Jake Morrison's Arc

Chapter 49 of 54

The next morning, Frank rowed in from the cave island and climbed the lodge steps two at a time. He found Jake at the long table with Marisol, Marcus, and Sofia, maps of the shipyard spread between them. Frank had led the garrison on the caves for months now, and he never crossed the water without a reason. His boots left wet marks on the floor. "I raised a town on the radio last night," he said. "Fifteen miles from the enclave. Six hundred people, alive behind their own walls." Jake set down his pencil. "Six hundred. What do they want?" "Food," Frank said. "They can't grow enough. They asked for help with farming." He pulled out a folded paper and read from it. "Three hundred of them are construction workers, mechanics, and engineers. That's all they need help on. Food and gardening." Marcus straightened against the wall. "Three hundred hands that can weld?" "That's what they said." Sofia leaned over the table. She ran the supply and planting for both islands, and Jake watched her do the math in her head. "We have the domes and the seed stock," she said. "I can teach farming. I've been teaching it since we landed." She looked up at Jake. "I'll go. I'll get their gardens running." Jake weighed it. Emptying both settlements for the airship had left the walls thin. He had asked who guards home, and no one had answered. Now the answer walked in the door. "Count the numbers," he said. "Two hundred across our islands. Five hundred at the enclave. Add six hundred more." Marisol did it first. "Thirteen hundred people." Her dark eyes lifted from the map. "With that many, we can build the airship and still hold the walls. We can take the tyrant." "They feed themselves, we get workers," Sofia said. "Everybody wins." Jake turned to Frank. His old plan had been to close the islands and hide. That plan died the day the tyrant's boats appeared. Hiding didn't keep anyone safe. Numbers did. "Let's get them here and get them to work," he said. "Sofia sets up their farms. We fold their engineers into the shipyard crews. We can use every hand we can get." Frank nodded and folded his paper away. "I'll radio them back today. Tell them help is coming." "Do it," Jake said. Sofia was already gathering seed lists. Marcus talked welding schedules with Frank. Marisol rolled the shipyard map tighter, her mind running ahead. Jake stayed at the table a moment longer. He had come looking for guards and found an army instead. But three hundred strangers would soon walk the shipyard beside his own people. Some of them would learn who built the airship. And one of them, sooner or later, would ask where the vaccine came from.