Amaurot, Utopia Colony, Higgins World…
“You claimed we weren’t going to have any more of these pirate raids, Sean Johnson!” Lord Muldoon hobbled into Sean’s office followed by two other elderly family heads. “You’ve been a fool to trust those pirates from Port.” These three families were descendants of the original NeoUtopian Society, the only families who still demanded adherence to the Charter written hundreds of years ago on Terra.
“I only said we were working on an agreement. I never said it was final.” Sean, the recently elected prince said. He had been working on revisions to the trade agreement with the other main settlement, Refugio, since their representatives were due in Amaurot soon. They had never had an agreement with the third settlement, Port. “What happened?”
“My son said they were getting set up and a raiding party sailed into the bay demanding food,” the second man said. “The pirates threatened to burn the dock. They had pots of liquid that they set on fire and waved around like they were going to dump them. Our supplies were in the shelter, so the pirates carried off most of the food.”
“They butchered one of our best meat animals and took some wool cloth,” the third man added. “I checked with Lord Sullivan, and his family had no raids the whole time they were clearing the trees. My daughter swears the boats came from the ice plains.”
“From the frozen area?” Sean interrupted. This was new. Port was mid-line of the planet and to the west of Utopia. “You are sure of that? Lord Ludden did your people notice which direction they came from?”
“We are south of both Murphy and Muldoon so if they hit them first, my people would see them come from the north,” he said. “Lucky for us, the harvest has been a good one, but this has to stop. I thought getting a founding family member as prince would help but you’re not doing enough, Prince Sean.” The sarcasm in Ludden’s voice annoyed Sean because he doubted anyone wanted to voluntarily take over his job. He had been the only candidate in the election.
When the NeoUtopian Society set up the Charter for the Utopia colony, they were following a plan based on an excerpt from an ancient book, Utopia by Thomas More. Much had been lost in the troubled years of the 2000’s and all they had were select quotes from a book on governing. From what they were able to find in other sources, they designed a plan. The goal of the founding families was to have a society totally free of technology, no machines, no electricity, human-power only.
In the excerpt from Utopia, the author said everything was owned in common. More’s book also called for an elected prince and an elected assembly, but referred to the leaders of the community using the old English titles as was done in More’s time. To keep people from becoming attached to the land, everyone rotated to the next farm every ten years. The Society decided that ten years was too long and cut it to five in their Charter. They also had planned for growth and directed that more new farms be established on a regular basis. The disruption of moving everyone every five years was considerable. Now many years after offloading to the planet, it was clear they did not have enough population to establish these new farms, but the traditionalist insisted. These three farms were new but short on people. These families did not have enough members to set up a new farm. But the Charter had to be followed. Every 20 years these new farms were demanded.
The coastal farms were subject to raids from the Port settlement. The Grounders, as they called themselves, were the descendants of the transport ship crew. Three groups of Terran citizens had been on the transport and stranded when it was destroyed as the NeoUtopians were being offloaded. The crew’s ancestors had settled on tropical islands expecting rescue by the Galactic Consortium who owned the transport ship. That was the main reason Sean had agreed to the meeting with both the other settlements. Port had signed an agreement with Refugio, the third settlement, to stop raiding but wanted one with Utopia. Most of the staples for the settlements came from Utopia. Neither Refugio nor Port was able to grow all the food their people needed.
A Port ship captain who had come to Utopia seeking to have his ship repaired had warned the head of the repair dock that the raids might not stop. The organization of Port was much looser than the other two settlements and, unfortunately, some of the Grounder captains were probably going to keep raiding. This latest raid would complicate any attempt at an agreement.
“The representatives from Port have gone to Refugio to bring their trade delegation here for a meeting.” Sean attempted to soothe the angry elders. “This is new since we’ve never had issues with that side of the land before.”
“There’s another odd thing, Sean. We were at Southmost years ago and those Port raiders were always clean faced. I was told these men had beards.”
“Heard from my people about that but didn’t think about it,” Ludden said. “But my people said they did notice the raiders dressed in what looked like leather, no cloth. If they aren’t from Port, where are they from?”
“They’re human and speak Trade, I was told,” the second man spoke up. “Those jungle carnivores may not be the solution to our renegade problem, Sean. I’ve always suspected some of the criminals survived, but I don’t understand why they haven’t shown up before.”
“We need to find that out, and soon,” Sean said. “One thing I know is the settlers in Port need more land and know about that unsettled third land mass. If the renegades are surviving, we have more serious problems than these raids.”
That morning the far speaker system had warned him the ship from Refugio was traveling faster than expected. At least they would be landing in Northwest Trade City, and it would take a day or two before they arrived in the capital Amaurot. He assured his visitors that he would be investigating and showed them out of his office.
Sean realized he needed those maps the NeoUtopians had received from the Galactic Consortium when they bought the rights to Higgins World. That would give him some idea of how big that third land mass was, but finding those old maps might be difficult. The arrival on the planet had been chaotic when the transport was destroyed. Some documents had been preserved but even this long after landing, the collection was still not sorted. He asked his assistant to check if Simon Kearney was in town. Surely Simon, his scholarly friend, would be able to track them down.
***
Simon Kearney was enjoying a session with the children in the fields of their new farm. It was farther north than the previous assignment, so the plants were different. The children were carefully collecting plants they didn’t recognize so they could catalog them. Simon pulled the supply wagon, watching the older children teach the younger ones how to handle the sample plants, much to his pleasure. Any native vegetation could be dangerous.
“Papa Kearney, come see this grass. We can’t cut it!” one of the older girls called to him. She leaned down but cried out in pain and Simon hurried to see what had happened. The tough plant had a defense against the attempt at gaining a specimen. It shot a small thorn into the hand of the girl trying to cut it.
“Where are your gloves, Micky?” Simon quickly opened the medical kit he was carrying and used the tweezers to pull the small projectile out of the girl’s hand. Another student held out a sample vial and the thorn was saved for later. The patch of thick green growth was marked with a warning flag.
“I bet it will shoot a lot more of those if you step on it or fall into it,” Micky held her hand out to the healer who had accompanied them. “I took off my gloves to try and break it with my hand. I apologize, Papa Kearney. The rest of you, the rules are to keep us safe. Don’t take your gloves off!”
The healer looked at her hand and said they had best take the children back. He wanted to put a poultice on Micky’s hand. Something in the thorn was causing the site of the puncture to swell.
“Let’s go back to the schoolhouse and see if the previous family left any information about this plant,” Simon said. There was a bit of grumbling from some of the students but since they would have extra free time before evening chores, the return was faster than the walk out.
“I was about to send a call for you.” Morianan, Simon’s wife, met him as they entered the central farmyard. “You have several messages from Amaurot, all from Sean. He is frantic for you to come back.”
“And I am just as frantic to stay here,” Simon said. “I just had a wonderful session with the children, and I want to stay here and teach them. I don’t understand why he can’t find someone else to do whatever he wants me to do.”
“Simon, you are getting the recognition you have deserved for so long,” Morianan slipped her hand into his arm and guided him towards the main kitchen. “I think we have finally gotten the ovens to work properly so there may be cookies and some tea.” The Kearney family had the unfortunate position of following the three original NeoUtopian families. Each rotation meant lots of work reconnecting all the solar panels and wind generators as well as getting the communal kitchen and pantry back to modern standards.
“Well, not until I check on Micky. She took off her gloves and got stung by a thorn from an aggressive plant. It was beginning to swell, and the healer was concerned.”
“A plant that shoots thorns? That’s a new one,” Morianan said. “I am surprised that the Family Ludden didn’t warn us.”
“They may not have even known about it. I don’t think the families before us explored the fields like we do. There’s so much we still don’t know about this planet, and we need to learn.” Simon shook his head, gave Morianan a quick kiss and turned towards the small infirmary to check on the injured girl.
***
“Lord Kearney, may I have a few minutes of your time?” The young woman had recently joined the family. She had volunteered to help with teaching.
“I heard about Micky’s injury and wanted to let you know that plant has been recognized and cataloged by the botany department at the university. This area has many dangerous plants and I wondered if you would let me teach the children about them?”
“That would be wonderful!” Simon saw a solution to one of his problems. “I will let the teachers know you are doing this. Micky’s hand seems to be healing but we don’t want more children hurt, so you have my blessings to get started.” Simon smiled at the shy young woman. “Thank you for coming to me. This will be very helpful.” He sent a quick mental message to his wife. He would be answering the prince’s plea. He had more help for the parents who taught the children.
Simon spent the next hour notifying everyone he would be going back to Amaurot and making his plans. He asked the teachers to include the new biology lessons soon to prevent others from suffering like Micky. With his reservations made for an airship to the capital city made, he joined the families for the evening meal in the communal dining room. They were still working to repair the changes the previous families who had rotated to Farm 23 had made. He knew his friend Sean must have something important or would not have been so insistent. Simon was going to miss contact with the family children more than anything else.
Should you want to read the whole story…
Book One
Book Two
Amazon.com: Surviving Higgins World: Change or Chaos? eBook : Gibson, Patricia : Kindle Store