Chapter 1

Preparations

Many of the projects for helping my people on Chaos are starting to come together in a more meaningful way. Soon after I bought the kennels and establishing the horse breeding company I spoke with Maggie and Frank about me needing people who want to live in a no-tech country I know of where the most advanced weapon is a crossbow and the only way to communicate at a distance is by a hand delivered letter. Although I don’t think they believe me about it being that no-tech they do refer a number of people to me to help with the dogs and horses I want to send there to establish breeding and training groups there.

Frank also ships me ten of the older horses he sees as being near the end of their good breeding life when I pay for ten horses to send over to my no-tech compound. Their names convinces me Frank is a romantic because the stallions are Jericho, Scimitar, and Damascus while the mares are Krithia, Sharon, Sheria, Nazareth, Arara, Deraa, and Musa. I had to do some research to confirm my guess of all the horses being named after places where the Australian Light Horse fought during the First World War, the only sort of oddity is Musa is named after Wadi Musa.

Maggie sends me ten older dogs I ask for, along with four handlers who want to live in a no-tech world. Six of the dogs are three breeding pairs near the end of their breeding life while the other four are two pairs of dogs trained to work with soldiers in the field. The two pairs of military trained dogs are two pairs of siblings trained by the two men handling them to be search and guard units of a man and two dogs each. The other two handlers are experienced trainers wanting a new life.

Both Frank and Maggie are surprised I’m sending older animals as breeding pairs. However, one thing I learned on my last trip is the way the system is set up on Crossroads the animals are given a full health check to limit disease transfers. It results in the animals being as healthy as when they were in their prime, so they’ll have a well extended life after being shipped through Crossroads. This means animals near the end of their life here have a longer life on Chaos. Thus I’m able to take proven quality breeders to Chaos. I had Frank ship me ten horses because ten is the most people I want to take across at any one time and I want them all on horses of the same quality. I may not take as many horses in future, but I’ll decide on taking more horses or not when I prepare for each trip.

Sharon introduces me to a man well trained in the older blacksmith skills and a woman who’s a skilled maker of both pottery and ceramics. Both of them want out of modern life and their skills will be very useful to the Grassy Meadows community. I never do learn how Sharon found these two people as one is from Maine while the other is from Arizona. They both show an interest in the other from the moment they meet.

Having set a limit of ten people for the trip and now having six of the slots filled by new specialists I need to select the rest of the team. I decide to have Tora travel with me this trip. Bridget is also ready to go and so are another two of my guards who’ve expressed an interest. The two guards are of equal measure due to having matching experience and skills, so we choose between them by tossing a coin and Victor is the one who is chosen to go with us on this trip.

The weekend after my trip to establish the accord with the Kukulka I’ve all of the people going on the next trip gather at the residence to talk about what they can expect without giving away we’re going to another planet. I start by saying, “I’ve established a developing community in another place where the most advanced technology is a crossbow and long distance communication is by hand delivered mail. There is none of the modern technology there at all, nor can it sustain any of it. This also applies to medical technology. You’ve all expressed an interest in going there. Some of you wish to permanently move there and have skills I see as being useful to the community. I’ll give you five minutes to decide to go there or to leave this meeting.” With that I leave them to think.

Several minutes later I return to the small podium set up for today’s meeting and say, “I’m glad to see you’re all still here. Those of you going there to stay need to write any letters or documents to enable you to permanently leave the country and to close out all of your affairs here. Soon a woman will arrive to measure you to make you strong clothing suitable to wear there because most modern clothes aren’t suitable. For the next week you’ll be learning any of the following skills you don’t yet know: riding, use of a crossbow, use of a sword, starting a fire with a flint, first aid, and basic herbal medicine. Please try to become as good as you can, but don’t worry if you aren’t perfect as the training will continue after we arrive at the colony. Now spend some time getting to know each other.” After the short speech we spend two hours chatting and snacking. The lady who makes my bamboo armour and Chaos clothes arrives to measure everyone for their clothing, measures them, then she leaves.

Hardware

Other than the individual clothing there’s a lot of hardware we need to take on this trip. Every horse needs a saddle and tack made without metal. They’re made from leather and wood with small hardwood pins to hold them together plus ceramic components where metal is usually used for rings and such. The buckles are old style loop-back buckles of ceramic without any tines. The horses are trained to work without a bit so we don’t need them. Huge leather saddlebags for the dogs to ride in are made with large flaps on the inside we can roll up so the dogs have a physical contact with the horses for the travel through the portals while the other five sets of saddlebags are just big bags for gear.

Part of the load is two rolls of high quality half inch hemp rope a half a mile long filling both of a horse’s oversized saddlebags we use. A lot of ceramic kitchen gear is included, as well as a large number of very strong ceramic rings of varying sizes. Lots of useful plant seeds are most of the rest of the load, along with four telescopes of the same size as the ones I already have on Chaos, and four monoculars with a very limited viewing area which are almost as powerful as the telescopes while being as small as my hand. The scopes all have wood and leather cases with the lenses already in them because the lenses are within the allowed size.

Site Surprise

One day soon after my return from dealing with the dragons I’ve a few surprising emails. One is from Mac telling me about a website I should join and the other is from one of the website administrators to offer me an Invitation Only Membership to Mistress Eva de Glorvia’s Mansion of Mayhem, so I go to the website. Due to the name I’m not at all surprised by what I see there. The email from Mac saying I should join the site is the only reason I don’t ignore it. I accept the invitation and then I have to go through a short personalised security questionnaire which clearly includes a few restricted information questions like:

What do you call a leading Chaotic Dragon?

a. Hey you.
b. Kukulka.
c. Morning Breeze.
d. Quetzalcoatl.

What is the name of a man in Washington you don’t know?

a. Fred.
b. General.
c. Johnson.
d. John.

There are other questions which shows me whoever put this together had to have access to sources no one but Mac or John should have. I work on the assumption the questionnaire was created by Mac because only he has the full cross-access information. When I finish answering all of the questions I receive an offer to chat from a Kyle Alexander.

During our chat I learn he owns the site and he manages the Invitation Only area of it because it’s for a select few Heroes chosen by Mac. I also learn the Invitation Only part of the website includes current data on the situation on Chaos while it also allows for communications with a select group on Crossroads as well as the other invited Heroes on Earth.

At one point Kyle says, “I love the map your Caretaker is creating. You’ll find all of the Heroes here have their Caretakers helping her with the map and it has a lot of details of the areas they operate in, so now it has a lot more information and details on other areas than it did before.”

We spend a lot of time talking about our campaigns on Earth and on Chaos dealing with our enemies on both planets. One thing we arrange is for Frank and Kyle to contact each other about trained cavalry horses and breeding stock so we can both expand our herds on both planets.

After talking with Kyle I log out, go to the main site, and sign up for a Premium Membership in Sharon’s name. I note the details down, along with the URL. She’s surprised when I hand her the information and she logs in. However, when I have her follow the links to the page where they have their rates for volunteer models she smiles before downloading copies of the forms to fill in. I’m sure I’ll soon see some of our eligible young ladies appear on their site.

I also spend some time on the site chatting with Sid Jones. He tells me about his rescue missions and I tell him about mine. He tells me of the report he got about me from one of his Special Agents on the trip through Summer Ford and how he likes what I’m doing in that area.

Note: In the following weeks Sharon arranges a number of images of Utako, Tora, Sugi, Setsuko, Mai, Koemi, Hideko, Haruko, El, Dawn, Dee, and herself in swimwear to be sold to the site managers for a large fee for each of them. Some of them sell a few topless photos as well. Although my ladies aren’t as good looking as most of those on the site there aren’t many Asian women on the site. Thus Japanese models are in demand by the site’s management, and they’re very welcome.

Crossroads

All of the gear is checked for unapproved materials as it’s ready. The horses have full tack and saddlebags, including bamboo armoured horse blankets which we roll up and tie to their saddles with the armour for the dogs. All of the travellers have basic clothing with bamboo armour and backpacks of gear. I check the dogs are in physical contact with the horses through the large hole on the inside of their saddlebags they’re in. Everyone is waiting in the main vault area because there’s not enough room in the portal vault, again. We form up in a continuous chain of contact with each of us having an arm over the neck of the horse we’re leading, and those behind have a good hold on the tail of the horse in front with their hand resting on that horse’s rump, like we did on the last visit. Sharon will lock the vault behind us. I smile at her then approach the portal while those waiting behind me wonder about my sanity.

On arriving in the portal room of my quarters at Crossroads I find Merry holding open the door to the stable. With a large grin I lead my horse, Jericho, through the door. A few minutes later all of the horses are comfortable. Their tack and packs are on tables set on the other side of the stable. The dogs are happy walking about on the floor sniffing at everything, especially the dog beds and litter trays set out. Merry leads us through into the main lounge of my Hero’s suite, which I see now has a dog-door in it to allow the dogs free access around the suite.

After introducing everyone to Merry I leave them watching a video on what life on Chaos is like while Merry and I renew our relationship.

Ninety minutes later Merry and I arrive back in the main room a little before the video ends. When it does we deal with a lot of questions and some surprised comments about being on another planet. It takes time, but we cover everything until everyone is happy with the new situation. They’re very surprised, a little shocked, but happy.

While Merry examines the available rescues to see which I should do we all spend some time in the training rooms. I also spend a lot of time examining the enlarged map project. A lot of areas that used to be blank or only lightly covered now have a lot of detail.

Hero Lands

What I do find of great interest in examining the map is the number of longer term Heroes who have areas of control contiguous with other Heroes. However, after some research I learn it’s more a case of the areas of control around the area a Hero establishes being expanded at the request of the locals instead of any actual expansion program of the Heroes concerned. There are a few areas which are due to the conquest of the Slavers by the Heroes involved in the Slaver War, but they’re the only real exceptions to the rule. It does make sense, when you look at it.

The Hero sets up a small base to operate from. He provides them with security from most of the bad guys, better training to fight the bad guys, and improved ways of making a living. Thus the base expands due to the improved economy and their ability to defend themselves. Others in the surrounding area see this and want to be part of it, so they ally with the people in the area of the Hero’s base. When the Hero goes further afield he has to establish more bases or sub-bases and the process repeats until the areas of influence merge to make one large area under his control.

The saddest part of all this is only a small percentage of Heroes are at work doing this as far too many Heroes don’t bother to establish a base or help the people on the planet. The only good part of the involvement of those Heroes is it does reduce the number of the worst troublemakers while it improves the gene pool on Cassandra along with its population. That gets me to wondering how long this project has been operating and how much longer it will continue. Naturally, that causes me to wonder about what will happen when the project is a proven success.

Talk Time

A little later I go to the computer room and ask to speak with Mac. I no sooner ask the question than the box on the wall shows he’s present and he asks, “What’s up, Al?” I like the way he’s becoming informal with his speech.

I respond, “Mac, I’ve just been looking at the map and I’ve got some questions and concerns for you. Can you organise some population stats for me, please?” After being assured he will I add, “First, evaluate the land to come up with a figure of useable land where people live and the number of people living in it. Places like the fens where only animals live and the ocean are to be left out, and where you have people moving in those areas calculate them as being in their home locations where you can. Then I want you to recalculate all that by splitting it into two groups: the first is the areas under the control of Heroes with strong bases like the Jones, Alexander, and Samuels areas with the second area being the rest of the inhabited land. Include the islands in this too, please. What I’d like to see are comparative population figures per square mile, the number of Damsels per one thousand people living in each area, and the percentage of the Damsels in each area that are in need of rescue.”

Mac replies, “I’ve got some computers working on that. However, I can tell you we distribute the Damsels across the planet on an equal rate of the population density in an area so they’re evenly distributed. Why do you want his information?”

“While looking at the map I started wondering how long it will take for the project to meet its aims of repopulating Cassandra, and that got me to wondering if Heroes like Sid, Kyle, myself, and others like us are actually adversely affecting the project and the Cassandran population.”

“Al, before we go further with this I want to bring some others in on the discussion. Please wait a moment.” A few minutes later Mac says, “I now have Mistress Eva with several of the senior administrators and staff listening in on this conversation, Al. I won’t take the time to introduce them all, but I do want everyone to speak up if they have a question. Al, I’ve already relayed the start of this conversation, so just go ahead.”

After having a sip of the drink I brought in I say, “Before I go too far I’d like to see the statistics I asked for, Mac.” They appear on the screen in front of me, along with a note everyone else is seeing them too. I look them over and ask, “Mac, can you get some statistics on the time lengths for a Damsel to be on planet before her status changes to warrant a rescue, but split into the same two groups. You need only cover the last few decades for them to be useful. But it would be good to have the older figures if you can get them without too much of a delay.”

“I’ve got that started, Al. While we wait can you talk about what it is you’re concerned about, please? You’ve already proven to have some very deep insights none of us have seen before, so I worry about what you may now be seeing that we’ve missed.”

“OK. Everybody please bear with me and write down your questions so I can say this without any interruptions. I’m a new Hero who’s also establishing a strong base to operate from on Chaos. Joe, the Hero who recruited me, has a couple of small bases he operates from. Each of his bases are a single farm in an area where he has no authority or control of the area, but he does influence those on the farms and a few neighbours. I also have contact with a couple of Heroes who have similar operations. I recently came into contact with Kyle Alexander and I learned a lot more about Heroes with larger areas of control. Due to that I started looking at the more recent history of Chaos. What I’ve learned is most Heroes either didn’t have a secure base of operation or they had small bases like Joe has. A few like Gerald Jones and Jonas Alexander had larger bases, but they were still single farms or citadels with a zone of influence and not a zone of outright control. All of the Heroes with bases improved the standard of living and the methods of operation for the people living at their bases, and some of the changes slowly spread out. However, the Slaver War resulted in major changes to the way those Heroes operated in order for them to respond to the actions of the Slavers and the forces behind them. A few Heroes raised armies to fight the Slavers and beat them. In doing so they ended up in control of the lands they took from the Slavers, thus they greatly increased their power base. I realise this wasn’t what they wanted, but they had to take control or let the Slavers take back control. This has resulted in large areas now under the direct control and influence of a few Heroes who want to improve life there.”