“How long until we reach this stronghold of yours Commander?” Evelynn shouted at Colton.
Ashley had returned with Rocco and Evelynn who were both interested in the idea of seeing the new world stronghold. On top of this Emmett and Kaleb were needed back at the base so they also came along for the trip.
“We should arrive within the next ten minutes miss, nothing to sweat over.” Emmett responded.
“Yeah, nothing to sweat over, sure,” muttered Rocco as he wiped at his brow.
“Nothing more than the heat of the day spaceboy, we should have some spare garments for the three of you and your crew back on board.” Kaleb responded.
“You’ll get used to it with time, especially with your ship being stuck in that clearing.” Emmett stated.
“Not for too long Emmett, have some faith in our science officer.” Colton said.
“Sure, I have as much faith in him as I do with Tyson running the stronghold.”
“Meaning?” Ashley asked.
“Capable of doing it, but problems in execution. Believe me, we all know that Mateo is probably the smartest person in our humble fort, but he’s a bit of a loose cannon and when he hit’s his limit its pure chaos.”
“You have to keep in mind that Mateo is in a room full of new tech and equipment. That will keep him excited enough to last for sure. Also, with my guidance Tyson can lead us with ease.” Colton responded.
“How are you so sure?”
“Why do you think I’m training him?”
“Right, the whole I know when someone has worth and can become great routine.”
“Was I wrong about you, or Kaleb for that matter?”
“No, and Kaleb was already too old to tell.”
“I swear to god if you don’t stop poking at my age I wil-“
“The stronghold comes to view! Ain’t she a beauty?” Emmett stated, quickly redirecting the conversation to the gated town which buildings stood tall and Tower standing above the rest, proud of its stature.
They galloped towards the gates, they opened wide and the horse trotted in being wrangled by men waiting. The company dispatched from their steeds, Colton dropping his armor and weapons at the barracks and went into the town towards the tower. The old fashion buildings felt warmer, in fact the whole town felt much more relaxing than the ship.
“Commander, am I glad to see you,” A soldier began, “the Drakin has been taken to the autopsy room and is awaiting Julian’s touch. The council is moving ahead with its scout mission plan, and the wall is up to full now, no chance of-“
“I’m sorry soldier, but did you just say the council is moving ahead with the scouting?”
“Yes sir!”
Colton gave Kaleb a dirty look and then began running towards the tower, weaving between people, with the confused shouting of his companions behind him. He reached the entrance of the stone pillar and burst through its door running up and into the meeting hall where a group of people sat at a long table talking.
“Now, one of you tell me why the hell you’re going along with this plan of yours. Even after I explicitly stated that it was to wait?”
One of the men stood up and casually tried talking, “Colton, welcome back. Perhaps we could just calm down and-“
“No, answer me now or I’ll have you thrown in the brig for treason!”
He swallowed hard and turned to the head of the table, the man stood up and looked at him, “We need to have a better understanding of the surrounding area or we’ll be sitting ducks out here. We’re simply preparing to advance ourselves!”
“You advance this plan any further and the deaths are on you. We right now have a much more prominent project we’re working on right now, one that, once completed, will make me feel comfortable in moving ahead with this one. Now I don’t believe that you want people to die, nor want to anger me, so here’s what happens. You put this on pause, and disperse the council for a bit, while we finish our work. Believe me when I say that your plans will be finished, but what is being done now will probably be the most important thing in progression of our town since the building of this base. Are we all in agreement?”
The council looked at each other, then all members stood up and nodded, “Yes sir, we shall retire our work until next week.” The men then began walking out of the room until only Colton stood.
“You have some nerve playing your trump card Colton.”
“All I do is hold things together Kaleb. Now stop trying to go over my head before someone ends up losing there’s.”
The old man stroked his mustache and nodded, “Fine, by the way Emmett has taken our members up to the quarter’s section of the facility in search of spare clothing. They should be ready within the next couple minutes.”
“Good.”
“Also, Commander… you may think you play power here, but you’re as weak as we all are. Sure they respect you and you run the dam stronghold, out here though in the wild’s domain you're as easy a pray as we all are.”
“Noted, now get out of my sight!”
The old man nodded his head and strutted out of the room, once he was gone Colton approached the nearest wall and slammed his fist against its stone, causing a surge of pain up his arm. His hand jolted back to him and he sighed shaking off the blow.
“Colton, are you okay?” Ashley asked coming in, dressed in simple town clothing instead of a jumpsuit.
Colton nodded his head slowly, “Yeah… just have a stubborn problem that refuses to disappear. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
“You sure, I mean if it’s at the point where you’re slamming your hand against stone then it’s pretty bad.”
“Yeah maybe, but it’ll burn up soon enough. It’s becoming cockier and will soon find itself burning away.”
“Good, say wou-“
“Ah, Commander, I see Ashley’s told you of the makeover. If we didn’t know better, it would be easy to say they were just like us. Meaning… not from space” Emmett stated, entering the room with the two other space men dressed like commoners.
“Excellent, let’s show them around the town. I could use some air.” Colton said.
“No problem sir.”
The two men exited the structure with their company behind them. They walked around the compound, showing the barracks, the fields and farms, the wall by request of Emmett and the general area of the town. By the time they had been shown the entire base night had struck once more with the moon taking order of the sky as the sun took its rest. With the workers returning back to the camp leaving Mateo and the guards for the night. Colton and Emmet along with their guests assembled in Colton’s quarters where dinner had been prepared.
“Now let me all remind you, it was the old man who thought that a box in the sky would be useless. It’s been twenty four hours since you people crashed down and if you don’t hold up your part of the deal, than at least you sure as hell make good company.” Emmett chuckled drinking from his wooden cup of wine.
“Kaleb has been a pain for so long now. If not for him I wouldn’t be here though, which begs the question if he’s trying to take control why not claim it himself?” Colton asked.
“Back when we were building it, you had and still do have the best face, meaning you can keep control. Everyone knows he’s a pain in the ars and unless you were dead, which won’t happen since you’re like Mr. Bourne, he can’t be put in charge. Even if that occurred for some terrible reason we’d probably all rally behind Tyson, he has the best chance of taking control. You trained him yourself, he’ll run, well stumble for a bit until he finds his feet, then he’ll run!”
“Say, how did your all-star cast meet? I’m talking the old man, Julian, Mateo, Emmett and Tyson?” Evelynn asked.
Colton cleared his throat. “When we woke up in the woods none of us had any idea what was going on. We all woke up who knows where, I ran into Kaleb who helped me survive for the first bit. A few months past and we ran into Emmett and Mateo who were arguing like no tomorrow and took them along with us. Then more time we came to a damaged town, this one to be specific and found Julian treating people. The five of us were able to gather enough people and resources to then repair this damaged cabin in the woods. Then one day I remember a kid being found in the center of town all beat up and stuff so I took him in. He didn’t remember anything, where he was, why he ended up here, where he got the bruises, nothing. Despite this I had a feeling he could aspire to something and began teaching him.”
“That’s the quick version, the long version takes two hours and a grouch to tell.” Emmett shouted.
The group laughed and continued on with the evening enjoying each other’s company and this slight reprieve from the wild. Work would be needed tomorrow, but tonight they could drink and chat without worry of a struggle to interfere.
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