The Brave New World - 170 Bernard Loses His Head

“Bernard!” Kirk exclaimed, a little indistinctly. He hurriedly swallowed the food in his mouth and added:

“I’m so glad that you’re up. We really need to talk, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Yeah, we definitely need to talk,” Bernard said dreamily. An alarm buzzed in Kirk’s head. He knew, from painful past experience, that when Bernard wanted to talk there was a serious fuckup of some sort involved.

Kirk waited patiently while his younger son and leader of the Lander colony fetched a mug and made himself a coffee. He opened his mouth when Bernard sat down across from him and snapped it shut when he saw his son take out a pack of cigarettes, and light one.

“You’re started smoking cigarettes?” he said stupidly.

“Yeah. I’m running out of pot. And this whole colony business, Dad… It’s stressful. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it a lot, but it’s stressful.”

“There are healthier ways to relax. Bernard, you’ve got to realize that you are still very young and your lungs are still developing and that smoking is especially bad for you.”

“So is getting my head cut off with a machete,” said Bernard. He blew a plume of smoke at the ceiling and looked Kirk in the eyes and said:

“I’ve nearly had a fucking revolt. They killed me over there, Dad.”

“They killed you!”

“Correct. They cut off my fucking head. From behind, I didn’t even see it coming.”

“Who did?”

“A couple of fucking Mexicans.”

Kirk was silent for a while, digesting this information. There were about thirty implanted Mexicans living on Hank Vorner’s semi-defunct farm. They’d proved to be a very valuable addition to the Lander colony in the New World. They had excellent manual skills, and many of them were accomplished craftsmen. There was a real honest-to-God blacksmith, several carpenters, and a number of women that turned out to be expert weavers.

“Okay,” said Kirk, “A couple of Mexicans. But why?”

“I think it’s part of a larger problem. Dad, did it ever occur to you that the Mexicans could try to take over California?”

“Take over California? What the hell are you talking about? Why would they want to that?”

“Because it originally belonged to them. We grabbed a lot of Mexican territory while building the good old U.S. of A, Dad.”

“But that’s ancient history. And the Mexican president and governor is a very friendly guy. Carlton told me they were about to sign a treaty.”

“I’m not talking about the Mexican government, Dad. I’m talking about Mexicans.”

Kirk frowned.

Having fixed himself a coffee, Kirk sat down again and noticed his son was already on his second cigarette. However, this wasn’t the time to make a speech about lung cancer. Kirk said:

“Bernard, are you saying Mexican colonizers are trying to take over California in the New World? Is this it?”

“It’s more than that,” Bernard said. “It’s not only the colonizers, it’s the Mexican colonists, too. Those two that killed me over there – they wanted to start a revolt.”

“How do you know?”

“Hank and I put them through a good, tough Qu0026A session. Then Hank removed their implants, and kicked them off his farm. I tried to catch them over there, too. I gave myself a new implant right away and put an armed party together the moment I arrived in Fort Lander. But they gave us the slip, and chasing them was a waste of time.”

“What did they tell you under interrogation?”

“Well, they were pretty evasive. They started by trying to feed us all sorts of bullshit. They only opened up when Hank told them they were getting kicked off the farm anyway, but that he’ll give them a couple of dollars if they came clean.”

“Did he?”

“No. But he gave them enough food for a couple of days. Same thing. Anyway, those two said that’s it’s a movement. That Mexican colonists in California are getting in touch with each other and that the general plan is to take over Californian colonies one by one. And that many Mexican colonizers have already agreed to pitch in. We’ve got a ton of Mexican colonizers right here in California, Dad. You must know that. They’re recruiting exclusively Mexican colonists. They’re building a state within the state.”

“But this is insane. It’s only been a week.”

“That’s two months in the New World, Dad.”

Kirk was silent for a moment. Then he said:

“I’ll have to do something about it when I get back to work. Yes, I’ll definitely do something about it. What about the situation in Fort Lander? Things are under control?”

“Oh yes, no problem there. After Hank kicked those two off the farm, the rest have become very docile. And anyway there’s only a dozen Mexican colonists in Fort Lander, and sixty-two Americans. You see, that’s the ultimate proof they have a whole network operating. They had no chance to take over Fort Lander. They killed me because they wanted to show by example what could be done. To send a signal.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“It does. Like you pointed out, it’s only been a short while since the whole thing got officially started. There are plenty of undecideds. A move such as a colony owner’s assassination has great persuasive powers.”

Kirk pondered that for a while. Understandably, it crossed his mind that he too could be the target of an assassination attempt. Not in the New World, oh no. Here, on good old Earth. Maybe Adam had been right to choose a vehicle that was almost a full-fledged military armored car. Maybe it was time to start traveling with an escort.

He sighed, and said:

“I’m going to have a very thorough, very deep look into that whole Mexican thing. But let’s put it aside right now. How are things going for our own enterprise? Have you reached the coast yet?”

“No. We’re at the point where Napa River broadens into a lake. It’s huge in the New World, Dad. You can’t see the other shore in some places. Anyway, I’ve put down an outpost at the northern end. A dozen people. They’re working on a quay and I’m planning to take a boatful of settlers down there next month and set up another outpost on Knight’s Island. It’s not enclosed inside a lagoon in the New World, Dad. It faces the open sea. I’ve sent out scouts to find the best spot for a settlement, and that’s what they’ve reported.”

“So we’ll have a settlement on the coast within a couple of months?”

“Yes. And it’s not like we’re cut off from the ocean right now, either. It’s just a couple of days’ sailing away. But the ship isn’t ready yet. We had to wait for a hell of a long time for the wood to dry before we could start working on it. It should be launched next month, and then it’s going to take another month to fix the rigging.”

“What ship type did you end up going with?”

“A small caravel. Two masts, two lateen sails. Can carry up to fifty people on short distances, if you really squeeze them in. But it only needs a crew of eight, not counting the gunners.”

“Gunners?”

“Yeah. We’ve made our first cannon. Just a light piece, a swivel gun. But we’ve already tested it and you can actually hit a house-sized target at a couple of hundred paces.”

“You’ve got gunpowder?”

“Sure we’ve got gunpowder. I made it a priority. Had no idea getting it involved piss.”

“Well, that’s the simplest method to get saltpeter. I must say I’m impressed. Yes, I am impressed, Bernard. Good work. You’re going to mount cannon on that ship?”

“At least a couple. Maybe four. I’ve been running into the competition, Dad.”

“Who?”

“Well, there’s been some around Napa, but Adam is taking care of that. The problem is with the guys from Vallejo. There are a couple of colonizers there who want the Napa lake to themselves. The scouts I sent out to Knight’s Island ran into those guys. They’ve established settlements controlling the mouth of the Napa river. We can get around that, because like I told you the lagoon has turned into a bay, and there are half a dozen other rivers flowing into that. They’re big enough to let through a full-sized ship.”

“We want control of the entire Napa river,” Kirk said firmly.

“And we’ll get it, no fear. A year from now it will be all ours.”

“A year?”

“I meant five weeks. A year over there.”

“Okay,” Kirk said. “Sounds good. I’ll be around all day tomorrow, and we’ll discuss everything further. Right now I’ve got to check on things in my study. What are you going to do?”

“I wanted to stretch my legs a little, and then turn in for the night and lead the expedition to Knight’s Island.”

“Good plan. Is Debbie up, too?”

“No, she’s still over there. Dad, Debbie has gone nuts with chickens. Try and rein her in a little.”

“Why? What’s the matter?”

“She keeps breeding them like crazy. The whole town is turning into a goddamn chicken farm. She’s already got over half a thousand.”

“What!”

“You heard right. I’ve got two guys employed full time just dealing with all the chicken shit. It does make good fertilizer but, man, the whole fucking town stinks. I’m going to move the colony capital if she doesn’t stop.”

“No, no,” said Kirk. “You can’t do that. I’ll talk to her. I’ll get it sorted out, I promise.”

“See you tomorrow?”

“You will,” Kirk said, and got up and went to his study, feeling slight dread at the thought of what awaited him there.

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