Chapter 32

Dusty and James were very interested in learning about the problems the new people had to solve.

They knew that at some stage, they would need to set up their own nation now that they owned one. They were not in any hurry, as they still had a job to do, and they both noticed that Lee didn’t seem concerned that it could be many years before they settled down.

They owned the continent, and no one could settle on it until they decided to allow people to visit it or if they rescinded the right in ten years. Lee’s Nation Mapping program, as they called it, had some interesting side effects.

Once claimed by the flag, the land became shielded until the people who had claimed it set up the first town or village. She had also put a limitation of ten years on the land. The area became available again if not settled in some manner.

Private islands had to have at least a dwelling built on them. They could be sold at a later date or incorporated into a neighbouring state if the treaties were signed and registered with UNSEC.

The shield on the claimed land only dissipated outward, exposing the land as it was explored and then claimed. You had to be a member of the registered nation to explore or claim land in their zone.

In this way, poachers couldn’t settle in an area not yet inhabited. It also made wars of conquest hard to have in the future.

Dusty planned to place a new shield over the island she put the prisoners on when she delivered the livestock. It was also inside the area of her continent, so it was inaccessible to anyone but her and James.

Lee had offered to provide a rehabilitation chamber, but Dusty said that she doubted it would work on these people. She told Lee that she hadn’t even bothered with a hex, which was the second, more extreme method mages used to control people who hurt others.

She felt that the most extreme method, banishment, was the best for now. She had decided to let them live out their lives on the island. She didn’t care what they did to each other as long as they weren’t hurting the innocent.

The fact that the men would be deprived of female contact was part of the punishment. She would provide them with the basics, and it would be up to them how they lived. Lee inspected the prisoners and agreed with Dusty that they hadn’t behaved very well.

Lee had also indicated, as they walked back to the ships, that several would have been mages if they had made better choices with their lives. Lee didn’t think to tell Dusty that by putting the prisoners on an island that was part of her continent, she would effectively populate it and would own it for a very long time to come.

That was a surprise for Dusty to learn later.

The Watsons retired to their ship for the night.

The next day, they helped the mages cleanse the Farestar of the pathogen. The mages all thought it was neat that Lee could blink them straight to the ship. Lee taught them a few other tricks and, with their help, did a bit of refurbishment of the ship.

Captain John Kufuor was delighted with the upgrades, as were his crew. Lee upgraded their storage rooms with the preservation spells, and the crew happily unpacked the cubes full of fresh produce Lee had provided into them.

The stores that had been assigned to the orphans who were staying and those that they would have eaten in the next three weeks were put in the cubes and sent down for later distribution. Sean also restocked Dusty’s cubes and returned them to Striker One, where he had put them originally.

The wizards decided to keep one of each type of cube in the new community hall that had somehow finished building itself while the locals slept. Since the hall was also to be used to house people stranded in the system, they all agreed that a yellow cube with the rooms would be invaluable, and it took up a lot less space.

The ship’s stores and grains were unpacked into one of the two new, huge warehouses. The residents found their backhoes and other machinery neatly parked in the one next to their market garden paddock. It had a machinery shop and an upper level set up as offices and more storage.

Lee was happy that the new community had the basics, and she and her people took off around lunchtime. The new inhabitants were sad to see her go but they were just as glad that she had come to their aid and would most likely keep an eye on them into the future.

You would never hear a bad word about Queen Wizard Lee or her family from any of them.

Dusty and James had to perform an unpleasant task.

Sean had helped them alter a cube before he left. They had stripped the lower level of one that had rooms in it and set it up to be a storage and a workshop area. They had put in enough stores and equipment for building several homes if the prisoners wished.

They would have spare materials to make most things, tools to make them, chop wood, do gardening, and fishing gear. Sean had provided a couple of power crystals and solar cells for the homes if they built them. Dusty had provided a couple of computers with help files so they could design and plan their buildings.

The men would have grains and vegetables that they could plant, and they added a cage of eight Earth chickens with a rooster, a male and four pregnant female camlas and the same again in woollies from Lee. If the idiots didn’t kill and eat the parents, the offspring would provide enough meat in the years to come.