Part Six
It had taken hours to get all the fish cleaned. Some were salted, others smoked and otherwise prepped for long-term storage. After dusk fell, the townsfolk decided to have a small celebration with some of the fish they had cooked, some were fried, others baked, and a small few were put on a spit. With the future of of provisions allayed for now the people relaxed some with some music playing, both live and recorded. People were laughing, kids were playing in between stuffing their faces. Right now, life was good.
Haida sat at the docks near her shipself being careful not to raise any further concern with the humans. Her bringing the fish muted most of their suspicions, but there was still plenty of fearful gazes in her direction when they thought she couldn't see them. Haida couldn't blame them as she looked to the glowing hull of her shipself. She let out a weary sigh before she was startled by Grace walking down the docks towards her with other kids a few steps behind her. Grace was carrying a plate of food in her hands.
"Hey, uh, Haida right?" she asked nervous of herself as she approached.
Haida nodded, keeping her expression muted for now, not wanting to spook the girl despite their fiery interactions earlier in the day.
Grace stopped in front of her, "I just wanted to say thank you for saving me and my dad. I don't know why you did but, thanks. So here," she said offering the plate of food to Haida.
Haida took the plate deftly, shocked at the gesture, "Thank you," she said quietly as she picked up the fork and poked a mouthful of fish into her mouth. The taste of the cooked fish was indescribable, a tear ran down her cheek. "It's been so long..." she trailed off before she was distracted by one of the kids that followed Grace down.
"Holy crap, a real Fog ship!" he gaped, holding a hand out to touch Haida's hull.
"Craig, what are you doing?! That's the enemy!" the boy said, pulling his friend back.
Haida bristled at that. She had just brought a bunch of food, saving the town and this kid was still calling her an enemy. He probably ate some of the fish she brought earlier too. Catching herself, she just let her shoulders slump in resignation and just let it go and continued to eat the fish. Surprisingly to her, Grace stood up for her.
"You guys shut up! She took on two other Fog ships. By herself! If she didn't do that, me an' my dad wouldn't be here right now. She even caught all the fish in minutes that would have taken us with the boats days! I saw you stuffing your face earlier, Steve," she chided.
The boy in question looked away with his arms crossed, a sheepish look on his face, "Yeah, well..." he trailed off, not being able to issue a comeback to that.
Grace turned back to Haida, "Why don't you come join us?" she offered.
Haida gazed longingly to the people celebrating but shook her head, "No, it's ok. You go back and party with your friends, I'll be fine here, thanks," she assured Grace.
Grace was reluctant but acquiesced and turned back to the party, bringing the two boys that came down back with her.
"...Home made food," Haida whispered as she brought another forkful of fish to her mouth.
As Grace walked back, smiling as everyone seemed a lot happier now that they had food again. It was nice. She continued to look around, debating whether to go dancing or grab another plate for herself when she saw Bill and several other adults still loading the convoy to leave.
Running towards them she called out, "Hey, what are you guys doing? We have food now, why are you loading up still?" she asked her dad when she saw him talking to Bill.
The two adults gave each other a look before her dad turned to her and got down on a knee to speak to her, "We're still leaving," he told her, disappointment in his voice.
Grace just stood there, not being able to process what her father told her for a minute, "But, why? We have food now," she turned to Bill, "You said we had enough food for a month!" she accused the man.
Bill let out a breath as he scratched the back of his head, "I did," he said simply.
"Then why are we leaving?" she asked again.
Bill gave a grimace, "He have food this month, but, what about the next month? You were there, we lost all our boats. And even if we still had them, the Fog are still out there. We got lucky this time."
"But Haida's here now. She can get us more fish when we need it," she reasoned.
Bill gave her father a look who turned his head back to look Grace in the eyes, "Grace, you now how much I appreciate Haida for helping save us and getting us food for the town. But she's from the Fog and she killed two of her own. As much as I'd hope the Fog would ignore us, the odds aren't in our favour. You saw how they were playing with us, they could have sunk us with one hit, but, they made a game out of it. Now two of them are dead so now they're probably going to come for revenge and if the find out it's Haida, they'll find her here and take out the town since she helped us," he took a breath, "And even if they don't, word will get back further inland about a Fog ship that decided to moor here and government people will come to do who knows what and we'll have to leave anyways. Or the raiders will come to either try to take Haida for themselves or attack us for being friends with the Fog. Even if it attacks other Fog, these people won't understand," he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her.
Grace just stared at him a moment before shrugging his hand off her shoulder and turning to run back to the docks, "No! I'm not running away and I won't leave Haida alone!" she shouted as she ran back. She stopped briefly, getting her friends to help her carry a cooler full of prepped fish and a camper stove with a small tank of fuel.
The two adults were watching the small group of kids were struggling getting everything down to the docks while Mark got up on his feet and started making his way down, "I'll get the kids back," he told Bill over his shoulder.
Haida noticed Grace and her friends struggling to the docks carrying a cooler and camping stove and was confused by the sight so, got up and made her way to them. "What's going on?" she asked the group, her head quirked in puzzlement.
"Haida!" Grace called out breathing hard, "Help us get this stuff aboard, we're going to be leaving soon," she told her, finally taking a breath.
This confused Haida more, "Why are we leaving? I suppose I can take us fishing again but," she was cut off by Mark calling them.
"Grace!" Mark called out to her daughter, "You can't just run off like that! I'm sorry you don't want to say goodbye to Haida but she can't come with us and we can't stay here," he admonished when he got to conversation range with his daughter.
Haida watched the interaction of daughter and father arguing back and forth when the sensors from her shipself pinged. Haida spun her head to stare out to the sea. IF she were human, her blood would have gone cold. "Get on!" she demanded the group as she stood there trying to think of what to do.
Mark turned to her, "What are you talking about?"
Haida was already in motion and had her hexagonal force fields lift up the humans and carry them to her ship self. The group shouted yelled and screamed in surprise as they moved through the air to her shipself. This action got the guards who were watching her on their feet as they readied their weapons.
"What are you doing with them?!" one guard demanded as she aimed her rifle for Haida's head.
Haida made another hexagonal force field appear between her and the guard, "There's no time! Get everyone out of here, the Fog are coming right now, so move!" she screamed at the woman.
The woman only hesitated for a second before turning to her fellow guard telling him something. The fear of god ran over the man's face as he turned to the still celebrating townsfolk screaming, "Fog! The Fog are coming, get everyone on the convoy, get moving!"
There was a brief moment of confusion as the man ran through grabbing random people to urge them to get going. A few got the hint but most looked to the docks in confusion until they notice several points of light trailed by plumes of smoke come up from the ocean beyond Haida. The screaming and near pandemonium started in earnest as everyone made for the convoy of vehicles in a mad dash. Some ran for their homes to get whatever they wanted to bring with them.
The female guard at the docks ran toward Haida, demanding to be let on to "Make sure she wasn't taking hostages". Haida did so without question, wanting to get underway. Backing away from the docks, she trained her guns on the incoming missiles while she raised he klien field. The last time she had the element of surprise, now though, she wasn't so sure of her odds.
End Part Six
