Chapter 6

My thanks and deep appreciation go to dforrest3 for his help in editing this chapter of Building Utopia. I feel we now have a much better product. As with all authors however, the errors are mine.

Early the next morning, true to his word, Roger and the new settlers began building barracks for the single men and women to live in and small cabins for the married couples. Before beginning work on the new buildings Roger gathered everyone together and laid out the rules of his settlement. He gave everyone a guided tour of the area and explained some of the strange items they saw. He explained his philosophy and plans for the growth of their settlement. He also broke the men up into several different groups, each with a different job. Where possible he considered the men and women's desires in assigning work but he did make sure everyone had an assigned job. The administrative work and tours took up the entire morning. The work began that afternoon and continued until dusk. There was some grumbling about work assignments from many of the unmarried men. Not a few of the people were frightened by Roger's tools and machinery. The women and some of the men seemed upset about the fact Roger had two wives, too.

Over the course of the next few days many strange items were used. Roger used something called a chain saw to cut and trim trees for their barracks. His axes and small hand tools were of exquisite manufacture. He even used a strange growling horseless carriage to move some of the logs almost into place. The whispers intensified. This was more proof that Roger was in league with the devil, that he was a warlock and ungodly. After all, hadn't they seen proof of that at Roanoke when he blasphemed and actually struck and threatened the Reverend? Then when they agreed to come with him he managed to work it so the Reverend was not welcome to come with them to minister to their needs. The whisperers conveniently forgot that only volunteers came with Roger. It was whispered that something needed to be done about Roger. No man should be allowed to have two wives. It was ungodly, sacrilegious, and unfair to those who had no woman. None of the men knew how to use most of Roger's tools and he safeguarded them tightly. None had seen such exquisite work. Surely Roger must be in league with the Devil to have such items.

The men were worried about the strangeness of Roger's tools yet they were pleased at the ease with which they were able to build their homes. Always at the worst place was good old Silas with a disparaging word, a complaint, or snide comment about Roger. Slowly, so slowly, he was building animosity against Roger. That animosity was well leavened with fear. Many of the men did not agree with Silas but there was a group of 13 that became his core of rebellion. They were angry about the way Roger treated them, making them work harder than they wanted. They were angry about him hogging the women for himself and they chafed under some of the rules Roger laid down. In short, they were ne'er do wells who thought they could better their plight by overthrowing Roger. After all, they were now deep in the uncharted wilderness far from the King's Justice so the only law was one they made. Might made right, and Silas and his 13 convinced themselves they could take over.

It all came to a head one day just before Christmas. Roger and Bear Stalker were out hunting for the camp. They left the remainder of the men working cutting wood for the winter or putting finishing touches on the buildings. It was cold and the wind was blowing. Silas' men were upset Roger wanted more firewood. They had a huge stack and hoped it would last the winter. They argued, or rather Silas argued, that they could always cut more later if the need arose. Roger was just barely out of sight when Silas and his group threw their tools down and returned to the camp and the warmth of their barracks. Not only did they not work, they broke into the food larder and took some of the choicest meats for a snack.

Margarita and Sunny saw the men milling around and became upset. They confronted Silas and asked him what he and his friends were doing. When Margarita ordered the men to return the meat to the storage area and go back to work Silas laughed. He turned to his followers and said, "Well, boys, the wench wants us to leave our food and go back to our room."

Silas turned back to Margarita and grabbed her. He smiled and began pulling her along with him as he said, "Seems to me if we have to go to our room the wench should come to entertain us. What say you, men?" Silas pulled Margarita to his chest and grabbed her breast. She groaned from the pain and kicked at his shins. Silas roared in anger. He pushed, tripped her, and rode her to the ground while he continued mauling her breasts. Margarita was scared. She screamed when she felt his hand move under her skirt and his fingers invade her pussy. She scratched his face trying to get away. Sunny moved to help her friend and two of Silas' gang grabbed her and began mauling her as well.

Thankfully some of the other women heard the commotion and came to Margarita's and Sunny's rescue. They had not been taught how to shoot but from watching Roger and Margarita two of the women knew enough about the weapons to cause them to fire. Their aim was very poor but the noise and their demands the two women be released caused Silas to laugh and move off Margarita.

Margarita stood and took the rifle from the woman who held it. She and the women moved back to Roger's home where they holed up until he and Bear Stalker returned from the hunt. They and their crew had two deer and a bear to add to the colony coffers. When she saw them, Margarita flew into Roger's arms, wrapping hers tightly around him. Roger saw the bruise on her cheek and instantly asked her what happened. When she told him what happened with Silas, Roger got very quiet, thinking deeply about what needed to be done. This was far from acceptable and if he put up with it, it would only lead to more and worse trouble.

After she calmed down Roger got the rest of the story from Margarita. He went in search of Silas with anger in his heart. They found Silas and his gang lounging around inside the men's barracks. The rest of the men were still in the woods cutting wood as assigned.

When Roger stormed into the barracks Silas looked up at him and grinned. "What's gotten under yer skin there, Gov'nor?" When he asked that he and the rest of his gang laughed uproariously.

Roger said, "I think you know what the problem is, Silas. This was the last time you get away with something like this. I sentence you to one month in confinement and the rest of your crew to one week each. If you continue to cause problems in this colony and disobey the rules I will be forced to either put you to death or banish you.

"Not so fast there, Gov'nor. We've had all we intend ter take from the loikes of you. We decided we call the shots here now. We've got plenty of food and wood stored up for the winter and now we intend to sit here in the warm and wait out the cold weather. Now, you and your whores get outta our home before we finish what we started earlier today. There's no way just you can stand up to the fourteen of us."

Roger stomped over and stood in front of Silas. "That's it," he said. "I've had enough of your lip, Silas." Roger reached out to take Silas' arm when Silas moved. He bent and pulled a knife from his boot top and lunged at Roger. Not surprised that Silas would try something, Roger slid easily into his self-defense training almost without thought. The speed of his response made Silas seem slow in his movements.

Roger stepped back and blocked the initial thrust then made one of several possible countermoves that had been drilled into him over hours of unarmed combat practice in the Army. Silas felt his arm slammed to the side and Roger's hands on his face and head. His head was wrenched to the side and then he felt nothing at all. The other men in the room heard the loud snap when Roger broke Silas's neck. Roger stepped back and let Silas fall to the floor.

The other 13 men sat and stood in shock while they gazed on Silas's body. Roger looked at the men and said, "Now all you men take Silas out and bury him. Then I want you back in the woods cutting firewood until the rest of the crew finishes this evening. You will start your sentences tomorrow."

The men glared at Roger, muttering to each other they moved to do what he ordered.

The next morning Roger was standing outside his home when Margarita and two of the ladies came to him. "Roger," Margarita said, "The store room has been broken into again and a large quantity of meat and vegetables are gone. Penelope says she and Honor saw a group of men moving off through the trees at dawn when they got up to begin preparing breakfast."

With an oath Roger moved off toward the barracks. When he got there he found the man who was in charge. He looked guilty when he saw Roger and wouldn't meet his eyes. Roger stood looking at him a moment and then said, "You know why I'm here, Timothy. What happened to the men with Silas yesterday?"

"Well, Gov'nor, after we finished evening meal and got back to the barracks they was all in a group talking about how unfair ye was. Some of us told them ta shut up and that if they tried to pull that kind of crap again we'd treat them worse than you was agonna. We had some hard talk then we all went to bed. None of us knew they was gone until we got up this morning. I'm sorry they took some of our food but in the long run we're better off without them, Gov'nor."

Cold weather moved in just after Christmas and the small colony settled in to ride out the winter. They hunted as needed and as they could and worked with their hands on smaller projects. Mostly the men sat around and wasted time. The old adage about a woman's work is never done held true during the winter at Birmingham also. It seemed the women's work was never ending. They continued cooking, cleaning, mending and sewing just as they had in the summer. Their only respite was they didn't have to do any work in the gardens. They talked as they worked, dreaming about the time when children would begin arriving. Already a couple of the younger married women were pregnant. It seemed strange that the youngest child now in the settlement was the young woman whose father Roger had killed at Roanoke. She was now a 15 year old woman with the men swarming around her.

There was still some fear and unrest in the new colonists. They looked askance at Roger's modern tools. Many of the people were afraid of his engine driven possessions. They all adapted and adopted his modern hand tools though. The women loved his modern pots and pans! Roger, being a man, had little knowledge of the proper care of modern cooking utensils. Thankfully most of the pans found were either cast Iron, which he knew how to season and care for, or stainless steel. He warned the women not to scrub any of the pans with highly abrasive materials and to keep the steel ones dry and well seasoned to prolong their life.

While his colonists rested and took care of everyday chores Roger and his wives talked and planned. Roger thought about the heartaches that had occurred during the growth of the English Colonies and afterwards in his original time line. He decided he didn't want to repeat those times if he could prevent it. He wanted to build a colony, a civilization, that was from the start kinder and gentler. He wanted as much equality for women and minorities as he could manage. With that in mind he decided all would have equal opportunity from the start. Jobs and social standing would be based on capability and desire, not on sex or race.

Roger knew he would face strong resistance from the more well to do people who might join his colony. They would want to keep the common man downtrodden so profits would be higher. He knew current practice was to treat the common worker almost as a slave or an animal giving them a mere pittance to live on. He planned for this from the beginning. Roger felt much of the problem could be eliminated by the way he compensated his men.