Raising Steam

by Peter Rhodan

  “There is a quarry near the coal mine south of Dervent. The rocks are split off by using heat, water and simple hard work with wedges and hammers then pounded with a heavy iron weight which breaks it up. Originally it was powered by a water wheel but that has now been replaced by a steam engine.”

  She nodded considering this. “The idea of a machine moving by itself was a bit hard to comprehend when I first saw one not long after we arrived here. Then one of your people kindly explained how it works and although it is obviously very complicated to build, the principle is simple enough.” She paused. “I heard about the attack and the loss of your bodyguard. You have my sympathy.” He found her watching his face intently although he was not sure why.

  “Yes. It was sad. But not in the same league as losing your father I think.” He said belittling his own loss compared to hers. “Or the loss of your land to the Scotti. I would like to help there but I have Combrosius to worry about. Perhaps next spring, I may consider intervening if your brother and his allies have not done something.”

  She looked surprised at this sort of offer. “You would march your army north to take back my people’s land?”

  “I will certainly consider it if your brother cannot organise something.” He waved a hand to the north.

  She appeared surprised by this. “But why? And what would you want in return?”

  “All I would want is a long term peace treaty with your people. Having unruly neighbours is very unsettling you know!” He grinned at her in such a way as to make sure she understood he was joking.

  She smiled at this sally, both a reference to the Scotti but also a dig at her for the attack her father had initiated. She blushed at his sally and looked away then clearly changed the subject. “I have heard of these huge sailing ships you are building as well. I think that when I take my ride on the steam train I will travel on to Wern and see them for myself.”

  He bowed his head. “I shall look forward to your visit south. After you have looked at the ships perhaps I can persuade you to stay at Dervent that evening join my people at our usual evening dinner.”

  She looked back at him and smiled. “Certainly Dux Arturo. That would be a pleasure.”

  “Good. I had best be headed back to the station. The train would of course wait for me, but I do not like to abuse my power like that for my own convenience.” He smiled at her ingeniously.

  “Yes. I have heard you regard that as important.” She answered although he was not sure from her expression whether she thought that was a good attribute or merely some foreign eccentricity. He smiled, bobbed his head in deference to her rank and went on his way intrigued by her attitude towards him. He lacked enough knowledge of Brythonic nobles and how they behaved to know whether her ready smile was because she was simply a friendly person or because she found him attractive. Or, as was far more likely, was simply being nice to the powerful person who was supporting her people in this time of need.

  He had not thought of a personal relationship here. For one thing he was considerably older than he looked to the locals. Although they started their ‘adult’ life much younger here, and by all accounts, Morghanna had already been married and widowed at an age when girls in the Federation would still have been in High School! The problem was she still looked young enough to still be at school, or at least at university. And as yet he still had not resolved his own feelings about the forced separation from his wife and children back in the Federation. In his heart he had still not given up hope of somehow getting home, ridiculous as that seemed. On the other hand, Morghanna was attractive and was certainly capable of dominating the men around her in a way outside the normal role models. Her decision to bring the women and children here was risky but also brave and she had judged his reaction well on little information.

  Of course, like most of the rest of the people in this day and age her personal hygiene left something to be desired. Politically she did not have much to offer. The Selgovae were rapidly disappearing into history the way things were panning out this year. Even if her brother managed to cobble together some sort of alliance to kick the Scotti back out of their lands, the tribe had lost even more of its fighting men and their lands had been ravaged. It would be generations before they recovered, if they were given that long.

  Not that he was all that enamoured with the idea of a marriage for political purposes. The whole concept went against his Republican upbringing. He supposed there were some strategic marriage alliances amongst some of the richer families in the Federation, but he never really seen much sign of it. People married because they loved the person they got married to, not because it was politically advantageous or because their parents had arranged a marriage for them. The only real trend had been a general one of like marrying like, people from a rich background tended to marry those from a similar background. At the other end of the social scale it was same. Of course, without real social castes there were exceptions and plenty of movement, particularly from the bottom into the middle and the middle into the top. This was just his general impression as it was not something he had given much thought to before.

  It was going to take time to make significant changes to the local society but he had already started with his law enabling women to own property and as time went on he would slowly bring in other changes, raise the marriageable age for instance and of eventually get women equal rights similar to those back in the Federation. It would take time though. His hold on power locally seemed fairly secure now, despite the assassination attempt, but it was still only local and in the larger picture his army of a little under two thousand men was almost a negligible force. That would change once he got gunpowder weapons into play, he hoped, at least until others copied him. Which they would.

  Five days later he was alone in his quarters overseeing the two workmen installing the first large plate glass window in Dervent. Up till now those glass windows that had appeared had either been small or composed of several small panels. This glass pane was a good pace wide and nearly as tall and probably three or four times the square area of anything made previously. Oween was off with Briffet as Arturo had no particular task to undertake this day and was simply sitting at his desk watching the workmen when Hernann appeared at the door to his quarters. “Dux Arturo, there is a Lady Morghanna here to see you sir.”

  Arturo turned to the Ensign and nodded. “Have her come in.” Morghanna appeared shortly thereafter accompanied by the old man he was her main companion, Udo, that was his name Arturo remembered. Plus, there was a woman Arturo judged to be in her early thirties, dressed plainly in typical Brython clothes. He stood and bowed as she entered the room. “Lady Morghanna, this is a pleasant surprise.”

  Morghanna nodded in return. “Dux Arturo, thank you for receiving me. Udo I think you know? And this is my lady companion Mirna.”

  “Udo I remember certainly. Lady Mirna it is a pleasure to meet you.” He nodded slightly. The woman reddened so he guessed calling her Lady was perhaps giving her too high a rank. He looked at Morghanna, but her attention had been claimed by the glass installers. A sliding window was still beyond the local technology, so the window was designed to be opened as a unit. The glass was edged with wooden battening which sat snugly in the window frame. The wooden battening in turn was attached to a short metal screw thing at the bottom and hinges attached to the window frame at the top. By turning the small handle attached to the screw thing, Arturo would be able to open the glass window outward about twenty centimetres from the bottom to allow fresh air into the room.

  “I have never seen glass in a big flat piece like that!” She exclaimed moving into the room so she could examine it more closely without getting in the workmen’s way.

  “That is the latest development from the glass works at Wern. It took some time to work out how to do it, but he can make flat glass panes like that up to about pace square or close to it.” Arturo replied, amused by her obvious interest and delight at what was really only a rather basic pane of gl
ass. And not all that clear to boot. At least not compared to Federation glass.

  She nodded as she stood watching the men. They had the upper hinges in place and were now connecting the screw thing at the bottom. After a moment she turned to Udo. “Look Udo, See, how the pane will be able to open outward. That is amazing!”

  Udo looked at the work being undertaken obviously puzzled at first but then his eyes widened. “That is very clever isn’t it. How do you make large flat pieces like that?” He asked turning to Arturo.

  “I am not entirely sure how he finished up doing it. I haven’t had the time to get down to see him recently I’m afraid. I know he swapped from coal to using coke as the fuel for his furnace for making the sheet glass like this so it is possible that the coke gets it so hot it simply flows into a flat mould, but I really don’t know.”

  He found Morghanna studying him with a strange smile on her face. “What, some invention the great Arturo did not introduce himself?” She said, the quizzical tone in her voice obvious. He wondered what she’d been told during her sojourn here in the new Republic.

  He laughed. “No, no. I am getting beyond having to do everything myself. Now I just tell my minions what marvellous thing I want next and they scramble to make it happen!” He adopted a noble pose like the statue of some ancient Emperor in Lugowalion and waved his arm regally in the direction of the actual town which made her laugh. Udo snorted but had a smile on his face.

  “This was made by the same fellow that makes those seeing at long distance glass things?” she asked looking at the window once more.

  Arturo nodded. “The telescopes? Yes.” Already the chain of semaphore towers the telescopes made possible were stretching along the rail lines. Arturo had cleverly realised that the communication semaphores could double as signalling information carriers in place of the electric telegraph. Signal boxes, raised to a similar height off the ground as the semaphore towers, were now being built at each station and a proper way of controlling multiple trains on one line was being worked out. He doubted if his system would be quite the same as on the automatically controlled magnetic rail lines on the main Federation planets, but he had seen images of the manual signals used to control a railway on a world that had backslid after the fall the Empire and who strangely had been controlling their electric powered trains by manual signals when contacted by the Federation.

  He was still trying to negotiate with Combrosius but so far every message he sent had been replied to with platitudes and little substance. Well it was too late in the year to deal with the fellow now but Eboracum would be added to the Republic in the new year, one way or another, that was for certain. And especially so now that Ceri had come up with a new and slightly springier steel. The new Mark Three crossbows were already being manufactured in quantity and showed an increase in effective range of nearly a hundred paces over their predecessor and a rather better penetrative power at closer ranges as an added bonus.

  The army continued to grow as well. Men from down south were turning up in increasing numbers, most bringing their whole families. The majority were simply looking for work but there were those, especially the younger ones without wives and children, who signed on for a ten year term in the army. This was in addition to the steady stream of Scotti, Saxoni, Frisi and others who kept turning up. Mostly these were warriors who had gotten into trouble at home and needed a new place to live and who saw the army as a more manly choice than working as a labourer. The increasing cost of the military was being slightly offset by the rapidly improving local economy, but it was still a cause for concern. Although he now had a cunning idea to improve the government’s financial situation he would get around to at some point.

  The Second had gained a whole bunch of Novotae warriors fleeing the Scotti invasion. Some had joined the growing army in exile he knew Morghanna was building from mostly Selgovae warriors who had slipped south, but a good few signed on with the Republican army. Both Legions had three infantry cohorts now, if all under strength and the cavalry cohorts were both over three hundred each finally. The bugs in the design of the new larger catapults for the navy had been sorted out and the first units were now being now being fitted to the Romulus and it was expected she would be ready for service within a month or so. Or not, given several other problems with the ship, but it would not be too much longer before she entered service. Her first cruise may have to be delayed due to the winter weather which would be annoying but couldn’t be helped. Valerius was also looking at ways of transporting these new, larger catapults for use in sieges. Arturo smiled to himself. Wait till he gets a load of real artillery!

  He broke off his thoughts as he realised Morghanna was watching him patiently with an amused expression on her face. “Sorry. Just thinking about things. Did you know that we are developing eyeglasses for those with sight problems?”

  She smiled at his apology and then looked puzzled at the information he had given her. “Eyeglasses?”

  “Yes. The same sort of thing as the glass that makes the telescopes work but not anywhere near as powerful and worn in a metal frame on your face in front of your eyes. There will be two types, ones for people who have trouble focusing on objects close up and one for people who have trouble focussing on things in the distance. Unfortunately, they will be rather expensive at first, so only the rich will be able to afford them, but hopefully the price will come down over time.”

  She appeared to be thinking about this. “Will it not be awkward wearing these things on your face?”

  “Probably, particularly the early ones, but once Gilbyn, or at least Carotec his apprentice who is the one actually making the things, gets better at it they should become easier to wear.”

  She looked at him for a few moments a strange expression on her face and then she jerked her gaze away as if suddenly realising she was staring. “So many marvels you have introduced Dux Arturo. Your people must be amazing folk!” She said picking up a glass tumbler. “These are made in a mould I understand. Which is how so many can be made so cheaply, yet to my people they are marvellous and before coming here I would have treasured such an item greatly.”

  Arturo smiled at this almost naivety and at the same time understood the somewhat wistful tone she had used as he realised she was in effect implying that these new manufacturing methods would ruin the value of things that had up till now been hand made by craftsmen. “Yes, that is true. Glass is one of those things that has been around for a long time but has only had limited use. Being able to transport coal in large quantities relatively cheaply and then produce coke in huge amounts has changed the cost structure involved. The coke allows for higher temperatures and a cleaner glass.”

  He paused and picked up a tumbler as well. “I’m afraid things like this are the wave of the future. Oh, there will always be a place for craftsmen and hand made items of this or that type but for the ordinary people these are the future.” He waved the glass tumbler at her slightly then put it down. “I would have all the people of the Republic have a life full of the comforts that make it easier, not just those who are rich enough to afford such things.” He said with a narrowed look in her direction.

  She nodded and glanced at him before returning her gaze to the glass. “Yes. I understand. I think. And interesting idea that all the people should be equal.”

  He smiled. “Well in theory. Some will always be more equal than others and while almost everyone can now afford some of these glass tumblers for instance, not everyone can afford to have a servant to fill it with wine for them.”

  This comment brought a smile to her face and she nodded. “Yes. There will always be those of wealth and power. Yet you are reducing their, how can I put it?” She paused a moment. “Their material superiority if you see what I mean.”

  “Eventually. Yes. To some extent, although I see it as making the situation of those of less fortunate birth more equal than what they are now. This is easier legally than materially even with glass tumblers in every household.”
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  She pondered this for a moment. “Yes. I think I understand. It is like your law giving women the right to own property. I wish my people treated women like that.” She said wistfully, glancing at Udo who frowned. “You are trying to make life better here for everyone aren’t you?”

  “Yes. Where I come from people lead lives that are longer and healthier than here, the children of ordinary parents have nearly as much chance of doing well in life as those from rich, powerful families, even though there are family ties that favour the rich and so forth.” He smiled a little to himself here thinking of some of the rich kids he met at the Naval Academy and she tilted her head slightly indicating perhaps that she wanted him to share his thoughts with her. Which was something he found himself willing to do. She really was quite attractive he was finding, spending time with her close up and in person, so to speak. And although his nose had largely become desensitised to the smell the locals had due to their poor cleanliness, she appeared to have washed recently as she did not smell badly at all. She certainly seemed very bright, picking new ideas quickly.

  He smiled. “You cannot change the fact that those born to rich, powerful families will always have advantages over those born to poor families, it is just the way people are. However, society also needs to be set up so that those with talents can receive the same education and have real chances in life. That is why the schools we are setting up are open to all, those that come from poor families will not be turned away because of birth and with the University I am building at Alladraef only those with talent will be accepted, wealth or birth will not count at all in that sense. Of course, children from well off families will have the time to be scholars that poorer children will not but there is only so much I can change after all.”