Page 12 of Oret
Sara headed one way, and he headed the other.The next missing builder was Collins.As soon as he approached the tent, he knew that this was going to be bad.Death had a smell, and he had been around it enough to recognize it.His builder was either dead or close to dying.When he opened the door, he could see a swollen body.He went closer anyway, just in case the man was still alive.It was clear that he wasn’t, and it was sad that there had been nobody who would realize that he was ill and get him help.In this case, it might be for the best because that meant no one had contact with him after he had been hit with the worst symptoms.He found some tape and a piece of board and wrote "Do Not Enter."
All he could do was hope that people were smart enough to avoid something with a sign like that.Now he headed to Sharon’s tent after picking up a few supplies.He sprayed everything down as well as he could and hoped it was good enough.The smell was off-putting, so he hoped it would deter everyone from the tent.Collins had been single, but that didn't mean that he had no friends or relatives in the colony.It was sad to lose someone, especially to a preventable illness.Fenwik needed to be found because it was his place to inform Radvar that either some people were not getting their shots, or those shots were not working properly.Everyone would have to get their shots to ensure that this did not spread like wildfire through the colony.The loss of one person was terrible, but to lose more would be tragic.
Three days later, Victoria woke up.She couldn't have been awake long when he found her because she was still lying in bed and looking at the ceiling.
“Oret?What's going on?What happened to me?”
“You collapsed and went through the change.After the day it happened, you've had three more days, and now you're awake.Be glad you slept through it because we've had other problems too.”
“Let me clean up and get ready, and we can go to the cafeteria and discuss what's going on.”Victoria directed.
She reminded him of the general in the way she took charge.It was one of the best things and one of the worst things about her.When you needed someone to step up, she was the best you could ask for, but when you were trying to do something on your own, she would kind of push her way in and take over.A strong-willed person like he was wouldn't allow it, but there weren't many in the colony who were strong-willed.
“I'm ready,” Victoria said as she headed toward the door, and he followed quickly so he wouldn't be left behind.“I'm not sure I've ever been so hungry in my whole life.”
“I believe you.People going through the change often say so.Why don't we ride up the hill?”Oret said as they approached their bikes.
It was much faster this way, and he could hear her stomach growling like an angry monster.She now had an appetite like his, and it would be something for her to deal with and adjust to.They arrived at the cafeteria quickly and headed straight to the kitchen.Brenda met them.
“What do you need?”She asked.
“Food!”Victoria demanded.
Brenda smiled.“It's nice to see you around now.”She wasted no time getting the first plate done and handed it to Victoria.
Oret waited patiently since he had not been through a change and wasn't Brenda's mother-in-law.He still got his food quickly, and he was glad to see that it was some of the smoked fish that resembled salmon.They had been serving it every other day, and it had become a crowd-pleaser.One of the reasons had been that several people had gotten ill, and there had been plenty of fish in reserve, but they really needed to do some hunting.Everyone was now behind in their work, and it wouldn't be easy to take the time off to hunt.Oret had hunted a bit on his own and brought back a few large kills.He then had to gut, clean, and cut them up on his own.That meat was reserved for people who could not eat fish or truly hated fish.Those who simply hated fish would be forced to eat them soon if no further hunting were done.
That was just the way that life in a colony was.One of the hardships was that you had to eat what was available, whether you liked it or not.You also had to work every day, whether you felt like it or not.It was also true that if you didn't learn to do what they expected of you, there was always a ship headed to the moon, the monster moon.At this point, everyone was toeing the line.There had been enough problems without having to send people away.Almost all of the people on the last two ships had fallen ill to varying degrees, but only one had died.The shots they were given had been tested and found lacking.Some had been only weak, but others had been ineffective altogether.Everyone had to get their shots a second time if they were on any of the ships that came here directly from Earth.That was about sixty percent of the population here.There was no doubt that this had been a setback, and even my production had dropped some.
Victoria would be upset, and her eating had slowed down enough that he was sure she wanted to hear what was going on.He began by explaining the person they had lost and then described what they had discovered and what had been done to correct the situation.At this point, he had to tell her that they were behind on everything and that it would be a while before they would catch up.
“The mine?”Victoria asked.
“They have only slowed down a little bit.They will be the first thing that gets caught back up.”
“I need to get back up there and help them catch up.”
“I'm going to tell you that I think you should wait and rest until tomorrow.The change can be challenging for even the most resilient individuals.There have been some changes made at the mines.”Oret explained.“We've started mining all three mines.Each mine now has a supervisor in charge.Two more ships have come, bringing miners who have been put to work immediately.They all seem to be working out.”
“You did all this in three days?”Victoria asked.
“We did, and we are close to capacity.”He wasn't sure that she would appreciate him being the one who had done that.Capacity was what was expected of the mine, or now all three mines.
“I'm not sure if I should curse you or thank you, but someone had to take over while I was out.I believe I'll be fine now.”
He knew that's what she thought, but he wasn't so sure.Victoria had a bad habit of overworking herself and not taking the situation into consideration, such as the fact that she had just gone through a major life change.In a way, it would be great to have her back because he could pay more attention to the building crew and the kitchen crew, both of which needed it.She would also be a great partner for hunting, which was something else that they needed to do.It wouldn't be long before they needed to do fishing as well, as they were going through fish like crazy.The problem was that, despite all the help she could give him, he also needed to keep a close eye on her because she was overly critical of herself.
It was no surprise that as soon as she was through eating, she got up and headed towards the bikes.Oret followed her.Victoria headed straight toward the mines.It was no surprise that she planned to stop at the main mine first.This was the one that the chief was most concerned with.The chief had set what he called capacity, and that was the amount that he wanted each month from each mine.The capacity of the main mine was a large amount, and what was expected out of the other two mines together was less than half that amount.The need for what came from those two mines was simply not great enough to justify mining more than they were currently extracting.It was the main mine that had slacked off due to illness, but even it was not far below expectations.
Victoria could probably bring it to the level it needed to be, working with them herself.That was something he really didn't want her to do, but he saw no way to stop her.After he saw her settling into her job, he headed back to the builders where he worked off his frustration at his mate not listening to him.Oret knew he was right, but she had no intention of following his advice.All he could do now was channel that excess energy into something useful.He was working circles around his builders, but over time, they had learned to appreciate the assistance rather than resenting the fact that he could work harder and get more done than any two of them.In the half-day he worked with them, they completed three homes.All of those had already begun the day before, but it was still amazing to get them done and move people into them.Caught up?No, but they were now on the right track.
Fenwik had checked on the farmers that first day to see if any of them were ill and had been very disappointed to find that few of them were doing anything.Only one family was at the level they should be at, and one other exceeded that level.Both of those families would receive some kind of reward that the others would not get.He was even considering assigning an extra person among the farm families to monitor their activities.Yes, it was that bad.The only good thing was that none of them had been sick, as they had been isolated and none of them had come on board the last two ships.They were all still given the shots again just to ensure that they didn't get sick.Oret had to admit that setbacks like this weren’t unusual when colonists weren’t Majuri.A Majuri was raised to deal with this kind of life, and they were obviously tougher than other races.
The danger was past, and now more colonists were arriving, but they were inexperienced.The only ones who seemed to do as expected were the miners, who all appeared to come from the same company.All of them had some experience, and several had received extensive training.What they did was like what they’d done on Earth, only more mechanized and much safer.With mines 2 and 3 up to snuff and mine one only slightly below what the chief wanted, he suspected some of these guys were being trained for his moon.Two days later, the ship arrived.
“Don’t think I’m not aware of what the extras are for,” Victoria observed.
“What do you mean?”
