around sightseeing. There'll be plenty of time for that once we get to know the place and establish ourselves. We're going to be here the rest of our lives. Hopefully that will be a long, long time for all of us."

Suddenly a large blue bird with a green head flew down from the tree, startling us all. It landed on the ground between me and my crew. It squawked at us as if to say we were intruding into its life. Then immediately flew back into the tree. It squawked again and then flew away.

"What do you think it wanted?" Josephine asked.

"I don't know," I answered her. "Maybe it just wanted to remind us that we're the aliens here, not the dinosaurs." Then to the others, "If you're not constantly on the alert for carnivores; if you treat our stay here like it was some kind of Sunday afternoon picnic . . . well I don't think I need to elaborate any further on what could happen to y'all."

There were nods of approval from everyone. Joshua made a suggestion that no one stray too far from the James Cook until he and Joseph could make us all some crossbows. But I reminded him that we would have to keep the five, 100 liter barrels we brought filled with water.

I told them that this would probably require daily trips to the lake by groups of people carrying the water cans we brought. We would also have to go out on hunting trips and food foraging parties almost immediately. I revealed to them that except for the toilet paper and tampons, we only brought enough food and supplies to last 24 people about two weeks.

Joseph and I sat down a couple of weeks ago and figured exactly what we would need once we landed and compared this to the extra weight added to the James Cook for landing. We figured that we could have brought more supplies. But I didn't want to deplete the supplies of those who decided to stay onboard the living section any more than we had to. When we calculated for personal supplies, we were both in agreement that everyone should keep their personal gear to a maximum of 25 kilograms.

Except for David and a couple of the others, no one followed my advice about electric shavers. I personally know that David uses a barber's straight razor while the others use regular safety razors. The rest of us are gambling that Joseph can get the solar panel repaired so that we can use our shavers.

There's a possibility that he can't fix it to put out 100 percent. If that's the case then it will probably only provide enough electricity to turn on a few lights and desk fans. This latter is why Joseph and I decided not to bring a microwave oven, electric tools or electric utensils of any kind and why I advised against bringing personal electrical devices. I didn't follow my own advice; I too brought my electric shaver. But if Joseph can't fix the solar panel then we will all have to use safety razors.

The twenty of us continued to discuss our supplies and how we would use them until late in the morning. While we were talking one rather curious PrimusPrimate came down and started to snoop around our camp area. It even came up to Beth and sniffed at her leg. When Beth tried to pet it, it ran off. But it continued to explore around us until one of the larger PrimusPrimates chased it back up into the tree. This larger PrimusPrimate seemed to be their leader.

Aleks asked whether we were going to allow "these creatures" to run all over the place getting into things and eating our food. Doc Yves answered her that if we just let them be, then in time they would learn what they could and could not do with regards to our presence. I also informed her that we would keep all food enclosed to prevent any animal from getting into it.

Everyone agreed to use the parachutes as mosquito netting to line the stairway, the entrance to the James Cook and the airlock hatch. If we had any left over then those who wanted to could use it to enclose their sleeping areas. We were lucky the night before, very few insects found a way into our home. We also decided to raise the steps 30 centimeters off the ground in order to ensure that some undesirable bug won't enter while we are sleeping. The roaches here are huge, averaging 15 to 18 centimeters long.

After yesterday's tragedy I ask them if they thought that going in groups of three is enough. Everyone agreed that three is enough. I then made a rule that no one was to leave camp by him or her self. Nor was anyone to leave camp without letting at least two people know where they were going and how long they intended to stay. I didn't know how I was going to enforce the rule, or what I was going to do if anyone broke it. But I would think of something.

"Who's going to fill the water barrels?" Louis asked. "Will we need to fill all five barrels everyday?"

"The toilet onboard the James Cook needs a little less than three liters of water to operate," I answered him. "Also, we need water for cooking and everyone needs water to wash up. Joseph and I calculated that that could be as much as five hundred liters everyday."

Joseph interjected, "I have plans to strip some conduit from the James Cook and lay it from the lake to our camp. Then use a water pump to pump the water back to our camp."

"Until that's done the only way we can get water is to transport it from the lake in the cans we brought. Does that answer your question Louis?"

We then formed morning water duties consisting of two groups of ten people who would fill water cans each morning. Joshua was to lead one group and Thomas the other group the next day. Each of them was to bring the .45 with them. Everyone was to make sure they carried a hand axe with themselves and a can of pepper spray plus as many empty twenty liter and ten liter cans that were in camp.

Then we discussed a list of other priorities of things to be done.

Joseph said we would have to dig a trench about a half meter deep in which to lay the conduit but after that it would be a breeze to lay the conduit down.

Digging the trench and laying the conduit was the one priority everyone decided had to be first. No one wanted to carry water every other day if he or she didn't have to. I asked the men who among them wanted to volunteer to dig the trench.

No one moved. I had to remind them that although it was hard work, it was something that had to be done. Anthony, Juan and Leonard finally volunteered to do it. David, Louis and Joshua agreed to relieve them after about an hour.

We all decided that electricity was also a high priority. I told Joseph that except for his water duties, I wanted him to work on repairing the one solar panel we had. Beth was to help him. Everyone agreed with me on that.

Next I asked if there were any good cooks among us. David and Josephine both said that they were cooks while they were in college. Since the two of them did pretty well with the Utahraptor and our breakfast of pancakes we all decided to let them be the cooks.

We also decided to let the men do the hunting while the women gather eggs and whatever other edibles we could find. Akira asked what kind of edibles but Doc Yves answered her that whatever the PrimusPrimates and the other mammals ate would probably be alright for us to eat too.

Everyone would pitch in to keep the camp clean and we would burn as much of our garbage as we could. We didn't want it to draw any carnivores to our camp.

The waste from the James Cook's toilet would have to be emptied about every two days. We decided to burn that away from camp too. We all agreed that we would rotate the duty; two people for the waste and two for the garbage. Joshua said he would make up a duty roster for it. We would choose a spot to burn it later.

Next on my list of priorities was fire. "There isn't an animal alive that's not afraid of fire. If we keep a fire burning that could help keep the beasts away. Not only that but it is only a matter of time before Laci's butane candle lighter runs out of fuel. So it is my suggestion that we keep a fire burning at all times."

"I have a magnifying glass," Beth interrupted me.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Father Ray had one. He told me that he had had it since he was a boy. I'm sure he would have given it to us if I had asked him but I didn't even think about it.

"Father Ray gave it to me," she continued, "right after that last meeting you held in the cafeteria."

"Well thank him and God for small favors," Veronica said.

"Deo gratias," echoed Juan in Latin.

I also said a silent prayer of thanks to God. Then, "Thank you Beth. As I was starting to say, we are going to need someone to make sure the fire does not die; if only to keep the beasts away. We don't need a bonfire; just a small fire to cook our food and keep the monsters away."

"How are we going to keep it burning at night?" Aleks asked.

"I suggest we rotate a nightly fire watch of at least two people on watch at all times in the evening hours. There are enough of us here that once you stood your fire watch you wouldn't have to stand it again for several days. The persons who stand watch would also act as security guards and warn the rest of us if any large monsters approach the camp at night. Do y'all agree to that?"

Beth asked, "If we have a magnifying glass, then why do we have to keep a fire burning at night?"

"A smoky fire at night will help keep the bugs away, for one. Two, what if there is a cloudy, rainy morning? And three, we have to have someone up at night to watch for giant carnivores that may be roaming about. They might as well keep the fire going as well. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, I guess so. But we didn't have anyone watching last night."

"After what happened I didn't think anyone was in the mood to stand watch. I know I wasn't. Besides, I don't believe anyone slept very much anyway."

A murmur of acceptance then ran through the group.

"No other objections?" I asked. "OK, Chantelle would you make up a watch list whereby there will always be at least two people standing fire watch at all times at night? Coordinate this with Joshua's list so that whoever has fire watch won't also have garbage detail or shit detail. I'll take the first watch with someone."

"Sure thing, Captain Antoinette."

"Thank you. Also, we are going to need someone to gather firewood everyday. So, either those who have the morning water duty do that too or the other group gathers firewood. It is my suggestion that the water duty people do it then they can have the rest of the day off. My reasoning is that for safety reasons I don't want the camp to be totally without anyone in it. We won't need a whole lot of wood, just enough to keep a small fire going. Do y'all agree to that?"

There was another murmur of acceptance.

"Ok then the morning water duty people will gather firewood when they finish their water chores. Then they will have the rest of the day off. David, Josephine, y'all are our cooks. Dig a hole for a fire pit and line it with rocks over there under the wing. That's where we'll set up our kitchen. Thomas will you help them gather some rocks?"

After that we set priorities on building a shower stall, setting up the kitchen, constructing an infirmary, fixing up sleeping areas for each of us on the lower flight deck, finish camouflaging the ship with planted trees and then building a wall around the James Cook. We made these latter two tasks last.

No one wanted to risk bathing in the lake as there was no telling whether there was a dinosaur sized crocodile lurking there. Everyone agreed that we should build the shower stall while Anthony and his team were digging the trench. For our shower we decided to use one of the 100 liter barrels and a spigot and knobs Joseph had taken from the living section's shower.

Earlier he had drawn a rough sketch of the planned shower on paper; it looked like a miniature water tower with a spigot sticking out the bottom. I described it to them and then pointed out that each person would have to lug at least two, 20 liter cans of water up a latter -- that's the minimum amount we figured would be needed to bathe -- and pour it in the top of the barrel. Several of the crew griped about that but I ignored them.

Victoria Alisa, Chantelle and Natalie volunteered to build it. Thomas said that he would help out after our fire pit was built. Beth, Akira and I elected to help Doc Yves with the infirmary, while Regina, Aleks, Laci, Josephine and Veronica chose to finish removing the seats and other stuff from the lower flight deck.

I continued, "We don't have any nails y'all. But Joseph figured we could notch the tree branches we will have to cut and wire them together with wire stripped from the James Cook. As for hot showers, those of you who can't brave cold showers can just heat your water over the fire using a 20 liter can."

We then decided that the weapons would remain in the James Cook on the lower flight deck; they were all presently in a storage bin near the entrance where we left them the night before. Whenever any group left the camp they could choose the weapons they wanted to take with them. Everyone leaving camp would also carry a can of pepper spray.

But Josephine held onto the butterfly knife and everyone agreed that Joshua and Thomas should be in charge of the .45 caliber pistol.

Suddenly in the middle of our discussion one of the PrimusPrimates shrieked loudly and they all scampered to the top of their tree. They became deathly quiet.

We all looked around into the surrounding shrubbery but no one saw anything. Joshua cautiously pulled the .45 from its holster; David picked up a boning knife that was lying next to the camp fire. Thomas stood up; he still had the meat cleaver in his hand.

I was about to order everyone into the James Cook when Regina called our attention to the bushes about sixty meters to our north. Five sauropods were casually heading toward the lake. They stood approximately 4 meters at the shoulder and were about 20 meters from their heads to their tails; almost half of their length was tail. They had small horns sticking out of the sides of their heads right above their eyes. They were dark green in color with various size light green and blue green spots scattered all over their bodies.

One of them paused momentarily, looked in our direction and then continued its trek toward the lake. They were beautiful animals. I've never seen an animal so big. It was like watching five houses go by. The ground even shook slightly as they walked past. I could only imagine what it would be like if a whole herd of them were passing.

"I don't think we have anything to fear from those green giants," Joshua said as he put the .45 back into the holster strapped to his hip.

"Is that what we're going to call them, Green Giants," Vickie asked.

"That sounds like an appropriate name," Aleks added.

"I think we have something more important to discuss," I interrupted them.

I paused and thought about how to proceed.

Then, "We're going to be here the rest of our lives ladies and gentlemen. I'm pretty sure I'm correct when I say that there isn't a person among us who wants to remain celibate the rest of his or her life here."