A Lack of Communication, Angry Old Men…
Tony confronted Megal as they gathered around a table for the midday meal. “What were you thinking? Negotiations like this have to be paced, Megal. You jumped to something that is going to take a lot of research to fix,” Tony was amazed the young man had raised the issue so soon. “All the settlements have more urgent things to worry about before we tackle devices.”
“Tio Tony, to me it was obvious. The prince was using hard copy for his notes and the damaged machine in the corner was an example. It is urgent,” Megal said.
“Not as urgent as food and medicine, Megal,” Julie said softly across the table. They were enjoying the abundant fresh vegetables served in the common dining room. “We do need to recover some of the technology we had when we were stranded, but survival is more important right now.”
“Megal, you don’t know how close to starving the people of Port come every year. They don’t have land to grow enough food to feed everyone,” Sarita remembered the days of her captivity in Port where there was nothing but the swamp root mush and what fish had been caught that morning. “A diet of swamp root would keep you alive but craving something more to eat.”
“Megal, we did not talk much on the trip about what we need in Port,” Blackie said quietly. “Tony and I agreed that those needs must come first. If we do not raid the other settlements, we don’t have enough food. It is that simple.”
“It’s that bad?” Megal was shocked. “We have lean times on some of the hacienda, but never a time when anyone is allowed to go hungry. Even the many runaways who have come to the city get fed each day by the church. My father insists on it.” Julie spoke up to add to her husband’s comment.
“We have the swamp roots and there are always fish in the waters surrounding the islands, but sometimes even those fail us. Some of the native fish are poisonous and they are thrown back.” Julie explained. “The taro root from Terra that was adapted saved us when nothing else would grow. The first farms on the tropical end of Utopia adapted it and generously gave us a start growing it. In the rainy season and when the big storms come, it’s all we have to eat without raiding.”
Megal was shaken by what he had been told. He resolved to stay quiet and let Tony do most of the talking when they rejoined the prince. There was much that needed to be done and he was sure of what his father would want. To be a leader, you have to put people’s needs first even if those were not directly your people.
“I was not aware of some of this. We need to discuss how we are going to approach this among ourselves, so I do not damage our negotiations,” Megal was annoyed that the men had not included him, but he understood, they had discussed some of it. He needed to be more careful.
***
Arriving at his office after midday meal, Sean found the same three men who had demanded something be done about the raids. They had arrived while he was at home and insisted on waiting in his office. They angrily demanded he adhere to the original charter’s intent. They pointed out that not only had the raids become worse, these changes he was allowing were disrupting society.
“Your highness, you are young and do not fully understand what our founders wanted to establish here,” Lord Murphy said. “I blame the material used in the common schools for this lack. We need to stop this dependence on electricity and powered devices. This is to be a fully non-mechanical society. Have you not read with the Founders wrote?”
“You were not in the Assembly when the full contents of the book were presented, were you?” Sean said.
“My family was ensuring that the rest of the settlement would have material for ropes and baskets. If the hemp crop is not planted on time, it will not yield the long fiber used for ropes. I only hope this new violation you are allowing will not endanger the harvest.”
“If you would use the oxen instead of having the plows pulled by people or even attempt to use the tractors, it would not have taken you so long, my lord.”
“There is no mention of draft animals or tractors in the original copy you have distributed,” another of the elderly lords spoke up. “How can we keep to the dictates of our charter if you keep allowing this dependence on mechanical power and electricity?”
“My lords, don’t you realize that when Thomas More wrote that book the most complex machine was a water wheel? The rooms were lit with candles, and they dumped the pots they used for toilets in the streets for the rain to wash into the river.” Sean had heard rumors that these three lords were one of the reasons each five-year move was so chaotic. They followed each other, refused to use the machines at the farm sites, and frequently took almost the full five years to get anything done. Fortunately, there always seemed to be a member of the family who would rebel, and some mechanical assistance might be used.
“The founders of the NeoUtopians believed as we do that machines are evil tools to draw humans away from Nature and enslave them,” Lord Murphy was very old and spoke with a shaky, soft voice. “The Charter must be adhered to and what you have done with the changes as well as opening the storage containers endangers us all.”
“My lords, if we do not make major changes, our settlement and those of the other Terrans on this planet will fail. I assure you, these changes are not being done without thought,” Sean was growing more and more angry. “At this moment, we are having a serious shortage of meat products and clothing. The pumps that move the treated drinking water across the city have been contaminated by leakage from the sewage system. And you want to do away with all of these machines and the electricity we need to run them? Your precious founders were idiots. Get out of my office.” Sean was standing and glaring down on the three old men. They rose and after expressing their displeasure at this treatment, slowly made their way out of his office.
“Lord Johnson, do you think that was wise?” Naomi said softly after she watched the three elderly family heads leave the building.
“Maybe we should send them up to that camp Murphy’s grandson found where the renegades lived. Give them an idea of what life was like for their precious Thomas More,” Sean sat down, leaned over, and rested his head on his hands.
***
The afternoon trade meeting was cut short because the prince had to deal with the call for an Assembly meeting. They exchanged lists of goods and tried to establish a value for each, but it was difficult. They agreed to put it off until after the problem with the raids was settled.
As they were stopping, Simon and Shauna rushed into the room carrying what looked like paper pipes. “Sean, I know you did not want to be disturbed, but Shauna is a great decoder and we have found the maps. We have more land than we imagined.” Simon and Shauna cleared the conference table and spread them large paper maps. Megal recognized them immediately as topographical maps. They showed the depth of the sea floor as well as how high and steep the hills and mountains were.
“Excellent, find Lord Kearney,” Blackie said. “Of course, this was done over 400 years ago, but it gives up some idea of how much is here.”
They crowded around the maps and Megal began explaining what the lines meant. “We had to draw maps like this of our hacienda when we were in the gymnasium. It also was used for surveying as to who had control over which areas.”
“Megal, what does it mean here on the top of Utopia? The lines are very close together?” Sean was amazed by the size of the land mass on the planet.
“It means the cliffs are very steep and the water is very deep.”
“That would explain how the raiders of Port got to the east side of Utopia so quickly,” Julie pointed out.
“Well, as much as I want to take time to study these, we have to deal with these attacks and with this emergency meeting,” Sean said. “Simon, ask Tyrone to find you a larger workroom close to the containers. You will need more help. This is an excellent start.”
***
Megal and Sarita sat in the garden of the hostel after the meeting had adjourned. Megal had a plan in mind for handling the renegades. “Papi and I believe that punishment needs to be related to the crime. Some of the family heads wanted Keeper Malfe executed but Papi refused.”
“I can understand why they requested death,” Sarita said. “My mother was fortunate that we were in Utopia so she could take us to the Temple of New Life. She once told me there was another girl born in Refugio who was sent to the Keepers.”
“The deaths were why my father did not want to execute those involved. He believed there had been enough death. Spending the rest of their lives working at the monastery and being made to review what they had done was punishment enough.”
“What are they doing?” Sarita had only heard they were sent there and could not leave.
“The monks got the records they kept of how many infants were smothered. The monks are making them copy the information in a formal record. They must give each child a name and write down the date of birth and death. The monks decided it was a fitting punishment for the four of them.” The Overlord had found what the monks decreed a creative and appropriate punishment. The monks enforced it by rationing food if a quota of names were not done each day. The prisoners were not starved, but as Sarita well knew, a steady diet of swamp root was not popular.
“What are you thinking of for these raiders?” Sarita said.
“They need food and shelter, the basics of surviving. First, we must contact them and I have an idea on how to convince them to cooperate,” Megal said. “That will be the hardest part. They have done damage as have the people of Port but like Papi and Tio Tony have said, if we are going to survive on this planet, we must have everyone working together.”
***
“Lord Kearney, I may have found the key to the mineral charts,” Shauna had been reading over the maps and reports they had found. “We need help with this because I have no idea what would be helpful and what is just nice rocks.”
“Megal thinks some of his teachers may have the knowledge of these minerals.” Simon said. “One thing he said gives me hope. Refugio continued to teach the technology from Terra. Our founders attempted to erase it from our society.”
“Some of the things in that storage container makes me believe some of them disagreed.” Shauna said. “I think the sealed boxes in the back may have equipment in them, but they are marked differently than these things from GC.”
“I will discuss this with Lord Johnson,” Simon said. “An inventory of the storage containers is long overdue.”
Should you want to read the whole story…
Book One
Book Two
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