Chapter 16

“My ladies and I had a rather involved discussion last evening, and they have made some useful suggestions. First, the new location for our house should be at a site where a rail line can feasibly be run to the Nature Park boundary. The geography would dictate the route of that branch line from the main line.

The Park rail station could provide accommodation for a briefing room for visitors intending to use the Park, so that they can watch a video on Park rules before entering it. We should devise a name for this nature Park, to differentiate from all future Parks, Governor. If there is already a name for the forest, that might be used for the entire Park area. If there is no name in existence, I might suggest either Kempe Park, or Governor Kempe Park in recognition of your period of service to the new Colony.”

“Eh?” the Governor spluttered. “I don’t need such recognition! I am pleased to be thought worthy of this job; that does me.”

“That is your opinion, sir, but tradition suggests that naming a building, an institution or a park is a popular way to acknowledge a person’s dedicated service to the community. I am sure the Colony will see it that way.”

“Perhaps, but you will not get me to make that suggestion.”

“I would be happy to introduce the possibility to the Colony, Governor. Perhaps I can make the suggestion on the Colony website, or in a letter to the Editor of the online newspaper.

Now, to get back to the main topic, the Park permit ñ I have just now thought of the tracker unit acting also as a permit ñ would take the form of a unit to be hung round the neck of the group leader like a medallion, or the neck of an individual if someone wants to visit on their own. The official rationale for the tracker unit will be that in an emergency, taking off the tracker would sound an alarm both audibly on the spot and by radio back at the Ranger base. The unit would be sensitive to the pulse of the wearer and removing it from that pulse, or the wearer dying, would set off that alarm at the Park base.

Our own private view of the tracker unit is that it could incorporate a pinhole camera which would record the actions of the group, so that breaking Park rules such as leaving litter would most probably be recorded by the camera as irrefutable evidence.”

Governor Kempe laughed in delight.

“I love the idea of the park permit acting as a self-incriminating device if they break the rules, and its use as a safety device in emergencies. I see this concept being employed at all our future Parks, Reginald. Thank you, my boy.”

“Do we have the technical expertise to make these on Rehome, sir, or should we ask The Personalia to make them for us? I would not be keen on getting them made on Earth without a patent to protect the device.”

“A thought worth consideration, Reginald. I shall ask The Personalia whether they would be interested. They seem to like devising electronic devices.”

“And what about this source of marble, Governor? Do you want it for the Colony if the quality is good enough?”

“Indeed I do. It is the first discovery of marble that has been found, and if it is of high enough quality we can use it for floors and walls of important buildings. Marble imparts a sense of high quality to the building. Even if it is low quality, it might do for many floors in a less important building. Yes,” he said to himself, “We should be able to find uses for most of the marble. I don’t think we are in the market for marble carvings, though; we are not into art as yet.

However, I agree that some coring is needed to assess the extent of the marble, and its decorative aspect, under your property. We have been using coring drills to check ground conditions for some larger buildings to determine what depth of foundations were needed, so the same drills should be able to be applied on your ground to find how far the marble runs underground. It needs to be quite extensive to warrant opening a quarry. Can I send a caver to go in and have a look at the section you discovered?”

“Of course, sir. I can direct him to the exact spot underground. The entrance was widened by me before I entered the cave and there is a small cairn beside it, acting as a marker so that no-one falls in by accident.”

“Wise precaution, Reginald. The other precaution we might need is a fence round the entrance hole for safety. Right, we’ll let you know before our representative arrives. Your other ideas I will think about.”

“May I presume approval and make initial plans accordingly?”

Kempe snorted his annoyance, but told Reg, “Go ahead with your initial preparations. We can always cancel them if your optimism about this marble is misplaced.”

“Thank you, Governor.”

“Goodbye, Reginald.” He cut the line.

Frances caught the end of the conversation, and asked “What was that you were getting agreement from the Governor for, darling?”

“Nothing definite yet, but we might as well start planning for a move such as we discussed. Do you still want to install that zig-zag footpath up to the house? We could simply leave the scraped pathway the builders used, if there is going to be a quarry here.”

Frances scrunched up her face in thought. “I think we should still make us a smooth path, dear, in case it takes a long time before we can move, or the Governor says no to extracting marble.”

“Okay. In that case, do I continue ploughing our fields and plant the seed? I am interested in seeing if this cottonish turns out well as a crop.”

“Again, assume the worst and plan accordingly. Go ahead with your farming routines. If we do have to move, we can ask the Colony to take over harvesting our crops, or get another farmer to do the harvesting, and pay us something for them.”

“Sounds like sensible assumptions, Frances. I’ll go ahead, then. The Governor says he will send someone to enter the cave and have a look at the exposed marble. We should get notification beforehand.”

“Another thing, Reg; the tracker necklaces. How do we get them made, or do we leave that to the Colony staff?”

“The Governor has still to decide how to have them made, but he favours asking The Personalia to take that on; let’s leave that to him. How about looking at the lie of the land for a train line to the Park? It obviously can’t go right over the ridge.”

Frances pursed her lips. “The Park is pretty large, so it can be approached from any side, but the rail line will be an offshoot from the existing line, so most likely to be this side of the Park. I’ll ask The Personalia for a map showing the contours going towards the Park, and that should suggest where the line would go, unless the Colony wants to decide on the branch line.”

Frances went on, “I know a little bit about rail lines. The gradient should be no steeper than one in one hundred and fifty, to keep it simple and smooth, otherwise you need an extra power unit, which makes it more expensive to run. My dad likes railways and told me that, but here may be a slightly different if the planet’s gravity is less than on Earth m, which I gather it is, very slightly.”

They were interrupted by Hermione and Jemima.

“Reginald, we need to go visit Mum and Dad,” said Hermione, while Jemima nodded her agreement.

“You do? Why?”

“I got a call from Dad. His voice sounded worried. He found a man on their land, wandering around with a metal detector such as you used before. He chased the man away, telling him he was on private land and needed permission to venture onto his fields. The man apologised and said he was unaware that he had crossed the boundary, as he had the next door farm and there was no fence to show the boundary.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Reginald commented, but Hermione went on, “The man was hundreds of yards into the field, and Daddy had ploughed it, so it should have been obvious it was another farm. Dad is concerned that there was more to it than the man said, so he would like us to visit to talk it over.”

“Ah, that is different. An invader of sorts, it seems. Does the Governor’s office know anything about this activity? Frances?”

“I’m on it,” she replied tersely. Her phone was already ringing the pre-planned number.

“Is that the Governor’s office? Fine. Do you know anything about people invading the farms of other residents, with a metal detector in their hands?”

She listened, then replied, “No? Well we have one that we have just heard about, so we are on our way to look into it.”

She listened then replied,”Oh, yes. It is the Robson farm, City Two, not very far from the Reginald Robertson farm.”

She paused to listen then, “Okay. Will do.”

Frances turned to Reginald. “They want us to keep them posted on developments. The idea of metal detectors got them interested. I suspect they didn’t know detectors were in people’s possession here.”

“I’ll bet,” Reginald observed wryly. “I didn’t even know that such detectors existed on Rehome, for there are no ancient relics to be found.”

“Except what you dug up on our farm, Reg darling,” Frances teased gently.

“Oh, well, but I didn’t use a metal detector, did I?”

“No, for you didn’t need one. This is different. What do you think the man was looking for?”

“Not sure, but it has to be native metal of some kind, one that is most valuable in his eyes; possibly rhodium or palladium, though gold and silver come close behind them.”

“Nothing archaic, then?”

“As we don’t know of any sentient beings that were native to the planet that far back, the answer must be none. If he thinks that the previous settlers, the city builders, left stuff in the ground, it is a weird notion to hold. I would go with the precious metal search.”

Frances suggested, “That may mean that there is a source of a valuable metal on the Robson farm. All the more reason for us to visit, my love.”

“Agreed,” said Reg. “Get Hermione or Jemima to ring back and fix when we could visit their parents.”

“Hermione!” yelled Frances. “Phone your folks about visiting them!”

Reginald put his hands over his ears at her volume. “Did you have to shout so loud?” he complained.

“She is just in the next room, dear; I knew that, so a shout was the simplest way to get her attention.”

“Okay, but in future warn me first, please.”

“Oh, my poor sensitive boy. I hadn’t any idea you had such delicate hearing.”

“You just haven’t yelled beside my head before, Frances my love. That is all.”

“I’ll do my best to avoid a repeat, my darling. Now, do we have to be around if someone comes to drill down to the marble beneath our land?”

“I shouldn’t think so, for we did the asking. They can go ahead, but first we have a caver coming to look at the marble face I found down in the cave. The drill team come later, if he gives an encouraging report.

We don’t have crops in at the moment, if the drillers start soon, so there is nothing for us to be concerned about. We might have to warn the fence installers that someone may be along to drill holes on the property. I can take a walk to where they are currently and let them know it may happen. I don’t know when that lot expect to complete the fencing job.”

“Good idea, Reg. Why don’t you take along one of the children in a baby carrier? It keeps your hands free when needed and will help you bond to him or her.”

“Okay. Can I take our Jimmy?”

“Good choice, husband. I’ll make sure he is dry before you leave. If he pees or poops during your walk, that can wait until you get back; unless you want to take a set of things for changing him?”

“Um ... no, thanks. Hopefully he will spend most of the walk sleeping on my chest.”

Frances said, a propos of nothing,”By the way, I want a daughter next time.”

“Ah. You are ready for another child?”

“Well, ready to start making one, but I have a longing to have my own daughter. I don’t care how long it takes, as long as you are prepared to keep trying, love.”

“Oh, I am willing to keep trying. How about the other girls? They still of a similar mind to add to the next generation?”

“All those that have babies, yes. Sandra is too soon, of course. She has only just started making her first, as I am sure you know.”

“I do. She was quite keen to take every opportunity recently, I noticed.”

“That was probably with her finding she was pregnant. Some of us girls want to fuck even more when we find we have started a baby. I know it lacks logic, but impending motherhood has a pressing need for a repeat activity all of its own, notwithstanding the pregnancy has already happened.”

Reg grinned at Frances.

“As I recall, you were always keen to fuck, right from the start, Frances my darling Mother Goddess.”

She stared back at him with a look of innocence.

“That was just us three giving you tuition in how to make love to a girl, Reg. You needed plenty of practice to get it right; but you got there in the end.”

“Certainly my swimmers got there with all of you,” he chuckled back. He was constantly amazed at how many children he had fathered, and that he found himself proud of every single one of them. Not bad for an only child, he thought to himself.

He collected Jimmy and hoisted him on his chest in the carry sling before marching off to look for the fencers. He eventually found the team and passed on the news about possible drillers on the farm. They told him that they themselves would probably be finished in two or three more days, so he welcomed that information.