A Planet with No Name

by Alan Black

  Veronica nodded. “He’s right about the land being practically worthless. As far as I know, you can’t grow rocks on that sandlot.”

  Tania said, “So why do you want it?”

  Veronica said, “It sits right next to my place and the land I inherited from Maine. It may have some value to me in water rights. And…well…truthfully, I’m more interested in its mineral rights.”

  Tania looked interested. “Minerals? You mean like zinc and potassium and such?”

  Veronica said, “I don’t know. I haven’t done any geological surveys on the property, so I don’t know anything for sure. For all I know there’s nothing but more rocks under the top layer of sand. I’m not going to lie to you; there may be a buried alien civilization underground, a lake full of champagne, or a diamond mine, for all I know.”

  Tania laughed. “Yeah, what are the odds?”

  “Will twenty-five thousand get you to Landing City?”

  “Yeah, and then some.”

  “Get your data-patch and I’ll transfer it to you right now.”

  It only took a minute before Tania was twenty-five thousand credits richer.

  Veronica owned another section of land contiguous to hers and this land may not be as worthless as Maine’s. She was going to have to research gold-bearing quartz outcroppings very soon.

  Before leaving Tiffany’s, Veronica scanned the help available advertisements on the planet-wide net. She spotted one for a Landing City couple with college degrees and teaching experience who were both looking for work. She sent them a thousand credits for expenses and instructions to come see her. She then disconnected her active access to the city hall kiosk. There was no sense in giving anyone backdoor access to her databanks if they could decrypt her password.

  Walking back to her truck, she wondered if she needed to buy another house. Would Auggie and Mags mind sharing a bedroom in their four-bedroom home for the couple she planned to hire? All the buildings she bought from the Guirards were four-bedroom designs, so everyone working for her had extra bedrooms.

  Maslow and Arianna had one teenage daughter in the house so they had two additional rooms. Polat and Kat had two young children, but that still left them with an extra bedroom. She imagined Auggie and Mags had slept in or had sex in every bedroom of their house, but she felt their house was the best choice. She planned to ask Auggie if he minded giving up one or two of his extra bedrooms, on their drive back to the Flying V.

  She heard the shouting just before reaching the truck.

  Manning Tatum was trying to outshout the Halberds, and the Halberds were trying to outshout Sheriff Eustace. Auggie sat on the hood of their truck watching in amusement as Eustace’s face grew redder with each shout.

  Tatum spotted her. “There she is. Arrest her.”

  Eustace grit his teeth. “I can’t arrest her. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Buckner Halberd shouted, “Your report says that she had poison. She was going to kill my last son. She’s a murderer.”

  Tatum shouted. “She stole Maine’s land and committed fraud against the Landing City Assurance Company.”

  Eustace said, “I don’t have any evidence that she did anything wrong in my jurisdiction. I can’t—”

  Tatum shouted. “I pay your salary. Arrest her.”

  Veronica pulled up her data-patch and tapped into her financial database. “Sheriff Eustace, I owe you for your services this morning. Are you ready to get paid?”

  Eustace accessed his data-patch. “Don’t short me or I might find some reason to arrest you.”

  Veronica transferred a thousand credits into the sheriff’s account. “That’s more than we agreed, correct? The extra is a bonus for being so timely.”

  Tatum shouted. “That’s my money she’s giving away.”

  Halberd shouted. “Sheriff, what about her plan to kill my boy?”

  Eustace shook his head. “Buckner, she didn’t do anything. I can’t prove in any court what Smith thought about, and neither can you. She had poison, but we don’t know what her plans were for it. I suggest you get your boy home and bury them both. I can’t see how you did anything but bring this all on yourself.”

  Tatum shouted. “She shouldn’t even be here.”

  Eustace said, “You should’ve thought about that when you helped write up the Pioneer Compact.”

  Veronica turned her back on all of them and walked to her truck. She and Auggie climbed in and headed out of town to the shouts of Buckner Halberd threatening to “get her” someday.

  She smiled at Auggie. “Without his sons, Buckner Halberd’s threats are no more dangerous than a toothless kitten.”

  Auggie shook his head. “Be careful about underestimating any enemy. The man may be a toothless old kitten, but kittens can be quiet and sneak up on you in the night.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Mornings at the Flying V evolved into round table discussions during breakfast with her whole staff clustered around her dining room table. Veronica would have presided, but the wives, Pushta, Kat, and Marianna, took control of her house, seating and feeding everyone. There was laughter and more buttered biscuits tossed about than business ideas, although farming, ranching, and expansion plans were open topics of discussion. She could not think of a better way to start the day.

  One of her newly hired teachers sighed. “Mrs. Smith, talking about expansion, we have got to do something about a school building.”

  Malina, the oldest of the children, snorted in derision. “Why? If I have to go to school, the ramada outside is the best place for it.”

  Veronica asked, “Well, that may be all right for now, but what about during the next rainy season?”

  Malina giggled, “We just take that off like we took summers off back on Earth.”

  The teacher said, “I am more concerned about the number of students. There may not be that many children here—not to mention the continuing adult education we do—but we do get a full busload of children in from Twisted City four days a week. I’m not complaining, but we’re running out of room.”

  Veronica nodded. “That, plus we need to have some space between the various classes.”

  Malina laughed. “Oh no, I like it with all of the grades jammed in together.”

  Veronica laughed with her. “That’s because you find it easier to hide when you haven’t done your homework.”

  Arianna, Malina’s mother, pointed a big wooden spoon at the girl. Her Polish accent was thick, but her words were clear. “No! You are a smart girl. You study hard, be smart like Veronica. You don’t be a dumb farmer’s wife like me.”

  Maslow looked hurt, but his fake groan fooled no one. “You’re the wife of a dumb farmer? I resent that!”

  Malina ducked as a biscuit sailed over her head. “What option do I have? There isn’t anybody else around for hundreds of miles. It’s not like a boyfriend is going to come knocking at the front door.”

  The laughter died as the doorbell rang and everyone stared at Malina.

  Veronica was closest to the front door, so she waved everyone down and went to check while Malina tried to protect herself from a barrage of questions.

  Malina shouted after Veronica. “If it’s a farmer, tell him I’m not interested.” The comment brought a fresh salvo of biscuits until Pushta complained about them wasting food.

  Veronica opened the door. Stunned, she looked back toward the kitchen, and then back at the young boy standing outside the front door. He was dark skinned with large dark eyes. He looked to be no more than fifteen. Behind him was a low two-wheeled hand cart carrying two children huddled on the platform, a small boy about ten, and a girl about eight, both resembling the larger boy. They must be relatives.

  “Yes?” she finally asked.

  “I am Rodrigo, ma’am. And I…I…we heard that you were starting a school and…” He let the sentence hang and stared at his feet.

  “You want to go to school?”

  Rodrigo shook his head, still looking at the
ground. “No. I mean, yes. Schools are where they take care of kids, right?”

  Veronica nodded. “Yes, of course. Where are your parents?”

  Rodrigo answered. “They died in a fire at our apartment in Landing City last month.”

  “Last month? Who’s been taking care of you?”

  “I take care of myself and them too.”

  Veronica turned her head and shouted, “Pushta, set three more places at the table. Shove a couple of those fat old men out of the way.” She looked at the boy. “You and your siblings come on in. Breakfast is on the table.”

  “I can work for it, ma’am, I’m not asking for charity.”

  Veronica smiled. “Well, you look plenty able to take care of yourself, but we can talk about that over breakfast, okay?”

  Malina was in mid-story, barely taking a breath between words, until she saw Rodrigo. Her mouth snapped shut and her face blushed bright red.

  Veronica laughed. “I wondered what it would take to get Malina to be quiet. Nice to know that all it takes is a handsome young man.” She gestured to some hastily cleared chairs. “Sit, Rodrigo. Introductions can wait until after breakfast.

  She noticed that the boy did not touch the food in front of him until his brother and sister received their food and started eating. She deliberately failed to notice when he slipped a few biscuits into his pockets.

  When their young guests slowed down, she asked. “So, you want to come to school?”

  Rodrigo chugged down a glass of pineapple-flavored water and nodded. “Yes, ma’am, well, I want Ivan and Pretty to go. I’ll work to pay their way. I’m a hard worker, you’ll see.”

  “How did you hear about our little school all the way up there in Landing City?”

  Rodrigo held up his wrist to show her his data-patch. “It’s all over the net. Kids all over the planet are talking about it. We thought—I thought— we should come here. I mean, schools have to take care of kids, don’t they?”

  Before Veronica could respond, Kat said, “Of course we take care of children. We have room for you to stay at our house.”

  Polat said, “Steve has me plowing today and dredging up mounds for some rice fields. I could use an extra set of hands if this young man doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.”

  Pushta said, “It’s settled then. Welcome to your new home.”

  Veronica said, “Whoa! First, he’s in school in the mornings, then Rodrigo can go work in the afternoon.”

  Malina shouted. “Hey! How come I don’t get the afternoons off from school?”

  Maslow shouted back, “Because you don’t want to be married to some dumb farmer like your mother.”

  Looking embarrassed, Malina gave a quick sideways glance at Rodrigo, “That might depend on the farmer.”

  Arianna pounded her big wooden spoon on the table. “That is exactly what I say, when I meet my Maslow.”

  Veronica said, “Rodrigo, it looks like you have a part time job that pays your school tuition plus a room and meals.”

  Rodrigo smiled, “Thank you, ma’am. I knew it would pay to get here early.”

  “Um…what?”

  “We hurried as fast as we could to get here when we heard about your school.”

  Veronica asked, “How did you get here?”

  Rodrigo shrugged, “Walked. We walked fast to get here ahead of the others.”

  “I hate to ask this, but what others?”

  Rodrigo looked around the table. “The other kids. There’s a whole string of orphans and runaways between here and Landing City. Some kids left home because their parents couldn’t afford to feed them anymore, and some are like us, orphans. The net says there’s a school here, a place for kids. Where else should we go?”

  Veronica looked around the table, shaking her head. “I don’t think getting a few used houses is going to help with this.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Veronica looked at Maine’s section of her property. Even though she had owned it for a month, everyone still called it Maine’s section. It was as good a name as any name. She thought about re-numbering her sections, calling Maine’s section, one, her northwest section, two, and so on, numbering left to right, and north to south. She rejected the idea because she would have to re-number all over again if she increased her ever-expanding property.

  She was not planning on a lot of expansion. She had never planned on taking over any Halberd property, but she did not hesitate to grasp the opportunity when it presented itself. Getting rid of Dillon and Maine had been her plan. There was no downside to owning property on this planet, no homeowners associations to complain about weeds in the front yard, no government to demand taxes, and no requirements to do anything at all with the land. Somehow, not using an asset seemed wrong to her.

  Nature abhors a vacuum and so does she. She was more familiar with vacuums, than most people were. She dealt with enough empty-headed students over the years to make her an expert in vacuums. She felt that not making the most efficient use of the land she owned was like staring into the empty eyes of a university freshman. Both begged to be filled—even if they did not know it.

  Veronica now owned more property than she could effectively manage. She was beginning to delegate responsibilities to her staff, but it was hard to turn loose of the details. She felt she was a capable educator, but a terrible administrator.

  Her original lands blended across section lines. She hoped that someday Maine and Dillon’s sections would blend into the rest of her property. There were no fences, no hedgerows, and no boundary markers. Though she had walked across the width and length of her land, she sometimes could not tell whether she was on Maine’s, Dillon’s, or the northwest corner of her original Northwestern Section. It was easy to tell the difference between Dillon’s land and her Southeastern Section, his land was rocks and sand, whereas hers was lush, wet grassland. The dividing line between the Southeastern and Northeastern parcels was so blurred by planted fields and grasslands it would take an experienced, senior surveyor to tell her where she was; or a GPS reading. The Compact organizers still did not have functioning satellites in orbit to support global positioning system triangulation. Rumors suggested they scrapped and repurposed the original GPS satellites to keep the weather satellites functioning.

  In Maine’s section of land a few springs fed some lonely creeks and isolated streams cutting through the steep hillsides. The aquifer was close enough that a few wells would make it usable for anyone willing to try dry farming, but the majority of the section was composed of more sand, stone, rock, and boulders than dirt. Only a few flat areas were available for converting to usable terrain without bulldozing or blasting hills into canyons and ravines.

  Auggie and Mags were always eager to blast away at rocks and ravines or to blow something up, but she had another plan.

  Spreading out her roughly drawn section plat in front of her, it almost covered the truck hood. She glanced at her map, looked at the land, and back at the map again before making some small notations on her paper. Lakes and ponds each marked in blue covered her map and red streaks marked dams, culverts, and earthen breastworks.

  “Tucker,” she turned to Karen Guirard’s husband, “I need buildings here, here, here, and finally, here. Can you get them and deliver them here? Of course, I need to know what it’ll cost before we do anything.”

  Tucker laughed. “Cost? You don’t need houses; you need specialty buildings like office space, a warehouse building, and maybe even a prefabricated strip mall. I can sell houses. The other types of buildings are gathering dust all over the inhabited parts of this planet. I’ll bring them, set them up, and not charge you a dime except for some minor labor costs, if you put another building right here.” He poked a finger at the map. “Call it the Tucker and Karen Guirard Memorial Library, and you have a deal.”

  Veronica shook her head “You are a crazy old man. I have the money to pay you.”

  Tucker said, “I didn’t come to this no-name planet to make mone
y. You’ve bought enough stuff from us over the last month to keep us in bacon and beans for the rest of our lives. You’re spending your own money building a school campus for children up here. If you don’t let me contribute, I won’t sell you the buildings.”

  Veronica said, “Done deal. The Crazy Man and His Most Wonderful Wife’s School Library, it is.”

  Tucker said, “Memorial.”

  “Memorial?”

  Tucker grinned, “You are building this school to last, right? Well, I believe it’ll outlast Karen and me by a long time so you might as well get the name right from the start.” He tapped her map. “What are these buildings?”

  “Apartments and school dormitories.”

  “I should be able to find something like that.”

  Veronica shook her head. “No. I met an out of work—”

  “Ain’t they all?” Tucker laughed. “If you keep taking in every stray child and out of work adult on this planet, you’re going to have to plan for a bigger place than Landing City.”

  Veronica said, “This world is not as benevolent as it looked on paper, is it? Still, I met this man, an out-of-work stonemason, and he’s going to put these buildings up using natural stone with a mortar made of local mud and straw from my harvested wheat fields.”

  “Those look like significant buildings for one man.”

  “They’re single story, plus, the stonemason already has a crew of ready laborers who are anxious to learn his business. The pre-fabricated buildings you sell are beautiful, but there will come a day when they start falling apart, and we’ll need trained, seasoned construction workers.”

  “More of your continuing education plans?”

  Before she could answer, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Veronica?”

  She turned at the sound of his voice. She glanced up at Mags sitting on the roof of the truck. She had not heard the man come up behind her, but she was certain he was not dangerous. Auggie and Mags hovered over her whenever she was outside of her home.