Out of the Fire

Part 16 - War

The meeting continued with Sally reporting on behalf of the farmers and a soft spoken Ian Walski, one time Chief Civil Engineer for Mike Axell, now head maintenance engineer and spokesman for the industrial sector reported for the tradespeople. The common theme was that the general population now didn't think that there was a real threat and just wanted life to get back to normal. Mary was left wishing that General Stuart was still with them, he had had the political skills to navigate this sort of situation that she didn't. She addressed the meeting, thanking them for their reports and for their people's efforts. She promised to review the latest recon data and would be releasing another threat assessment later in the day.

"We seem to be as ready as we can be, I will hopefully be able to ease up on the restrictions in the next couple of days if the situation stays the same. But I have taken on board your concerns and you can let your people know that the emergency drills will be reduced from now on, and I won't pull a drill at night or during meal times," Mary conceded. "I suppose we had better let Chef have his Mess Hall back, thanks again."

Mary, Kai and Jill left the hall after a brief chat to Jean and Brian. On the way back to HQ Mary asked, "What do you think, do they have a point? I mean we haven't seen any evidence of a direct threat to us and there hasn't been any more attacks in the Clan territories, have I overreacted?"

Jill said, "Sally thinks we have gone too far, but Kai and I aren't so sure. Sally reckons that is because we're military and are programmed to think in terms of threats. I'm not so sure though, Charlie's evidence seemed pretty convincing."

Kai responded, "Well I think we have done the right thing and what we have achieved in the last week is amazing. The civvies will complain we are going too far, right up until the shit hits the fan then they will start complaining that we haven't done enough. We can't ever win that argument, we just have to manage it. Maybe easing some of the restrictions on going outside the wire and not making them carry weapons everywhere inside the wire might help for a while."

"Hmm, maybe you are right," mused Mary, "Jill, add Kai's ideas to tomorrows briefing, maybe that will settle things for a while." At HQ, Mary was briefed on the latest drone recon, there is no sign of activity as far out as Trader Town and no camp fire smoke anywhere in the forests between Sierra Two and Trader Town nor to the West either.

"The drone would need thermal detectors to be sure there is no-one under the trees, but with what we have, we can't identify any immediate threat. Also, the sentry on the watch tower above us has installed the motion detector half a mile back down the ridge to cover any approach from the West," reported the duty NCO.

"Ok, keep me up to date, the natives are getting restless, and I can't really blame them. Has everyone here had their range practice this week?" Mary asked as she backed out of the HQ, leaving Jill to deal with the answer.

Next morning at breakfast, Mary, Charlie and Little Joe joined the Axell twins, Robyn, Jill and Sally just as Sally was describing the butterflies infesting the greenhouse.

"I expect that later on, we will have a plague of grubs in the tomatoes and potatoes but I just can't bring myself to spray them. I don't know enough about butterflies to say what species they are, but remember Ruth? I bet she would have known," Sally said.

"I want to see the butterflies," Little Joe blurted out as he climbed onto his seat.

"Ah, no," answered his mother.

"Why not?" Little Joe fired back. "Aunty Sally can take me. Can't you?" he asked turning to Sally. Sally explained that the best time to see them was in the morning just after sunrise when the greenhouse starts to warm up. She was going out to the greenhouses that night as it was her shift on pest control, she offered to take Little Joe on a sleepover at the Horticulturist's office.