Chapter 43

"The difficulty we have experienced is the inconsistency in the rock we are going through. Most of it is sedimentary, then you can strike a quarts vein, or a volcanic dyke, which is much harder, or you can find a patch of sand. If it is dry sand, tunnelling will be awkward, because the sand will flow like a liquid. The only solution is injecting grout to solidify the sand, but that is a physical job, not the same as excavating with nanites, so the tunnelling stops for a while, before it gets to the sand. You then drill holes, lined with a sleeve, at intervals, and inject chemical grouting through the sleeves to a volume greater than the tunnel requirement. The grout spreads through the sand, then solidifies. Once it is hard, you can tunnel through it, leaving a tunnel surrounded by solid walls The nanites of course have to be switched off in advance, to allow the grouting equipment to function.

Once the tunnelling can restart, you begin by placing fresh nanites on the wall to be excavated all over again, spraying them on to the rock surface. Any that fall go temporarily inert. The rest stick to the surface and separate the rock particles, allowing these to drop. Then they tackle the next particle, and so it continues, quite fast. We recover the fallen nanites by filtering the rock debris with a very fine mesh. Only nanites can get through, making it easy to recover them. Passing them over a magnet before respraying them, activates them again.

I have never had to deal with such a novel technique, before this, but it works. The Personalia devised this for some tunnelling work on New Eden, so it is proven technology, for us."

Their walk had taken them to the encampment of residential caravans, and the canteen in the centre. Herbert showed his wife to their caravan, and ushered her inside. He helped her stow her baggage, then faced her to say, "Sylvie, if you haven't eaten for a while, we can rectify that now. Or, as we haven't made love for a long while, we could do that first. What is your pleasure, my wife?"

"Herbert, I admit I am hungry, but I am more hungry for your loving, darling. That is my decision. Where's the bed?"

They both rushed to disrobe, the Herbert had a thought, and got back on his feet to lock the caravan door. "We don't want unexpected visitors, do we?" he said, as he dropped his underpants. By this time Sylvia was nude, and scrambling into the bedclothes. "This bed smells of you, darling. I love it!"

Herbert was just as happy. "Now I want get a smell of you, Sylvie, and I want to kiss you all over," and he proceeded to do so, ending at her crotch, finding the centre of her being in her delicious nether lips. Pleasant though it was, Sylvia was soon demanding his penis be inserted and active inside her. She was anxious to get him to inject his cum inside her, for her womb was determined to get pregnant on this visit.

Later, as Herbert's spent cock was drooping, slipping out of her happy vagina, Sylvia announced, "Now I feel like food, Herbert my love; now I have that itch attended to."

The phone rang before Ebenezer could make his own call. He discovered that it would be unnecessary, as it was the seed merchants ringing back. "De la Torre Farming Enterprises."

"Mr De la Torre?"

"Yes. Is that our seed merchant?"

"Indeed it is, sir. We have considered your request, and would be happy to arrange for you to act as a distributor for the Colony of Rehome, should we come to an agreeable decision on percentages. Do you propose to hold stock in advance, or wait until orders are placed with you?"

Ebenezer knew his onions. "We would prefer to gather orders and send a cumulated order to you for supply to us. We would repackage for the individual customer, and arrange delivery to the farm. We have a new company set up to deliver parcels and packages, and even bulk supplies are now being catered for. Bulk orders might be best delivered to Metropolis, and we would sort out delivery to the customer from there. If the customer is having fertiliser supplied, our goods may be tacked on to their delivery, and suit everyone's convenience. I am a director of the fertiliser firm, so that can be accommodated without too much trouble."

"Very well, sir. We need to discuss delivery costs to your planet, before we work on your margin as distributor."

"You will find the space transfer between Earth and Rehome is minimal, as our interplanetary carrier service is keen to do business with us. You main costs will be delivery to the landing site. These are listed on the Internet under "The Personalia: Off-Earth Services"

"Do you have any anticipated orders that might be difficult to supply, so that we can make preparations?"

"Only the non-seed items, such as cassava slips for planting. A minimum order is likely to be around 10,000 or 15,000 slips. Can you cater for such orders?"

"Sir, once we start supplying items, we ensure our supply chain is robust enough to cope with any size of order. We could manage your cassava slips without bother, and they will be well packed for the journey, to arrive at the farm ready to plant."

"That is satisfactory. Most of the orders are likely to be for seeds such as common varieties of carrot seed, and other more usual vegetables, instead of the more exotic items that we grow on this farm. The demand for flower seeds is not properly established in the colony, but as we grow, I expect that market to take off." Ebenezer decided to make a point, "Oh, and another thing: we will be advertising on our local media, so, if we get orders for seeds, tuber, rhizomes, etc. that you do not supply, or where a competitor offers a better deal, we will go with the best deal available to us. Is that clear?"

There was a brief pause, then, "Yes, Mr De la Torre. We understand your position. Can we talk percentages now? Your margin may have to be variable, according to the item ordered..."

Ebenezer interrupted, "Sir, that is balderdash. When we are talking in percentages, the prices do not matter to you or me, only the customer. You get your cut and I get my cut out of it, so cut out the flannel. Give me your basic percentage that you can offer me, and we shall start negotiating from there."

Ebenezer listened to the first offer, and exclaimed, "Do you think I came up the Clyde on a banana boat?", and found that his words had left his hearer flummoxed, not understanding the meaning; so he had to explain, "Bananas, before the days of refrigerated ships, had to be shipped across the Atlantic while still very green, so that they arrived just as they were turning yellow, so it means, don't think I am green, i.e. stupid! I may be Spanish, but my command of English appears to be greater than yours, sir."

The negotiations proceeded much better, then.

Winston got a response from his father to the photos of him and Simisola at their wedding. His father was delighted. "My boy, it is nice to see you settled, with a nice girl as your bride, on a farm that should earn you a reasonable income. Have you started cropping on it yet?"

"No, Father. This first year has been a matter of preparing the ground – there is a lot of it to make suitable for cultivation. We are thinking about what crops will do best here, with the lower average temperature. It is too cold for many of the crops we produced in Nigeria, so we may go for carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables more usual in Europe than in Africa. I have made enquiries about cassava slips, and that may go ahead shortly."

"We?" His father sounded unsure of what he had heard. "Who is this "we", my son? Surely your wife is too young to be consulted on farming questions?"

"Oh, that. I have managed to get some help for the farm, and the neighbouring farmers are willing to share their knowledge of what does well on what kind of ground. Most of the new fields we should be able to crop without adding anything, but from next year, we will need to get suitable fertiliser."

"And the water supply; what is that like for your farm?"

"Rainfall is adequate, most of the time. It tends to be short showers of light rain, but that wets the soil better than rain in heavy bursts, as you know, father. There is a river not too far away, so that keeps the water table reasonably near the surface, according to my neighbours. I think we will have a successful farm to hand on to our children eventually."

"Good. Good. And you will remember to name your first son after me, my boy, won't you?"

"That thought is already in my mind, father. Your name will not be forgotten."

"Good, good. I will hear from you when you have your first child on the way, then?"

"I shall endeavour to remember that, father."

"Good boy. Farewell for now."

As Winston closed his phone, it immediately rang again. He opened it for the call, to be greeted by "That was an interesting call, Winston. You did not mention your other wives." He recognised the Personalia voice, and at first was annoyed.

"You were listening to my call?"

"Of course, Winston. We listen to ALL calls, as they are routed through us anyway. We seldom do anything about them. However, as you were talking with Nigeria, it seemed the appropriate time to give you an update."

"An update? On what?"

"Your request for justice for Simisola's mother. You have not forgotten, surely?"

"Oh. No, I just hadn't expected to hear news on that so quickly."

"Well, the court records have a digital component for the main facts, even though the full records are not yet digitised. From that, we established the amount the court awarded to the widow, Olatokunbo Okoya. That gave us the figure to look for. A similar deposit appeared in the uncle's deposit account at his bank, so we simply transferred that amount, via a series of intermediary accounts, to another account, in the Bank of Rehome – an account controlled by us. The man's bank records will show that the account owner personally transferred the cash. That was the simple part.

Having learned about human behaviour, we now wish to know whether you want the cash transferred to the widow's account here, at this time, or leave it hidden for a while, which would allow her to show, if asked, that she has no knowledge of the cash's whereabouts?"

Winston realised he was grinning. He declared "You may be aliens, but you have certainly developed a great understanding of human ways! I would go along with the latter suggestion. If uncle makes any suggestion that the cash went her way, we can all tell him that none of it has appeared here; and that will be the truth."

Sure enough, by the next day Winston received another call from his father. "Winston? I have received a somewhat distressing call from your wife's uncle. It seems that a sum of money has vanished from his bank account, and he is throwing accusations around."

"Accusations, father? What about? And why should it interest me and Simisola?"

"My son, it pains me to have to ask this question, but I am being put under pressure at this end. Has any major sum of money appeared in your bank account, or in that of your mother-in-law?"