Chapter 25

Dusty’s crew had a lot of fun while she was indisposed.

They had stripped out half of a deck of cabins on deck three to fit the extra hardware and stores in. They were leaving half the farming machines and stores for this planet. The ship was one of the smaller settlements ships and had been designed to sleep four hundred. In fact, all the ships were of the older and more modest design.

They had forty cabins in four rows of ten on the three passenger levels. The cabins on the two lower levels had been pokey. Each row had an ablutions block that included laundry faculties between the middle cabins in each row.

These cabins had two double-decker bunks in each, storage cupboards at the door end and drawers under the bottom bed. There was barely more than a metre wide walkway between the bunks and no other creature comforts. They could squeeze one hundred and sixty people on each of these levels.

The second deck from the top had the same number of cabins but they had double beds. They were also tight but seemed roomier since they were missing the top bunks. They also had full height cabinets on each side of the bed that also formed an arch over it. The better-paying customers were customarily offered the top deck. The sponsored workers got the lower decks.

Even the Captains on these tubs got a standard double room. The crew were always assigned to the ends of the middle deck. Two lounges, a kitchen and a dining room were on the top deck as was the bridge. The rest of the vessel was taken up with storage, engineering and operation rooms for the ships.

Dusty’s crew had altered the lower two rows of cabins. They stripped out the seconds set of bunks of the cabins they kept and installed small fold-down tables and chairs instead and added extra cupboard space over them. They now seemed a lot bigger.

They reclaimed one of the lounges since they would have half the passengers and turned it into five staterooms. They were a bit wider than the lower rooms and a lot nicer.

It meant they could only sleep about two hundred and twenty people but they weren’t planning on it being purely a passage liner. They reclaimed half of one of the dining rooms and put in a stage and a small dance floor making it a multi-functional space.

They fiddled with the plumbing, the electrics and you name it, they played with it. The girls even did a bit of decorating to brighten up the plain white walls that were everywhere. They even colour coded the decks.

The kitchen’s storerooms were renovated and were like the insides of the cubes and could store all the foodstuffs for the passengers. Working together, they even altered the new storerooms on the half of the deck they had reclaimed, so they were dimensional spaces too.

The ship was ready to go.

Dusty and James blinked to the office in the old ship to find Josh.

He was finishing off compiling the lists of goods he had decided could go onto the settlement ship they were going to use as a freighter. They already had the ship packed and the other MPs had kept themselves amused fixing it.

“Josh, I’m sorry for what happened with you and Demetri,” Dusty said to him.

Josh grinned at her, “Why?”

“Well, what I did, trying to force you to do something you were uncomfortable with.”

“Did you enjoy the last two days as much as we did?” he asked. At her frown, he added, “That Pyah is something else. Yesterday, she came to tell Demetri she had dissolved her marriage. We had a lot of fun celebrating her new found freedom. Thank you for recommending we join up with her.”

“So you’re not mad at me?” Dusty asked.

He shook his head, “No, we did spend a lot of time in bed but we also had some excellent talks about what we wanted to happen here. Very productive. We have also agreed to open the planet to limited immigration from any of the known planets. For now, we were thinking of only settling the north, what do you think?”

“That sounds reasonable. Your populations will grow soon enough. Limited immigration gives you good control of who comes and also helps ensure you don’t overpopulate in the short term and have issues with supply and demand,” Dusty said.

He nodded. “I also gave them Lee’s Charter and we have agreed that since the people on Sheldon plan to adopt it and the other magical worlds have, we will abide by it too. It will make commerce simpler and less of a burden. It is also very close to what the people do here. Pyah and Demetri believe that the other mages will support it and so far we have an agreement with most of them.”

“Seems like you have everything under control,” Dusty said grinning at Josh.

“Well, you did put me in charge. I’ve also sent messages to Major Carmichael and told him we would welcome three more gunships and the associated crews plus a spare crew. I mentioned that their families are also welcome. That should fill out our little town a bit,” Josh told them.

“Good plan. So you’re saying that if we want to piss-off and go free some slaves you have things in hand here?” Dusty said and then grinned.

“Yes, I believe we will mull along without you for a time, Teha,” he replied.

“Hey, if you’re going to allow some immigration, you might want to contact Lee and ask her if she has any magical teachers that might wish to come to visit for a year, or longer if they wish, particularly for your higher Mages and you three Wizards,” James added.

“Empress Lee said that she would ask around. She was sure she could get a couple of Mages to come and visit on a two-year contract. We have also accepted her offer to send a crew to install a small transporter dome similar to the one she built on Earth, so we can also visit her worlds and Amity,” he said and then grinned at the couple who were shaking their heads at him.

“Well, in that case, you need some money to pay for all of these improvements and give the staff a pay rise or at the very least start paying them,” James told him and a chest appeared on the desk. Josh didn’t bother opening it, as he was sure it was more than he needed and would see to things getting done for some time to come, knowing this pair.

Josh was well satisfied that he had gotten so much done in the last two days and still had time for some of the best sex he had ever had in his life. He loved being a Wizard and a Shifter. He was not sorry that this was now his home. He was not sorry for letting Dusty kiss him, or for waking up with Demetri or for what happened afterwards.

Nope, he wasn’t sorry at all.

Who would crew the Endeavour?

Dusty and James met up with their team to discuss the trip to Terra. Since they were going in the Gunna, they had to decide who was going in the Striker and who was going in the Endeavour. Since they would have eight passengers, they decided Michel would Captain and pilot the ship. Que would be the ships doctor and the comms person, when not needed elsewhere.

Tale and Kola would be the engineering crew since it was a bigger ship and they had played with it so they could fix it. They decided to just call themselves the Engineers since they could both play with any system these days. They were also both handy on the bridge if required and could do a stint at monitoring the ship.

Chris said that a crew of six for the Striker was more than enough especially with the way the ship was set up these days and the skills they had all gained. They still had Bindy and Aaron if they needed a boarding party. They were as good as a six-man team by themselves with their abilities, and they were handy on the bridge when required.

One of the men, Popeye and one of the women, Erin, who had been part of the Pirates and had worked the other freighter also volunteered. They could pilot, navigate and do necessary maintenance. They were happy to work off their punishment by crewing on a ship.

They were guilty more by association and hadn’t killed or raped anyone. They had boarded other freighters and looted them but only after the fighting, was done. They had also been a couple for some time even though they had never married. James checked them out and said they wouldn’t be a problem. Josh also vouched for them being good workers, so they had a six-person crew for the Endeavour.

The six female and two male passengers would pretty much look after themselves. They decided to share cooking and cleaning duties and to feed the crew. So all of the people who were boarding the Endeavour loaded up their gear ready to take off.

Dusty and James decided a couple of quick modifications of their own wouldn’t hurt while the people were getting their gear. The collected the three Wizards so they could learn the spells they were going to do. They also collected most of the spare crystals they had gotten from their treasure cave since they had plenty growing on their ship.

They made sure the three Wizards had a good supply of crystals and gave them magical backpacks too. The Wizards were delighted to get both gifts, as they knew they were invaluable. Dusty had fun teaching them the new spells as they did the hull modifications on the other two ships. With five powerful Wizards, it wasn’t much of a chore.

They chuckled when Michel said he had a heap of crystals too. He was sorry he hadn’t shared them around as he was supposed to. They had seemed to boost everyone on the ship, so he had just left them where he had put them. They split half between the two ships and since the crews now knew about them, they would deliberately direct magical energy into them to keep them charged.

They even gave Kola an extra bag, as the guy couldn’t seem to do anything without drawing on magic and it should save him supping on everyone else’s. He chuckled when Michel told him why he was getting them. Kola said now he knew about the central store and that the ship was covered in crystal dust, it wasn’t really necessary but he still put them in his pack.

Once the people going on the Endeavour were aboard, Dusty and the Wizards lifted it into the air and basically threw it into the higher atmosphere. Michel had started the engines and as soon as the ship had cleared a klick from the ground, he had them running at full bore. With the boost, he soon had the ship heading into space and on its way to Terra.

Chris and his crew mounted up and were soon following the settlement ship. They would shadow the ship to Terra. They believed it would take them close to ten days to get there rather than twelve, especially with the modifications to both ships.

Dusty knew she and James could get there in less than half that time even if they didn’t blink the ship. They decided to take the leisurely trip, as they needed to sometime consolidate what their plans were. They said goodbye to the wizards and blinked to their ship. They blinked it into the space above Haven and set course to Terra.

Ada and Zed were more than happy to monitor the ship’s progress while their hosts went to recharge.

James and Dusty had no problems filling in five days.

They needed the time out from everyone else’s problems. They had some life-altering decisions to make. Dusty’s pregnancy would change things. They were going to have to either set up house on a planet or live on the ship. With only the two of them and even with a baby, the second option was very viable for some time to come. After all, they did have two planets to monitor.

With the protections that Dusty now had on the ship, it was a veritable fortress. About the only way to kill the ship, was to drive it into a sun. A small child couldn’t get into too much trouble. They could even organise a nanny since the Gunna was roomy, having been designed for a five-person crew.