Ultimus Chapter Twenty: Introductions

Andrew watched slightly concerned as Paul cooked the meat over the fire on some parts of a car’s grill. He wasn’t sure if it would be safe to eat if it was being cooked on a car’s grill. But he was the guest, and he didn’t want to be a picky guest. He watched as Paul meticulously watched and flipped the meat on its side. The smell of the meat was far better than anything he had cooked before. He watched his surroundings and noticed the dark-haired woman exited one of the tents and walked over to them.

“Mm, what are you cooking Paul?” She asked,

“Lamb Chops, haven’t had one of these in years. If you want one, sit down and I’ll make you one.” He said, she shrugged as she sat down. They waited there patently there for a moment before Andrew broke the silence.

“I’m sorry to ask but what is your name? I know Paul wanted to wait until Sylas came back, but I at least to know your names.” He said, the woman looked at him with soul-piercing eyes.

“Erica, Erica Stevens.” She said,

“Nice to properly meet you, Erica.” Andrew said, she nodded. She still didn’t trust him but he was slightly indifferent to this for the time being.

A few moments later, Paul came over to Andrew and Erica. Setting down a plate in front of each of them.

“Here you go. Hope it's good, wish I had more seasonings than salt. But it should be better than the food I had to live with. Almost everything we cooked in my time was boiled.” Paul said, Andrew switched off his vest and then his gloves to eat. As he did, Erica and Paul looked at Andrew with slight concern seeing this. Andrew was kind of confused by this, what was so concerning about this?

“Are you okay? You're not sick or anything?” Erica asked, Andrew looked at her confused by this, then looked at himself and realized she was talking about how pale he was. Since he didn’t have much sunlight where he lived and that he never took the armor off when outside of his property. His skin had become extremely pale underneath the armor compared to his tanner neck and face.

“Oh, no. I am fine. I just don’t get much sun out in a forest where it is always dawn or dusk without ever knowing.” Andrew said, Erica raised her eyebrow.

“Still I think I should check you for any medical needs or issues. Yer lookin’ very Peely Wally.” Paul said,

“Are you a doctor?” Andrew asked,

“Aye, I am.” Paul said

“Where do you live?” Erica asked, interrupting the original conversation.

“Camacho International Forest.” He answered. Erica nodded,

“Dusk.”

“Excuse me?”

“The Earth rotates counterclockwise, Camacho’s East, North East of Sanctuary. It’d be constantly dusk.” Erica continued. Honestly surprising Andrew. For both why he didn’t know that or why he never researched into it and that he finally had an answer of what time of day it was for him. He smiled and nodded his head

“Thank you.”

And with that, they continued eating, Paul had made an excellent meal out of the mutton. And after some time, Sylas returned from cleaning up. He wore a beige tee shirt but similar pants and shoes to the others. Except they were dyed and painted up with strange symbols and some familiar-looking logos.

“You guys ate without me?”

“Well, what else were we going to do while we waited for you to clean up.” Paul said,

“You could’ve at least saved me some.” Sylas said sadly. Paul pointed to a covered plate on the table. Sylas’ eyes widened with happiness. He tried running to the table before he was stopped.

“Let’s do proper introductions first before you eat.” Paul said, Sylas quickly turned to Andrew and began blurting out quickly

“The name’s Sylas Fennec, there. I smell meat, come to Papa!!” He tried rushing for the food again before being stopped by Paul again.

“Come on lad, let’s do this properly.” Paul said, “It’s fine if he wants to eat, he already introduced himself to me earlier.” Andrew said cutting in,

“No, I think we should do proper introductions. It’s not fair that we asked you and you gave us a full introduction and we didn’t. So would you mind Sylas?” Paul asked with a smile. Sylas whimpered and sighed.

“Alright. But I need to eat after I give mine. I haven’t eaten all day.” Sylas fibbed, he just really wanted to eat the cooked meat before Jonathan tried to claim it.

~

The four walked toward the center of the base camp with Sylas talking Andrew’s head off with questions and references while Erica and Paul hung back. Paul looked at Erica who looked a little flushed. Something to be on her mind and it was worrying her.

“You alright Erica? Do I need to check you out too?” He asked quietly, she looked over at him realizing that he noticed her.

“No, I am fine.” Erica said,

“Ya sure about that?” Paul asked.

“Yes, I just don’t like getting into personal things about me.” Erica stated, Paul smirked.

“You think now, huh?” He said sarcastically, she glared at him slightly before sighing.

“It makes me vulnerable, I don’t like leaving myself vulnerable.” Erica answered,

“Look, I know ya, but we barely know ya ourselves and we have opened our feelings and past to ya. It makes you hard to trust but from our experience with. You are trustworthy… Just tell him what ya feel comfortable telling, but I would like to let him know that we trust him and let him trust us.” Paul said, Erica nodded as they walked.

“Alright, but just this once. And I am only giving him a bit.” Erica said, Paul smiled.

“That’s all I am askin’ for Erica. That’s all.” Paul said,

The group got to the edge of the campsite, nearly outside of the building. Freya stood there wearing her Fur/Flak combo while holding the prod in one hand and having her axes strapped to her belt. Jonathan was also there, covered in material dust and next to a Doedicurus and Ankylosaurus. He was covered in material dust from scraps and stones. Paul sighed, he hoped that the introductions went well.

~

Andrew stood there awkwardly as he was surrounded by people he didn’t know. It was a strange feeling, he became very self-conscious of himself. He was really young the last time he interacted with others. He was awkward with people even then, though this was more learned from his father who didn’t like public events. Probably why he he wanted to work on the remote side of the Terran’s project. Paul was talking to the others as he stood alone there for this moment. Andrew while feeling awkward felt kinda relieved being around people. However, at the same time, he wanted to go insane if he didn’t have a proper conversation with something he would normally talk to. This made it stranger that he would rather talk to an animal and pretend it would talk back to him than talk to someone who could actually talk to him. He just wasn’t used to it yet. He hoped anyway. Paul turned around smiling at Andrew. Andrew smiled back out of kind manners.

“Alrighty, so we’ll start off with me and work on our way through everyone in our group and then back to you. Don’t feel obligated to say more than you're comfortable saying.” Paul said, Andrew nodded lightly.

“That’s fine, and I hope none of you feel that you are obligated to tell me everything about yourselves.” Andrew said, Paul nodded and smiled.

“Alrighty, so my full name and title is Dr. Paul Murdock Riddley, leader of our small band of survivors. Born in the year of our LORD, 1912, in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland though raised for a large part of my childhood in Dover, Delaware. I went to New York University for a degree in medicine before being called to arms and drafted into the US Army in 1942. The last date I fully remember was July 10th, 1954. I am 42 years old.” Paul said,

“Nice to properly meet you, Dr. Riddley.” Andrew said, Paul smiled and looked at the next person in the line. That being Erica, she looked at Paul with an awkward, concerned look. He stared at her in a serious tone and she gave him a look back.

“My name is Erica Stevens, second in command here. Born in 2354, Arat Prime. Worked for the URE on the Ark Initiative for seven years in the year 2379, which was the last time I remember anything before arriving on the Ark. I am 25 years old. That’s all I have to say.” Erica said,

“Nice to meet you, Erica.” Andrew said. Eric looked to Sylas who smiled excitedly.

“How do you do, My name is Sylas Archibald Fennec. I was born in 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona. Became one of the youngest billionaires in the world, and moved to Silicon Valley. The last date I remember was the Fourth of July of 2050. Once I reached the Ark, I was enslaved by a madman and held hostage for three years. I am 28 years old.” Sylas said,

“Nice to be properly introduced Sylas.” Andrew said smiling. Jonathan took a step forward and cleared his throat.

“Bonjour, je m'appelle Jonathan Ducasse, je suis né en 2164 dans la ville de Marseille, en France. J'ai obtenu mon diplôme de Sciences et Lettres à Paris avec une maîtrise en Zoologie et Paléontologie en 2189. La dernière date dont je me souviens avant d'être bloqué sur l'Arche était le 12 janvier 2190. J'étais coincé sur l'Arche pendant un an à étudier sa vie avant de rencontrer ce groupe de nemrods. J'ai 36 ans. Et je ne pense pas que je vous aime.” He said fluently, however, Andrew didn’t understand a word he said.

“I’m sorry, but what did he say?”

“Que veut-il dire par là ? Est-il stupide ou son implant est-il défectueux ?” He said,

“No, Jonathan neither. He doesn’t have an implant. He’s never been on the Arks before.” Paul said,

“Oh, et bien, très bien. Alors je peux dire ça sans le blesser. Je le déteste, je le déteste beaucoup. Je vais le tuer, je le tuerai avec du venin de Titanoboa jeudi prochain. Je ne sais pas quand c'est, mais appelons-nous demain jeudi prochain. Ça te semble bien ? Super !” Jonathan said, Paul and everyone else except Andrew glared at him.

“No, Jonathan. That’s not okay.” Paul said annoyed

“What kinda sicko are you?” Sylas said agitated.

“What did he say?” Andrew asked,

“Nothing.” Erica said faster than light.

“Très bien, si je ne peux pas le tuer, alors sais-tu quelle langue il parle ?” Jonathan said irritatedly,

“English. Right, Andrew?” Sylas asked, Andrew nodded.

“Fine, if he can only understand English. Then I will use it-” “Woah, wait a minute. You can speak English?” Sylas interrupted. Jonathan glared at him. “Yes, why is this important?” Jonathan asked.

“I don’t know, maybe because it wouldn’t hurt our brains trying to listen to you speak when your mouth doesn’t move a the same time!!!” Sylas yelled, Jonathan glared at Sylas for a moment longer before ignoring his last statement and looking back at Andrew. “Hello, my name’s Jonathan Ducasse. I am a Paleontologist and Zoologist and I am really tired of speaking so I shall abide my farewells.” Jonathan said in a more broken English as he walked passed Andrew.

“Hey, get back here!! You and I have a lot more to talk about now!!” Sylas said to Jonathan before turning around to Andrew.

“Again it was nice meeting you.” He said before going up and hugging Andrew and then running after Jonathan

“Well, it was, oh. It was nice to meet you too.” Andrew said. Leaving Freya as the last one to introduce herself. And as she began to speak, Erica translated what she said.

“Hello, I am going to keep this nice and simple. My name is Freya, Daughter of Jorgan the Peaceful. I do not know of what these numbers are or what ‘dates’ are. All I know is I was born during a new moon. Before coming here or the place we left before here. I was a general and trainer for a tribe that adopted me and called me an angel of their village. I am sorry to leave abruptly but I am going to go tame something and I don’t want to lose track of it.” Erica said translating Freya. Freya smiled wide at Andrew and began speaking again.

“It was nice meeting you and I am sorry if I scared you earlier.” Erica translated. Andrew smiled.

“It’s alright, and it was nice meeting you too!” Andrew answered, she smiled once again before leaving camp and going off into the abandoned city. Andrew thought for a moment as Erica and Paul talked to each other. He thought he heard Freya’s name before from a history book he read several years ago, something out of Norse history but he wasn’t entirely sure. He wasn’t even sure how it was possible for all of these people from different and even far points in time from each other to be here in front of him. It was confusing to him all around and he wasn’t sure how it worked.

“Hey Andrew, why don’t we get ya a tent and a bed and you tell us where you want it.” Paul said, Andrew smiled as he looked to the ground.

‘These people have been so kind to me so far, is that enough to trust them though?’ He thought to himself. ‘No, but it doesn’t mean I can’t stick around a bit longer’

“Sure, let's do that.” He said, he still was awkward and nervous around them but he still wanted to give them a chance to earn his trust. Which at this time was coming on its way.