Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Good Will Towards Men

Thanksgiving was a quiet day of Football on TV, Emily helping her mom in the kitchen, as they prepared the Thanksgiving feast, and just being together as a family. Emily and her mom explained Thanksgiving to Cha'Nara, who tried to understand, but I think missed it entirely. Emily baked her a quiche for Thanksgiving, while the rest of us ate turkey, Pip seemed to like the stuffing, and cranberry salad, but she couldn't get enough of the pumpkin pie, and was later caught sneaking a slice in the middle of the night.

Emily's dad said grace, and we gave thanks for just about everything, from being alive and in one piece, the blessing of Cha'Nara's arrival and our "luck" at winning the lottery.

After the dinner was over, and everything cleaned up, Emily and I sat down with Cha'Nara and had a little talk. "Cha'Nara, we need to have a little talk, it's about the trip we're taking back in time." "You don't want to take me do you?" We made her sit on her bed as we pulled up chairs in front of her, "Actually we don't," said Emily. I continued, "Look Pip Emily and I have an unspoken obligation to your parents to keep you safe, where we're going is not safe. Now, for various reasons, we have to take you with us, we are going to be putting you in harm's way, we know the risks the dangers that likely await, you don't, what you don't know CAN kill you, why do you think we are taking so many weapons with us, I'm afraid there are bad people we will be forced to kill, there's just no way around it."

Cha'Nara seemed to slowly absorbing all this, when the realization of what we were talking about finally sunk in she started to cry. Emily squeezed and hugged her trying to calm her. I reached out and touched her knee, "Shus-s-s-s-h Pip "Everything's gonna be all right, Rocka-bye, Rocka-bye, everything's gonna be all right, rocka-bye, rocka-bye, Rocka-bye. Cha'Nara stopped sobbing and buried her head on Emily's shoulder. "We're going to be fine, we have the bullet proof vests, as well as the tactical armor vests, I want you to wear you're vest all the time, we will keep you safe, but you have to help by staying alert, and obeying every order we give you, no hesitation, if either one of us tells you to do something, you do it! Without question, is that understood?" Cha'Nara just sniffled and nodded, "that's a good girl, just be brave, and stay alert to danger, you won't know it but we will, and will direct you accordingly OK?"

Emily also added, "There will be times when it will get very boring, and the temptation to wander around will be great, we do not want you to do this, I'll make sure we bring things to occupy your time, games and things to do, we are only acting on your parents behalf Cha'Nara, its called responsibility." Pip perked up and smiled, "I will do as you say, I don't want anything to hurt you, I know you mean well for me, I am foolish at times, I will help you." I patted her on the knee,

"That's the spirit Pip just remember, it is a different time in our history, people do not behave towards each other as they do today, all we ask is that you do exactly as we say, no questions, everything we tell you to do will be for a reason, one you may not understand, but we do, that's why when we tell you to do something, you do it OK?" "OK" she replied.

Emily stayed with her a bit longer before she joined me in the bedroom, as we were changing our clothes, I turned to her and said, "We laid it all out to Pip but are you prepared?" Emily looked at me with concern, "What do you mean?" "I mean that even though both of us are veterans of the 'stan we're still twenty-first century Americans going back in time to possibly do things that would now be considered illegal, basically we're going back to Afghanistan with no rules of engagement, you've seen all those books I've been reading lately about western history and the Colorado gold rush, I've got no illusions about what we'll encounter, I simply wont put your safety or that of Pip's in jeopardy , I will shoot first and ask questions later, are you, Emily Mathers willing to do the same?" she thought for a few moments then quietly said, "Yes…Yes, I am" "Well dear wife, it's time to dust off all those things they taught you in basic and get with the program." "I'm ready" We climbed in bed and made love as quietly as we could.

Everybody was up by six, we were as ready as we were ever going to be, Emily hugged her parents, Cha'Nara hugged Mrs. Carter, I said goodbye to Mr. Carter then it was out to the barn and the "Crate" where our ride to the past awaited. We had a tough time climbing over everything we had stuffed in Cha'Nara's spacecraft, Quickly sheding our coats and taking our places. Pip was dressed in her honorary Marine Corps BDU's I had bought for her, even down to the "boonie" hat.

Cha'Nara and Emily went through their checklist, and double-checked the GPS data. Finally everything seemed to be a "go" so they initiated the hyper drive, but since we weren't traveling in space, nothing seemed to happen. After about five minutes, Emily let out her breath and announced, "Well, we're here guys, I'm not sure if it's night or day out, I guess it's time we do a little recon to secure the area." I grabbed my night vision headset and said, "Turn out the interior lights Pip and open the hatch." She complied, and I saw immediately that it was night . I grabbed one of the shotguns racked a shell into the chamber and stood up in the hatchway. There was neither moon out nor any snow either; I ducked my head back into the craft, "What time of year are we supposed to be in?" Emily and Pip consulted their data, finally stating, "April or possibly May, not sure which," "Well you two had better get things square before we return home, we left in November, I don't want to return a month or two early or three or four months later." Cha'Nara said, "that won't happen, we simply reverse the recorded travel data, if you want to return a month or so later to be rid of the snow we can adjust for that." "We'll worry about that later," I replied, "Right now I want you to get ready Emily, hand me your weapon before you step out."

The sky was clear, and the temperature felt cool, like an early spring night, the only sound was coyotes howling off in the distance.

I turned on my night vision goggles and looked at a green world. As I moved to let Emily step out, I handed her the Armalite carbine. Once she had stepped down on the ground I could hear her quietly charge the weapon, searching the area with her night scope. I tapped my comset to get Emily's attention, "Check one, over," "Check two, over," we could hear each other, so we expanded our search, making a wide sweep of the immediate area. I could now see that we were sitting down in a low spot of the terrain, with a low hill or berm in front of us, listening closer, I thought I heard the sound of water, if so; we were right where we wanted to be. "Let's climb that hill, stay low," I whispered into the mike. Carefully we inched our way up the hill, finally crouching just below the crest; both of us scanned the area for bright objects that might indicate campfires or lantern light, nothing! I whispered into the mike again, "I don't want to get too far away at this point, we appear to be alone, so let's just lay here and wait, Pip, you sit tight, we'll be out here awhile." Cha'Nara tapped her comset indicating she had heard me. After a few moments, we sat down on the damp grass back to back just checking the area around us, I startled when I saw something run into a nearby patch of woods about 200 yards ahead of our position, Emily whispered, "what is it?" "I think it was a wolf or coyote running into the woods out there."

About an hour later, I could start to detect the first rays of dawn in the east, we moved down the hill slightly to avoid being silhouetted by the coming light. I whispered to Emily, "I want you and Cha'Nara to get that cammo netting spread over the craft before it gets any lighter, I'll wait here and keep an eye out." Without any reply, she eased back down the hill; soon I could hear movement and rustling down below, as the girls deployed the netting over the spacecraft. By the time dawn had arrived, they had it pretty well spread over the spacecraft. We intended to put up posts to break up the pattern but that would come later when we could see better. The plan I had in mind was to use the chain saw and auger we had on board to cut and place small logs around the craft in the form of a small fort or stockade, power tools would make the job go quick, but also draw unwanted visitors curious about the strange noises, a chance we would have to take.

I finally moved from the hill about six, Emily took my place, I went down to check on Cha'Nara, "How ya doin kid?" She smiled and gave me a thumbs up, a gesture she had recently picked up from TV or something. "Good, do me a favor and check the condition of the power cell, I'm curious as to how much power we used coming here." she turned and disappeared into the craft, I headed down the other way telling Emily over the comset, "I thought I heard water last night, I'm checking south of the craft, keep you posted." About 200 feet down I came to a medium sized creek, I squatted and froze listening for any noise, but hearing nothing I continued. Checking both directions for about 200 feet I found no tracks or signs of human activity. Out of curiosity I stuck my hand in the water, scraping around the shallow bottom, upon examination I saw a few flecks of gold in my hand and on my sleeve. I smiled to myself and hit the comset, "We're in the money, we're in the money, we've got a lot of what it takes to get along!"

There was a momentary pause, then Emily's voice came over the comset. "Where are you?" "Down by this beautiful little creek my dear." "Does your excuse for singing mean what I think it means?" "It do" "Out, f*****g, Standing!" there was a giggle then the comset went silent. I relieved Emily so she could eat; I carefully scanned the horizon with my binoculars seeing nothing. Emily soon relieved me so I could eat, "I'm sending Pip up here to watch as well, keep an eye on the craft, I'm going to start cutting wood for our little fort, a noise like that is bound to draw interest so stay sharp." Back at the craft, I told Cha'Nara, "Take these binoculars and go help Emily watch for danger, I'm going to start cutting wood, so keep an eye out," Cha'Nara, glad to finally be helping scampered up the hill to Emily's position.

I strapped on my holster and sidearm and started selecting trees to cut, once I'd done that, I started cutting, the noise of the saw made me cringe, no sound like that had ever been heard in this century and would definitely draw interest, I cut until the saw ran out of gas, then I contacted Emily, "Any movement?" "None, however I can't see over behind us somebody could sneak up over there." "Well, stay where you are, keep an eye on me as well." "Got it, out!" I powered up the auger, and quickly dug holes forming corners an entrance, and mid posts enough to cover all the wood I had cut. I then placed the logs into the holes. I took the end of a shovel and started tamping down the dirt around the posts. I then contacted Emily, "Babe, send Pip down I could use her help." soon Cha'Nara came bounding down. "Pip I meant to ask you, what did the power tube look like?" "A light green, about half the charge was used," "Half a charge eh, doesn't that seem like a lot to you?" "Yes, but remember, you're charging converter is not the most efficient, back at home, a proper charge only takes a few "mega's" I mean minutes."

"I see you're point, we'll have to recharge as soon as we can, at least we have enough to return home if we had to quickly." Cha'Nara agreed, I then had her hold the log upright while I tamped the dirt down around it.

In a couple hours, we had all the wood posts in place, Emily reported no sign of life, so I refilled the saw and cut more posts, and again dug more holes. It was dusk when Pip and I finished, we re-adjusted the netting, now spreading it over and down the walls of the stockade, a couple more times cutting, and we would have our little "fort" finished. Before it got too dark, I took Emily and Cha'Nara to where I had "discovered" the gold; Emily scooped her hand around and came up showing color as well. She squealed as I said,

"No mining until we get that stockade finished, get all our canteens filled and let's get out of here." That night we risked a small campfire. I made the stockade just large enough for the spacecraft and a small area for our tent, and a table. I insisted Cha'Nara sleep in the craft on the floor between the seats, ready to go if we had to leave quickly. Emily and I took turns sleeping two hours on two off. In the morning, we made coffee over the campfire, and ate breakfast. Emily and Cha'Nara then resumed their watch on the hill while I cut more posts. By mid afternoon I had the stockade finished, we took a rece up and down the creek for around 400 feet and found no signs of human activity, while Emily and Pip kept watch, I panned the creek, by dusk we had a Pepsi can filled almost to the top with gold flakes from the creek.