“What is He doing here?” Surn, one of Roks crew, pointed at Vorts, his hand went to his sidearm. Adam looked between them and immediately got between them.
“What’s going on, Roks?” He asked as he looked at Surn, and he heard a soft growl.
“Stand down, Surn; you knew he was my sister''s husband,” Roks replied, his eyes fixed on his colleague.
“He was the leader of the rebellion. I thought he got the death penalty; we barely avoided a freaking civil war because of him.” Surn replied, and the other crew members seemed to agree with the sentiment.
“What''s going on here, Roks? Vorts?” Adam repeated the question as he turned to Vorts, who seemed frozen, looking at the four pilots.
“Well? Can somebody explain?” Adam continued.
“Vorts led an organization that spoke up against our nobility. There were a few demonstrations, so his people were sold into slavery. That’s the short version of it.” Roks explained, and Adam tried remembering what he had read about the Tufons culture.
“Wait, wait. Vorts spoke out against the nobility. Did he take up arms against them?” He looked past Roks at Surn, who looked confused for a second.
“No, he spoke up and gathered people; they openly showed disdain for them.” He replied, and Adam grinned then chuckled.
“I know the military service on your kingdom is for life unless you go on self-exile. Aren''t all of you on self-exile? It doesn’t seem like any of you like the nobles either?” He said, trying to act as calm as possible.
Surn''s brain quickly malfunctioned as he thought about it, and Roks started to laugh. “He got you. You hate those bastards more than Vorts. Vorts was only stupid enough to speak up.” Surn hand left his pistol, and laughing and teasingly shoving Surn around teasingly. Roks came over to Adam.
“This is why I call you peacemaker. Thank you. I was wondering how to get that part into their thinking heads, then I remembered I got you.” He laughed and went over to his crew.
Adam smiled and turned to Vorts. “Are you okay?” He asked him. Vorts nodded slowly as he looked at him before returning the question. “You have no problem with this? About my past crime?”
“Naw, It sounds like you were politicians in a world that doesn’t allow it. We had tons of people like you, some even got elected to be leaders. You have to befriend those guys, though. None of us wants the hostility.“ He replied, and Vorts thought about it for a second and then walked over to them. Adam watched them for a while, making sure they didn’t kill each other, but to his joy, they seemed to bond over it. None of them seemed to like their nobles and being free from their grasp seemed to relieved them. He thought for a second if he should track down the others of his ‘revolution’ who got sold into slavery but stopped himself. He didn’t have the resources to do this, money yes but not the manpower and it might attract the attention of the Tufon nobility. Something he definitely did not want unless he had a dreadnaught between him and them.
He headed into the base to the kitchen and found a beautiful Haran woman standing with two aliens he could not place. One looked like she was made out of plastic with a reddish gel floating inside. The plastic blurred most of the inside, but there was something else moving inside; it looked like a female, purely out of the feminine shape it had on the outer shell. The other was a green humanoid with short golden hair and four brown eyes; he had sharp nails and was the same size as Adam. It was when he first moved that Adam could see the difference; his legs had an extra joint, almost like a rabbit''s. The Haran lady turned to him as he came in.
“Thank you for letting us come, Mr. Wrangler. Let me introduce us again a little more properly. I am Mir-na, I think you have met my grandmother, and this is Mr Ced-dry Miga. He is a geologist, in the last year of his master''s, and a very good dancer, and the last one is Ms. Kinita Sumina; she is doing her master''s, two of them in Meteorology and Climatology. She also likes swimming, and she was told there was a swimming pool. It''s such a strange thing to enjoy. “She said as she smiled at him with all the youthfulness of an eager student.
“And what did you study again? Law like your grandmother?” Adam asked, slightly amused at the trio; they still had their bags with them and seemed lost.
“Oh, me. I’m doing my masters in Planetology. I study the whole of a planet and how to study the planet''s usefulness for the federation. You know, like this planet. It was rated as a level 2 planet, useful for some automated mining operations. Still, no massive mineral deposits would justify the long-distance haul to sell the mining products. Basically, it was deemed not cost-effective.” She replied. “Our university heard about your project and wanted to send somebody to investigate. If we report anything of interest they would want to send a whole team, with your blessing of course.”Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Adam chuckled. “They view this planet as not cost-effective; that’s just the way I wanted it. So, you want to check if that report was correct? Is that why you guys are here?”
“The report and scene were correct; it’s just that something might have been overlooked. What you''re doing here might change how we rate planets. Of course, you might also have been scammed and wasted your credits here.” Kinita commented. His voice was surprisingly soft.
Ced-dry seemed to be a little impatient. “Do you know where we can put our stuff, by the way? I want to settle on and start checking out this place.”
“First off, you are guest, so of course we have space. I think they thought about placing you on the Third floor overlooking the Aquadome, there is a wing there you can use, it should be a few rooms and an office or two for you guys to use, but you will also have to wait to get full access to our work. I don’t want to suddenly have some mega-corporation coming and take over what we are building here. So why don’t you get settled in? Tomorrow after breakfast, I can go over the situation here.”
They looked at him, confused, and Maid came into the room and offered to take them to their designated rooms. Adam waited for them to leave, then went to his hidden blue pancake stash for a plate and went to the control room.
The rest of the day went quietly as everybody was busy settling in, Jork was already at his place working. They discussed building speeders and transports but found out they lacked iridium and osmium, so they set a few of the drones in the asteroid field to search for them. Vorts came after a while and thanked him for taking the time to clear up the air with his fellow Tufons. It made sense for Adam now; Vorts had been a leader, and now he was a slave. He knew what it meant to be a slave and what to expect, so he behaved like one, and then he ended up with Adam, who did every wrong for a slave master. Who wanted him to act like an employee and speak to him as an equal. Adam wondered if he would have more trouble with the others. When the evening came, they went over the reports; small lakes were now around both pools. Vorts wanted to investigate those pools for signs of biological life. They might get lucky and have a few bacteria or one-celled organisms or at the very least, the conditions for some. The volcanos had done wonders for the atmosphere, though there was too much carbon in the air, it was a thicker one. The students was too busy going over their new location, apparently the wing had top of the line system and they had expected one room dorms not a small apartment.
The following morning, Adam woke up to a base filled with life. As he exited the elevator, he could hear children laughing and parents desperately trying to keep their children in check. Roks came up to him. “They have been waiting for you to give them tasks. Where should we do this?” He asked, and Adam thought for a second.
“Auditorium 5, it’s a small one. Put the children in Auditorium 4, put on some movies, and have Maidy serve them food, " he replied. I think we need to have a meeting with everybody, your guys included.”
“Yes, sir!“ Roks said and grinned. “Time for you to step up and be more than a peacemaker.”
He walked away to make sure everybody would come while Adam went to the auditorium and got the room ready. It was not the biggest one, only a place for 50, but with him, there would only be 21 adults, and in the other room, the 13 children would be mesmerized by funny movies while the grown-ups talked. Adam could not help but think that the place had grown up too quickly. It didn’t take long before they had all arrived, and he stood in front of them, feeling nervous.
“Welcome, I am Adam Wrangler, the owner of this little place I like to call Dirt. I know some of you have come here by your own will, to learn what is happening here. “ He looked at the students, “Some of you have come to help me protect this place. “ He looked at Roks and his crew. “And some of you unfortunately had no choice in the matter. For that, I apologize. Dirt is not a place where you should be forced to go; it should be a safe haven where you can find a new future. A future we will build together. And for those of you who had no choice, when your time is up, I will personally make sure you are free and have a new start. I will not keep you here any longer than you have to, and I will do my best to make sure your time here is not negative. I will protect you, and I only ask that you work. I see you as my worker and only that. Your belongings are yours. Your children are already registered as free. The same goes for your bonds. I will not break them. As for what I am trying to do here, my goal is that we can walk outside without protection and swim in oceans one day.“
He stopped and looked over the audience. They looked at him, mostly shocked. He saw a couple that was Dushin, elf-like species with bright red skin, with fur instead of hair that stopped somewhere on the back; he could not see as they wore blue coveralls, but they all did. They were smaller than him and had fangs and sharp claws but seemed to study him like a house cat. They didn’t not really understand why they were so free.
Then, there were five Wossir. Two couples and one single. They looked like walking turtles without shells, but the shell pattern on the body. They were teal or sandy in color and had beaks and holes for ears. They moved much faster than he had expected. They definitely didn’t move like turtles. He could see their hands were slightly webbed, and they watched him thoughtfully as they listened but didn’t say a word. The two last were probably the oldest of them. Bylgyno Buginos like Mr.Heri-ro-ro, his lawyer. They nodded slowly and seemed to understand what he was talking about. Adam smiled as he looked at the rest of the group, Roks crew was just astounded and the students were taking notes. It made him smile.
“Any questions?” He asked.
“But they are slaves?” Kinita Sumina said, and Roks burst out laughing.
“I intend to free them all as soon as possible, so in my eyes, they are only employees, and you will treat them that way. Is that understood?” Adam replied.
“Yes, sir. It''s your slaves. We are just guests, " he replied, and Adam sighed. This would take some time.