Pam realized that Pers was still standing beside her with his eyes only for the fetching Dorothea Weise, and gave him a quick elbow before he started drooling. A really wonderful idea occurred to her then.

" DirectorWeise, this is my adopted son and personal assistant, Second Mate Pers of the Royal Swedish Navy, serving in Wonderland's defensive squadron."

Pers turned to her, stunned at his own sudden promotion. Pam gave him a quick grin and whispered in Swedish "You earned it, sweetie." Turning back to her new helpers, she continued in English, "I am now assigning Pers to be my liaison to your department. To start with, he can escort you to temporary quarters. If you don't speak Swedish, you will need to learn it. Pers will see to your instruction,he speaks fluent English, Thuringian-style German, and a bit of French."

Dorothea was visibly impressed by this, which made Pers look as if he might faint. He stood frozen in place until Dore gave him a gentle shove from behind. Blushing uncontrollably, he stepped forward and bowed to the pretty new director. The young woman shook his hand while favoring him with a bright smile, which made him turn an even brighter shade of scarlet. The smitten lad managed to find his voice, asking them in English, "Follow me, please," before turning on his heels and marching up the pier toward shore at a considerable speed.

Despite her natural confidence, Dorothea was looking a bit overcome by all this. She paused to thank Pam breathlessly for her kind welcome before leading her group in pursuit of Pers lengthy stride. Pam watched them as they went, grinning like a fool. Well, this may turn out to be a good thing indeed.

Lieutenant Jarv and his men were all chuckling amongst themselves, making bets on how long it would take the new second mate to raise his flag on that piece of lovely German territory he had found. Pam couldn't help but chuckle herself, then saw Captain Lundkvist leading a group from the Swedish warship toward her.

"Straighten up, you degenerates," she growled good-naturedly at her guard, "here comes the official delegation. Pretend you still have some proper military discipline."

"Yes, ma'am!" Pam laughed as they all stood up ramrod straight and saluted her in the snappy American naval style they had adopted.

"Governor Pam!" Captain Lundkvist called out to her, his voice full of excitement, his peg leg tapping a jaunty beat as he came rushing ahead of the rest of the contingent. "These people have come from Sweden to re-supply us, and more!"

Pam nodded, and raised her arms wide in a gesture of welcome to all the newcomers as Lundkvist saluted her and fell into place at her side opposite Jarv. "It is lovely to have you all here!" she told them in their own language. "Let's get out of the sun before we make our introductions, it will melt you like wax if you let it! Right this way!" She turned and marched for shore, head held high in what she hoped was suitable gubernatorial bearing.

"To the meeting hall, Governor Pam?" Lundkvist asked her. She was excited now, her mind racing with thoughts of how to make the best of these new developments. She wanted to hurry, but was careful to match the top speed her chief military officer could manage on his prosthesis.

"No, I have a better idea, gentlemen," she replied with a wide grin. Reaching shore, she turned left and led them down the freshly-constructed boardwalk toward the Dodo's Nest.This was a spacious saloon that had sprung up on the waterfront like a volunteer potato in a backyard garden, an inevitable occurrence in an environment like this. It was definitely time for a mug of cool beer and a shot of that Swedish akvavit, most likely followed by a few more rounds of the same. "Official business is thirsty work, soldiers. Here we do things the Wonderland way." They all shared a conspiratorial grin, knowing full well that good old Captain Pam could hold her liquor with the best of them. These muckity-mucks from back home wouldn't stand a chance.

****

The leader of the fleet from home was Flotilj-amiralGunvald Engstrom, an accomplished and highly-decorated career military man in his late fifties and, as a "flotilla admiral," currently the highest-ranking Swedish officer in the Indian Ocean. He had been as cool as a Scandinavian winter wind until Pam had gotten some of her private reserve of Chinese rice wine down him. Now he was just "Gun," and was laughing at her jokes as if he were a favorite uncle doting over a clever niece. Torbjorn, Gerbald and the rest of her men present were all biting back their laughter as they watched Pam work the stern old sea salt, playing him like a hooked salmon ready to jump right into the net.

One of Dear Gun'sorders was to determine if the colony was being adequately governed by "that American woman," and it was the first to be crossed off the list. He and Pam were already thick as thieves, and he clapped and cheered as the men who had followed her through various dangers regaled him with tales of her courage and prowess in battle.

"Pam, you are like a warrior-woman from the old times, you have a heart of steel!" he proclaimed as she handed him another stein of beer, his ninth or tenth. "I can see that Wonderland is in good hands!"

Pam put on a modest look, and patted her new best friend amiably on the back of his wind-burned hand. "Oh, Gun, you flatterer! I just do what I have to do for our people, and for the glory of the crown. Remember, as a citizen of the United States of Europe, your king is my emperor, long may he live! Skol!" she raised her glass in toast. Mugs clacked noisily around the room. "Now, Gun, tell me more about what you have brought us!"

As it turned out, it was a lot more than she had expected. The emperor had apparently listened to her regarding Sweden missing out entirely on becoming an Asian power in the up-time world. Engstrom's fleet included six fluyts full of colonists and their needed supplies, three for each of the remaining Wonderland Islands. Looking Glass Bay currently resembled a crowded parking lot. It had been decided that if they meant to make their claims to the Mascarenes stick, they had better have boots on the ground, possession being nine tenths of the law. Pam was reassured that she would be in charge of the operation, and that the new colonies would follow the same eco-friendly farming methods as Port Looking Glass, which made Pam breathe a big sigh of relief. Three more fluyts carried supplies for Port Looking Glass, including ammunition ( Praise the Lord!), new varieties of tropical seeds and starts gathered from the Americas donated by several interested botanical societies, more scientific apparatus, and a small library of books. Pam was practically beside herself with joy at all the new toys.

The flotilla admiral's personal vessel was a refurbished warship, the Vaksamhet,or Vigilance,employing a variety of up-time inspired improvements; it was big, fast and deadly, and would patrol the seas around the colonies. Together with Effrayantand Muskijl,Wonderland would be well guarded. Even better, all the ships and towns would be provided with radios, giving them a huge advantage over any would-be threat to their safety. Pam grinned like the Cheshire cat. It was almost Christmas, and for once she was getting everything she wanted. Pam was on top of the world until Gun said something that let all the air out of her elation.

"Pam, our dear sponsor, Princess Kristina, has personally requested that I ask you when you intend to bring dodos back to Europe? She knows you have a great deal of work to do here, but she is hoping perhaps next year? We will help you accomplish this in any way we can, she stressed that it's very important to her. She is having some kind of a special dodo building made of glass constructed near the University of Jena, I'm sure Professor Altman and his students can give you the details. "