Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 24

Once they were all out of the lifts, Annabelle said that was far more convenient than going to a nearby transit stop and then travelling from there. There's no way her parents would live right in town, so this area she thought they would like the most was probably a good 20 to 25 kilometres away from the nearest transit stop.

The spot they were at had a stream that came down from Mount Cleito and eventually ended up connecting to the Evenor River, which formed the big delta on the southeastern side of the island, although they were still quite a distance from the Evenor River to the East.

The valley at that point was several kilometres wide and the stream was shallow enough to be crossed, offering easy access to Mount Cleito to the North, the massive Meteor Plateau in the Autokthon region to the South. They had decided to stay away from the Evenor River, that bordered the Ampheres and Evaemon regions, as Cricket had told them anywhere near a major river was a prime location for a city to develop.

Candy said, "I can see why you would choose this location for your parents ranch, it's not near any planned towns, easy access to multiple mountains, lots of foothills and the big plateau for a variety of different trail rides."

Mark agreed, "I can definitely see the attraction to this area. I take it the stream was the reason you stopped here? Natural water source for the horses?"

Annabelle was smiling as she used her phone to take a panoramic video of the location, "Do you really think they'll like it?"

Everybody agreed that they would probably love it, but Mark said, "This place is definitely nice, but let's go check out the other places."

Mark called a lift, Solara did the same as did Laruun. Soon lifts were descending toward them. Annabelle explained the next stop was 'Mneseus 99' at the very north end of the Mneseus region, on the edge of the foothills in the middle of the plains.

Soon they were off to the location and they were there within a few minutes, since it was just on the other side of the Meteor Plateau.

It was all foothills at that location, but they stopped at a decent sized meadow that looked up towards the Meteor Plateau to the North. From that elevation, you could see the sea to the East, West and South sides of the island.

Candy said, "I can also see the appeal of this location also, but I like the first one better as it has more options and variety for trail rides. This one just feels so... exposed."

Annabelle took out her phone and made a panoramic video. Just as she finished making her video, Mark's stomach growled and pretty much everyone heard it, so they decided to head back to the city for lunch.

The third location she had liked was much like the one they were at, but closer to Mount Cleito in the Ampheres region, but after thinking about it, the first location was definitely her favourite as Cricket had told her that, historically, the Ampheres region was one of the more populated regions due to the numerous lakes and rivers and the proximity to Acropolis.

From the Mneseus 99 location, it took a little more than half an hour to reach the city and they landed at the main city centre transit stop, which was near Cleito's Temple. As the newcomers exited the lifts, they were in awe of the size of the buildings and the amount of gold and silver everywhere.

Mark turned around and pointed down the gold path and explained, "The temporary residential houses were on the outer ring, but they could take any one of the 4 paths out of the city centre to reach the area. If you didn't already have a temporary house assigned, you should visit the Planning Office to get one."

They had decided rather than self-claiming houses they needed to have some record of which houses were taken and which ones were empty once the larger transports arrived. There was a plan in place that they were going to setup an immigration booth, that everyone could stop in to get the information speech, as well as they could sort friends and families and assign them housing at that point in time. That way even the kids would have a HOME location.

That was one handy function of the lift system. Anyone could call a lift and in the case of a lost child or someone who was hurt or too intoxicated to operate the navigation system, as long as they could get in the lift it would take them home by default.

If someone failed to get out of a lift after two minutes, security was notified. If something was forgotten in the lift, it wouldn't take off and it would give an audible warning saying, 'Please collect all items from the lift!' as well as send an alert to your wrist device, if you were a citizen. Again, if the item wasn't removed after two minutes, security would be notified.

There wasn't that many people at the pavilion for lunch. Mark had suspected there would be a lot more, so Mark talked to the pavilion coordinator. Apparently lunch was always a hit or miss situation and thus they always had troubles finding volunteers for that meal. Mark looked around and saw some food vendors with carts, so he asked, "Would it impact you too much if we only did breakfast and supper in the pavilions?"

The CMP coordinator said, "That was a wonderful idea, it would give her some time to go exploring, plus it was always easier to find volunteers for the busier meals."

Mark countered, "Since we're going down to two meals per day, would you mind if we expanded the hours a bit? Instead of say 7-9 and 17-19, maybe we go 6-9 and 17-20?"

She agreed that would make more sense, so he said, "After lunch, make the changes to the sign and I'll go update the people at the port. Also, starting tonight, we'll start coordinating meals in the residential pavilions in Row M."

Everyone got in line and got themselves some sandwiches and drinks and went outside and sat in the shade of a big tree in one of the numerous parks. During their lunch, there was a group of people walking around trying to recruit people to go play some soccer in the stadium and another group trying to organize a baseball game.

After lunch, everyone just wanted to relax, so they all went swimming in one of the deeper ponds. Most of the ponds and fountains were just wading pools, but a few of them were a metre or so deep. Nothing deep enough to safely dive into though.

As they played around in the water, Mark got to thinking about the wildlife, or more specifically, the lack thereof. That was one thing that had been bothering him in the back of his mind, there wasn't any wildlife on the island. A few birds had managed to find their way out there and a few fish, but that was it.

Cricket provided Mark with a list of animals that used to live on the island. It was pretty much a list of the animals found on the African plains, including a large population of elephants that the Atlanteans had domesticated and used for farming.

After a while they were all laying in the shade and looking up at the leaves, when Mark brought up his thoughts.

"Is it just me or has everyone else noticed the lack of birds and other animals on the island?" Mark asked to no one in particular.

T'Soona was the first to respond, "Good! Someone has noticed, it has been bothering me since I'm not used to being the only flier around. When I'm flying I hear the birds talking to me, but it's just eerily quiet here."

"So how do we fix that? Do we go kidnap a bunch of wild animals and just relocate them here?" Solara asked with no other solutions in her mind.

Laruun then pointed out, "What animals would we even bring? You have to make sure the circle of life is complete. If you bring something over that has no predator, it'll eventually become a nuisance, but you also don't want to bring over a bunch of dangerous creatures that may hurt citizens."

"Does anyone have any ideas? I really have none, including kidnapping animals... I'm not even sure how we could do that?" Mark said questioningly.

T'Soona suggested, "What if we could just get some of their DNA, then we could grow our own animals here and not have to resort to kidnapping."

Mark said, "If that's even possible, I like that idea better than kidnapping. I wonder how zoos and aquariums do it?" Then a thought occurred to him, "Hey! If we can work from DNA, maybe we can help some of the more endangered species of the world?"

Laruun and Marta then piped up, "Can we be in charge of looking into options for this?"

Mark laughed, "By all means! I look forward to seeing what you two come up with."

No one had any plans for the afternoon, the only thing on the agenda was to eventually get Annabelle to the port so she could return home. So the girls offered to take the new arrivals on a tour of the city, while Mark decided that he should go to the port and inform them of the dining changes.

Mark called a lift and took the half hour trip to the port.

Apparently a lot of personnel from both Battlestars had permission to go explore the island today. So shuttles had been going back and forth almost constantly. All the staff from the embassy had managed to go get all their personal effects and whatever else they wanted to save and brought it to the surface.

Taryn was out of her booth and she updated Mark, "The Embassy has been cleared and we've setup some immigration booths so, after they get through security, they could get together in their own groups and visit an immigration booth, which would explain the process and assign them a temporary residence."

Mark asked, "So, are you going to move here?"

Taryn looked nervous, "I still haven't decided. Part of me would like to stay, but part of me says stay the course I'm on, living on Atlanterra, but working elsewhere for a few months each year."

"It's a big decision, don't feel rushed to make a decision. I will not ask again," Mark said.

After an uncomfortable silence Mark asked, "So, who is in charge here? I need to update some information about eating in the city."

Taryn pointed to an elderly looking lady by one of the information booths, "Her name is Jenice, she was one of the administration heads on the embassy, I'll go introduce you."

Taryn led Mark over to the grey haired lady, "Jenice this is..."

Jenice cut her off, "I know who the King is child! Get back to your duties."

She then turned her head towards Mark as Taryn turned and walked away, "My King, my name is Jenice, what can I do for you today?"

Mark was a bit put off by her attitude, but kept his feelings hidden, "I just wanted to make you aware of some changes around eating in Acropolis."

"Really? What kind of changes?" She asked with a tone that kind of said, 'I did not approve any changes.'

"I made some changes to make it easier on the newcomers now that they're getting assigned housing when they arrive.

I've discussed with several kitchen staff and lunches are always difficult to predict the numbers. So effective immediately, we're only going to do breakfast and supper communal meals from now on, but we're going to expand the hours. Breakfast will be from 6 to 9 and supper will be from 17 to 20.

People will need to fend for themselves for lunches, there's several street vendors available and there's also a few restaurants that have opened up so there's meal alternatives if they desire."

"OK I'll let everyone know. We were already telling people that meals were available at the city centre or in the respective residential sections, but the lunch and hours changes are new. Was there anything else, my King?"

"That's it for now," Mark said as he tipped his hat and turned to walk back to Taryn.

"Wow, I need to find her a new job," Mark said when he got back to Taryn.

Taryn laughed, "She's good at what she does though, everyone respects what she does and she doesn't really care if people like her or not."

"She doesn't interface with the new arrivals does she?"

"No, she's not much of a social person, she just makes sure staff are ready to perform. When the crowds get big she more or less disappears, but she's probably just watching things from a distance."

Mark got a big smile on his face, "Am I going to get you in trouble by distracting you from your job... No, your duties?"

Just to stir the pot more, he picked Taryn up and kissed her, then started looking around. "Where can we go to have an afternoon quickie?"

"Now you will get me in trouble! Put me down you troublemaker!"

Just then Mark's wrist notified him that he had a message. He put Taryn down and saw that it was a message from the Bank for International Settlements.

Letting Taryn return to her booth, Mark went to a nearby bench and sat down to read the message, since it appeared to have quite a bit of content. The BIS were welcoming Atlantis to Earth and that they would like to meet regarding getting their currency exchanged in the markets. They just had numerous questions, because Atlantis introduced a whole new level of complexity to the currencies. They recognized that Atlantis was just a small island, that will initially have limited effect on Earth, but the economy of the Federation was potentially larger than all the currencies of every country on Earth added together. So to get the process started, they were asking how soon they could meet?

Mark asked Cricket, "Who runs the monetary system for the Federation?"

Cricket replied, "You do!"

"Besides me, who is the top of the Federation banking system?"

"General Domenic Mayan on Atlanterra, he is listed as the Finance General."

"Could you please call him for me?"

A few seconds later a man in a blue golf shirt answered, "My King! It is so nice to finally speak with you. How may I be of service today?"

"General Mayan, you are the head of the Federation banking system correct?"

"Yes, I oversee the financial spending of the government as well as taxation, currency exchange, inflation and interest rates, and oversee investigations into investment fraud and any other illegal money schemes."

"Currency exchange... perfect! You have heard that we have recreated Atlantis?"

"I was very happy to hear that! Our ancestral home is where everything began."

"Good! I don't suppose you want to come here and speak to some Earth bankers with me?"

"Sir, I expected you would be needing me. My wife and I are already on a transport and we should be arriving tomorrow. The timing for your call was impeccable as we had stopped to communicate and are just about to go back into light drive."

"That is awesome, come see me at the palace when you arrive!"

Mark then replied to the BIS people saying they were in luck, the Finance General would be arriving in Atlantis tomorrow, but he wasn't sure how long he was staying, so anytime after tomorrow should work.

Surprisingly they responded almost immediately saying they were due to meet on Wednesday at the BIS office in Basel, Switzerland and they said they would be delighted if they could attend.

Mark replied saying they would be there and asked for the address.

Taryn had watched Mark from near her booth and had seen him smiling the whole time, so when he finally came over, she asked why he was so happy.

Mark explained, "The Bank for International Settlements is how or who determines if a currency is recognized and exchanged. Getting our currency recognized is the first step to actually doing business with other countries and having people visit Atlantis!"

"Cool! And you know what to say?"

Mark laughed, "I haven't got a clue! That's why I'm taking General Mayan, the head of the Federation Monetary System, with me! He should be arriving on a transport tomorrow."

An announcement came on saying there was a security and information update and for all related personnel to attend.

Mark gave Taryn a quick kiss as she left to go attend the briefing.

Looking out at the spaceport, he could see CB moving about among the shuttles, so Mark went outside to talk to him.

"CB, what are you doing? Shuttles don't need fuel."

"I'm just practicing. Cricket just told me you were hoping to have visitors flying here soon, so I just want to be ready."

"Well, I have heard that practicing does make perfect. Keep up the good work CB and I'll work on trying to get you some real airplanes to fuel up... maybe some ships too!"

"That would be awesome, sir!" CB said as Mark turned to head back into the terminal.

Mark entered the terminal just as another announcement was being made. Apparently one of the transports was arriving 12 hours earlier than expected. Mark was amazed and curious about how they could be 12 hours ahead of schedule. Light drive was pretty much constant from what he had heard.

Cricket explained, "Now that I've got real-time monitoring of certain sections of the universe, we can plot more direct routes rather than the meandering routes away from any major gravity wells."

Just then the sun disappeared as the massive Starliner descended toward the surface.

The ship itself was about the same length as a Battlestar, but it had smaller engines and was much thicker in the middle, it looked like a huge Zeppelin and you could clearly make out the rows of windows for the different decks.

It slowly lowered itself to the surface of the spaceport and only a couple of minutes passed from the time it touched down until people started filing out of the massive ship.

Mark went to see Taryn and asked if they got manifests for the transports.

Taryn said, "The manifests are automatically downloaded as the ship checks in with control."

"So how many people are on a ship that size?" Mark asked.

"Typically they transport around 5,000 passengers. This one however has almost 10,000! They must have had passengers sleeping in the halls. This is going to be crazy," Taryn said in amazement.

People then started entering the airport terminal and within a couple of minutes the place was wall to wall with people everywhere.

The announcements started over the intercom system directing newcomers to visit the immigration booths to get your temporary housing assigned and to pickup an Atlantis brochure.

Having never heard of the brochures, Mark found one to see what it contained. It was a multi page foldout that had a big map of Atlantis on one side with white circles where all the proposed townsites were, so you could use it as a checklist as you visited each location.

The other side of the brochure had information about the temporary housing, how to claim your land for residential or commercial use, and where to go to get more information. Overall it was a fairly well thought out brochure and something everyone could easily take with them.

Mark ended up sticking around and taking pictures with many of the newcomers. It was tough for Mark to go unnoticed in crowds, since he was taller than most people and usually the only one wearing a cowboy hat.

Annabelle and the group had heard that the first transport had arrived early and that there was going to be a huge influx of newcomers, so they came to the port to witness the chaos.

It was indeed chaos, but it was a fairly civil and organized chaos. There wasn't a lot of pushing and shoving and everyone was just waiting their turn to get a house assigned and then they were off to the lifts. To make the lift system more efficient, they had split up the transit zone on the top of each wing into 11 sections, Acropolis and each of the ten regions. They were scattered and organized so that if you came up in the centre, the first four sections of each span covered all of the regions, plus Acropolis, but each span contained all 11 sections. They all exited off the same side of the terminal wing and anyone could order a private lift and they would exit off the other side of the terminal wing.