Discoveries in the Woods, Disposing of the Dead…
Megal had chosen to stay on shore with the security force and had strung his hammock near the fire after dinner. One of the camp residents approached him with a warning. “Ser Morales, you are welcome to share a shelter with some of us. Sleeping out in the open under the trees is not safe.” Megal heard a rustling in the tree over his head and the man pulled him away from his hammock just as a plop of excrement dropped out of the tree onto his sleeping sack. The air was suddenly filling with the loud screeching they had heard in the early morning.
“Those apes get smarter all the time. They seem to enjoy harassing us. I hope we don’t find them over on the new land.” The man helped him unhook the hammock and use sand to scrub the offal from the sack.
Megal thanked the man and joined him in a shelter where several men were getting ready for the night. Megal noted the man had called the animals apes. He needed to remember to tell Sarita about this when they communicated later that evening.
“We have different animals in Refugio,” Megal sat with the men around their small fire after getting his hammock hung. “I hope the ones in the new land are not as annoying as these.” All of the men in the group slept in hammocks. He asked why no one slept on the ground.
“There are insects in the ground that come out at night,” one man explained. “We have them in parts of Utopia, but they are not like as they are here. Back on the farms, we used a paste made out of the fat grass to drive them off. That grass won’t grow up here, so we have to stay off the ground.”
“That was one of the things the Port traders wanted, that green slime you make from that grass. We use it to kill the biting bugs,” Megal said. As he settled next to the small fire, he noticed the roof was made of tree bark. “How do you keep the building from burning if the trees are so flammable?”
“There are some other kinds of trees up the stream that survive the fire storms. We use their bark as a roof and keep the fires small. Winter is the worst. We lost several to the cold this past season. We need to move down south or onto that new land.”
“I cannot promise that all of you will be allowed to go, but you have proved you can survive, and I think that is important. I can speak only for Refugio,” Megal admitted. “The prince in Utopia and the Assembly will have the final say. However, since my father and I want to make things easier for humans on this planet, we will support your bid to go to the third land.”
“Hope we come up with a better name once we get there,” a man said sleepily from his hammock. “Third land is just dumb.” His comment got a laugh and the men settled in for the night.
***
It was earlier on the other side of the Utopia land mass, so Megal was able to quietly make a mental connection to Sarita. It was difficult and tiring so they both kept the information as brief as possible. He told her of the incident with the animal and she told him that several scholars from Refugio had arrived. She also said that she thought she had felt the baby move and was excited for him to come back soon. He assured her they had almost finished with the expedition and would be heading back to Amaurot soon after. His final expression of love and concern caused Sarita to smile and sigh out loud much to the concern of Julie who was sitting with her in the garden.
“What is wrong? Oh, you were talking to Megal?”
“Nothing, Megal embarrassed me with what he said.” She blushed. Julie laughed.
“Ah, young love.” They rose and walked slowly back to the hostel through the garden. It was full of native plants as well as some Terran that had been adapted. While the native pollinators flew among the natives, the imported honeybees were busy among the transplanted Terran flowers. Both women lingered to enjoy the colors and the scent of the plants.
“Have you noticed, some of the most beautiful flowers don’t smell much, and some of the plain ones are very fragrant?” Sarita said softly.
“Whatever it takes to attract that creature that moves the pollen,” Julie replied. “It is the same with the Terran and the Higgins plants. An amazing consistency in the way the galaxy is constructed.”
***
Morning brought more deaths around the camp, and news that the raiders had been caught before they had done much damage to the farm. El Canalla was among the group as was Bertram Bartmore who had led the encampment before the Refugio bandit came. The encounter with the raiders had resulted in fatalities. Three of the raiders were killed to prevent them from torching an unfinished building and one of the Port security men fell off the ship and drowned.
“That was probably Buddy Doe,” Joe Marine said. “He fancied himself a far speaker but all he ever accomplished was giving himself serious head pain. I suspect he was trying to impress one of the women back in Port and passed out.”
The cooperative renegades had found a supply of fish skins and green vines, so Megal had the burial detail began preparing the bodies for disposal. A few of the men had raped women in the encampment and the women had to be restrained from taking revenge on the bodies. To weigh the bodies down, shovels of sand were placed under the fish skins and then vines and some strips of skin wrapped around them. The land around the camp was mostly sand dunes held in place by groves of the flammable trees. Later in the evening as the wind blew the water offshore, the first of the bodies were loaded on the skiffs and rowed out to the deep water where they were dumped.
“If we bury too many at one time, we get a swarm of those big toothy lizards,” one of the cooperative renegades said. “We had to do this once before when some of the potted meat the ship brought was spoiled. We tried to explain to the big guys, but they wanted to eat it anyway.” The burials were spaced a distance apart and near obvious currents that would carry them away from the coast. More would be done in the morning until all the bodies were sent to the depths.
***
The arrival of the security detachment from the farm brought a need for decisions from Megal. They had captured both El Canalla and “Black Bart” Bartmore. Both men were known to have committed serious crimes. Under the laws of Refugio, El Canalla should be confined for the rest of his life. The exiling used by Utopia obviously did not work and Megal doubted that locking the bandit up in the Casa de Penitencia would be permanent. He knew too much about too many families, witness the information about House Pesch.
***
“We need to find a place for these people until an expedition can be done to the third land mass,” Megal said to the other leaders. “We have promised supplies if they are willing to undertake building a settlement but that takes time.” A representative of Muldoon family had returned with the small ship. Because he was to head the new farm for the family, he had been given the title of Lord Muldoon.
“To be honest, if they are willing to work, you can bring them down to us, at least the ones who will work. We need help with getting that settlement going. Our family is small, and we really didn’t have the number of people that is needed for a new farm. My uncle insisted we start. We’re supposed to start tapping these trees to make stuff from the sap. We need to get shelter built first while summer is here, and we understand it is short this far north.”
“If you are willing to take the cooperative ones, that will solve some of our problems,” Megal said. Muldoon was more than willing and went off to talk with them about what was needed.
“Megal, we have this fast boat they had built, and I know who did it and will be letting the prince know” Captain O’Malley was angry after looking at the fast boat the Refugio bandits were using. “These compulsives from Port are good at controlling these contrary people so how about we load ‘em up and just sail over to that new place then dump them out?”
“That would be a quick solution but not really fair to the folks who want to settle there,” Megal said.
“From what Julie and her crew said, the land mass is close to the size of Utopia, so we could leave them up in the north like where we are now,” Blackie joined in the conversation. “Leave them some supplies and tools and tell them good luck. From what the crew saw, it has about the same stuff we have on this land mass so, if they work at it, they will survive.”
“Actually, that is a good idea, Ser Morales,” Captain Murphy said. “If they survive, they may change their ways. If they kill each other fighting over what food we leave, the later settlers won’t have to worry about them. We need to do something soon because both my compulsives and the ones from Port are worn out. These people keep fighting the control. That’s hard on our people.”
“I can attest to how using too much power wears you out,” Megal said. “Perhaps if we present an option to the uncooperative ones, we might make that group smaller.
The uncooperative renegades had been forced to work on the burial detail by the Port security. It was an unpleasant task due to the summer heat. He asked Joe Marine to bring the uncooperative renegades to the beach so he could make them an offer. The compulsive psy practitioners were able to remove some of the control they had so the prisoners could make a decision–agree to cooperate or be exiled. The cooperative renegades were included in the conversation since some of them had expressed a reluctance to go back to their home settlement.
Megal augmented his voice so all could hear him. “Many of you were forced out of Utopia for violations of the Charter. Some of you left Refugio because you did not want to abide by the laws. Those of you who have had a change of mind and are willing to accept the norms of our society, and we have truth detectors, are welcome to join the farm to the south but understand you will be expected to work. You will later be given the opportunity to move to the settlement that will be built on the third land mass by settlers from Port. Those of you who refuse will be taken to the third land mass at this same latitude and left.” Megal watched the group as what he had said was considered.
“Why should we trust you, Megal the rapist?” El Canalla yelled out. Megal suddenly recognized the man. He was a cousin born on Hacienda Morales with a strange psy power. He was a strong compulsive but was able to compel obedience without the other person realizing he was controlling them. The exercise of power had twisted him into a bully and an uncaring tyrant.
“Donaldo, your niece was the victim of a horrible act, but I was also a victim of that act,” Megal had known him as an overseer and herder, but not a well-liked man. He was the uncle of the girl Megal had killed. “Your brother forgave me for what happened. Why can you not do the same?”
“She was promised to my son and her dowry was to be mine,” the man yelled.
“They could not have joined, Donaldo, they were too close in blood. Your greed has blinded you,” Megal said. “Your actions were not the equal of what happened. You will be sent to the third land with some tools to clear land and find food. May the Three in One give you wisdom to forgive.” The bandit started to yell something, but the compulsive shut him down. Blackie had some of the mugging juice from Port that he suggested they dose the criminals.
“They will be easier to handle, believe me,” Blackie said. He helped a healer from Port get it ready.
Megal asked the compulsives to release the uncooperative renegades enough that they could raise a hand if they would work. Those who signaled were then separated and examined by the truth seers. The cooperative renegades who were willing to work gathered around Lord Muldoon for more information.
Later in the evening as they gathered around a fire after dinner, one of the truth seers entertained them with an incident from the selection of willing workers.
“One of the men from the controlled group said he wanted to go to the farm, but he was not going to work. He said his station and breeding forbade it,” the seer said. “I realized it was Bertram Bartmore and pointed out he had been cast off by his family. He said that the renegades recognized his nobility and allowed him to be their leader therefore he should be put in charge of the group.” His audience groaned and then laughed. “We moved him back to the controlled group.”
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