Gabe had the builders doing better than he had imagined, given the influx of new, untrained workers every month.Anna had impressed him greatly because she had the kitchen running wonderfully, and the food was so much better than he had imagined it could be based on how it had been from the beginning to now.Tasha's farm had a better-than-expected harvest, and even the other farm had reached the necessary level.Two more farms had started, and he would hope for the best but was concerned because they had not had good luck with new farmers.The next farm was about to start, and it was always a concern if the farm family would be able to handle the work.
He and Victoria were going to Tasha's farm for supper tonight.Oret enjoyed her family, and the children were wonderful.Victoria's grandchildren were the closest that he would have to children of his own.When they arrived, Tasha was out messing with her beehives.
“What are you doing?Do you need help?”Victoria asked.
“Anna asked that I give her a hive so that she has honey available on site.I'm splitting a hive so that she can have one,” Tasha explained.
“That girl is very smart and hard working.”
“I can't deny it.My brother made a good choice.They have already planted wildflowers around the camp in areas where it's not feasible to establish a garden.I believe the bees will do well, and I know that she will take good care of them.”
“I have no doubt.I see that you are almost done,” Victoria observed.
“I am done now.I plan to leave the hive here for a week before moving it.”
“That's wise.It will give the bees a little bit of time to recover.”
“The children are cooking, and they are very good at it.I believe we will all enjoy this meal a great deal,” Tasha suggested.
The pressure of overseeing the farming had eased a little bit because their farm had been so successful.Some of their harvest had been stored here for the use of this colony, while most of it had been sent to one of the other colonies, where it had been traded for what they needed.Many of the colonists didn't understand the barter system, and they wanted cold, hard coins in their hands.The chief had started printing coins that would be used for money, but there wasn't enough yet to be used across the empire.Even those colonies that would eventually be turned loose to the human colonists would be using those coins.Oret could understand what a massive undertaking it was to build the empire that would someday be the largest in the universe.Unfortunately, not many of the humans could.
It was hard not to wonder how those colonies would do once the chief gave control to the humans that lived there.At that point, he was sure that those people would begin to understand what a hard job it was to run a planet.He certainly could understand, and he only had a small moon.Thank the goddess for letting Victoria be at his side to assist him, and some for family to help take charge of certain areas.That had helped so much that he could not even describe it.He was aware that the chief had not thought it would help this much and that he had expected them not to take charge of any areas.The chief had even asked how Victoria had gotten them to take charge of areas that they had refused to take charge of for him.
“She allowed them to have their children with them.Even if they only do it for a little while, it has been an unbelievable help.Many of the other ladies in the kitchen also wanted their children with them, so we set up a room right next door, allowing them to see their children whenever they wanted to.I was surprised by how much difference that made in their willingness to do a better job.It will probably help down the line because those children who are no longer toddlers but still too little to do much come into the kitchen and help bake cookies and other things.They are developing an interest in cooking that will pay off later.”
“Your mate is very sharp.We usually don't allow children to be with their parents until they are old enough to contribute to the household.That probably helps you not need anyone to take care of those children since they are right there where they can be overseen by their parents.”
“That leaves only the babies to supervise, and she put them in medical.The doctor is the only one who seems to resent it, but there are only two babies.It will not be long before there will be more.”
“Is Victoria...?”
“No, she told me she is probably too old to get pregnant,” Oret explained.
The chief laughed, as if that was crazy funny.“We shall see.There have been some older human women who mated with a warrior and got pregnant quickly.”
Once that was said, he remembered a few of those whom he had known personally.Oret still refused to hope, knowing that he would be happy with the grandchildren he would be able to call his own.With things going so well, why expect something that he would probably never get there were a few more things to discuss with the chief, and then they hung up.Victoria was hard at work in the mine, and he was thrilled that the better equipment was making it safer for them.It was also making things a great deal easier, and the miners were now getting two days off a week, which should please them.They had the option of working with the builders on one or two of those days for extra points.These points could be traded in for a wide variety of items.The two builders who had gone to the miners were both working a day a week with the builders for some of those items.None of the other miners were doing so.That was alright because it was their choice, and the building exceeded expectations.
The only area that needed help was farming.Everyone in management, when they had extra time, went out to help on one farm or another.Gabe and Anna did not mind helping because they were able to bring their children with them.Tasha's farm was a shining example of what could be done for those willing to work.Their problem was that few people were willing to work that hard.Once their farms were set up and running, there would be more time off.The first farm was at that point, but it was due to them receiving a great deal of extra help.Of the other three farms that were running, only one family had been willing to put in work, but they still needed help because they were a couple with a toddler.All the help they received had finally enabled them to complete their home with an extra room for future growth and a suite, allowing them to hire a helper.
This helper was a fourteen-year-old boy who was desperate to get off Earth and had no family left.He would help them until he was seventeen, and in return, he would receive room and board.If he did well, they would save something for him so that when he left, he would not be without anything.They’d agreed because they couldn’t make it without help.He’d agreed out of desperation.Tasha had checked up on things, and she'd said everyone seemed to be happy.It was an arrangement they would consider making in the future, especially since they were getting more teenagers and small children.Oret thought that Victoria would agree to take one of the small children.There were other couples that had also agreed, so he thought they would all go to a good home once they arrived.
Things were going so well that at the back of his mind, he worried that something would go wrong.When it did, it was a complete surprise.A parent with an infant had disappeared.The other parent had fallen apart.They needed to get a search party together and try to find them before something happened.So little of this moon had been explored that they had no idea what might be out there.Maybe some kind of wild creature had grabbed them and planned to eat them.That was one of the most likely scenarios.Since the parent that had been grabbed with the infant was a female, that left several other possibilities.Oret was a good tracker, and he intended to find them.As soon as they were out of camp, he found the footprints and signs that they had been this way.
The husband had said that his wife carried the baby in a carrier that wrapped around her body, keeping the baby in front of her.That might not have been a problem had she not wandered too far from camp.It was even possible that she had wandered off and been unable to find her way back.He hoped that was the issue and that they would find them and bring them back alive.Oret was on the hunt and using every sense he had to find them.Victoria headed out with a second search party and continued her search further, working her way in.The radio went off; she had something to say.
Oret led his group to her location.The mother lay on some rocks, and Tasha was slowly working her way there.Once Tasha made it to her, she put her hands under her arms and dragged her to some men who took her away.It was obvious the woman needed some assistance.He hoped she would be all right.His attention moved to Victoria, who stood in front of a creature that he’d never seen before.The child was also there, dancing around, oblivious to the fact that her mother had been injured.He wasn’t sure how they would get the child away from the creature.Was it dangerous?Oret didn’t know.What he did know was that Victoria seemed to be talking to it.Tasha stood nearby as if she were listening in.
Tasha was now moving the child to remove it and handed it off to someone to carry her home.There had been legends of this kind of interaction with creatures.They were called animal whisperers.It explained a lot about how Tasha and her kids had done so well domesticating animals from the supply planet.They had birds that resembled large chickens, which laid eggs.There was a stable full of horses, like unicorns, and something that resembled cows, which they milked daily.No one else had come close to their results.
The creature was an odd one, and Oret could only see part of it because it was dug in a hole in the ground.Its head was black, and its skin looked rubbery.The front claws were long and sharp, and the front legs seemed to be covered with black fur.Eyes like large pools of black stared at them.Oret sensed that it was scared and confused.He saw the crowd was getting angry, so he began to send some of them home.No decisions would be made by a rioting crowd.
