Chapter 4: Growing Pains

~~July - Week 29 ~~

Iain, Cais and the faerie families were the Martyns first customers at the new Bank and Contracts (B&C) Office when it opened on Monday morning.

This trip back, Iain had also bought his family, his wife Irene and their boys, Iran and Ivan and his daughter Indi. Iain happily set up bank accounts for himself and his wife and one each for the boys. He had decided to relocate here and to set up the deals with the Martyns even if it cost a small amount of his profits.

Iain made the contract costs back as far as he was concerned with the cheap living expenses. He hoped he could soon negotiate a lease to build a new house. They were currently in a tent on a block of land Lee had set aside for visitors to use.

The boys were not as interested in trading as he was and just wanted good jobs. They were nice strapping lads at seventeen and eighteen respectively with purple-black curly hair like their dad. Both were considered tall among his people at 160cm. They were well built, and Iain knew the girls found them handsome. After all, they took after their dad.

After setting up the accounts, Iain took them to Sean and asked if he had any work for them. Sean was overseeing the building of the first set of units, and they planned to get the top floor finished this week, and the units fitted out. The bottom three levels were being fitted as he spoke, and as soon as he got the top floor finished the crew could get the wind turbines, solar panels for electricity set up and people could move in.

Sean took one look at the lads and asked them what they knew about construction. They both admitted not much, but they were more than willing to do anything asked of them. So, he shook their hands and gave them to Gary to put to work.

Gary was more than happy to have them. No one wanted to be the gophers, yet they were just as important as the brickie or the plumber. Gary explained the set up to the boys. He gave then a quick OH&S (safety) lecture. He gave Iran to Qu and kept Ivan to work with him.

That night, two very tired but happy lads joined their family in the diner and excitedly told them of their amazing day.

Gary came over to Iain and said, “You’re a bloody numpty.” Iain was both affronted and worried about what he had done wrong. Gary continued, “Why the bloody hell, didn’t you tell me you had these boys? I could have put them to work weeks ago. Have you got any more?” Gary grinned at the stunned man.

Everyone laughed, and Iain said he had some cousins that might be interested. Gary told him if they worked as hard as his boys did, he would take half a dozen. Iain with a big grin said he would see what he could do.

The family were then stunned when Gary said that since the boys now worked for the Futura Township, they were entitled to an apartment. He asked Irene if she was looking to work as well? Irene told him she was happy to work at any job.

With Iain’s comings and goings and now that the boys were employed and didn’t really need her, she was at a loose end without the farm. When asked what her preferences were, she said she liked working with animals, and she and Indi were deft milkers. Indi was sixteen so she was eligible to work.

Gary commed Dave, “Hey Dave, do you need another couple of workers?”

“Only if they know the difference between the arse end from the front end of an animal. Someone who could milk goats would be great.”

Gary looked at the big grins on Irene and Indi’s faces and left the com open. Irene told Dave she and Indi could make cheese as well.

Over the comm, Dave yelled, “You’re both hired. You start at 05:00 hours tomorrow.”

So, Gary took the family to the B&C Office and got them all signed up as Futura workers and into the system. They had to open an account for Indi too since she was to be paid. He told them what they were entitled to and showed them how to get clothes and stuff out of the replicator. In particular, the clothes he wanted the boys to wear in the morning.

He got them all to stand in front of the scanner so the machine could work out their sizes and dialled the boys up some clothes. He showed Irene and Indi how to access the ladies’ section so they could pick some clothes for work in the morning. The family decided to stay in the tent until the units were finished as it would only be a week or so.

Iain was very pleased with these developments. Irene had been very reluctant to move, as she had liked their little farm, even though it was a lot of hard work. He had a feeling she was going to love her new job, and the free time she would have.

The fact the boys were now employed in good jobs was also a lot of worry off his mind and hers. He also didn’t think he would have much trouble collecting more workers for Gavin either.

There weren’t a lot of opportunities in his old village.

The Faeries visited the Martyns next.

They wanted to negotiate a suitable rate of exchange for their lingerie range to go on to the price list. They also set up accounts for their businesses. Lee had made sure they all had pads in their homes, so conducting business would be easy.

Ulani even set them up a website to sell their wares. She taught Ciar how to look after it, as she loved the new human technology. The faeries even put their honey and other products on the site. It worked a treat, as the humans didn’t have to find them to order anything.

Also, they didn’t have to set up stalls to sell their wares or even carry around heavy pouches of coins. They loved the direct debit system, and they only had to organise deliveries when the products were ready. This reduced their workload for selling their produce.

June had even designed them a little lifter-cart. It was 60cm to a side and 40cm deep. It could be plugged into an outlet to recharge. The faeries could just pull it along, and it floated behind them. They asked June to put the carts on the list of things to buy so they could pay for more of them later.

The carts became very popular with the humans a well. June had them made in a couple of sizes. They were brilliant for the farms and heaps of other uses people could think of especially the scientists. The smaller ones became very popular as shopping carts by everyone.

So, June worked out a pricing structure with the council, so she got a percentage as the inventor and set up a webpage for orders as well. The committee even worked out a distinctive colour and an emblem, which identified the carts that belonged to the Community. They then ordered a heap for the mines and farms.

Sal White was their local butcher. With the Martyns help, he and Cais Judoc set up a trade deal for reptii meats and skins on behalf of the community. When Cais had animals reading for culling, he contacted Sal, who contacted Andre’ who never said no.

Now the replicator was up and running, they had scanned in the large walk-in portable fridge and freezers, and Sal has four installed in the butcher’s shop. Andre’ had found the meals made with the reptii meat were very popular.

It was suitable to pickle, roast, fry and mince for sausages and it tasted great. It also preserved for a long time, so Andre was stocking the ship as well. The council also agreed Sal would be paid a percentage for the skins he tanned and sold, as they were not a standard product.

Lonnie Omega found the skins made excellent leather products and now people wanted pouches and handbags to carry coins in she had a ready market. She had also found that a lot of the guys wanted real leather belts for their jeans as well. They didn’t like the plastic ones that came out of the replicator.

Lonnie checked with the Martyns what sort of prices she should get for handmade leather products. She found many of the items she wanted to make were more than affordable for her efforts, so she started buying the skins from Sal. Ulani also helped her set up a web page, and Lonnie even negotiated a lease of a corner office of the East Dome to display her wares.

Cais and Lee also came to an agreement on leasing the land he needed, and he was more than happy with the deal. The Martyns told Lee the prices for leases of land were more flexible as it depended on the location the intended use and the quality of the land.

They recommended a price and Lee simply agreed.

Sean complained Sunday lunchtime that he had a problem.

“We are going to have an issue with electricity demand,” he told Lee. “We get a lot of overcast and even rainy days and the winds can be a little fickle. I only have enough EG Cells to ensure supply all night in one of the new building.”

“It’s going to get worse when we build the next two set of units. I have the copper now to set up a distribution system between the buildings just not the power output I have calculated we are going to need.”

“The replicator took the spare EG Cells, and it could do with more power as well.” he sighed. “I can get Kyle to replicate more, but they take up a lot of space for the power we need, and someone will have to look after them all.”

“I might have to think of some other sort of generator. But we don’t have the parts to build them, and there aren’t any designs in the archives for some reason,” Sean sighed.

“Hey, I know what, let’s play hooky?” Lee said. “How about we nick a Linger load it up with a tent and sleeping bags some tucker and some hiking boots and rock hammers and go fossicking? We haven’t had a honeymoon yet, and I would love to get away from the problems of humanity for a couple of days.”

All the contract wheeling and dealing was giving Lee a headache.

“I’m in,” said Kyle, plonking tiredly down beside Lee after kissing her cheek.

“Me too with bells on,” said Tony sitting across from them. Lee realised he too looked as tired as she and Kyle felt.

“Sorry boys, I can’t come,” said Debora sliding into a seat next to Tony. “You boys can pamper the shit out of me after I drop these kids, but I don’t mind if you want to take off for a few days with Lee and Sean. Ram, Mark, Magda and I are working on a big project, so I’ll be safe here without you.”

Plus, she really wasn’t worried about Essco anymore. He tended to steer clear of her these days. She’d thought about telling the boys. But Lee’s hug reassured her that she didn’t have too as Lee had felt she had sorted the problem out herself.

“Hey,” said Kyle. “We can take June’s new Linger for a run it seats four and has heaps of room for gear, please Lee, please?” he said rubbing his head against her arm and giving her sad eyes until she giggled.

Lee shrugged and looked at Sean. As much as Sean would like the time alone with Lee, if they had to have anyone else along, then, Kyle and Tony were good choices. Plus, there was more safety in numbers if anything went wrong. There were still whippers around, and Gavin had even seen what they thought was a big cat out near the mines.

He sighed dramatically and said, “I suppose I could put up with you two.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Kyle. “I’ll organise the transport, outdoor gear and tents if you guys organise the rest,” and he was off. They all laughed as he shot out of the diner.

Tony sighed and raised his eyebrows, “I guess that means I get to organise the food and clothes. How about I see you guys outside the dome in an hour?”