Matt was much more comfortable with the second and last official meeting of the day. He sat with eighteen other supply guys and gals. These were the senior logistics officers and their chief non-coms, plus a few others.
“Good afternoon. We are all busy today, but none of us so busy we can’t sit down out of the heat and relax a bit. Some of you had lunch with me a little while ago and some of you got to sit in the air-conditioned luxury of the dining hall. This is going to be the best of both.
“We will take this meeting in three parts. One, we are going to discuss the first-stage infrastructure. Two, the actual city builds. Three, populating the cities and making them homes for our people. We will have two breaks and take questions at regularly scheduled periods during the discussion. So load up on drinks and snacks and let’s get down to it.”
Matt watched the others as today’s assistants. Y’ee Sp’erin, a boy of about thirteen, brought him a frosted mug of Dr Pepper. B’aeolin T’all, a girl of about twelve, carried two more for K’rem and M’rak, who sat at his end of the conference table. They were experienced with this now and knew what they were doing.
Matt got down to it.
“This is the land that was ceded to me today, and almost no one lives between here, here, and here. That makes it a perfect place for new communities. The first stage is to cut straight-line corridors of considerable distance through the rough terrain for our tethered rail system.
“As proof of concept, several engineers have already done this for a short distance using biopolymer rails that can be produced quickly, even in human-made shops. With the fleet here, it will go much faster. Each rail segment is a biopolymer trapezoid mounted in a frame, lifted a few meters above the ground, and the sled clamps ride those faces on rollers to hold the train in line.
“The sleds you see going back and forth use an arc-cell battery pack system developed here on Earth by one of our joint human and V’ren teams. The so-called counter-gravity is just a standard V’ren field inverter, the same one your medium fabrication units can churn out by the hundreds. That inverter drives hundreds of small field coils in each sled, to keep it aloft and handle slow-speed movement off the main line. A team of builders can assemble one or two sleds per day, and we have dozens of teams who have already started.
“M’rak Y’eslin will brief you on the next section.”
“I have been working closely with Marmaduke Logistics, the High Lord’s private company, over the last several days,” M’rak said. “I am quite impressed with how V’ren-like they are in their approach to problem solving. This is the path we want to cut.”
He highlighted a long diagonal on the display.
“I have transmitted to your captains and ships how the first cargo shuttle loads need to be packed and which people need to be assigned to each. Humans will be sent along to provide security and local knowledge. While we are all brave and many of us have military backgrounds, they know which of the local animals are dangerous and which might try to eat us,” he said, getting a chuckle.
“I also feel it is good that we get to know one another as people,” K’rem added. “This will be a good start to that.”
“The first thing all the teams will need to do is set a base camp with a place for shuttles to land repeatedly,” M’rak continued. “We have figured this will take up most of the first day at every location. On days two and three we will begin using the automated equipment to start clearing the path between each camp, and no later than day four, and even sooner in some locations, we will have straight-line paths of significant distance between here,” he said, marking Columbia, “and here,” dropping a marker near the Colorado border. “Hundreds of human kilometers of cleared corridor.
“On day five, joint human and V’ren teams will begin anchoring the tethered rails. We set the biopolymer segments in their frames, bolt on the clamp hardware, and hang the carbon fiber straps that link the clamps to sled and locomotive. As soon as a section is anchored and connected to the main trunk line here at Columbia, we can begin sending supplies along it without tying up a shuttle crew. That was a suggestion made by my team in Marmaduke Logistics.”
K’rem took over the next part of the briefing.
“Though some of the engineering teams will hate this next part, W’ren and I,” he said, nodding to the man at the other end of the table from Matt, “have discussed it and decided they can complain to the High Lord if they object,” he added, getting a real laugh.
No engineering officer wanted to look petty in front of a noble. Trying to tell a High Lord, an engineer in his own right, that he could not do what was asked because he did not understand the complexity of engineering would be braver than most could ever imagine being.
“After dropping off each load, the cargo shuttles will return here, here, or here,” K’rem said, tapping the first planned hubs, “and pick up a load of mixed salvage to run through the recycling systems. Most of it will be industrial debris and river muck. This fits with local plans to reopen the river for navigation, plus it provides the fabrication units and chemical factories with necessary feedstocks. It will also be hard on the engineering teams as they direct and clean out their systems after heavy use.”
Matt took back up the briefing.
“In short, we will have the road cut prepared and the first tethered rail segments ready to lay in a few days, because we are working decentralized with several hundred teams, each dropped from a shuttle. Once those corridors are linked back into Columbia, the tether can carry most of the freight instead of our shuttles.
“We will take questions now on the road cut.”
“Th’evor V’lir,” she started, giving her name as way of introduction. “My Lord. I am impressed with your rotational schedule, it is very thorough. What sort of integration problems do you foresee for the road-cutting crews, as we are using a mixed crew of humans and V’ren?”
“There are potential cultural differences,” Matt said, “but so far we have experienced little in the way of friction between our people working together. I will say you, like other women, should make it known whether you are open to relationships or bonding with the human men you work with. I expect my people to be respectful of that choice, but when there is uncertainty there is always a chance to offend, even by accident.”
“St’elom Kr’eval, my lord,” another woman said. “This is a follow-up to that question and not germane to the topic if you would prefer to stay on topic, but are you encouraging such relationships?”
“I encourage you to decide for yourself if that is what you want,” Matt said. “You are an attractive young woman and would no doubt have many men interested in you, but I am not actively telling you to go out and find a human partner, nor am I discouraging this. I know K’rem has been kept more informed of such things than I have. K’rem?”
“I know of numerous partnerships that have already formed and some are bonding,” K’rem said. “Like our High Lord, I am not discouraging this and say only that you should follow your instincts if you are to pursue such things. W’ren?”
“After speaking with my niece and my sister, I am very much in favor of cross-partnering,” W’ren said, “but like them I believe you should follow your own instinct in such matters and will encourage women not interested in human men to make that known from the start. I think if no one has other questions we should hold this discussion until we take a break or after the meeting.”
“Thank you, W’ren. If anyone wants or needs to take a break now, we can take a quarter hour, or we can load up on more snacks and drinks and power through the next section, which we will take. You, what is your name?”
“K’ao Sk’aman, my Lord.”
“Please come with,” Matt said, signaling to his assistants to follow.
Matt closed the door behind them. “K’ao, you are pregnant and looked like you wanted a break but were not about to put yourself or your reputation on the line in front of them. Go pee and I will figure something out.”
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, and sighed as she headed toward the door he pointed at.
“Do you see what I just did?” he asked.
“You singled her out for ridicule?” Y’ee said.
“Maybe,” Matt said, looking to B’aeolin.
“He is putting her needs ahead of his meeting,” she said to the older boy. “He is looking out for his people, even when she would not look out for herself. You wish to be a father one day, yes?”
“Yes,” Y’ee said, wondering why she was asking, but knowing his answer by heart. “As all good men should want.”
B’aeolin had learned three lessons that first afternoon with Dave and Annie. First was how to play spades. Second was to not play with Lord Matthew until she was much better at it. Third was, “He often sacrifices his own needs, like concluding this meeting on time, to take care of those he thinks of as family. He is being a good father to his family.”
Matt was unsure whether to hug her, kiss her, or pat her on the head. He settled on giving her a gold star later, and a “well done” now.
He had not expected the door to open and every man in the room walk out of it, each nodding in turn to him, their heads hung a little low as they passed. K’rem stopped with W’ren to talk to him.
“Go get everyone Dr Peppers and Klondike bars from Angelina,” Matt said, looking at the two youngsters.
“Matthew, I should apologize,” W’ren said. “K’rem reminded all of us that every one of us, save for him, were fathers and that we should have had the sense to know what she was going through. We would expect people to look out for our daughters, wives, or nieces better than we just did for K’ao. K’rem, who has no children, was a little more pithy than he normally speaks to people and made us see that you truly are the best of us.”
Matt gave a nod to W’ren as the group reassembled, and a genuine smile for his prized student of the day. He took one last swallow of his Dr Pepper and began anew.
“The base of each new settlement will be the initial work camp, which needs to be completed both as a shuttle landing site and firm ground for the fusion reactor. We will be using the Portable Type 138 Reactor you currently have in stock, but joint engineering teams have designed a more permanent and more efficient long-term model that will replace them as fabrication time permits. This will keep the machines running and provide overlap for each settlement for some time.
“I know it is going to eat through your stores like Gr’aneth ate through the world,” he said, using the V’ren equivalent of Tiamat, and gave W’ren a sly smile. W’ren genuinely looked impressed that Matt knew any of the legends. They were, in fact, the easiest things for him to learn through the neural interface once he had that initial grueling session that force-fed his mind the V’ren language primer.
“Once completed, we will begin the more delicate work of laying out the settlement. I expect the prep and fabrication time for everything we need to begin to take no more than seven days, which you will hear humans call a week. We typically work three to five days per week, but every human who has committed to this project is on call at all hours of the day for the next four weeks, as I expect you to be as well. It is what most of my people and many of your fellow V’ren call my ‘get shit done’ mentality.
“The names and configurations we are using come from the language of my ancestors, the Filipinos. First is the sitio, which roughly translates into small village. We are building these to standard designs so they will go up quickly and easily. A sitio roughly measures 5,760 by 8,450 V’ren feet, or 1,800 by 2,640 human meters. It will contain 330 blocks in a 15 by 22 grid,” he said, letting M’rak push the image to each screen while he took a drink.
“The blocks are 120 meters on each side and align perfectly with the block next to it. We are using the V’ren nano-foam to lay the foundation of the entire sitio, including the three three-story apartment blocks. This will provide standardized infrastructure throughout the sitio. My goal is to make each sitio largely reliant on its own resources for fresh foods for part of the year, as you can see from the layout.
“The seventy orchard blocks will be managed by the sitio agriculture team, as will the allocation of the garden lots. People in the houses will have yard space enough for their own gardens and greenhouses. We are encouraging them to make use of them. We have placed public parks strategically around the sitio to maintain a sense of openness and places for kids to play and families to gather.”
Matt nodded to K’rem to take over.
“Each sitio will contain a mix of houses in the two and six-bedroom varieties to accommodate varying family sizes,” K’rem said. “They also include, as Lord Matthew said, three three-story apartment blocks which have housing on the second and third floors, with administration and commerce sites on the ground level. The apartment blocks hold a mix of three-bedroom family units and studios good for one or two people and maybe a small child.
“At full design, when all houses and apartments are built out, each sitio carries about eight thousand sixty-four bedrooms. We do not expect them to be full for many years. Initial occupancy will be closer to a fifth of that while farms, schools, and industry catch up, but the capacity is there when our people grow into it.”
He finished and nodded to M’rak.
“We will start with two hundred sitios and get them built to completion by the end of September, or one hundred twenty days from the day we lay down the first sitio,” M’rak said. “Six hundred more, planned or already under construction by that point, will be completed by the first of December, sixty-one days later. These will be connected to or in close proximity to the original two hundred.
“We are relying on the new tenants to do much of the finishing work to suit their own tastes, and that includes everything from painting to putting on outlet covers and installing their own replaceable lighting, and so on. Those that move into the later units might also be able to call on the expertise of those who have already been through the process.”
Matt took up the explanation again.
“Each sitio can function on its own,” he said, “but for better urban planning we are continuing to use an increasing number of administrative units. Two to four sitios will make up a barangay. Two to four barangay will make up a town. Two to four towns, a municipal zone. We will add capacity at every increasingly larger unit.
“For example, medical. Each sitio will have a provider specializing in women’s health and birthing, plus one specializing in children’s health, with one to two other providers. Each barangay will get a larger clinic. Each town will have a small inpatient hospital, and each municipality will have a regional medical facility with more and more specialized care.
“The same goes for industrial capacity and redundant power stations. Eventually we will be creating stand-alone industrial and agricultural zones and linking ourselves to existing human infrastructure and trade networks, but that takes time and more planning than I think we can put effort into until we see how the initial phases go and how growth proceeds.
“This takes us to our natural stopping point and a place for new questions before we take a break.”
Matt was pleased to see everyone leave except for Y’ee this time.
“I was wrong earlier, my lord,” Y’ee said.
Matt just looked at him and waited.
“I was wrong,” Y’ee said finally. “You were looking out for the weakest member, or maybe that is the wrong word, but I learned in physics class a chain is never stronger than its weakest link. I thought on that, and you were taking care of the weakest link.”
“All true,” Matt said. “Now, so you remember it, I want you to go ask Angelina what words would be better than weak regarding a pregnant woman.” He thought about it for a moment. “Tell her you need more Klondike Bars and Dr Pepper. If you survive, we will discuss it over beers later.”
Matt leaned back in his chair and watched everyone, including the kids, file back in. Y’ee was not even mussed, which was amazing. That could mean trouble later, for him, for Y’ee, or for both of them.
“We will start this session with the questions I know you all have,” Matt said once everyone was seated. “I want to hear them, because later this week I will have to make statements to the media.”
“My Lord, Pr’elim Gr’oven,” one of the officers said. “At the sitio level, what does a full-strength staff actually look like? How many permanent V’ren posts, how many human posts, and how many billets are assumed to be filled by mixed families rather than formal hires?”
“We start by offering homes to the people who are building the sitios, or at least giving them the option to stay,” Matt said. “As I told the last group, I would like to see everyone who wants a ground-side home in one of them before the cold weather hits. We will prioritize V’ren families with needed skills first. That means people who know how to manage the fusion plants. The second group I am prioritizing is medical personnel. If we have families, we need teachers. By the time cold weather settles in, I want each sitio to have at least a thousand people.”
“S’eaora Tr’ovan, my lord,” another said. “Who decides which humans get first chance at moving into these sitios? Are we prioritizing existing Freehold partners, local farm communities, refugees from the guarantor cities, or some quota from each?”
“First, we have established reciprocal residency with several of the local Missouri communities, and I think we will attract a number of them,” Matt said. “As much as I hate to lose my own people, I am also getting a number of V’ren who want to live in the Freehold and work for me, so I wish everyone well. Along the Kansas borders, we will be lucky to get anyone with local agricultural knowledge, so we will take who we can get.”
“G’mon Gr’akin, my lord. Will there be a standing requirement that every sitio admin team include at least one human in senior leadership, or will those posts be V’ren by default with humans in advisory roles?”
“The Trust is going to make the initial selections,” Matt said. “This will mean there are humans in administration. Maybe not in every sitio, but in most. In some, they will actually dominate, simply because we do not have enough V’ren with the right skill set.”
“Rhmelor Graron, my lord. How do you want us to handle existing human towns inside the ceded territory? Do their current residents have priority for nearby housing and jobs, or are they expected to apply like anyone else?”
“Most of the places our rail line passes by, and that the sitios sit near, are very small CCA settlements or are already affiliated with me in some way,” Matt said. “Most will not have skills we can use directly, but they will become important neighbors.”
“S’yl Sm’alin, my lord,” another officer said. “What is the process for vetting human settlers from a security perspective? Who is screening for guarantor corporate plants, SAC-aligned troublemakers, or people with histories that might put our women and children at risk?”
“I am using a few different teams with different tools,” Matt said. “Corporate plants are fine. They will figure out what all of you already know. Knowledge of how to build something will not help them without the fabrication tools in their possession. In fact, I would like to see a number of large companies sending people. I at least know they will not be stupid. They will honestly be able to report that we are not hiding ulterior motives.”
“D’valer Sn’ivar, my lord. Are there minimum service commitments tied to housing? For example, if a human family accepts a house in a sitio, are they expected to provide a certain number of years of work to the Trust, the Freehold, or the local cooperative?”
“Short answer, yes,” Matt said. “A contract spelling out requirements for V’ren and humans alike will exist, but I am not sure yet what the final version will look like.”
“N’elan M’ril, my lord,” another said. “You mentioned each sitio having medical, education, and logistics staff. Are those posts going to be filled first from the V’ren fleet and only secondarily from humans, or do you want us actively recruiting human doctors, teachers, and drivers into those roles?”
“The medical and education roles in the first two hundred sitios will mostly go to fleet personnel,” Matt said. “For ground-based logistics, I am using my own logistics team so that they tie neatly into the local infrastructure. With that said, I have already hired over a thousand V’ren employees for Marmaduke Logistics and will want to hire more. If you have questions about what it is like to work for me personally in that role, talk with M’rak later.”
“He bought me a truck,” K’rem added with a grin, which got a round of quiet laughter.
“Glarik Sm’alin, my lord,” another officer said. “What about language and training? Are we expecting human settlers to gain basic V’ren before they move, or will we embed language instructors and cultural officers into each sitio for the first few years?”
“A lot will be done with the neural interface,” Matt said. “I encourage both sides to make sure they can communicate with one another. The schools will be bilingual.”
“Pyn Grulan, my lord,” another said. “In terms of discipline and law, will human settlers fall under V’ren municipal codes, Freehold law, or some hybrid charter? Our security planning depends a great deal on which court they answer to.”
“Everyone living in V’ren Trust properties will be subject to V’ren Trust legal codes,” Matt said. “That is the simplest way to keep things clear.”
“Vhveran Trim, my lord,” one of the older officers said. “Will there be a ceiling on how many humans versus V’ren can occupy a sitio in the first phase? For example, are you aiming for a fifty–fifty mix, or do you want a clear V’ren majority until institutions stabilize?”
“Right now it will be driven by what each community needs,” Matt said. “I do have some thoughts on this, but I have shared them with the Trust council and am waiting to see what they decide. In the end, no sitio is going to function exactly like the others.”
“S’ilan Gr’elin, my lord,” another said. “You said ground logistics will be handled by Marmaduke Logistics and tied into local infrastructure. For the tethered rail itself and the freight yards, will human workers be hired as local Freehold employees paid in your currency, or will some of them be taken directly onto V’ren Trust rolls with longer-term service obligations like our own?”
“Marmaduke Logistics is currently contracted with the Trust to provide the logistics service,” Matt said. “Like all our other contracts, the firm’s employees decide how they want to be paid, which for most means either FiatDollars or NewDollars.”
There was a short pause, then another officer spoke up.
“You mentioned contracts for both V’ren and humans,” she said. “How much discretion will local sitio leadership have to bring specific humans in under those contracts? If a human foreman or midwife proves invaluable, can a sitio chief sponsor their extended family for housing and work, or will all such requests have to go through a central Trust office?”
“This is exactly what the executive council wants,” Matt said. “Local leaders who see value in someone should be able to say so and put that person forward.”
“Lhmanir Trilen, my lord,” another said. “We already have reciprocal residency with several Missouri communities and many humans tied to Marmaduke Logistics. Are we to treat those people as the primary human pool for early settlement, or do you want us to deliberately recruit from outside your current network so we are not accused of stacking the sitios only with ‘Freeholder loyalists’?”
“Recruit all you want from everywhere,” Matt said. “If you have the skills to attract people, great. I might hire you for Freehold HR. We will still run everyone through our system for background checks.”
“Dr’alim Sk’aman, my lord,” one of the senior women said. “You said everyone on V’ren Trust property will fall under Trust law. If a human family proves disruptive or refuses to follow basic customs around pheromones, bonding boundaries, or communal obligations, how easy will it be in practice to remove them from a sitio? Do you envision an established relocation or eviction process, or will that be left to municipal-level judgment?”
“I do not know yet,” Matt said. “I have advised the judicial council, but I just do not know what the final form will look like.”
“J’aeolin Sp’ukar, my lord,” another said. “Regarding human settlers, will the first wave be allowed to bring their own institutions with them, such as churches, small cooperatives, and trade guilds, so long as they respect Trust law? Or do you prefer that they fold those functions into V’ren-designed structures from the start so we do not build parallel societies inside the same sitio?”
“That is a local decision,” Matt said. “If it does not violate Trust law or basic security, I am inclined to let people bring what gives them stability, but local councils will have to live with the results.”
“Y’ioavel Th’ivar, my lord,” another officer said. “You and the others have spoken favorably about cross-partnering. When a household is half human, half V’ren, will they be treated any differently in the housing queue or staffing lists, or are they to be treated on paper exactly like any other family and simply evaluated on skills and conduct?”
“They will be residents of the sitio,” Matt said. “I expect them to be treated just like everyone else. Need will be evaluated and met just like everyone else.”
“Kovrel Hrin, my lord,” one of the older men said. “As we begin inviting humans with useful skills, especially mechanics, nurses, and teachers, some guarantor cities may try to block their emigration. When that happens, do you want us to continue recruitment quietly from those regions, pause and negotiate, or shift our efforts to friendlier jurisdictions?”
“Anyone who blocks their people from emigrating will find everyone else siding against them,” Matt said. “I would suggest you read some of our history concerning this subject, especially as it pertains to Houston and Memphis. In the end, we will get some local immigration, driven mostly by curiosity, but most serious immigration will come from abroad.”
“From a logistics standpoint, we can move a very large number of humans quickly once the tether and shuttles are fully online,” K’ao Sk’aman said. “Do you want human settlement to scale in step with the build-out of schools, clinics, and water systems in each sitio, or will there be a hard monthly cap on new arrivals so local services are never overwhelmed?”
“That is going to be more of a local issue,” Matt said. “We can set guidelines, but the people on the ground will know when their clinics or schools are hitting their limits.”
“What expectations should we set with human applicants about citizenship status?” St’elom Kr’eval asked. “Is there a path for them to become full V’ren Trust citizens or Freehold citizens after some years of good standing, or will they remain a separate class of allied residents living under Trust law without full political rights?”
“Except for a few who we will probably invite here and there, I want to model the human citizen question on how we do things in the Freehold,” Matt said. “You must live here for a year and a day, usually meet age requirements, and have another citizen sponsor you. We know that system. It works.”
“Finally,” Pyn Grulan said, “for our own clarity, who will actually draft and own the criteria we use to say yes or no to a human applicant? Will that come from your office and the Trust council, from Marmaduke Logistics human resources, or from a joint board with all three, so none of us are making promises we cannot keep?”
“The V’ren Trust has authority over this matter,” Matt said. “They will write the rules. I will argue where I think we need to, but in the end, it is their charter and their law.”
“But you are the High Lord,” Pyn Grulan said.
“And a smart one, too. Your people honored me because they trust me. I am trusting them to choose the laws they wish to live by. When the time comes, I will remind them of the choices they have made and make them honor those choices as matters of principle, rather than ignore them as matters of convenience.”
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