Horizon Seeds (Complete)

Chapter Eight

Headline: ALIEN OFFSHOOT JOIN GREENPEACE IN PEACE TALKS
Headline: ALL ALIENS RETURNED FROM AUSTRALIA UNHARMED
Headline: US PRESIDENT STEPS DOWN AFTER ALLEGED SEX SCANDAL
Headline: TAIWAN TO JOIN SUMMIT A FIRST SINCE INDEPENDENCE
Headline: CONTENTION OVER WHO PLAYING LEADING ROLE IN ALIEN MOVIE

Two days had passed since Valerie had arrived back home. She had spent most of her time looking over the community charter and town hall records of disciplinary action over the last fifteen years. There weren't a lot of issues, just a few teenage mishaps that involved Frank's mead and a few midnight tractor treks into Thames. One kid had been caught shop lifting and another had gone missing up the Billy Goat Track. The whole village had turned up for the search and rescue only to find him at the river the next day in a knocked up canoe. It was an interesting, if somewhat familiar read, but there wasn't anything that showed criminal activity. As far as Valerie could tell, the mess that Frank had got himself into was confusing to the law enforcer, except for the farmers market where he was selling produce that, according to her BAA records, didn't legally belong to him.

It took her sometime to research the legislation surrounding the Food Bill and the infringement violations, but as far as she could tell, the community didn't have a right to sell the food they grew. The seed stocks they purchased each year was enough to grow for the whole community but they weren't permitted to sell or even give away the left over food they grew. The seed stock belonged to whomever they purchased it off. Although the weekly farmer's market had been going for near on a hundred years now, it seamed they got away with it because the community wasn't big enough to make waves with the local or regional government. Heck, she couldn't even figure out how the corporations had even known of the little farmers market in the first place, except for the fact that one of the local representative of a mega corporation probably wanted the land that the community owned.

Valerie was baffled over the minor discrepancies between her BAA notes and what she saw in the community records. The two didn't exactly marry in details so she decided to give Parker a call about it all. He didn't answer his Swatch so she got up from her desk and went to find him. As she wandered through the community houses, she made her way past the group of ladies who were working the goats, milking them for the community dairy needs. They all waved to her.

'Hey everyone. How are you all?' she called. Mari pulled up to the fence line where Valerie was watching, her black hair a sea of waves about her. Mari had the face of timeless beauty. Although Valerie remembered the older lady quite well from her childhood, she couldn't understand how the woman could change so little in the ten years she had been absent.

'Morena, good morning Val. We're all good. Keeping our noses clean.' That was another way of saying they weren't gossiping but they all knew better. With a smile, Valerie asked Mari if she knew where Parker was. She nodded her head towards the bridge on the other side of the village.

'He was working with Carl on the new tractor this morning. I think he was saying something about needing to head into Thames after that for korero with the law office there.' She shrugged her weathered shoulder. 'If you hurry you might catch him before he leaves.'

'Thanks Mari,' she said as she rushed to find her quarry across the river that bordered the town. Crossing the old bridge she passed a couple of blond teens playing with some old tech drones that weren't supposed to exist any more. Passing them she quickly yelled at them.

'Better not be illegal tech you have there. Take it home now, boys.' They couldn't scramble away fast enough with their contraband in hand.

She found Parker and Carl inside the shed, cleaning up after what appeared to be a grease spill. The shed doors hung open and both Carl and Parker were wiping their hands and arms on old rags. One of the community's new comers was trying to rub himself clean but the amount of bio oil on his head showed that he was in the middle of ground zero when the spill occurred. It had been some years since Valeria had seen an engine that still required bio oil to keep its components lubricated. She couldn't help the chuckles as Carl and Parker gave Andrew stick over his appearance. He squeezed past Val mumbling about getting cleaned up.