Homestead Star installment 1 ( Stories from the Homestead)

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Thought I would offer ya'll a piece I'm working on. Its not like what Cabin did, but I have electric lights and indoor plumbing and that affects my outlook to be different than his :>) If you like it, I'll add to it here.

Homestead Star

Jeb's mind wandered back in time 1800 years to visions of his ancestor on Old Earth lining his racing mule up , waiting for the gunner to fire the cannon , signifying the start of the homesteaders race in the territorial land grab. His minds eye could see Jedidiah Monroe sitting the saddle, the pennent made by his wife indenting his palm as he sweatily gripped the reins , dreams of "his fields" lulling him as he awaited the cannons thunderous bark.

Jeb was so engrossed in his daydreaming, he had completely forgotten about the vibro - cultivator / anti-grav tiller at the command of his hands and was processing his field as a robot and never saw the gas postule swelling from the soil just in front of the fusion powered behemouth on which he was riding. Simultaniously the "V-cat" lurched to the left and the benign purple gas escaped to the manmade atmosphere of this planet, turning a menancing shade of green as it surrounded him with deadly efficiency. He clawed maniacally at the vial hanging from the ball chain about his neck to get one of the precious respirator pills inside. The vial rolled away as he slipped into unconciousness, moments away from death.

"Jedidiah ! Jedidiah, get up !!" , Jessie screamed as she ran towards him from the mutated apple orchard. She ran on relentlessly, lungs searing in the thick unnatural atmosphere of Homestead Star. As she closed the distance to the writhing "V-cat", she fumbled a precious "gold nugget" from the vial suspended around her own neck and slipped it between her teeth. She bit down on the respirator as she entered the green mist , positioning half of it beneath her tongue as the ships medical technicians had instructed. She just hoped half a respirator each would get them both to safety as she placed the remaining half under Jeb's tongue.

"Are you okay?", Jeb asked throgh bleary eyes. "A fine question from someone that just tangled with a Hemlock Postule. Be quiet and activate this respirator tablet. We need to talk when we get back to the compound shelter". Jeb bit down on the tablet she had placed between his teeth and gazed at his wife as the concentrated oxygen and antitoxins made their way to his bronchi, adding to the remnant "buzz" of the Hemlock attack. As the medications returned his strength, he wondered what his wife of fourteen years would say when they got home. Knowing how hard this new planet and the pregnancy were on her, he feared the worse.

(end of installment 1. To be continued.....maybe)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 10, 2002


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