10. Johree
JOHREE
The town was so small as to be practically non-existent.
The five hundred permanent settlers were actually four hundred and ninety-eight until you added my two guards and me, bringing the total to exactly five hundred and one.
Plus the two Tyridium who were on a short term contract while they helped integrate Bob and expand the infrastructure so he’d have the needed reach across the colony, and Bob.
Bob was sentient and so counted as a resident, I decided, bringing us to five hundred and two.
Of the five hundred and two, one was an AI, roughly half were mated pairs, thirty-six were kits ranging from infants to children up to the age of six, and the rest mainly were unmated males with a few notable exceptions; all of them had female siblings sharing a claim with their brother or brothers.
All were Dragonii; the first of the human settlers were expected to start arriving within the next week.
Nearly all lived spread out around the spaceport on claims, raising kilt-ha, hop-a-longs, and growing fruit and vegetables, some of them in domed greenhouses due to otherwise unsuitable conditions - soil, humidity, whatever.
It was an alien planet, and until the Mylos educational outreach program received enough students who would happily supply data on what grew, what didn’t, and took samples and did all that sort of thing, new variants of popular foods wouldn’t be developed to eliminate the need for raised beds in greenhouses.
A few lived in town. One ran a sort of general store, if you were feeling generous.
It was a 3D printed shed with a bunch of different things stacked haphazardly inside, with no apparent order to them whatsoever.
The building materials for the 3D printer were all stacked outside next to the store, under a lean-to that looked like a stiff breeze might knock it over.
Another 3D printed building which would look presentable if the exterior was painted and a bit of effort put in to sprucing it up outside turned out to be a tavern of sorts, selling booze distilled in its cellar from locally grown native grain.
It stank of unwashed bodies and booze, and I spotted a game of dice at a back table from where I stood in the doorway.
When the barkeep spotted me, he paled, but I merely nodded at him in greeting, keeping my face blank, before backing out.
“That does not look like a safe place,” Kiprr observed. He wrinkled his nose. “The floor had spilled drink all over it, and the bar top was filthy.”
I snorted. “Dangerous for your health due to germs, huh? Not because of drunken brawling during an argument over cheating at dice?”
“That too,” he conceded.
A small medical clinic with a real doctor was the only other actual building for general population use.
The rest were all housing infrastructure - communications array, more warehouse storage close to the spaceport, a claim office that shared space with customs, presumably so claimants could easily fill out the forms they needed for importing necessary goods and machinery.
Which, as there was only an assistant doing the job of two persons, meant waiting until incoming and outgoing shipments at the airport had been inspected before he could make his way back to deal with requests.
That simply would not do. In fact, I could see already that we would need one full-time inspector at the spaceport, a customs and excise supervisor, and the assistant we already had.
On top of that, within the next year, we’d need a separate official to handle the tax side of things as well.
Crown taxes would not have to be paid for the first ten years, but local taxes would need to be established and collected in order to fund the needed maintenance and infrastructure, as well as the salaries of the civil servants.
Those were covered by the Crown only for the first year of the position coming into existence, starting upon the civil servant’s first day on the job.
Which meant the Customs Supervisor leaving left us in a lurch that was even worse than it could be, as the funds for his position counted from the first day he worked and time did not pause for vacancies, more’s the pity.
There was no school, no proper market, no rooming houses or hotels.
There were a lot of things that were needed or would be soon, and it all fell on me to see they came into being.
It was a huge responsibility and one I relished, but I was also intimidated a bit by it.
Not that I could show such a thing. I had to present as the very capable administrator that the king saw fit to put into place as governor.
“We’ll be staying on the ship for now, until I can look at the claim boundaries and decide where we will build the necessary public buildings, and then after that, where to build our homes.”
“I’m not interested in farming,” Kiprr said. “I’m a guard and don’t have time for such things.”
Fethri grunted in agreement. “Grant me a house with a nice sized garden in case I find a mate and we have kits, and I’m good.”
“I’ll still reserve you two claim spots, in case you change your minds later.”
“If I do, it’ll be because I was matched to a human and they want to farm,” Kiprr said. “So no need, as they’ll have a claim.”
“Which you can combine with yours for extra land,” I pointed at. “Something for your future kits and grandkits to hold.”
“Fine,” he sighed, agreeing reluctantly.
“I’m okay with that.”
“I’ll let you choose where to build a tied cottage on the grounds of the manse, however,” I said.
“Make it within running distance of the prison,” Fethri said. “There’s not one, and I’m certain sooner or later someone will need locking up, even if it is only for being a drunken nuisance. Who’s acting as law enforcement here, anyway?”
Kaelor, who’d been standing quietly the entire time during our exchange, shifted uncomfortably.
“That would be Vesh. He gets a few males to help if needed to subdue the person and locks them up in a storage room. It’s only for things like petty theft and being drunk and making a nuisance of themselves.
Mainly crew from visiting freighters, so sometimes, if they’re not one of the drunks, they come fetch them and lock them up on their ship before heading back out. ”
I sighed. “Add a priority request for a security officer or three. And to 3D print an office with a jail for them. We can start small, with only a couple of simple cells.”
I turned to Kaelor. “Thank you for taking the time to show us around. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of other things you need to do.”
He nodded. “I have to process some requests for equipment, mainly some medical stuff for the doc. I have to give him the forms to hand in with his purchase order so they can affix the proper documents to the crates and whatnot.”
“I’ll let you get on to it, then. We’ll head back to the spaceport and be on our ship.”
He smiled gratefully, gave a small bow, then scurried away, his tail swaying behind him in mild agitation.
“Let’s go find something to eat,” I said. No sooner had the words left my mouth than my comm-link chirped. “Looks like they've got Bob safely ensconced,” I said, seeing his name as I tapped to hear his message.
“Priority message from Xeranos,” Bob said excitedly. “Sorry I’m only informing you now, but I only finished accessing all the nodes and received this, as it was marked for me and as confidential.”
“Do I need to be someplace private?” I asked, wondering what the stars was going on now.
“Preferably so.”
I glanced around, spotting a place with no one else nearby to overhear and hurried over to it.
Not that it was difficult, seeing no one had expected me today so the locals were all busy working elsewhere.
Whatever it was, I knew it would be fine for Kiprr and Fethri to hear, as they were my personal guards and sworn to secrecy except to the king.
“Alright, what is it?”
“You’ve been matched!” came the excited response. “He’s on his way now! Ambassador Helkhor’s bringing him and his dog personally! Isn’t that exciting!”
That was certainly one word for it.
I licked my lips. “How long until they arrive?”
“Three days. Oh, and Helkhor says Jesse - that’s his name, Jesse Wilson - is worried you won’t let him keep his claim and run a ranch. Something about horses too.”
I sighed. “If that will make him happy, then of course he can. This is a frontier world, after all.”
“Okay, byeeeee! I’ll let you plan how you do the meet and greet for him.”
“He seems very lively for an AI,” Fethri said.
“Apparently Xeranos is as well. Perfectly sane and responsible, however.”
Both guards nodded. That was all that mattered, after all.
“Come, let’s get dinner and everything else can wait until tomorrow.”
They wisely did not disagree with me.