Chapter 13

"You shall have it, Muriel my dear. I hate to think how much this will set me back, but it was worth it! The dinner is, what, three days from now?"

Gloria responded, "Yes, dear. Three days from tonight. The dresses arrived just in time. Now Penny and I need to pick up our necklaces, to set off the dresses."

"Necklaces? You have necklaces? I don't remember seeing them." John expressed his doubt. Gloria smiled sweetly.

"They are being made for us as we speak, darling. Nothing ostentatious: just a hanging line of letters in silver, saying 'Governor'."

John suddenly twigged. The necklaces subtly implied, 'I belong to the Governor', without overtly saying so. John recognised the hand of Muriel in this design, particularly when she announced, "I ordered three of these necklaces, John. I hope you don't mind."

"Fiendishly clever, woman! I approve of your underhand plans." He turned his head and kissed her tenderly, putting his hand back on her buttocks and giving a squeeze.

Gloria added in a quiet voice, "The dresses come off very easily, too, John. We don't even need underwear with these beautiful dresses."

He responded, "I shall look forward to bringing you home after the dinner, girls. Remind me not to be too late in leaving the event!" Penny gave him an enticing smile and blew him a kiss. He laughed quietly.

The Personalia had intended scanning the whole fenced-in area, but realised that the movement of animals would make such a scan redundant within an hour, so they scanned a small area of a few square metres, as a test.

A drone was sent down to be able to provide images of the location in daylight.

The infra-red showed up two animals, so the drone was sent over and made images of them. These images were sent to Aaron Yakovlev, and I identified one as a small version of one of the megabeasts, so the drone fired a tag into the animal, to enable if to be tracked.

The other animal Aaron could not identify, but its movement seemed to suggest it was grazing, so he tentatively marked it as a grazer, and so not dangerous.

The scan was moved to the next section of ground, and the same procedure was followed. Another young megabeast was marked for removal, and two others marked as grazers. This time Aaron added a rider, "The fact that an animal is a grazer does not preclude it from being a megabeast. Megabeast predators presumable prey on mega-grazers. These grazers should accordingly be marked as a possible megabeast, to be watched for a while. They might be edible for humans."

The installation of cables on the cable-car system was now complete, and small cable cars from Earth were now arriving in orbit, where the rails were added to link them and act as log carriers.

Mechanoids were now in action in the forests, felling straight trees and stripping them of branches. The distance between a pair of cable cars had been determined exactly, so the logs were cut through by the mechanoids in lengths less than the space available, thus all should fit. The Personalia also considered the length of a log in respect to rail transportation, and noted that this length should be chosen as the length of a railroad flatcar for timber, unless technical matters precluded it.

These logging mechanoids were equipped with imagers, so any mechanoid encountering an animal in the forest was now being directed to image the animal for future use as an identifier. Where one image did not give a clear picture of the creature, other shots of the same animal might help identify its characteristics.

Muriel Wells reminded her husband of his commitment to a meeting between their family and that of Hasan and Tracy. He promised to attend to that as soon as the dinner event was past.

Penny was again being pestered by her classmates at college. She told them she would be going to a social event in a few days, and the media would probably be there. They would see whose arm she was on.

These did not prevent her continuing to improve her work on economics, and she volunteered to write a class essay on the chemical industry, as she knew her younger sister would be able to assist with the chemical side.

That evening, she badgered Tabs into agreeing to supply chemical information for the essay. By now, Tabs was looking into specifics of chemistry at Rehome as well as Earth, and had picked up some interesting facts.

One was that the idea of seawater being simply water plus sodium chloride was wrong. The salts dissolved in seawater covered many chemicals, and not all were salts. Many other elements were also dissolved in seawater, including gold, though at very small concentrations. These extras explained why sea salt has a different flavour from common salt, known as table salt. She also noted that a great deal of carbon dioxide is dissolved in seawater, protecting the planet's atmosphere from too high a concentration of this greenhouse gas.

Much of this learning was based on Earth conditions, but a lot applied equally well to any planet with a similar Earth-like environment. The Colony of New Eden was at present far from the sea, but knowledge of seawater would be valuable for its future exploitation. Common salt – sodium chloride – is normally sourced from underground deposits left by dried-out seas millions of years ago. Most of it is contaminated by other chemicals, so for use in human food, it has to be first dissolved in water, then heat treated to bring sodium chloride out of solution, without all the contaminants.

For industrial purposes, such rock salt can be utilised, as most uses involved a chemical reaction with either the sodium or the chlorine radical, or both, and the contaminants are left behind.

Penny was fascinated by the information Tabs supplied, and then did her own research on the costs involved in the chemical industry as regards feedstocks, the technology involved in conversion, and the manpower needed to run the operation. She realised that the oil and gas industry was just another branch of the chemical industry, so Penny decided to cover that as well.

Then Tabs decided she wanted to know something else, completely unrelated to physical chemistry. She asked her big sister about what she had observed. "Penny? You have been acting funny the last few days, and you seem to smile a lot more around everybody. What has changed, to make you like this?"

"I can't tell you, Tabs, but for the first time since Mum died, I am happy again."

"I could see that, and I know that you got an evening dress, along with Gloria. Is it because you are going out to some event or other, so you are now a grown-up?"

"Close, but no banana, sis. It has to do with me being a grown-up, yes, but the details are for me only."

"No fair! I share everything with you, Penny; why can't I know?"

"Because you might blab, silly. It means a lot to me. I can't have you shooting off your mouth."

"I won't, Penny, I promise. 'Cross my heart and hope to die'" She crossed her heart with her fingers.

"No, Tabs. I am serious. I can't risk it. Tell you what? I'll let you know later, when it won't matter so much, okay?"

Tabs pouted in disappointment, but gave in. "All right, but you have promised!"

"I promise, Tabs. You know I trust you with most things. Just this once, let this be my secret, eh?"

"Okay, but only because you are my big sister, and I love you!"

"And I love you too, Tabs!"

The day came for the social dinner, being held in the Colony HQ Commissary, which had the space and the tables. The staff had been asked by John to cater for the occasion, at a promise of extra pay or time off, whichever they preferred.

They agreed, provided they could also do the waiter/waitressing, and thus be able to be present and see what was happening. John happily assented to this, seeing it as a plus.

"Of course, those attending will be well dressed for the event, so I hope you will be in your best waiter attire."

The man was shocked that anyone would expect other than that. "We have our own standards to keep up, Governor! We will expect the guests to recognise us in the Commissary in the future with more respect for our abilities."

John smiled happily. "Now that is an attitude I fully agree with. Many thanks to you all, in advance. I will make a point of thanking you all in my speech at the start of the dinner."

At home, Muriel had arranged for a local hairdresser who worked from home, to come and turn the two girls' hair into impressive creations. She spent several hours on this task. Muriel had promised her that her work would be given prominence in any publicity.

John timed his arrival at the event with the serving staff. He knew they were serving drinks before dinner, and had the head chef primed to make sure the Governor was the last arrival.

He, Gloria, and Penny got there by car, and parked outside in a reserved space, waiting for the summons. Art last the head chef tapped on the window, and gave John a thumbs-up signal. He then vanished, to superintend the event, leaving John to his own entrance preparations.

John slipped out of his door and round to Gloria's door, He opened it for his young wife, and once she was standing erect, checked her dress and accessories for correctness. Satisfied, he went to Penny's door and repeated this inspection.

Gloria then examined him in turn, straightened his bow tie, and checked that his jacket hung correctly. Once sure that all was ready, she and Penny positioned themselves on either side of John, and took hold of a forearm each, which he held out.

They walked to the double doors of the Commissary, where one of the staff was waiting to open the doors and announce them.

"The Governor of New Eden, and escorts!" he called out, and everyone paused in the chat and turned to look, then to stare unbelievingly.

John stood there with these two beautiful young women on his arms, a beatific smile on his face. He paused for a moment, while the head chef came forward to lead them to their table. Gloria and Penny offered their practised smiles to all and sundry, saying nothing all the while.

The female partners of the men started whispering to each other, astonished at the dazzling look and poise of the Governor's women. Some of them recognised Gloria, and were impressed at her regal presence, but none recognised Penny as the distraught teenage orphan of a few weeks ago. She had the same elegance that Gloria exuded, and a calmness that even she would have not recognised back then.

She and Gloria had been tutored by Muriel, day after day, to the point where they no longer thought about how to hold themselves. It was now an ingrained habit, so that they could concentrate on their faces and voices. The voice had to be quiet but calm, not too forward, yet with a sureness that said, 'I am in control'.

Their faces had to be smiling gently at all possible moments throughout the evening. Muriel had complained every time their smiles slipped while practicing at home, until she was satisfied they would not disappoint her.

She declared to the two girls, "My daughter will display the superiority that I was never able to show. She will not let me down, Gloria. That goes for you, too, Penny. Perfection is the only possible activity for my girls on the evening!"

They did not disappoint her. They wowed the crowd with their beauty and elegance, their matching evening dresses, and when they got closer, people started to notice the necklaces, and wondered. The girls said nothing about them. Any comments about the necklaces, they each replied, "I like it. I am pleased that you like it too," and said nothing about its meaning.

Asked about who she was, Penny simply said, "I am Penny. I am here with the Governor and Gloria for this event. I hope everyone has a wonderful evening."

When they all were seated for the dinner, the head chef, acting as Maître de, rang a glass with a fork to get attention.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Governor of New Eden, to welcome you to the dinner."

John stood up, to polite applause.

"My friends, I am delighted to see you all here. I hope you will enjoy this dinner, laid on by our expert catering staff of the Commissary, to whom I am extremely grateful. They have gone out of their way to present us with a repast second to none, and have even volunteered to act as your waiters and waitresses. Take note of them as they serve you, because without their generous efforts, we would all be starving!"