Chapter 12: New Residents

~~ October - Week 41 & Tychy Week 6 ~~

The crews spent the next week settling into their new lives.

They still had fitting out to complete and plenty of work otherwise. Juanita had effectively taken over the mining enterprise. With the Bolo boys, they had soon selected four locations they wanted to exploit to keep the recyclers tanks full.

Sean and Lee went with them to the first location and helped Juanita plan how to protect the workers while there. Minnie had already produced new fencing materials and Bear bricks. The four mine entrances they planned were in proximity to the northern gate of the moat.

DT, Gary and the Bolos fenced from the gate to just short of the middle mine entrance. They installed an automated gate. They then fenced back across until they had closed in the access area to the front of the mines. They could later enclose the paddocks they had created on either side of the fenced roadway and even installed a couple of gates for later use.

They decided it was too difficult to fence across the mountain. So, Lee and Sean simply cut the face of the hill back to a height of 4m, so the only way an animal could enter the area was if it accidentally fell off the wall on the cliff or flew in.

Where Juanita planned to make the mine entrances, they cut out a 3m cubed hole. They then added a 1.5m high wall above the openings and across the cut to the fences. They simply used the rubble from the first cuts to build the walls. They were designed to encourage the animals to go either left or right and to move away from the area.

Lee and Sean had come up with an idea on how to automate the platforms. They installed some new electronics and positional locators on the four platforms they had assigned to mining. Juanita could wi-fi link to them and tell them to come to whichever mine they were working.

When the pallets were full, the platform would go back to the location sensor at the moat. Whoever was working the recycler could simply come and collect the pallets and sent the platforms back.

They put up two prefab buildings and a washroom at the middle gate site. The smaller one was for Juanita’s mine office and a smoko hut. The second much larger 6-bay shed was to be used to store their mining equipment and the platforms if they were still at the mine each night.

The Bolo’s had expressed a wish to live at the site, but they all agreed until they knew a lot more about this planet it was safer to be in town at night. So, they agreed to build some of June’s prefab homes just inside the back gate and opposite the orchids for them.

Gary decided he wanted to set up a dozen small homes just in case. He hinted that if Sean and Lee wished to do some recruiting, they were more than happy to have some more workers.

Bruit asked them if they had a map of Jahnville. Lee produced one. Bruit said a group of his cousins and even some Pixs and Burgis’ lived in this area. If Lee took him there, he was sure he could talk them into moving here. They did all sorts of work, and she could decide whom she wanted.

Lee and Sean helped erect the homes to create the little suburb and planned a trip in the morning.

Bruit loved being transported into his old village.

It was early in the morning, and the village was just waking up. The village was obviously not doing well. Bruit took them to his cousin Lon’s home. On the way, he explained they had been in dispute with another village further down the valley.

The others tried to stop the traders from coming here. When he and his family had heard of Lee’s new town, they had decided they would leave. They were not the least bit sorry that they had.

When Bruit knocked on his cousin’s door, the man took one look at the wizards, and fell to his knees and bowed to Lee and Sean. Lee sighed and told him to stand. He invited them into his humble abode, and it wasn’t long before Lee and Sean were up to date with what was going on.

It seemed about a year ago a new family of Prols had moved into the area. Their leader had told the people living here, he was now in charge and they were to do as he says. The locals were not impressed. There had been some fighting between the new village and the old.

Vordon, their leader, had stopped the traders from coming here. Basically, he was trying to starve them into submission. Lee was not impressed. She asked where this Vordon was located. Two minutes later, Vordon woke to find a wand jammed under his chin.

A very pissed off Lord Wizard and her apprentice a great hulking man were looking down on him. The man pissed his britches in fear. Lee told him in no uncertain terms if he persisted in victimising his neighbours, he would have to deal with her, did he understand? Vordon nodded that he did.

Lee ran the wand over his forehead in a cross pattern. She said in a menacing voice that chilled his blood, “Every time you are nasty or try to force anyone do something against their wishes, this cross will burn. Do you understand?”

He nodded ‘yes’ again. Then the wizards disappeared in front of his eyes. He went to hit his wife to get her out of bed and help him get cleaned up. But when he raised his hand to her, the cross started to burn, and he felt an excruciating pain in his head until he lowered his hand.

When he recovered, he found his family standing in front of him. He went to start cussing them and found himself rolling on the floor in agony again. Vordon wasn’t a real smart guy, and it took a while for him to learn it wasn’t smart to piss-off the Lord Wizard.

While Lee was gone, Lon organised a village meeting to discuss the proposal she had left him with. There was still a Pix, a Burgis and one other Prol family still living in the village. Many of the people had left, and they were probably settled in Futura by now. They had followed Bruit.

Lee told the families what they wanted and promised things would be better. She explained how the wages were paid and what the employment conditions were. While Clarksville wasn’t as developed as Futura was, it was part of their jobs to help make it a thriving town.

Sean thought at Lee, ‘Clarksville?’

Lee thought back, ‘Well, I had to call the place something. Anyway, I like it. It has a nice ring to it. By the way, I called our island, Watson Island.’ She grinned at him.

Sean smiled at her and shook his head. Actually, he liked the sound of having an island named after them. His dad would be tickled. He wished his parents and his little sister could meet Lee. They would love her. Lee smiled that ‘I love you’ smile that she kept for him. He knew one day that it would happen because she wanted it too.

The excited villages asked what they could take with them. Not one of them even baulked at the suggestion of leaving. Then Lee and Sean thought about the logistics of shifting twenty-eight villages and their gear.

‘Shit Lee, how are we going to do this?’ Sean thought at her.

Lee told the villages to pack up what they wanted to bring and to assemble here by noon. She then transported Sean back to Futura. They found Philip and Kyle and explained their dilemma. Kyle suggested some large platforms.

They could put a short side on them, so the people felt safe pack them in and transport it. The three of them popped over to the replicator. Kyle logged in and trolled through what was in there already that he could adapt.

He said, ‘Hey, even better. June had designed this fold-up variety they are about six meters by four and have a one-meter side. We make one for each family, and whatever they can fit in it, they can take.”

Lee and Sean liked this idea. So, Kyle got them made. He thought to Tony and Debora and told them he would be back soon. To Lee, he said, “We need a few more wizards.”