“Captain’s log, stardate 1604.26, 0700 hours, Captain Frick recording.
“The Admiralty should have gone over the report I sent in last night, telling about the busload of kids we came across right after we moored here in Pensacola. Fran will take the forenoon shift while Frack will take the afternoon. I expect to spend much of the day at the basilica, trying to sort out this mess and figure out how to get them pointed in the right direction. Fred and Frieda spent the night there, with the wagonload of supplies. We’re going to have to find sources of resupply here somewhere. The locals should have better ideas on what’s where in this town, because I don’t have any idea. The only place I know of in Florida is Disney World, and that was back in ninety-six with Frack.
“More information tonight, Sandra. I know you’ll get the word out to those who need to hear it, and thanks for the schedule for the rest of the year you sent me this morning. It gives me a better idea on how long to plan for these ponies to be on their own before help arrives. Expect another report from me in about twelve hours. If you need to speak to me, use my personal number, not the boat number. Off to face the crowd. Frick out.” He did the save and send, then turned control over to Fran while he packed his saddlebags, along with Frack and Foster, with stuff they needed as well as what Fred asked them to bring.
“One thing for sure, we’re going to need moah coffee heah soon,” Foster observed as he finished packing his bag.
“Today, we spend time with the group, teaching them about how to be ponies, or whatever. Tomorrow, we start scavenging with a vengeance. We got a lot of mouths to feed, a lot of kids who are now alone, and not too many grown-ups to show them the right way,” Frick observed. “Bro, what’s the forecast? Rain clearing out soon?”
“Drizzle and clouds through tonight, then clearing and warming tomorrow, highs about seventy. Flying lessons tomorrow, you’re thinking?” Frack asked his brother.
“If you’re reading my mind, bro, just stick to the headlines, okay?” Frick said drily.
“That’s your job, bro! Mine’s to take wing and fly!” Frack laughed as he headed out, taking off as soon as he was able.
“Is he always like that, Frick?” Foster asked.
“No, not always. Just when he’s awake.”
Just before lunch, Frick turned the large-screen TV, the one hooked to his laptop, off. “Okay, ponies, this concludes this day’s video lesson. After lunch, we will start educational classes. I will teach the unicorns while Frieda will teach the winged ones about flying. Deacon, you and I will talk through lunch to determine where we can go to scavenge. Fred, Fran and Foster will lead a scavenge party after lunch, because we can use some more generators, gasoline, and proper food for everyone, not to mention some more computers for instructional purposes.
“I have guidebooks on the different species that I want you all to read, because not even I know everything. To those of you who are not like any of us from the Deliverance, meaning the Diamond Dogs, thestrals, hippogriffs and Ornithian, I have met some of each, and I can arrange video chats, so you can ask questions I know you will have. Any questions before lunch?”
A young pegasus held up a wing. “When can we learn how to fly?”
Frack smiled as he strutted a little in front of the group. “Tomorrow, the weather will be nicer and I won’t be on watch, so that’s when I can try to teach the winged species how to use them. If I can do it, you can do it, and if you can do it, you WILL do it!” he said with pride. “I have an unblemished record teaching ponies or griffons to fly!”
“And you have fifteen minutes before you’ll be late for watch,” Fred deadpanned.
“Right! Until later, everypony!” Frack waved a wing before heading for the door.
Frieda went up to the pegasus filly. “After lunch, I will be showing all of us with wings some things just as important as getting off the ground and back safely. Mister Frack will be better suited for the flight part, I’ll show you the rest. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me, Miz Frieda!”
As Fran and Freida started serving a rather sketchy lunch, Frick and Fred sat with John and the other three adults from the bus. “Okay, you ponies know this city, I don’t. Can any of you suggest places that we could scavenge from?” Frick asked. “As well as finding longer-term housing?”
Anne Jones, the diamond dog, spoke up first. “For housing, there’s a hotel down the street. I’m sure we can turn it into an adequate shelter.”
“No doubt, but we’re going to look into providing food and water and power to the rooms, plus dividing up the kids among us, along with Toby and Laura,” Deacon Doyle said, referring to the two senior teenagers, Tobias (Toby) Mentone, the big Abyssinian, and Laura Holder, a teen unicorn.
“With six of us, we can each take four. You, Anne, have your two children, while I have my son and Wilma has her daughter,” Karen Pitt, an earth pony mare, added to the conversation.
“I’m sure you can work that out without our input,” Fred said. “Is there a large market nearby, preferably with fuel pumps? After that, a hardware store with lumber, so we can start building you some wagons.”
“Just how did you manage to build that wagon, Mister Fred?” Wilma Gardner, a unicorn mare, asked.
“With the grace of God and a unicorn to manipulate the tools, it was rather easy,” Frick said. “Later on, I will show you how I managed to learn. Just remember, with magic, don’t worry much about HOW you are managing the feat, just accept that you ARE, and you will not have much trouble. Just have faith, and it will work.”
“I look forward to demonstrations,” Wilma said, a touch sourly.
“In answer to your question, Fred, there is a Wal-Mart about four miles away, on Navy Boulevard,” John said, followed by “there’s another one about the same distance on Mobile Highway, with a Home Depot across the street. How does that sound?”
“That sounds like the best idea, John,” Fred said. “We can check out one while raiding the other. You know the kids better than me, so pick me out half a dozen who you think will be the best at breaking and entering.”
“First off, Toby Mentone. He was an offensive lineman playing football, and it looks like he can still power through a lot,” John said, before naming the other Abyssinian boy and Stan Jones, the diamond dog boy. “Something tells me having hands is one of the more important criteria.”
“Good point,” Frick said. He then looked at the earth pony at the table, Karen Pitt. “Miss Karen, I would suggest you go along as well, to learn from Fred just what an earth pony can do.”
“Judging by your build, Missus Pitt, I would reckon your strength to be not too far from mine. Stamina, too. I can pull that wagon with a full load all day and half the night. Think you can?” Fred challenged gently. “Plus, a four-mile walk is hardly anything."
“Sexton Fred, I accept your challenge. I’ve always liked the outdoors, and I can do with a hike. Willie stays here, though. I want him to get unicorn training,” Karen said.
“With any luck, by the time you get back, I’ll have all the unicorns at the very least lighting their horns. Telekinesis rudiments, too. Spellcasting will be a few days down the road,” Frick replied with a smile.
“Sexton Fred mentioned that,” John spoke up. “Just what do you mean by spellcasting?”
Frick thought for a few seconds before responding. “As close as I can figure, it’s a matter of imposing your will on your surroundings to produce a desired effect. If you can picture the outcome clearly, or visualize the steps like a computer program, the spellcasting should work. I, myself, am pretty much self-trained. I have some books that go into the subject, and I have learned a few minor spells. I can’t teleport, but I can pick a lock. I can pick up and assemble the wagon in five minutes, and disassemble it in three. That’s just a taste of what trained unicorns can do.”
“Willie could do stuff like that?” Karen exclaimed, incredulous.
“He COULD, Missus Pitt. Only way to find out is to try, right?”
That evening, after the scavenger hunt, all the adults gathered in a separate room, with a big LED lantern lighting up the place. “That theah store is a treasure trove!” Foster said happily. “Sure, it done smelled like a swamp in August, but from what we found theah, AND at the Home Depot, we can set these folk up raht proper until we can get back heah to evacuate them!”
“Speaking of the evacuation, when can we expect definitive word of that?” John asked.
“Okay, that phone call I got earlier? That was the captain of the ship that will come by here, the Rhine Forest. She expects to be in this area somewhere around the end of summer. Right now, it’s far too early to give a definite date,” Frick explained before some coffee. “That’s one reason why it is of top importance to get you plugged into the communications network ASAP, so you and he can talk more about your requirements. The Rhine Forest is easily large enough for everyone, and the main decision you four here at this table will have to make is, where do you want to resettle?”
“What options are there?” asked Wilma, the unicorn.
“You have three, all with sizable populations, by which I mean a couple of hundred. First and closest choice is Havana, Cuba. Nice place, good people, but primarily Spanish speaking. Next choice is Belfast, Ireland.”
Fred spoke up there. “It’s the smallest of the colonies, but they do speak English there, and they do have a minister. I don’t remember if he is Anglican or Catholic.”
“The third choice, where we have been heading to since Christmastime, is their main base, in the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam. Apparently, it was a major merchant shipping hub,” Frick told them. “Biggest population and biggest need for trained professionals. I’m a radio engineer, Frack is a skilled mechanic, Frieda a librarian, Fred a skilled handyman, and Fran is a skilled I.T. tech.”
Karen was the first to pounce on the omission. “What about you, Sheriff Foster? What’s your skill?”
Foster chuckled a little. “Othah than bein’ a lawman fo’ thirty-plus yeahs an’ a sheriff fo’ twenty? Ah’m the chosen ambassador from the court of Queen Marie Laveau to the World Seafarer’s Union, fo’ the purpose of negotiation’ shipping rights up the Mississippi River to the inland areas of the United States, Miz Karen. It’s a job lakh any othah, a job to be carried out with the utmost honor and dignity.” he said apparently casually, but the seriousness of intent behind the words were quite clear.
“Marie Laveau? As in that old song?” Anne asked, incredulous.
“The lady was no myth, but a lot of legends built around her. Apparently, a soul came back that chose to base itself around her patterns, and has pretty much claimed eastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi for herself, for reasons not clear to us,” Frick explained.
“She is just, she is honorable, and we have dealt fairly with her. Now, the demon in Memphis who had an infatuation with Elvis Presley, that’s a story for later. HE did not play honorably. Queen Marie did. I have no problem working with her, and neither should any of you,” Fred declared with all the solemnity of a preacher from the pulpit reading a papal bull.
“You really mean it, Sexton. I can feel that,” John said from his place at the table.
“You should. It’s all true.” Fred replied.
Frick got up from the table. “Time for us to get back to the Deliverance for some rest. Foster, would you like to do the night here, telling stories to the folk?”
“It would be an honor, Captain. What time should I relieve the watch?” Foster asked.
“Between noon and one. Frieda will take the first watch tomorrow. Starting the next day, we’ll resume normal watch rotation. I’m going to have to do a lot of skull sweating, to figure out plans for getting this group up to speed,” Frick said before shrugging. “Not like we have not done this before.”
“Where at before, Captain?” John asked.
“Kansas City, Saint Louis and Memphis. We spent anywhere from two to five weeks in each city, helping the local group achieve some sort of comfort. It’s God’s work we do, and take pride in doing so,” Frick declared, not with a little pride.
Fred grumbled, “Don’t steal my thunder, Frick. I’m the sky pilot, you’re the boat pilot.”
“Right, Fred. Ladies, deacon, until tomorrow morning. We will all need a good rest, for tomorrow serious work and classes begin,” Frick said, stretching a little.
“Can I ask you to bring a bottle of aspirin tomorrow, Captain?” Wilma Gardner, the unicorn mare requested. “I’m sure I’m going to have a hornache tomorrow!”
“We’ll bring a big bottle,” Fred said as he stood and stretched as well. “The winged ones are going to need it, too! Frack is a demanding teacher, but he does get results!”