Chapter 26
“Zdravstvuyte! Is anyone home?”, the female voice called out.
Vladimir didn’t immediately respond.
“Vladimir? Are you here?” the voice called out again.
“Captain?” Vladimir responded.
“Yes, it’s me. Sorry that I am not your girlfriend.” Katya said with a small laugh.
Vladimir stepped out of the shadow and into the light of the small fire in front of the sturdy-looking lean-to. He was carrying an animal skin over one arm and a sharpened rock in the opposite hand.
“As I’ve told you, she is not my girlfriend,” Vladimir said with a small bit of annoyance in his voice.
“Well, she certainly is visiting you quite often to not be a friend,” Katya noted.
“Then I guess that makes you my girlfriend as well,” he said in return, with a smile visible and looking to Katya for a reaction.
“Oh, are you inviting me to sleep with you here tonight?” Katya said without pause. “Will it be crowded for the three of us? Or is she giving me first shift.”
Vladimir could feel his cheeks warming, and was glad it wasn’t easy to see the color rise in his face.
“And, please, Vladimir, drop the formalities,” Katya continued. “I’m glad it’s no longer Captain Litvak, but can you stop the ‘Captain’ as well. I’m Katya.”
“I’m sorry,” Vladimir replied. “I’m a creature of habit.”
“OK, then every time you don’t call me Katya, I will call you Vlad. Or perhaps Vanko?” she said teasingly.
Vladimir glanced at her with narrowed eyes, not saying anything.
“Or maybe I’ll just tell your girlfriend that I’m her new competition. What is her name?” Katya continued.
“I’ve not asked her, nor do I pay attention when she tells me.” Vladimir said as he laid the animal skin over a portion of the lean-to roof. “She shows up, I’ve tried to get rid of her, but it’s more effort, so I let her stay. She wants a safe place to stay, and apparently thinks this is such a place.”
Katya didn’t stop the teasing. “I hear she’s looking for more than just a bunk mate. She’s looking for some evening entertainment.”
Vladimir’s cheeks reddened again. “I guess I’m safe, warm and cozy, all wrapped into one man.”
Katya laughed loudly. “Well done, Vladimir! I’m glad to see you starting to relax a bit. There are too many serious people around here for my liking.”
“I thought you wanted us to take this seriously,” Vladimir said.
“The work to get us established as a colony? Yes,” Katya responded.
“The need to direct this camp so it provides a welcoming home for future Russian arrivals? Yes. But to be serious twenty-four hours a day? That takes more effort,” Katya concluded, waiting for a reaction.
Vladimir let the comment pass over, focusing on his lean-to roof instead. He was tying a vine around one of the corners of the animal skin.
“One thing you certainly are serious about is your building, here,” Katya commented. “Why not stay with the rest of the colony, instead of isolating yourself out here?”
“I appreciate the quiet and the chance for some solitude,” Vladimir answered.
“Are you getting any sleep?” she asked. “Every time I’ve visited you, if you’re not working on the community structures, you’re working on this hut. Or getting your own supply of tools collected. That doesn’t look exactly like a knife.” she finished, pointing at the sharpened rock he was carrying.
“No, I’m using it just to clean the skins,” Vladimir explained. “I’m less likely to break the sharp edge of a rock knife trying to scrape off tissue, and I’m less likely to poke a hole in the skin if I’m not using a pointed edge.”
“Well, no one has as solid a roof as you do, my friend,” Katya said. “I can see the interest that Dasha has in coming here, especially with the rain the past four days.”
“Ah, yes, that’s her name,” Vladimir said, finishing the placement of the second leg of the skin on his roof. “So what does bring you here this evening?”
“I’m letting you know that Dmitri is no longer to be consulted or even informed about any of the plans we continue to work,” she answered.
Vladimir looked up. Katya was not smiling any longer.
“What has he done that causes you to say that,” he asked.
“He’s done absolutely nothing,” Katya answered. “And that is the problem. He complains he shouldn’t be here. That they exiled him here to punish him. He doesn’t realize the privilege that comes with this assignment. We’re the forward position! The scouts! Of anyone, you would think someone from the army would understand that assignment.”
Katya got up to get another piece of wood for the fire. “And the worst of it is when he whines about being separated from his girlfriend. Like none of us have connections we cared about back on Earth,” she said, tossing the log on the fire a bit too forcefully.
“Perhaps he could build his own structure,” Vladimir said, as he was moving onto tying down another leg of the animal skin. “He could gain a new girlfriend and perhaps rid me of an unwelcome guest.”
Katya looked from the fire over to Vladimir, who broke into a small smile without taking his eyes off his work.
Katya burst out laughing.
“Two jokes in one evening! You have really gotten into a much better mood as the days progress here, my friend,” she noted. “I was afraid you were going to spend the entire seventeen week trip here looking for the self-destruct button on that alien transport. But when we first met up after we landed, you definitely had a different outlook compared to when we arrived. What happened in between?”
“It’s not really anything that happened in between,” Vladimir explained. “I remember waking up, feeling hungry, thirsty, and anxious to get off the ship. I knew I didn’t have any other options but to make the best of this situation, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“So it’s that simple,” Katya asked suspiciously? “You wake up and all is good?”
“No, not all is good,” Vladimir replied. “But I wasn’t killed in the attack on the alien landing craft. I didn’t die on the trip here. Nothing has killed or injured me on this planet yet. So, it’s better than any of those options. And that is where I need to focus, or else bitterness will eat me alive.”
“Spoken like a true survivor, Comrade,” Katya said.
“And what of the fourth member of our mission?” Vladimir asked. “Have you been able to track that person down?”
“Not yet,” answered Katya. “You would think she would have come forth so far. We’re not advertising ourselves, but I think it is pretty obvious that you and I, and even Major Lemrov when he’s not sulking, are cut from a different cloth than the majority of others here. Dmitri didn’t come forth, but I was able to identify him without too much difficulty. So either she didn’t make it on the ship, she died on the trip, she left after we landed, or she is doing a really good job of hiding.”
“Svetlana?” Vladimir said.
“What?” Katya asked.
“Her name is Svetlana, correct?” Vladimir clarified.
“Yes, Captain Svetlana Milayovich,” Katya responded. “Russian Naval Intelligence.”
“The spy sent to monitor us,” Vladimir said with a tone of disgust.
Katya looked over at Vladimir. He had finished tying down the last leg of the animal skin on the roof of his hut and was testing the stability of his work.
“And who is she going to report to, my paranoid friend?” Katya said with less tease and more annoyance in her voice.
“She doesn’t have to report to anyone at this time,” Vladimir said. “She’s keeping mental notes and will provide her information to senior officers once they start arriving sometime in the future. Who has been loyal. Who has been disloyal. Who has held up Mother Russia, and who has plotted against our plans.”
“Now you’re sounding more like Dmitri,” Kayta noted. “And I can only take one of him.”
“Don’t worry,” Vladimir said, moving from his shelter over to the wood pile. “I don’t really care what notes she takes or who she talks to. I’m done worrying about that. I believe in what we’re doing here to give us all the best chance of survival. And if we want to pursue our mission, I believe the best path towards that is good structures to live in.”
“I can tell,” Katya said, nodding towards the lean-to. “I don’t think anyone knew you had such skill with building.”
“I only know a few things,” Vladimir shared, laying the fresh piece of wood on the fire and organizing a bit of the mess Katya had caused when she had thrown her own piece on earlier in the conversation. “I spent a summer in my teen years helping an uncle build a cabin in the woods. He never explained how he got the property, but he was so proud it was his own land that he wanted some permanency and presence on it. I had finished with my tekhnikum studies and was going to the Air Force Academy later that year. It seemed like the ideal time to be away from books, buildings and, frankly, other people. So I gladly joined him.”
“How many people worked on his house?” Katya said.
“Just the two of us,” Vladimir said. “But my uncle was worth three men. He worked from sunrise to sunset six days a week. The only day off we spent fishing, checking the traps he had set for rabbits, and occasionally going into town for basic supplies or some building materials he couldn’t make from the items in the forest. And if he did it, he made me do it, at least once. ‘If you’re going to tell people you built a house, you need to know these things. Otherwise you’re a liar.’ he told me.”
“I enjoyed the time away from things, but was certainly glad when summer was over and I could return to those parts of modern society that I had underappreciated before then. Running water, electricity, comm access, and even other people. My uncle was a fine man, but not the most talkative nor the most fun.”
“Looking back now,” Vladimir continued, “I am eternally thankful to him for the experience. It taught me a lot about self-sufficiency, ingenuity, and primitive construction and basic tool making. Although we didn’t have to use stone tools.”
“So how did the house look when you were done?” Katya wanted to know, fascinated by this story.
“We got the walls and roof up, the fireplace completed, and had hung the door by the time I left,” Vladimir said. “He was going to work on windows and insulation before it got too cold, but I had to return for my start of studies. He sent me a walk-through video of the house that winter. He even had made a table and two chairs to use inside.”
“What a wonderful experience,” Katya said. “When were you able to go and visit him in it next?”
“Never,” Vladimir said, staring at the fire.
Katya stopped, speechless for a bit. “Why?” she finally asked.
“He was found dead in his apartment in Moscow in early Spring the next year,” Vladimir said. “No explanation, no autopsy, no police investigation.”
“And the cabin?” Katya asked hesitantly.
“It burnt that same Summer, I’m told,” Vladimir said.
They were both quiet for a few minutes.
Finally Vladimir looked up, “I’m still grateful I had that opportunity. And because of what happened, I went over in my head all the things I had learned that previous year so they would stay with me. I said I was going to rebuild my uncle’s cabin sometime. I’ll be able to follow-through on that promise. I just never thought it would take place on a different planet.”
“You are definitely a more interesting character than I had imagined upon our first meeting in that Kremenchuk safehouse, Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Nikolaevich Anikeyev,” Katya shared.
After another few minutes of quiet, Katya asked another question, “So how about all these tools you keep fashioning? Where did you learn about those? I’m hoping your uncle didn’t make you chop down trees with a stone axe.”
“No,” Vladimir chuckled. “He wasn’t that harsh.”
“I knew something would be needed and was hoping the pile of tools the aliens left for us would include an axe. The few knives and spears wouldn’t handle the work, and the hunters and fishers amongst the colonists were much more interested in those than I was. I did get a chance to look at the type of stone in them that second day here. By coincidence, the person that had the knife I was examining was a former archeologist. He told me about the tools he had seen in an old excavation near Dresden. Tools from possibly 10,000 years ago. It was incredible the variety of options they came up with. He was the one that thought the stone used for the knife might work as an axe head, so I went looking for some in the area.”
“The next trick was how to shape it. Thankfully I walked by when one of the other colonists was starting a fire. Have you seen the stones they are using?” Vladimir asked.
Katya nodded her head.
“The speckled stone obviously wouldn’t work, but that black stone was what I needed. The problem is that I’m only able to find a few smaller stones of that type along the river bed. The only rock big enough to make an axe head is the same type as the knife. So that’s what I spent the second evening doing – chipping away to get the wedge with the sharpened edge.”
“And the hole for the branch?” Katya said.
“Ah, now with that I was lucky. The rock I started with had a natural divot,” Vladimir explained. “Still, it took me that entire next morning to grind through and make a hole big enough for a branch to get through. My arms were so sore after that, but I needed to see it work, so – off to tree number one!”
“I remember that afternoon,” Katya smiled. “I was talking with some of the other organizers and this couple comes running up to our group, jumping up and down all excited about this guy chopping down a tree. I was so glad to discover it was you.”
“You certainly seemed happy when you found me,” Vladimir said. “I wasn’t expecting a hug from a Captain.”
“I was relieved,” Katya explained. “I thought you were sulking those first few days and were planning to go out on your own – – or worse.”
“Worse?” Vladimir wondered, looking up at Katya.
Katya wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Yes. That perhaps you would give up entirely and, you know, kill yourself.”
Vladimir paused.
“No, that won’t happen,” he finally said. “I’m too in love with being alive.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Katya responded.
“Besides, who would – what is her name? – who would Dasha have to warm up if I wasn’t here,” Vladimir continued.
Katya gave a weak smile.
“When will you start on your cabin?” she asked.
“After we have the first common house frame enclosed and roofed,” Vladimir answered. “Or in three weeks, whichever comes first.”
“Why so long?” asked Katya.
“I don’t want competition for the house, nor do I want people to think I’m not willing to help,” Vladimir said. “I’m a better builder than a hunter, so I’ll do my part by putting a roof over someone else’s head if they’ll give me food to put in my mouth.”
“From each according to his ability. To each according to his needs,” Katya said.
“I’ve not heard that in quite some time,” Vladimir noted.
“I enjoyed history lessons,” Katya said.
“So what then, after the cabin is finished?” she asked.
“I don’t expect the building will end for a long time,” Vladimir said. “I’m hoping people will like my cabin enough that they’ll ask me to build one for them, as I also imagine many people will tire of communal life.”
“But if they do,” he continued, “I’ll move onto tool making. At some point, we’ll need to find some metal. I don’t intend to remain in the Stone Age for very long. That is my goal, at least. Everyone should have a goal. I’m hoping the shelters, the kitchen, and then the other buildings give people a purpose for some time.”
“Not everyone came here with the intention of working all day, every day, my friend,” Katya commented. “That is a habit very few people have these days. And there aren’t very many that would enjoy that regimen.”
“You mean there aren’t many military people here?” Vladimir said.
“Precisely,” Katya agreed.
“But there are people that are interested in surviving,” Vladimir noted. “And I think they’ll see the wisdom of good shelter and supporting infrastructure.”
“How do you plan on convincing them?” Katya asked.
“Winter,” Vladimir responded. “One good discussion about a recent cold winter should do it.”
Katya looked at him. “How do you know there is winter here?” she asked.
With just the slightest pause, Vladimir asked in return, “How do you know there isn’t? Everything else seems similar to Earth. The sun isn’t directly overhead in the middle of the day, so there must be some angle to the axis of this planet. I’d rather have a structure to huddle in when the weather gets bad. And I’m guessing enough others will feel the same way after a few conversations.”
“Well, I certainly hope you are right, Vladimir,” Katya said. “People certainly seem excited about building now. It would be good for them to have our village as a common goal, since I’m concerned we will be competing instead of cooperating before too long.”
“And that’s where we need to keep people focused and use our own organizational skills,” Vladimir said. “If for no other reason than to help us with that, I hope Captain, I mean Svetlana will appear soon. Even a spy can learn a thing or two about organization in military school.”
A snapping sound, followed by a thud and finally “Der’mo!” got the attention of both Katya and Vladimir, who both quickly stood up.
A woman appeared from the dark, brushing off some dirt from her blouse and slacks.
Katya turned to Vladimir. “Thank you for the conversation, my friend. I see you have another visitor.”
The woman stopped and glared at Katya.
“Don’t worry, Dasha,” Katya said as she began walking out of the mini-camp site. “I’m only here for the conversation. Besides, if you are here, I should get back to my own shelter, since the rain must be on the way.”
And, as if on command, a roll of thunder could be heard in the distance.