54. Open for Business
Waking up the next day, Mark went downstairs and got himself a cup of black coffee and joined Edward and Jonah, who were sitting at one table just like they had been every day since they built the outreach hub.
Much of the community was already up and around by the time Mark got out of bed. It just made him feel like he was being lazy and sleeping in. It wouldn't take long once the citizens had comfortable houses and beds until the population transformed to the more laid back ways of Federation life and not waking up with the sun.
As the three most powerful leaders on Colonia sat and talked, the morning topic was how to go about upgrading everyone's houses to the new basic residences that the people of Hope got.
Mark was glad to inform them of what he had found out last night after he and Cricket discussed how best to go about doing this. Fortunately, only Langdon, Federation City, and Hubbard were the only sizeable communities, and they had few multi-family buildings; those people would get new free-standing houses, but every building was free standing with space around it. All the buildings now had new Federation paths going right up to their front doors and any area that wasn't paths now had green grass.
Cricket had come up with a faster way to convert existing structures with minimal personnel. She was going to use the drones as housing agents. The residents would have to remove anything they wanted to keep from the building. Once completed, they had to stand out front with their belongings as a family so the drone could see the family units (double checking against the identity system) and then it would begin transforming the existing building into the basic Federation residence. The basic residences all had the same building footprint, and all had a flat roof for transit, a small porch at the front entrance, and a small deck on the back. Inside was a common room with a computer and desk, a master bedroom for the parents, and one bedroom for each child.
1 to 3 bedroom homes were a bungalow style with a single bathroom and 4 to 6 bedroom homes were two-storey buildings with a washroom downstairs and bathroom upstairs. Once the houses were made with the default floor plans, they could make slight changes, but they had to be done through the municipal planning system and they couldn't change the footprint. It wasn't an issue on this planet, but planets with existing utilities had to be safely terminated away from the house.
Once the lights came on, they could start moving into their new home.
Mark outlined the process to Edward and Jonah and Cricket put the residence upgrade instructions as the front page news articles on the library kiosks.
Edward suggested he was also going to get the town crier to announce it to the public, but mere seconds after Cricket had put the information on the kiosks, a woman ran by them screaming, 'We get new houses!', which then caused a mad rush to the kiosks followed by people then rushing back home.
Mark suggested, "Maybe hold off on the town crier. Something tells me this is happening right now in every community... except Hope!"
Jonah then started laughing and when Edward inquired what was so funny, Jonah said, "Jon, the town crier, just ran by. I don't think he's available to announce anything right now." They all laughed as they refilled their cups and went for a walk.
Walking up the main East-West path that ran along the shore of the Great Lake, they could see people tossing stuff out the doors and onto the front lawns.
Mark stopped and asked a couple, "Why are you throwing clothes, blankets and pillows out onto the grass? Do they hold sentimental value?"
The husband stopped and answered, "No, but we need clothing to wear and bedding for sleeping."
Mark chuckled, "No, you don't. The beds have a reset button that automatically gives you clean pillows, sheets and blankets, plus all residences have a clothing synth that will automatically create clothes that fit your body perfectly each day. You only need to keep tools and irreplaceable or sentimental items."
The man then yelled at his wife, "Quit throwing clothes out!"
She stopped and poked her head out the door. "Why?"
Then, after hearing the explanation, she simply rolled up a few items in a blanket and brought them outside, and then they started tossing clothing and bedding back into the house. When just the blanket she had laid aside remained, they called for their children. Less than a minute later, two kids emerged from the house carrying a couple of toys, which they placed on the grass beside the blanket and the mother confirmed that was all of their toys.
The husband then put up his hand and shouted, "Residence upgrade."
A drone appeared in front of them and confirmed their identities, then did a quick scan of the structure and disappeared as the building began transforming into a basic 3 bedroom bungalow. The basic residences took less than 15 minutes to construct.
The same scene was unfolding every few minutes along the pathway.
Jonah went to excuse himself to go get his own residence upgraded and Edward agreed he should do the same, but Edward added, "Can we get together later?"
Mark suggested, "Tell you what! Go get your houses rebuilt, then let's meet for lunch at the outreach centre and maybe we can go play a full round of golf this afternoon?"
The three men immediately looked around the edge of the shoreline to the location they had decided for the golf course. They laughed as they watched the trees moving around the future course.
The men all nodded in agreement and went their separate ways.
Mark returned to the outreach centre and joined the rest of the gang as they were eating breakfast and just watching the people all running about. Joseph was simply floating in his saucer near Annabelle, content to watch his mommy and all the people rushing about.
The rest of the morning was quite hectic and over half of the community residences had been upgraded before lunch. The gang had discussed the plans for the day. Mark had mentioned possibly playing a full round of gold with Edward and Jonah, but after that and with the Space Station staffed, they weren't sure how much more they could really do. They kind of wanted to return to Earth for a few days before leaving for Norn space.
Just before lunch, Cricket notified Mark that he needed to take a call with a politician on Earth. Mark excused himself and went into one office in the outreach centre.
Sitting down at the desk, Mark checked his messages and saw one of the political liaisons in Atlantis had a question regarding natural resources, with a message to call a name Mark recognized when the Pro-Federation Party of Canada had met with them in Atlantis.
He instructed Cricket to connect the call and a minute later, the political liaison in Atlantis, the party representative in Alberta, and the federal party representative were all connected to the conference call.
The liaison introduced everybody and then announced that the Alberta representative was the lead on the call, and that she was just there as an observer.
"Thank you for calling us, my King. There is a major debate being broadcast tonight and one of the primary focuses will be about Alberta's natural resources. I know we discussed it when we met with you in Atlantis, but I'm wanting to hear it from you again and, if I may, record your response for the record."
Mark shrugged his shoulders and said, "Go right ahead."
"My King, as you well know, Alberta has lots of natural resources, primarily those used in the energy sector such as oil, gas and electricity production. We know the Atlantean Federation is a clean, non-polluting society, but we need to know your stand on the production of Alberta's natural resources."
