Page 15 of Jorhee

I stared at him incredulously. “Are you saying my land claim stands, and my grant money to purchase building, seed, equipment, and livestock?”

“Indeed. Your being matched to the prince did not rescind any of that.”

Hot damn! Not that it mattered. I wasn’t his mate. They’d all see. I’d make sure of it, not showering and getting myself a little sweaty to ensure he got a real good whiff of eau de Jesse.

“Now, if you’d please pay attention to the protocols when greeted by those of lesser rank, and when it is appropriate to disregard the same,” he continued.

I sighed, going along with his lesson so he’d stop harping on about it. Besides, it would come in handy to know how to address the prince and his entourage if I ran into them afterwards and all. I didn’t like to be rude, generally speaking.

10

JOHREE

The town was so small as to be practically non-existent. The five hundred permanent settlers were actually four hundred and ninety-eight until you added my two guards and me, bringing the total to exactly five hundred and one. Plus the two Tyridium who were on a short term contract while they helped integrate Bob and expand the infrastructure so he’d have the needed reach across the colony, and Bob. Bob was sentient and so counted as a resident, I decided, bringing us to five hundred and two.

Of the five hundred and two, one was an AI, roughly half were mated pairs, thirty-six were kits ranging from infants to children up to the age of six, and the rest mainly were unmated males with a few notable exceptions; all of them had female siblings sharing a claim with their brother or brothers. All were Dragonii; the first of the human settlers were expected to start arriving within the next week.

Nearly all lived spread out around the spaceport on claims, raising kilt-ha, hop-a-longs, and growing fruit and vegetables, some of them in domed greenhouses due to otherwise unsuitable conditions - soil, humidity, whatever. It was an alien planet, and until the Mylos educational outreach programreceived enough students who would happily supply data on what grew, what didn’t, and took samples and did all that sort of thing, new variants of popular foods wouldn’t be developed to eliminate the need for raised beds in greenhouses.

A few lived in town. One ran a sort of general store, if you were feeling generous. It was a 3D printed shed with a bunch of different things stacked haphazardly inside, with no apparent order to them whatsoever. The building materials for the 3D printer were all stacked outside next to the store, under a lean-to that looked like a stiff breeze might knock it over.

Another 3D printed building which would look presentable if the exterior was painted and a bit of effort put in to sprucing it up outside turned out to be a tavern of sorts, selling booze distilled in its cellar from locally grown native grain. It stank of unwashed bodies and booze, and I spotted a game of dice at a back table from where I stood in the doorway. When the barkeep spotted me, he paled, but I merely nodded at him in greeting, keeping my face blank, before backing out.

“That does not look like a safe place,” Kiprr observed. He wrinkled his nose. “The floor had spilled drink all over it, and the bar top was filthy.”

I snorted. “Dangerous for your health due to germs, huh? Not because of drunken brawling during an argument over cheating at dice?”

“That too,” he conceded.

A small medical clinic with a real doctor was the only other actual building for general population use. The rest were all housing infrastructure - communications array, more warehouse storage close to the spaceport, a claim office that shared space with customs, presumably so claimants could easily fill out the forms they needed for importing necessary goods and machinery. Which, as there was only an assistant doing the job of two persons, meant waiting until incoming andoutgoing shipments at the airport had been inspected before he could make his way back to deal with requests. That simply would not do. In fact, I could see already that we would need one full-time inspector at the spaceport, a customs and excise supervisor, and the assistant we already had. On top of that, within the next year, we’d need a separate official to handle the tax side of things as well. Crown taxes would not have to be paid for the first ten years, but local taxes would need to be established and collected in order to fund the needed maintenance and infrastructure, as well as the salaries of the civil servants. Those were covered by the Crown only for the first year of the position coming into existence, starting upon the civil servant’s first day on the job. Which meant the Customs Supervisor leaving left us in a lurch that was even worse than it could be, as the funds for his position counted from the first day he worked and time did not pause for vacancies, more’s the pity.

There was no school, no proper market, no rooming houses or hotels. There were a lot of things that were needed or would be soon, and it all fell on me to see they came into being. It was a huge responsibility and one I relished, but I was also intimidated a bit by it. Not that I could show such a thing. I had to present as the very capable administrator that the king saw fit to put into place as governor.

“We’ll be staying on the ship for now, until I can look at the claim boundaries and decide where we will build the necessary public buildings, and then after that, where to build our homes.”

“I’m not interested in farming,” Kiprr said. “I’m a guard and don’t have time for such things.”

Fethri grunted in agreement. “Grant me a house with a nice sized garden in case I find a mate and we have kits, and I’m good.”

“I’ll still reserve you two claim spots, in case you change your minds later.”

“If I do, it’ll be because I was matched to a human and they want to farm,” Kiprr said. “So no need, as they’ll have a claim.”

“Which you can combine with yours for extra land,” I pointed at. “Something for your future kits and grandkits to hold.”

“Fine,” he sighed, agreeing reluctantly.

“I’m okay with that.”

“I’ll let you choose where to build a tied cottage on the grounds of the manse, however,” I said.

“Make it within running distance of the prison,” Fethri said. “There’s not one, and I’m certain sooner or later someone will need locking up, even if it is only for being a drunken nuisance. Who’s acting as law enforcement here, anyway?”

Kaelor, who’d been standing quietly the entire time during our exchange, shifted uncomfortably. “That would be Vesh. He gets a few males to help if needed to subdue the person and locks them up in a storage room. It’s only for things like petty theft and being drunk and making a nuisance of themselves. Mainly crew from visiting freighters, so sometimes, if they’re not one of the drunks, they come fetch them and lock them up on their ship before heading back out.”

I sighed. “Add a priority request for a security officer or three. And to 3D print an office with a jail for them. We can start small, with only a couple of simple cells.”

I turned to Kaelor. “Thank you for taking the time to show us around. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of other things you need to do.”