“We have twenty-five patients in the clinic. Their prognosis is good although seven will require limb replacement. Even though the river water is clean and potable there is always the possibility for animal contamination upstream but if we boil the water before consumption, we should be okay. I would feel better if we could replace the purifier.” She looked over to Sara.
“The villagers are strong which is to be expected after all they have been through. We will morn our losses and then get on with getting the planet ready for more colonists.” She sat. Tom looked over to Captain Acheron who stood.
“I plan to return to Earth with Commodore Querrion and the Orion’s crew within two days. I have two reverse osmosis water purifiers onboard that I will send down to you with technicians to set it up. I will provide additional supplies of seeds and food packs.” He turned to his XO. “Can we spare two of the new Grazers?” The XO nodded. “OK then, we will provide two Grazers. In addition, we will provide three antigrav utility carts, five transports and ten Carvorite Riders,” said the Captain turning back to Sara. “You will like the Grazers, they are capable of doing everything from preparing the soil through planting and harvesting any crop.”
“Thank you, Captain,” said Sara.
“Also, we will add to the Karnat control modules you currently have. In addition to planet-wide communications this will give you faster communications to Earth. Here to Earth will take five days. In addition, five of Orion’s crew have come to the end of their service contracts and instead of waiting to return to Hevinia, they have requested to take their discharge here. I hope you will accept them into your community.” He looked at Sara who nodded; she knew all five of them and definitely approved. Tom stood.
“Thank you, Captain. I requested volunteers from the Second Brigade to remain with us to make up for our losses and we are fortunate that enough, mostly single men, have volunteered to crew the five Barques that Commander Balechek is leaving us. So, with the additional men and Barques we are above our original strength. The rest of the Second Brigade will return to Earth in the Zenon. If there are no other concerns?” He paused. Then I will close the meeting.”
The next day the village maintained an air of mourning as they went about the business of burying their dead. The south side of a gently sloping hill that formed the base of Lookout Mountain was chosen for the cemetery. The Hevinian construction machine made short work of preparing the grave sites. The dead were buried individually in small groups. As everyone that had died in combat were wearing the Brigade coveralls and everyone was given full military honors, even the children. One of the colonists had brought along a computer guided carving machine and the face of each of the deceased was scanned and a likeness carved into the headstone. Those who died in space were
remembered by a simple marker placed together in the same cemetery. Ray and Marcie buried Uncle James in a white shroud then planted an oak tree sapling on top in accordance with his wishes. He and Ray had often talked about many things while fishing and James had told him of his desire to be buried under an oak tree. James was not a religious man but believed firmly in the power of nature to transform things. He thought that as he decomposed some of him would be drawn up into the tree and in this way, he would live on in a fashion. The morning of the fifth day saw the last of the funerals and people began to wonder about the future. In the aftermath of the battle and the emotional turmoil of the funerals very few paid any attention to the departure of the Zenon. Tom and Françoise took one of the Jaguars up to thank the Zenon crew and the Second Brigade for their help. A small reception given by Commodore Querrion in the Café allowed everyone to say his or her goodbyes. Naturally, there was to be an inquest into the loss of the Orion but with Tom’s testimony and the data gleaned from the Orion it was a mere formality. The next morning without fanfare the Zenon departed for Earth.
On the sixth day, Sara decided that it was time to move forward and called a village meeting. It being a warm summer afternoon with at least five hours to go before the rain came in from the sea so they decided to pull all the chairs out of the community building and hold the meeting outdoors. When all were present Sara stepped up onto a small crate. She was a little unsure of how to proceed. The balance of the village had been altered as a result of the conflict. There were now many widows and widowers in the village. She decided that that would sort itself out, for now they needed something to help them get past the loss and move on.
“Good afternoon everyone. First a status report. The damaged yurts are being replaced. Thanks to our CB’s, the water purification and delivery system is back in operation as are power and sewage. Many of you have begun to prepare meals in your own homes from the food packs but community dining is still popular so we will continue until the numbers warrant a change to where the Café can take over. The Zenon has left and so we are truly home at last.”
Suddenly everyone seemed to realize at the same time the significance of what that meant. Sara quickly spoke, “It is time for us to elect a governing body to include a Mayor and a council. I did a little research on the journey over and found that the most traditional village councils consist of a Mayor, Village Administrator, Health Officer, Sheriff, School Headmaster or Principal, and Ombudsman. To this list I have added Grounds Keeper, Store Keeper, and Power Keeper. To get us started I will ask everyone to vote by show of hands. Do we wish to have a system as described to govern our village?” It was impossible to count the hands so Sara used her judgment as to what seemed to be a majority vote. “OK we have a majority for yes. In that case let us move on to electing the Mayor and council. Are there any volunteers for Mayor?”
“Sara, we can make this go quicker,” said a voice from the crowd. “We know there is only one person for Mayor so all those in favor of Sara for Mayor raise your hand.” The entire village raised their hands. “Looks like you are elected Sara,” said the voice.
Recognizing the voice as belonging to Ray, Sara said, “Thank you Ray and thank all of you. Next is the position of Health Officer.”
Sande immediately nominated Marcie and she was voted in. Kris was nominated for Sheriff by six villagers and was voted in and so it went on. The positions for power, grounds and store keeper were quickly filled by experienced nominees. The only two positions hotly contested were the School Principal with eight nominees and Village Administrator with seven nominees.
In the end, Elsa Carson became the School Principal and Adele Nagler the Village Administrator both highly qualified people. The position of Ombudsman had no nominees; it required a huge amount of diplomacy, objectivity and negotiating skill. As Sara asked once again for nominations the crowd remained silent. Allyson Bryson-Jones raised her hand.
“I was a solicitor in Britain before my husband joined the Brigade. I believe I could use that experience in that position.” Allyson had arrived onboard just two days before departure. During the voyage, she had made herself useful helping out at meal times and assisting in the school so was well known and trusted. Her election as Ombudsman took only moments.
“Right then," said Sara. “The council is elected. We will hold our first meeting tomorrow at eight am in the community center. As always, the meeting will be open to everyone. Thank you.”
Sara stepped down and walked over to the new councilors. “Thank you all for volunteering. There is much to do and very little guidance to help us do it. Here are some discussion sheets laying out very briefly the responsibilities of each position. Please read them and be prepared to discuss at the meeting tomorrow. Kris, you may need to swear in a couple of deputies to help out.” She smiled and walked away.
Kris decided to check out the last remaining undesignated yurt at the edge of the square. There was an unopened crate behind it containing all the furniture and appliances for the dwelling. I’ll need most of that, he thought, as he walked around the yurt. Everything was tied down correctly. All I have to do is put up a sign and move in. He entered the yurt to find Andrew inside looking around.
“Hi Andrew, what’s up.”
“Well, ever since the Zenon left I have been thinking about what my role could be. I don’t have any practical skills like farming or baking or anything like that.”
“You are the liaison for the Minister,” said Kris.
“Like that is going to use up much of my time. Besides it was just a ruse to get me aboard. No, I need something that will occupy my time usefully. I overheard your conversation with Sara and I figured you’d end up here. I would like to offer my services as a Deputy Sheriff. What do you think?”
“I think that is a great idea. We have no formal way to do this yet. So, in my capacity as the Sheriff of...what? We don’t have a name for the village yet. Okay how about this. As duly elected Sheriff of the first community of Altis-5, I accept your application for Deputy Sheriff.”
“That’s it?” said Andrew smiling. “I expected something more formal. Shouldn’t I raise my right hand to prove I am not Kaedian or something?”
“We’ll figure out something later,” said Kris. “Right now, we need to turn this yurt into an office. The living room will be the central office. I think we should keep one bedroom intact for whoever is on primary duty. One bedroom for a containment room just in case. The third bedroom we can use for storage.” The dining table will do for a desk, its big enough for the both of us.”
“Ok,” said Andrew.
“We will need to make up a requisition list to bring to the meeting tomorrow.”
The next morning everyone showed up for the first village meeting, and it seemed everyone had items for the agenda. Sara collected them all. It was going to be a long day but it was necessary.
As everyone was filing into the community yurt the three Kaedian troopers left the deep cover of the forest and made their way stealthily through the orchard behind the food storage lockers. At the edge of the orchard they paused as the leader scanned the area. He waited patiently and watched as the villagers left their dwellings and made their way to the large tent in the center of the village. When the last of the villagers had disappeared into the tent he waved the others forward and keeping low they moved quickly to the rear of the lockers. They moved away a pile of bracken placed there to disguise the hole they made previously and began removing food packs. This was to be the last of several food-gathering missions to the lockers. The Sergeant and the rest of the men had already moved on but they needed more supplies so the three of them had been detailed to collect more food packs then follow. As they worked Joshua and Bill Clark left the communications yurt. It had taken longer than expected to brief the Brigade staff taking the next shift. Joshua suddenly stopped and stared intensely to the left of him at the three large storage lockers. They were about one hundred and fifty yards from their location just inside the village perimeter on the edge of the apple orchard. Joshua had seen movement.
“Did you see that? Someone was moving about behind the food pack storage lockers.”
Bill stopped to look.
“I can’t see anything. Are you sure you saw something?”
“I’m not sure I just got a glimpse but I could swear it was completely black and walking upright.” He waited, watching. “Nope nothing now, it must have been some sort of animal.” Bill looked at him and he knew he wasn’t satisfied.
“Why don’t you talk to Kris after the meeting? See what he thinks.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that,” he replied staring at the spot in the distance.
“Come on we may have already missed the beginning,” said Bill.
As they turned and walked away the Kaedian leader watched them through his scope. He knew that they had been seen. If he told the Sergeant he would be berated for his stupidity at allowing themselves to be seen. He decided not to tell the Sergeant. After all, they were leaving the area.
Joshua and Bill entered the crowded yurt just as Sara stood and said, “Welcome everyone. As you can see by the agenda on the screen we have a full day ahead of us. Item one; Rules governing meetings.”
Everyone was patient through the first part of the meeting where the rules of government for the colony were presented, discussed, and voted upon. The newly elected town officials presented their plans for administering their areas of responsibility and asking for volunteers to assist them including Kris who introduced Andrew and asked for two more volunteer deputies. With that done everyone sat up to pay attention to the next item on the agenda. “Item 2; Allocation of land. According to the agreement between the Confederation of Earth and the Hevinian Commonwealth, which if you remember we all signed before we left, each adult colonist will receive five hundred acres of land to develop for their personal use, plus a share of any unallocated land in the grid. As you can see on the map,” She turned and indicated the huge particle beam projected holographic map behind her, “The land mass or continent we are on has been divided into grids. The grid allocated to this colony is one million two hundred thousand acres.” The map zoomed in showing the location. “Now we have to consider a legal question. We have arrived here as part of the advanced party to help the new colonists when they arrive. As such we are not technically colonists. However, Allyson has discovered that the Hevinian contract states that all adults who leave Earth and establish a residence on Altis-5 are entitled to the allocation. Each colony is allocated an area of twenty million acres so if the planned average size of a colony is three hundred thousand people each colonist gets about five hundred and ten acres. We are also considered one colony but in our case, there are just nine hundred and fifty-four people that will mean nine hundred and fifty-four lots or four hundred and seventy-seven thousand acres. Now it gets interesting.” She pointed at the map with a laser pointer. “This area where we are right now is the village zone which is a five-hundred-acre lot and the one thousand acres zoned for the base are not part of the available land. The grid size allocated to us is just one million two hundred thousand acres. The forests are considered protected and must be left unassigned. If we are entitled five hundred acres each plus a share of the available undesignated land within the grid each adult is entitled to one thousand one hundred and sixty-two acres. All of it arable land by the way. Considering what we just went through to protect this planet I think it is the least we can expect. Every one of us meets the requirements so we all qualify. Naturally those who lost spouses during the battle will get their spouses allocation and if there are children orphaned then they will get their parent’s share. Allyson has agreed to the guardianship if a relative is not available. If we remain for one full year the allocation is permanent. There is the question of the stewardship of several hundred acres of orchards to consider also. I would like to open up the meeting for comments at this time.”
There were a few but they were answered quickly. A general vote was taken to approve the allocation of land and the meeting was closed. Joshua left the area seeking out Kris. He spotted him over at the Café with Andrew.
Andrew was talking, “I don’t have any real farming or ranching skills but I can brew up a fairly palatable beer and have produced some passable wine. So, if I can get some acreage with the right soil I could grow hops and grapes.”
He stopped as Joshua approached. “Good meeting eh?” he quipped. Joshua smiled.
“Don’t really get into that stuff. I came to see you about something I saw today out by the food pack storage sheds.”
“OK, what did you see?” asked Kris.
“I was walking to the community center for the meeting and I saw something moving behind the sheds. I could have sworn it was human and dressed in black. At first, I thought it must have been an animal but animals do not walk upright unless there are apes in the vicinity which I suppose is possible. As far as I know, with the exception of the Brigade personnel on duty, everyone was at the meeting. Anyway, I thought I would tell you about it to see what you make of it.” Andrew had a serious look on his face.
“Dressed in black you say. If you are correct and I believe you are the
n there is only one possible answer; some of the Kaedian troopers may have survived.”
“Well now that you mention it, I did notice a few of the Kaedians who were hit with the hornet nests run in the opposite direction,” said Kris. “It’s possible that by the time they dealt with the hornets the fight was over and their transports gone.”
“Surely, they would get away from here and find a place to hide out,” said Joshua.
“Maybe,” said Andrew. “But this was supposed to be a fast strike mission; I doubt any rations were carried. Maybe they were here to steal food.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll take my Jag and have a quick look, better strap on some fire power just in case.”
Onboard the Jaguar, Kris gave the location to the SMC which he had renamed ‘Jen’. They shrouded and flew slowly over the area with Jen scanning for any signs of life. Apart from a rabbit or two there was nothing within a mile radius.
“Whoever was here they are long gone now. I will put down next to the sheds and we can have a look around on foot.”
They searched the area for about five minutes before Kris noted some evenly spaced depressions in the dirt behind one of the sheds. He called Andrew over and they followed the depressions until they entered an area of mud and the depressions turned into clearly defined boot prints. Fifteen feet further along the one track became three leading off into the orchard. The tracks looked fresh so they stopped looked and listened. They could see or hear nothing but that could mean either there was no one there or they had been detected and the owners of the footprints could be quietly waiting for them. Kris turned to Andrew and signaled that they should return the way they came very quietly. They maintained silence until they returned to the back of the shed where they spotted the brush piled against the back wall. Removing the brush, they discovered the hole in the back wall. It was obvious that food packs had been removed. They returned to the Jaguar. Once aboard they shrouded once more and took off.
Altis-5: Book #2 of the Sleeper Series Page 25