Chapter 25

Dusty looked at her vambrace.

“By the way, the shuttle is due in about ten minutes. Are you ready for them, Whitney?” Dusty asked.

“Yes, the committee is printing the Charter, so our guests know we are abiding by it. Bindy helped us send messages via the satellites to Earth and Terra about our claim, who survived if people were looking for family and the pirates’ arrest. It should beat whoever is going back to Earth.”

“Bindy’s vambrace, Jax, said that the satellites can relay the messages in a couple of hours, and they will even send the new maps to all of the beacons in this system. They will then inform any ships that are passing our way that we are here,” Whitney informed Dusty.

“And that James and I own the other continent,” Dusty added. “I wonder how many will stop just for a sticky beak?”

“I think you may be surprised. Every ship that Rupert boarded had problems. While we may just get the sick or unwanted people to start with, once we get better established, we will get new colonists, too.”

“We already have a basic town layout. We hope Rupert doesn’t mind, but we have simply modified his plan to suit the compound you built. Lucy Chi is an architect, and Bobby Brown is a town planner. Rupert had them working on the plans since he found out what they did.”

“Most of the people in the current committee were in his original planning group before we had the crackdown. They all got back together after you left and went to work. Things are seriously happening around here.”

“Good, we don’t plan to interfere; this is your home. As long as you put up a set of barracks and some offices for the UNSEC Police, I’m sure they will not interfere with much, either. I suggest you put them over near the landing field. That way, they can take over monitoring of the traffic and guests,” Dusty suggested.

“Yes, that’s a good idea; I’ll go talk to the planning committee. Well, have fun with your idea, Dusty,” Whitney said.

She gave Dusty a quick hug and hurried off.

Dusty looked up to see the freighter coming down.

Dusty blinked to the freighter once it settled on the ground.

She waited for the ramp to lower and saw that Aaron and Que were in the hold with two of the yellow cubes.

“How did it go?” Dusty asked.

“Very orderly, we treated the sickest first and then loaded eight of their groups of orphans with their guardians and the sickest into the cubes. The kids were very excited to be getting off the ship, but they did whatever we asked. Shall we let them loose?”

Dusty grinned, “Why not. It’s a little bit of a walk to the others, but I don’t think they will mind. Did you remind them the gravity is a bit lighter here?”

“Yeah, they should have worked that by now, too,” grinned Aaron.

He then went and opened one of the cubes while Que opened the other. She went in to check on her sickest patients and let the others out.

Aaron just hollered through the doorway, “We’re here if you want out, kids.”

Dusty stepped aside to watch the kids leave the cubes. They marched in their groups until they got outside and then just stopped. They were all looking around at the giant trees that hung over the 3m high fences and the compound itself.

She then heard one of the girls say, “Wow, this is going to be a nice home. I like the lighter gravity and big trees. The air is so fresh.”

“People, we have to head that way,” one of the guardians said and got them moving again.

Dusty chuckled as the lines got scragglier the further, they proceeded. The teenagers were more interested in the surroundings than following their guardians. They were all excited to be on land.

Dusty had a feeling they were not going to be happy to get back on the ship once they were all well again and the ship had been sanitised. The SWA Alliance might not be happy with her if she poached their teenagers, but she was sure they could find plenty more people to come now that settlement ships were moving again.

All in all, did it matter if they settled here rather than Terra since the Alliance had wanted to go to Harmony originally? They were going to be governed by the same rules, and here, no slavers were trying to steal the kids.

James came up behind her and put his arms around her, “You might have to ask the Alliance to send us some people like them for your continent.”

“You mean ours, don’t you?” she replied as she wrapped her arms over his.

“Nah, you have always been the boss of me, my love. I’m just the concubine,” he replied.