“Not today, Buggy, we’re expecting company.”
What?“We should check the lots butting up to Renfield's. We’re already halfway there. And what company are we expecting? Are the farmers getting together again so soon?” Her questions spilled out. Company made her nervous.
The ship vanished into the distance, leaving only an exhaust trail in its wake.
They weren’t the only ones with a bad crop this year. The other lots in their area all experienced the same misfortune. Some even had workers go missing, with their watership and its contents blipped from existence. Rylie turned away from her da and looked at the ocean.
“We can check ‘em when this business is settled. I didn’t want to tell you ‘cause I didn’t want you running off like you always do,” he grunted and knocked on the controls.
A clear shield lifted from the front half of the ship to cover the port deck, it rose up and sealed the ship with a squelch. Rylie saw her freedom vanish from behind the thick glass.Our glass.The glass the stones they harvested made. It was some of the strongest in the universe.
Their stones, as well as the stones the other farmers cultivated, were in high demand and expensive. When they were melted down and re-forged into glass, they could withstand the strain of space, warp travel, and the pressures of the deepest seas. It was bullet-proof, rocket-proof, everything proof, and everyone wanted it.
The ship lifted above the water and, with the whistle of an air boat, shot over the ocean and back toward their settlement.
Da continued, “You need to be there, as you’re my right-hand gal.”
“I don’t see why. It’s not like I do much more than operate the ship and scout,” she grumbled. She was being petulant because if she had known they were expecting company, she would’ve fled. Rylie grabbed one of her flimsy work shirts and tugged it over her head.
“And the inventory, the orders, and all that nonsense with the math.” He waved his hand at her. “You need more experience with people.”
“I dislike people.”
“They’re not all bad.”
“You dislike people,” she added, annoyed.
He responded with a shrug.
Rylie ran her fingers through her damp hair. “Can you get Janet or Steven to go with you?” The water trickled from her ends, cloudy with salt, and dripped onto the floor. “They’re better at it than me anyway. I just—never say the right thing.”
“Now stop. Your sister is inappropriate and Steven has no loyalty to the farm. They’ll be there, yes, but this meeting is different and...private. Family business only and important to the future of our farm.”
She lifted her eyes to glare at his back. His spine was straight, his neck was thick, and he radiated tension from every sun-damaged pore of his body. Something was wrong. She didn’t want to ask, but worry and curiosity won out over her nerves.
“It has something to do with the missing workers, doesn’t it?”
The muscles in his shoulders visibly relaxed. Rylie pulled her hair back into a ponytail as the watership shifted into auto-pilot. He turned around.
The weight of the ocean’s waves were in his eyes.
“Did you scan the boat this morning?”
“Yes. Of course.”
He sighed. “We can’t be too careful, Buggy, not with the farms producing subpar stones. We don’t want another turf war or shark to come in and try and take us out.”
Rylie frowned and pulled her legs up onto the cushioned seat, wrapping her arms around her knees. She’d only been a teenager when the Rockswork farm fell into debt and Mrs. Charlene from Crestalview loaned them money. Rockswork had no idea that Charlene and her people would come calling for the pay prior to the next season of crops. When they couldn’t pay up, Charlene bought them out at gunpoint, standing over the bodies of several Rockswork employees.
Crestalview took over their agri-lots and their customers. She bought out another undeveloped agri-lot using the profits she had made from her takeover, bringing them down to their lowly eight. Everyone had been afraid of being her next target after that, and the government was called down to mediate.
Rylie didn’t know the whole story, but it had something to do with Crestalview being fined and losing several big-name clients.
The trouble ended as quickly as it had begun, except Montihan had bought guns for his employees and taught all his kids and his workers’ kids how to shoot. He implemented a new order for disagreements that couldn’t be settled in any other way.
A standoff, he called it; he said it worked like a charm back on Earth. No situation had escalated that badly, yet, and Rylie liked to think it was because everyone was just too damned afraid of being shot.
“Do you think Crestalview has something to do with the missing workers? I thought Charlene lost one of hers not long ago.”
