Strange Happenin's

The wind blowin' 'cross town died down some while I moved the planter pots up to the small green house. Seems the Shepard wanted to grow some plants up by the church. I could see Lily workin' inside puttin' pottin' soil into the tiered plantin' areas. "Things been sorta unreal for the last couple of weeks. Seeems we been gettin' a few folks come in to do repairs on their ships. Others comin' to find work. Then there was that merc group what come in. They were lookin' for certain folk to 'take out'. What was so unreal 'bout it was, they said Brooke'd hired em to do the work. Didn't sound like what she'd do. Detla, the feller Brooke and I talked to that one time a while ago, Was headin' the ops." I let Lily know the pots were just outside and went to get the fertilizer sacks.

"he and I talked a bit on it. But somethin' just didn't sound right. he had this list of names on it. Hell, Nack was on that list. Delta said they were all 'laince and needed to be taken down." Had to chuckle to myself at how gorram stupid it was back then. "After he and his team went back to their 'hole in the ground' I decided to warm the mayor. Felt Seana aughta know 'bout who was steppin' heavy here. She agreed with me on the strange part. She said to let Brooke know she best call of her mercs. It wasn't hard to convince her Brooke wasn't involved. Hell. I was workin' for Brooke. If anythin' I'd be in on the whole thing. The Mayor wanted to get answers and went to find Delta and his gang. While she did that, I waved Brooke." I pulled two sacks off the mule and walked em up the incline to the little round greenhouse.

Settin' em down, I asked Lily if she needed more sacks. She nodded, sayin' 'It need two more sacks.'
"Brooke got back to me pretty quick. She was pretty worked up over the whole merc thing. She never hired em. In fact they were just usin' her name to do their own dirty work. Soon as I got the news I showed Seana the response. You know? I ain't seen the Mayor get that sorta glint in her eye in a long time. She found Delta and gave him the rundown of what all and what wasn't goin' down on Hale's Moon. Wasn't long b'fore they pulled stakes and left." Noddin', I went back to the mule for two more of the fertilizer sacks. Yeah thins were sorta strange of late.... more'n a lot of folks knew.

Grabbed two more sacks and went back up the incline, "Then there was AuroraBlue. She'd come back and was down in the mines. She stayed hid. Not sure why at first til I saw the scrawled note in chalk on the wall. She made sure I'd see it with a big drawin' of a flower. The note said, 'Please- books, paper and pens, big clothes. Love AuroraBlue'. Found the chalk and wrote a simple note back. 'Will do. Love Cody.' Took me all day to find some basic books. The paper and such was easier. Plenty int he office she could have. There were colored pencils and pens at the general store I bought. The clothes, I had to ask Lily and Seana for. No sense in lettin' a lot of folks know she was here." Two more sacks. Lily came out and purred at em. She looked at me how she always does and sort of purgled.... She asked me to grab a couple of tools at move the soil round while she mixed the fertilizer.

"That'd be the first of a bunch of books and such to the mines. I'd set the box of stuff down there by the scrawled note and move back. I'd listen to the sounds from below and knew when she come up. Strange how I just knew she was right there. I knew her footsteps, her scent. She knew I was there and wrote a note on a piece of paper for me. Pretty much it read, when she was done with the books she'd put em back in the box and could I swap em out for new ones. It what I been doin' for weeks. Spent a lot of time down there. Sometimes, I'd go down and just talk to her in the dark. She always kept herself hid. Somethin' I talked to Lily on. Then last week she asked if I'd seen her. AuroraBlue'd grown. Thing is she didn't want me to see her growin. Maybe she was scared I might not be happy with it... Or maybe she wanted to surprise me when she was grown." Grabbed up the shovel and waited for Lily to dump the stuff onto the soil. She did and I moved and turned the ground.

"Somethin' else strange happened..... Crop circles.... Not like in a field or nothin'.... but some weird circle design on the landing tarmac. Radioactive and smelled of chemicals. Not sure who did it, but there were pics and the real deal layin' there for folks to see. But no one believes in little green men from the black. No one ever saw any. Not even when the original folks come out here to the verse. G was investgatin' it. Then one day it burned and left a melted negative in the rock. Still don't know how or who put it there." Stopped for a mo to wipe the sweat off my forehead. Lily looked at the shovel waitin' for me to get back to work. Soon as the shovel moved she was back to dumpin' more fertilizer.

"Another strange thing...... We had corn growin' out near the edge of town. The ground was the same.... But for corn to grow? Stranger still. You could see the green shoots. But who planted em? And how were they growin' in Hale's dry clay ground. Who knows.. maybe we'll end up with a cold spell and snow... Whoa.. Better not think that... We got enough weird go'se goin' on. Oh and the big foot sightin'. Folks playin' 'round in a fur suit." Started chucklin' to myself. Lily looked up at me wonderin' what all I was laughin' at. I told her 'bout the big foot stuff. She asked a couple of funny questions. You know when she asks em, it makes the whole sightin' sound hilarious."

We got back to work with gettin' the ground ready for whatever the Shepard was goin' to plant. "A couple day back AuroraBlue finally came out of the mine. She was a might pale from stayin' down there so long. But she was taller, filled out some.... and as pretty as could be. I think I was just standin' there gawpin' as she showed me her new knives. She made em herself. That much I could see. but she did a good job at honin' em. Then she stepped real close.... I just looked into her eyes and stood real still. Didn't want to lose the moment. It felt like an electric current b'tween us. Gravity stabilized again, then she jogged off. I wasn't goin' to chase her. Not my place to be tellin' her to stay put. She wanted to explore." Lily was starin' at me again, then she tapped the shovel with a claw to get my attention. Sort of embarrassin'.... Mind wanderin' off like that.

"Bram's been busy with a little somethin'. Been workin' on a bar. Guess he's not goin' to pilot much anymore. Seems the place is down on a lower level of Fooks basement. Not sure a bar like that'll get good visitors... More like the folks what like the shadows. Some feller showed up claimin' to be business man. Shadey sort by how he moves and acts in my own opinion. And then theres been the number of off duty soldiers comin' down now. Gorram 'laince lookin' down their noses at us. Had to hold my temper when one of em went off on their self righteous unity go'se. Just another thing to talk to Seana on. No folks aughta get that thrown at em. A good number of folk here got good schoolin' and are hard workin' people. Gorram soldiers with silver spoons givin' us go'se for it. Was all I could do to keep from sluggin' this feller... or shootin' him.

Lily and I were pretty much done with the soil. She needed to get the water feeds hooked up and the greenhouse'd be ready for use. My work was to get the rest of the little courtyard cleaned up. "Just the other day, AuroraBlue took a shuttle and reprogrammed it. She was hijackin' it.... Lily said somethin' 'bout Krenshar.... AuroraBlue was goin' back to Krenshar. Not sure what she's goin' to do there, but it must be imortant. She didn't say goodbye, didn't wave. She'd be back. When? Not sure. When she does, I'll be waitin'. it's a gravity thing. Nothin' strange 'bout that.