Free Still Falling: Book 1: Solstice 31 Saga by Martin Wilsey

keep it, harvest the honey, and there was even a section on making honey mead. Without thinking, he was smiling wide.
    “Em, have the BUGs look for more books.”
    Their tour continued north for several hours until they stopped for dinner at the edge of a large fresh water lake. This was the northern most point that they would explore today. The BUGs had found a stone cottage with a domed grass covered roof near the edge of the lake. It was dry but empty inside.
    “We should cache supplies here once we get established.” Em was looking around the circular room. “In case something happens and we have to run, this would be a good remote place to hide.”
    She paused. “I could hide the spider and the beast in the lake if we needed to.”
    “Is there anything further north from here?”
    “Only where we left Chen.”
    “Did they ever come back?”
    “I don't know. We are out of range. I don’t dare risk detection by communicating with Stu from here.”
    Barcus stormed out the door and toward the water. The beach was all rounded stones. He picked one up and threw it as hard as he could with a grunt. He was amazed at how far it went.
    “Who did this to us, Em?” he said through clenched teeth.
    “I don't know. Not yet.”
    Barcus was about to throw another rock and stopped.
    “You have been trying to find out?”
    “Of course. It's the best thing I can do to protect you. That's my job.”
    “What have you discovered so far?”
    “Well, the satellite network supports comm traffic. The traffic is probably voice, video, and data. I believe I know the encryption type, but it will take a long time to break it.”
    Barcus was toying with his growing beard while he was thinking, a new habit he had acquired.
    “I have located all the SATs and all of the ground stations on this side of the planet. We are 800 kilometers from the nearest ground station, which is good. I am doing all I can to analyze passively the traffic. I don't want them to find us the very same way I located them.”
    “But aren't you broadcasting now to me? To the BUGs?”
    “Yes, but that is local, low power, directional and has high contemporary entropy encryption. We sound like background radiation. We are not using the SATs. Just point to point.”
    “I want you to tag and monitor this site. Name it ‘The Northern Cache’ for now. Let's head back. I have some things to think about. I want you to include this site and any updates regarding Stu in the daily status display.”
    They rode back another way so they could see more of the surrounding area. It was after dark when they reached the broken wall.
    On the outside of the wall, half the rubble was now gone. The spider could still easily climb over the damaged saddle in the wall, but a man on foot would be hard pressed to do so.
    “Faceless has been busy,” Barcus said as he exited the spider and it retreated into the shadows of the lower levels.
    The area in front of the garage had also been cleared. All the saplings were gone. It was no longer a struggle to move through the inner spaces. The broken doors had all been removed to somewhere. As he rounded the arch to the gatehouse, he could see a warm glow from inside.
    When he opened the door, the first thing he noticed was that the flagstone floor was covered with a large rug of deep reds and blues. Then he saw two overstuffed leather chairs which faced the fire. A finely carved, dark oak table and four chairs were under the window. A small table between the overstuffed chairs matched them.
    There were candles in jars on all the tables and the mantel. There was also a long, heavy, wool blanket tied to hooks so that it separated the front room from the back.
    Drawing it aside, he saw another fire in that hearth, a large ornately carved bed against the wall, a side table with more candles and a smaller area rug of mostly deep green.
    Looking back, he saw Em standing there smiling.
    “Do you like it?”
    “Thank you. I don't know what to say.