She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 15

Jake was assigned to bringing food to one of the most forward refugee camps. The truck's cabin was packed with more than a dozen workers, once they got there they would have to unload the several hundred bags of rice by hand. It would be hard manual labor, but Jake didn't care. It was honest work, helping people.

The mosque that gave Mosquée de Pamélap its name was dwarfed by the refugee camp that had been established there. Heck, their truck dwarfed the mosque. Jake parked in front of it and climbed out, the rest of the crew on his heels.

A large emergency dome had been constructed behind the mosque. It was fifty feet across with four different entrances. Two entrances were open to the public and refugees lined up outside. The other two were for workers and Jake was parked in front of one of those.

Chatura used the built-in crane to lower the first pallet of rice to the ground, surrounded by a crowd of young locals, watching him with wide eyes. They've probably never seen a hanuman before.

As soon as the pallet was on the ground, he hoisted the first bag and made for the dome. He found himself behind a long counter that divided most of the dome's interior.

On this side was a kitchen with a handful of cooks, preparing food in large vats. On the far side, medical staff were checking out and treating refugees for various minor complaints and then sending them over to the counter to get food and drink.

"Could use servers," one of the cooks called out.

"Ja," Åse answered from behind Jake. Her and Helvig dropped their bags of rice and hurried forward to help with the serving.

Jake stepped back outside to find a line of refugees had formed up and they passed the bags of rice bucket brigade fashion. They unloaded the pallets almost as fast as Chatura could get them to the ground.

They were done before midmorning but Jake didn't sit long. Devaki, the kurgara he'd met in Libya, was there. Zie sat with them as they took a break. They talked of nothing. Devaki said, "Well, I got to put together a crew to erect shelters."

Jake shrugged. "Our truck is unloaded." And like that they were on a construction crew.

An Earth military truck roared down the lane as they headed for the edge of the camp, where Devaki had materials for a dozen shelters. The earth truck wasn't half the size as Jake's Consortium truck but much louder. It was loaded down with new refugees being brought up from the nearby border for processing.

The shelters were the ubiquitous domes that the consortium seemed to use in these sorts of relief efforts. They came in hexagrams of curved plastic -like material. It took only a few minutes to learn how to line the correct pieces together and snap them in place. Once a dome was up, the lines were sealed by running a small charge through them with a portable energy block.

A boy came out of the woods. He looked to be about ten and painfully thin. But there was something in his stance that showed his spirit hadn't been broken. Jake glanced once down the road and then at the boy. He didn't appear to have come through with the other refugees. Could he have gotten over the border by himself?

"Hey, you," the boy said. "You in blue." The voice was heavily accented but the words the boy spoke were close enough to the words coming out of the translator collar that Jake wondered if he spoke English.

He paused and waited for the kid to come over. "They are processing the refugees over there."

"I'm not a refugee," the boy snapped. "You with her?"

"Who?"

"The sky princess. Sarasvat."

At first Jake didn't know how to answer that. "I'm with the Consortium," he said. "African Administration. We are here to help." He started to point towards the main dome again, where the refugees were being processed.

But the boy started talking again. "She's got to come to Freetown. My grandma's trapped. They all are. She's got to come save them."

"Who? Sarasvat?"

"Yes. My grandma is stuck. The police have the protestors surrounded in the ghetto. Sarasvat has to come and save them, if she cares so much."

"I think they are trying," Jake protested. "Talking to your leaders and what not. Trying to let us help them there too."

"No, she's got to come now. The leaders will never say yes. And people will starve."

"They've got food and stuff over there," Jake said. "You can get food."

"No, not me," the boy repeated. He gave a hungry look towards the dome and Jake guessed he was lying. "My grandma and the others. They need the help."

Jake felt Devaki's presence at his side. "It's okay, I'll talk to the boy." She had a bottle of water that she held out and a ration bar.

Jake gave the boy one last look as Devaki knelt in front of him, holding out her offerings. He nodded. "If you need anything..." Devaki nodded and Jake, reluctantly, returned to work.