Princess Rescue Inc (64 page)

“Right,”
Max said shooting his boss an amused look and then turning to the military
group. “It should prevent another accident.” He felt bad over that. He'd also
instituted mandatory bench testing and other stricter quality control incidents
after that poor kid had lost his eye and part of his face. They'd learned the
hard way that they had to make sure the machining was precise, as in one
thousandths of an inch precise not “close enough.”

That
was another thing that had bothered him, that it had been a soldier who had
been hurt, a potential sniper not one of his boys. The Springfield had passed
through their so called quality control without flicking an eyebrow. Now he was
personally bench testing each and every damn weapon himself to make sure it
didn't happen again.

“I'm
glad you've got it sorted out Max,” Perry said, nodding. He didn't hold the
accident against Max personally; the guy could only be in so many places at
once. He himself should have checked on the quality control. He kicked himself
over that oversight.

The
burnt hand, or in this case the burnt face taught best now, his men were a lot
more wary of the wonder weapons and knew just how dangerous they could be to both
guys on each end of the barrel. They were a lot more respectful and paid a
great deal more attention to the maintenance of the weapons now.

“I've
got another graphite powder for you to test too Gunny,” Max said nodding to
Gunny Paris. Paris grunted.

“We've
got two hundred and fifty muskets, twenty Winchesters and fifty Springfields.
The da Vincis are now handling a lot of the Winchester final assembly, though
I'm still bench testing them on my own. We've pulled back two dozen weapons for
repair or scrap.”

“We
can still use them as training aides,” Waters growled. Max nodded.

 Max
told the others about much of the tech he'd managed to convey to the natives.
He was proud to announce that they'd managed to make their native built
alternator, motor, and first hydroelectric generator. With a series of these
devices they could now power a third of their electrical and electronic gear. A
second and third manufacturing run were in the works now that they knew
better  and more efficient ways to make wire. Ryans smiled at this news.

“We
definitely need more copper and iron though,” Max finished. “I'm scraping the
bottom of the barrel for brass and the wiring.” He looked at the Queen. The
Queen had finally twigged on their gaijin meetings and stuck her nose into
them. She remained quiet throughout the proceedings, bemused by the lack of
formalities. The gaijin were blunt and quick to point out both the good and bad
about various things. He glanced at the minister of industry sitting next to
the Queen.

Of
course they were now much more circumspect about discussing politics around
her. Her presence made it difficult of course, when the Queen had arrived this
morning to attend the meeting Perry had muttered something about talking about
an elephant in the room when the elephant was there listening and ready to
stomp on you.

The
Queen had come with company of course, she'd brought along several ministers
including the minister of trade and of course Deidra.

Perry
sighed. “What's it going to take?” Ryans frowned. He pulled up a map. The Queen
pointed out that the mines were over a hundred miles away. The tin came from a
neighboring country, across the western sea. The minister of industry told them
about the rare metals that come from a rock that must have fallen from the sky.
It had made a large crater deep into the ground in the South in New Umbria.

“Platinum
and other metals come from it I bet,” Sue nodded. “We've got the same thing in
my native country,” she said. “Canada, my country,” she said to the Queen. The
Queen nodded. She explained to them about the meteor that was one of the
largest mines for rare metals in Canada.

“So
we need to focus on copper, tin, lead, and iron for metals?” the Queen asked.
They nodded. Ryans smiled. “The copper for many things, for the bullet casings,
for the wiring, piping, and for other things. The iron to make steel to make
weapons, equipment, and tools.  But we need the other rare metals for
alloys,” Ryans explained. She nodded.

Perry
frowned. “I can get our supply trucks to make a convoy run to the mines. It'll
be faster than waiting for the next convoy of donkey lizard things,” he said
gruffly.

Ryans
nodded. “We'll need a suitable escort,” he said.

“I've
got a team that's a little green but usable,” Perry nodded. “Convoy escort will
give them a chance to settle down and build up their skills. We'll need
supplies.” He turned to the Queen who nodded and looked to the minister of
industry.

“Make
it so,” she ordered regally.

Ryans
smiled. “Sorry,” he said catching Doc's look. “Picard moment,” he explained.
She frowned.

Perry
snorted, understanding the joke but wanting to press on before they got bogged
down. “Anyway, we can bring back about twenty tons of raw metal, if they have
it stocked that is. If they had smelting gear there then we could bring back
refined metal ingots,” he explained and then shrugged. “I'd prefer to haul
refined material over mixed raw material and slag.”

“One
thing at a time LT,” Max replied tiredly, eyes closed. He rubbed his brow and
then took out a red bandana to wipe at his face. It was going to be a hot,
sticky, humid day. “Smelters are energy intensive. Can we send some gear and
books up with the convoy?” he asked opening his eyes and focusing on the
lieutenant.

Perry
nodded. “Good idea, I filled a visiting mining lord in on stuff. Gave him a
booklet of stuff, he's pretty eager to put some of it into practice. He's been
buying stuff up all over town. We can transport him and his gear to the mine
and he can dig in,” he said. He shrugged as Charlie chuckled. “Pun intended,”
he smiled. The others nod smiling slightly.

“How
goes the pass?” Sue asked.

Perry's
eyes darted to the minister and his smile slipped a little before he shrugged.
“Better than expected. The raiders tore the gate down, but left the wall and
fixed defenses. No food or fuel, but we can fix that. I've got a team working
around the raider’s army for resupply now,” he explained. Sue nodded.

“They've
intercepted one Duluth resupply convoy and one messenger sent from the siege to
Duluth. The messenger is dead and his animal escaped in the confusion. The
convoy was taken cleanly with minimum loss of life. It's supplemented the
supplies the cork team needed while providing us some intel.”

“And?”
the Queen asked, resting her hands in her lap.

Perry
frowned, cutting his eyes to the minister and then to Ryans. Ryans shrugged.
“From the sound of it the King is furious over the lack of support and progress
back in Duluth. He stripped the land of every able bodied person and animal for
this push and those that were left behind are struggling to get the planting
done. Struggling and failing,” Perry reported grimly. “There are going to be a
lot of drawn faces and a lot of people going hungry come winter,” he said.

“They
are sending everything they can to support the army but the King wants more.
He's convinced they are holding back their best and scrimping. If you ask me he
sounds paranoid,” Perry said.

“No,
the serfs tend to do that,” the minister interjected. They looked at him. He
shrugged.

“If
they're starving no one will tend to the land,” the Queen murmured. “And all
will suffer. There's no point to this, Art’ur is a fool. It is Art’ur is it
not?”

“That's
been confirmed your majesty,” Perry said with a nod. “He's in command from his
signature. There were other pieces of mail but we didn't bother having them
transmitted. We'll pick them up later,” he said. She nodded.

“On
another note, we've got a balloon or two in progress as well. Unfortunately
it'll be hit or miss getting it where we want to go. I'd rather have a
dirigible, but we don't quite have the ability to make the skin, let alone the
electric motors or helium for it... yet,” Ryans said. “We're using layers of
treated silk for the balloons. We'll probably use them for the dirigibles as
well.”

 Charlie
sighed. “Don't get me started on helium.”

“Right
now we've got plenty of hot air Charlie,” Max said. He grimaced as the others
chuckled. “I mean...” he waved the chuckles aside. “We've got that refinery
still that you designed set up and running. It's crude but we've got propane
and I've got a burner worked out. Fortunately wicker's in good supply so we've
got the basket taken care of. It's the machine stitching for the fabric that's
a problem. Domina Ciara is looking into it,” he said nodding to the Queen. She
pursed her lips.

Sue
snorted, “why the dirigible?” she asked turning to Ryans.

“Flight,”
he replied and smiled.

Perry
nodded. “It made a great observation platform and a great way to drop bombs
onto the enemy below.”

Ryans
gave him a nod and then shrugged. “That too, but I was thinking resupply as
well.”

Perry
frowned. “Not much capacity there.”

“Yeah,
but if we can get a ton or two of supplies or a couple of troops up and over
the enemy to the pass or Duke Emroy...” Ryans explained patiently.

The
Queen's eyes light. “It wouldn't be much but it would chaff the King of Duluth
most assuredly,” she grinned then bobbed a nod. “Yes, yes, I see your point.”

“Yeah
well, we've also gotta have aluminum for the frame, or carbon fiber. Wicker or
wood won’t work, I ran a sim, no,” he said shaking his head. “Now, carbon we
can do, there's a coal mine less than a day’s travel from  here, but the
rest of the stuff... ugh,”  Max shuddered. “Don't get me started on
bauxite. Not going to... At least, not yet.”

Ryans
smiled to him. “Gee thanks. No, carbon fiber is in our reach. Once we upgrade
the textile mills here to power looms we can make it.”

The
machinist rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Could work. The resin though...” His
eyes turned to first Wanda and then Charlie.

“I'll
put it on my to do list,” she said dryly. “Among the thousand and one other
things,” She thought for a moment... “Do you have any idea how much of a bitch
it is to tailor long string polymer molecules... god the epoxy alone... string,
hardener... gah!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Not to mention the damn
carbon fiber itself! It’s not coal, its either rayon or two other things re-manufactured
and carbonized into yarn!” She threw her hands up again.

Sue
nodded patting her thigh as the others deflated. “One thing at a time, don't
get bogged down by the enormity of it Charlie, break it down into the smallest
segments and work on them one by one.”

Ryans
nodded. “She's right, that's what I do,” he said and then sighed at her vexed
expression.

“But
that means we're back to square one. We'll have to resupply by some other
method,” Perry said quietly.

“Yeah,”
Ryans nodded. “We can try using the ultra light but it is a drop in the bucket.
The best Ginger can do is drop about three hundred pounds of food and supplies.
She'd have a limited range too, under four hundred miles.” Which was all true,
the Ukrainian built Aeroprakt A-22 was a pretty good two seater aircraft. He
wasn't sure why they hadn't left it with the other aircraft in the ravine but
he wasn't complaining. The damn thing was paying dividends now even if it had
taken Lewis and Scooter three weeks to get the thing put together and an
airstrip plowed and set up. He looked at the map. “Your majesty, this river,
does anyone have a barge or two on it? Boats? Fishing skiffs?”

She
looked at the river and frowned. “I'll have to check...” She looked around.
“Blast, he's not here.”

Deidra
looked up and came over. She looked at the map. “What? What are you looking at
mother?” she asked looking to her mother as she traced a finger on the river.
“Zara, Balthazar, and I stayed there with daddy one summer. There's a lake up
here with some fishing boats,” she said, pointing to a valley on the map. She
described them.

Perry
nodded. “You want to use them as a go around? Hook north up the river, then
come down from a different direction?” he asked carefully.

“Yeah,
away from the army... hopefully. If we set it up right we can daisy chain it.
Keep the raiders off balance, get some supplies and reinforce the wall. If
possible I'd like to get some cement materials to them so they can improve
things. They won’t need rock; they've got plenty of rubble on hand. But the
other materials might be shippable,” Ryans explained.

Perry
nodded. “The wall is designed to be defended on the one side; we'd have to
improvise something for the other side. Yeah I see your point,” he said. He
grimaced. Ticundus had been promoted to a centurion, the equivalent of a
lieutenant's position and was holding the wall. He'd been issued a radio and
seemed to be handling the situation well. His last report stated that he'd put
the captured Duluth prisoners to work rebuilding the wall and digging a trench
moat in between the wall and the duchy. The kid seemed to be on the ball.

“Why
not let them go?” Sue asked exasperated. “Let them leave?”