Chapter 23

Will shuffled his feet a bit.

He then squinted up at Dusty since she was a good twenty-five centimetres taller than he was. He was short and stocky with a dark olive complexion and Mediterranean looks.

It was easy to see he had suffered as much as the others had. His muscles were wasted, and he looked at least ten years older than the thirty years of age that he was.

“Anyway, I was just noticing what you have done here. I’m grateful for the food and all, but what do you plan on doing with this place and us?”

He was apprehensive of these people even though they wore UNSEC MP Uniforms, but something drew him to this lady. He had always trusted his instincts and he was sure she wasn’t planning on hurting them.

“Well, that’s something we will have to get together and work out. We have a settlement ship in the system, and they have some very sick people on board. They will get the same shot as you people, but they need a week or so to recover before they can keep going. They may be able to take some of you, but not many.”

“The pregnant women can’t leave until they have their babies. I was hoping I could convince some of the rest of you to stay a bit longer and help Dr White look after them. As it is, it will probably take at least four or five weeks for UNSEC to get a ship here to collect those who wish to go on to Terra or back to Earth. We were looking for pirates, not refugees.”

Will thoughtfully considered the setup of the compound.

“What if we want to stay right here? This is a lovely spot. I checked out the river, and it even has fish in it. We are only a klick from the sea, and it has lots of shellfish that we can eat too. This soil is good enough to grow food in, and I’m sure you picked a spot that will let us have a good growing season, too, didn’t you?”

Dusty grinned at him and the people who had stopped to listen to their conversation.

“We did put a little thought into where to set up so the ladies would be safe. The only problem is that Rupert had put in a claim to Earth that this was his planet. Since we have deposed the King, we need someone to counter his claim.”

Will frowned after hearing her statement. “So, you claim the place. We know you have him prisoner. You and your people can’t be as bad as his lot were. At least you’re feeding us and taking care of our sick. What’s the problem?”

“Well, we have two major ones. We are a Special Forces team hired by UNSEC to look into the pirate problem. The Nations on Earth may not agree to our ownership by right of conquest as UNSEC can’t claim the planet themselves without them all agreeing, as we were hired by UNSEC.”

“The other problem is that Queen Lee has made us all mages, and the governments back home may take the view that she is interfering and trying to claim the planet for herself and magical people.”

“We do plan to make this compound a UNSEC base as they wish to have ships stationed in this system to make sure the Pirates stay away. And they wish to put in a ship repair facility.”

A man called Bobby said, “So what if we claim the planet since we were effectively shipwrecked here. We are more than happy to join UNSEC and support a UNSEC base here, as it means we can get ships to stop and sell us goods.”

“If Dr White is staying, then we could set up a clinic. Ships often have issues with sick people. They could drop them here, and they can be picked up later when the next ship passes. A ship like that troop carrier Rupert had could even run between Terra and us to do this.”

“That’s a great idea. I bet a lot of ships would be more than happy to stop here for a rest after a month in space. We got people who could crew the troop carrier too,” one of the pregnant women supplied excitedly and hugged the man beside her.

Will added, “If we can get some farms going, we can offer fresh produce. Those ships always seem to run out of fresh food fast. We really need to get some sort of milking animal, too, as fresh milk is always a problem. I wonder if the Farestar can sell us some.”

There were lots of nods and happy grins all around Dusty. She was rather surprised. Considering the ordeal most of these people had recently been through, she had expected to be dealing with a lot of traumatised people who were clamouring to get off this planet, not the happy babble that now surrounded her, as they all made plans of what to do if they stayed.

Will saw her confusion at the way everyone was acting and said, “Dusty, we have been through a lot. The thing is that the drugs they were giving us dulled our senses to the degree that most of the memories since then are just hazy at best.”

“We know we were treated badly, but we don’t remember much, and I think you will find most of us are just as happy not to reminisce. Bringing us here before you cured us was a good idea.”

“This is just the sort of place most were looking to find on Terra, and it holds no memories of the other camp. We woke up in our Utopia. Even the lighter gravity doesn’t worry us.”

One of the other women said, “Hi, I’m Lucy. I have to agree with Will. I think you will find nearly all of us will be happy to stay right here if we can. We might need some supplies but outside this compound is unclaimed land. We are here, so it’s ours.”