Eruptions, Land Shakes, Trouble…
Spacer sent a mental message to the weather watcher. They needed to be more vigilant watching the small volcano due to the increase in the land shakes. He sighed as he helped drape the seaweeds over the drying racks. With the group of men gone to scout out the new land, they were shorthanded, and he had worked more in the last weeks than in years. Everyone had to pitch in, even the Exec. The seaweed they harvested to make fabric was ripe and ready to process.
Mandy had been busy promoting sea silk in Refugio. They needed to ship quite a bit of it but also needed to make cloth for their own clothes. The fabric from the hemp plants was strong but scratchy so they combined it with the fiber from the seaweed especially for the little’s clothing. And they had a lot of littles. This problem with the volcanoes was just one more thing on his list of “need to pay attention to” and the list kept getting longer. He sometimes wondered why he kept running for this job. Maybe it was time for someone else to run the Bridge.
He had a report that evening from one of the other islands, one closer to that bothersome volcano. Their water supply had turned bad. The only spring on the island was now sulfur tainted. If it didn’t clear up, they might have to evacuate to the main island.
Port often got ash from the volcanoes that ringed the planet along its equator. The one barely visible on the western horizon was the most active, but the prevailing winds usually sent its eruptions away from them. This close one was young. The island where the water had gone bad was close to it and he suspected the sulfur in the water had something to do with the increase in volcanic activity or it was the land shakes.
There would be work for those who came, and word came that they were coming. They let him know water was now smelly, hot, and getting hotter. They had called their fishing boat in and were loading the first group of evacuees.
***
The land shakes were coming more often and stronger. The volcanoes surrounding the main island all seemed to have awakened. Even the gaseous ports on the far south side of the main island were more active. Spacer remembered the last time this happened when his father was Exec. The freshwater springs went bad for several days and the water in the bay where they had the bathing area got too hot to get in. It let up after a day or two and all the land shakes went back to gentle patterns in the sand.
***
It was late morning when Spacer and Boats met the evacuees from the island with no drinking water at the long dock. The first load was mainly littles with their mothers, and a couple of oldsters. Several of the mothers were obviously pregnant. Spacer could see why they were brought first. It was late summer, and water was essential. The Port doctor examined all of the women and sent two of them to the sturdy maternity building and the midwives. The rough ride from their island may have resulted in an early delivery. Spacer hoped the midwifes could slow it down. When a baby came early, it rarely lived, and it was felt by the whole community. The newcomers were met by relatives and had places to go. The boat quickly left to bring another group. Beth Ann Gomez offered to take her ship and bring the goat herd much to the relief of the sailors on the only boat the island had available. They had expected to make multiple trips with two or three goats each time. The herd was not as large as the one in Port, but with several new kids, it would be far too many trips.
“Land shook for a good half an hour, Spacer,” one of the oldsters said. “We could see that the small puffer near us was going strong but didn’t realize it would do so much damage to our spring. Hope it is far enough away from here that we don’t have a mess like we did when your dad was in charge.”
“I remember the steam and the ash we had when that thing first appeared,” Spacer said. “All the more reason to get this move going.”
“I thought we’d be in good shape there on our little island, but not looking that way. Not enough rain so we’d been using buckets to keep the swamp roots wet. Looks like a good crop. When that cone stops spewing, we can go harvest them,” he said.
“If you give Beth Ann a hand to clean up after the goats, she might be willing to take some of you back to do that.”
“Fair enough trade, Spacer, fair enough.” The old man said as he turned to help his daughter catch one of his grandchildren before they escaped to the beach. “No swimming until you do any chores your aunt gives you boy.”
Spacer chuckled as he walked to the Bridge. At least there were kinfolk in Port to take in those who had tried to spread the community out on the smaller islands. There were two other groups like this, and he needed to have the far speaker check on them. At least Muldoon and the explorers had let them know they were on their way home.
***
The wife of one of the sailors on the expedition who was able to stay in contact with her life mate brought news the next day that the explorers were due to dock that afternoon. Both ships had stopped to fill their water barrels with drinking water at one of the eastern islands. It was followed by word from Utopia that the news about the expedition to the third land mass had spread. The prince and some of the leaders were very angry. Spacer said that was the least of their worries and with the land shakes and the volcanoes, Utopia had better be ready. Higgins was moving, and it would affect all of them.
***
Boats and some others met the explorer teams on the long dock to bring the drinking water to the main galley area. The fresh fruit and fish they brought would be welcome because of the additional people needing to be fed.
“Spacer’s called a general meeting for this evening so everyone can hear about what you’ve found,” Boats said. “Looks like we’re going to need that land sooner than we expected. Utopia won’t be happy about that.”
“Not sure how Utopia expects to stop us,” Jack Muldoon said. “They don’t have enough ships or people that want to argue about it. Heard from my sister that the head of the Rangers got arrested for trying to overthrow the prince.”
“Been too busy to check the news from other places,” Boats said. “These land shakes keep getting stronger. We had a bad one the other night. Shook stuff off the shelves in the dock building and a couple of rafters came loose there and in the meeting shelter.”
“Word from both Refugio and Utopia that a large wave smashed into both lands pretty bad,” one of the far speakers who was getting off duty joined the group. “Messed up some docks and buildings along Refugio’s south coast but the warning we sent to Southmost helped. That hacienda on the south coast of Refugio lost its far speaker to a land slide last winter and hasn’t gotten another one. My contact up the coast said Valentino’s people are moving to the river delta.
“Gave Spacer the message, but you need to know too, Boats,” the far speaker said. “Captain O’Malley’s coming back with the big ship and some others from up there to take people to where they can get water.”
“Master O’Malley is one of the best,” Jack Muldoon said. “He showed that when he rescued all of us in the camp. Murphy who was head of the Rangers was ready to put us all off with that bandit from Refugio and O’Malley voted for taking us on south to my cousin’s farm.”
“Well, that is not going to get this work done,” Boats said. “Come up to the Bridge and help us get some plans going on what to take off with us.”
***
Beth Ann’s ship with the goats had anchored along a part of the island where the water was shallow. The goats she was hauling could be herded up to the grazing area easily. The goats were not happy about the trip on the ship, and many had to be pitched off the deck. In spite of growing up on an island, most would not swim, but the water was not that deep. The kid goats were carried to the shore and quickly reunited with their mothers. While a few of the younger does had to be rescued from the water, they managed to get all of the herd offloaded and settled in the winter corral. Beth Ann said they would clean the ship after they checked with the other islands or at least in the morning.
The other two small settlements had been contacted. They were having the same issues. The shaking land was affecting their water supply. The fishing boats were alerted and called in to bring everyone to the main island.
The fishing boats had begun evacuating the smaller islands when the ground began to shake again and this time it was harder to even stand. The larger of the two volcanoes spewed a towering column of smoke and they could see lava flow off its southern side. Fortunately, the winds were blowing the ash away from Port, but the quake caused a surge in the hot springs at the bathing area and the drinking water system was suddenly much warmer. The sulfur gas had begun to infiltrate the drinking water. Spacer realized that evacuation of the entire community might have to be considered. They were going to quickly use up their supply of black filters on the water. At least if you let it set before you tried to drink it, most of the smell was gone, but the taste lingered. He told Boats to send a message to both Southmost and Refugio about the volcano and alert them. Port was looking at a disaster.
***
Spacer called a staff meeting but ended up with most of the adults in the community. It was crowded and he asked for anyone with amplification powers to help out, so everyone knew what was going on.
“As all of you know, we’re in a bad way. The springs here and on the other islands we’ve been using, including the tree nut groves, are contaminated. The medic says we shouldn’t drink it without using charcoal filters. You can wash with it after it airs out, but don’t drink it. We’ve got some filters set up for drinking water. Please don’t waste it! We’re short on charcoal.” Boats had the rosters of people who lived in the main community but explained they needed to know how many more there were.
“We have to see how many trips it is going to take to get us to one of the main land masses. The littles and those to care for them are the most important right now,” Boats said. “Water is our main need and there are some places over to the east towards the new lands where we can find some. But we need to know how many boats we need,” Boats then asked some of the adults from the rescued communities to give him a count. It got a good laugh when one of the men said he wasn’t sure because at least two of the women were in labor when they left the island.
***
Spacer saw the rocks break loose from the wall of the dock building and yelled a warning, but he was too late. The hand cart of packed trade items was crushed by the falling rocks. Those who were rescuing them from the damaged building were knocked to the ground but did not seem to be seriously hurt. The deep sand of the beach cushioned the ones who were hit. The medic said there would be bruising, but fortunately no broken bones.
“Well, at least we have a good excuse for not filling the order,” the quartermaster said. Spacer helped some of the men move the now wrecked cart out of the way.
“Anyone see any more cracks?” Spacer said. As he spoke, another slight land shake brought down another row of lava blocks onto the sand and into the water of the dock house. Whatever the first settlers had used as a binder between the cut pieces of cooled lava had disintegrated with the movement of the ground. The walls of the main house and some of the few stone foundations were also showing signs of becoming dangerous.
“Damn, it’s shaking the whole place apart.” one of the men caught in the falling wall said.
“Get everyone out of the main building and into the huts and the meeting area,” Spacer called out both vocally and mentally. At least the long dock beside the dock building was not damaged. Those stones had fallen inside the building, not onto the dock. They were going to need that dock to get folks onto the ships that were gathering.
***
“Spacer, we got a bunch of the old thatching and are feeding the goats with that,” one of the men calling through the Bridge door. “They are about out of greenery in the pasture. Way too many of them. Can Thomas take some of them to graze along the swamp paths?”
“Good idea, go ahead, just keep them out of the swamp. Those silly goats will end up stuck in the mud. Be sure you have someone with a crossbow watching them. The swamp lizards are riled up by the land shakes.” Spacer was listening to Jack Muldoon’s report about what they had found on the third land mass. Jack tried to not call it Home Port just because Jack Little kept using that name.
“I really don’t want that to stick, Spacer. It won’t take well in Utopia. We need to have an election when we get settled. I’m for just calling it third for now.” Spacer laughed.
“Better be quick about it. Jack Little is one whose silly names seem to stick.”
They decided to be very clear with the people about what they were facing. The trip to the third land mass was not short and there was nothing there but trees and some edible plants. Muldoon suggested they move as many as possible to the other settlements in the meantime.
“We’re looking at years of work to get that land to produce, Spacer. We can cut the trees but until you have the stumps and roots either ripped out or rotted, you can’t plant grain. I helped prepare some fields for bread grain back a couple of rotations ago. If the soil is not just right, the harvest is low.”
“I hate to see our community split up, but I know we can’t stay here.”
“Utopia needs people. So many of our families don’t have enough people to do the work at each farm. I know of one farm that has been abandoned and taken out of the rotation. If we can get O’Malley to help, we can sail the Port people directly there.”
“I’ll talk to Master O’Malley when he gets here.” Spacer said. It was one possible solution.
| ← Chapter 33 | Chapter 35 → |
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