On the Bridge, Port Settlement, Higgins World…
The leaders of the Port-in-a-storm settlement, Spacer Wrightson and his administrative assistant Boats Olson sat on the porch of the Bridge eating a well-deserved evening meal. The sunset was beautiful and the breeze off the ocean cooled the meeting area for the families eating evening meals from the galley. It was packed with people, so Spacer and Boats had retreated to the porch of their office. Everyone had been working to prepare material for the weavers to make the baskets needed to fulfill the orders from Refugio.
“You know, we may have to tell Mandy to slow down on the numbers,” Boats said. “We’re going to run out of weaving material and wear out everybody the way those folks are ordering.”
“Short on fish skins for lining too,” Spacer said. “That new guy that came with Blackie from ‘topia said they have stuff that grows up there they use for baskets. We may need to get some of that or start trading with them. Any word from Blackie on getting that trade going?”
“Nope, he told the far speaker they made it and for us to be patient.”
The last order sent by Mandy Doe, their representative in Refugio, was a big one. It would trade for a supply of meat for the upcoming rainy season, so everyone wanted to help. Life was changing in Port since they agreed to trade with Refugio instead of raid. It was a lot more work, but at least they weren’t as hungry.
***
A few days later, Paul Jones walked up to the Bridge porch in the early morning. “Spacer, I heard a tale from one of those guys who sailed with Mack Gunson that I think you need to hear.” Paul Jones joined the head of the Port settlement on the porch in the warm morning sun. The fishing boat captain and his men had sponsored a dinner the night before because they had caught a large fish that was not good dried. It was a good excuse for a cooking pit and some alcohol. It had lasted late into the night. Spacer waved him to a chair and settled in to hear this tale.
“Once the cups had gone around a couple time, Jack Little Doe got to telling about a raid they did on a settlement in Refugio and where they took the goods, a lot of fish meal and some barrels of fish oil. Seems there are folks living outside the settlements in ‘topia. They lived on the east side before those new farms got set up.”
Spacer nodded and explained. “They run people off who won’t follow the rules and expect those big flesh eaters to take care of them. Pretty nasty animals from what some of them have told us.”
“Jack said these folks had a camp in the trees close to the frozen plains. He says that Mack and George Batchelder both would take some of their finds from the raids and trade them for fancy stuff. They got oil from those fire trees and some skins with fur on them that they would take and trade over in Refugio when they had legit loads to carry.”
“And here we were without food for the littles and those fools are trading for luxury goods.” Spacer was mad. “Both of them got what they deserved.”
“Maybe so, but he said they were pretty regular customers so they may be hurting just like the rest of us. Need to let Blackie and Julie know so it gets figured in on that trade agreement. They’re Terrans just like us even if the ‘topians threw them out.”
***
That evening, Spacer asked the sailors who had sailed with Gunson and Batchelder and were in port, to gather in the meeting shelter. He wanted to discuss what Paul Jones had overheard at the party. Some of the sailors were a bit reluctant given what had happened to their respective captains, but Boats reassured them. They would not be held accountable for their leaders. Those men had been harshly punished. Boats had one of the distillers mix the tree nut gin they made with more water from the large nuts and the offer of a drink brought a crowd.
“It’s been a couple of years since we traded over on the east side of ‘topia, Spacer. They’ve developed a couple of new settlements over there, mostly tapping the trees for sap since then.” Jack had agreed to tell his story again and persuaded several other crew mates. “We got blown up the coast the first time we saw them. That was before the new ones. We needed water and they jumped us when we were filling the barrels.”
“Scared us, they did, all hairy and dressed in smelly fish skins,” one of the other sailors added. “They had good bows with sharp obsidian points, good enough to make us cooperate.”
“They spoke Trade and knew who we were,” another added. “Mack did the talking that first time and a couple of the Pins we had in the crew recognized one of them.”
“I had forgotten that” Jack Little said. “Seems one of the leaders was a pretty bad criminal in ‘topia. Paddy was from a fishing boat Mack had stopped and warned him to be careful because that guy had killed several people in his own family. Nasty guy from what Paddy said.”
“Mack and their leader hit it off,” another man added, “and we traded some of our load of meal and dried fish to them. We got some skins with fur still on them that Mack knew the Regals would trade for. Too hot for Port.”
“Don’t forget that dried meat they had,” a woman sailor spoke up. “Turned out to be spoiled and we all had to scrub the ship ‘cause we all had the flux.”
“Yep, that was bad, and Mack was really mad. You’d think he would not go back but his next trip I was sailing with Beth Ann, so I only heard about it.”
“He tried to give them some foul meat, but they were on to him, and we about got strung up. Lost the whole load that trip.” Spacer realized a lot was done when these ships were out at sea that he never heard about. No wonder the other settlers called them pirates.
“Boats, can we get a far speaker message to Blackie or Julie? This might make a difference in that trade agreement.” Spacer was worried the raids by Mack Gunson and George Batchelder may have been worse than he knew. Some of their looted material didn’t ever come through Port and others might be expecting this kind of trading to continue.
“How many years has it been since you heard someone trading with these people?” Spacer needed a reference.
“The new places are one, maybe two years old, so it has been at least a year,” Paddy answered. “The man they are talking about went by Black Bart after some pirate back on Terra, but he was a Bartmore from what I heard, kin to the princess.”
***
Spacer asked Elder Garza to begin a quiet conversation with the people of Port. If they got permission to settle on the third land mass, they needed to know who would be willing to go. Garza knew how difficult it was going to be establishing a settlement on the new land mass. He had heard the stories from the first members of the crew stranded on the planet. What was believed to be a short stay in the tropics became at least three generations of settlers. They needed more space, not just for growing food, but just for having room to live. The original settlers had been space travelers, used to small spaces and close quarters. Their descendants wanted permanent houses, ones that didn’t blow away in a storm or burn if you weren’t careful.
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