Princess Rescue Inc (33 page)

“Besides,
I for one wouldn't want to be in a boat when you pass through the vortex.” Max
said turning a wrench.

“What
do you mean?” Perry asked.

“The
lightning remember? Couple of good hits and a boat would go up like tinder hit
with a flame thrower,” Max grunted as he pulled at a part. “And an iron boat
would be a great big conductor. Fry everyone touching it. Bet there are ghost
ships floating around... those that don't get sunk.... that is if they don't
appear at the bottom of the ocean here in the first place.”

“Shit.
Okay, good to know. But that brings up another question. Will the portal come
back?” Perry asked, suddenly intent. He had the nebulous idea of building some
sort of ship to get to the portal. That was now obviously out.

“Yeah,
that's a big question.” Ryans nodded. “I think it goes around the planet
according to the magnetic ley lines. But from the look of things it takes its
time,” he grimaced. “I'd have to check the timing of when their ancestors
crossed over, but I'm betting most came around 1000 AD or before that.”

“Ah,”
Perry nodded. “So it does a string ball? Up and down and around the planet?”

Ryans
nodded. “Seems that way. If we can create a database for when people crossed
over and where they came from and where they came out on this end then we can map
it out. That should let us know where the vortex will go next.”

“Most
likely it will come back boss,” Max said looking up.

They
looked at him. “How you figure that Max?” Perry asked. Max was an engineer no
physicist.

Max
spread his greasy hands. “Simple, that plateau was solid iron ferrite. Sucker
was playing havoc with the electronics. Once we left that vortex will circle
around and around.” He used his hands to describe an orbit. “It'll bob around
for a bit. When it settles down it should be right around where it was when we
first came, at least for now.”

“Ah.
And if it jumps to another ley line?” Ryans asked amused.

Max
shrugged. “Give us about a year or two to get things sorted and I'll damn well
build
a detector and cage the sucker,” Max growled. All three men laughed at that.

<==={}------------>

“Answorth,
why are you here?” Ryans asked looking up from a paper he was reading.

The
boy frowned. “To serve you my Dominus.” He put Ryans clothes on the press.

Ryans
rubbed his brow. “No, I meant here as in... Ah hell, never mind.” He shook his
head. “Who's your father?”

“My
father? Duke Emroy my Dominus.”

Ryans
froze at that. “Sorry kid, I didn't know.” Ryans shook his head. “You can knock
it off with the titles, I'm not a Dominus.”

Answorth
looked wary. “Yes sir.”

Ryans
snorted. “And I'm not a knight.”

The
boy looked startled. “What, you thought I was?” Ryans asked amused. He smiled a
half sardonic smile of amusement before he shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint
you, but I'm not. I trained as a warrior when I was younger than you, but I
also trained for many other things. I chose a different path.”

“Ah,”
the boy looked a little lost. He obviously didn't know what to think or say
about that.

“So
yeah, I can't teach you all the ins and outs of court life or of being a
knight. I learned some of it in my history text books and from watching movies
but really? I'm out of my element here. I'm sort of making that part up as I go
along myself.” He waved the paper then tossed it onto the desk. “Why were you
assigned to me? To keep an eye on me?”

“No
my... ah sir. Una,” Answorth said. He held up a finger. “My liege ordered it.”
Ryans grimaced at that. “ Doa, I and the Imperium do need to learn about you
and your wonders. You have a great deal to teach us. And a great deal to learn
yourself,” the boy said. Ryans nodded and reassessed the lad's maturity
upwards. The young man looked uncertain for a moment. “And Tria...” He held up
the three fingers. “You have more important things to do than run simple
errands or clean my Dominus.”

Ryans
smiled. “Cute. You're right, its part of delegating. I forgot.” He bobbed a nod
feeling a little sheepish. “All right. You got me. But, speaking of learning,
how are you doing? How are your classes?”

“Well,
my Dominus. It is... interesting learning new things,” Answorth said looking a
little torn. “The math is difficult. I'm not so much interested in it. Or the
writing. But the history lessons are interesting,” he admitted and then smiled.
He had learned to love the story teller's fireside stories. Some of the ones in
his class came with pictures or movies.

Ryans
chuckled. “Let me guess, they're using movies?”

“Yes
my Dominus. May I see some on that?” Answorth asked, pointing to the laptop.

“Sure.
I'll set up a screen name for you. I've got a limited battery though, so only
for an hour or two.” He opened the laptop and typed for a minute. “See I've
been using it and forgetting to plug it in and charge it at night. We're
setting up charging stations, but it's a pain,” he grimaced. “I've got a solar
blanket but it doesn't get a whole lot of sun from that window.” He waved to
the window. Answorth looked over to see it in shadow then back and nodded.

“There,
all set up. I've set a link to the movie library as well. There's one problem;
the movies are in my language, not yours.” He looked up to the young man. He
looked a little weird with the Moe style bowl hair cut. A lot of men had them.
It took a little getting used to though.

“Ah...
I think it would be okay,” the boy replied with a nod.

“If
you say so, but here.” He held up a set of headphones. Use these.” He plugged
the USB in then held them out to the kid. The boy took them gingerly and
examined them.

“Put
them over your ears.” Ryans explained, and then helped him get them on.
Answorth shot him an uncertain look then looked down to the screen with his
hands in his lap.

“Here,”
Ryans tapped the link. “This is the movie index. Let’s see... You want a war
movie?”

The
kid nodded eagerly. Ryans smiled. “Right, Ah... Let’s see. How about this one,
Pearl Harbor... no, how about... Braveheart... hmmm... Or the Longest Day...”
He tapped the links. “Any preferences?”

“Transformers?
The Avengers?” Answorth asked hopefully.

“What
the hell is he teaching in that history class?” Ryans muttered, vowing to find
out. “I think I need to talk to him about the syllabus,” he vowed. He shook his
head and found the movies. “Transformers one, two or three?”

“Ah,
we watched one... there is more than one?” Answorth asked looking up at him.

“Yeah,
let’s set you up with two. This is fiction kid, it didn't happen. It's a story
to entertain nothing more. You know that right?”

The
boy nodded.

Ryans
gushed out a sigh. “I hope so. Okay...” He tapped the play button. The boy
smiled eagerly then looked down as the movie began to play.  Ryans shook
his head and went back to the desk to get some more work done.

<==={}------------>

Max
grunted as he looked over the assembled blacksmiths. Some were eager; others
arms crossed, looked bored or annoyed at being here. He counted noses. There
were six broken noses and four bent ones, not enough for what he had in mind
but it was a start. “Okay, my name is Max and I'm here to go over a few things
with you. All of you have been selected because you are general blacksmiths,
not specialty smiths like farriers and sword smiths. So what we're going to do
is teach you a few things and then try to help you first improve your smithy
and then teach you how to make new plows and other pieces of equipment.”

“Why?”
a burly smith asked. He had Popeye forearms and a short, scruffy, soot stained
beard.

“Because
we want you to work better and we want more food.”

“Why?”

“Because
we're going to need food, a lot of food, for the people and the army. Any other
stupid questions?” Max asked looking around. The man looked as though he was
about to object forcibly but one of his fellows laid a hand on his arm.

“We're
not saying it shouldn't be done, but why us?” the gray bearded man asked.

Max
eyed him and then nodded. The man had spent probably decades in the fire pits,
working his way up from an apprentice. “What we want to do is get as much work
out of everyone as possible. To show you how to make some of our machines, or
older versions of them that will allow one man to do the work of ten or twenty
men.”

“Ah,”
the smith said with a nod.

“Not
possible,” another grunted.

“Really,”
Max said. He went over to the island bench in the center of the room and tapped
the projector. “Anyone mess with this?” he asked, checking it over carefully.
He glanced around. His audience shook their heads. “All right then,” he
motioned for a few men to move aside from the projector screen. “Someone close
the door and cover that window.” He waited until the door shut and the window
drapes were drawn before turning the projector on. “This is a slide show. I'll
try to keep it simple. First we're going to show you some of our machines
starting with a tractor then I'll show you some things you can make....”

<==={}------------>

Over
the course of the next three days they each tried to teach the establishment in
their own way. Perry and Ryans buttonholed Maximus to go over strategy and
planning. They overhauled and modernize as much as they could. Sorting out a
more modern ranking structure was difficult.

The
Sergeants and enlisted hit the guard and army, shaking them up, then working
them over with martial arts training, and then advanced freehand training. It
was easier to train the new recruits; they were pliable and raw, many eager for
glory but scared. The smarter ones paid close attention and those that looked
good were advanced through the new ranking structure.

Ryans
caught sight of the noncom training. The Gunny called out some of the biggest
brawlers in the recruits and quickly demolished them one by one while hardly
breaking a sweat. He even took them on as a group, taking them all down hard. A
few were battered and bruised and there was apparently one broken bone but they
survived long enough to get out of the ring. He then showed them how he did it.
“Well, that's one way to get their attention.” Ryans muttered and then went
back to the records.

Max
reported his seed had sprung somewhat with some of the smiths. A few were slow
or reluctant to change so he focused on those who were interested. The power
wheel and power hammer was an apparent hit, no pun intended. Of course only the
two smiths near the river could use such a device. It had taken an entire day
to get the first set up, but once they did the second was completed the next
morning fairly quickly. Each had a small wooden paddle wheel that powered a set
of belts that turned a cam that operated the bellows and also the power hammer.

Freeing
up the apprentices to do other chores was a mixed blessing apparently.
“Apparently they put the kids on the bellows to get them to work out, build up
the muscles needed to hammer. Also to build up their endurance and get them
used to working with the fire and the hot metal. Having them ringside to see
the temperature colors in the metal helps as well,” Max explained to an amused
Ryans during his evening report.

“But
the two tools are a hit?”

“You
could say that,” Max replied with a grin. “Some of the others are a little
annoyed at not having them. The third is eager now and he's helping out.
Hopefully they'll get his set up soon.”

“Can
they have more than one wheel?” Ryans asked.

Max
looked thoughtful and shrugged after a moment. “Maybe. These are thrown
together boss, not purpose built. If we did it right maybe. We'd have to divert
the river, dig a trench, line it, and then build a proper wheel pit and house
and gear train. Take a week or two minimum.”

“And
they'd be down the entire time,” Ryans said.

“Oh
no, they wouldn't but we'd need a lot of money, materials, and manpower to pull
it off.”

“Shit.
Okay, investment in the future. You realize these smiths and some of the others
are our future industrial leaders right? Or at least the future ones here?”

“Boss,
I haven't even thought of crap like that. Too far ahead for me. I'm focused on
getting the shit out the door.”

“Right,”
Ryans replied with a nod. He sat back in the chair. He hated the creaky thing
now but it was all he had for now. At least he'd gotten the other Terrans out.

“I
saw the GI party. Must be fun,” Max said wrinkling his nose.

“GI
party?” Ryans asked.

Max
shrugged. “Sue, Paris, and Waters have some of the soldiers and servants
cleaning. Sue had me stop what I was doing to make scrapers and stuff to get
the crap off the walls and floors. She's got them cleaning the castle. Good
discipline Waters said.”

“Yes,
it is. Tedious though. It does teach them a zero defect, zero excuse mentality
though,” Ryans replied thoughtfully. He'd learned about the approach in school.
It was chicken shit but it did get them sorted out. “I take it Waters had a
word with you about the rifles?”