Cowboys And Aliens Ch 52

52. Colonia

The next morning, Mark was up before the rest of his gang, but as he got out of bed, Sandra woke up. Seeing Mark standing naked in front of the clothing synth, she approached him, jumped up, and wrapped her legs around him, giving him a passionate kiss. As if by instinct, luck, or Sandra's pelvic movements, his cock ended up slipping inside the teenager's tight pussy.

However, holding her ass and fucking her against the clothing synth awakened Annabelle and Rayven; with everyone except Joseph, now awake, Mark carried Sandra over to the bed and fucked her missionary style. Annabelle fondled and sucked the young woman's breasts as Rayven mounted Annabelle and fucked her doggy style.

They all reached their orgasms in quick succession and woke Joseph up. Rayven retrieved the little prince and handed him to Annabelle as she leaned against the headboard. Joseph happily began suckling the sweet milk from her breasts as Sandra took it upon herself to lick Rayven's cum from Annabelle's pussy. Rayven joined the action by licking Mark's cum out of Sandra's pussy, and Mark didn't want to be left out, so he licked Rayven's cock clean.

As Joseph was being fed and burped, Mark and Rayven introduced Sandra to the clothing synth. Sandra was ecstatic to be getting new clothes.

Once they were all clothed, they made their way downstairs, where much of the community was already out and about.

Edward and his wife, Elizabeth, greeted them as they sat at a picnic table drinking some morning beverages out of Federation cups.

Before they could even get their own morning beverages, word started spreading that breakfast was ready.

Edward and Elizabeth got up, and the group went around to the soup kitchen area. As they walked, everyone looked at Sandra with curiosity, as she was no longer dressed in the usual clothing of Colonia. Upon arrival at the soup kitchen, they found Jonah and his wife Rebecca manning the kitchen.

Everyone dished up a healthy breakfast of toast, hash browns, eggs, and bacon. Jonah and Rebecca giving their daughter a knowing look when they saw her in line getting food.

By automating the medibeds and simplifying the kitchen of the outreach centre, they really could be operated by anyone, as long as they had gone through the identification process, which was a very limited number of people at the moment.

They all returned to their picnic table, stopping at one of the drink dispensers, got their morning beverages, and sat down at the adjacent picnic table. Sandra's parents arriving soon after with their own breakfasts in hand, having been relieved by another couple that had already finished their meal.

Rebecca took over the conversation, talking about how easy and wonderful the kitchen was. How it showed pictures of the meal options, and when you picked one, it asks you how many servings to make and then the ingredients just start appearing, with the instructions for preparation written on the wall in front of you. Jonah then joined the conversation. "We will need to come up with some sort of schedule to get more people preparing meals for the community."

Liyana smiled. "Actually, the Federation works on volunteering. They can volunteer to work a meal whenever they want, but it's up to the volunteer coordinator to make sure that everyone has time to volunteer. Also, I think the public kitchen is only good for two meals per day now, breakfast and supper. People need to find their own food for lunch, which is beneficial for local restauranteurs."

Eventually, everyone finished their breakfasts, and the conversation came around to what everyone was going to do for the day.

Mark reminded everyone that his priority was for him and Edward to travel to every remote community on the island and get them setup with an outreach centre. Then people could start easily travelling between communities.

Jonah then had an epiphany, "If we can quickly travel between any community on the island, that will significantly help us defend every community."

Mark laughed, "Actually I've already setup defences on the island. I don't think you need to worry anymore about attacks. You might have some attacking forces wash up on your shores if they don't heed the warnings and their ships get destroyed, but I don't think they'll be in decent shape to fight by that time."

Jonah looked shocked and confused as he looked at Mark and then at Edward, who simply smiled and nodded. "How have you protected us already? You've only been here one night and you've only seen one attack."

Mark explained, "Last night when we went out to meet the invaders, we gave them a pretty good scare. We also implemented a security system that we use on our own island of Atlantis back on Earth. You now have a sea monster protecting the waters around your island."

"A sea monster? Really? You mean we can finally live in peace?"

"Yes, I can't see anyone trying to invade you anymore, but we need to come up with a plan to deal with people coming to trade and not attack. With our security system, it will warn the ships and can scan for weapons, long before they get close to the island, if they are harmless they can proceed, otherwise they'll get a warning and the sea monster can try to scare them away."

Jonah smiled. "Being part of the Federation is way better than I would have ever thought!"

Sandra suggested, "We could visit some of the nearby communities and get them started with their outreach centres while you visit all the remote locations."

Jonah nodded. "That's a great idea. We could take the coach and visit all the communities to the North within the day. You said the outreach centres are also transportation hubs, so we can get a ride back here. Then if you start on the eastern shore and work your way around the island, we would just meet you back here."

Cricket felt it was prudent to give Mark some options, "By the way, now that the Sentinel is here, I now have detailed information about the rest of the planet, and if you're interested... there are more shuttles up on the Sentinel."

Mark told Liyana, "Actually, if you wanted, we have another shuttle up on the Sentinel. We could run up and get it."

Liyana perked up at that idea. "Yeah, we could get another shuttle. I can fly it. That would halve the time to get all the outreach centres built."

Annabelle, thinking Mark suggested the other shuttle so she would go along, added, "I'm just going to stay here and hang out today. I don't really feel like packing Joseph around all day. We can watch all the outreach centres pop-up on the map in the boardroom."

Jonah was now curious. "What map?"

Mark explained, "In the meeting room on the second level, there's a map wall. It can display a map of the entire country and, as the outreach centres start developing, you will see them on the map. It's also useful for planning, as you can have it display a map of the community as well."

Rebecca then added, "I'm going to register citizens and try to organize the kitchen. I'll see you tonight when you get home."

Solara then had an idea. "Can the medibeds still implant wrist comms?"

Mark replied, "I don't think the outreach centre medibeds can anymore. They're fairly basic now, plus we can only implant those in Federation citizens, and they won't be citizens until after the vote, which will be in a week. We're going to run up to the Sentinel and grab the other shuttle, we'll be back in a few minutes."

***

Maren, Mark, and Liyana boarded the shuttle and were off into space.

Once airborne, Cricket told Mark about everything else she was doing, "I've shelved your idea for the jet ship, and have instead come up with a new ship design I think you will find more to your liking for interplanetary travel, yet still allowing use of the shuttle capabilities you enjoy now."

She popped up a hologram display of the new ship design as she continued to explain the features. "More or less it is a Defender, but with the amenities of a Sentinel.

Most of the ship's fuselage was a 500 metre factory bay. Big enough to manufacture items up to Explorer size or at least start bigger items like space stations.

The port landing pod is a standard landing bay, complete with a shuttle, one each of a medivac, securivac, and rescuvac, and even a dozen fighters. The starboard pod was for receiving outsiders, complete with many rooms for evacuees to stay. It's really flex space that can be reconfigured for whatever is required. It even has two shuttle buses for mass transportation.

Level 1, the bottom level, connects the landing pods, also contains amenities for rescuing and emergencies. The area contains medibeds, MEDs, a small library, and a cafeteria. If there is an emergency, you can lock people to that level only.

Level 2 has rooms all around the periphery, with a central park, meandering stream, and the ceiling mimics a sky, changing with the time of day. The bridge, albeit autonomous and mostly for show, is at the nose of the ship, the rooms are all extra large and have adjacent offices, but there is also a throne room, movie theatre, bistro, arcade, virtual golf booths, bathhouse, a play area for Joseph and I've included a replica of the playroom you used to have at the lodge.

The entire top level is all park, even the area over the factory bay. The very front of the ship has a clubhouse that contains the pro shop, and a sports bar eating area. Around the exterior of the park were several other recreational amenities, sport courts, workout and sparring areas, etc.

For defences, the ship has 100 autonomous drones, plus a TRD mass driver atop each pod, plus the usual array of laser turrets, pulse cannons and a TRD."

While explaining to everyone, she was displaying her design as a hologram, as Liyana and Mark both studied the design.

Mark nodded. "I like it, it gives us everything we need, but still allows us to use the shuttles just like we have been. Although can we get either a TRD or lasers on the shuttles? The other day it would've been much easier to warn them with a shot across the bow, rather than breaking one of their masts."

Cricket said, "I can do that, although I won't change the existing shuttle until you've transferred over to the new ship. By the way, we'll need to come up with a classification and designation for it."

Mark thought for a second, then another idea hit him. "I still like the jet ship design! I think we should still make one of those for travel around Earth, just take out the FTL capabilities. It'll look just like a regular airplane, so we can use airports. Maybe we can start our own airline company? Although if we do, we should probably resize and redesign it more like a passenger jet."

Cricket said, "I'll look into the passenger jet designs and come up with something a little more comfortable than what they have."

Soon they were landing in one of the Sentinel landing bays, where Liyana got out and boarded the shuttle that was sitting there. Once she was out of the landing bay, Maren and Mark followed her back to the surface.

***

Arriving back in Federation City, they landed on the roof and went downstairs to find Jonah and the rest of the gang still talking at the picnic tables in the shade of the outreach centre.

Jonah and Rebecca had delivered the chest full of identification cards for all the citizens in the community, so Ra'ki and Luna had taken on the role of opening up the identification office and were getting citizens identified, it was something that had to happen eventually anyway, but people had to be identified in order to use the medibeds or work the kitchen.

After going through identification, almost everyone went immediately to the medibeds just to get checked out and once out of the medibed, they often went and found a library kiosk.

There were also lifts going back and forth between Federation City and the 5 large communities that got outreach centres last night. A true testament of the simplicity and automation of the outreach centres, people were figuring things out with nothing more than a holographic information guide.

With the teams divided up, Liyana, Jonah and Gyges in one shuttle. Mark, Maren and Edward in the other. Athena was staying with Annabelle as security. Mark suggested that Gyges could go with Liyana as he could take care of himself, plus Maren had gone through security training before becoming a pilot.

Cricket was going to coordinate the two shuttles. So they didn't overlap now that she had detailed scans of the island. Liyana's group with Jonah was mainly going to hit all the communities along the northern shore. Mainly because all the other mayors would know who Jonah was, whereas the rest of the country may not know Jonah, but they would know Edward since he was the elected leader of the island.

The shuttles took off in different directions, with Mark's group heading immediately for the community near the top of Lookout Mountain.

It was quite a distance from the peak where the tower was, but they built the community around a high alpine lake that was likely formed by a glacier. The water was crystal clear, and likely freezing. The ground was very tundra like and likely not that great for growing things, which is why they had several very large greenhouses built, and they had livestock, but they didn't have fences, but in that almost crater-like plateau there really wasn't anywhere for them to go.

This settlement actually reminded Mark more of a Viking community. The buildings were all constructed with sturdy logs, and the central building reminded Mark of a Viking longhouse.

Maren was the first to notice, "I don't see any kids in this community?"

Edward explained, "This is a very isolated community. There are no schools, little in the way of any amenities, and the winters can be harsh and cold. If a woman gets pregnant, they leave the community while the woman can still travel. This is not a place for children."

They landed in an open area in front of the building as they built them closer to the crater wall, likely for protection from the winds. As they touched down, it looked like everyone in the community was out to greet them.

Maren lowered the ramp as Edward stepped out, and upon seeing their leader, an elderly man stepped up, and the two greeted each other with respect. Edward introduced the leader as Hans.

Edward then spoke loud enough for all to hear, "People of Crater Lake, I am here with Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation. They have finally returned, and as we suspected, it was not they who broke off ties with us. It was our former King that told them to leave and never come back.

We are travelling around the country today and setting up these buildings called outreach centres. They are like a community hub, freely offering food, drink, medical, education and transportation to all. Once all communities have identified themselves, we must hold a vote to join the Federation, for only a majority of the people can make that decision.

If the vote succeeds, then the Federation will allow us to access some of their other technologies. If the vote fails, the outreach centres will disappear.

We have been building the outreach centres where the storm shelters were, but since you don't have one of those, where would you like the outreach centre to be located?"

Hans spoke with a couple of nearby men and said, "This outreach centre building, it is sturdy and safe?"

Mark explained, "It is very safe. They are self-sufficient for food, water, power, communications and transportation."

"Are they heated?"

"Yes, of course, or cooled depending on the ambient temperature."

"If it is to be the centre of our community, then build it where your ship is now."

Maren moved the shuttle, and Mark put the construx on the ground and pushed the button. As usual, a hologram of the proposed building appeared, and he could turn it and reposition it. Then the building likeness disappeared, and the building constructed itself.

Mark said, "When the lights come on inside, that's when you can enter the building. As the community leader, there is information and resources for you in an office. Also, you no longer need to watch for signals, we've put a security system in place that will protect the island from attack. Once the building is operational, you can communicate and quickly travel to any community anytime you want to. You no longer need to use signals."

They bid the crowd farewell and said they would see them again soon. Instead of continuing on to the next community, they visited the tower at the peak, setup a transit stop pedestal and gave the 4 men a ride back down to the community.

The overall meeting took about half an hour, which wasn't a bad pace, and they could actually spend a little more time in each community. It was going to be a long day before they would make it back to Federation City, if all the meet and greets would take 30 to 60 minutes. It was a good thing Cricket suggested using a second shuttle.

The process was that Maren made sure the storm shelters were empty and got the construx going, while Mark and Edward talked with the inevitable crowd that gathered as soon as the shuttle landed.

That process repeated itself over and over throughout the day, ending with the promise that they would all see each other again soon. They stopped at Hubbard and got something to eat at lunchtime, but otherwise they made steady progress getting all the outreach centres started.

By the time they returned to Federation City, they were tired and hungry, for it was nearing suppertime. Liyana, Jonah and Gyges had made it back 3 hours earlier, mainly because they didn't have as much travel time between communities and probably didn't talk as much as Mark and Edward did.

The community came together for the meal again, and this time everyone got to partake in it. With many people wearing new clothes, having learned that the public washrooms had clothing synths in them.

They then retired to their rooms for a night of debauchery and eventually drifting to sleep.

***

Mark woke up early as usual, but without Sandra being present, he could slip out of bed and go downstairs to get some coffee, waking nobody. Almost as expected, Edward, Elizabeth, Jonah and Rebecca were already sitting at a table drinking their morning beverages, while much of the community was already up and about, readying themselves for the day.

Mark grabbed his coffee and sat down at the table with them, greeting them all with a tip of his cowboy hat and a friendly, "Good Morning!"

Only after Mark had taken his first sip of the delectable black liquid, Edward asked, "So, is this what it's like all over the Federation?"

"What do you mean?"

"With outreach centres in the middle of every community and the Federation providing necessities to the people for free? How do people make money and a living?"

Mark thought about how to answer that. "No, not all communities have outreach centres. Those were an invention I made when new countries and planets started joining the Federation. We needed a standardized way to deliver the necessities that everyone in the Federation gets, without having to come up with custom solutions for every community.

Yes, everyone has free access to the necessities and services offered by the outreach centres, but as communities grow, they often replace the outreach centres with larger individual buildings placed strategically around the community. For instance, in more established communities, the simple soup kitchen is still there, but they usually grow into what they call Communal Meal Pavilions. Actual medical facilities replace the basic checkup medibeds in the outreach centres, and have trained staff that can use the beds to fix almost any ailment or disability.