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Building Utopia Ch. 01

By: SW_MO_Hermit



Roger Timmons was a different kind of man from most. He grew up in the country on a working farm but he wanted more from life than he could get farming. He went into the Army and served four years as a Combat Engineer. He served a tour in Afghanistan and then a year later one in Iraq. He learned how to fight and honed his abilities to read and lead men. He was well versed in construction and destruction of many structures by the time he was discharged as a Sergeant.

After he was discharged from the Army Roger used the GI Bill to get a degree as a Mechanical Engineer. He also took many classes on geology and Mining Engineering because he was interested in those areas too. Those qualifications on top of his courses in welding and the knowledge of engines and farming he obtained while he was young made him a very sought after man when he began looking for work.

Roger took a job with Ford Motor Company when he graduated college. At first he was in the team that designed and repaired many of the machines the company used to assemble their vehicles. Currently he was stationed in a wholly owned subsidiary company that manufactured parts for FoMoCo. In the almost three years since he began working for the company he picked up a lot of knowledge about Automotive Engineering from the people he worked with. He enjoyed his work greatly but his life was not as pleasant as he dreamed it would be when he was younger. He possessed many material things young people of today desire but there was something missing. He owned a nice home, had money to burn and a beautiful fiancée but there seemed to be something missing in his life. He was unhappy with his life and knew it. He just did not know how to fix it. He could not put his finger on all the reasons he was dissatisfied. He did know one reason he was unhappy but he hadn't decided what to do about the problem yet.

On this day Roger was NOT enjoying what he was doing. He and his fiancée were visiting his mother on Mother's Day and Roger was paying the price. 'Shit, shit, shit. I'm tired of this damn crap,' Roger Timmons thought. 'Bring my fiancée to my mother's home for Mother's Day lunch. That's good. Then I have to sit on my ass AGAIN and listen to them talk about quilting and the damn romance novels they have read since the LAST time I brought Regina over to see Mom. Now next time I try to have a conversation with Mom or Regina I'll hear about how a suitor SHOULD treat his woman and where I am falling down on the job. They ought to shoot all the romance writers to put crap like this to an end.'

Finally Roger gave up on gently convincing Regina, his fiancée, to leave. He said in exasperation, "Damn it Regina we have to go! I have to work tomorrow and it's already seven in the evening. You know it's a two hour drive home and I still have to pack my bags for my 0430 flight in the morning. I'll be lucky if I get three hours sleep now as it is. You know it's at least an hour and a half drive to the airport and I have to check in an hour early. Besides Blue and Misty will be frantic to get out of the pen and do their business."

"Oh, just a few more minutes please Honey. It's been over a month since I saw your mother and we have so much to talk about still. Why don't you load everything into my car and we'll go pretty soon. And those damn dogs can just do their business in the pen if they need to and you can clean it up when you get back. I've told you and told you we need to get rid of them so we don't have to rush back home and take care of them all the time. Besides you have a long flight. You can sleep on the plane tomorrow morning."

"Oh relax Son. You'll make it fine. Just give us a few more minutes here," his mother said. "I almost never get to have a good visit with Regina."

Finally at a little after eight p.m. the couple began the long drive back home. Roger was seething with anger at the delay and Regina was upset because Roger was being a Butthead about her and his mother talking so long. Hardly a word was spoken during the long drive back to Roger's home. Ever since Regina moved in with him Roger felt as if his life was spiraling out of control. He was almost sorry he asked her to marry him days like this. Then one of the good days rolled around and he knew she was his perfect soul mate and he was happy with his choice. When she was in the mood she could make him feel like a king with her pampering. Of course, come to think about it she mostly only pampered him when she wanted something but she demanded he pamper her all the time. It was the same with sex; she could fuck his eyeballs out when she wanted to. She was the best fuck he ever had in his life. Unfortunately the really great times were either when she was really horny or she wanted something. Roger was beginning to think all he was to Regina was a good life rather than her soul mate and lover. He was once again upset over her attitude about his two registered Australian Shepherds too. Those two dogs had been his friends and companions for a year longer than Regina. He would do anything for them and he knew they would give their lives for him. Before he met Regina they kept him company when he was lonely and helped him grieve when his father passed away. They were family for gosh sake. They were little furry people and they knew it just as Roger did.

The next morning after almost three whole hours of sleep Roger crawled slowly from his bed to start his day. He didn't even try to be quiet while he was showering and dressing. He was still angry at Regina and really didn't care if she woke or not. Of course she DID wake and before she rolled over in his bed to return to sleep she let him know she was angry with him for waking her. Too bad, so sad he thought as he walked noisily out of the bedroom, down the hall and into the garage. He even slammed the kitchen door on the way out to emphasize his anger. He was immediately embarrassed by his childish reaction to Regina's anger. He knew much of his anger was a holdover from the day before and this perversely made him even angrier at himself.

Roger threw his overnight bag into the back of his Super Crew F350 4X4 and fired her up. He sat for a moment listening to the Powerstroke Diesel chuckle then got out of the cab and opened the back door so Blue and Misty could jump into the back on top of his gun safe. That was their normal riding location and they were anxious to be there. They both loved to ride with Roger no matter how long the trip or where it ended. 

Roger was taking Blue and Misty with him this morning because Regina refused to care for them when he took a trip. He boarded them in a kennel near the airport when he went somewhere they could not accompany him. He waited until the dogs settled into their places and backed from the garage. He supposed he really should get something more sensible but he liked the old truck. It had been the last vehicle his father purchased before he died several years ago. It only had a little over 37,000 miles on it now. He had never even taken the welding rigs and pipe racks off the truck when his mother gave it to him. He knew he could improve his fuel economy if he would just unload the old truck. He bet there was a ton of pipe and steel on the racks and probably another ton of welding supplies and the welders. Roger used the steel and other equipment just often enough he did not want to unload everything however. He built a taller garage bay on his house when he was given the truck because of the height of the racks. He worried somewhat about thieves when he parked his truck outside but so far nothing had been stolen while it sat outside. That was probably because everything except the heavy steel was locked in compartments in the utility body or bolted down tightly.

Of course all his hunting and fishing equipment was in the back of the cab and that added to the weight too. The few times a year he got to go hunting or fishing though made him glad most of the equipment was permanently on board. He even removed the rear seats and built a steel gun and ammo storage safe he welded to the floor boards to safeguard his weapons. He didn't know how many thousand rounds of ammunition he had for his 270 Winchester, the 22 rifle or his pistol. There was a bunch though. He even owned the equipment to reload expended brass. He kept his reloading tools and supplies with him in case he wanted a hotter or lower power round. He also kept a 12 gage shotgun and several boxes of shells for it in the truck. There was also a lever action model 94 Winchester in 30-30 caliber and a nice bull barrel Ruger 44 carbine to match the 44 pistol he always carried. Roger even kept his little .22 Magnum pistol and several boxes of rounds for it stuffed in a corner. Regina refused to even get into the truck. She said it was filthy and she was embarrassed to be seen in it.

Roger stopped after he backed from the garage to make sure the garage door closed properly. After it was completely closed he backed into the street and headed toward the airport. At the Flying J Truck Stop beside the freeway entrance ramp he stopped and topped off his tanks. He even filled the diesel tank for the welder since the price was so low. He hadn't filled it the last time he used the rig helping a friend build a pipe corral. Instead of just paying at the pump and driving on Roger stumbled into the building and bought the largest coffee they sold. 

Almost an hour later Roger was pulling into the access road for the airport when the world as he knew it ended with a flash. Roger heard a loud screaming whistle that kept getting louder and louder. He looked up to see one of the new USAF bombers taking off from the airport. There was a bright flash of light and explosion just after he registered the noise but Roger never heard that. He also never knew he had been hit almost directly by a super secret USAF aircraft carrying a totally new kind of weapon system they called a "flux bomb". No one really knew what happened to things the bomb hit; they just went away in a large flash of light. Unfortunately so did a lot of the other things around them. This time Roger and his two dogs were fated to find out what happened to those things. 

The aircraft carrying this bomb was taking off for a test flight to hopefully drop the bomb on the range in Nevada. This bomb had been built in a secret factory in the town. Unfortunately for Roger and several other people a mistake was made on takeoff. The hung over bombardier was woolgathering about his night in the arms of a woman he picked up in a local bar and accidentally hit the bomb arming switch while running his system checks. There was a surge of power that knocked out all the electronics in the aircraft causing it to nose dive. Then the bomb activated and BOOM. Away went the aircraft taking off and several buildings and vehicles directly under it. This was the seventh crash of an aircraft when they activated the system and it turned out to be the last one. The Air Force decided the weapon could not be perfected and killed the project. Of course that decision came too late for Roger. The brainiacs finally decided the system just could not be used because of its interference with the aircraft when it was activated. No matter what was tried the moment power was applied to the bomb it killed the aircraft and then the bomb went off. There was still some hope of using the flux bomb in missiles however.

Building Utopia Ch. 02



Roger woke slowly. His whole body hurt. He was lying on the steering wheel of his truck and could tell the airbag had deployed. It was deathly quiet. No, that wasn't entirely correct. He could not hear normal traffic and airport noises. He did hear wind rustling leaves and birds chirping. He heard his dogs whining and felt them licking his face trying to awaken him. Roger raised his head and groaned then wondered what the HELL had happened, what had hit him. He was immediately assaulted once again by two wet tongues and some worried whining from his dogs. They both tried to climb into his lap to show him their relief at his awakening. Roger hugged his dogs as he thought about the immediate past. He was reasonably certain he was involved in a vehicle accident when he turned toward the airport. What confused him was the sunlight. When he turned toward the airport it was dark. Now it was light. Why hadn't someone gotten him from his truck and seen if he was ok by now? As light as it was it must be at least four or five hours since the accident. He also wondered about the tree his truck was pushing against and those he could see in the immediate vicinity. He was sure there was no park near where he thought the accident occurred.

Roger unfastened his seat belt and started to open the door when what he was looking at finally registered with him. His truck was not on the highway. In fact there was no highway in sight and no buildings either. Well, there were pieces of things that might have been buildings at one time and there were several chunks of concrete with reinforcing steel in it. There were even some other wrecked vehicles around him. He was on the edge of a forest and was looking out onto a meadow with a fairly large stream running through it. From the slanting of the sunlight it was almost mid day.

Roger slowly opened the door and stepped from the truck. Damn his whole body ached. Blue and Misty were on his heels. They immediately began running around and sniffing of everything in sight. Of course they did take time out to relieve themselves. Roger walked to the front of his truck. The front bumper was tight against a tree about twelve inches in diameter. Hitting it was probably what set off the airbags. He inspected the heavy bumper his father and he built for the truck and smiled. It was barely dented from the impact and he knew he had been driving about 25 miles per hour when he turned onto the road.

Roger staggered away from his truck in the direction of the nearest vehicle. He looked inside and almost threw up. There was a dead couple inside. They were not wearing seatbelts and were almost crushed when their sub compact car hit another tree. Roger moved toward the next vehicle, then the next. The first four vehicles Roger looked into had corpses inside. One was a small family. The rest were just single individuals. Roger trudged toward the last two vehicles. To his surprise one of the vehicles was totally empty. The other, a very large older model car had a young woman inside. She was lying on the seat and blood was seeping from a cut on her head. Her air bag had deployed also. Her car was almost in the meadow. Off to the side was a semi truck pulling a trailer with Tru Value on the side. He didn't take time to see what was in the trailer. He saw the driver was dead as were most of the other people around. He did not even have to go over to the truck to know the driver was dead. He could see the tree branch smashed through the front window of the truck and driven through the driver's chest from where he stood. No, there was no need to check on that driver right now.

Roger reached out toward the woman in the large auto. She groaned when Roger touched her. Like all soldiers Roger had some first aid training. He checked the unconscious woman as carefully as he could and found only superficial injuries. The lacerated scalp was the worst thing he could find. He carefully opened the driver's door and pulled the woman from the car. He carried her a few feet away and lay her down then took off for the stream to wet a cloth and clean the blood from her face.

When Roger returned to the woman she was writhing and moving more. Every movement she made caused her to groan. The wet rag on her face seemed to bring the woman back to consciousness. She looked up at Roger then tried to rise. He moved to hold her down and accidently pressed his hand on her breast. He immediately moved it and said, "Wait. You've been in an accident. Don't move until we see if we can find any injuries I didn't find when I pulled you out of your car."

The young woman looked around a moment and said, "Bullshit. You don't check for injuries by mauling my tit. Where have you taken me you asshole? I was on my way to work at the airport and now I wake up here in the woods with an asshole pawing at me. What do you want? I don't have any money..." Her eyes got large and she screamed then continued, 'Oh my GOD. You're going to rape me! You'd better kill me then asshole because when you get done I'll have the police on you like stink on shit."

"Whoa there missy. I told you I found you here in a car. I don't know any more about this than you do. I was on my way to the airport for a 0430 flight then I woke up here a few minutes ago in my truck. Look around you. Do you think I would set something like this up if I was a kidnapper and rapist? Hell, if you think I could set this up you're crazier than a loon."

The woman looked around again and broke down crying. Roger did what he could to calm her down. He finally left her sitting under the tree and went to check out the area to see if he could figure anything out from the debris scattered around. He was famished. He had not eaten breakfast when he got up that morning and by the looks of things it was mid afternoon now. He looked through some of the cars and found a couple of candy bars in one. He hit the jackpot when he looked in the small car with the dead family inside. There was a cooler filled with sandwich makings and soda pop. The ice in the cooler was mostly melted. He picked it and a grocery bag with bread and chips in it up and took them back to where he left the woman. At least they could eat something while they tried to figure out what to do next.

When Roger got to the tree the woman was gone. He set the food down and yelled for her thinking she had wandered off to take care of personal business. She did not answer and he could not see her anywhere nearby. Roger was not a great tracker but he could follow easy sign. It was a skill he picked up as a child and young adult while hunting. He followed the woman's tracks as she walked away from the area. After she got out of sight of the disaster area she began running. After several hundred feet when she was well out of sight of the rubbish and vehicles she dropped down to a walk again. It looked as if she was then trying to obscure her trail but she was worse at that than Roger was at tracking her. Roger followed along the trail slowly. Blue and Misty accompanied him ranging all around. It was as if they were protecting him while they surveyed their new surroundings.

Roger followed the woman's trail for a couple of miles yelling for her all the time. She never answered and he never caught up to her. Finally it was getting late and he gave up. He turned and returned to the accident scene. When he got there he found the bread and chips torn open. He scared squirrels from the area when he walked up.

With a sigh Roger picked up the mostly undamaged slices of bread and made himself a couple of sandwiches. He sat leaning on a rotting log drinking a Pepsi, eating his sandwiches and chips while watching the sun go down. He gave his dogs the spoiled food. What a mess. He had no idea what had happened or where he was. Finally he took what unspoiled food was left and returned to his truck. He slept that night in the cab with his two furry friends.

Roger woke the next morning with the sun streaming into the cab of the truck. He looked around once more and groaned. He ached all over and was still in the hell hole he found himself in yesterday. Well, hell hole really didn't cover it. The area he found himself in was really rather beautiful, just uninhabited. Before he ate the remainder of the food in the cooler Roger walked around the area once more hoping to find the young woman from the day before. She was still gone.

After eating Roger decided to see if he could find out where he was and to get some help if he could. The dead needed to be cared for immediately or they would begin decomposing in the summer heat. Roger took off the clothes he was going to fly in and put on some of his hunting clothes from the back of the truck. He started to walk off when he stopped. He stood thinking for a moment then turned back and opened his gun safe. He put on his holstered .44 pistol and picked up his .44 rifle and plenty of ammunition for both. He made sure his first aid kit and hunting knife were on his belt, relocked the safe and truck then took off.

Roger followed the woman's tracks out what he estimated was two miles then turned south by his compass. Using his compass and walking as rapidly as he could he made a circle of what he estimated was two miles radius around his truck. He crossed the large stream and two smaller ones but found no evidence of civilization. There was no sign of a human anywhere with the exception of a very large aircraft he found crashed in the trees near the edge of the circle he was walking. From the markings it was a USAF bomber. It was pretty mangled and had skidded for some distance in the woods after crashing. There had been a small fire from the crash but it apparently burned out before the woods caught. The fire retardant systems on the aircraft seemed to have extinguished the fire on it.

What amazed Roger was the fuel contained within the aircraft tanks. Some of it had leaked out but most of the fuel was still in the tanks. Most of them were completely full. How the plane had crashed and not burned was beyond him. There were three bodies within the cockpit. All were mangled badly. 

The animals Roger came across on his exploration were not even scared of him. The deer watched him and moved slowly away but they did not run. By mid afternoon Roger was once again famished. He had eaten one of the candy bars he found for lunch but that just wasn't enough to keep him satisfied long. He decided he needed to kill something so he would at least have some meat while he thought about what he needed to do.

When he neared the end of his circle Roger came upon a herd of deer and killed a nice large doe. The other deer didn't even run far when he shot. He rapidly field dressed the deer and picked her up to carry back to his truck.

When Roger arrived at the truck he set about building a fire. As soon as the fire was burning well he set up two forked sticks to hold up the deer he had driven a steel rod through. He put it over the flames and began roasting it while he rushed to the stream to clean up. When Roger returned he spent the rest of the evening cooking his deer and eating while he thought about his predicament. From time to time he cut off a piece of meat and gave it to his dogs. Roger even cleaned the hide as well as he could and saved it in case of need. He couldn't have told you why he did so but he was already becoming scared he was here alone and might need the hide.

During his ruminations Roger decided he needed to prepare some kind of shelter. He also decided he needed to inventory the items in the other vehicles to see if there was anything he could use to make his life easier while he waited for rescue. He almost laughed at that thought. He was already pretty sure he would not be rescued. His GPS showed a message that it had lost satellite reception. None of the AM or FM radio channels worked. His cell phone showed no service. He was well and truly screwed and he knew it. Now he had to decide how he was going to live here or if he was going to try to walk out and find other people.

The first thing he did the next morning was to pull the bodies from the wrecks and bury them. He chose a nice place near the edge of the woods beside the stream but where floods would not wash out the graves. In all Roger buried a total of eight people. There was the young family of three, one older woman alone in her vehicle and one older couple in a vehicle and one man alone in a vehicle plus the driver of the semi truck. Roger made sure he saved all their ID's and personal possessions inside their vehicles so if he was rescued he could turn them over to the authorities. After he buried the people from the vehicles Roger hiked out to the aircraft and buried what he could find of the aircrew. He then trudged back to his camp, made a frame and stretched and cleaned his deer hide some more.

When he was taking the bodies from the vehicles Roger also made a rapid inventory of the vehicle contents. He then carefully locked the vehicles and kept the keys with a label on them. He listed the key code on the paper inventory list for the vehicles. He kept a written list of vehicles and items stored in them in the cab of his truck with the keys to the other vehicles. By the time he finished these chores it was almost dark again. Roger built his fire up to heat the venison still hanging over it. This meal finished the deer. Roger knew he would have to hunt again the next day if he wanted to eat. He was already getting tired of venison. He wanted steak and prime rib, lettuce salad and baked potatoes. That evening Roger went to bed very depressed. He lay awake a long time in spite of his exhaustion thinking about his mother and to a lesser extent Regina. Roger decided he really hadn't loved Regina very much because he wasn't pining away for her or too worried how she would take his disappearance.



Building Utopia Ch. 03



The next morning early Roger left his "home" and headed for the meadow for more deer. This time he killed two, field dressed them and drug them back to his camp for processing. One he hung over his fire to roast whole as he had done before. The other one he cut thin strips from and hung over another fire made mostly of hickory to smoke and preserve into jerky. Roger was going to try to walk out of the forest and find people as soon as the deer was preserved.

It took another five days before Roger was ready to travel. He had two deer turned into jerky that he hoped would not spoil. He had most of another deer cooked and wrapped in plastic he was going to take for the first few meals. Roger filled his hunting pack with items he thought he might need on his trip, left a note about what happened to him and where he went on the dashboard of his truck. He took off at dawn the eighth morning after the accident. Roger walked steadily on a course due east all that day and the next. All he could do is assume he was near Birmingham, Al where he had been going to the airport. If he was right he should get to Atlanta, Georgia soon by walking almost due east by a little north. Roger laughed to himself and thought, 'of course that is assuming Atlanta is still there and I bet it isn't. Birmingham sure as shit isn't where it should be.' 

Roger hoped he would find a road or town well before he walked the nearly 150 miles to Atlanta but he planned on going all the way if he had to. Every time he thought about walking to Atlanta Roger snorted. Truthfully, in his mind he was sure Atlanta did not exist. After all he had been walking for hours and never saw one sign of human habitation or civilization. In all the days he was here he had not seen or heard ONE airplane. There were no contrails in the sky, no sounds of civilization as he knew it either. The air he was breathing was even strangely clearer, more pure. No, Roger was almost positive he was somewhere or somewhen alone.

Roger really had no idea how far he could walk in a day through the dense woods and hills. He knew a man in as good a shape as he was could do twenty miles a day very easily on pavement but in the woods? He had no idea. He assumed he would make ten miles a day but who knew. Of course he spent some time hunting and making camp too, and then there were all the streams he might have to cross that would slow him down. No, there was really no way to estimate how far he could travel in a day.

On the morning of the sixth day of walking Roger saw something that shook him to the core. He was walking along not really paying attention to anything when he heard a scream then several screeching yells. He immediately dropped and began looking for whoever made the noise. He crept closer to the area the noise was coming from and stopped in shock. There was a small village of what appeared to be stick dwellings. What appeared to be Indians were attacking another group of Indians. They were using spears, rock tomahawks and bows and arrows. At first he thought this might be a movie set but then he saw arrows hitting people and real blood flowing.

Roger moved back into deeper cover and watched the carnage trying to decide what to do. He felt his old combat training coming back to him. He tried to decide whether to intervene or just watch... He looked up when he heard panting and thrashing in the bushes nearby. Two women were running toward his hiding place with two Indians in pursuit. The women were getting closer and the braves were getting closer to the women. The two women were run down almost within reach of Roger. The braves each dove on one and wrestled her to the ground. They began beating on the women trying to pacify them. The women were clawing and scratching in their attempt to get away. Roger watched one of the Braves finally get between one of the women's thighs. He quickly brushed his breech clout aside and Roger watched his hard cock spearing down toward the woman's pussy. Finally Roger came out of his indecision. He knew then he had to do something. 

Roger had seen enough. Without further thought he rose and grabbed his large hunting knife. He moved behind the brave attempting to rape the woman and grabbed his head. He pulled his chin up and rapidly sliced his throat. He pushed the now dead brave to the side so he wouldn't fall on the woman underneath, dropped him and turned to the other one. By the time Roger turned toward the remaining Indian he had been seen. That Indian turned the woman he was fighting with loose and rushed toward Roger with a knife in his hand, held low.

Thankfully Roger's body remembered his unarmed combat training from the Army and he made the proper counter moves. Almost effortlessly Roger got inside the Indian's defense and slid his knife under a rib. He angled it upward and it sliced into the heart easily. Roger stepped back and let the Indian fall. He turned to look at the two women. They were standing together holding each other while they watched Roger. They were panting from their exertion and perhaps from fear. It was obvious they needed to regain their breath. Dirt and detritus clung to their clothes and hair from their writhing on the ground with the now dead braves.

Roger made a shushing motion with his finger and then waved them to follow him farther from the battle. The two women looked at each other for a moment and silently followed. Roger led the women deeper into the forest. When they were about a quarter mile away from the battle Roger stopped and looked at the women. "What the hell is going on here," he asked.

The Indian woman looked at Roger then turned her attention to the other woman. This woman looked puzzled for a moment then said, "Eeenglish? Habla espanol?"

Roger stood looking at the women then at his surroundings. He dredged back into his memory trying to remember the Spanish he studied first in high school then years later in college. At one time he thought it might be beneficial to know when he took a job. He tried once more in his halting, broken Spanish. This time the Hispanic woman gave him a tentative, puzzled smile and responded.

Bit by bit, haltingly Roger found out both women were captives of the village being attacked. The Hispanic woman had been captured in Florida and the Indian woman with her was a captive from another Indian village. When the enemy braves attacked they decided to run and try to gain their freedom. Finally he could take no more and asked the date.

"Ahh the Senor has been in the woods much time, no? If I have remembered the dates correctly it is May in the Year of our Lord 1586. I am afraid I know not the exact day but surely you knew at least the year?"

Roger staggered. His knees felt weak and his stomach roiled at this revelation. He sank down on a nearby log and stared into the distance for a moment. He admitted to himself he suspected something was badly out of kilter but to find out he was somehow transported back in time roughly 443 years was staggering. Blue and Misty could tell something had badly shaken their master. They both came up to him, one on either side of him and lay their heads on a thigh. He absentmindedly caressed their heads while he thought.

Roger looked at the young woman and almost whispered, "443 years. How could this be? Where exactly am I?"

"What? Oh, you are in the forest just north of His Spanish Majesties colony of Florida. I was taken from there just after Christmas and carried off to the north. They killed many of my family and others in the settlement I am afraid."

"Shit, shit, shit. Now what," Roger murmured. He got up and paced around thinking for several minutes. Finally he turned to the women once more and said, "I suppose I need to see what I can do back there then I need to go back to Birmingham and think about this."

"I need to check on those idiots back there. I'll be back soon."

The two women made several rapid gestures during a very short conversation. The Indian woman followed Roger at a run until she caught him then she grabbed Roger by the arm. He turned to look at her just as the Spanish woman caught up and said, "No. Please. There is nothing there for any of us. We are afraid if you go back you will be killed then what will become of us? Please senor, can't we just go away now rapidly?"

Roger stood looking back toward the camp and sighed. She was right. It was not his battle. Besides, even with his modern weapons he might not have a very good chance of winning if attacked by several Indians. He looked at the women and said, "You're right. It's not my fight. I was going to walk east until I found out where I was and got some help but I suppose that's not going to happen now. I suppose I'll just go on back where I came from and see what I can do."

Roger started off to the west more or less following the path he had followed to this place. Thankfully he had thought to blaze some trees so he could find his way 'home'. He only walked a short distance when he heard something behind him. He quickly dove to the side and looked behind him as he raised his pistol. He was surprised to see the women following behind and quickly gaining on him. Roger stood and waited for them to catch up to him.

The Hispanic woman was named Margarita. She walked up to him and placed her hand on his forearm. "Please sir. Do not leave us here in the forest alone. We have nowhere to go and no one to care for us. We have no weapons with which to defend ourselves even if we could. We will either die or be captured once more if you do not allow us to accompany you."

Roger felt instant embarrassment and felt his face heat. "I am sorry ladies. I didn't think. You shocked me so much with the information you gave me my only thought was to go back where I came from. You may accompany me if you wish but I have to warn you I am not from here and may not be able to help you much. I am just going back to a place in the forest where... I am returning to what little property I own now is located. I have no idea where I will live or how I will support myself much less you two ladies."

The women looked at each other. Margarita said something to the Indian and received a reply. She turned to Roger and said, "We think you have done very well so far Senor. You have defeated two Braves in hand to hand combat and helped us to escape. We think we could do much worse than to cast our lot with you. If you would be so kind we would be happy to accompany you to your home."

Roger sighed and said, "Well then by all means let's go. I have to warn you that you will see some things that will amaze and perhaps frighten you if you come with me. I am from a different society than you are and we had or I have many things that will be strange to you."

Roger walked slower on his return trip than he had on his way east. Finally the evening of the second day after he rescued the women he knew he had to hunt. Roger turned to the women after their camp site was selected and said, "I need to hunt this evening. Would you please set up the camp and get it ready so if I can kill something we can cook it right away?"

Roger had only walked about a quarter mile when he came upon a herd of deer. He moved closer to them and took aim at a large doe with his rifle. He quickly shot her and moved his aim to another near her and fired once more. He heard a stick break behind him and someone gasped. After seeing the Indian fight days before Roger reacted as he would have in the Army. He turned, moving his weapon to engage whatever was stalking him. He immediately saw the women slightly behind him and rapidly moved the weapon to the side. They were staring at him in shock.

Margarita looked at the deer and then Roger. "How did you do that? You shot twice within so short a time. I did not even see you reload. I was sure the implement you carried was a musket of some strange design but I never expected you to fire it so rapidly. I cannot believe with it you killed two deer from a distance farther than even the best shot could hit anything."

"Margarita I merely used my rifle. It is a weapon that is just better than those you are used to. It is better built and can shoot farther and more accurately than your muskets."

While he and Margarita were talking Sunny as he called the Indian woman, moved on ahead and began dressing the deer. Margarita rushed to help her, casting strange looks at Roger as she did so. Roger spent a moment to find and pick up his brass then moved to help dress the deer. Margarita stood to push him back. "No please. You guard while we do this. It will not take us long and it is woman's work after all."

The two women turned back to work. The deer were ready to take back to camp much faster than Roger could have done it. When they got back to the partially set up camp Margarita began preparing the meal while Sunny built a rack then another fire underneath it. Sunny sliced the venison thinly and laid the pieces over the rack to begin drying. Roger moved to help and was once again told in no uncertain terms he should just sit down and let the women do this woman's work.

After the meal Roger leaned back against a log and watched the women return to work on the skins taken from the two deer. They stretched them on a frame and scraped the meat off them occasionally stopping to check on the venison now drying over both fires. They were still working when he gently slipped down and dropped off to sleep where he was sitting. Blue and Misty were lying nearby. Occasionally one or the other of the dogs would rise and make a circle of the camp as if they were standing guard. Roger knew with the dogs he had no need to stand watch—or at least he hoped that was so.

To Roger's surprise he woke the next morning with a woman sleeping on either side of him and his dogs laying with their heads on each woman. Like most men he woke with a morning piss hard on. He would have liked to lay a while longer to enjoy the morning but needed to move immediately to relieve himself. When he began moving he woke both women who immediately scurried off to prepare breakfast. They had already agreed not to move on this day so the venison could be completely processed.

While they were sitting working on the hides and watching the drying meat Margarita turned to Roger and said, "Please Senor tell us more of the place to which we are going. It must be a fine country you come from for you to have such a wonderful weapon and the fine clothes you wear."

Roger sat for a moment trying to decide what to tell the women and how to tell it. He knew he would have to explain the many vehicles sitting in the woods and some of the simpler things he used during a normal day. Finally he decided to tell them a portion of the truth to see how they would handle it.

"In many ways I lived in a wonderful society. We had many machines that made our work easier for us. One man could do the work of many of his forbearers. We had machines that could travel hundreds of miles in a day carrying many people or large loads. We had other machines that could transmit pictures or voice miles in the blink of an eye. We had craft that could fly from the new world to Europe in a matter of hours and ships that moved without sails and could circumnavigate the world without refueling. We had great wealth and plenty but right next to the wealth there was great poverty. There was much violent crime in the streets and corruption in business. There was constant international strife and we were just waiting for the next senseless terrorist attack against innocent persons for no reason at all. The common man possessed more wealth and physical comforts than you can imagine yet we were mostly unhappy. Your age has so much less in material wealth but so much more potential for good.

"Ladies in many ways we were worse off than you are today. When we return to what you think is my home you will see some strange things. Many of those things there I don't know about because I do not know what is there. I hope there are enough items to make our lives easier when we build our home if you want to stay with me. I have plans for a home in the wilderness but I do not know if they will work out. We will just have to see. All I can promise you if you stay with me is a lot of work and that I will attempt to feed and safeguard you."

Roger stopped talking at that point and watched the faces of the women. He told them much yet he had told them nothing. How could he tell them about cars and planes and TV and radio or computers and make them understand? Of course they would soon see the cars and trucks and he could show them the crashed bomber to verify his statements about them. Did he need to tell them about the stores and cities and if he did would they even believe it? Only time would tell. He knew he would have to tell them more and explain many things as he built his new home in the wilderness. He intended now to move the vehicles and build a place to live near the small stream at the head of the valley through which the larger stream ran. There was a nice rise overlooking the stream and he thought there was enough of a drop he could put in a dam and rig up a water wheel to turn the automobile alternators to generate electricity to keep the batteries charged. He would then have lights until all the headlights burned out. Maybe by then he could figure out how to get light some other way. 

Depending on what was in the hardware store trailer he might even have some useful items to help him live. In any event, if the tractor was operable he could move the trailer and use it for a place to live. His work for the next several weeks was now tentatively planned out and he was anxious to get back to what he now thought of as home.

Early the next morning the three travelers were getting ready to move on when the dogs began to growl. They turned to face the direction from which they came and toward which the dogs were looking. Roger moved quickly and quietly into the woods and circled around the small clearing in which they camped. He moved as quietly and stealthily as he could. He watched his dogs as they trotted down the trail and stopped at a thicket staring into it and growling.

Roger moved slowly toward the thicket until he saw two people in it. There was a young woman kneeling beside a young Indian Brave. She was facing the two growling dogs holding a club. The young man was wounded in the shoulder and left leg. There were crude bandages on the wounds. It was evident the woman would fight to protect her charge. 

Roger moved to face her and pointed his rifle at her. He yelled over his shoulder, "Margarita would you and Sunny come to me please. I need your help."

When the two women came into sight they stopped for a moment and smiled widely. Sunny said something then rushed to the two cowering Indians. Roger moved to intercept her but stopped when Margarita touched his shoulder and said, "Senor, please. They are two from our old camp. They were two young lovers who were always slipping off into the bushes to be alone for a short time. They were always kind to Suntahala and me. Please let us help them and perhaps they can help us."

Roger said, "Ok. Help them back to the camp and we will see what we can do."

While Sunny and the young woman were working on the Brave Margarita told Roger about the couple. The young woman was Bright Dawn. Roger decided to call her Dawn. The Brave was Bear Stalker. He was given that name because before he became a man he stalked a bear and almost got killed before he was rescued by older men of the tribe. The couple was to be married as soon as Bear Stalker had gathered together the bride price demanded by her family. 

Since Bear Stalker was injured Roger decided to stay in camp another day or so to let him heal so he could travel better. Roger decided to go hunting once more that evening. He now had two more mouths to feed so they would need a lot more meat. He picked up his rifle and turned to leave camp. Margarita looked up and when he moved out of the camp she followed.




Building Utopia Ch. 03



They had only gone a short distance when they came upon a bear eating the offal from Roger's last kills. He jumped when Margarita grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. "No," she whispered. He is very dangerous and we do not need meat that badly. Please let us go find other game."

Roger looked at the fear on her face then gently removed her hand. He turned, assumed a good shooting position, took careful aim at the Bear and squeezed off a round. The sound reverberated and the bear grunted. The bear's head came up and turned toward them. Margarita moaned and turned to run then stopped in shock as the bear toppled over with a wheezing groan and lay still. Roger moved toward it slowly and carefully. When he reached it he poked it with the muzzle of his rife. It did not move so he pulled his hunting knife and carefully but rapidly slit its throat so it would bleed out better.

Roger turned when he heard Margarita move up behind him. She stared at the dead bear then whispered, "You killed a bear with only one shot from twice the distance our best marksmen would have shot from. If they had killed the bear it would probably have taken two or three shots. You are truly a great hunter. Now, move aside please so I can butcher the beast."

Margarita had barely began working on the butchering when Sunny came running through the woods. She stopped in shock when she saw the bear then walked slowly to it. She looked over at Roger then dropped beside Margarita to help her with the work. Margarita smiled and the two women began rapidly conversing while they worked. This time Roger did not even offer to help. He just stood guard and watched.

Quicker than scat the bear was opened up and the entrails were discarded. The women did keep the heart and liver though. The two women attached rawhide thongs to the bear and tried to pull it back to camp. Roger watched for a moment then stopped them. He cast around and finally found two strong young trees and several smaller ones that he cut down with his small hand ax. He moved back to them and laid out a simple travois which he tied together with some rope he carried and some of the women's rawhide.

After the travois was completed Roger and the women rolled the bear onto it. Roger bent and picked up the top end of the travois. He began trudging back to camp. The women watched in wonder for a moment then rushed up to him. Margarita insisted he drop the travois and let them pull it while he stood guard. He finally did as she ordered but felt guilty all the way back to camp. When they arrived in camp the look on the Dawn's and Bear Stalker's faces were priceless. Roger had only been gone thirty minutes (of course they had no concept of the actual time so to them it was just a short while) and came back with a bear after what they knew was only one shot.

The three women quickly got to work processing the bear. A hind quarter was placed on the spit over the fire for immediate eating. The remainder was cut into strips for turning into jerky over the other fire. When that rack was filled another rack was built and another fire started to jerk more of the meat. While Sunny and Margarita cooked and dried the bear Dawn disappeared. A couple hours later she showed up with a basket full of herbs, roots and other vegetable matter. She quickly began preparing the items she gathered and placing them in a skin bag of water hanging over a fire. She cut some of the bear up with them and before long a savory smell was coming from the stew pot.

The small group of friends was just beginning to eat their supper when the dogs jumped to their feet and flowed into the forest. Roger saw them go and started to rise when there was a flurry of yipping and screaming. An arrow came flying into the clearing and stuck into the tree Roger was leaning against just before he moved. All looked up to see a group of five Indians rushing into the clearing. They all held knives or tomahawks and were making for the two male members of the group. Roger stepped back and pulled his pistol. He stood and banged out five shots in less than thirty seconds. All the attacking Indians were down. He quickly opened the cylinder of his pistol and began pushing new rounds into it. He was keeping his eye on the down Indians and the surrounding trees. He stopped in shock for a moment when he saw the two Indian women quickly move toward the down Indians to check on his handiwork. Two of them were still alive but they put finish to their hopes of a longer life. When they found they were alive the ladies quickly slid their knives across their throats ending their lives quickly.

After they were sure the attackers were dead Roger checked to insure there were no more in the woods. When Roger returned to camp the small group returned to their meal. While they were eating the women and even the sole brave were rapidly talking back and forth between themselves. Finally Margarita turned to Roger and said, "We are all amazed with your fighting ability and especially with your small pistol. How can you make it fire so many times without reloading as our people must do? We are also very pleased and happy you have agreed to take us to your settlement and allow us to become your people. We have never seen a fighter vanquish so many animals or enemies in such a short time. Thank you for caring for us Roger."

"I'm just a man over 400 years out of his time. What I have done here is common in my time Margarita. I just have better tools and training than you do in this time. Much of what I do is because of my superior weapons and the extensive training I obtained while I served in our Army. I am really nothing special. I can teach any of the men and many of the women in this age to do as well as I do."



Building Utopia Ch. 04



The small group took the rest of the day and all the next to recuperate from the attack and finish processing the bear. Early the next morning they took off for what was once Birmingham, Alabama years in the future or perhaps was that city on another timeline. It took the group three more days to reach the location from which Roger had departed. When they came into sight of the wreckage the Indians and Margarita stopped and stared. They all cautiously walked around the detritus and looked at the wrecked vehicles. 

After the small group walked around every vehicle and tentatively touched some of them Margarita turned to Roger and said, "What are these strange things Roger? They seem to be made of metal and glass and with those wheels they must be some type of conveyance but none of us has ever seen the like. And what is this strange grey rock strewn around them?"

"You got it in one Margarita. These are the carriages of my time. We called them automobiles except for that one and the longer one. Those are called trucks. They equate to one of your wagons. The smaller one is mine and was called a pick up. The larger one is called a Semi Truck. The large rectangular box usually hauled products from place to place. The front part was called the tractor and acted to pull the trailer much as horses pull a wagon or cart. They have what we call an engine to provide power to make them move. The engines run on a liquid called fuel. Most ran on gasoline but my truck and the larger one ran on a fuel called diesel. When the fuel in their tanks is exhausted they will not be self mobile any longer unless I can figure out how to manufacture more fuel.

"One of the things I must do almost immediately is make a more detailed inventory of the items we find here so I know what I have to work with. After that I want to move all the vehicles to a different location where we will build a permanent settlement. Until fuel runs out I can use some of my tools and the metal from some of the vehicles to help in the construction. We may even be able to live in the large trailer."

Margarita wandered around some more and came back to Roger. "Roger what is that smaller brown vehicle on the other side of the large truck you called a Semi?"

Roger walked around the semi and saw a United Parcel Service delivery van hidden back in the woods. He was surprised that he had not seen it before. Roger walked up to the cab and looked in. He felt bad and had a hard time holding his stomach. There was the body of a woman inside. He had not found her because he did not do a good job of surveying the accident scene. Unfortunately in the heat the body was mostly decomposed. The stench was almost unbearable just standing outside the truck. With a sigh of sorrow Roger turned and walked back to his truck. He got his shovel and walked over to the grave site to begin digging another grave. The rest of his group walked over and watched. After he was finished he put on a mask and some gloves. He took a tarp from his truck and walked slowly back to the UPS truck. He carefully pulled the body from the vehicle and put it on the tarp then pulled it to the grave. Before he rolled the woman into the hole that would be her final resting place Roger went through her pockets. He saved what he found including identification. 

While he was burying the woman that died in the UPS truck Roger noticed all the women were gone. Bear Stalker stayed at the grave site with Roger. He carried his bow and arrows and kept watch as if he was on guard. When Roger got back to the old brown van he stopped. All the women were busy cleaning the van of the remains of the poor woman who died within. Dawn came to Roger and took the tarp from him. She immediately took it to the stream and began cleaning it. Roger walked over to his truck and added the latest ID to those he collected from the previously buried bodies. He added the latest name to his previously prepared list of bodies he interred. 

After the truck was cleaned everyone went back to the fires and began preparing for the meal. Roger and Bear Stalker were relegated to the sidelines while the women scurried around cooking. Roger watched for a moment then had a better idea. He walked to the small vehicle the young family died in and rummaged around in the trunk for a moment. When he returned to the fire he was carrying two cooking pots and a skillet in his hands. He gave them to Margarita. She stared at them for a moment and smiled. She handed them to Sunny and wrapped her arms around Roger. "Oh, thank you. Those are the most beautiful pots. Where did you find them?"

Roger explained they came from one of the vehicles. "Oh they're wonderful. Are there more of them?"

"Not that I know of. Tomorrow I need to begin an inventory of everything contained in the vehicles. Before when I went through them I just listed the larger items. I especially want to look inside the trailer and the large brown truck. I might find more pans or other cooking utensils when I do that."

The next morning Roger finished his breakfast just as the sun was peeking over the treetops. He handed his dishes to Margarita then walked to the Tru Value trailer. He inspected the rear door and saw it was padlocked. He walked back to his truck and obtained a set of cutters then returned to the trailer and cut the lock off the door latch. When he opened the door he stood there and broke out in a large smile. The truck was fully loaded. From the boxes he could see next to the door opening it contained a load of general hardware merchandize. The packing lists he could see on the rear boxes indicated it was destined for a new store that opened just blocks from where he thought he had his accident. Their Grand Opening sale was still going on. He stood and looked at the load trying to decide how to determine what the trailer contained. He knew the bill of lading the driver had inside the truck cab should tell him in general terms but he wanted to see exactly what was in the trailer.

Finally he walked back to his truck and started it. When the engine began running the three women and Bear Stalker backed up to the edge of the clearing and watched. Their expressions showed shock as he moved his truck. He had to back and pull forward several times to get it between the trees. Luckily the forest was very thin this close to the edge of the clearing and he was able to back up to the rear of the trailer. He then stopped the truck and climbed onto the bed. Roger began removing boxes from the trailer and making a record of their contents per the list on the side of the box. Some boxes contained all one item; some were mixed with a paper packing slip attached.

Roger worked for most of the morning and became happier and happier as the day progressed. He had enough material to give his little settlement a wonderful head start. He was only about half way through the trailer and had found a veritable treasure. There were bolts, nuts, washes, nails, screws, tools of every type, some plumbing fixtures, pipe and fittings and many types of hardware. There were even two wood stoves, chain saws, fuel cans, oil, chain, ropes. In short the truck contained a representative sampling of everything you could purchase in a modern hardware store. There were even two large pressure canners and some jars and lids for them. There were not a lot of lids but he thought they might have enough for several years at least. More if he dared try to reuse the flats when they opened the jars the first time they canned.

Roger was ecstatic with his treasure trove. He didn't know whether to use the trailer to store the items it had originally contained or to use it for his residence. None of the items were particularly desirable or easy to steal in this time so he could store them in the cars or even build log structures to store them in. If he used the trailer he could not access the items if and when he needed so he leaned toward building storage buildings. The first thing he decided to do was get out one of the garden tillers, fuel it from one of the car fuel tanks and till up a large plot to plant some of the garden seeds he found inside the trailer.

One argument in favor of using the trailer for a residence was safety. If all the bows and arrows were like the one Bear Stalker used the arrows would not penetrate the metal trailer if they were attacked. Of course if anyone should happen along with a fire arm, even one of the primitive ones that existed in this century there would be a danger it would penetrate the trailer. Another plus was that the trailer would not catch fire as easily as a cabin would. It was completely water tight at least for several years until rust set in also.

As with his truck, when Roger began using the tiller the Indians watched in shock, awe and even a little fear. They were impressed with the speed with which he tilled the garden spot however. The only problem he had was getting the tall grass and weeds cut so they didn't foul the tiller tines. He used one of the weed eaters that was in the hardware trailer for that task. Roger carefully raked the cut grass and piled it as he would for hay. He felt sort of silly doing that because he had no animals to feed but it felt like the right thing to do. 

Roger stopped tilling the garden when he estimated there was between two to three acres ready to plant. Roger's only regret was that if he kept using power tools he would use his gasoline at a rapid rate. He decided to get his crop ground tilled first then worry about how little he would use the other engines. He knew fuel would not be stable long so wanted to maximize its useful life without squandering his resources. Roger remembered the Spanish imported horses into Florida with their colonies. Maybe he could go down there and purchase a couple to use as draft animals. He thought he could build a few dirt working tools like a plow and harrow with the metal from the vehicles. He could rig up harness and collars so the horses could pull them.

Roger spent the next three weeks working on his garden, hunting and generally improving his new home site. The three women were excellent help and even Bear Stalker improved enough to be of some help. He did refuse to work in the garden because he felt that was woman's work but he consented to do some of the other work needed to get their new home site set up. He did a lot of the hunting even though his bow and arrow was not as efficient as Roger's fire arms. He kept the small group well fed and they were stockpiling some meat for later.

After the garden was in Roger spent a whole day walking around trying to decide where he was going to place the vehicles and build his buildings. He finally decided on a location near the swiftly running small stream. There was a nice slope there where he could cut out the side of the hill for a basement. He thought he could then build a stone foundation using much of the concrete that was lying around where the vehicles had appeared. He also thought there was enough drop to the stream he could rig up a millrace and waterwheel to power the alternators for power. In the future he thought he even might be able to use the same wheel to power a grist mill. He planned to use the runoff water from his waterwheel to water his crops if the need arose. Some of it would even be used for cooking and so forth so they didn't have to carry it as far.

Roger worked several days getting his machine set up to generate electricity. Roger used one of the chain saws he found in the trailer to cut down some trees for lumber to make a flume. He lined the trench he dug from the stream to the head of the flume with rock and he was set. Roger made a lot of the lumber the old fashioned way—splitting it off by hand. It took an hour or longer to split one board from some of the trees but he was already in the conservation mode for his precious gasoline. He did as much of the work as he could on his whole settlement by hand to conserve fuel. 

He took the radiator fan from the Lincoln, straightened the blades somewhat and used it as a water wheel to turn his alternators. The flume directed the water onto the fan. He would need to build a larger water wheel if and when he put in a grist mill. He used one of the large serpentine belts to run three alternators at a time. His contraption looked strange but he managed to keep his batteries charged perfectly. Roger unloaded the trailer and stored the smaller items in the cars. The larger ones went into the UPS truck or were stacked outside under tarps. He hooked up the lights from the front of the Lincoln in the trailer and ran them from batteries charged by the alternators. Roger planned to light the basement he would build at the trailer's permanent location the same way. 

Roger and his small group worked from dawn to dusk almost every day for two months setting up the small settlement. Roger carefully cut trees until he had a road he could drive the Semi down. He pulled the trailer to the hillside where he intended to build his home and stopped it. The truck and trailer were about halfway up the little hill and leaned dangerously. Roger carefully lowered the dolly wheels on the trailer and moved the tractor away. He then spent almost two days jacking the trailer up and leveling it.

Roger began digging on the downhill side of the front of the trailer until he had a level place deep enough to build his first support pillar. When he got that done he built the support under the front corner of the trailer then moved to the rear and repeated his work. After he had four supports on the downhill side Roger began digging underneath the trailer until he had four more supports on the rear. Next Roger dug out from under the wheels, removed them and placed supports under the axels. Roger used some flat rocks he found nearby to supplement the concrete from the future when he built his foundation. He did have enough concrete to build his foundation for the trailer but wanted to save it as much as he could for locations where smoothness was important.

Roger's foundation and "basement" wall wasn't pretty but it was solid and worked well. He didn't have mortar so he used clay mixed with grass as mortar and to seal the cracks. He built fires beside the clay to dry it hoping to make a sort of ceramic filler between his rocks. This resulted in enough room underneath the trailer to store most of the cargo in an accessible manner. He built a log cabin on to the downhill side of the trailer. He used the support pilings of the trailer basement to support the hip roof for the cabin. This almost doubled the area available for storage. He slid the roofing shingles he split from cedar under the trailer edge and packed the joint with his mud mortar so there was minimal leakage at the joint. After the trailer was set up once again Roger moved his lights and battery farm back to it.

When the time came to build his mill he would build it onto the end of the small building that currently housed his small power plant and served as storage. He planned on using the rear axle and differential from the Lincoln for gearing of his mill wheel when the time came. He even considered using a manual transmission and clutch from one of the smaller cars if he needed to change the gear ratios for optimum operation.

Roger also moved the UPS truck closer to the new site and set it up as a smokehouse. The built in racks with little modification served well as racks to smoke meat and fish on. He used one of the stoves to build his fire inside to generate the smoke. The women were absolutely in awe of their new smokehouse and praised Roger highly for his acumen. Roger also removed the wheels from the UPS truck and set it on large rocks. Now he had 8 large wheels with rubber tires from the semi and the 4 smaller ones from the UPS truck to use if and when he managed to build a cart or wagon. He might even go back to the UPS truck and take off the rear axle to use in a cart or trailer.

By the end of summer the small garden produced enough produce to feed them well and to last the winter. The women cooked all the fresh vegetables they could eat throughout the summer and dried or canned the rest. Of course their vegetables were supplemented with wild veggies they scavenged. The smokehouse was full of meat both smoked and dried. One evening Roger was sitting outside under a small porch roof built on his "house". He was relaxing on one of the car seats surveying their accomplishments when Sunny and Margarita walked up and stood in front of him. Roger smiled up at the two women and invited them to sit beside him. They smiled and one sat on each side of him then leaned against him.

Roger wrapped an arm around each of the women. He placed a kiss on each of their heads without thinking. Over the summer Roger had grown quite fond of the women. They were hard working, beautiful and above all fun to be with. As he got to know them better he found himself gently touching each of them from time to time. If something good happened or one of them did something good or nice for Roger he would hug them and even give them a gentle kiss. Roger was torn by his feelings for the lovely women. He wanted them desperately but he couldn't make himself take the step to entice one or the other into his bed. He was afraid they might feel obligated because he rescued them in the spring. He was also afraid if he made a move on one of them the other would be upset and truthfully he felt as if he loved each of them the same.

The next morning Roger was once again watching the women work and move around the house and yard. He was again thinking how much he admired them. He felt his cock harden and allowed his mind to dream about the women. He unconsciously rubbed his cock through his pants as he contemplated things he would like to do with the women. He knew he would have to take matters into his own hands again when he took his evening bath in the river. His cock was almost painfully hard from his thoughts and from lusting over the women as they worked around the place. Many times he almost told the women about his feelings. Many times he almost slipped and took action on his feelings for the two women.

Roger watched the women look at each other a moment. Margarita said something and Sunny looked his way and smiled. She shook her head yes. The women turned toward him and began walking his direction. He watched them walk up to him. When they stopped in front of him he looked at the women and smiled. He said, "You know it was damn hard work but we really accomplished something here. We have enough food to last the winter, a nice tight warm house and a good group of people to work and live with. I'm proud of what we did this summer and I'm proud of you two also."

Margarita looked at Sunny then she turned to Roger and said, "Roger that is sort of what we wanted to talk to you about. We've worked hard all summer and we are proud of what we have done also but..." She sighed and continued, "We've served as your wives all summer and you have yet to take us. What is wrong with us Roger? We have made your meals, preserved your food warmed your bed and done all that is required of a wife but you have not performed as a husband. When you rescued us you assumed that right. At the very least, as our rescuer or even captor you had the right to use us. Have we displeased you in some way or do you not like women?"

Roger was astounded. He would be lying if he tried to say the two women did not excite him sexually. He just never considered them as a wife. He couldn't begin to count the times he almost made a move on one of them but in the end he did not because he felt it would not be proper. Many times he went someplace private in the woods to relieve himself when his need became great. He woke many times in the night with them snuggled against him. He would have a breast in one hand with his hard cock pressed against one of their wonderful asses.




Building Utopia Ch. 04



Roger sat looking at the women and tried to decide what to say. He knew he had feelings for each of them. They were hard workers, kind, pretty, considerate and intelligent. In his original time he would have been proud to have either of them as a girlfriend or wife so why not now? Of course if he understood them correctly they were saying they BOTH wanted to be his wife. He was unsure of that but he admitted most of his objection to the idea was because of his ingrained societal values from the future.

"Ladies I don't know what to say. I know you both know I find you attractive. I also respect you and, yes, even love you. I just never thought of you as a wife. I thought we were friends and companions, comrades and partners. We work well together and"

Margarita broke in saying, "We are all of that and more. We love you and respect you above all others. If we do not marry what is there for us here though Roger? Where are the other men who could marry us and give us children? There are none. We are yours by right of conquest if you will as well as by right of your being our leader and the only available man. We are yours because we love you and want you. We would choose to be with you even if there were other men to choose from. Please don't doom us to a life of solitude because you are afraid to act like a man and take us. You know you want us and if we have to tell you we will. We want you too. We love you Roger. We know you love us and desire us. We have seen how you look at us and how your manhood rises for us. We have felt you in the night and have even seen you in the woods abusing yourself after we caught you staring at us. Now Roger you need to be a man and do what a man should do with his women."

Roger sat and stared into the forest thinking. He watched the women turn and walk away. He said very little that night during the meal. He wandered down to the stream and bathed just before full dark. To his surprise Sunny and Margarita followed him, stripped and moved into the water with him. When he began to lather up with the homemade soap they produced Margarita took the bar from him and lathered her hands. She then handed the soap to Sunny and began to wash Roger's front. Sunny used the soap to wash his back. Between the two women Roger's protests were ignored and he was cleaned VERY thoroughly. Somewhat to his surprise he was handed the soap. Margarita's eyes sparkled as she stepped in front of him. She smiled and gently brushed her breasts against his chest. She said, "Well husband aren't you going to return the favor. Roger grinned and lathered up his hands. He began washing Margarita. In short order he completed his task and had two very beautiful and well developed women clean and panting in arousal. They did not even bother to dress when the bath was completed. The women each took one of Roger's hands and led him up to their home and to the bed they shared. Once again all three bed pads were together and this night they all knew more than sleep was coming.

The women pulled Roger down onto the bed with them and began kissing and rubbing him. Roger gave in to their unspoken demands and responded in kind. Before the night was over Roger's union with the two lovelies was well and truly consummated. To his surprise he felt ten feet tall the next morning when each of the women gave him a kiss and caress and said, "Good morning husband."

Bear Stalker, of course, missed none of the byplay the evening and night before. When Roger and the two women walked up to the fire he looked up at him and smiled. Dawn was already preparing breakfast but she, too, looked at Roger and smiled. She walked rapidly to the two women and they began talking quietly and giggling from time to time.

Bear Stalker looked over at the women then turned his attention to Roger. He said, "It is good you finally took your women. They have waited long for you to do so. Now all will be much happier in our camp."

To his surprise life was even better after he took the two women as his wives. They still waited on him and helped him as before but there was just a small intangible difference. They seemed closer to him, everyone in the camp seemed happier and more cheerful. He still felt strange having two wives but he was totally in love with both of them and could not conceive living any differently.

Roger spent much of the winter thinking about his plight and planning. He was convinced he was here for the rest of his life and again to his surprise he was OK with that. He realized he was happier now than he had been since he was a child. He felt like what he was doing even though it was just subsisting had a purpose. He had knowledge; a few modern tools and some material that should give him the ability to jump start an industrial civilization.

Roger considered what he knew of history from now until the early 20th century. He decided he wanted to try to prevent some of the human misery the Indian wars and slavery spread across the land. He even wanted to do something about some of the persecution he remembered reading about in the New England colonies such as burning witches at the stake and so forth. He didn't know just how he would accomplish all that but he wanted to try. He also wanted to begin building an industrial civilization well ahead of the time stream he felt like he came from.

In late February Roger called his small group together and said, "I have been thinking about our life here all winter. We have a good place to live here. Within a few miles of us are many deposits of various ores and coal. If we can find them we can make steel to use to improve our lives. We have good cropland and seeds to grow much food for ourselves.

"The main thing we need is more people and some horses to help with the work. Margarita if you are correct about the date I think I know where I can get some people to help us with our projects. The English put a colony on an island along the coast east of here and a little north called Roanoke. This should be the summer of 1587 coming up. Historical records in my time state that in July of 1587 a ship stopped to check on the colony only to find it missing. Some of the buildings had been torn down and carried away. They never found any of the missing colonists. There was no indication of battle or fire. No one ever discovered the fate of those colonists.

"I want to go try to find the colony and see if I can convince the colonists to move here with us. There were many skilled craftsmen in the colony that would be very helpful to us when we build our life and settlement here."

Margarita said, "No Roger. You cannot do that. It is much too dangerous. Besides, we need to plant our crops and prepare for the next winter. It is far. It would take you all summer and much of the winter to go there and back and for what? You don't even know there are people there and if they are you don't know if they would join us."

"That's true Margarita but it is something I think I have to do. Historical records in my time say those people were starving and involved in fights with the local Indian tribes. If I don't go they may all die or be carried off into captivity. If I do go and they join us I will have saved many lives and gained vital craftsmen for our settlement. I don't believe I really have a choice here. I need to try to recruit those settlers for several reasons."

"Ok, if you must I cannot stop you but I am going with you. You will need someone to help. Perhaps we can convince them and if not we can go to Florida and see if any of my family are still alive and would be willing to come live with us."

Roger sat and thought about what Margarita said for several minutes. Finally he decided she was right. He might need her to translate and he knew he would like her company. He called Margarita and the rest of his small group back to where he sat and said, "OK. I think Margarita's right. I will take her with me when I go to find the Roanoke Settlement. We won't leave until we get the early crops in but I want to leave as soon as possible. It is a long walk even if we go straight there and back."



Building Utopia Ch. 05



Early the next morning Roger got busy gardening. He once again took the tiller out and spent the day tilling the old garden spot to make it ready for planting. The next day he cut some of the dry grass beside the first garden patch with his trusty weed eater and began tilling it. When the women questioned him he told them that if he was successful they would need a much larger garden to feed the larger colony. If he wasn't successful they could preserve the excess food and use it themselves or perhaps trade the excess to someone else.

It took a week to get the garden ready to plant and to plant the seeds that could go out at that time. Roger left instructions with Bear Stalker and Sunny on future plantings then he and Margarita finished packing for their trip. He planned to leave the next day. Roger was taking his rifle and pistol chambered in .44 caliber. He gave Margarita a smaller pistol to carry for her protection. Of course they both carried a couple of knives and their food and camping supplies.

Roger thought it would take at least two months to walk to Roanoke Island where the ill fated colony was landed. He planned to walk due east until he was on the coast then turn north. He knew if he did this he would walk a greater distance and have to either build a canoe or backtrack some to cross streams emptying into the ocean. He didn't know what else to do though because he did not know the exact route to take to walk straight to the colony. He could move slightly north of east but not much because of his uncertainty about the exact location of the colony.

Roger and Margarita started out just after dawn on a raw and windy day in late March. They carried enough cooked food for that day and the next but then their travels would be slowed because of the need to hunt and forage for edible plants. Roger did not intend to eat the dry meat and vegetables they carried unless they had to.

The first two weeks of their trip were uneventful and for the most part very boring. They stopped each evening in exhaustion from their travels. They were constantly fighting undergrowth, mountains and river crossings. Roger had no idea how far they travelled either. His best estimate was they were making between twelve and eighteen miles a day. Their travel was also slowed because Roger stopped frequently on higher elevations to survey the surrounding countryside for a better route and for imminent danger. They also used a small hatchet to blaze trees and mark their route so they could find their home easier upon their return.

Early on the sixteenth day of travel the couple came in sight of a small Indian village. They stopped as soon as they saw the village and tried to fade back into the foliage. They were unsuccessful. They heard the shouts coming from the village and saw three men running toward them carrying spears and clubs. Roger looked at Margarita and said, "Can you understand them?"

Margarita shook her head and said, "No. I don't recognize the language. WATCH OUT!"

Roger dropped. He saw the brave pulling the bow just as Margarita warned him. With a sorrowful heart Roger took aim with his rifle and dropped the three running men. He didn't check to see if they were dead or not. They were down and he and Margarita continued their escape. They were out of sight of the village but could hear the pursuit. They continued running as fast as they could but the Indians were gaining on them. Roger turned slightly uphill and led Margarita to a group of boulders that made a good defensive position. He pulled her into the cover of the rocks and had her hide then he moved off about ten feet and took up another position. This time there were six more men on the attack. Roger waited until they were in the most promising position then opened fire once again. He only hit two before they dove for cover. Over the course of the afternoon Roger and Margarita fought with the Indians. The only saving grace was they had no firearms. Only three of the braves had bows and arrows. By late afternoon Roger finally managed to shoot all but one of the attackers. The remaining Indian seemed to have given up and disappeared by dusk.

Roger led Margarita away slowly. They carefully headed east once again. He made his best effort to obscure their trail. They travelled until exhaustion and the darkness forced them to stop, eating dry jerky as they moved. This was the worse encounter with natives they had. They did see two more groups but managed to avoid them. Finally on the 47th day of travel an exhausted Roger and Margarita came into sight of the Atlantic Ocean. They walked onto the beach and stood watching the waves for several minutes before moving back into the trees near the shore. Roger allowed two days in this location for rest before they turned north in an attempt to find the lost colony.

The next 13 days of travel were brutal. They waded marshes, back tracked, slogged through mud and rivers always moving north and trying to stay in sight of the coast so they would not miss the colony. Finally about mid day on the 13th day after their rest stop Roger stopped and stared at some tree stumps. They had been cut with an axe. There were many trees cut and missing, all of a similar size. Roger hoped the colonists had cut them to use in constructing their fort.

Roger and Margarita walked on. The farther they walked the more evidence of settlers they saw. There were many trees cut and missing. They even found a couple of small fields or gardens. They walked almost another half hour before they saw a small stockade between the trees. They were just inside the woods beside a clearing on a river. Roger and Margarita slowly and carefully came from the woods, hands open and held out from their bodies. Roger saw the gate swing fully closed. The couple heard shouting from within the stockade then saw gun barrels pointing in their direction from over the ramparts.

Roger stopped and said, "Hello the Fort"

Roger watched as the men with the weapons stood and moved their aim slightly. A tall, older man came to the ramparts and addressed Roger. "Who are you and what do you want wi us?"

"I am Roger Timmons. I heard you were having a hard time of it here in Roanoke. My wife and I have come to offer assistance. May we enter your fort?"

"Aye, come on in. You have the right of it sir."

After Roger and Margarita entered the stockade they were met by the tall man who spoke to them previously. He shook Roger's hand and asked, "Did the company send ye to assist us?"

Roger looked around then said, "Perhaps it would be better if we talked in private first sir. I have some information that you may want to consider before we talk to all your colonists."

Roger and Margarita walked into the small compound and were met by the man who invited them inside. He reached out to shake Roger's hand and said, "I am Acting Governor Richard Greenville and you would be?"

Roger shook the offered hand and said, "I am Roger Timmons, Governor of the Birmingham Colony inland many miles. We are a small colony surviving on our own. The last correspondence we had with England informed us you were in dire straits. I don't have much to offer in the way of help but I came to offer to take in your colonists. We have plenty to eat and are able to grow much in the way of food stuff. Hunting in our area is plentiful and there doesn't appear to be many Indians to bother us. What Indians there are we are making friends with."

The governor looked at Roger for a moment then said, "Come into my office. We will talk more of this. Your woman can stay with the other ladies while we converse."

After they reached the office Roger explained his offer in more detail and the governor said he would have to think about the matter. He was not inclined to agree because he felt obligated to work the colony for its founders. They moved from the office to the dining area where the women began serving the meal. Each person present was given a small bowl of thin watery soup. Roger and Margarita were still almost as hungry after they finished as when they started the meal.

Roger looked at the governor and said, "Is this a typical meal sir?"

The governor looked embarrassed and said, "Yes I am afraid it is. We are starving slowly. There is not much game and during the winter we were unable to hunt or gather much food. We barely have enough to keep alive as it is sir. For some reason our crops do not grow well so we cannot harvest enough vegetables and grain to make much difference."

Roger said, "Sir there is much game. I saw much sign as I approached your fort. Either your hunters are not capable sir or they are fools. With your permission I will go out tomorrow morning and hunt. Would you please send me three men to carry the game back when I go?"

"If you can find game and kill it we would be grateful. I suspect you will be unsuccessful but you are more than welcome to try. My best hunters fail to find game most of the time."

Roger started to make another remark about the abundance of game then decided not to. Instead he said, "I saw several small fields when we approached your fort. Much of the crop is poor and some of the fields did not have anything planted that I could see. What is the story for that?"

"I know not what the problem is. We cleared the trees and planted but our crops do not grow well. It is as if the ground is tainted in some way. Crops do not grow as well in some of the fields as they did in the old worn out fields in Britain."

"What fertilize did you use? Perhaps that is it.  Or perhaps the ground is too acidic for the crops. Many tree leaves in the soil release tannin or an acid that inhibits crop growth. Have you found limestone and crushed it to help sweeten the soil?"

"Why no. Never have I heard of such a thing. Put crushed rock in our gardens and fields? What earthly good could that be?"

"My people found over the years that animal waste or rotted vegetation spread on a field seemed to help crops grow. New fields and those which have been used long seemed to need refreshing with the crushed limestone or bone meal to make crops grow better. Some have even placed pieces of dead animals or fish in the holes in which they plant their seeds. This also seems to make crops grow better. Have you not seen how well grass grows around dung or dead and rotted animals? All these methods are used in my fields and we grow bountiful crops for our people."

As Roger finished his statement a man dressed in black began yelling at Margarita. He was carrying a black book in his left hand and shook it at her. He pushed her back and then backhanded her. He said, "Get on your knees and repent heathen. Pray to our Lord God to save your wretched soul."

Roger jumped to his feet and moved to the man. He intercepted another blow aimed at Margarita and the man turned on him. The man's face became a dark red and he spluttered, "You DARE to interrupt me in the performance of my duties? Lay off I say. You fornicator of heathens. How dare you bring a non believer into our presence?"

The man swung his fist at Roger. Roger reacted without thinking. He blocked the blow and swung his own fist at the preacher. He hit him in the stomach. When the preacher doubled over Roger brought up his knee and pushed on the back of his head slamming his head into his rising knee. The preacher dropped like a stone clutching his stomach. He began to turn blue as he tried to draw air into his lungs. Roger barely glanced at the fallen preacher before he moved to Margarita and pulled her into his embrace. She wrapped her arms around Roger and they stood watching the preacher as he gasped and writhed at their feet.

Roger heard a loud roar from the assembled men and women and turned to face them. The Governor moved up beside Roger and said, "What have you done Sir. You have attacked a man of God."

"No sir. I attacked an animal who attacked my wife for no reason. Now, with your permission we will call it a night."

Before he and Margarita went in search of their beds Roger dropped to his knees beside the groaning man and grabbed his greasy hair. He pulled his face until he was looking him in the eye and said, "You get one chance asshole. If I ever see or hear you bothering my wife again I will kill you. Do I make myself clear?" 

The preacher gasped out, "I was but doing my duty to God and my flock. I will continue to do that duty and your threats will not dissuade me from it. I am here to guide my flock in the ways of the Lord and to save the heathen savages and any other heathens I come across and I will continue to do so."

"You can guide your flock and try to save the heathens all you wish but you will NEVER lay hands on my wife again or cause others to do so. Am I clear?"

The preacher just looked up at Roger without answering. Roger shook him and banged his head into the hard packed earth then he repeated his question. Finally the preacher gasped, "Yes. I understand."

Roger smiled and violently pushed the preacher away once again banging his head on the ground then he said, "Good. We understand each other now." 

Roger stood and moved to Margarita's side where he wrapped his arm around her. He looked over at the Governor and the gathered men and women and said, "Until morning Sir."

Roger turned and began to walk toward their assigned sleeping place with Margarita. He heard a roar behind him and thumping feet. Roger turned and met a man running toward him head on. When the man was almost upon Roger he snarled, "How dare you disrespect a man of the cloth. I'll teach you manners before this night is over."

Roger pushed Margarita away and used the running man's momentum against him. He stepped aside at the last minute, leaving his leg extended. The man tripped on Roger's extended leg and was helped to the ground by Roger's sharp blow to his back. The man got up slowly and moved toward Roger once again. This time Roger was completely ready for him. He moved into the attack and struck a flurry of blows. The attacker collapsed, out cold. Roger stood and looked down on him for a moment then turned his gaze on the watching settlers. He snarled, "Anyone else need a lesson in manners before we retire for the night?" Men murmured and looked everywhere except at Roger. They slowly turned and moved away. Roger once again turned and walked with Margarita toward their bed.

Roger and Margarita woke before dawn the next morning. They rose and moved to the common area for breakfast. They were served another bowl of weak soup that was alleged to be porridge this time. As they dined the Governor came to sit beside them. He said, "I have picked our three best woodsmen to accompany you in your hunt Governor." He gestured and three large men moved up before them. 

When the men arrived Roger looked up and immediately saw a surly bruised face. He turned to the Governor and said, "I'm sorry Governor. I don't have time to babysit your problem children." He pointed at the man he fought with the night before and continued, "I will not have him on the hunt with me. If you cannot find me someone else I will just take those other two."

The large man snarled and took a step toward Roger. The Governor said sharply, "That's enough Seth. Go back to your normal work."  After Seth left the Governor raised his voice and said, "David Cooper. Come hunt with the Governor."

Roger and his crew collected their hunting gear then left the compound. It was barely light enough to see when they reached the edge of the woods. It sounded like a stampede to Roger. If this was moving quietly it was no wonder the settlers believed game to be scarce. He hissed at the three men accompanying him once again to move quietly. The oldest man looked at Roger angrily and said, "We are moving quietly as we can Gov'nor."

Well, if they moved as quietly as they could they would never find game. To Roger the movement sounded like a herd of elephants tromping through knee high brush. He was beginning to understand why they were so hungry and had so little fresh meat. When they entered the woods he listened, expecting the "best hunters" to begin moving slowly and more quietly but they did not. The noise from their movement continued unabated. Finally in disgust he stopped and said, "Ok you three. We have to move quietly. You are not doing that so I want you to stay here until Margarita and I shoot the game then come to us and help dress and carry it back to the fort."

The three assistants looked at each other then promptly found a place to sit. Roger and Margarita moved out of the small clearing and disappeared into the woods. Not quite twenty minutes later the three waiting men heard three shots one right after another. There was a short wait then they heard a final shot. They stood in indecision. The face of the young man who replaced Seth blanched white. He turned to the others, his fear evident in his eyes. "Cor," he said. "I think someone's attacked the Governor. Best we get back to the fort and warn them."

The three men milled in indecision for a few more minutes. They looked at the spot Roger and Margarita disappeared from their sight earlier then they looked in the direction of the fort. They moved toward Roger, then stopped and moved back to where they were instructed to wait. They looked around a few more minutes in indecision then started homeward. As they neared the east edge of the clearing Margarita appeared behind them. She shouted, "Where do you think you're going? Surely you heard our shots. You were supposed to come help with the meat when you heard us shoot. Why are you heading back toward the fort instead of to help us? Are you so turned around you do not remember where Roger and I entered the woods?"

The oldest man looked angry and then replied to Margarita. "We heard many shots close together. It was obvious more than one musket was firing at something. We have no weapons other than our knives and one musket. We decided we needed to warn the fort of the danger."

"The shots you heard were us killing your next meal you fool. Now come on. Roger needs us to help."

The three men reluctantly turned and followed Margarita deeper into the woods. It was obvious they were uncomfortable and nervous. They started at the slightest strange sound. Shortly they came to yet another clearing beside a small stream. Roger was working on one deer and two others were lying on the ground waiting attention from the crew. The young man stood and stared at the deer and said, "Blimey. The Governor's killed three deer with three shots fired faster than our best rifleman can fire twice."

The crew moved slowly toward the deer and stood unsure of what to do for a moment. Finally in disgust Margarita said, "Well, aren't you going to help here?"

The men began to dress the deer then and Margarita took over from Roger. He quickly washed his hands in the stream and stood guard. Finally, in spite of the inept work by the colonists the deer were field dressed. Roger cut two long poles and they tied the animal's feet together then slipped the poles between their crossed legs. The two largest men carried the pole with two deer on it. Margarita and the young man carried the third. Roger carried his rifle and stood guard as they began their trek back to the fort.

Just before they left the woods around the fort the men heard a loud roar. They looked to the side and saw a large black bear bounding toward them. They screamed in terror and dropped the deer. They took off toward the fort at a dead run. Margarita and the young boy also dropped their deer. He started toward the fort also but Margarita grabbed him and held him back.

Roger knelt and took a good sight picture on the bounding bear. He fired and the bear staggered then kept coming although he was moving much slower. Roger fired once again and the bear collapsed onto the dirt about thirty feet from where Roger knelt. Roger stood and carefully walked up to the bear. He poked it with the muzzle of his rifle. It did not move. Roger quickly moved to the bear and cut its throat so it would bleed out better. 




Building Utopia Ch. 05



Roger stood and looked back at Margarita and the young man. "Where are the other two?"

"They took off running for the fort when they saw the bear Roger."

"Shit. Well, son why don't you go get us some help to carry this meat back while Margarita and I begin working on the bear."

By the time Margarita had the bear's abdomen open a large group from the fort was almost upon them. They stood in awe looking at the dead bear and the three deer. The Governor said, "You truly are a master hunter Governor. Somehow I think I believe you about your colony. Perhaps we need to talk again when you get back to the fort sir."

Governor Greenville tried to convince Roger to stay and hunt for Roanoke instead of returning to his colony. Of course Roger refused to do that. Finally Governor Greenville gave in and agreed to allow volunteers to accompany Roger back to Birmingham. The two Governors quickly came to an agreement that the colonists who accompanied Roger to Birmingham could take their personal possessions and a small amount of food and spices. Governor Grenville agreed the two men would make the offer and explain the plan to the colonists after the noon meal.

After a lunch where all present had everything they wanted to eat for a change the two leaders explained Roger's offer. Roger then spent over an hour answering questions from the assembled colonists. They gave the assembled people until the next morning to decide whether they wanted to stay or accompany Roger. The rest of the day Roger and Margarita wandered around the compound, visited with the colonists and answered questions about the trip and Birmingham.

The next morning Roger once again took off to hunt while the Governor held a meeting to see how many, if any, of his colonists would go with Roger and Margarita back to Birmingham. This time Roger did not take help from the colony. He and Margarita only killed and returned with two deer.

As soon as they returned with the meat Roger met with the Governor. While the women were preparing the meal the Governor talked to Roger. He said, "Governor almost all of my colonists have elected to accompany you. All the women are going except for one, a young girl. Her father insists on staying here and will not allow her to accompany you even though she is technically of the age of consent. All other women, even the single ones will accompany you. Seven of my men have elected to stay here with me. We will, of course, allow the owners to take their personal possessions but we will keep enough supplies to hopefully survive until rescue arrives. At that time we will discuss what, if anything, we will do about your colony in the interior. Do you know when you will leave sir?"

"I will leave tomorrow morning if those returning with me can be ready by then. It will be a long and arduous trek and the sooner we begin the better."

That evening after another large meal Roger walked away from the fire to relieve himself. When he returned he heard running steps behind him. He quickly turned to his left to confront his attacker. He was a little too slow. He felt a burning stinging pain in the right side of his back just above his waist. He almost collapsed from the pain. He pulled his pistol and fired twice into the man who was once again coming toward him with a knife in his hand. Roger could see the blood on the blade.

The attacking man was Seth. He stopped when the bullets hit him and slumped to the ground. Roger felt himself blacking out and he dropped to his knees then fell onto the ground. Margarita ran to him and pulled his shirt away from the wound.

Margarita looked up at the crowd. She saw the Governor and said, "I need water boiling now. I need soap and alcohol or whiskey. I need a needle and thread too. Quickly now please."

While the water was boiling Margarita placed a compress of the cleanest available cloth on Rogers wound. It did not appear to be too deep but it was bleeding a lot. His turn saved his life. The knife would have gone into his kidney if he hadn't moved. Finally after the water, some cloth and the needle and thread had boiled for several minutes Margarita began work.

She first washed the wound with soap and the sterile water then dried the wound. She poured some rum on the wound to sterilize it more then carefully sewed it up. After the wound was closed she placed a poultice of her special devising on it and covered it with a clean cloth then wrapped Roger's waist to hold the dressing in place.

The next morning Roger woke in pain. His wound throbbed. He was feverish to the touch near the wound. He groaned and Margarita was there immediately. She rolled him over and checked the wound then replaced the dressing. Roger carefully stood and moved to the table for breakfast. He could hardly move much less sit or stand.

While he was eating his meal the Governor and a young woman approached him. The woman hung back and almost hid behind the Governor. She looked down at the ground almost constantly, refusing to meet Roger's eyes. The Governor inquired about Roger's health then looked at the woman. He turned back to Roger and said, "Governor, Betsy and I have a favor to ask of you. She is Seth's daughter and as you know he refused to let her accompany you. Now that he is dead she has no one to care for her here and has asked if she can accompany you to your settlement in Birmingham."

Roger looked at the almost cowering young woman and smiled. He said, "Of course you may come with us Betsy. We would be pleased to have you. If you will gather your possessions we will find room for them and you when we leave."

Betsy smiled. She curtseyed to Roger and said, "Oh, Thank You Sir. I will be the most loyal of your servants in payment for this opportunity." She rapidly turned and ran off to gather her belongings.

Governor Grenville reached to shake Roger's hand and said, "I want to thank you also Governor. You have solved a problem for me by agreeing to take Betsy. I feared for her safety here for many reasons. Some of the worst of our settlers have agreed to stay. I feared only one woman here with no man to protect her would not be a good thing. I also feared the potential for strife should the men vie for her favors. She will be safer with you and I will, perhaps, have fewer problems with her gone." 



It was six days before Roger felt he was well enough to travel. When the journey began he was surprised to see three two wheel carts loaded with heavier possessions. One of the carts had a crate with some hens, a rooster and some young chickens. There was also a milk cow, her calf and the three bullocks pulling the carts.

Roger's immediate thought was to make them leave the carts. Some of the route they would travel would be impassable or nearly so for the carts. There were no roads to Birmingham and what trails existed were narrow game trails. It would be difficult to find a way between the trees for the carts even considering how narrow they were. Finally after much discussion he agreed to take the carts with the understanding they would be left if they became too much of a burden. The small party moved out slowly. Roger estimated they only made about eight miles the first day. The next day was worse, maybe six miles. About mid morning the third day of travel Roger heard shouts coming from the rear of the small traveling group.

Roger moved toward the rear of the column as rapidly as he could. When he arrived he saw one of the men who had remained behind. He was a bloody mess. He was lying on the ground gasping. He said, "Injuns attacked us the day you left Governor. I think I'm the only one who got away. We need help please sir."

Roger quickly made his decision. He knew it was probably useless but he decided to take a small group back to Roanoke to see if they could help. He instructed the main body to move on toward Birmingham. He pulled Margarita aside and said, "I hate to leave you Margarita but I feel it is necessary. You have your pistol. Don't be afraid to use it if needs be. Stay alert. I'm not sure we can trust all our new friends. I shouldn't be more than three or four days."

When Roger and his group of twelve men arrived back at Roanoke they found many of the buildings torn down. There were six bodies lying around the fort. Roger could not find the Governor's body. They set about burying the dead then searched for anything they might want to take with them. By mid afternoon of the day they arrived they were once again ready to leave for Birmingham.

Late the evening after Roger and his party again left Roanoke a lone figure came staggering out of the woods. When he got to the fort he stood and looked around. He saw the fresh graves and walked over to them. He stood swaying on his feet for a moment of silent prayer. Slowly, so slowly the man sank down onto the ground beside a tree. Sometime in the night the Governor of Roanoke Colony found his peace.

The journey from Roanoke to Birmingham was long and arduous. Thankfully there were only three short attacks by Indians and they were easily beaten off. Twice Roger almost left the carts but he gave in to the requests of his new colonists and kept them. It was late September when they finally came into sight of the small settlement of Birmingham.

Roger slowly moved out of the woods into the clearing. He saw two women working in the garden. They stood and looked toward Roger and the arriving settlers. They began walking toward the new arrivals. After several steps one of the women broke into a run and slammed into Roger. Sunny wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her chest in a painfully tight hug.

Roger looked up and saw Bear Stalker approaching from wherever he had been standing watch over the ladies. Roger moved to his friend and clasped his forearm in greeting. Roger turned to his new colonists and said, "Welcome to your new home. This is Birmingham. You can set up a camp bear the stream and rest the remainder of the day. Tomorrow morning we will begin building your new homes."

Roger introduced Bear Stalker and the other women before he allowed his wives to lead him to their home. Roger spent the rest of the evening and night celebrating their return home with his wives and catching up on the summer's occurrences.



Building Utopia Ch. 06



My thanks and deep appreciation go to dforrest3 for his help in editing this chapter of Building Utopia. I feel we now have a much better product. As with all authors however, the errors are mine. 

*

Early the next morning, true to his word, Roger and the new settlers began building barracks for the single men and women to live in and small cabins for the married couples. Before beginning work on the new buildings Roger gathered everyone together and laid out the rules of his settlement. He gave everyone a guided tour of the area and explained some of the strange items they saw. He explained his philosophy and plans for the growth of their settlement. He also broke the men up into several different groups, each with a different job. Where possible he considered the men and women's desires in assigning work but he did make sure everyone had an assigned job. The administrative work and tours took up the entire morning. The work began that afternoon and continued until dusk. There was some grumbling about work assignments from many of the unmarried men. Not a few of the people were frightened by Roger's tools and machinery. The women and some of the men seemed upset about the fact Roger had two wives, too.

Over the course of the next few days many strange items were used. Roger used something called a chain saw to cut and trim trees for their barracks. His axes and small hand tools were of exquisite manufacture. He even used a strange growling horseless carriage to move some of the logs almost into place. The whispers intensified. This was more proof that Roger was in league with the devil, that he was a warlock and ungodly. After all, hadn't they seen proof of that at Roanoke when he blasphemed and actually struck and threatened the Reverend? Then when they agreed to come with him he managed to work it so the Reverend was not welcome to come with them to minister to their needs. The whisperers conveniently forgot that only volunteers came with Roger. It was whispered that something needed to be done about Roger. No man should be allowed to have two wives. It was ungodly, sacrilegious, and unfair to those who had no woman. None of the men knew how to use most of Roger's tools and he safeguarded them tightly. None had seen such exquisite work. Surely Roger must be in league with the Devil to have such items.

The men were worried about the strangeness of Roger's tools yet they were pleased at the ease with which they were able to build their homes. Always at the worst place was good old Silas with a disparaging word, a complaint, or snide comment about Roger. Slowly, so slowly, he was building animosity against Roger. That animosity was well leavened with fear. Many of the men did not agree with Silas but there was a group of 13 that became his core of rebellion. They were angry about the way Roger treated them, making them work harder than they wanted. They were angry about him hogging the women for himself and they chafed under some of the rules Roger laid down. In short, they were ne'er do wells who thought they could better their plight by overthrowing Roger. After all, they were now deep in the uncharted wilderness far from the King's Justice so the only law was one they made. Might made right, and Silas and his 13 convinced themselves they could take over.

It all came to a head one day just before Christmas. Roger and Bear Stalker were out hunting for the camp. They left the remainder of the men working cutting wood for the winter or putting finishing touches on the buildings. It was cold and the wind was blowing. Silas' men were upset Roger wanted more firewood. They had a huge stack and hoped it would last the winter. They argued, or rather Silas argued, that they could always cut more later if the need arose. Roger was just barely out of sight when Silas and his group threw their tools down and returned to the camp and the warmth of their barracks. Not only did they not work, they broke into the food larder and took some of the choicest meats for a snack. 

Margarita and Sunny saw the men milling around and became upset. They confronted Silas and asked him what he and his friends were doing. When Margarita ordered the men to return the meat to the storage area and go back to work Silas laughed. He turned to his followers and said, "Well, boys, the wench wants us to leave our food and go back to our room."

Silas turned back to Margarita and grabbed her. He smiled and began pulling her along with him as he said, "Seems to me if we have to go to our room the wench should come to entertain us. What say you, men?" Silas pulled Margarita to his chest and grabbed her breast. She groaned from the pain and kicked at his shins. Silas roared in anger. He pushed, tripped her, and rode her to the ground while he continued mauling her breasts. Margarita was scared. She screamed when she felt his hand move under her skirt and his fingers invade her pussy. She scratched his face trying to get away. Sunny moved to help her friend and two of Silas' gang grabbed her and began mauling her as well.

Thankfully some of the other women heard the commotion and came to Margarita's and Sunny's rescue. They had not been taught how to shoot but from watching Roger and Margarita two of the women knew enough about the weapons to cause them to fire. Their aim was very poor but the noise and their demands the two women be released caused Silas to laugh and move off Margarita.

Margarita stood and took the rifle from the woman who held it. She and the women moved back to Roger's home where they holed up until he and Bear Stalker returned from the hunt. They and their crew had two deer and a bear to add to the colony coffers. When she saw them, Margarita flew into Roger's arms, wrapping hers tightly around him. Roger saw the bruise on her cheek and instantly asked her what happened. When she told him what happened with Silas, Roger got very quiet, thinking deeply about what needed to be done. This was far from acceptable and if he put up with it, it would only lead to more and worse trouble. 

After she calmed down Roger got the rest of the story from Margarita. He went in search of Silas with anger in his heart. They found Silas and his gang lounging around inside the men's barracks. The rest of the men were still in the woods cutting wood as assigned.

When Roger stormed into the barracks Silas looked up at him and grinned. "What's gotten under yer skin there, Gov'nor?" When he asked that he and the rest of his gang laughed uproariously.

Roger said, "I think you know what the problem is, Silas. This was the last time you get away with something like this. I sentence you to one month in confinement and the rest of your crew to one week each. If you continue to cause problems in this colony and disobey the rules I will be forced to either put you to death or banish you.

"Not so fast there, Gov'nor. We've had all we intend ter take from the loikes of you. We decided we call the shots here now. We've got plenty of food and wood stored up for the winter and now we intend to sit here in the warm and wait out the cold weather. Now, you and your whores get outta our home before we finish what we started earlier today. There's no way just you can stand up to the fourteen of us."

Roger stomped over and stood in front of Silas. "That's it," he said. "I've had enough of your lip, Silas." Roger reached out to take Silas' arm when Silas moved. He bent and pulled a knife from his boot top and lunged at Roger. Not surprised that Silas would try something, Roger slid easily into his self-defense training almost without thought. The speed of his response made Silas seem slow in his movements. 

Roger stepped back and blocked the initial thrust then made one of several possible countermoves that had been drilled into him over hours of unarmed combat practice in the Army. Silas felt his arm slammed to the side and Roger's hands on his face and head. His head was wrenched to the side and then he felt nothing at all. The other men in the room heard the loud snap when Roger broke Silas's neck. Roger stepped back and let Silas fall to the floor.

The other 13 men sat and stood in shock while they gazed on Silas's body. Roger looked at the men and said, "Now all you men take Silas out and bury him. Then I want you back in the woods cutting firewood until the rest of the crew finishes this evening. You will start your sentences tomorrow."

The men glared at Roger, muttering to each other they moved to do what he ordered.

The next morning Roger was standing outside his home when Margarita and two of the ladies came to him. "Roger," Margarita said, "The store room has been broken into again and a large quantity of meat and vegetables are gone. Penelope says she and Honor saw a group of men moving off through the trees at dawn when they got up to begin preparing breakfast."

With an oath Roger moved off toward the barracks. When he got there he found the man who was in charge. He looked guilty when he saw Roger and wouldn't meet his eyes. Roger stood looking at him a moment and then said, "You know why I'm here, Timothy. What happened to the men with Silas yesterday?"

"Well, Gov'nor, after we finished evening meal and got back to the barracks they was all in a group talking about how unfair ye was. Some of us told them ta shut up and that if they tried to pull that kind of crap again we'd treat them worse than you was agonna. We had some hard talk then we all went to bed. None of us knew they was gone until we got up this morning. I'm sorry they took some of our food but in the long run we're better off without them, Gov'nor." 

Cold weather moved in just after Christmas and the small colony settled in to ride out the winter. They hunted as needed and as they could and worked with their hands on smaller projects. Mostly the men sat around and wasted time. The old adage about a woman's work is never done held true during the winter at Birmingham also. It seemed the women's work was never ending. They continued cooking, cleaning, mending and sewing just as they had in the summer. Their only respite was they didn't have to do any work in the gardens. They talked as they worked, dreaming about the time when children would begin arriving. Already a couple of the younger married women were pregnant. It seemed strange that the youngest child now in the settlement was the young woman whose father Roger had killed at Roanoke. She was now a 15 year old woman with the men swarming around her.

There was still some fear and unrest in the new colonists. They looked askance at Roger's modern tools. Many of the people were afraid of his engine driven possessions. They all adapted and adopted his modern hand tools though. The women loved his modern pots and pans! Roger, being a man, had little knowledge of the proper care of modern cooking utensils. Thankfully most of the pans found were either cast Iron, which he knew how to season and care for, or stainless steel. He warned the women not to scrub any of the pans with highly abrasive materials and to keep the steel ones dry and well seasoned to prolong their life. 

While his colonists rested and took care of everyday chores Roger and his wives talked and planned. Roger thought about the heartaches that had occurred during the growth of the English Colonies and afterwards in his original time line. He decided he didn't want to repeat those times if he could prevent it. He wanted to build a colony, a civilization, that was from the start kinder and gentler. He wanted as much equality for women and minorities as he could manage. With that in mind he decided all would have equal opportunity from the start. Jobs and social standing would be based on capability and desire, not on sex or race. 

Roger knew he would face strong resistance from the more well to do people who might join his colony. They would want to keep the common man downtrodden so profits would be higher. He knew current practice was to treat the common worker almost as a slave or an animal giving them a mere pittance to live on. He planned for this from the beginning. Roger felt much of the problem could be eliminated by the way he compensated his men. 

Roger planned to enact laws to address working conditions and pay. Of course, as long as the factories, farms, hunting, and other work was in businesses Roger owned he could control how people were treated and compensated. If he continued his ownership he could set the prevailing wages and conditions of employment. At least he hoped he could do so.

Roger intended to industrialize as rapidly as possible with the intent to prevent English colonization. He planned on schools, mines, and factories. Thankfully, two of the vehicles had some modern textbooks in them. One of the women who died was a professor in a medical school. There were several medical textbooks in her vehicle he intended to use. The young couple who died with their children also had something of value in their car. They had a complete set of encyclopedias. Roger even had some of his engineering books in his truck. He felt he could jump start education with those books.

Roger decided his first endeavor for the spring was to find metals and minerals. He knew there were many mines around Birmingham, primarily iron and coal. He thought he could make some steel pretty easily and if so he could make heating and cooking stoves, wagons, swords, perhaps even more modern pistols and rifles. He wanted a more modern militia. He wanted modern schools and industry. In short, he wanted it all and set out to get it. 

His first change would commence immediately however. He decided instead of letting his colonist's loaf during the inclement weather he would make them go to school three hours a day. Beginning immediately they would do daily chores upon arising, and then have their schooling. After that, all able bodied men and women would train in military and defensive tactics. They had been lucky so far and not suffered a serious attack. He intended to begin training his colonists in the modern way of fighting. He intended to institute universal military service. The only excuse for not receiving military training was incapability—either mental or physical and he felt both of those disabilities could be worked around somewhat. 

During the good days in the winter Roger and some of his men combined hunting for game with exploring and prospecting for the minerals they so badly needed. On every trip he gave lessons in military tactics, patrolling, ambushing, and breaking an ambush. His men learned to camouflage their bodies and fighting positions. They also learned to move quietly in the woods. Roger also took a crew to the downed bomber and collected weapons, flight manuals, and some of the smaller equipment. During every day, either on the hunt or in camp, Roger held classes on military subjects. He still had a couple of his old manuals in his truck and made use of them. He had a Soldier's Manual and FM (Field Manual) 22-5. These two books dealt with basic maneuvers and fighting positions as well as many of the simpler common tasks a modern soldier should be proficient in. 

Over the course of the winter, during their hunting expeditions and exploration, Roger was lucky. They found coal in abundance and he thought they found a source of iron, zinc and copper. They took samples of all the minerals back to the camp with them. One of the first things Roger did was extract copper from the ore. If he really had zinc and iron he could make some steel and use the zinc and copper for brass. With these metals he could begin building the machinery he so desperately needed for his young colony. He planned to use some of the metal from the vehicles and from the supply carried on his truck when good steel was needed but he intended to save that for important uses. Roger made several trips back to the bomber after collecting the loose parts and smaller pieces of equipment. He cut many pieces of metal from it to stockpile near his home for immediate use. 

He knew there was a large quantity of aluminum and other useful metals in the bomber should he need to smelt them down to reshape them. He hoped he could find uses for the sheet metal without melting it again however. Of almost inestimable value was the literally miles of copper wiring contained in the aircraft.

The thousands of gallons of fuel in the bomber could be very useful if he could figure out a way to make his diesel engines run on jet fuel. It was basically kerosene but his engines would still be able to use it inefficiently. From what he remembered the engines would run hotter on kerosene and wear out faster so he would limit the use to emergencies. He had no way to modify his gasoline engines to run on the kerosene. They did bring several containers back to the settlement for use in crudely manufactured kerosene lamps.

As the winter passed Roger was pleased with the discipline he built in his colonists with the training he instituted. He kept everyone busy five days a week on necessary work and his training regimen for his budding militia. During the cold weather he identified his first officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO's). He identified several of the women and one man who would be the start of his medical department.

Roger built a still to distill alcohol for medicinal purposes and even grew some mold he hoped was penicillin. He was still in the testing phase on that but he believed it worked. He hoped he would never have to find out but knew he would. Injury and illness were not uncommon. Roger's days were too busy by far but he was thriving and extremely happy. He felt as if was making a difference, building something important. 

Roger knew disease was a major killer as the European population expanded, coming into more and more contact with native populations. The native people had no exposure and no resistance to these diseases. Far more natives died from disease than from the many wars that occurred. It was imperative to get started in the production of penicillin as soon as he could. It would even help the colonists as they suffered epidemics from their own diseases. 

Roger knew his colonists were better off by far than they had been in Roanoke or even back in England. They were well fed, healthy, and learning from his teachings. They only had to demonstrate their capability as militia once so far but they had decimated the attacking Indians in less than ten minutes. There were several slight injuries to Roger's men, but all 17 attacking Indians were killed. All but three of them died as a result of hand to hand combat using modern U S Army fighting methods. Roger was no expert in Krav Maga or karate but he did have some training in those disciplines as well as the other more basic hand to hand fighting methods. He passed that knowledge on successfully to his beginning militia and it showed.

Just as Roger began to feel confident things that were all going well a minor disaster struck his small colony. Near the end of February hunters reported seeing tracks in the woods. They found two places where someone had been watching the colony. On the first of March, sometime in the night, the storehouses were broken into. Five men carried off a large quantity of preserved food and some cooking utensils and knives. 

Most of the men immediately blamed Indians and wanted to take off and punish them. Bear Stalker came to Roger and said, "Not Indians. The men walk wrong and do not move as an Indian would. Also, there are tracks from at least two white man's shoes."

Roger led a party of ten men after the thieves. They had no trouble tracking them. They had only made feeble attempts to hide their trail. After tracking the men for about an hour Roger and his men found where they stopped to eat some of the food they had stolen. There were bones strewn around and marks where they had set their ill gotten gains while they rested. Somewhere along the way the thieves picked up a sixth man. He may have been the leader or a lookout but now they trailed six men away from the colony.




Building Utopia Ch. 06



Late that afternoon the scout came back to Roger's main body. He reported they were almost in sight of the escaping thieves. He said, "Governor, all but one of the men we trail are those who ran off last winter. They are in poor shape and are moving slowly. The other man with them looks like a Spaniard, Sir."

"OK, let's wait for them to stop for the evening and settle down, then we'll capture them. This time they aren't getting off so lightly. We cannot allow people to either attack our colony or steal from us."

Later that evening Roger and his men surrounded the camp. As the men settled down with their evening meal Roger stepped to the edge of the clearing and said, "I let you men go when you stole our meat and deserted our colony. That was your one chance. You are all under arrest now for stealing from the Birmingham Colony."

When they heard Roger speaking the thieves jumped into action. One man had an old musket and tried to shoot Roger. Others drew knives or picked up crude bows and looked for targets. That, of course, was a mistake. Roger pulled his pistol and shot the man with the musket. Two other men from the patrol also had firearms and shot the two most dangerous looking men who held bows. The rest of Roger's men moved into the camp and disarmed the remaining thieves with their hand to hand fighting skills. By the time the battle was over all the thieves were seriously injured. 

After the prisoners were secured Roger began questioning them. He found out that after they escaped they moved all the first day and most of the next day to put distance between them and Birmingham. That night they ate well and slept deeply from exhaustion. For the next several days they moved away from the colony and toward the coast. It seemed they had dreams of finding a ship and returning to London where they believed they could live in more comfort with less work.

On the fifth day their food ran out. They found an Indian camp and tried to steal more food from them. All but the five on this raid were killed or captured in the attack. The remaining five managed to escape the vengeful Indians and kept moving in the direction they were headed. As the winter became harsher they came to the conclusion they needed to find a place to wait out the cold weather. They found a cave with the Spanish man in it. For some reason instead of killing him and taking the cave they came to a peaceful arrangement and wintered with him. Food was scarce. If not for the Spaniard and his hunting ability they would have starved. As it was, they barely survived. 

It was finally decided to return to Birmingham and raid the stores once again then follow the Spaniard to Florida where they hoped to catch a ship to Europe.

Roger sat and thought about what the men he questioned told him. He was afraid if he left them alone and they survived they would once again attack or steal from Birmingham. Finally, with regret, he decided to kill them. He announced his decision and the order was executed immediately. They weren't far too from the cave where the thieves had met the Spaniard, which was a good thing. The knives and other utensils that the bunch had stolen had been left there as not to laden them during their planned raid. At first light, Roger and his patrol headed for the cave, after which they would begin the journey back to Birmingham.

When the patrol arrived back at the colony they were met with joy. None of Roger's men were injured and they had recovered a lot of the stores taken on this last raid, as well as the pots and knives that had been stolen initially. There was a somewhat muted reaction to the deaths of the prisoners. Some of the men who gave Roger the most trouble looked at him differently now. Some of the more liberal colonists even thought he should have just brought the thieves back and jailed them for a time then sent them away again. No matter what the colonists thought however, they now knew Roger would not allow serious crime to go unpunished. 



Building Utopia Ch. 07



My thanks go out to my volunteer editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His efforts in editing have been immensely helpful. As always all errors remain mine.




Roger recognized one great truth. His men were now well fed and safe but they were unhappy. They wanted, they needed women. Three of the women who accompanied Roger into the wilderness chose men to marry during the winter. The remaining five showed no interest in the other men. Counting the 7 men who were married when they left Roanoke that left 42 men with no women and they were becoming unhappy. Roger talked with Margarita and Sunny then came up with a plan. He talked to the men and made them an offer. 

Roger's offer was well received by the men. He promised them if they would work hard with him and get the crops in as early as they could he would take half of them on an exploration trip. He gave them his promise that they would try to find women either in the Spanish Colony of Florida or in the Indian camps they might come across. If they wanted an Indian wife he would help them meet the bride price for her. He also told them he would give a few of them permission to go back to the coast if they wished and try to find other English women to marry. He reminded them though that there were very few English in the new world at this time so that prospect might well not pan out. Those who did not accompany Roger on his spring expedition were assured they could accompany him in a later expedition to find a wife. He also promised if they wanted he would authorize them to go on their own in search of a wife.

Thus began Roger's plans for expansion of his small colony. After the crops were in he did as he promised. He took Margarita and Sunny with him and a group of 21 men on a trek toward Florida. Margarita hoped to find some of her family and friends alive and further hoped to convince them to move to Birmingham with her and Roger.

The first three days of their walk was uneventful then their luck changed. Early the morning of the fourth day just as the men were moving to eat their breakfast Indians attacked. The first warning of the attack was a strangled cry one of the men let out when an arrow struck him in the stomach. He grabbed his stomach and slowly collapsed onto the ground. Other arrows came flying toward the men who were scrambling to find cover. The arrows were followed by a screaming mass of Indians brandishing tomahawks and knives. The few men with firearms had already discharged them with minimal success. Only two Indians were hit. 

Roger rolled behind a log and took a moment to make sure Margarita and Sunny were safe. He smiled with relief when he saw Margarita and Sunny hidden behind a small pile of brush a few feet from him. Sunny was holding her knife and watching the attackers. Margarita held her pistol and was also watching the attackers. One of the Indians saw the two women hiding and moved toward them. Margarita watched him come then when he was about ten feet from her she carefully took aim and shot him. After he fell she began picking off the Indians nearby.

Roger relaxed and turned his attention to the other Indians attacking his camp. He began taking careful aim with his rifle and dropping one Indian after another. By the time the Indians decided the attack was a bad idea all but four of them were injured badly enough they could not walk. The four Indians still mobile moved into the woods at a trot. Roger was upset when he saw Sunny and some of the men moving through the camp killing the Indians who were not dead. He moved to stop them but stilled his response when he felt Margarita's hand on his forearm.

"Roger, let it be. They are dead anyway. It is a kindness to finish them off. Infection would surely kill those who remain alive if we don't kill them. Besides, leaving them alive would make you seem weak in the eyes of the tribe and your men. I know it is not civilized but it is necessary, at least until you have established your power in this area.

After the Indians were disposed of, the injured colonists were treated and their delayed breakfast was served. The one dead man was buried and the group moved out following the trail of the running attackers. They followed the trail for two days before coming upon a small encampment. Roger intended to enter it peacefully but when they showed themselves to the occupants they were immediately attacked.

The unprovoked attack angered Roger and he and his men fired back. Before the battle was over the remaining men of the camp were dead as were four of the women and three of the young boys. After the battle ended Roger's group moved into the camp. Sunny began talking with the survivors as she and Roger walked around. They spoke for several minutes then she turned to Roger. "Roger, it seems we have killed all the men and some of the women and children. These women cannot live alone now that their men are gone. They will starve or be carried off as slaves by the next tribe that runs into them. They are scared, distraught, and willing to do almost anything you wish them to do if you will spare their lives and treat them well.

"I think they would be willing to move to our settlement. I know if you take them in they will be hard workers and will be loyal to you." Sunny smiled and continued, "I also suspect that soon they will take some of our unattached men to be their mates. An Indian woman needs a man just as much if not more than one from Europe. These women know how to take care of a man in the wilderness. I am sure your men would appreciate the chance to take one of the women as their wife, also."

Roger didn't have to think too long about the offer Sunny made. He looked over at Margarita. She smiled and nodded her head yes. Roger turned his attention back to Sunny. "I don't see anything wrong with that. You need to be sure they understand they have to follow my rules. They also need to realize we do things differently than they do and they will be expected to learn many new and strange things if they come to our settlement.

"I still want to continue on to Florida, though. I promised Margarita she could visit her family and I want desperately to trade for some horses if I can. Do you think we should take the women with us or leave them and some of the men here until we get back?"

Sunny looked at Roger for a moment then turned to Margarita. They talked rapidly for several minutes then Margarita turned to Roger and said, "Roger, we think the women should come with us. It will be safer for them and they can perhaps help us carry things we may trade for when we go home. We should, perhaps, leave them in the woods outside the settlement so we do not frighten the Spanish but I still think we need to take them with us."

The small group spent the remainder of the day and that night in the Indian camp while the women collected and packed the items they wanted to take with them. Roger promised they would return by way of the camp if possible and if anything was left that they still wanted they would try to take it with them.

Early the next morning the now larger group moved out. Much to Roger's surprise a very beautiful Indian woman began walking near him, Margarita, and Sunny. She seemed to always keep her eyes on him and twice she moved to him and offered him a drink from a skin of water she carried. She was heavily laden with a pack containing he knew not what.

At the noon break the Indian maiden was the one who served him and his two wives then she took a seat nearby and ate her small meal, never taking her eyes from Roger. Finally Roger had enough and turned to Sunny. "What is going on with that woman," he asked.

Sunny looked over at Margarita with a guilty expression then turned back to Roger. In her halting English she began speaking, "She is your new woman Roger. Her name is Beautiful Deer. She was the wife of the Chief of her tribe. You killed him during the attack and now she is your woman. You may do anything you wish with her but it would be a kindness if you would just accept her as your woman. You can give her to another man, but if you do she will probably kill herself. You may use her as a slave or you may use her as a wife. She is yours completely until you sell her, give her away or kill her."

Roger sat in shock for a moment. He finally moved when he heard Margarita giggling. She gently touched his arm and he turned to her. Before he could speak she said, "Sunny and I thought you would react this way. You did catch on faster than we thought you would, however. If you want my opinion I think you should take her as your wife also. She already respects you as no other man she has ever seen. She thinks you have great magic. Your weapons never run empty, you command many men, and are seemingly invincible in battle.

"Of course, I am afraid Sunny and I added to your desirability when we admitted we were your wives and you more than adequately fed and cared for us. We admitted that many times your ardor was more than we could handle so she thinks you are a god of sex, also."

Roger sat in shock. He was literally speechless. He looked over at the Indian woman. She was watching him with an expression verging on fear. It seemed she instinctively knew her fate was being discussed. Roger sighed and stood. He told his followers it was time to leave. When she saw the rest of the group standing, Deer, as Roger decided he would call her, stood and moved beside him to follow when he walked off. She kept her eyes on him the rest of the day.

Roger spent much too much time on the march thinking about his predicament. On one hand he was impressed with Deer. She was beautiful, young, and desirable. She seemed like she would work hard if how she was trying to care for Roger and still carry all her worldly goods was any indication.

Roger worried about the impression he would give if he did take her as his wife. She would NOT be used as a slave however. The one thing he DID NOT want to get started in his new colony was slavery. He also didn't want to insult the woman by forcing her to go with one of his men. He thought about just letting her be an unattached woman in the camp and was leaning that way when they stopped for the night.

To his surprise, when he seated himself, Deer moved to his side and helped him remove the burden he was carrying. She then tried to massage his back and neck muscles. When Sunny and Margarita said the meal was ready, Deer rushed to get Roger's plate for him. The rest of the evening Deer cared for Roger to the delight of his other two wives. Some of his men and the other Indian women were amused by her antics also.

That night when they bedded down Roger found his bedroll between Sunny's and Margarita's. He was tired, very tired, but for some reason—perhaps it was because their bed was partially hidden from those of the rest of the camp—he suspected he would get a little more tired before he was allowed to sleep.

As soon as he lay down Roger found his suspicions were right. Sunny and Margarita began fondling and caressing him as they brought him to full arousal. As soon as he was fully hard Margarita moved over him and guided his hard cock into her dripping pussy. She moved in a frenzy rising and slamming herself back down onto his cock. Just as Roger was about to blow his seed into her tight pussy he heard her scream and felt her slam down onto him one last time. Her pussy muscles were milking him as her orgasm rushed through her. Roger grabbed her hips and thrust upward hard driving his cock deeply into her.

To his surprise Margarita rolled from him and gave him a quick kiss. His cock felt cool waving in the air. He was literally throbbing he was so close to cumming. Roger looked at Margarita in shock and a little anger when she didn't let him get off. He was just starting to say something when he felt movement on his other side. He turned his head and saw Sunny moving over him. She grabbed his cock and gently inserted its tip into her wet opening. She, too, slammed down onto Roger and began rapidly riding him. If anything she was even tighter than Margarita. Roger grabbed her hips and pulled her toward him as he began thrusting up into her.

To Roger's dismay Sunny also finished her orgasm before he did his and then rolled from his cock. She gave him a gentle kiss. Margarita moved in on his other side and gave him one, too. They each had a hand on his chest and were obscuring his vision with their heads. Roger felt movement and smooth flesh crawling over him. Once again his cock was held in a small hand and he felt it nudging into a very wet opening. Again he felt a tight pussy slam down engulfing his cock. When he hit bottom, Deer screamed.

Roger tried to see who was riding his cock even though he was sure he knew. He felt small hands press on his chest as the pussy engulfing his cock began rising and falling rapidly on him. Each time he was fully inserted the pussy would squeeze and the hips would move in a circle. With an oath Roger got his arms free from his wives and grabbed the hips riding his cock. He pulled them down as he slammed his hips upward skewering the pussy milking his cock.

Once, twice, three times Roger slammed his cock upward into the grasping cunt riding him. Deer was fully nude, unlike Sunny and Margarita. Roger watched as her beautiful breasts bounced up and down while they fucked.

Deer screamed and her pussy clasped Roger's cock. She rotated her hips and thrust back and forth rubbing her little clit on his pubic bone. Roger could take no more. He felt his seed blowing out the tip of his cock into Deer while he roared out his pleasure. Roger squeezed Deer's hips and pulled her tightly to him while he strained upward trying to hold his throbbing cock deeply in Deer.

When her orgasm ran its course Deer collapsed onto Roger. She first laid her head on his chest then lifted it and looked into his eyes before she gave him a gentle kiss. She raised her head once more and stared into his eyes. Apparently, she liked what she saw because she smiled and once more lay down on Roger. They both dropped off to sleep with him still inside her pussy. Sunny and Margarita snuggled up on each side of the two still connected lovers and drifted off to sleep also.

Roger woke slowly the next morning. Deer was still on the sleeping mats with him. She was lying with her head on his shoulder gazing at him with adoration. When she saw he was awake she sat beside him. He was awed by her naked beauty. Deer yelled something and Sunny came to them.

Deer said something to Sunny and Sunny turned to Roger. She said, "Deer says she is honored to be your third wife and pledges to always work hard for you and to care for you over anything else." Sunny blushed and continued, "She also said that you were much better than Margarita and I told her you would be and she wants to thank you for the best night of her life so far. She said she is your woman now and forever. All you have to do is let her know when you want her again and no matter what she is doing she will open for you." 

Roger knew he had been railroaded but secretly he was glad. He had come to admire Deer for her hard work and ready smile as well as her physical attributes. He smiled and wrapped Deer in his arm. She whimpered and melted against him. Roger jumped when her hand found and squeezed his cock. He began to immediately harden. Sunny and Deer grinned when they saw that. Deer gently pushed Roger back and moved over him. He was fully hard when she gently notched the tip of his cock into her opening. She looked into his eyes as she slowly and gently settled down onto his cock.

This time Deer rode Roger until they exploded in simultaneous orgasm. The whole camp heard her scream out in completion. Several of the nearest men smiled and clapped their hands when they saw what was going on. Most of the women smiled and looked on with envy as Roger took his new woman or, perhaps more accurately, as she took him.

The rest of the day while they marched Roger thought about his little settlement. Somewhere along the way he decided he was going to rule the settlement and enforce rules or laws as he felt they should have been written. He was vehemently opposed to slavery, theft, inequality, and many of the other ills of our modern society. Roger wanted the society he would create to be as free as possible. Individual freedom was of utmost importance to him. He did not want many of the tenets of religion to take hold because of its oppressive nature. He believed deeply in the underlying teachings of religion and felt the Ten Commandments were a good basis for his laws. Roger decided to write out a Constitution patterned on the U S Constitution and Bill of Rights as soon as they returned home. He would set up a "Constitutional Monarchy". He would also codify laws to address current and, hopefully, future needs. 

Roger decided one of his first decisions would be to make sure his people accepted an individual's right to live and love as they wished. If a man wanted more than one wife and his other wives accepted, then so should society. The same would hold true for a woman. If a woman wanted more than one husband and her other husband(s) agreed, that would be allowed also. Of course, his personal situation probably caused him to think this way. He would immediately codify non-discriminatory treatment of Gays and Lesbians as well as all the other races. He would not allow discrimination to take hold in his new nation.

While he walked, Roger thought about other things besides how he wanted to set up his society. He also thought about how he was going to jump start an industrial society. He planned his foundry and manufacturing plants as much as he could. He wanted to be industrialized and have a strong military force to insure the safety of his population. He intended to build some version of tanks and to build roads, and hopefully railroads, so rapid movement would be possible. Of course, the roads and railroads would facilitate commerce and help the economic growth of his colony as well as insure rapid movement of defensive forces and his workers. Roger knew that in the near term any roads built would be no more than rudimentary trails because they would be very labor intensive to construct. As the road became better travelled it would be slowly improved.



Building Utopia Ch. 08



My thanks go out to my volunteer editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His help has improved it greatly. All errors remain mine.




Nearly a month after they left for Florida the small group met two Spanish men. Margarita translated for Roger and conversed with them on her own as well. She told Roger they were from St. Augustine. The men knew some of Margarita's family and told her they were well. They gave her all the news they knew then after a few minutes moved on. They were on a reconnaissance mission for the governor and were not interested in tarrying. Before they left they assured Roger it was no more than a two week trek from where they were to St. Augustine. Three weeks would complete the trip if they took it easy.

Margarita was ecstatic that evening just from knowing her family was safe. She wanted nothing else but to hurry onward to see her family. To her credit, she curtailed her desires and allowed Roger to set the pace and make the plans for contact with the Spanish garrison. Two weeks to the day after meeting the Spanish men the small group arrived at Margarita's old home. It was only three days farther to St. Augustine. Roger did bow to Margarita's feelings however and they made their first stop near her families holdings so she could visit before they pushed onward. The next two days were spent allowing Margarita to visit with her family and try to convince them to return to Birmingham with them.

In the late morning of the third day of their stay they were confronted by a detail of Spanish soldiers. Their leader was the son of the Governor and was an extremely arrogant man. He tried to arrest the men for trespassing on Crown Lands. Thankfully, Roger made his camp about a mile from Margarita's home so some of his men and the Indian women were there out of sight.

Roger refused to allow the popinjay to arrest him. When he refused to submit to arrest the officer ordered his men to attack. Roger expected that move and rapidly drew his pistol. He shot the Governor's son then in rapid succession the next two best dressed men in the detachment. By then his men had their weapons leveled as did Margarita. The remaining Spanish soldiers rapidly dropped their weapons and began shouting loudly. Margarita listened carefully then replied. Another burst of talk came from the prisoners before Margarita turned to Roger.

Margarita looked worried as she began talking to Roger. "These men beg you to accept their surrender. They beg you to let them go on their parole Roger. I am afraid our mission here will only meet with limited success now, though. You have killed the Governor's son and even if he would have been inclined to trade with you before he will not now. In fact, if he can find you I expect him to mount an armed attack on our settlement in revenge for your actions. Because they stood by and let you do this my family is in danger as well.

"At least now I am sure they will come with us. The alternative is death or having to pay large reparations to the Governor for allowing you to kill his son and get away. A good thing is they have several horses and other livestock we can take with us to increase our herds and flocks. One of my uncles is a skilled blacksmith and may be helpful to you in your manufacturing. The rest of the men are farmers and traders."

Roger thought about his response for several minutes then called Margarita to him. He walked to the spokesman and said, with Margarita translating, "I will release you on your Parole. After we leave you are welcome to return to St. Augustine. If you try to leave before we do I will confine you once again if you live through our recapture. When you arrive back at St. Augustine please give the Governor my condolences on the loss of his son. Make sure he knows, however, that his son's death was a direct result of his attack on me and my men while we were doing nothing to endanger him, his detachment, or the settlers of Florida. Also tell him we have returned home and want nothing further to come of this. However, we will defend ourselves if the need arises. I am afraid I will have to hold you here for a short time until we are ready to return to our home. You will be treated well and not injured if you will give me your word you will not attempt to escape."

It took two days for Margarita's family to pack their belongings and get ready to move. They stripped their homes and barns of everything that could possibly be of use to them in their new home. They left with Margarita in the direction of the camp that contained the balance of Roger's men and the Indian women and children. Roger and four of his men planned to remain at the farm where the prisoners were held for two more days before they departed. After the majority of Margarita's family departed the prisoners began to talk among themselves. They seemed animated. Voices were raised in anger.

On the morning Roger intended to depart one of the prisoners came to him. In halting, broken English the soldier said, "Please, Senor, may my friends and I come with you? We have failed in our duty and expect great punishment when we return to St. Augustine. In truth, all of us except the Sergeant had no desire to even come here to the new world. He wants to return to St. Augustine but the rest of us would rather come with you. Two of us have women in St. Augustine we would like to bring with us if you would be kind enough to allow us to get them."

Roger looked at the almost groveling man. He needed men and women desperately. His main thought was one of trust. Could he trust these men, these deserters? He decided to take a chance. "I will allow you to accompany me. I will send two of my men with the two who want to get their women but we will only wait five days for them to return. Tell them they need to leave immediately. If any of you cause trouble or break the rules I will kill you immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

The man grinned and bobbed his head. He said, "Si, Senor. Pedro and I will leave whenever you say. Gracias."

After the young man turned to find Pedro, Roger called two of his men over and instructed them to go with them. He told his men not to hesitate to kill if the need arose but to avoid it if at all possible.

It was late on the fifth day when Roger and the remaining men heard and then saw a group of eleven men and women approaching the small house that had belonged to Margarita's family. Roger moved his men into a defensive position just in case there was trouble. He relaxed somewhat when he saw four of the people were his two men and the two soldiers that went off to find their women.

Roger moved from his concealment to meet the small group. All four of the men that were returning looked guilty. The man Roger put in charge of the group came up to Roger. Roger said, "I sent you after two women and their possessions. What are the rest of these people doing with you?"

The man blushed and looked down at the ground for a moment then said, "Well, Sir, when we got there Jorge's woman had her sister and family with her. It seems they were worried because the patrol was overdue. We didn't know what to do or say but we knew we had to hurry. I sent David and the other soldier off to get his woman while I stayed with Jorge to try and sort it out sir. He swore Rosa's family to secrecy and told her she needed to pack because they had to leave immediately. Well, Sir, her family didn't really like that and I thought they were going to be trouble. Then Jorge explained it to me. The family wasn't upset Rosa and Jorge were going to leave. They were upset because they wanted to come also and Jorge told them they couldn't come. The Governor was trying to force Maria, Rosa's sister, to be his concubine. He was making things hard for the family, Sir. I remembered how you said you wanted more settlers and they seemed like good folks so I sorta told them they could come too."

Peter reached out and wrapped his arm around Maria's waist. He pulled her to his side and looked almost defiantly at Roger. He continued talking, "On the way back Maria and I sorta came to an understanding. She's agreed to become my wife and we want to bring our new family back with us. Please, Sir."

Roger looked at the worried group of people arranged in a semi circle in front of him and smiled. He said, "Of course, you are all welcome to come with us. We will rest the remainder of the day and leave early tomorrow morning.

That next morning the remaining prisoner was left tied up in one of the houses when the party left. He was tied loosely so he could escape fairly fast. Roger left him lightly tied so he and his group could have a slight head start in case the man wanted to follow. That would also allow them a greater head start on their getaway.

It was a long arduous trek back to their home with their new additions to the population. Luckily, they did not run into any other hostile people. About three weeks after they left the area around St. Augustine, Roger and his group came upon a small Indian village. This time they were received peacefully. Once again Sunny was able to communicate with the people in the village. Roger shot two deer for their evening meal and impressed the villagers with the range and rapid fire from his weapons. The tales Sunny told them of his abilities as a warrior, a provider, and a lover, added to what they saw of him, raised him almost to Godlike status with the simple tribesmen. Of course, his actions that night in bed helped cement his status. All three of his wives made sure they were extremely vocal when he made love with them. By the time they were done and drifting off to sleep many of the locals were either watching Roger perform or listening to his women scream out their pleasure while they took their pleasure with their mates.

Roger and his entourage left early the next morning amid pledges of friendship and promises to visit back and forth. Roger was well pleased because he felt they cemented a friendly alliance with the small tribe. He promised help to them if they should ever need it and they made the same promise to him.



Building Utopia Ch. 09



My thanks go out to my volunteer editor "Wires" for his help making this story a much better read. As always, errors remain mine.



Roger and his new group of colonists made it back to Birmingham in mid June. He was extremely anxious to see what progress was made on the tasks he left his men to work on when he departed. He had assigned the blacksmith and his helpers the task of beginning a mining operation for the metals they would need as well as the coal to smelt them with. They were going to set up the smelting operation near the deposits of metal. Other men in the group were assigned construction tasks and to the burgeoning farming operation. Bear Stalker was assigned a small group of men to teach the Indian way of moving through the woods. When he was satisfied with their capability he would then teach another group until all were taught what he could teach them. Roger had done the same with those he took with him on the trip. He was also continuing the modern military training and had begun training his new colonists as well in the modern methods of warfare and hand to hand combat. Before he was done he expected his army to rival the U S Army of 2010 in individual capability and tactics.

Roger also planned to build more modern rifles and even some primitive body armor and helmets that he hoped would turn musket balls and arrows. In the future he hoped to build primitive tanks as well. He knew the great influx of settlers was already in the works and he wanted to be ready to repel the English and pick and choose those who he would allow to join his colony.

After they returned home Roger gave the camp three days to celebrate their return and to integrate the new citizens into the group. While the new colonists were being integrated into the settlement Roger took a day to inspect the progress made while he was gone. Most of the primary tasks assigned were completed and the secondary ones well underway.

As he walked around the settlement Roger was pleased to see some new families being formed between the Indian women and some of his men. Three of Margarita's female relatives were paying amorous attention to three of Roger's men also. Some of the new families were already busy working on their cabins instead of relaxing as Roger said they could.

On the morning of the fourth day after his return to Birmingham Roger called his senior staff together for formal reports and a planning session. After he got the reports Roger discussed his next priority for the colony. He had designed a rudimentary blast furnace for smelting the metals and wanted to begin building it and then smelting the mined ore. One of the first runs would be some new knives and farming implements for the colonists. After those were completed Roger had plans for equipping his militia. Roger also wanted to begin building wheel barrows, small trailers, and even an engine. He knew the engine would be difficult, even using those from the future for examples. They did not have the high quality steel and other metals required for a truly robust long lasting engine. Roger was frustrated. He had so many wants, so much knowledge of what was possible but it was currently impossible to make those items. 

One of the ongoing tasks in the small settlement was forming a bond and teaching all the people English. Roger planned to hold school for all from the youngest to the oldest during the winter. He would continue to teach them to read, write, and think in the modern way. His plans were to use any and all the books he found in the wrecks. He knew many of the words and concepts would be well above the initial capability of his students but he had been a firm believer for years that our modern day schools did not work well. He felt students could learn more at a younger age than was usually taught. He knew individuals had varying abilities to learn and different interests. He hoped that by introducing concepts early he could identify a person's capability and channel their education in that direction earlier. He also intended to 'simplify' the English he taught. Some spelling did not make sense to him and he intended to "correct" that. He also intended to do away with many words that had similar sounds such as too for also and so forth. 

Roger's concept of education was a Hodgepodge of theories and concepts he had seen, been subjected to, or read about in his life. He wanted all his settlers to be able to read, write and do basic mathematics. He also intended to stress education in ethics and law. He intended to institute and enforce capital punishment for violent and serious offenses. From that base he would develop experts in the various fields. He initially intended to stress education in the sciences, manufacturing, engineering, and medicine. He would allow the arts as a hobby initially and would decide at a later date if they would ever be a subject for classes in higher education. Currently, he felt as if they had no place in higher education.

The rest of that summer, Roger and his small settlement spent preparing for the winter and stockpiling supplies of all types. Additionally, they improved the defensive capabilities of their small settlement. Roger was afraid they could not continue living without some attacks as the local Indians and even the Spanish began to fear and resent their colony. 

During the remainder of the summer they also began building some more modern items to make life easier. Roger designed and built carts and wagons that could run on roads or, by changing wheels, on the rail system he planned to build. Lengths, widths, heights were standardized. Roger also standardized containers where possible. As much as he hated to do so he scrapped the old English system of weights and measures. He taught and they used the metric system. 

By the time it turned cold they had a large pile of the various ores ready to process and an even larger pile of coal. Since smelting was a heat intensive process Roger intended to run his smelters mostly in the winter until such time as they needed large volumes of metal. Roger did allow his settlers to bring some of the coal to the settlement to use for fuel. He had to limit its use for two reasons; their stoves and fireplaces could not burn it efficiently and he did not want the pollution near the settlement. Roger intended to limit pollution as much as he could from the beginning so it would never be the problem it had been in his time. He intended to do everything he could to protect the environment.

In mid November Roger's camp was honored with a visit from the tribe of Indians he befriended when they were returning home. To Roger's surprise there was a white woman with them. She had a young child with her, a baby. When she saw Roger she slumped to the ground and hugged the child to her breast as she cried. Roger looked at her then turned his attention to the Brave who seemed to be in charge. Roger still had not mastered the language used by the Indians in the area. He could understand some of it but still relied on Sunny to translate.

After Sunny spoke to the young Brave for a moment she turned to Roger and said, "Prowling Wolf is the son of this tribe's chief. Their village was attacked shortly after we left. They beat off the attackers and followed them back to their village which they then attacked in retaliation for the attack on their village. During the attack some women and children were carried off. This woman was one of the ones they took from the village. They knew she was one of your people so they took her. She is almost worthless to them. She is a poor worker and they have to constantly watch her to be sure she correctly does the work she is assigned.

"At first they were going to kill her if she did not improve then they thought they would use her to entertain the young unmated braves and visitors. Apparently she is not very good at that task either. The Chief remembered you and decided he would offer her in trade to you if you wanted her. If you do not I think she will never make it back to their village."

Roger asked if he could speak to the woman. The leader of the small band nodded his head yes so Roger walked up to the woman. When he was close enough she wrapped her arms around his leg and began crying harder. She looked up at him and said, "I didn't think I would ever see a white man again. I'm so sorry I didn't trust you when you pulled me from my car. I ran away as far and as fast as I could hoping to find someone who would help me. I let my fear blind me to what my eyes saw that day. Please, let me stay with you now. I was captured by savages the second day after I ran from you and raped repeatedly. I have already born this one child and I think I am pregnant again. I don't know how much more I can take. I think if you do not let me stay with you these Indians plan to kill me. Please let me stay with you."

Roger was shocked. Admittedly, he had only managed to talk with the woman for a short time when they were thrown back in time but he did not recognize her at all. She looked like a woman from this time period. He did not even have to think about his action. He turned to Sunny and said, "Find out what they want in trade for her and give it if we have it. This is a woman from my home time. If for no other reason than that we have to help her. She will be invaluable to us just for her education though."

When the woman heard Roger say that to Sunny she began crying harder and leaned her head into Roger's leg as she clasped it tightly to her. She almost dropped the baby she was carrying in her other arm. Roger leaned down and grabbed the woman's arm. He pried it off his leg and gently helped her stand beside him. He raised his voice and called for Margarita.

When Margarita arrived Roger gently pushed the woman to her and said, "This is Margarita. She is one of my wives. She will take you and the baby to our house."

"Margarita, I don't know this woman's name. We'll find that out and get her story later. She is going to live with us now. Would you please get her and the baby cleaned up and feed her if she's hungry. I'll be along as soon as I can."

The woman looked up at Roger with adoration in her eyes. She said, "My name is Ruth Baker." She smiled and looked down at the baby and said, "This is my daughter Emma."

Roger and Sunny spent several more minutes negotiating with the Indians for Ruth. The deal was not too costly for him because the Indians felt Ruth was worthless. Roger ended up getting her for a knife made from some of the metal they had mined and two partly cured deer hides.

That evening the whole camp had a feast to honor their visitors. During the feast, Roger began learning about Ruth. He found out she was a high school science and business teacher in his time. She was still very hesitant and frightened. Roger hoped she would get over her shock at the savagery of this time and become a productive educator once again. To his surprise Roger found she was only 4 years younger than he was.

Roger's women adopted Ruth and moved her and Emma into their house. Roger was thankful she was not invited into their bed. His performance was somewhat curtailed because she was in the same room with them, however. This went on for several days before it all came to a head.

Ruth found Roger teaching a small class one evening and sat listening to him. He was moving from person to person helping them as needed. There were more requests for help than usual and she moved to help some of the men and women who needed it. After the class broke up she walked up to Roger and touched him on the arm.

Ruth smiled at Roger and said, "Thank you again for taking me in when you had no reason to do so. I mistrusted you and ran off when you were trying to help me before. I caused all my heartache because I did not trust you when you helped me that day in the woods. Now I am still causing you trouble. Please don't let me ruin your time with your wives Roger. I have shed most if not all of my prejudices and hang ups from our time. I have seen sex at its most primitive level and understand. You are not like the Indians who used me. When you have sex with your wives I can see and almost feel the love you pass back and forth. I understand and appreciate your attempts to keep it quiet and low key but that is not fair to your women. If I bother you that much I can either try to find other accommodations or I can leave when you want to make love."

Ruth laughed and continued talking, "Of course, that would mean I would be out of the house almost every night for a few hours but I can do that if it would make you more comfortable."

Roger didn't know what to say. In a way he was embarrassed by her statements and in a way he appreciated them. Finally he said, "Thank you, Ruth. I appreciate what you said. I don't know why I have felt hesitant with you in the room. I have made love with my wives many times in front of others with no hesitation and we let it all out. I think it is because you were of my time that I felt more restrained. As far as I am concerned our home is your home and there is no need for you to leave either for good or when we make love.

"Thank you for your help tonight also. You seem like you are getting better. When you feel like it I would appreciate it if you would become our primary educator so I can go on to other projects. We have a lot to do to build our civilization. I want to industrialize and prevent the exploitation of this land and people as it was done in our time line. To do that we need to prevent Europeans from colonizing America and to do that we need to build an industrial civilization that will be stronger than theirs when they begin arriving in large numbers. I will teach the engineering courses and some of the classes for our manufacturing students when they progress to that level. I need you for the entry level classes and biological sciences."



Building Utopia Ch. 10



My thanks go out to my volunteer editor Wires for his assistance. His efforts have made this story a much better read. As always all errors remain mine.




While they finished preparation for the upcoming winter Roger and his various teams of what passed for experts began working on technological improvements. They began the crude smelting of zinc, copper, tin, and iron using the materials on hand. The high quality steel available from the vehicles was a godsend. Roger saved the electronics, engines and other peripheral equipment to use later or to use as an example when they tried to manufacture a similar item. The items in those vehicles were worth more than their weight in gold. They were the items that would jump start his new civilization, his new nation, and move their technology almost 425 years ahead in less than one lifetime. All of this did not even begin to take into consideration the metal and equipment in the crashed bomber nearby. My God, they had radio, radar, and ECM (not that they would need that for a spell). There were servos and syncro's, there was hydrostatic drive pumps, hydraulic cylinders, electric motors, gauges and so on. The list is almost endless. He actually owned a treasure trove if he could devise a method of building copies of the equipment. 

Of course, Roger was constantly thankful for the treasure trove contained in the True Value semi-truck that arrived with him. How do you place a value on all the items in a modern day hardware store? Even better, how do you value those items in a civilization that had not invented them yet at the worst or, at the best, only had crude examples of them? Roger found and was using so many items from the truck that to list them would be impossible. Many of those items he used sparingly because when they were gone, they were gone for years to come before he could manufacture more.

During his planning to industrialize Roger at first thought he would develop steam power as a first step but then he decided he would try to make a small gasoline or alcohol engine to drive a generator and electrical engines. One thing he really needed was oil. He needed it for fuel as well as lubricants. He thought he remembered the general area in Pennsylvania where it was found in abundance. If he remembered correctly some oil actually bubbled to the top of the ground around what would be Titusville, PA in his timeline. That was in the north and western part of the state. 

One of the first things he wanted to do the next summer was take an expedition to see if they could find the oil fields. Their need for oil was great. With oil they could distill fuel and lubricants and even have a base for some medications. 

Roger and Ruth spent many hours planning and drawing plans for items they would need. They planned the expedition to the oil fields of Pennsylvania and they planned their educational curriculum as well as the work of the colony for the immediate future. The couple also spent many hours prioritizing their research and construction for the items they hoped to build. They spent many more hours teaching the colonists to read and write for without educated workers Rogers plans for his new civilization would not come to fruition. They used the advanced books whenever they could so they were also picking up some higher level knowledge as they learned the basics. 

As soon as the first crops were in Roger equipped his expedition for the oil fields and left Birmingham. This was not an easy trip for many reasons. They tromped through dense forests and over mountains and valleys much more rugged than those they had moved through before. There were many minor injuries from falls also. Unfortunately the Indians they encountered were not as prone to friendliness as those in Florida and near Birmingham. Roger rapidly became thankful he equipped his patrol with modern weapons. He only had 20 men with him and one or two times they would not have won their fights without the modern repeating weapons. Of course the bombs or hand grenades he manufactured from black powder helped too.

Finally, after almost two months travel and much discussion with the few friendly Indians they encountered, Roger and his patrol found an oil seep. They spent the next week exploring the area and collecting several containers of oil to take back with them. On the return trip Roger searched for an easier way to get back to Birmingham. The maps he drew on the trips outward leg now became very valuable. Roger began clearing and blazing a trail toward Birmingham that would soon be turned into a road. After all, he would have to transport his oil or refined products back to his home for them to be of any use to his colony.

Over the course of the next couple of years Roger began to have some success in all the areas he was attempting to progress in. Of course the simplest areas had the most success. Their farming operation became very successful using the modern seeds he found in the truck and his knowledge of agriculture. His rudimentary knowledge of genetics allowed him to begin a breeding program to maximize egg production and meat production from his chickens. He even began a breeding program to improve milk and beef production.

The next most successful endeavor was using his knowledge to build simple labor saving machines. It took him over two years to develop a small alcohol fueled engine but when he did development of other items proceeded at a more rapid pace. He was able to motorize many jobs previously done by hand.

Now development proceeded at a faster and faster pace. As their knowledge increased the people born in this time began to make suggestions and experiment. Knowledge leaped forward. Innovation became epidemic. The children learned at a prodigious pace. In many areas of knowledge they stressed Ruth and Roger then surged ahead of their limited knowledge as they completed research on their own based on hints from the few books Roger had.

A primitive printing press was built and operated. More textbooks were printed to make learning easier and the spread of knowledge faster.

In their spare time, five of Roger's men began to experiment with aircraft. Within a year of their first experiments they had a flying single seater. It used one of the small engines built for other uses and was a propeller job but it did fly. Roger opened up another division of research and let those five men run his nascent aeronautical industry. He provided what little engineering knowledge he had. Once again, they did their own research and soon knew more about aircraft than did Roger.

Many people began working on their own projects after normal colony working hours. Capitalism was born once again. Eventually, Roger had to institute a banking and monetary system because the barter system did not work well for many of the privately manufactured goods. Roger sold or in most cases gave away many of his businesses to those running them. Now the need for money was even greater.

Since the workers were used to the "crown" or "government" keeping and redistributing a share of every item built or produced they did not complain or resent that practice continuing when they became owners of a business or farm. Roger instituted a flat arbitrary tax rate across the board of 15%. 

There were also rapid advances in health care. Two men and one of the unmarried women had shown not only interest but a great aptitude for medicine. Some of the other women became something like a cross between midwives, nurses and EMT's. They were learning much from the medical texts found in the vehicle of the deceased professor. It would be years before medical care progressed to the level of the late 1900's on his time line but already what they were learning improved care for his settlement. Infections were being healed when before the person might die of gangrene. They learned how to produce penicillin and some of the other simpler drugs and were doing so. They gained some rudimentary knowledge about many of the more common health problems and how to treat or prevent them. In short, medical care was already at the level available during the late 1890's to early 1900's on Roger's previous time line.

Roger did not limit his medical care to just his colonists either. He made it known throughout the area that his healers would treat anyone who needed help as long as they were friendly to the colony. This consideration helped cement the friendship of many of the Indian tribes in the area and resulted in the assimilation of even more people into the community.

They were producing oil from the fields in Pennsylvania and were learning to make fuel and lubricants from it. They developed a low quality gasoline and some other oil derivatives. Roger was feeling pleased with the progress of his small Army as well. Much of the petroleum produced went to the small military and to manufacturing. Now that they had crude gasoline Roger went back to the drawing boards to develop gasoline engines. He still intended to use the cleaner burning alcohol engines for some items but really needed the gasoline engines for their greater power and efficiency.

They now had three small settlements connected by a road network and by a small rail network. At first they used the horses to pull wagons on the roads and rails but after the small engines were developed Roger built self powered vehicles to move materials and people around. He built crude electrical motors and went straight to small diesel electric railroad engines. Admittedly the engines could not pull large loads but they did as well as or better than a horse and small wagon. Roger even built some small four wheeled peddle powered vehicles for movement on roads and rail. For small loads or for individual movement those worked well on short distances.

It was becoming difficult for Roger to justify NOT using the vehicles for personal transportation because he found many of his experts and workers were needed in different locations often enough and rapidly enough they needed the faster transportation. He decided he needed to relax his prohibition against personal transport in order to facilitate progress. He did mandate smaller lighter vehicles to maximize fuel efficiency. Roger also required use of rail and other public transportation whenever possible. Unfortunately, rail transport was impractical unless the worker was going to a town along the existing rail lines or one that could be reached easily from one of the rail stops. Even then the use of an internal combustion powered vehicle was justified from the rail terminal to the remote location.

Now much of the progress of Roger's budding nation was stifled by the lack of educated and willing workers. Not many of the Indians were interested in being assimilated into Roger's technological civilization. To the chagrin of many tribal elders the young men would sneak off to Roger's settlements to learn about his marvels. He gained some workers from the Spanish in Florida and even a few Frenchmen from the Louisiana area. Occasionally, one or two English would be added when they were brought back by one of Roger's exploration teams. Roger needed colonists and he needed them now and he needed better educated ones which were almost impossible to find.

Roger walked into the small school Ruth was operating for him. They still had few enough students that they learned the basics in one large room. School began for children at age 4 and ran year around except for the few days in the spring and summer when they were needed to help with the gardens and later with the harvest. 

The normal school day began at 0730 and ended at 1200 when they broke for lunch. After lunch the children were free to play unless they were old enough to begin working with one of the experts in the various fields. The first five years of formal education the students were given all the basics. The year a child turned 9 years old they cycled through all the different specialties until the specialists and student identified the career path the student would follow. By the time a child was ten to twelve years old their career path was usually chosen and they trained a minimum of two to four hours an afternoon in their future specialty. Normally by the time the child was 12 they had absorbed all the "book larnin" available and spent most of their school days doing actual work in their specialty. After a year or two of work in their specialty the gifted students also began doing research trying to expand knowledge in their field or recreate an item Roger had an example of from his previous timeline.

Of course not all people were fitted for academia. Many of the young were directed into the more usual occupations of this time period. They were farmers, miners, hunters, construction workers and so forth. This did not require that all obtained the equivalent of a college degree in the technical specialties Roger was trying to resurrect. A certain number of students thus left the education system at age 9 or 10 after they had absorbed all the basics of the 3 R's (Readin, Ritin, and 'Rithmetic).

This day, as classes continued, Roger surveyed the different groups of students and listened to their lessons. The older children helped the adults teach the younger ones. From time to time even Roger still taught some classes. He helped with mathematics, engineering and some of the ethics and law classes. No, he wasn't a lawyer but he wanted basic respect for authority and law ingrained in his students from the very beginning. He had written all the laws that existed for his colony and he made sure all his colonists understood and followed the law. Each of his settlement leaders had authority to pass sentence and meet out punishment for minor infractions but Roger retained final say for what he considered to be capital punishment. He retained jurisdiction over cases that affected the whole colony, its safety and security, as well as violent crimes.

Finally the school day ended and the teachers dismissed the students for the day. Ruth smiled and walked over to where Roger was seated. She bent and gave him a gentle kiss then sat across from him. She said, "You weren't scheduled to be here today, Roger. You must want something. What can I do for you?"

Roger sighed and said, "The same thing, Ruth. We need more workers, more researchers and I just don't have them. The English will be upon us in droves soon and I have to have a large enough population and a strong enough technical base and army to prevent them from getting a foothold in America. Is there anything you can do to speed up your output?"

"Roger I'm sorry but really there isn't much more I can do to help you. Oh, we may be able to cut a year from the schooling on many of the children but they are so young now when you put them to work it just tears me up. We are stealing their childhood from them now. They are young and immature. Many of them lack physical strength and good judgment. I fear we are stressing them as much as we can. Thankfully people of this time are more used to constant work and struggle so they aren't suffering as would the young of our old time period if they were put under this much stress. I still worry about what we are doing to these children though."

"Yeah, but remember, many people of this time period are out on their own by the time they are 14 or 16. We still give them a lot of free time in the afternoons and their apprenticeships are not that demanding. Much of their afternoon work is driven by their desire to learn a new occupation more than the demands of their immediate supervisory or by me."

"Roger, you know these people adore you. Almost all of them down to the youngest child would die for you if the need arose. They know you are the driving force behind this colony, this nation. They know your brain contains the key to a better life for them if they can just learn and produce the things you tell them about or have examples of. They drive themselves. Look at those men that took their own time and built the first aircraft. They would work on that airplane in the evening after twelve to fourteen hour workdays in their normal occupations. They did that all for you and because they wanted to see and use the marvels you told them about."

"I know, but, heck, I need even more men and women in the militia. At some point soon I want to form a standing army. We will need a navy soon and merchant marine. Every invention we make or rediscover here just increases the number of men and women we need to utilize the technology." 



Building Utopia Ch. 11



I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His efforts have greatly improved my submission. As always the errors remain mine however. 

*

Roger's fledgling nation slowly gained more colonists. Of course, for the first two or three years after a new colonist joined they were almost useless. They had to be educated before they could be productive. Many of the new colonists were unable to learn and went either into the small army or became miners, farmers or other general laborers. Even then, however, there was a steep learning curve because the military and agricultural knowledge of Roger's colony was far ahead of the normal education level of this time period. As those people moved into the jobs requiring less education they did free some of Roger's better educated people for more important tasks. Surprisingly, some of the laborers replaced by new colonists chose to resume their education and moved into the more technical work for the colony. This resulted in an increase in the rate of progress for the colony.

As his colony continued to grow Roger began to push the boundaries of his settlement east and south taking in more and more area as he felt he could control and protect it. One of the biggest challenges was in expanding the rail and road network which is what allowed the army to protect the increased area. The ability to move men and equipment is critical to any military. Closely behind came his farms and small towns to support them and his other interests. As the colony grew so did their immigration. When people from Florida heard about the equality and peace he provided many would slip away and move to what Roger began calling the North American Union. Many Indians moved into his settlements and were assimilated. To his surprise Roger occasionally met an Englishman or Frenchman walking through the woods. So far most of them did not want to stay with them but he always made the invitation and sent word out with them that he would take new immigrants. He had hopes this word of mouth would eventually cause immigration to go from the current trickle into a steady stream.

One of Roger's greatest ongoing jobs was to make Europeans treat the Indians as civilized beings. His early settlers learned the task well but his new ones still tended to look down on the "savages". Of course, when the Indians felt they were wronged they tended to fight as would anyone else. Roger constantly and severely punished those guilty of discrimination no matter what ethnic group was being discriminated against. His standing up for them caused the Indians to respect Roger even more and, surprisingly, most of the Europeans respected Roger for his stance—especially those who were in a minority also.

By the time 1600 rolled around the non-Native American population of his small colony passed 5000 and they covered an area Roger estimated to be the size of modern day Georgia and Alabama combined. Of course they were spread very thin but each of his settlements was secure enough to be able to defend itself well. Roger grew his development to the east and south hoping to meet up with and assimilate the settlers from Florida and the ones arriving from England more rapidly. He sent small detachments from his Army on exploration missions to the north and east as well as into Florida and west as far as the Mississippi river. As they explored they built rudimentary roads that would be expanded and upgraded later to carry modern traffic. Every exploratory mission mapped their travels.

Roger's small military patrols finally had a fortunate/unfortunate side effect. The Spanish Governor of Florida became angry because Roger not only incited his colonists and some of the soldiers to desert but his colony began encroaching on land the King of Spain considered his. Roger's patrols began meeting more and more resistance from the Spanish. Spain began building forts along the Florida border and sending patrols into Roger's North American Union.

For Roger, the last straw came when the Spanish attacked a small community and burned it to the ground. They killed many of the inhabitants including some of the women and children. It was almost noon when the report of the attack came to Roger. He immediately called his department heads to a meeting. Bear Stalker was de facto head of his small army (he considered himself the War Chief)

Roger waited for all to be seated then stood to deliver his address. He informed the assembly of the facts as he knew them. Of course many of them already knew some of the facts from the rumors flying through the settlement.

Now Roger began pacing until calm was restored. He said, "You all know I have always intended to keep the European countries from colonizing this continent. You all know of my vision for our nation. I have hesitated to do more than we have about the Spanish in Florida for several reasons. I worried about us being strong enough to fight a war with them if we angered the King. I also liked the fact that they brought colonists over to us and we could select the ones we wanted when they became disenchanted with the Spanish. I believe this policy has to change. We cannot let another attack on our villages, on our nation happen. I propose to take two companies of the army to Florida and retaliate for this unprovoked attack on innocent civilians.

"As you know I intended to have rudimentary roads into the New England area before the settlers begin arriving in large numbers so we could lay prior claim to the land and better protect it. I wanted to have these roads completed before we had to confront armed attack but our hand has been forced. I still intend to do this so we can take many of the settlers and their new settlements into this nation if they are willing to abide by our rules and laws. I wanted these roads and this development so we could repel the English army easier when it begins to arrive. We will have to put these plans on hold for a short while to deal with the Spanish. I see now I really should have done something sooner. Now we will."

Within the week Roger and his men moved south heading for Florida. He was 39 chronological years old in the year 1600. With a slow burning but intense anger, Roger began the drive to push the Spanish government troops out of Florida. Soon, in late 1601, Florida became the third state in his North American Union. 

After that defeat Spanish ships still came around from time to time but since the NAU army defeated their small forces on the land and accepted the colonists into their society they came mostly for trade or port calls. Roger's manufactured goods were beginning to be highly sought after in Europe. Occasionally some military forays were made against Roger's forces in a feeble attempt to regain control of Florida. These forays were always unsuccessful because Roger's forces were so much better trained and armed than the Spanish. Finally the Spanish gave up because of their losses of ships and men and formally ceded Florida to the North American Union. Spain became the first nation to recognize Roger's new nation. Trade, while slight became more and more important to the two nations. Of course, the strife in Spain and France had some bearing on the Spanish decision. Occasionally a whole shipload of immigrants would show up from either Spain or France. St. Augustine rapidly became a very busy port.

Roger and his people made friends with the Seminole and other tribes in the area. Many of them were assimilating into the society he was building and learning the modern skills. With Roger's help they were able to fight off and destroy invading or marauding Indian tribes. Those who did not want to assimilate were allowed to live as they had for centuries with the exception of continuing their warlike ways. If they raided, Roger sent a small army to punish the miscreants. He wiped out several villages that just would not learn to live peacefully with their neighbors. The survivors—mostly women and small children—were allowed to either move to one of the NAU towns or into one of the settlements of the peaceful Indians still following the old ways. Some of the tribes actually moved from the area the NAU controlled because they did not want to live as Roger demanded and they were unable to successfully fight his forces. They wanted to continue their warlike ways and raid their neighbors. They learned they could not successfully raid Roger's settlements so they moved on. 

As Roger expanded his nation' borders almost the first thing that followed the troops were the teachers. They opened schools or moved into existing schools and instituted Roger's educational curriculum. As students with high intelligence and special capabilities were identified they were sent to Birmingham for training in one of the technical specialties. Birmingham became the seat of Roger's first University. 

By 1603, Roger had large steel ships on the drawing boards. He already had two smaller metal patrol craft actually afloat with modern naval cannons installed. Just the small patrol craft should be sufficient to sink a top of the line wooden English frigate. They certainly did a good job sinking the occasional Spanish ship that had the temerity to attack the NAU. Roger needed the larger steel ships to patrol farther to sea and to take the fight to Great Britain. He also wanted them so he could trade into the Caribbean and turn back the slave ships he expected to arrive soon.

As time progressed Roger finally moved his center of operations from the Birmingham area. He left many of the original Roanoke settlers and their descendants there working in the mines and steel mills or other factories. Sometime in the past Roger achieved almost God like status to the Indians and even to his European settlers. He felt he spent way too much of his time governing the small nation now but he could not see any other way to do it. His subjects came to him with more and more problems wanting resolution. What he really wanted to do was design machinery and infrastructure. He wanted to build machines and roads. What he was doing was interceding in interpersonal relationships, business dealings and arguments between settlements. He had very little time to design the technological marvels he wanted to see built and that they needed.

Roger finally gave up and admitted he was the hereditary leader of the area he called the North American Union. He and his closest advisors formalized the structure and began building a stronger national identity. Roger even designed a flag for the young nation. It closely resembled the Texas flag from his time period. Roger decided he needed to move his capitol from the interior of the country. He decided the new location for his capitol would be where Savannah, Georgia was located in his original time line. 

By the time he made the decision to move his capitol to Savannah Roger was 42 years old. Construction of the new settlement and capitol began in 1603. Construction moved rapidly using settlers from Florida and Birmingham as well as assimilated Indians and new emigrants from Europe. Now, also, ships called from European ports and soon a trickle became a deluge of settlers as escaped, shanghaied seamen and voluntary immigrants escaping their lives in Europe began to swell the population.

Roger felt confident things would be handled well in the oil fields and the Birmingham area if he and his governing body moved to the coast. Over the years, Roger had given workers and managers partial ownership in his endeavors. Roger owned 25% of all endeavors he originally formed. His small Nation owned another 26%. The remaining 49% of the endeavor was owned by the managers and workers. Profits were split based upon an agreed upon formula with higher pay going to persons higher in the hierarchy. Roger, as King voted the 51% in management disputes but he normally had a hands off attitude as long as the operation produced efficiently and honestly. Privately owned businesses were taxed a flat 15% of revenues or production as previously stated. 

One of the driving forces for the move to Savannah was the excellent port in the area. Roger was ready to build his large ships and needed the bay and area for their port. He had roads and railroads linking the oil fields and Birmingham and Birmingham and the Savannah area. There were roads south into Florida also.

One of the first things built at Savannah after housing was the shipyard. It took four years to build the first large ship but the second one was only a year behind. They would complete large ships at the rate of one per year after that, assuming they did not run into any serious problems. It was a proud day for Roger when the first ship slipped down the ways into the bay. Three months were needed to finish fitting it out after it was launched then Roger boarded it for the maiden voyage. Smaller ships, coastal patrol boats mostly, were built as time and space allowed. They produced two or three per year of the smaller units. Occasionally one of the larger ships produced would not be armed as heavily. It would then be used as a merchantman. Private individuals still produced some smaller sailing vessels but the NAU did not own or operate anything except steel hulled ships.

The Captain of the first ship built was Roger's stepdaughter Emma. At the time she took command she was only 18 years old. Yes, Roger had married Ruth and adopted her daughter two years after she came to live with him. She had been with him throughout the times since. They cried together when Sunny and Deer died several years previously in one of the few Indian raids on Birmingham. Margarita was now his oldest wife. She was weak and frail at 46 years of age. Roger knew it would not be long before she, too, died and left him alone except for Ruth and their many children.

Emma and the other children were educated using the modern books Roger found in the vehicles transported back in time with him. Their knowledge was far and away above that of most men of the time. Roger made sure they were all trained in the modern methods of fighting he learned in the USA Military. His military training followed that of the Rangers and Green Beret's more than that of the regular infantry. This made them strong unconventional fighters. If they were not surprised they could always defeat one of the downtime fighters. 

The day the first large warship was to take her maiden voyage Roger boarded with Ruth. He made his way to the bridge and was embarrassed when the Petty Officer of the Watch (for this was a warship) blew his Bosuns Pipe and said, "His Majesty, King Roger the First and Admiral of the fleet, on the Bridge."

Emma looked over at Roger and her mother Ruth. She smiled and said, "Welcome aboard Your Majesties. We're ready to depart at your convenience. I assume the plans remain unchanged? We are running up the coast to Boston then returning?"

"Yes, Captain. No change in orders and Belay the fawning. I've been your father now for more years than I want to think about and I expect you to remember that."

Emma grinned and saluted impudently. "Of COURSE, Sire!" she said.

Roger watched Emma carefully maneuver her ship from its place at the dock and out into the stream. They were rapidly heading for the open ocean. After they were moving well he hugged Ruth and said, "Captain, I'm going below to see how the engines are doing. Call me when you are ready to test the weapons."

Almost two hours later a loud voice boomed from the speaker tube from the bridge to the engine room. Roger and the engine crew heard, "Admiral to the Bridge. Now General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. Close all watertight doors. This is no drill. I repeat, this is no drill."

What would have been a leisurely trip from the engine room to the bridge for Roger became a mad dash. When he arrived the entire battle crew was at their posts and the weapons were being manned and trained out to the starboard side.

Roger looked at a serious looking Emma and asked, "What's going on, Captain? Why are we at General Quarters?"

Emma handed him her binoculars and pointed out a sailing ship to the northeast. It was flying the Union Jack and had its cannon ran out. Just behind it Roger saw another ship, a merchantman by its looks making for the open sea.

When they came near the frigate they were hailed by the Captain of the British warship. "Heave to, there. What are you doing in His Majesties waters, Captain? And what manner of vessel are you? I do not recognize the flag you fly."

Emma looked at her father for a moment then asked, "Do you want me to hail him or do you want to do it, Sire?"

"I suppose I should do it since I am here. I'm afraid this may be the beginning of the difficulties I have been expecting to crop up with the British. They claim the new world, you know, and I am about to disabuse them of that notion. I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't a deliberate attempt to put us in our places. It has been about long enough for our agreement with the Spanish over Florida to get to England."

Roger stepped onto the Bridge Wing nearest the British warship and raised his megaphone to his mouth. "I am King Roger the First, Admiral of the fleet and ruler of the North American Union in whose waters YOU are trespassing. By what right do you come into our waters? If it is to trade why do you have your cannon ran out?"

"North American Union? I know not of this place. This land is the property of the Crown and we are here to colonize it. Now be off with you before we have to fire on you."

"No, sorry. You seem to have been misinformed. This entire continent is the property of the North American Union and is not open to colonization. We will, however, accept immigrants if they meet our selection criteria. We will soon make our way to England to set up offices in which we will select those who we will be willing to take as immigrants. I would advise you and your King to withdraw before you make a serious mistake. You are, however, welcome to send a diplomatic representative if you want peaceful intercourse."

"Ridiculous! Heave to, there. Prepare to receive boarders. I've had enough of your impudence sir. I demand you surrender in the name of the King."

Roger turned to Emma and said, "I don't think he's going to listen to reason. If he fires on us, even if it is a warning shot, hull him in the bow just over the waterline. If he continues to fire sink him with your next salvo."

Before Roger finished giving his orders the English Captain ordered his gunner to fire a warning round over the bow of the NAU ship. Almost before the sound of the cannon died out Emma turned to her Gunnery Officer and said, "Forward gun turret is authorized to fire one round into the enemies bow one meter above the water line. If he returns fire all mounts that will bear on target are authorized to fire for effect and sink the bastard."

"Aye, Aye, Ma'am." He said. He turned to the enlisted man beside him and relayed the orders. The forward mount fired and almost a third of the bow of the frigate disappeared in a gout of flame from the explosion.

Roger turned to Emma and said, "Humm. I seem to have misjudged the damage one of our shells would do to a wooden hull. Let's see what he's going to do now."

As he spoke the English ship fired once more, this time with a full broadside. To their consternation all the cannon balls just bounced off the steel hull of the NAU ship with no discernible damage. Emma decided to be merciful. She turned to her Gunnery Officer and interrupted him just as he was going to order the batteries to fire for effect. She said, "Belay my last order. Mount one is to fire one shell at the waterline abaft of the enemies bow. Then stand by to rescue survivors."

"Aye, Ma'am."

To no one's surprise that one shell was all it took. The British ship broke in half and plunged to the bottom in less than two minutes. They managed to recover 13 survivors including the Captain, Sailing Master, and eleven crew.




Building Utopia Ch. 11



When the Captain of the British ship was brought onto the Bridge he began walking toward Emma when he saw the 4 broad gold stripes of a Captain on her sleeves. She turned to him and he stopped in shock when he saw she was female. Emma smiled and turned to the older man beside her. She said, "Captain, I am Captain Emma Baker Smith of the North American Union Navy. This is my step father, King Roger the First of the NAU. Welcome to the good ship Endeavor, Fast Frigate 1 of the NAU Navy."

The defeated Captain swallowed twice then unbuckled his sword. He turned to Roger and presented it to him. "Your Majesty, may I present my sword as a token of my defeat and surrender?" He hesitated momentarily, returned to a position of attention and continued speaking. "What manner of ship is this," he asked. "It appears to be made entirely of metal. I see no sails yet it moves through the water faster than even the fastest racing yacht. And your cannon! You fired but two times and sank one of the newest and most powerful ships in His Majesties fleet."

Roger gravely took the Captains sword and said, "I will answer your questions in due time Captain. First, if you will give me your parole, and that of your men, and promise not to attempt to escape or harm my crew I will return your sword to you."

The English Captain looked at Roger in shock and gratitude then said, "I accept, Sire, with gratitude. I would like to discuss a ransom and repatriation as soon as possible also."

"I am sorry, Captain, but unless one of your ships comes calling that won't be possible for some time. This is the first in the line of new warships we are building and we are on our shakedown cruise right now. After our sea trials we plan to make a trip to England and deal with your King. We will take you, your crew, and any other Englishmen we have who want to return home at that time. I would like to negotiate a trade agreement and emigration agreements with your King as soon as possible."

Roger thought about running the other ship down then decided not to. Instead he instructed Emma to follow the escaping ship while he visited with the captured Captain. After passing those instructions Roger once again turned to the captured Captain and said, "Now Captain, please accompany me to my quarters so we can visit."

After they were seated in Roger's quarters and had refreshments Roger asked, "Now Captain tell me why you were with the ship that is trying to escape us and what it carries."

The Captain said, "She was an English merchantman captured by pirates. We recaptured her and put a prize crew aboard. There were barely enough aboard to operate the ship Sire. When you appeared I instructed her to escape if at all possible while I dealt with your ship. I know not what she carries in her holds except it appears to be plunder of some kind."

Roger debated capturing or sinking the ship but then decided he would not do so. There might be items of use aboard but the effort didn't seem worth it assuming the Captain was correct. Roger was sure the ship was a merchantman and he had seen poorly repaired damage so was inclined to accept the captured Captains story. Roger instructed Emma to shadow the ship the rest of the day.

They followed the escaping ship well out to sea. When Roger decided it was making for home he had Emma turn back toward America. They completed their planned shakedown cruise coming close to shore a time or two so the English Captain could look through Roger's binoculars and see some of the roads and improvements Roger and his people were building. The captain was surprised because he had been told America was only occupied by savages and was a wild land ripe for the taking. As they entered Savannah harbor they encountered one of the smaller patrol vessels as well as several smaller fishing and coastal freighters, most of which were still sail powered. Once again the Captain was in awe. Savannah was a small town by any standards but they were well on the way to building a nice Capitol building and other public buildings. They were working on government buildings, a University and, of course, warehouses near the docks. In addition to all the construction evident there were three Spanish merchant ships and one French merchantman at the docks taking on cargo.

A small building in the warehouse district was turned over to the captured sailors for use as a barracks. The manager's office was used as Captain's quarters. Strangely, the building turned over to the English was next to the port security building and barracks. The Captain was a frequent visitor in Roger's home. He became, if not a friend, a respected acquaintance.



Building Utopia Ch. 12



I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His efforts have greatly improved my submission. As always the errors remain mine however. 

*

Finally, nearly a year after the sinking of the English Frigate and the capture of the surviving crew Roger decided it was time to make the trip to England. It was now 1606 and they had three of the new warships in commission. He took two of them on the mission along with a freighter carrying items the Captain thought would sell well in Great Britain. The cargo consisted of furs, some native handicrafts, oak mast timbers, samples of food, and some fish that had been salted down. Also included were several cases of citrus fruits.

Roger boarded a platoon of his finest troops along with their weapons for protection. The English Captain asked how long Roger thought the passage would take and was shocked when Roger replied "No longer than ten days I would expect. It all depends on fuel usage. We cannot obtain fuel for our ships in England so have to move at a pace that will conserve our on board supplies. We have enough on board to make the crossing to England and back with enough to spare for one more crossing if need arises. High seas and wind as well as high speed maneuvering would deplete the fuel faster."

"Amazing. Simply amazing."

The ships departed on the next high tide. The English Captain obtained a sextant somewhere and constantly took sightings that he plotted on a chart he kept with him. He walked around in a constant state of amazement from the speed with which they were crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

On the morning of the eighth day they came in sight of the mouth of the Thames River. Over the last two days ships of all sizes were seen by the NAU vessel. None of them were ever close enough to hail however. Some of them even looked as if they were beating away from the strange ships sailing down the channel without visible means of propulsion. When they entered the river heading for the anchorage at London Roger's NAU ships were finally confronted by two warships. Roger allowed the frigates to close with his ships. When the two English frigates came within hailing range the senior English Captain shouted, "Heave to, there. What manner of vessel are you that you can move without sails? I see no paddles for galley slaves. I demand to know from whence you come and the purpose of your visit."

"Roger once again spoke for his ships. "I am Admiral Roger Timmons from the North American Union. We are on a diplomatic mission from our country. We wish to arrange trade treaties and perhaps work out an agreement for some of your people to immigrate to our country. I also have aboard some of your countrymen that I am repatriating. I am afraid their ship was sunk and they had no way home until we were able to bring them."

After he finished talking Roger handed the megaphone to the English Captain. He took the device and said, "I am Captain Smyth, formerly of HMS Frightful. Unfortunately for us, we attacked King Roger's ship several months ago and came out the worse for it. He has graciously agreed to repatriate us as a show of goodwill. I carry a message for the King and Admiralty from him. We request permission for these three ships to move to an anchorage pending approval for him to go ashore and present his credentials to the representatives of the crown."

The Captain that had previously hailed said, "Permission to move to anchorage is granted. Follow us to your assigned anchorage point." The small flotilla proceeded under the watchful eyes of the two warships. It took until dusk for them to traverse the remaining distance to the assigned anchorage and make their ships secure. 

After he finished talking to the senior officer on board the English Frigate, Captain Smyth handed the megaphone back to Roger. He smiled and said, "It is wonderful to be back in England, Your Majesty. If I had not taken the sightings and plotted the course myself though I do not think I would ever have believed the crossing from America to Great Britain could have been made as rapidly as your ships made it. Who would have believed you could cross the entire Atlantic Ocean in eight days? Certainly not I. Or, at least, I would not have believed it before you showed me it was possible. I wonder what other wonderful things you have in America that I have yet to see." 

The English Captain opted to remain on board Roger's Flagship for one more night before he and his men returned to shore. His first duty the next day would be to report to the Admiralty and deliver a message for Roger as well as report on the failure of his mission. Of course, he assumed the merchant ship he was escorting made its way back home and reported the sinking of his frigate. The captain was also anxious to see his wife in the hopes she had enough faith in him to have remained waiting for his return.

After they anchored close together where they could mutually defend each other, Roger's ships set their anchor watches and armed guards. To the surprise of the other anchored ships, as darkness fell, great bright lights came on illuminating the three ships and the waters around them. Armed guards could be seen carefully watching the waters around the three strange ships.

Early the next morning Roger ordered two boats lowered over the sides so the English sailors could be returned to their homeland. The boats quickly motored to the pier and offloaded the English sailors. They returned to their ship just as rapidly where they were once again lifted back on board and secured to their davits. Throughout their trek to the shore and back the local people stared and watched in awe. Many of them seemed fearful of the almost magically appearing small boats that flew through the water with no visible means of propulsion.

Early the next day, Captain Smyth returned and was rowed out to Roger's Flagship. He was piped aboard and delivered a message to Roger. "Your Highness, I am afraid I have bad news for you. The king is angry with you. He is beyond angry in fact. His ministers were afraid he was going to die of apoplexy when your message was delivered to him. He states the Americas belong to the crown and you are an interloper. He has ordered me to offer you surrender terms. The terms are very generous considering his anger. I believe they are so generous solely because of your treatment of me and my crew. You are ordered to surrender yourself, your crews and your ships immediately or you will be sunk where you are anchored. You will be tried for piracy as will your Captains. Your crews will be allowed to go into the British fleet as sailors. I'm afraid the King considers you English citizens and is treating you as such, Your Majesty."

Roger laughed and said, "You are joking right? Did you tell them what happened when you tried to sink just one of my ships? Did you tell them it took only two shells for me to sink one of the largest most powerful warships in the English fleet?"

"Yes, Your Highness, I did, but they do not believe me. They have convinced themselves that you must have set off some of my powder to cause such a large explosion. Sire, I am sorry but I must return immediately with your answer."

Roger looked at the Captain and said, "Tell your King we will not surrender our ships and we will not tolerate any invasion of our land. I will consider unauthorized colonies to be an invasion of my lands just as I would the landing of troops. Tell him we will welcome trade but we will sink any ships guilty of trying to colonize our land or trying to land soldiers. I will consider landing armed soldiers as an invasion and an act of war. I will respond accordingly. Further tell your King that I am leaving now and will sink any ship that attempts to stop me. I will fire upon any land based battery that brings my ships under fire."

Captain Smyth sighed, bowed and said, "Yes, Sire, you respond as I suspected you would. I am truly sorry. With your permission, I will go now."

Roger stood for a moment then said, "Of course, Captain. You may leave the ship." Just before Captain Smyth climbed over the Gunwale Roger raised his voice and said, "Captain Smyth!"

The departing Captain stopped and looked at Roger. Roger saluted him and said, "Captain, should you ever find your way back to the NAU and desire to become one of our citizens I would be pleased to have you command one of my ships. If you were to bring some quality settlers and seamen with you that would be a good thing also, sir. They would be welcome."

Captain Smyth hesitated for a moment, returned the salute and said, "Thank you, Sire. You never know what fate will befall one. It would be a pleasure indeed to once again see you in more pleasant circumstances."

The rowboat carrying the Captain had only gone about ten feet before Roger ordered his ships to General Quarters. As soon as all battle stations were manned the order to weigh anchor and get underway was given. When the warships surrounding them saw the anchor chains coming up they beat to quarters and ran out their cannons. No further orders to surrender were given. Almost simultaneously the nearest English ships opened fire on Roger's ships. As before the cannon balls bounced off the hulls. Unfortunately for the ships firing on Roger, his shells did not bounce off their wooden hulls. Each of the attacking warships was given one shot right at the waterline just abaft the bow. That one shot was all it took. They began to list and sank in varying amounts of time. Some of them began burning as they sank. The harbor was littered with debris and floating bodies. Roger ignored the carnage and his ships slowly moved downstream. Every time another ship or a shore battery took him under fire he responded in kind. By his best count they sank 23 English warships and badly damaged four forts and three shore batteries as they departed. The last seven warships he came close to struck their colors in surrender as the NAU ships approached. Roger considered removing their crews and sinking them but decided not to do so. He felt England would need the ships to defend herself from the French and Spanish.



Building Utopia Ch. 13



Once again I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His advice has improved this chapter drastically. I have made a few changes since his last review and want to emphasize any errors are definitely mine. 

*

Before they returned to America Roger crossed the channel and sailed into Brest where he sold the cargo in his merchantman. While they did not manage to buy or trade for any English goods or material, the French goods were of fine quality, including some wine. The profits from the trip would easily pay for all the expenses and leave a tidy amount for the NAU. One of the other purposes of the trip was to open trade with other nations and France was their second intended stop. They succeeded in this goal, the French anxious to establish friendly relations with a nation that could apparently sink English ships at will. Of course a second reason for the trip was to impress Europeans with the technological abilities of the NAU. Roger believed his little skirmish with the English and the visit to France had successfully done this.

In addition to the good wine and brandy Roger traded for he loaded up with some manufactured metal objects such as hinges, pokers and so forth. He really didn't need some of the crudely manufactured items but he did want the metal. He managed to obtain some lead and copper items also. He left a list of items the NAU would trade for and passed the word they were accepting qualified emigrants as well. All in all, Roger was well pleased with his visit to France.

On the day they left Brest Roger consulted with his staff. They decided they had enough fuel in the bunkers to make a small detour to Spain. Roger wanted to "show the flag" as well as to impress the Spanish with the small fleet he had with him. Of course the Spanish were already somewhat familiar with Roger's ships capability from their fights in and around Florida. Even knowing they were already conversant with his fleet's capabilities he wanted to make a port visit or two to impress upon them that his fledgling nation had a long reach. Besides, a little show of force never hurt anything. Of course they needed to set up trade agreements and pass the word on colonists and available trade in the new NAU as widely as possible.

The small fleet made a rapid transit to Spain and made port in Aviles, the hometown of the man who founded St. Augustine, FL. After a short visit they then moved on to Santander before returning to the NAU. At each stop a small amount of trading was done and a large amount of showing off their ships was accomplished. Of course during the shore leave Roger's sailors made sure to pass the word on the damage to the English fleet during their visit to England. Finally, his short term goals for the trip complete Roger ordered his small fleet to return home.

Roger's ships made better time on the trip home since they did not have to travel at the most fuel efficient speeds. After they returned he released his warships to their normal duties of patrolling his coastline. His merchant ship was released to trade with the Caribbean islands and even to make a run back to Europe. She had two smaller caliber guns on board. It might take more than one shot to sink an attacking ship but if she could not sink it she could always outrun it!

One of the naval patrols taken north from Savannah in July of 1607 found three English ships anchored in the James River. They were offloading cargo and there was a small fort taking shape on the shore. This time the NAU ship was the NAUS Enterprise (FF2). 

As the Enterprise moved into the harbor frenzied activity could be seen on board the English ships. People on shore could be seen running away from the coast. While the Enterprise was still well out of range of the now old fashioned English cannon they were ran out the gun ports.

Enterprise moved into easy hailing distance of the ships. The Captain of the enterprise moved to the bridge wing and addressed the apparent flagship through his megaphone. "You are in North American Union waters and apparently engaged in an invasion of our country. I demand you surrender at once."

A man dressed in much finery moved to the rail of the quarterdeck of the ship and replied, "You well know this is English land. It is you, sir, who are guilty of invasion, nay, even of piracy. We are engaged in the King's business here. Now be off with you sir before I lose my patience with you."

"No sir, you must know King Roger informed your King that any attempt to colonize America would be considered an act of war and would be met with force. This is your last chance to surrender without violence. I demand you immediately surrender your ships and remove the personnel on shore. As soon as your people are on board your ships you must leave our waters. If you do not comply with my request I will be forced to attack."

The English dandy turned to a man beside him. The Captain of Enterprise could not hear what was said but almost immediately two things occurred. A volley of musket fire roared out toward the Enterprise and soon after the first broadside of cannon fire followed. Enterprise returned fire and sank the three ships with one shell each. She did not bother hunting for survivors.

The Enterprise made a rapid trip back to Savannah where she reported the invasion. Roger immediately ordered a company of soldiers onto a merchant ship. Two days later the troop transport and two FF's made their way down river and headed for the attempt to colonize Jamestown. Their orders were to capture Jamestown and imprison any English soldiers or sailors found. Roger sent his oldest son Prince Roger to take over as Governor of the settlement. 

Before he left King Roger said, "Roger I need you and your staff to be careful when you interview the colonists. We want to keep those who will make our new nation stronger and send back those who came here to live on others. I am leaving the decision on who is returned to England and on who is allowed to remain here in America to you and your staff. Do your utmost to keep qualified tradesmen, educated and skilled men. Return the leeches such as the gentry unwilling to work for a living and the so called ministers that wish to repress their flocks instead of guide them to a better life. All English officials should be returned without fail. Do your utmost to entice the soldiers and sailors to emigrate. We need both of those skills desperately. Also, as much as it pains me to do so, you must be positive no one who does not wish to return is sent back to England. If that means a husband wishes to return to England and his wife does not, you must not let him force her to accompany him. As soon as you have completed the interviews you need to move the colony to the area we have selected for the new town of Williamsburg. It will be a much better place for settlement than the location of Jamestown." 

"I am willing to make an exception for the gentry if you are convinced they will be of benefit to us. You can make a recommendation to me to allow gentry to stay. I will make the final decision on a case by case basis however. Those who are willing to pledge allegiance to the NAU and study to become citizens will be given a chance to remain."

Two weeks after Prince Roger left for Jamestown King Roger obtained his first report. It arrived in one of the small observation aircraft that routinely patrolled the coasts of the NAU. Prince Roger had already prepared a rudimentary landing strip at Williamsburg and the light aircraft made use of it. The first report that came to him from Jamestown caused Roger to smile. Roger's offer to allow sailors and soldiers to immigrate if they wanted to join his forces or colony was met with great pleasure by the English enlisted men. The Officers mostly refused the offer and tried to prevent their soldiers and sailors from "defecting". More than one officer found himself locked up when he attempted to prevent the defections.

Roger was now 46 calendar years old. His small nation consisted of 4 states with European settlers. To the best of his ability he decided to keep the boundaries he knew from his uptime childhood. There were exceptions. Virginia was one state—there was no West Virginia. Both Carolina's were or would be consolidated into one state when they were settled more fully. They did show up on his rudimentary maps already as Carolina. He had plans to make use of the much better harbor in what would be named Charleston as soon as he could find settlers to build the city. Eventually Charleston would become a major seaport and navy base.

Before news of the defeat at Jamestown and sinking the three colony ships reached England Roger gained almost 500 new colonists. He and his appointed Governor of Virginia decided to only send 23 of the colonists back to England as unfit to live in the NAU. In his original timeline only 60 of those 500 were to survive the winter of 1609-1610. Roger felt he could keep almost all of them alive with his technology and assistance. This gave him a good jump start for populating the state of Virginia. Admittedly these colonists did not have the modern education Roger needed and many of them could not or would not learn the things Roger's schools were teaching the young. Many of the colonists would continue to be mere laborers but Roger needed them too. Many of them could be trained to do some of the simpler things a civilization needs such as operate wagons, farm, work in warehouses and so forth. The children however would be given the education they would need to succeed and would rapidly become important members of the population. 

The infant and child mortality rate was already lower by far than normal for this time period because of Roger's health care capability. Just rudimentary cleanliness and the proper positioning of outhouses helped immensely. Add to that his advances in medical care and the development of penicillin and the use of sulfa as antibiotics meant many children and even adults who would have died now did not and became long lived assets of his nation.

That first report to Roger contained a list of immediately needed medicines, food and building materials. Most of what was requested was already prepositioned on the docks for shipment to Williamsburg. Over the course of the summer a secure and, for the time, comfortable settlement was built for the new town of Williamsburg. When the colonists saw the quality of goods offered them and the benevolence of the government they rapidly became staunch supporters of Roger and the NAU. They were in awe of the tight construction for their homes and the fine steel stoves provided for heat.

The improved medical care available to Roger's population insured the children from the normal high birth rate survived in large numbers. The population of his young nation continued to grow almost exponentially. News of the fantastic nation in America spread across Europe and Roger found immigrants begging to get into the NAU so they could build a better life. The population grew faster and faster. Schools were flooded with immigrants learning the ways of their new home. For the first three years after arriving all immigrants over the age of 4 went to school half a day. After noon, those over the age of 16 worked for five hours to support themselves.

In order to better patrol the coasts Roger formed an Air Force rather than depend on the civilian air he had used up to this time. He used some of the smaller aircraft they had been using for mail delivery for coastal patrols. These aircraft used some of his smaller gasoline engines. As the incidence of ships from England violating NAU waters increased Roger was forced to build fighter bomber aircraft. Within three years of the first flight of his fighter bomber Roger had a small Air Force consisting of 30 patrol/observation aircraft and 40 combat aircraft. Roger kept the air technology for military use primarily but he did not proscribe the use in civilian occupations. 

His primary reason for limiting civilian use of aircraft was to better conserve vital resources. He did not want resources expended unnecessarily for frivolous purposes as had been done uptime. Every larger settlement ended up with an airport for observation aircraft, fighters and government transports. The range of the small aircraft was still low—only about 200 miles round trip or 4 hours. Settlements began to rise up along the coast near the military airfields and forts. If the settlement had a good harbor ships from several nations began stopping for trade. To Roger's surprise many of these ships contained people from foreign lands who wanted to immigrate to the NAU. Almost all immigrants were accepted if they were willing to return to school and update their abilities so they would fit into Roger's technological society.

By 1612 Roger's treatment of the English so angered the King he sent an Armada of thirty warships and 2000 Soldiers to teach Roger a lesson. Somehow, this invading force arrived undetected near what was Charleston SC in another timeline. They began the march south intent on leveling Savannah and imprisoning the upstart that had given England such trouble.

The invading army was spotted by a patrolling aircraft perhaps two days march south of their landing. They were making a difficult journey because of all the small streams entering the various bays between their landing site and Savannah. If the commander was lucky they could make eight or ten miles a day because of the marshes and difficulty moving their supply trains. Many days they travelled a much shorter distance.

Roger had his small air force keep the column under observation while he made plans for intercepting and defeating them. He immediately sent a frigate to Charleston to deal with the Armada. 

On the fifth day of their march to Savannah the English stumbled across one of Roger's roads. Since it was going in the direction they wanted to go they began following it southward. Upon hearing that Roger smiled to himself. He sent Bear Stalker and three companies of soldiers to ambush the approaching English.

After he decided on the location of the ambush Bear Stalker built firing positions and settled in to wait on the advancing English. Even with the better road it took the English four more days to reach the ambush site. 

When the advancing army came into sight Bear Stalker and his senior commanders stood on the road to meet them. The English Colonel leading the advancing forces rode to meet the strangely uniformed men blocking his way. After he stopped his prancing horse in front of the four men confronting him the Colonel said, "Who are you and why do you block my way?"

"I am Brigadier General Bear Stalker of the North American Union. My King warned your King that unauthorized landings of colonists or troops would be considered an act of war. I am here to accept your surrender for violating our sovereignty and invading our country."

The English Colonel laughed then said, "You have gall anyway. I demand you surrender in the name of the King. We are sent to put down the rebellion your so called King has made against His Majesty King James I and England."

Bear Stalker glared up at the Colonel and said, "If you do not surrender your command immediately I have been authorized to use force to compel surrender."

The English Colonel laughed uproariously and spluttered "Never. Surely you jest. The English army surrender to a rabble led by an ignorant savage with delusions of grandeur? Oh, I say. This is hilarious." 

The Colonel turned his horse and, still laughing, moved back to his column of troops. As he rode toward his soldiers the Colonel wiped tears of laughter from his face and said to his second in command, "Can you believe the gall of that damn Indian? He acted as if he thought he was as good as I. We shall teach him a lesson he will not soon forget."

When the Colonel arrived at the head of his column shouts were heard and they began moving into formation to attack in line as was the custom in those days. As soon as the line was formed the soldiers began marching toward the NAU positions. The road was narrow and the woods dense so their line became almost impossible to maintain almost immediately.

Bear Stalker watched in disgust for a moment then he and his men moved back to their positions. As the English continued marching toward their positions Bear Stalker ordered one volley of fire as a warning. When the English heard the fire they immediately stopped marching. The first rank kneeled and aimed their muskets toward NAU positions. The second rank remained standing.

The NAU soldiers heard the commands, "First rank, Fire." A volley of musket balls was fired toward the positions of the NAU. The smoke partly obscured the enemy soldiers for a moment. Flashes of movement were seen as the first rank began reloading. Then was heard, "Second Rank, Fire." Another volley of fire rippled toward the NAU positions.

After the second volley the English began marching toward NAU positions once again. Bear Stalker turned to his junior leaders and said, "Open fire at will. Have your soldiers aim for their legs. We will try to minimize casualties first off. If they do not stop we will have to fire into their bodies. If they persist in fighting after being wounded we will have to kill them." 

In less than fifteen minutes over one third of the English soldiers were wounded and out of the fight. The remainder surrendered or took off running back down the road in the direction from whence they came. When the NAU soldiers moved to secure their prisoners they found 46 dead men and 643 wounded. They captured 416 prisoners. The remaining soldiers and the Colonel were in full retreat. Bear Stalker sent a company of his soldiers after them.

Later that day after another short battle the NAU soldiers captured the remaining English soldiers. During the final battle another 113 were killed and injured.

While the land battle went on the NAU frigate arrived at Charleston and made short work of the Armada. That confrontation could not even be considered a battle. Within fifteen minutes of arriving all but 7 English warships were sunk. The English merchant ships and troop transports all surrendered and were captured. After surviving sailors were picked up the surviving ships were convoyed back to Savannah where they were interred pending resolution of the conflict.

Bear Stalker moved his prisoners back to the camp outside Savannah set aside as a POW compound and reported to King Roger. He took the surviving but wounded English Colonel with him. After questioning the Colonel Roger decided to let two of the captured ships return to England with the Colonel and Admiral aboard. As a gesture of good will he also returned many senior officers. He provided a list of survivors also. Roger retained all wounded because his medicine gave then a much better chance of surviving their wounds. This time the message he sent to the King with the returned officers was abrupt. It was insulting. It was also very factual. Roger told the English King he had one choice. They could live and trade in peace or Roger would continue the fight and conquer England.

After the Admiral and Captain returned to England it was over a year before there was a return message. One lone English Frigate sailed into Savannah harbor. She carried Sir George Sommers as ambassador to the new nation. He and King Roger spent the next three weeks negotiating a treaty for the two nations. This treaty covered trade, immigration and conflict resolution. Without so stating it tacitly deeded the entire North American continent to the NAU.

The frigate returned to England with its crew and the very few soldiers that opted to return home. The balance of the soldiers opted to stay in the NAU and become immigrants to the great anger of their commanders.



Building Utopia Ch. 14



Once again I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His advice has improved this chapter drastically. I have made a few changes since his last review and want to emphasize any errors are definitely mine.




Over the course of the next nine years Roger's country continued to grow. He stopped building new naval ships when he had six steel Frigates but they continued to build metal merchant ships and patrol boats. To his pleasure his engineers began to improve his steam engines and were working on diesel engines large enough to power the ships. Tankers were on the drawing boards to accompany his small fleet and refuel them. His ships had the capability of burning wood to produce steam in the off chance they exceeded the range of travel his fuel bunkers would support.

All of the merchantmen were armed with at least two naval cannon and modern semiautomatic rifles. As the young nation expanded along the coasts so did the Navy presence. Each settlement also contained a small Army unit comprised primarily of Native Americans but also consisting of some of the younger whites and the soldier emigrants. There was also a small airfield near every large settlement. The aircraft were used for observation and mail delivery. One or two Air Force planes armed with small guns and bombs were stationed at the seacoast airports. By now Roger was certain he had split or forked the timelines when he was sent into the past by whatever means had sent him there. It was already obvious that history as he remembered it was no longer occurring. 

In his new timeline every child was required to attend school until the age of majority which was 16 years of age. In that time the majority of them attained a level of education analogous to that of a Bachelor's Degree from Roger's time. By the time the child was 10 years old they possessed the equivalent of an uptime high school diploma and chose their life's work path then continued their education. 

Of course many children chose to go into the trades so their education followed the pathway that would enhance their performance in their chosen occupation whether that was business, agriculture, medicine, mining, manufacturing or any other of the important occupations. The children who chose to go into the military began their military training at age 14. Of course this was the formal training. Living in the society they lived in they had already mastered much of the basics such as camouflage, basic unarmed combat and weapons qualification. Their formal military training only honed those skills and taught tactics, basic military subjects and the laws of warfare.

Roger kept his patrols out in case some of the colonization attempts he was familiar with from his timeline still occurred. From this point on many of the events from the history Roger remembered did not occur. After the treaty England gave up attempts to colonize America. England began treating people and ships from the NAU just as they would those from any other country. The NAU grew and prospered. The local populations were still assimilated into the NAU peacefully if they so desired. If they fought they were annihilated. 

The NAU became known for its enlightened society and for its Universities. Scientific discoveries came rapidly based on the jumpstart available from the vehicles and the lone aircraft left at old Birmingham. Many countries were clamoring for the NAU's new inventions particularly those that could be converted to use as weapons of war. Roger tried to keep that technology transfer to a minimum but with only marginal success. 

By the time Roger was 80 years old in 1631 his small nation was doing well. He had accepted several thousand settlers from England, France, Spain, the Scandinavian countries and many from Germany. Surprising no one, the new colonists were all happy to be there and anxious to learn. His standing army and navy were strong enough that no country cared to anger or attack the NAU. In fact it had been several years since any attacks were directed at them. Roger's factories and mines were producing at a stellar rate. His technology was the envy of the world. Other nations sent emissaries to negotiate trade agreements and treaties. They almost bankrupted themselves purchasing the items of technology Roger was willing to export. Every housewife wanted the labor saving devices Roger's factories now turned out. Every husband wanted the better tools and machinery Roger's factories produced and above all they lusted for modern weapons.

Roger refused to sell his modern weapons and ships but he did export his transportation technology and even steam engines. With this technology the NAU continued to grow and prosper, becoming the strongest power in the world even if it's Navy and Army were small by many standards. The Union now covered the entire North American continent and was pushing south into South America. There had been some problems with the Indians in the western lands but not as many as in Roger's original timeline. The NAU kept their treaties and did not steal from or disrespect the Indian enough to anger them. Roger hoped by the time settlers made their way west in significant numbers the Indians would be amenable to peaceful coexistence.

NAU explorers, merchants, and military ships were running all over the world's oceans bringing NAU technology and ideas to the world. The ships returned laden with exotic goods and spices making the NAU even richer. Colonists began arriving from China and settling into many of the traditional businesses. Any race was welcomed IF they wanted to assimilate into NAU society and IF they came voluntarily. Every slave ship was captured and the slaves returned to their port of origin. Soon none came to North American shores. Of course very few Africans came to North America as colonists or immigrants either because they did not have the ships or the inclination to do so.

King Roger the First died in his sleep August 21 1644 at age 84. His dynasty continued with his first born natural child ascending to the throne to follow in his footsteps. Almost every responsible job in the NAU was held by a child, grandchild, or great grandchild of King Roger the first. However, that is not to say children of others could not and did not move into positions of power. Many of the public positions fell to other's children. Roger's descendants did govern many of the states and were spread throughout the military. 

By the time Roger died his small nation was working on space exploration technology. Plans were to send a man to the moon by 1750. AD ASTRA PER ASPERA