Chapter 14

Lee called down her ship to land beside the Striker.

She told everyone that was in a tent to go get their stuff and to make sure they were all in this square of land. People started rushing about and in a surprisingly short period of time they had cleared the block of land that held the tents and everyone was milling around waiting to see real wizards do their thing.

Lee collected the crew of the Striker. “Magic 101,” she said to then grinning and they had to chuckle too. “Well not quite, this is a little more advanced but I will feed you the spells and explain what is going on as we work, so you can see how I formed them and what the consequences are.”

“I realise that some of you may never be able to do these by yourself but never forget that a group of mages can do some amazing things. See that small rocky hill to the north of us. I’m going to use the material from it as part of our building materials. We will leave the land with a gentle slope down to the river and cover it with grass and some of the trees and bushes that we will save.”

“It will become a great paddock for the small herds of camla and woollies we brought for the people here. They both breed relatively fast and they will love this climate. What the woollies don’t eat, the camla do, so they are great companion animals. You can milk the camla and the milk is great for babies.”

The idea of getting some small herds to look after went down well particularly with the teenagers who had been trained in animal husbandry. They, like the adults, had all gathered around near the wizards and mages to see the action.

Lee got the magical people to hold hands in a line on either side of her family and the guards and then she started the spells. The settlers watched in abject fascination, as a stream of rocks, water and tree trunks headed towards the middle paddock of the compound from the direction they were located. As they travelled, they seemed to dissolve into a cloud of brown dust.

The dust cloud then settled over an area of land and the building began to form under it as the cloud rose into the air. The cloud then moved on and the next building was formed. The cloud was constantly being fed from the locations that Lee was pulling the materials.

Those who had seen the plans told the others what each building was, as it became clear of dust and sat sparkling and new in their midst. On one half, they had a six-story building that was to be the council chambers, immigration, the police station, various offices, the main bank and the courts of law. The other half held a hospital and research centre that was equally tall.

The cloud moved to the paddock that the tents had been in and seemed to swirl over the paddock for some time before it began to lift higher into the air. The onlookers gasped as the buildings appeared as each level was finished.

In two corners were hotels with six occupiable levels. Connecting the hotels on the base and the third level was a shopping precinct, with the outer areas left open as wide walkways and shops forming the two courts.

On top of the sixth level and splitting the fourth and fifth levels, were flat areas that covered the entire area of the block. On the top floor (the seventh level if you wish) two smaller building that housed the lifts and stairs could be seen under the interesting wave patterned roof that seemed to float high over it.

The two open floors were car parking areas. The people would later find that there was also an underground carpark and a level under it that contained all the systems to maintain the buildings above. Many of the people also wondered how the carparks were accessed.

They later learned that there were two entrances and two exits on the ground floor that looked like large single car parking spaces. A Linger, bike or a ground car drove in. Once stopped it either rose to one of the top car parks or it went down to the bottom one and they could drive out. The exits worked the same way but in reverse of course.

Some found the fact that they couldn’t see a floor under the vehicle a little disconcerting. Foot traffic was encouraged to use the more conventional looking lifts, even though they seemed to work very differently from Earth style lifts. It almost seemed as if you stepped in and then stepped out a few moments later, no matter which floor you were going to.

The hospital and the municipal building had a basement carpark and a carpark level that split the third floor from the fourth in both buildings and the third parking area on the top level. These buildings had interesting patterned roofs that covered the top level car park.

Many people never realised that the buildings were covered in a shield and that they would not become the first choice by people suiciding because you couldn’t fall off the buildings no matter how hard you tried.

The observers were surprised when the land to the west of the fence suddenly became a dust ball and a large area was flattened. They watched in awe as the ships floated over the fence to this new area and then the missing streets to the gates in that end formed.

In one of the new corner blocks, a new structure took shape. It became the building for the recycler that produced the bulky and large ticket items for the community. Other buildings were simple warehouses and even a row of smaller buildings that could be used as workshops lined one of the streets.

The last building that Lee erected was a school. It was designed to house all levels of learning and even had a crèche and kindergarten build on the lowest level. She built it on the southern side and fenced the block in the corner to become its play area.

“I think that will do for now,” she said as she looked at the mages. She could see it had been a little overwhelming but the knowledge was now in their heads and they could use these skills if and when they required as long as they had access to the magical energy, the abilities and or the skilled people required.

She had noted while teaching them that Dusty and James seemed to exert little effort in keeping up with what she was telling and showing them. Bindy and Aaron were also coming along nicely. The rest, except for two, she surmised would all be adequate mages.

Kola interested her the most and Pat disappointed her. She would have to have a little chat with her. Lee got the impression that while Pat got on with the team, she wasn’t satisfied. Kola, however, seemed to have developed a lot faster than the other mages and she had a feeling he wouldn’t be satisfied at his current level for long. Even without the gems to support him, he was delving into the other skill sets with ease.

She had seen other potential wizards do this once they got a taste of what they could do and they blossomed. Dusty and James were of this type too. She had thought to limit them for the time being to better observe their capabilities and not have them outstrip their team but like Kola, she would need to upgrade them way sooner than she had thought.

“We need food and lots of it,” Lee told the crowd. She got a lot of grins and people hurried to fulfil her wish. She then told the rest of them that they should go find a room.

Above the first two floors, the hotels were designed as two room apartments. There was enough space for everyone. Some of the singles and the couples who weren’t staying could use the single rooms and rely on the hotel restaurant if they chose. However, the locals might want to staff them first. They would need to sort that out with the committee.

She knew some of them would move out once they had their parcel of land sorted out and their new homes and businesses started. Others would be living in the apartments longer, as they took up various jobs and worried about separate accommodation down the track.

She hoped they like having access to the replicators on the floor of each level and the fact their food storage spaces had preservation spells. All of her buildings had the repair spells and keep clean spells, as she considered that they were a must. This little town was now taking shape. They still had a lot to do but decent accommodation and basic amenities were definitely a good place to start.

Kola interrupted her introspection when he asked her, “Empress Lee, those roofs we built, they are some sort of solar collector aren’t they?”

Lee grinned, “Yes, you noticed that I had you, Dusty and Sean build them. Power generation is his thing. Well, mine too, but he loves designing new systems. You should go talk to him.”

Kola grinned and after thanking her for an awesome experience, he went to talk to Sean and the other male dominant mages went with him. They had some other questions to chat with Sean and the guards about too.

Lee watched Kola leave and wondered just how this little exercise had affected the young man.

The party had lulled for a while, as the people shifted homes.

It was getting late and the suns were trying to set before many of the people reconvened in the paddock where the pavilions were still set up. They wanted to know what was happening next and how to stock their new larders.

Lee informed them that her people had made up food parcels and they could be collected from the new purple cubes that had appeared beside the other cubes. They would take the strain of Dusty’s resources that had been hammered with so many to feed.