by D.P. Allen
Joe'Ja would change drastically, but only in the future. For now, Tif’n would mind its own business and prosper. No one in the city wanted Tif’n to become the nation’s liberator, although many were beginning to realize that it probably would have that role cast upon it. It would be expensive in resources and lives. There was much preparation to be done to ready the city for the new future.
Chapter 43
And they all lived happily ever after...maybe
Life returned to normal in Tif’n. The fields were slowly expanded as the population grew. Not only did there seem to be a population explosion with new babies being born in increasing numbers, but also groups of peasants who escaped from the Royal cities found their way to Tif’n.
The area south of the harbor got its causeway that crossed both the marshes and the river to connect with land reclaimed from the southern marshes. A second part of the city began to grow into the side of the southern hill overlooking the harbor to house the expanding population. A few spies were weeded out of the new arrivals, but most were simply looking for freedom.
The armed forces remained volunteer, but once they saw that the military mission was defensive only, so many of the new arrivals of proper age volunteered that some had to be turned away. Many who had been farmers and herders before, were more needed to fill jobs in those areas due to the exploding population.
The fishing fleet slowly grew as cargo boats were converted. There was no trade, so they weren’t needed in that role. All boats were armored and armed for self defense and plied the fishing waters without ever sighting boats from other cities.
The immigrants told of how the Royals were congregated inland around the capitol and all resources were routed to that point. As crops were harvested, groups of Duche would descend upon the area and escort all food to the capitol.
The people were left with only what they could hide away or glean from the harvested fields. Starvation was a very real threat to many. Anyone found with a hidden food cache was executed on the spot. Tif'n became the word of hope and grew in legend. It was now the city of light where no one worked and anything a person wanted magically appeared on his or her doorstep. A law was passed by the Rex that made it the death penalty to even say the name Tif’n.
Mike had plenty to do to keep busy. There was constant training and security as the fields were expanded. He still wanted to explore this new /old land but except for several short cruises in his motor sailer, he was pretty much trapped in the city.
He knew that things could get bad at any time, but all of their enemies were staying clear. He didn’t want to accidentally run into a Spaniard or Royal group and be the cause of a war starting. War was inevitable, but Tif’n and especially its largest citizen would not start it.
Mike was still not allowed to see the insides of the guild “factories”, which he did find out were buried inside the hill. The entrances were through the guild halls through doors that led into subterranean chambers. The guilds had amazed him again and again as they duplicated his devices. He really wanted to know how they did the copying as close inspection showed every detail to be identical.
If there was a scratch or mark anywhere on the item, it appeared on all copies. They weren’t copies, they were clones. There had to be technologies unknown in Mike’s time at work here and it was frustrating to not be allowed access to it. Mike knew that he could force his way in, but he wouldn’t ruin his friendship with these fantastic people due to curiosity. He knew from discussions with Erman that encroaching on the domain of a guild was a taboo second only to committing murder.
They had copied the radios, batteries and wind generators and now all boats could communicate as well as communication nets being set up to connect all lookout posts and defenses. There were portable units mounted on carts for mobile communications that ran the radio via the battery while in motion and erected the wind generator on a folding mast when stopped.
A room in the government center now boasted a forest of antennae and a dozen radio operators staying in communications with the myriad of marine and ham radios in use, as well as listening for any other radio signals that might indicate more arrivals from his time. The solar panels from Mike’s boat tied to marine batteries made a good power source for 24 hours communications.
Even the radio directional finder was copied with units assigned to the hilltop lookout posts. These were set to scan for any signals in their band ranges. They couldn’t transmit, but would announce any use of the covered radio frequencies as well as the direction from which the signal originated.
His supplies of ammunition were larger than ever and the defense forces including the harbor defense boats now sported gun positions armed with twin STEN mounts to compliment the ballistas. The submachine guns had levers attached that allowed the diminutive solders to cock them and work the magazine release buttons.
Numerous others were mounted on carts that could be pulled by a single draft animal. There was even a version that featured a single STEN and a separate ground mounted tripod for infantry use. It used a crew of three, with one carrying the weapon and some magazines, one carrying the tripod and some magazines and one carrying more magazines. The tripod and ammo carriers were also armed with rifles. Each platoon had a section of four STEN crews attached.
An artillery battalion was formed with crews for the dozen cart mounted ballistas that had been produced and a supply train carrying extra iron tipped and fire bolts. The battalion was subdivided into three batteries with four ballistas each for attached direct support and a fourth battery that composed a mobile supply depot.
There was also a communications company with cart mounted marine radios that could be assigned to military units as needed. An additional platoon was assigned and trained in the use of cart mounted ham radios for long range communications for the time when an army would need to go out towards the other cities.
All lookout posts, boats, defensive positions and military units now had a pair of binoculars, compass and night vision scope courtesy of Mike’s boat inventory. The boats had copies of Mike’s large boat compass while the other areas used copies of his small survival compass. The flare guns and signal flares from his emergency gear were available for visible signal from boats and look out posts as needed.
One item that was in great demand was something Mike hadn’t realized would be so popular. That was his computers. There was a waiting list for access to them. He had moved the three of them not directly used to control systems on his boat into a room in the government center where they were powered through a power supply run by a wind generator and solar panels.
The knowledge he had on the hard drives and on CDs was astounding to the educators and scholars in Tif’n. The biggest draws were the encyclopedia and some music CDs. The guilds found they could duplicate a computer, but the hard drive would be blank. The same thing happened when they tried to duplicate a CD.
He tried formatting from a startup disk, but the hard drives would not accept any data, or formatting. The same happened when trying to burn the blank disks. There were technological limits as well as physical size limitations to what they could do it seemed.
The one thing he found could not be duplicated which disappointed him was food items. That meant that when his supplies of 20th century foods were gone, that was the end of them. He would especially miss his coffee, which no one here except him seemed to like.
His social life continued as always, with his interactions with citizens being cordial and easy. He seemed to be liked by everyone, although he was a shock to many of the new arrivals. They would freeze when they first saw him, but quickly came to know that he was a friend and accepted him.
His “girls” still teased and flirted with him at every chance and mothered him when they thought he needed it. He never let on that he knew about their nightly guard duties, but would tease them asking what they did all night if he caught one in a yawn or looking sleepy.
Marcel was Mike’s constant compan
ion and advisor as were Hue and Erman when their duties allowed. The three had very different outlooks on the world and some very lively discussions happened whenever they were together. Mike could pose a problem and get three distinctive solutions. Then the four would discuss the merits of each solution and usually come up with a combination that was better than the parts. Sometimes Mike thought the three would come to blows, but they’d finally agree and end up laughing.
Author's notes:
This is the first book in my “Reality” series and my first entrance into the world of science fiction writing. I let my muse lead me and follow where it says to go, so this book has expanded in directions unexpected by even me when I first began writing it. Sci-Fi writing is so much different and yet the same as the technical writing that I have done for many years.
In Sci-Fi a writer can dream of things unknown, but must keep science and the real world believable or it becomes a fantasy and might as well include dragons, unicorns and pure magic. I enjoy a good fantasy as much as the next person, but I try to keep my own writing in the Sci-Fi versus fantasy realm. A technical writer must do the same. Every detail must be correct and explained to avoid confusion to the reader.
My muse and I hope we were able to bring the beginnings of a new era and a new life for believable characters forward in an understandable and enjoyable way. After all isn’t that what reality is all about?
Watch for the next episode in the series entitled What's so great about reality? coming soon.
