11
"Shit" Owen said breaking the silence of the meeting.
"Those poor babies" Nainny sighed as she reached for her husband's hand, "Poor little sweethearts."
"They are safe now" Ianto replied, "But are we? I want to remove that village, it is too close and too nice for anyone wanting somewhere to settle. I don't want anywhere in this valley that isn't part of our homesteads."
"But more might come who need…"
"What is the limit?" Jack demanded, speaking before Ianto could "tell me. Let's set the limit. How many are too many? Tell me. Two hundred? Three? Where will we all fit in winter, where will the children go that are still coming faster than we are dying to make room?"
Silence.
"We only have two domes, we only have two points of entry and exit to Stronghold" Ianto said softly, "another thirty or forty and we are at our limit. Do you not think in the next ten years there may be another ten children? Twenty?"
"I am not going to stop" Jack said as he rose and shook his head to show his petulance, "I want a child each spring if I can get away with it, I want Ianto and I to spread our DNA wide. I want Billy and Marley to breed again, I want it all. For all we have done for you, do we not deserve spots reserved for our growing family? Tell me, how many children are we allowed?"
Ianto looked around the table at the silent faces and then snorted, "Come on now. We all know there is some already seeded sitting here, I can smell the hormones in the room. Another two or three stumbling into our range that we feel can fit in…we will welcome. Taffy and his daughter are proof that we can let the odd couple in but we have to be smart here. The less appealing this valley looks from the outside the better. We are invisible in our domes, from the sky and from the ridgeline this place looks empty. We remove that township and there is nothing to the naked eye that might bring them this side of the ridge. The old township on the other side would lure them instead and it is far enough away that if a small group settles we would still be safe."
"Agreed" Andy nodded, "We can even set that township up with some surveillance so that if it happens we can check them out."
Kev swung to look at him "You know, for someone who doesn't talk much, you have some great ideas in that little blonde head."
"Oi, don't pick on my fella" Martha growled and Taffy looked silently at Mickey with confusion.
"Yeah, I'm hers too. She is a greedy one" Mickey chortled, "Don't try to get your head around the workings of this place, it only gets worse the more you look."
Taffy laughed softly, knowing the man was right and he loved every moment here.
"Right. Back to the earlier conversation about the chopper recon" Jack clapped his hands and brought things back to what Taffy wanted to talk about and he took the floor as he explained the mechanics of the proposal.
"What sort of things are there?" Martha asked.
"I saw bolts of fabric down there, I saw educational stuff and I also saw what looked like packs for families setting up. Like, camping supplies and stuff that would be great if we wanted to teach the kids some survival techniques out beyond the dome" Bonnie said excitedly.
"Whoa, what do you mean beyond the dome!" Vic said with surprise.
"If we have Ianto and Hope with us I see no reason why we can't go camping" Bonnie frowned, "This valley is swept daily and I know the Mara will watch us like hawks when they see children. That clearing in the woods would be perfect and…"
"No, I do not like that idea at all and…"
"We could do a trial run at Shangri-La" Ianto conceded, "Set an age limit for beyond the Dome so the little ones don't feel picked on. Say it is a rule that only sixteen and older can sleep outside the Dome unless Wolfling Bodyguards. We then use the little temporary Dome Tosh has been working on to keep a campsite safe. It had a battery life of about twelve hours, right?"
"So, the little ones can camp out at your place? Then the next age group up can camp out in the quad. The older ones can then do it outside the Dome and that way they have something to aim for."
"Sounds like a plan, you sure you are OK with sharing our green space?" Jack asked and Ianto nodded.
"The Mara will love it, a chance to sneak about peering at the babies, you know they will. It will help them imprint on them as well, if one gets out one day by mistake I think the Mara will protect them if they recognise them as ours."
"Agreed" Jack nodded as he looked around the room and everyone else nodded silently.
No point arguing.
Ianto was right of course.