And now he realized how much he’d let Jawn down. If he’d only stayed at the job he’d had when their father died, he could have given Jawn the money for his exams. Then Jawn would have had the education to look after himself and their mother. Not only had he not done that, he’d put Jawn in the terrible position he was in now: on his way to a foreign planet with no idea of what would happen. And with them both off the planet, there was no hope of either of them going back to take care of their mother in her old age.
How she must feel abandoned.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I just want to make sure that there aren’t any surprises,” Governor Lind said. Now that they were at the colony planet, she was the person in authority and she wanted to get the unloading of the prisoners started as quickly as possible.
“Such as what?”
“Such as inhospitable inhabitants, ferocious animals, something we’re not aware of from up here.”
“If you’ve read my report you’ll know the air is breathable and there are no aliens or ferocious animals.”
“I read your report. I just don’t think two weeks was enough time to find out everything. And since we are not at that same place, I want this one investigated before anyone lands. Do you want to lead the expedition?”
“I have no desire to walk on the planet again. I know what’s there but since you won’t take my word now, why should I think you will when I come back? You might as well get someone you trust to do it.”
Governor Lind turned to Captain Robi. “Would you get together a group of guards to go down to the planet and scout it out?”
“I have no authority over the guards. My authority is over the crew of this ship.”
“Who is in charge of the guards?”
“There are guard commanders on each ship.”
“Who is the commander on the Nostra?”
“Commander Vere.”
“Would you ask Commander Vere to come here?”
When the commander arrived, Governor Lind explained what she wanted.
“That is not within the scope of our instructions,” Commander Vere said. “We are here to guard the prisoners on the ships. Once they are off our responsibility ends. Our orders do not include leaving the ships on scouting trips.”
Governor Lind sighed. Was the establishment of the colony going to be as difficult as this? “If the party I send down gets into trouble, can I count on you to go to their rescue?”
“Yes. But you will have to make sure the clipper returns here after dropping them off so we can get down there in a hurry.”
“There’s only one clipper?” she asked Royd.
“We only required one for the trips between the ships as we were travelling and since we can land the ships on this planet there was no need for more.”
“Okay,” she said. “The clipper will return, although I hate to leave them on the planet without it.”
“We’ll watch through the view screen,” Commander Vere said. “If there is a problem we will see it immediately.”
Governor Lind returned to the Condoren and went to her apartment. The police officers were under her authority. She’d gone over the files of all the police officers and decided the nine she was promoting to captain and who would be the police chief. The whole idea of these officers maintaining order in the colony was a joke. Every one of them was as much a criminal as the prisoners.
She summoned each of the new captains to her room and personally told them of her decision. She then asked them to spread word that she wanted all the officers to meet in the pleasure room in an hour. During that hour she talked with the new police chief.
When the officers were assembled Governor Lind entered wearing her Leader One red robe. She stepped up on a small podium she’d had the cleaning crew set up for her and faced the police officers.
“I am Leader One. I have been appointed governor of the colony planet. My name from now on is Governor Lind and one of my duties is being the superintendent of the police force. I will make the decisions of promotion, demotion, and punishment and today, I perform my first duty.”
With that she called the nine officers one by one and promoted them to captain, then gave them each a list of the twenty members of the force under their command. “These lists are also posted on the board by the door,” she said to the assembly.
“I now promote Curt to the position of Police Chief.”
She pointed to three of the new captains. “I want you three to pick two of your officers to accompany you on an exploration of the site we have chosen for the colony.”
“What?” Captain Leeh protested. “You want us to go down to the planet?”
“We know nothing about it,” Captain Frad said.
“You should be sending some guards with guns or explorers with experience, not us,” Captain Menn added.
She held up her hand to silence the protests. Whatever happened to blind obedience? “The air is totally breathable and the guards on the Nostra will be monitoring your movements.”
“What are we supposed to be looking for?” Captain Frad asked.
“I want you to check for evidence of inhabitants who might feel threatened by us.”
“And what if there is and they attack us?” Captain Menn asked. “How do we defend ourselves?”
“The guards will come to your rescue in the clipper.”
“You mean we won’t even have the clipper to run to?” Captain Leeh asked.
It was time to let them know who was in charge. “I am governor of this planet and as such you are under my authority. You will do as I say without any more outbursts. The clipper is waiting in the intermix chamber for you.” She turned to Curt. She hadn’t told him yet that she planned on making the growing and smoking of tobacco legal in the colony. There was no use playing all her cards at once. “I expect a full report tonight.”
* * *
The next morning the craftspeople were called to the pleasure room. When Governor Lind entered and stood on the dais, a hush fell over the room.
“For those who don’t know, I am Governor Lind, governor of the colony planet. We reached the planet yesterday and a scouting team was sent down to check the area I have picked for the colony. They found no inhabitants or wild animals, so all the spaceships are preparing to land.”
A buzz engulfed the room. Governor Lind waited for it to die down before continuing. “The first order of business will be setting up of the tents and the surveying of a village. While that is being done the builders can look around for suitable material for the permanent buildings and the scientists in charge of water and soil can test a sample from the nearby river and examine the soil. I want to know immediately where we can plant grains and vegetables for use until the farms are established. Until the tents are up, nothing is to be unloaded and everyone returns to the ship for meals and sleeping.”
* * *
The large spaceships each found flat places to land. The huge tents were the first things removed. A number of prisoners were selected to assemble them. Because of a lack of knowledge it took almost two weeks for them all to be set up in a meadow beside the open area where the permanent buildings of the new village would be built. By this time the Treachen had arrived.
Once the tents were up, three days of the prisoner unloading began in shifts. The ones who had spent the trip sleeping in hammocks were issued bunk beds to be assembled in the tents. Those prisoners who had not been off the ships to work on the tents slowly stepped out onto the grass carrying their bunk beds. They looked around in bafflement as they were directed to their dormitories.
The murderers were assigned beds in the tents on one side of the meadow. The men were at one end, the women at the other. The rest of the prisoners, also segregated, were put in the tents on the other side. In the middle were the kitchens. The food supplies were to remain on the spaceships until there was a permanent building that could be locked to house them in.
Off to one side were the two tents for po
lice officers. The scientists and farmers remained on the spaceships with the crews. They would move out when they had a permanent building to live in.
When they all had their clothes, blankets, and plates in the tents, they were given soap, a towel, and a clean set of clothes and, again in shifts, went to the river to bathe. Their old clothes were placed in piles and burned.
When the prisoners were all settled in their tents Governor Lind decided to have the flag ceremony. She wanted all the captains to attend; not only attend but stand on the platform beside her and Judge Jym.
A temporary stage had been constructed in front of the Treachen. Members of the crew had wired a microphone and speakers so everyone packed into the large meadow could hear the governor. Governor Lind, dressed in her red robe, was the last to climb onto the stand. She went up to the microphone and waited for silence. When it came she began her speech.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming.”
Royd snorted. As if any of them had had a choice.
“It has been a long flight to get here but we made it. Other than the encounter with the dump storm where we lost some prisoners, one police officer and two crew members on the Treachen the trip was relatively uneventful.
“Now that the tents are set up priority will be given to surveying lots for three warehouses, a police barracks, a police station and cells, a government house, a courtroom, and buildings for the male and female prisoners. Every building will have easy access to the river since the water will have to be hauled.
“When that is done I will assign the task of surveying lots for a store and future houses since I plan on encouraging marriage and families.” She didn’t mention that the person in charge of water treatment for the Fringe and the orbital prisons had been sure that the effects of the treated water given the prisoners would wear off in a few months.
“Lastly, within a month of finishing the settlement, I hope to do the layout of the farms. Each farmer will grow plants and be given animals to raise.”
She paused. “You have all been given a chance to start your lives over again. You are the founding members of a new society, a society that will be the forerunner of many generations to come. You will be making the decisions on which the future of this planet will be based. It is up to you to make this a self supporting colony that will eventually become part of the space arena.
“I expect hard work from each of you and in return you will eventually be able to own property, start families, and enjoy a normal life. This is a society for you, by you, and only you can make it work.”
There was a smattering of applause.
“I don’t expect it to happen overnight and we will have a ship that can fly to another planet to restock our supplies if necessary, but I hope that by hard work on all our parts we won’t need to take advantage of that.
“The police officers are here to maintain order in the colony. Everything you have done in the past has been forgotten and you will be judged on your performance from here on. For now, though, our laws will prevail until we make ones that are appropriate for our new society. You will be arrested if you break those laws as you would on our home planet but your punishment will be different.
“Compared to the megalopolises this is a lovely place to live. We will be outside under a real sky with a real sun and stars. We will be walking on real grass and touching real plants. This is a freedom that the residents of our home planet don’t have. So, let’s make this work and maybe when your ten years are up, you won’t want to return home.”
“Tomorrow we will start building our first city on our new home.”
She turned to the line of captains standing behind her. “I would like to thank Flight Director Royd for his guidance here and the captains and crew of the spaceships for getting us all safely here.” She looked back at the crowd. “Just so you know they are not going to abandon us here. Once everything is unloaded one will remain until we have constructed permanent buildings and our agriculture and animal farms are operating on a scale to support us. It will be for emergency use only.”
“And now for the moment we have all been waiting for.” Governor Lind nodded to a police officer who was standing beside a tall tree that had been stripped of its branches. He pulled on a rope that hoisted their flag to the pulley at the top of the pole. When the flag was flying, she signalled to a crewmember who was standing at the door of the Treachen.
The crewmember raised his arm and then dropped it. At his gesture, the three defensive guns of the transport were fired into the sky. The spectators gasped as the balls streaked through the air and disappeared.
“I claim this planet in the name of the Global Alliance. It is the first planet of our galactic realm.”
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joan Donaldson-Yarmey began her writing career with a short story, progressed to travel and historical articles, and then on to travel books. She called these books her Backroads series and in the seven of them she described what there is to see and do along the back roads of British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, and Alaska. She has now switched to fiction writing and is proud to be one of Books We Love Ltd.’s published authors. Through BWL, she has written three mystery novels, Illegally Dead, The Only Shadow in the House, and Whistler’s Murder, published in her Travelling Detective series. They come in a boxed set. In her fourth novel, Gold Fever, she combines mystery with a little romance.
Not one to stick to one genre, Joan has also published West to the Bay. It is the first novel in her new series for young adults titled The Canada West Historical Series.
Joan was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She married soon after graduation and moved to a farm where she had two children. Over the years she worked as a bartender, hotel maid, cashier, bank teller, bookkeeper, printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, warehouse shipper, house renovator, and nursing attendant. During that time she raised her two children and helped raise her three stepchildren.
Since she loves change, Joan has moved over thirty times in her life, living on acreages and farms and in small towns and cities throughout Alberta and B.C. She now lives on an acreage in the Port Alberni Valley with her husband, four female cats, and one stray male cat.
Joan belongs to Crime Writers of Canada, Federation of B.C. Writers, the Port Alberni Arts Council and the Port Alberni Portal Players. Her short story, A Capital Offense, received Ascent Aspirations Magazine’s first prize for flash fiction in 2010. She has since turned that story into a stage play and presented it at the Fringe Festival in Port Alberni in 2014.
http://thetravellingdetectiveseries.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/writingsbyjoan
https://www.amazon.com/author/joandonaldsonyarmey
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Parts of this two-book story may seem familiar to anyone who has read the original version of Whistler’s Murder, the third novel of my Travelling Detective Series. When Whistler’s Murder was condensed with the first two novels of the series, Illegally Dead and The Only Shadow in the House, into a boxed set, the science fiction story woven through it was eliminated.
However, many people who read the original novel commented that they liked the sci-fi part and suggested that I should try writing in that genre. I took it to heart and wrote this story, told in The Criminal Streak and Betrayed, based on that sci-fi idea.
I hope they were right.
ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR
Betrayed – Book Two of the Cry of the Guilty – Silence of the Innocent Story
West to the Bay – The Canada West Historical Series for Young Adults
Gold Fever
The Travelling Detective Series (boxed set)
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