Adam was swearing softly to himself while sitting in his office; everything had gone as planned. They had managed to buy up 45 % of all slave pens in the seven nearest hubs and planetary systems. He was now the biggest slaver in this part of the galaxy. The inhabitants of Dirt had also increased and has continued to increase since the opening three months ago. There were now 50,000 people living on the planet, most of them in new Macao. But Hades also had become a permanent dwelling for several of his new citizens; it turned out there were three nocturnal species in the federation, and they found the dwellings perfect. At least he had the city upgraded. This was not what he had planned; He came here to terraform the planet, not to become a slaver. He felt worse and worse as the days went by. The worst part was the increasing wealth he gained. The price of slaves had increased, which meant more and more bought his droids. The increase in workforce meant more and more of Jork and Vorts projects were completed; Roks got his soldiers to train, and he even had Jork build him a village he converted into a military camp.

  Sig-San and Knug were getting more pilots and more ships. Wrangler Corp was now selling droids and ships and taking care of most of the waste disposal from the space stations. Everything was going well, but still, Adam was annoyed. He got up from his chair and looked out the window; about 500 meters away, he saw his attempt to plant a tree; the droid had put a tent and fence around it and a small nutrient machine, and it was growing. He wondered how many trees had died before the droid perfected the method. He wanted to do that; he wanted to watch something grow. Yeah, he needed to get away from business and get back to focus on the terraforming. He went back to the office and checked the status.

  Oxygen was 15.06% now; nitrogen was 4.6 %. It was impressive. Carbon dioxide was 75 %. Still far away to go. There were pockets that had up to 27% oxygen, but those were artificial. Maybe he could go to one of those and do some terraforming. He looked at the numbers again. Then he called up Jork.

  “Yeah, boss. What is it?” Jork came into the office as Adam was reviewing some of the blueprints he had brought with him from the Earth;. Then, he found what he was looking for and put it on the screen.

  “What do you think? Can we use it?” Adam asked, and Jork looked at them.

  “Graphene? Sure, we can pull it from the air with the amount we have. It might even help speed up oxygen production. You should check that part with Vorts. When do you want it done, and at what scale?” Jork asked, and Adam shrugged.

  “I don’t know. We have too much of it in the air. We need to get it down to a workable level. If you can use it, we keep it. If not, we sell it.” Adam said, and Jork chuckled.

  ‘We can use it, don’t worry about that.” As he spoke, Roks came in and took one look at him, then called for Evelyn and Vorts. Adam looked at him and then to Jork.

  “What is he planning now? Does he want to go raiding with Kira again?” he asked, and Jork Just winked as if he knew something.

  ‘Okay, out with it? What is going on here?” Adam asked Roks, but he just smiled.

  “Wait and see.” Then he turned to Jork. “He normally has much more patience.”

  “I agree; the stress must be getting to him,” Jork replied. Adam looked at them and sat down, reviewing the Nitrogen extraction. It was now picking up a hundred 80 cubic kilometers of iceblocks of Nitrogen an hour, and it looked like a white road of ice that left Onic and made it all the way to Dirt. Adam was beyond impressed. It had been six weeks since the war meeting, as they had called it, and Jork had gone crazy; everybody had.

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  He checked the other project. Several of the oceans had algae and plant life. The Ghorts had a whole village down there where they moved about with their suits. Oh, the suits. He thought it would be a novelty, and then it sold ten million, and it’s not stopping. There are 50 billion Ghorts in the galaxy, and he could expect at least ten percent to want his suits, more if he let Knug take care of the sales.

  He was lost in his own misery when Evelyn came in.

  “Hey, why that face?” She leaned on the office desk, and he looked at her.

  “I don’t know, everything is going great but… I don’t know. Damn it.. I do know. I didn’t come here to be a slaver; I came here to get away. Have a normal, calm life, terraform in my own stupid way, and now… This is not what I want to do. “ He stood up and noticed Vorts and Dara had joined as well.

  “What's going on?” he asked, and Evelyn smiled. “Well, I had a mutiny on my base, and you apparently have the same. They say we are overworked.”

  “Mutiny? Doc leads a Mutiny?” He asked, confused.

  “He was ordered by the brass to put me on holiday. They say my obsession with gathering as much intel and arranging unsanctioned raids on pirates was getting too much. Something about taking a breather until the personnel arrives. After the attack and death of one of ours, they have justified a bigger presence; they just don’t want to arrive at a bombed-out outpost.” She said, a little disappointed.

  “You two need to relax, and we have the perfect place. We have even managed to keep this hidden from Adam.” Vorts said.

  They looked at him and then at each other, who were all smiling. “Come, let us show you. It's about a 15-minute flight.”

  Adam and Evelyn looked at each other and then followed them.

  The transport flew straight out of the atmosphere then and dived toward the island, about 500 kilometers from Peridas. It was shaped like somebody had taken a H and C and smashed them together.

  “Welcome to the new Avalon.” Roks said, “We had some help with naming it. It's in your file under project babysitter. “ He winked at Adam and Evelyn.

  “Okay, so what is this island? If I remember correctly, it's supposed to be wildlife reservoirs. No cities and a planned research bases.” Adam replied.

  “Well, we have to fly to Mount Huaguo to show you, it has a few rivers running down and a couple of interesting valleys. There is one we want to show you.” Vorts replied, and Adam looked at him and turned to Evelyn.

  “They are up to something. “ He said.

  “You think?” She replied.

  The transport flew along the barren mountainside, where several rivers from the mountain. The top of the mountain was covered in glaciers, and the shuttle flew over the glacier towards a large valley that had some construction on the valley tops on both sides. Adam looked at them and then to Jork.

  “You shielded the whole valley?” He asked as the ship dived through the shield and flew towards a structure; it wasn’t a base. Instead, it looked like two-floor structure with a landing pad next to it and a small dome connected behind. It was a home. They had built him a home.

  “Yeah, the shield covers 15 kilometers in length and is between 2 to 5 kilometers wide. You got a nice river running down in the middle, and we have given it a nice layer of fertilizers. The farmers have planted that human grass thingy and a few three. I left a few drones in the underground storage, and there are 4 maid droids, one butler, and 4 construction droids. Archangel checked out the place and is already here, So you should be safe. Officially, you are two students maintaining one of Vort's biological experiments. So nobody knows you here. “

  Adam looked at them as the door opened and fresh air came in. “No need for masks?”

  “No, oxygen is within human acceptable level, Doc insisted I also gave you something he called a grill. It's in the back. So enjoy.” Roks said, and Adam and Evelyn looked at them, realizing the others had not left the shuttle.

  “There is a spare shuttle in the underground garage, enjoy.“ Jork said as the shuttle took off.

  “Those bastards,” Adam said as he watched the ship leave, and Evelyn looked at him. “What’s the point of a grill if we don’t have meat?“ She asked as she put her arm around his waist.

  “I have a feeling they filled the kitchen.”