Chapter 18: Home

~~ Delta - Feb/03 - (Earth - Aug/2095) ~~

Alec took us home.

Lee had dropped a 3m square by 6m long transport box in the entertainment area, and we piled all the pressies in it. I blinked as we were transported and I opened my eyes to find myself in a dome home similar to Lee’s. The bridesmaids and best men had come with us. I now knew why they were moving too.

James had apparently taken a fancy to Lee’s home the first time we went there. A guy called Jim Hoyle who used to be Lee’s trade assistant on the starship Fortune had designed her house and he was happy to do one for James.

We didn’t have the added servant’s wing, but we did have the four smaller domes, and they were set up similar to Lee’s original domes. Jim had also included an outdoor entertainment area, a huge outdoor pool and a cricket oval for me.

Our little domes were also a little closer together, and they all joined together on the second floors by extensive walkways. They were more to one side, altering the bottom floor plan slightly, due to the enormous trees and to provide space for my covered pool and my oval.

James said that the C-cells and the solar-cell impregnated dome roof would get more than enough light to keep the place running forever. I was just wowed, at the space we had.

Like Lee’s home, the middle floor was set up into twelve apartments around the outer edge, but James had made them three bedrooms each. They too were interspersed with smaller gardens and seating areas. The atrium as James called our top-level was at present still open to the top of the dome and only railed. We could add more rooms later.

The centre over the kitchens and dining areas was our office space. He’d kept the conference room but divided the other areas up into three office areas, big enough for four large desks each. The offices were interspersed by the six large state-of-the-art labs. We also had a scanner room, a specimen vault and a freezer.

The apartments under ours were also split up to make another sixteen two-room apartments that could be shared by singles or couples with kids. One of the side domes had the Replicator/Recycler unit with room for additional storage.

The second little dome was our transport dome, and the third was for storage, showrooms and work areas for our larger specimens. The fourth housed a space for our dragons upstairs and farm animals below.

Outside of it, we had one hundred fifty acres fenced off on the southern side. It was mostly along the riverbank and on a flattish bit of land. Our home was half in and half out of the forest.

James informed me that a largish meteor had hit here during the storm when we were in Clarksville and had made a big mess of the area. There used to be a 10m high cliff above the river here. The meteor had decimated the bluff and surrounding half klick or more area, up to the edge of the forest we were partly in.

It had lowered the cliff to only several metres high in places. It was why Lee had said that he could build a compound this big here. Plus, he planned for us to use it as a research centre.

Justin’s team had come, flattened the area for him and rebuilt the riverbank, so we had better access to the river. There was another couple of hundred acres or so, on the northern side of the compound that we could fence later if we wished.

It still had small groves of trees left after the fallen trees were removed. They hadn’t cleaned it all up yet, just the 200m to the river and along it, for about a klick or so.

Our fenced paddock had a lovely stream running down the middle of it out of the forest, and special fencing designed to discourage crocs and fangrinders from visiting our farm animals. James told me the shields should keep them out, but it didn’t hurt to be sure.

He had already signed a lease with Justin for claiming all use of the two hundred square klicks of land on a map. It effectively covered this end of the mountain range from a broad valley further east to the Yves River.

It was why he had given up the head of the team because he had planned to move here before he had met me. The fact I loved his home too, was marvellous as far as he was concerned.

“But James, how on Earth or Harmony for that matter, could you afford all this?” I asked.

“Heidi,” he said. He then grinned and explained, “That last dig I was on before we split up. In my efforts to get back to Heidi, I had separated from the team and tried to take a shortcut to get back.”

I had to smile as his eyes lit up in the telling of the story. “I ended up getting cut off by a massive mud and landslide. As I was approaching this area to scale down it, the hair on the back of my head stood up, and I stopped.”

“Then I heard this noise, rocks screeched on rocks. Then a huge section of the mountain started to slide. I watched in horror and amazement as a gush of water pushed on the chunk of rock and it toppled over and smashed into the valley below me.”

“The water now freely poured down over the mess it made and created a new stream. The rocks and mud from the slide dammed up the old stream to create a deep, wide lake. I had to sit and wait two days for it to go down enough to cross it.”

“While walking around the area, I found that the rocks were dominantly what you’d call quartz, and intermingles with it was chunks of gold. I’d filled my pack with the best pieces I could find to take back to Heidi. I had left a lot behind and thought I might have to come back.”

“I thought it would get me in her good books. The problem was when I got home, we had the huge blue, and she put me aside. To spite her, I applied for a mining lease and claimed the valley. As we had split up, she couldn’t touch it. I had more than enough gold in the backpack to pay for the land.”

“I then hired a friend of mine to dig out the rest. Most people thought he owned the mine because I gave him a third share. I was effectively a silent partner, but anyone who checked would have found the lease and property in my name. When I decided to build here, I sold him the rest of the mine and the lease.”

“So, the mine is still profitable?” I asked.

“Yep, he’ll probably be there a while yet. We also found copper, and this was the true gold of the mine, as it will bring him in a good income for many years.”

“So, you’re filthy rich?” I said.

“No,” he replied. Then grinned a ‘very satisfied with self-grin’ at me, “You are filthy rich. I gave it all to you, my love. That’s what the documents in the chest are about.”

I think I stood there and gaped at him for several minutes until he kissed me to shut my mouth. Finally, I got out, “But you can’t, you can’t just give it to me.”

“Already have. Your mother and mine both approved the dowry as acceptable, and it’s signed and registered with the council on Rahia Island.”

“My mother?” I almost screeched at him.

“Of course, as the head of your household, she had to approve and accept the dowry for me to marry you. That is part of my culture, my love, that I was happy to comply with.”