Chapter 28

That done, the trio unlocked and opened the front door, then walked out. The first man seemed to collapse on the ground without speaking, almost immediately, and moments later the other two had joined him on the walkway.

Two security men, carrying small hand weapons, stepped forward and asked at the doorway, “Are you folks unharmed? No injuries that need attention?”

“Just scared stiff,” John told them. “That bag there has the drugs they stole, and our phones as well, to stop us phoning for help.”

One of the security guys took an evidence shot of the scene before he picked up the bag, fished out the phones one at a time, and handed them to John. “There you are sir. Before I return the drugs in the bag, can you give me a list of what was taken, so that we can confirm it as accurate, as reliable evidence for the trial.”

John rushed back inside and grabbed a prescription pad. He wrote on it the name of the drug, and then asked the security man to count the number of packets so he could list the amount correctly. The man pulled each packet out, checked the name and amount and matched it to John’s listing.

Fiona asked John for her phone so she could call home and tell them that they were all right. Panic over, and the family were finally able to relax and get back to normal.

John concluded his listing and did his own independent check of the numbers. Next he asked about the weapons used by the security team.

“New gas-propelled guns, sir, firing pellets loaded with nerve toxin that knocks you out for ten minutes or so; no side effects known, so much safer than the electric shock units we had before; no heart attack difficulties.”

“Fascinating. Imported, I assume?”

“Yes, sir. Our boss, Colonel Kempe, told us that this was the very best they could find for our use.”

“No chance of us producing the pellets here?” John was looking for a business opportunity.

“No sir. I gather that option was looked at, but anticipated usage was so low it was not economical. Apart from training sessions, we don’t expect to use more than a few pellets each in a year’s work. They are that effective, you see. They go through any woven fabric to impact on the skin, and one touch there is all that is needed.”

The leader fetched out his phone and asked for the identities of everyone in the shop at the time of the raid. That took more time as John took on that responsibility.

The moment he was free from this job, his two female assistants rushed to cuddle with him and praise him for his calmness during the raid. He seemed surprised at their strong emotion and their wrap-around arms so tight against him.

“Jane? Debbie? There was no immediate bodily threat. Their object was stealing drugs, not cause injury or death. I didn’t dare resist them, for I didn’t want any of you girls hurt in any violence.

Your safety was more important to me than fighting off the druggies to save a few packets of drugs. Mind you, if any of them had tried to harm one of you girls, I would have got stuck in to them with my knife.”

He revealed a knife that was in his pocket. “This is the sharp knife I use for opening parcels and packages. I slipped it into my pocket, just in case it was needed.”

“My hero!” exclaimed Jane and Debbie, almost in unison, hugging him even tighter. Jane continued, “We will always be safe with you there for us, my love. Won’t we?”

John was still on an adrenaline high, and automatically replied, “Of course, Jane. You two will always be my first priorities.”

Debbie was not fully satisfied with that response, so to push the matter she said, “Then we will be yours for always, John.”

He started to think more clearly, and recognised that he had talked himself into some kind of permanent arrangement with these two; not that he was against the idea.

“Always, Debbie,” he agreed. “Always, Jane.”

He added a question, to make it clear. “Do you both truly want to be my ladies, for life?”

The pair were startled into momentary silence as they took in this sudden question.

Elizabeth and Sidra had been listening attentively, and Elizabeth remarked ostentatiously to Sidra, “Most unusual marriage proposal I have heard of, Sidra, and Dad’s were pretty odd, or so I heard.”

Sidra was quick to follow up, “Yep. Definitely a marriage proposal, even if couched in a peculiar way.”

Jane glanced at the teens before saying to John, “John darling, do you mean it? You want to marry us? Both of us, as a package?”

John sighed, theatrically, and grinned lasciviously at them.

“For my sins, yes. You two have made yourselves indispensable to me. I can’t imagine life without you, and not the one without the other. Will you, Jane, and you, Debbie, please marry me and make me a happy man?”

After rushed replies of ‘Yes’, he was smothered in kisses, and he allowed his protecting hands to slip down to their lovely buttocks and give them an encouraging squeeze. Debbie gave a surprised little squeal, then snorted, “I think he really means it, Jane!”

Jane replied, “Yes, but only my husband gets to grope me, or rather OUR husband, Debbie.”

“Okay. You are approved for groping us, John, but preferably after we are married.”

Sidra laughed and said loudly to Elizabeth, “I hope John has approval for a lot more than groping, if they want to have children.”

Debbie looked over to Sidra and said in reproval, “You are getting ahead of yourself, young lady, but I have no objection to having John’s children eventually. You too, Jane?”

“Yes, I like the idea, once we have settled down.”

Fiona stood there, amazed at how quickly her plans had come to fruition. She decided to intervene.

“Right. Now that this matter is settled, can we get back to business, and finish closing up for the day? I have to get these two young women home sharpish, as we are already late for dinner. John, can you remove your wandering hands from your betrothed women for a few minutes to get this job done? What the three of you do afterwards is up to yourselves; just be ready in the morning to open for business as normal.”

John pulled himself together and responded formally, “Yes, Mrs Robertson. I will make sure these assistants and myself are there as agreed, even if I have to apply my hand to their rear ends.”

“Ooo, masterful!” declared Jane. “Yes, boss, back to work time. Will we have to make a statement to the security people later, John?”

“Possibly. I don’t know enough about the legal routine here to be certain. They’ll let us know if they do, no doubt. Right, get cashed up, girls, while I return these drugs to their place on my storage shelves in back.”

Fairly soon thereafter, Fiona, Elizabeth and Sidra were able to leave for home; first to walk the short distance to the rail station, catch a train to the nearest halt, then trudge up the slope to the farm. Having phoned ahead with their timetable, their dinner was waiting for them and they set to, watched by an anxious gaggle of mothers and Fiona’s fellow wives. As soon as the arrivals had finished their meal and were settled with mugs of whichever beverage they preferred, they were bombarded with questions about the start of the raid, what had happened during the event, and was anyone hurt during it.

Fiona took control of the recounting, but allowed Sidra and Elizabeth to give detailed accounts of their activities in the episode, so that they could show their own good responses; but Fiona was the one who told of the after-event love triangle that was now in progress.

“I should imagine we will be invited to their wedding celebrations very soon,” she ended.

“Wasn’t that what you wanted, Fiona?” asked Frances.

“Indeed so, but it happened a lot faster than I expected. That raid concentrated their minds wonderfully.”

“It does seem to have done so, Fiona. Does that cause any changes in the pharmacy service?”

“Not immediately. I had planned to complete my own studies and when I am qualified, open a second shop. I don’t expect to be able to recruit more pharmacy dispensers at short notice, so it will most likely be me. Sidra and Elizabeth will probably be fine for full-time staff by then.”

The two teens squealed, “Full-time jobs? You mean it, Mum Fiona?”

“Yes, I do, but don’t let this go to your heads. You have to learn the business in detail first, before we can release you on an unsuspecting public somewhere else.”

Sidra got an avaricious look in her eye and asked, “Will we be paid at the same rate as Jane and Debbie?”

“Eventually, yes. They have more experience – and by that I mean shop experience, girls - nothing else; so you will start at a slightly lower pay rate and work up to their level.”

Elizabeth asked, “Where will you be doing your studying, Mum Fiona?”

“I understand The Personalia are able to provide some means of completing a course, but I will find out for certain shortly.”

Reg took note of that comment, for he wanted himself and his fellow university students to be fully graduated in their areas of study. He made a mental commitment to contact The Personalia on that point tomorrow. For now, he simply wanted his family to relax after all the excitement of the day. He did his best to fit in with their conversation for a while, then left them to their girl talk. They smiled at him as he left.

In his study, after checking his email, as his mind wandered back to the farm and the ploughed but unplanted fields, he was reminded that the choice of crop would be dependent on what would grow at the particular latitude the cities were on, and what the growing season was like in length and temperatures. He was aware that crops originating in the Levant had specific requirements for good growth and harvesting, but Hermione and Jemima’s father would be the expert to ask, being a real farmer all his life. As it was now evening, he should be at home, so Reg rang him.

“Hello, sir. Reginald here. Can I persuade you to impart some knowledge for me?”

“Certainly, my boy. What is it that I can help you with? Something about Hermione or Jemima?”

“Oh, no sir. They are fine; lovely girls. It is possible crops that I am worried about.”

“Ah, I see. Well, fire away, Reginald.”

“Back home, we always knew that all the regular crops would grow well most of the time, but here, all the regular factors may be different: latitude may not have the same effect, and possibly length of day and growing season, also soil types suitable for the crops. I should have asked you about all this earlier, Mr Robson, so I apologise.”

“It is okay, Reginald. We can’t get everything on the ball all the time, and being on a different planet makes it much more awkward to get it right. I had the same questions, so once we had moved here, I asked the Colony experts about where we stood in relation to the various climate zones of the planet. Most of our cereal crops started out in the Mediterranean, so any of the low temperate latitudes of Earth suit them. It appears that the positioning of the line of alien cities fits that requirement, and so all the regulars: wheat, barley, oats, rye, millet and rice are okay to grow. Rice needs paddy fields of water, and maize – the American corn – really needs warmer weather to crop properly. Anywhere north of southern England was not good maize country, which is why I didn’t grow it in Yorkshire. There you would need a greenhouse environment and hand pollination to be sure of the crop; no wind to shake the plants, you see.”

“Thanks, Mr Robson. I was pretty clear that we were not in a tropical climate zone, but other than that, I was lost. We are not going to plant more fields here, as we are shortly moving a good few kilometers north to the new National Park, but we will plant some fields there if it is okay to do so.”

“The boundaries of climate zones are never sharp-edged; they are pretty wide, son, so you should be fine as long as the soil is fertile. It can be expensive if you have to add lots of fertilizer. Most new-cleared land is fertile for the first few years, then it is up to you to maintain the fertility by doing things like crop rotation, and perhaps leaving a field to lie fallow for a year to help it to recover. You do that every so often, but no longer than a five year gap, I would say.”

“I think you used to spread manure from your farm animals, sir?”

“Yes, but we don’t have access to farm animals yet, so we have to be more careful about soil fertility. You can add things like waste from mushroom compost, and the mash waste from distilleries and so on, but that depends on such activities happening within a reasonable distance of your farm. City sewage plants can produce a slurry to spread on fields as a fertiliser or soil conditioner, but the population is so low that there is not much of that available yet.

I would suggest you practice crop rotation for the next few years. We should be able to get all the seeds necessary for these crops. Legumes, brassicas, root crops, potatoes, and cereals is good pattern, but that assumes we can get all of these crops as seeds; potatoes is one I am not sure of. We used to buy seed potatoes from Scottish farms where they were pretty well disease-free.”

“I think someone told me they were producing disease-free mini-plants in the laboratory for the potato crop in the future. We may be able to import these if they come in glass ampoules to protect them from Earth’s air-borne diseases.”

“Oh. Well, you university types will have heard about these, no doubt. How are William and Violet, our grandchildren?”

“Oh, they are doing fine, sir. I am getting used to babysitting my offspring and changing nappies, bottle-feeding if the mothers are off shopping, and so on. Hermione and Jemima continue to be excellent members of the family, I can tell you, sir.”

“I am pleased to hear it, Reginald. Surprisingly, I am glad you married them both, and in this Colony, multiple spouses are regarded as normal, thank God. No need now to be circumspect about their marriages!”

He paused then said, “Check on altitude for your fields, Reginald. High-level fields are more like colder climates. The higher you are, the more restricted the crops you can grow.”

The next day, Reg received an unexpected call from The Personalia. He welcomed the call and asked what was the occasion for it.

“We were arranging for your house parts to be delivered to the national park, and we reflected on what you had previously said about insulation, so we amended the construction details to allow for a thicker insulation panel between the exterior and interior walling. The insulation panels will arrive cut to size and marked as to position, to allow each panel to be slid into the correct spot by the builders. We now wondered whether you should have been asked to approve this before we ordered it?”

Reg was happy to answer, “No, I am glad that you did so. You have my approval for your sensible actions.”

“Thank you, Reginald Robertson.”

“Oh, before you go, I am told you can assist us in finishing our university degrees here on Rehome. Is that correct?”

“It is correct, Reginald Robertson. In saying ‘us’, does this mean those of your wives who were at university with you?”

“That is so. How do we go about it?”

“You first give us the names of the individuals, the university name and the course of study, and the dates of attendance. That allows us to upload the data on progress to date, so that we know what additional course information needs to be imparted to the candidate. Once we are ready, you need to board a Landership to attend a base ship where we have the facility for placing the relevant data into the brain of the candidate. We have done enough tests to be certain that there will be no adverse reactions. You will simply find you have all the necessary information in your mind whenever you need it in future.”