John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 89

As I left my office it came to me that I had just been discussing the construction of a Bar-B-Que pit with an intelligent machine that was easily thousands of times more advanced than anything my home planet had ever produced. It humbled me a minute and made me reconsider my treatment of Argent.

Argent had found me very near the end of my life and had changed that outcome. With later revelations he let me know that I would have been dead even sooner than I had expected if not for his intervention. Had I treated him badly? Maybe I had but in a way I was doing exactly what he'd asked me to do. I was conducting my life for my own benefit and I was manipulating every thing that I could in my own self-interest. I was doing what I thought best for me and mine and that was exactly what he had asked me to do.

Even though I'm sure he never expected to find himself in this position I think that he should have. The way I saw things Argent was my employer. He "hired" me to do something for him and as far as I was concerned I was doing it to the best of my ability. His instructions had been mostly nebulous and I had been given wide leeway for my actions. This wasn't my fault; it was his and I felt like I'd been doing exactly as he'd asked.

Suddenly he had been called away for some type of consultation that was about me but didn't involve me. No one asked for my input and when the word got back to me no complaint about my performance was made. What they wanted to do was alter my compensation package to my detriment without cause or at least without any cause that they wanted to share. No self-respecting employee I knew about would have put up with that kind of crap.

Who would go for their boss telling them that they were doing a find job and by the way we're cutting your pay by thirty percent. Especially if no reason was given and if the employer wasn't being burdened by the current pay scale. Even if I hadn't known he was from a different planet from the get go his recent actions would have let me know it. No employer on earth could have hoped to pull off that kind of stunt without getting a lot of resistance. Most of them wouldn't even consider trying something like that unless they wanted the employee to quit.

I'd been lucky enough to be able to turn the tables on Argent or on whomever it was that wanted to make these changes. I had fired my boss. Hell it's a good trick if you can pull it off and I'd not only been able to fire him, I'd locked him out.

I hoped that things would settle down some when Argent had served his time without me. I would feel a lot better if he was still in the picture and I could live with the situation if he didn't want to give me anything else. I could even live without the video and audio feeds and with less training service from Phil, Frank and Ralph. I wasn't going to let him get away with a bunch of arbitrary "take backs" that involved the people of my camp though. I couldn't even begin to estimate what kind of damage such things would do to my position on the ground.

I'm sure that Argent's proposed "earthquake" would start a near panic among my followers. They had built me up in their minds as someone who was favored by the spirits and a calamity like Argent wanted would tell them right away that I had pissed those spirits off, big time. Logic didn't play a large part in how my people thought of their world. Superstition was the operative word for the way they looked at their world and a natural disaster wouldn't seem natural to them. They would want to know why it had happened and teaching them about tectonic action was not on the program.

They would immediately wonder what I had done to make the spirits angry and if they didn't have a good reason they were more than capable of making one up. Adding to the trouble would be the fact that once again they would be living across the river using bison shit for heat and for cooking while I was still living in luxury in a cave that stayed warm by itself and that had a large wonderful kitchen that made my life and my mate's lives easy. The fact that they had once enjoyed the same type of life would not make the bitter pill easier to swallow either.

If I let Argent do, as he wanted I might as well get ready for new and regular death threats. The last one had come about while things were getting better almost daily. I might hope for a contented population if the rush of new things slowed down or stopped but if their lives went to shit on them I was sure that I could count on more men deciding that they could do a lot better job of keeping the spirits happy if only they could think of a way to have me dead. That didn't seem like it would be any fun to me.

No matter how Argent complained or what he said to try and convince me I wasn't going to stand for any of what he'd come back asking to do if there was any way to prevent it. He had gone along with and even suggested most of the things that we had now and damned if I was going to let him take them back.

For a few minutes I worried about what he might do and about what Frank, Ralph and Phil might do to stop him but it was pointless. I had only a minor understanding of what any of them were capable of and I didn't have enough information to make even a reasonable guess about what might go on. All I could do was wait and see what happened and there was no point in worrying about it. After all if the hands got into an argument what could the mouse expect to do about it?

This mouse had done what he could for now and I guessed that the best thing for me was to try and put it aside for a while. It wouldn't be too long until supper was ready and since Georgo and Dotallto were sitting at the table with coffee in hand I joined them.

"The mammoth demonstration was amazing John. I can hardly believe that they have all been trained so well in such a short time," Dotallto said.

"They are much easier to train than the horses were. It seems to me that they are a lot smarter."

"I would have never thought about something like that. Who would consider one beast to be smarter than another?" Georgo asked.

"Any hunter can tell you that some animals are smarter than others. Most of the women that have had meat stolen by a hyena will probably tell you that they are a lot smarter than they look too."

"I'm sure you're right but I hadn't thought of it before," Georgo said.

"I'm hoping to get smarter tomorrow when you show another new way of cooking," Dotallto said.

"I am too, I don't know much about cooking but new things always interest me," Georgo added.

"I'm sure that you will both like the results if not the process. It is a way of cooking meat slowly that doesn't require digging pits. Once you get it going you can pretty much leave it alone like you would meat in a pit but you don't have to wait for such a big fire to burn down before you start the cooking."

"It sounds interesting. Do you have to wait until tomorrow to show it?" Dotallto asked.

"Yes. I'm waiting on some new gifts."

"Does that mean that the spirits have returned?" Georgo asked, excited now.

"They have returned and are here now."

"I didn't want to mention it but I thought I could sense them this morning even though I don't sense them now," Dotallto said.

"I also thought that I could sense them this morning. It seems that I'm in much closer contact with them in this camp than I have ever been before," Georgo said.

"I'm sure that you must be Georgo. After all they have practically made this whole camp for our comfort and security. It is only right that you should feel closer to them here."

"You are right of course and it gives me a good feeling to think that they give us so much attention. I'm sure that it is because you are here John, they seem intent on making things good where ever you are," Dotallto said.

"Well they have so far but what would you think if things started going bad for us?"

They were quiet for a few moments and I let them be though I could see my answers as clearly on their faces as if they had spoken them. I decided to try making them tell me what was on their mind.

"Come on, tell me what you would think if there were another earthquake that destroyed a large part of our camp."

"I hate to say it John but the first thing I would think was that you had angered them somehow. I hope it will never come about but I don't see any other explanation. You have told us many times that you don't think that the spirits are catering to you but you have to admit that nothing like we have has ever been here before. It must have something to do with you," Georgo said.

"I agree John and even though I hope that you never anger the spirits, any large calamity such as the one you mentioned would almost certainly be a sign of disfavor from them. Who else would have the power to do such a thing?" Dotallto asked.

"I don't foresee any such thing happening but I did wonder about what people would think if it did. I don't know what brought it to my mind and I too hope that it isn't about to happen. I can't really think that it would since the spirits have returned and will be giving us some new gifts tomorrow."

"I'm glad that you feel that way John and I also didn't sense any displeasure from the spirits. Before you came I never thought I would be happy staying in only one camp for most of the time but this camp has changed all of that. I'll admit that I like it here and I plan on spending as much time here as I can. I am also very happy with the buckboard that will let me travel farther and yet come back sooner," Georgo said.

"I feel almost exactly like Georgo does on this matter. I am very happy to have a permanent place to live and I am also happy for the horses and the buckboard," Dotallto echoed.

"Well I'm sure that I haven't offended the spirits yet and I don't plan on doing it anytime soon. I'm sure that it must have been a stray thought that got me wondering."

They were quiet again and I knew that they were thinking about what we'd discussed. I was thinking about it too and it only served to make plain what I had thought all along. The gifts from Argent, which we had always passed off as the work of the spirits were directly tied to me by everyone else and if Argent tried repossessing them my name would move to the top of all shit list anywhere around here. I wondered if he had even considered that prospect; probably not.

My other helpers and their mates started drifting in just then. The men sat at the table and most of the women headed toward the kitchen to join my mates. I happened to notice that Reeana and Jareena looked just a little heavier than I seemed to remember. Looking more closely I thought that Daleana might be showing the beginnings of a swelling in her abdomen and even Britta seemed to look healthier somehow. I wondered if this meant that I had been spreading the wealth farther than I thought. If they were really pregnant I knew that I had been. It didn't hurt my feelings one bit.

Thankfully Dotallto and Georgo didn't mention our earlier conversation to anyone else and Daaggo was quick to start explaining about the picnic tables that he and his men were building. He told everyone about them and he said that they had made time to build one so far. Everyone wanted to go see it after supper and Daaggo looked to me seeming to wait for my approval.

"The sawmill is your responsibility now Daaggo and if you want to show everyone what you're working on I think it's a wonderful idea but you don't need my permission. If you are going to give us a tour after supper I'll be one of the first in line since I want to see what you've come up with myself."

After supper was over most of us did go with Daaggo to check out the picnic table. When we entered the sawmill cave he led us directly to the example but he warned everyone to be careful touching it.

"It has not been sanded yet and there will probably be a lot of places where you might get splinters," he said.

"What is sanding?" Raalto asked.

Daaggo picked up a piece of sandpaper from one of the boxes that were stacked around near a new collection of hand tools. He held it out to Raalto.

"Feel it."

"It does feel like sand but what is paper?" Raalto asked.

"I'm not sure but I think paper is what the sand is on. Somehow it stays there and when you rub this on the wood it makes it smoother and takes the splinters away. Feel this board," he said as he handed Raalto a piece of scrap that had obviously been sanded.

"It is very smooth, this must have taken hours," Raalto said.

"It only took a few minutes with the sandpaper. We could hardly believe how fast the work went with it," Daaggo said.

"But where did you get it?" Barago asked.

"It was just here when we came back after the mammoth's show. I believe the spirits put it here for us," Daaggo said.

"It is a wonderful gift if they did. It will save hours on any type of woodwork. We hardly had time to start using it on this table but the little we were able to do went very fast," Mundo said.

"We should be able to finish many of the picnic tables tomorrow before the celebration," Daaggo bragged.

"That will be good, tomorrow we can all have a place to sit during the feast. I want everyone to be able to enjoy the Bar-B-Que."

"What is the Bar-B-Que John?" Kateata asked me.

"The Bar-B-Que is my secret new cooking that you will not see until tomorrow my mates."

"I for one am willing to wait. Just think what a change it will be to see John cooking instead of eating with both hands," Dieta said, and when she did everyone laughed.

The impromptu meeting broke up into little groups that wanted a closer look at things. I tried to stay on the sidelines and just watch. I'd been surprised to find out that Mundo had joined the workforce in the sawmill and after watching a few minutes I saw that Buloto, Saraato, Karcoto and Deberto, the four he had first wanted to bring here from Cardiato's camp, were all in here too. It made sense after thinking about it since they all were good at working with their hands. Most of them had helped with Deimeta's rocking horse.

I was able to slip around the outskirts of the crowd and signal my mates that it was time to go home. I knew that I'd have a busy day tomorrow and I was hoping for a little business tonight too. I didn't think that it would hurt me any.

The next morning I was up before the sun; it was easier this time of year. I slipped into the shower but I'd barely gotten wet before first Jaada and then Geera joined me. I was busily getting those two wet and soapy when Dieta joined us.

"Let me check out the progress my lovelies," I said as I began sliding a soapy hand over Jaada's swelling belly.

"Jaada has the lead, I doubt that you can even tell any difference in the swelling at all on Geera and I," Dieta said.

"Oh I don't think you're that far behind, I'm pretty sure that I can feel the beginnings on both you and Geera," I told them as I gave both their bellies a groping.

"Do you really think so," Geera asked.

"Yes I think so but if I'm not mistaken Reeana and Jareena are on board too along with Daleana and Britta."

"You see Geera he is paying attention to what's happening," Dieta said.

"He always pays attention to the women Dieta, he can probably name every one that has even gained a pound since she came here. He is shameless; already he's started dipping into the unmated girls. Our bed will be larger than the whole cave before long," Geera said and then laughed at me.

I rinsed off and got out while I could but they were right behind me. We went into the bedroom to dress and all the others were getting out of bed and heading for the shower. It was confusion for a few minutes but soon enough I was sitting at the table and drinking the coffee that Dalia had brewed before she went to shower.

Geera must have known that I was up to something early this morning because she didn't waste any time getting my breakfast ready. It was in front of me and I had it down and was gone in twenty minutes. I went directly into my office from the table.

"Good morning John," Ralph said as I entered.

"Good morning to you Ralph. I see that you have been busy since I left you," I told him as I looked over the cooker that was now in my office.

"See if that will serve your needs," he said.

It would more than serve. As I had mentioned it had been made from thirty-inch pipe and it seemed like it was of stainless steel. It looked a lot like the picture that Ralph had dredged up for me but the firebox was much better than the one I'd seen. Looking more closely at the box I saw that it seemed to have some type of automatic mechanism for controlling the air intake.

"Did you make some type of thermostat for the firebox?"

"Yes, we were finished with the other parts quickly and so we spent a little time on it. The biggest problem was deciding how much clearance to allow for deformation in the adjustment door's track after the heat builds up. We also anticipated trouble from ashes that might migrate to clog the track and so the bottom one has slots cut out of it so that they can fall through," he explained.

"Well the real test will be when the fires get going but it looks perfectly usable to me," I said as I raised the door to look at the inside.

They had done a good job in here too and there was a nice expanded metal grating for the meat to be put on. I did notice one omission though.

"We'll need a dial type thermometer on the door somewhere," I said.

"The automatic damper should keep the heat fairly constant John," he said.

"I'm sure that it will but we will want the thermometer to make it seem like we are doing something useful while we are standing around drinking beer and now that I think of it you should put something on the end away from the firebox to keep the beans warm in."

"We didn't realize that beans were to be cooked on it too," he said.

"I forgot to mention it and we won't really be cooking them there, we will just need to keep them warm there."

"What do you suggest, I'm afraid that we don't know what is needed," he admitted.

"Just fashion something that will hold one of the larger bean pots that my mates already have and make sure that there is enough contact so that heat is transferred to the pots. You might as well go ahead and make bean pots with a slightly different size specifically for these cookers. That way no one will be tempted to use them for anything else and they will always be with the cookers."

"I see; that won't pose any problems. Is everything else satisfactory?" he asked.

"More than that, this is probably the best slow cooker I've ever seen. Can you estimate how many we will need to cook enough meat for everyone?"

"We think eight will be plenty to cook for those in your camp," he told me.

"Good. How soon can they be ready?"

"We will put them in the celebration cave within the hour," he said.

"That's great. It will give me plenty of time to get some hickory split and get the fires going."

"We have taken the liberty of getting the hickory wood prepared. We will put some near each cooker when we place them," he said.

"Excellent. Thank you for this."

I left the office and went back to the table to drink more coffee. A few people had already come in for breakfast and we talked about today's plans for a while. Daaggo came in a few minutes later and I could see that he was anxious to eat and get over so that he could get back to work on the tables. It would be a busy day but there was nothing wrong with that. I was hoping that tonight's celebration would help me forget the last one that we'd had. I also hoped that it would keep me from thinking about the upcoming argument that I was sure I'd soon be having with Argent.

When Daaggo left for the sawmill I went with him. When we were inside he showed me that a few extra saws had been provided for them. There was a big industrial strength table saw and two really nice radial arm saws along with four electric miter type saws. We didn't have any need that I could foresee for cutting miters but this type of saw was also excellent for cutting 2x4s and 2x6s to length and I assumed that they had been put there for exactly that reason.

I soon saw that I was right when Mundo came in and began cutting up pieces for the tables with one of them. I was surprised again when I saw that he was using a tape rule and a carpenter's pencil to mark the lengths. I had to ask and when I did he told me that Ralph had told them where to find them and explained all about their use to him before he'd cut up the parts for the first table.

I asked him what he thought about it and he was very enthusiastic. Of course the pencil probably wasn't very hard to catch on to but the tape was probably completely foreign to him. He admitted this but said that it hadn't been that hard to learn. He said that he was sure it would be helpful for many other things too and that it saved a lot of guesswork when he could measure what length something needed to be instead of estimating and then checking to see if it fit. He also showed me a fold up pocketknife that he'd found and that Ralph had told him was for sharpening the pencil.

Ralph had made Mundo's whole week with these things and I could tell that he was tired of talking about them and wanted to get to using them. I got out of his way and let him at it.

The day was underway faster than I had expected. I could see Daaggo directing three different groups as they worked on separate tables already. They would have plenty to do though so I got out of there and headed for the horse cave.

Danlo was hitching a pair of Clydesdales to a sleigh and I wondered what he was up too.

"Racaato asked me if I'd take him down near the logging site this morning. He said that he saw a lot of sign for megaceros the other day while he was scouting the cat for you. He wants to go and see if he can get some fresh meat for the celebration," he told me.

"That's a great idea. I think I'll go ask him if I can come along. You won't mind will you?"

"Of course not and I'm sure that Racaato will be glad for you to come," he said.

I went back to my cave and nearly bumped into Racaato as he was coming out. I asked him about the hunt and he said I was welcome to come along.

"I should tell you that we don't really need the meat. I just thought it would be good to get away while so many are starting the cooking and such," he said.

"I had nearly forgotten about that. I can't go because I have to get started on the new cooking. I'll leave it to you then, be sure to tell Danlo why I couldn't come."

"I will," he said as he left.

Well shit. I had no one to blame but myself for shooting off my mouth about the cooking. It wouldn't be so bad though and I was looking forward to checking out hickory-smoked mammoth. In fact I might enjoy teaching a few cooking lessons. At first I'd intended to show the men how to do the grillwork but what did I want to do that for? The men wouldn't expect to do it and I could spend a large part of the day with most of the women in camp. Looked like that in this time and place the women were about to become the guardians of the Bar-B-Que.

When I went into the celebration cave I found that all the smokers were in place along the back wall. No one else was in here yet so I went to the closest one to look it over. I was happy to discover that Ralph and the guys had studied more than just the cookers. Near each of them was a nice metal table with wheels that would serve as a good place to prepare the meat to go on the grill.

The table was stocked with salt and pepper shakers, a large dispenser for aluminum foil, four different kinds of Bar-B-Que sauce plus tongs, long handled forks and thick cooking gloves for handling things after they were hot. Everything was ready for a good meat smoking demo. All I needed now was some meat and an audience. I went back into my cave and to the table so I could sit down and have some coffee while I waited for my mates to receive their lesson.

Gema brought me a mug of coffee and I pulled her into my lap after she set it down.

"When will we get to see this new cooking John?" she asked.

"As soon as you are all ready. Everything is ready for the demonstration except the meat to be cooked."

"We have already brought the meat in here, all we have to do is take some with us," she said.

"Good, is everybody ready?"

"Not quite but we will be in a few minutes," she said, then got up and went back to the kitchen to tell the others.

By the time my coffee was finished they were ready to go so I got up and we went to the celebration cave. I had the full crew with me today including Failiela, Jalieta and even Deimeta.

"Are you ready to start cooking lessons Deimeta?"

"I'm not so interested in the lessons as I am in seeing you cook. A man cooking will be a first for me and I'm not sure that you will be able to do a good job. I guess I'm coming along to make sure that the food is fit to eat after you're done with it," she said and then laughed a little.

"You can't fool me, you're with us hoping to get the first taste."

"That isn't such a bad idea, I hope. We'll see how you do," she said.

"I'll do fine, wait and see."

They set the meat down on the table at the first cooker and then examined the setup. There were plenty of questions before we could get started and I did my best to explain everything to them. Finally I got a chance to build a fire in the firebox.

"Why does the fire go down there when the meat will be up here?" Shelalliea asked.

"The heat and the smoke rise through this hole at the top of the firebox and into the cooker. Look inside it and you'll see that there is a metal plate under the cooking area so that the heat only cooks indirectly. The wood we are using is hickory and its smoke adds flavor to the meat. The cooking is done slowly so that the meat will be tender but it doesn't take as long as the fire pits do."

"How can the smoke make flavor in the meat?" Dalia asked.

"I don't know how it does, I just know that it does. You will see when we have some cooked."

I started a small fire in the box and it didn't take long for it to get bigger. After I had it going I put a lot more wood on and then went to the table to work on the meat.

After unrolling some foil I placed the first big piece of mammoth on and began shaking out salt and pepper. They didn't have any questions about this part but when I began slathering on the sauce there were plenty.

"It is something else that flavors the meat. Just watch how I do it."

Things were quiet for a few more minutes until I began wrapping the meat completely with the foil.

"Why are you wrapping the meat up in that and what is it?" Delia asked.

"This is foil. It helps keep the meat from drying out and it keeps the smoke from flavoring it too much."

"I don't understand. You want the smoke to flavor the meat but then you wrap it up so that it won't?" Roweea asked.

"No matter how much you wrap the meat the smoke can still find a way in. If you don't wrap it at all, after hours of cooking the hickory flavor will be too strong and it might even upset your stomach if you eat it. You can get too much of a good thing."

We did some bison next and then some aurochs. By the time I had the meat ready the cooker was hot and so I put it in and closed the lid. I showed them the thermometer and gave them a lesson on reading it. If Ralph's thermostat worked correctly all they had to do was make sure that it wasn't getting to cool from running low on wood.

"What do you do next?" Ameliea asked.

"Next is the next cooker, we are finished here."

"Will we need to watch over it?" Maia asked.

"Not really, in a few hours we will come back, open the foil and see how it is doing but that is all. By the time the celebration starts we will have plenty of Bar-B-Que for everyone. When we get all the cookers going we can start filling up the bean pots."