Discord, A Planner Found, A Trip Begun…
Many of the Port families were gathered at the large shelter for the evening meal when an argument broke out among some of the men. Most had spent the day repairing the thatching on the docking building. Some of the fronds had been found hidden and accusations were flying over the best fronds being diverted.
“You all know the docking building is where we put the trade stuff and we need to have it be as dry as possible,” Boats said. “I know some of the houses got damaged this last land shake, but we don’t get the food we need if these goods aren’t kept dry.”
“When we leave this place, there won’t be so many people and you won’t need to trade that much,” one man said.
“It’s going to take a while to get everything set up to make that move,” Elder Garza said. “We probably won’t be moving many families to the new land for at least a full year.”
“That’s right, Elder, we’ve got a lot of work to do before we have a place to live over there from what Julie said,” Spacer said as he stepped to the speaker’s platform. “From what Julie and the others said and correct me if I’m wrong ‘cause some of you here were on that ship. The land is covered with trees, not big trees but smaller, new growth.” One of Julie’s crew who had sworn off sailing spoke up and described what they had seen. He said the soil looked rich and they should be able to grow food, but they had to get the trees out first. Spacer and the Elder were right, it was going to be a lot of work.
“We’ve got to keep things going here for at least another year,” Spacer said. “I know some of you are disappointed but think about how much work it took to set up those tree farms over on the smaller islands. We had a lot of jungle to clear, and it sounds like this place is close to the same.” Spacer could tell there was some muttering among the crowd. Getting permission to move was just the first step, but it was a major step.
“Spacer, back in Utopia, I helped with setting up a new farm for my family. I know how much work it was, and I am willing to help get this move planned if folks will work with me,” Jack Muldoon had been one of the renegades who came to Port with Joe Marine.
“I want to know why you were banished before I’ll agree to that Jack,” Spacer said.
“Not ashamed of what I did,” Jack said. “I didn’t think we had enough people in the family to be setting up a new farm, but the head of our family insisted.” He went on to explain how there was a plan set out by the founders of Utopia as to how often new farm should be established. Some of the older leaders wanted to honor that plan even if they didn’t have enough people. “They had expected to have thousands of people in the first drop of settlers and not lose any when they first set up. My great uncle is a traditionalist who wants to honor the initial plan no matter what is really happening. I said no, so I was thrown out.”
“I’ll vouch for him,” Jack Little Doe said. “We worked together getting that guy who raided us, and he was upfront with everything we did. Followed orders and the other men followed him.”
“Experience is more important than where you were born. Welcome to Port, Jack. Let’s have a department head meeting in the morning to see how to get ready for this,” Spacer said. “In the meantime, those big fronds had better be back in the pile for the dock house roof and stay there, you hear me, Lisa Beth?” Spacer was sure it had been the work of the woman who was in charge of the nursery. Their roof had leaked during the last storm and even though the littles loved playing in the water, she wanted it fixed. “None of those littles will melt, Lisa Beth.”
***
“Spacer, the latest news from ‘Topia is we have to wait to move to the new place. Why can’t we just get moving and go?” Jack Little Doe said. He had sailed with Captain Julie Hornby on her circumnavigation of Higgins. He wanted to stop sailing but the need for food kept all the Grounders busy on the water. If you weren’t fishing, you were working in the swamp with the taro roots or dragging in the seaweed to make cloth. The sea was always present.
“That is what they said,” Spacer replied, “but Blackie said the main reason was Refugio is making a bunch of saws and axes to be used to clear. We’d need to stock up on food to take, too.”
“Why can’t we just sail over there and recon the place? Get an idea of what we are up against, like where can we land easily? As I remember, most of the coast we saw was lava flows that made really high cliffs. We finally found a cove with trees close to the water that we could cut for a new mast.”
“That might not be such a bad idea,” Spacer said. “From what Julie said, the maps don’t match what you saw. Since the survey was over 300 years ago, that’s reasonable. Talk to a couple of the boat captains and see if anyone is willing to risk it.” Jack Little Doe went off to find Jack Muldoon who was organizing the move. They were going to need to find a nick name for one of them. He was Jack Little because there was another Jack in his age group, and he had been a scrawny child. When he was a child, he resented being called Little but since his adult height was distinctive, it was just funny now.
***
There was a dispute over which ships would make the trip to the third land mass. Beth Ann Gomez helped settle it by counting which boats had the smallest catches. “The boats that didn’t contribute enough fish will go because they won’t hurt the supply of fish for trade.” A couple of the other captains were annoyed until they realized this trip might be one way. It was dangerous. Jack Muldoon agreed and the two fishing boats got a good scrub and what repairs they could do in Port.
“Now, Spacer, we don’t need to take all that dried fish,” Jack Little said. “We can catch fish. What we need is more of the unprocessed swamp root.”
“I’m with Jack Little, Spacer,” Muldoon said. “Besides, we can plant some of it if we find a suitable place and get that started for our settlement.”
“Alright, it’s just you don’t know if you’ll find the right kind of fish,” Spacer said. “At least wait until Julie and Blackie are here so we can find out what she found over there.”
“Spacer, you’re just dragging your feet,” Jack Little replied. “There are at least four of us who sailed with Captain Julie. We know what’s out there that we can eat.
“I know we don’t have permission, yet, but some of the folks are getting anxious,” Boats said. “It’s almost fall, and we’ll be farther north at the new place. We need to get moving or we’ll be another full year before we can get started.”
“You still planning on going?” Spacer asked his second in command.
“Spacer, I want this for my children and my grandchildren,” Boats said. “We need a place where we don’t have to worry about feeding everybody or getting blown away by the big storms. I’d stay if my children and their families weren’t going. I want to see those littles grow up.”
“The way things are working, we might not have anyone left here in Port.” Spacer shook his head and grabbed a basket of the dried roots from one of the men and put it on the dock to be loaded. He waved the basket of dried fish back to the storage for the next shipment to Refugio and walked to the Bridge. He was not sure he didn’t want to move too.
***
Jack Muldoon helped load the ship with supplies for the expedition to the third land mass. He wanted as many water containers as they could manage. “I’ve heard from the other Jack that finding fresh water would be a problem. “I know we have that solar distiller but it’s slow. Better to have more than we need than to have to ration the water.” He also got the medic to make up a collection of salves and powders to have on hand. “We really don’t know what we are going to find. Out on the east of Utopia they found a kind of grass that shoots thorns. Some of the stuff that grows on this planet is just scary.”
They had to have a drawing for who would get to sail. Far too many of the people with sailing experience wanted to go. There were some hard feelings and swapping once the drawing was done, but the ships sailed with full crews. Muldoon wished they had access to the fast double masted ship but might as well wish for a gas engine like the air cars in Refugio. He had heard someone in Refugio had tried to run a ship with one. All the man accomplished was sending himself and several others to the ancestors.
The morning wind pushed them out of the harbor. They could only guess how far it was. The experienced sailors only knew that the strong spring storm that started their circling of the planet blew them a long way. The two coastal ships stayed within sight of each other and headed into the bright dawn glow of their rising star. The wind was steady, and the trip began well.
| ← Chapter 28 | Chapter 30 → |
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