Chapter 18: Real Estate

~~ October - Week 42 & Tychy Week 7 ~~

Sean took charge when they landed.

“Okay, guys and gals we are in the main dining hall. This dome is not as thick as the one we bought with us. But it does comply with the specifications for a dome placed in a breathable atmosphere. I’ll give the van Holton’s a copy later.”

“You will notice it is split into three levels. There are labs and shops and storage on the bottom floor and six four-bed bunkrooms for guests spaced around the inner walls and standard rooms on the second floor. There are hydroponics and rest areas and a hydroponics lab on the third level.” Sean pointed as he spoke.

“There are eight entrances. Two give access to outside, and the other six go to the mini domes. Three of the domes are set-up into spacious apartments. We can house a hundred fifty comfortably. One is for the recycler, and the other two domes are workshops, utilities and storage.”

While Sean talked, Doc Yates walked around jabbing the visitors in the arms with the inoculations. Once they were done, Sean took them to the front entrance and outside so they could see the inside of the moated area.

“We have 80ha under cultivation. And about the same fenced off for the animals. There is about 5ha of this section taken up by the orchid at present, and the rest of the area is for housing, entertainment and workshops.”

“We have a huge replicator and recycler which June Smith, Professor Ian Christian and Kyle designed. It is in that building which we designed for building the prefab walls and other items.”

“That one over there is for farm equipment and food processing we can snap freeze the vegetables or can them. We also have a mill for flour over there.”

He walked them around the buildings showing them the insides. He then explained the contents, “This building is for the butchery, the dairy and animal husbandry requirements.”

“The little village to the north is where most of the locals from Utopia live, and those warehouses are currently empty. Except for that one, we had to use it for Element storage. So, what do you think gentlemen, interested in buying some real estate?”

“What about mining rights?” Nash asked.

Sean smiled at him, “We will get to that later.”

Lee drove up with a platform truck. “Jump on guys,” she said. Everyone sat on the platform, and Lee drove around the dome. They took the back entrance past the village and went out to the mines.

Sean continued his sales pitch, “This continent is totally unexplored as far as everything other than what was in this valley when we landed. We have seen monster crocodiles, and there are herds of all sorts of animals on the plains and plants we haven’t worked out how to exploit yet.”

“We have isolated signatures for just about everything mineral wise except major oil deposits and only a small amount of coal. Harmony is still a very young planet.”

“The four openings we are mining are giving us a bit of everything primarily iron and titanium, but we have been getting magnetite, gold, silver, zinc, copper, bronze, platinum, sulphur some of the rare elements and quartz to name a few.”

“You could probably happily mine here for a long time depending on how much you want to rip out. There are other ranges here, which are just as good if not better.”

“With the big recycler, we simply dump the ore and rock in it and let it sort it out. We have already had to empty many of the storage tanks. The ore is stockpiled in a solid-state as you saw in that warehouse.”

“We have processed a lot of the carbon and silica to make Bear bricks, piping, prefab buildings, and many other items as well,” he happily told them.

“How many people are working the mine and how long have you been here?” the Duke asked totally amazed at the setup. He couldn’t believe how efficiently everything was set up.

Lee answered, “We have eight miners, two at each they work four nine-hour days, one four-hour day. We have a six-day week and Sundays are generally their day off. Juanita oversees the mines here. We have been here just over five weeks.”

“No way,” said Nash. “You can’t have set all this up in five weeks. You have been here for months.”

Sean looked at Lee, “Futura, my darling?”

“Sure, why not,” she said.

They blinked the platform to Futura. The guests saw the air shimmer around them and blinked. When they opened their eyes, the vista had changed. They were now looking at the township of Futura.

“Holy crap!” said Nash as he jumped in surprise. He wasn’t the only one. The place was already at town status. It was obvious that more buildings were going up, and the land was going under cultivation.

Lee smiled at the amazed face of their visitors and said, “This is where we have been for months.”

The place was bustling with everyone happily going on with whatever job they were at. The watched as Tomos’ Airship coming back from the ocean was settling down to land.

Vanesa said excitedly to her husband, “Look, Mark, look at the beautiful ponies?” She turned to Lee, “Lord Lee, you wouldn’t happen to need a couple of Barristers, would you?” she said, then staring back at the ponies, rapt. Everyone except Nash laughed.

“She may as well have you for all the good you have done me,” Nash said snarkily.

Mark looked at Nash and said, “We deal in facts, Sir Nash. Unfortunately for you, Lord Lee happened to have all the facts.”

“And every fucking thing else,” muttered Nash.

Lee looked at her comm. “You can come back to visit here later we had better head back for dinner.”

“Lee, I don’t believe you need Ulani and me anymore, so we will get off. Thank you for the dinner invite and an interesting couple of days,” Philip said. He then turned to the visitors. “I hope the rest of your stay is more to your liking.”

Philip, Ulani got off and waved goodbye.

The visitors blinked and found themselves back where Lee had picked them up from an hour or so before.

Lee parked the platform truck, and she and Sean escorted their guests inside for dinner. They were getting standard fare tonight. Vanesa pummelled Lee and Sean with questions about the ponies.

“Vanesa sweetie, let the poor people eat. I’m sure they will take you back to see them again before we leave,” her loving husband said.

Lady Mary Nash asked Lee, “Is that teleporting thing the only thing you can do?”

“No,” said Lee. She mentally moved the saltshaker, so it was now in front of Mary. “That ability comes in handy. It was how Sean, Kyle and I helped get this place set up so quick.”

“What else can you do?” she asked. Lee just smiled at her and put more food into her mouth.

“So Lee, what are you willing to sell to us?” the Duke asked, wondering how they were going to pay for it.

Lee looked at Sean, and he smiled at her. ‘Whatever you decide Lee,’ he thought at her. She had been thinking about it. Originally, she had planned to give them the Northern Continent and let them fight over it.

She had since decided that was too generous and too dangerous. Men like Nash would just rape the place. She was worried about the dragons. And what would happen, if they were not here to protect them? She looked at Captain Clark and grinned.

“How about we meet in the morning at say 11:00 U-hrs and we go over what I think is a fair deal with you people?”

Reluctantly they agreed, and the crew and visitors settled in to enjoy the meal. Tammy even put on a concert for them that evening to the delight of everyone.

The next morning the same group of people settled around the tables to discuss business. Bentley and Ulani had turned up as well to record the proceedings and to see the outcomes of their long nights of work.

Dye and Haf were also included, as Lee’s legal representation and since they too had helped Lee, Sean, Kyle, Tony, Bentley, Nick, Philip and Ulani the night before.

The little committee she had pulled together had a hectic night and morning sorting out the details and redesigning the offer, that she had been working on with Dye. Lee was happy with the outcomes she was going to propose.

Lee opened the meeting. She had a pile of documents in front of her. Lee handed out a copy of the proposal, a map, a list of information and a copy of the charter to the people at the table.

The map showed the land area in the northern hemisphere it was divided into nine regions including Clarksville. Temperature zones and what resources they knew about in each area was marked on the map or listed in the datasheet.

“Well, gentlemen and Vanesa this valley and this side of the mountains to the west and east coasts and down to the spear of land across to the dotted line belongs to Captain Clark, that’s why it’s called Clark County and Clarksville is the settlement below us. It is up to Nick, who he allows to stay and work here. This is a neutral country.”

“The big Island just off the coast belongs to General Bentley. As for the rest of the northern continents, I have split them up into eight smaller states. They are not all of equal land size, but I deem them of equal value as far as arable land and mineral resources. Some of the nations are going to have to share.”

“I realise this may cause a wing-dinger of a shit-fight back on Earth. But that’s for you and the UNSEC to sort out Duke Lindsay.”

Lee had assigned the areas going west of Clarksville in the following order:

1. Australasia: including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.

2. Africana: Africa and all its countries.

3. North America: including Canada, Alaska and Greenland.

4. South America: and all its countries.

5. Asiana: from Mongolia in the north to Korea in the west and to Vietnam in the south.

6. North Europe: Russia to Poland and Ukraine in the east.

7. South Europe: the nations in between the others that included places such as Turkey, Iran and India.

8. West Europe: including Italy, Greece and Germany to the east. To the U.K. and Iceland to the west and to Finland in the north.

Each area was coloured in a different colour on the map. The information also contained a list of conditions of ownership. Lee hoped they hadn’t included too many loopholes. The conditions were very black and white.