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Tratruoh and Melise arrived early the next morning, while I was opening up the forge for the day. They barely gave me a chance to put my tools down before they both hugged me. “Uncle Joe! Good to see you again!” Like Asina and myself, both had adopted the short but heavily built body model that slightly over half of all operants favored. Roughly two ififths thirtyfive, broad shouldered, appropriately enough, built like a blacksmith. It was a body configuration that optimized power and endurance. When the Empire had come to Earth, some media wags had dubbed it the ‘bear’ body style. Perhaps one square fortyfive in mass ‘bears’ would never win any aesthetic awards, but what they did win was most of their duels. Tratruoh wore his black hair close cropped and had dark olive skin, but the epicanthic fold of Earth’s Asians wasn’t a thing here. His eyes were a dark green I recalled being his natural color. Melise was a couple of shades lighter, both in hair and skin color. On Earth before the Empire, I might have guessed her ancestry was Polynesian or mixed Polynesian. Her dark brown hair was wavy and her eyes were brown. Both looked like they were maybe a year or two shy of physical maturity, but people of that age were counted adult here on Calmena. In reality, we weren’t sure exactly how old either one of them was. They’d both been around six or seven Earth years of age when we took them in. But both were legal adults back in the Empire, with a moderate number of credentials. Asina and I had presumed they were lovers, because otherwise this would be a very difficult and long contract for them.
For privacy, I switched to telepathy. Asina is out inspecting the local customs and border forts. She’s supposed to be back this afternoon. Help me with this wagon. I’d like to see how you handle smithing before we turn this place over to you and leave you alone to sink or swim.
We hadn’t heard you’d gone operant Uncle Joe! Melise was pleasantly surprised.
Being married to Asina has its advantages, I replied. It’s only been these last five years. Context said Imperial years. I have a long way to go to catch up to my wife. Through our link, Asina snorted at the idea I had to catch up to her. You’ve always worked harder than I have with what you had. I wasn’t going to dispute it, but I still had fifteen years she’d been operant and I hadn’t to make up for. Meanwhile, Melise and Tratruoh were donning protective gear, despite the day’s heat. It looked like we were going to get some rain from the west, too. Between them, they’d evidently decided Melise would take the first shift with the hammer.
Over the next couple hours, they convinced me they knew enough about blacksmithing to get the job done. Which was a good thing, because they’d have to. Asina and I would be leaving them everything when we left, and it would be part of their responsibility to keep the innovations coming. Finally, along about noon with the bed and the axles of the wagon done, we banked the fire and I put them into our security system to give them access to our basement so we could all clean up and have a civilized meal. A cool shower will do a lot for your general attitude when the temperature is about 35 Celsius and humidity is just shy of saturation. In the basement, our climate control was always on, and I got myself an ice cold beer. A real beer, from somewhere in the Empire, not the local stuff. Melise wanted one too; Tratruoh wanted a citrusy juice called bang I wasn’t familiar with, but it was in the converter’s library. I didn’t bother with actual cooking, just had the converter produce our lunch ready to eat – about twenty bars each of fried chorizo from Earth and another twenty of a mixed fruit cup. I switched to ice water after the first glass. I could neutralize the alcohol, but it still wasn’t exactly a good idea to fill up on beer when good quality water was available from the converter. Away from home, we had to drink a weak beer that tasted like what I always imagined horse piss would. For the natives, water was still dangerous, and we had to blend in. Maybe in another few years it would be safe for everyone to drink the water.
Copyright 2017 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.
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