Chapter 17: Back on Bangalore

Sally

Hi I am Sally. While Tag and Sushi are back on Earth I have been given the job to fill you in on what is happening on Bangalore.

Waush Shaua and I are in school and are working on the farm. Our farm is growing all the food needed for Bangalore. After Sushi and Tag left for Earth it was time for our first harvest. The corn was a real hit. I got all of the students at school to volunteer to help with harvest. Of course we had a corn feed when the harvest was finished.

Waush Shaua and I were on our morning inspection rounds. We saw Mark Clemens approaching.

"Sally I have great news." Mark Clemens said. "We have completed the last house for the farm. All of your staff have homes."

We then took a tour of the farm village. There were three "Human" homes and 12 "Centaur" homes arranged around a large common area. Waush Shaua and I had one of the "Human" homes. The home was empty. We had no furniture. Waush Shaua ordered a bedroom set, nursery set, and a dining table and chairs. The rest of the furniture would have to wait until we finished school. Anu said he would bring back a lot of "human" furniture in January.

I called a meeting of the farm staff for the next morning. James Manfred, Jessica Moro, and Mat Borrego were there. Neil Manfred and Haley Fitzsimmons also attended from school.

"The harvest has gone very well" I reported. "We are in our third growing season. Anu asked me to check with you about the planting for next season. I open the floor for suggestions on future plantings."

"I am definitely in favor of more corn and triticale," said Neil.

"Our feed crops need some space. We need to build a good feed grain for the chickens. That will include soy, alfalfa, grit and calcium as in sea shells in addition to the corn and triticale. Since we are short of carbonate rocks on Bangalore we need to import chalk.

"Would you arrange the seed necessary to give us a good balance and good nutrition for our cattle and chickens?" I asked James.

"I will get an order for the next shuttle. We have corn, soy, triticale, alfalfa, wheat and barley for the next season. We are going to need a mill to grind the grain to flower. May I order three mills so we can dedicate the type of grind?"

"That sounds like a good idea. We won't have many requests for white flour, but whole grain flour will be in demand. I know bread is popular, we need to be able to grind flour for bread and bake goods."

Jessica requested that we grow a variety of truck crops to insure diet diversity.

I asked her to develop a plan for the next meeting. We would implement it.

Before our meeting closed I suggested we have a beach party at Equus Inlet after planting is finished. I got immediate agreement.

The next day all hands turned out for plowing. I arranged for the Clydesdales to be there to help with the plowing and disking. We had the land ready for planting in five days. We had the fields planted in two more days. We had the help of the students in the Wellville School.

Neil Manfred planned the party. We would have 45 attendees. The hike to Equus was simple. We headed south on the Equus road.

We were half way down the road and we met Matthew Clemens and his construction crew. They were building the light rail line from Equus to the hospital. They had double tracked the whole line. Matthew planed on making the trains automatic. The trains would also handle freight at non-peak hours. The trip from the hospital to Equus would take ten minutes. Mathew had planned to split the line at the hospital. One line would go to Inverness. The other line would go to the farm. It would later be extended to the west coast. It would have stops at the farm and the lumber mill. All stops would have freight capability.

"Sally I think we need to enlarge the farm/lumber mill village." Mathew said. "We need a place to locate the grist mill and the natural location for the mill is between the farm village and the lumber mill. The grist mill will need at least ten to fifteen employees. That means at least fifteen more homes. We will also need a general store for supplies at the farm. It is not reasonable to expect the farm, lumber mill, and grist mill staff to go to Equus to buy groceries and hardware."

"Matthew we will also need a school for all of those worker's children." I added. "We might as well plan the same facilities for Inverness."

Matthew agreed. "We need a name for the farm village."

"I will bring that up at the next village meeting in three days." I said.

We continued to Equus Inlet. The weather was great. It was warm and sunny.

We were in luck. We got to witness the christening and launching of the schooner Mary Beth. She looked beautiful at the dock side. We all got a tour after she was tied up. The Mary Beth was a three masted schooner. Her architect had also installed an antimatter reactor. The Mary Beth could also cruse at 20 knots under auxiliary power. For most of her voyages she would be powered by sail. She was also fitted with bow and stern thrusters to simplify docking.

I was talking to Mickey Brown and he was planning at least three sister ships of the Mary Beth. Bangalore would have two methods of transporting people and livestock between continents.