Rebecca looked up into the dusty sky and saw the two figures slowly appear over the ridge of the hill. Her muscles ached from both age and the past few days of work—work which would have been hastened by her husband and sons had they not been elsewhere. Her thoughts briefly wandered to them and then back to the task at hand. She’d been mending fences on the ranch for the better part of three days, and was getting sick of it. A brief respite would be nice, Rebecca thought as she stood up. The two people were approaching on horseback, and Rebecca knew them fairly well.

“Mrs. Lange!” One of them yelled as they turned up the long drive to the ranch. Rebecca slowly walked along the fence line toward them. The man she knew as William Patterson, a local rancher on a plot about four miles away. The other figure was his wife. Rebecca briefly mulled over the woman’s name in her head and finally settled on Lucy. Both of them were very young, probably no older than early twenties. The Pattersons reached the end of the drive before William spoke again. “Mrs. Lange, we was just passing on our way to town, and we thought we’d stop by.”

Rebecca pulled her hat down, and let it dangle by the strap across the back of her neck. Her brown hair was wavy and wild, and had more gray in it than most people realized. “Why sure Bill. I was going to rest for a while anyway. Gorram fences are pissing me off.” Rebecca stepped over to help Lucy off her horse. She was very obviously pregnant. “Bill, why’d you bring your wife out today? She needs rest.”

“Oh,” Lucy said quietly as she climbed off the horse. “Ma’am I wanted to go with him. I don’t get to town all that often, and when he said he’d be coming this way, I thought I’d join him for the trip. It don’t bother me none riding on the horse.”

“Hand me the scrappers gel.” Theo said though his EVA’s com unit. He and his crew were currently floating in the black, trying to salvage an old luxury liner that had lost power. All of the passengers an