MAYFLOWER

CHAPTER FIVE

He steadied himself. The only way to stop her badgering was with a straight shot. He pinched the trigger, like Anya had shown, and tightened his face. He had twitched. The shot was well wide of the red mark which was raw from Anya's hits.

"It is your closest yet," she said. It was not a compliment.

He pulled the bolt and moved to load another bullet into the rifle.

"Let's break. There is not that much ammunition."

They sat atop the rampart looking over the ocean, and drank from waterskins.

"What did you do?" Anya asked.

"Huh?"

"To be a scout. I have met enough scouts, and I know how the settlements work. I know that people are made scouts as punishment for some wrongdoing ... and you have the cane marks on your back." He looked over his shoulder. His back was covered but he had worn a singlet in their wrestling.

"I didn't do anything – it was not my fault."

"As says everybody that has ..."

There was a routine to follow. She had promised him that he would be retrained and ready to be returned to settlements within old-Earth days. It was wrestling first after he was woken. Too little sleep. Bruises that followed. Gruel for the first meal. Tough exercises afterwards. Lifting weights and push-ups, and then stretching every part of his body until it hurt. The ramparts of the castle became a running track. When he was too exhausted to keep running, they stopped for lunch. She taught him how to cook a meal. Quick to berate if he lost attention. The water around the island had not been enough of a barrier to keep rabbits off. Thus, it was rabbits skinned and boiled into a stew with vegetables grown on the island, from a fenced area – to keep the rabbits away. "You must learn to eat well. Quickly. And from the land. This is a planet of rabbits so it will be more times than not a rabbit that will fill your belly. Alas, there will come a time when for some emergency you will have no fire. You must eat one raw at some time." She held up the stringy, bleeding flesh of the rabbit. He shook his head and reached for another carrot to peel. Anya had a comment for this too. "We are fortunate with vegetables. They grow quickly on this planet without a nighttime." Afterwards it was weapons. Sword play, dagger use, pistol firing and reloading, and target shooting with the rifle when he was at his most exhausted.

They rested and talked in the great hall. He watched the dog shred a stick. Not sure where it had got the stick from. He had not seen any trees on the island. "It must be time for me to return. I have done enough."

"Not nearly enough. More time is needed. Do you think you could fight off a dozen Nooks yet?"

He did not answer. He thought to speak of something else. The coat of arms of the Holy Order of the High Frontier loomed over them. "Why was the Order on the planet? I thought it was peacefully settled."

"Ha, things are quickly forgotten." She studied Gideon. "Or not taught at all. There were many battles on this planet. It was not peaceful. The Govporation had sold this planet to others that were hostile and had fighters."

"How, and who were they?"

"How? The Govporations are always duplicitous, and the conduct for the sale of this planet was nothing different. The same planet that the Christians bought was also sold to others. Not Christians."

"Atheists?"

"No. They had beliefs. Pagans. Witches and warlocks, you could call them."