by Chris Hechtl
“What's going on?” Deidra asked, coming into the room. She stopped and looked away, a hand over her nose at the smell of death. “Fah,” she waved her hand in front of her face turning back the way she had come.
“Princess you shouldn't have to see this...” the native sergeant said, urging her to leave.
“I've seen death before,” she said shaking her head. “It holds no mystery for me. What happened?” she asked getting herself under control. She stood, shoulders back.
“Some sort of poison. We think. We'll need an autopsy to figure it out,” Perry answered.
“I think we left a full forensics lab on the other side of the portal sir,” the Gunny said, shaking his head and getting up. The princess came over, dripping water. She looked over Perry's shoulder and then frowned. She pushed him gently aside and knelt.
She touched the dried foam around the boy's mouth then sniffed her fingers. Her nose wrinkled as she wiped her hand on his sleeve. “Bachit. Kami'nak leaves.”
“Are you sure?” the sergeant said coming up behind her. She pointed to the foam. The Sergeant scowled. “Check his kit.” He looked up to an Immunis, a native equivalent of a corporal.
Perry frowned. “What are... ah...?”
“A leaf that gives you visions and makes you stay awake and on your feet for days,” the princess said in disgust, standing up. She brushed her hands together.
“Okay.”
“It was brewed as a tea and served in some temples for a time. My great grandfather outlawed it though,” Deidra explained.
“So it's like meth and LSD all rolled into one?” the Gunny asked, crossing his arms and looking disturbed.
“I don't know. I don't know what they are,” Deidra said, shaking her head.
“Illegal drugs on Earth that can make you see things that aren't there and make you think you are super strong and keep you awake,” Ryans translated.
“Yes,” she nodded.
“Crap,” Perry looked at the corporal who held up a bag from the man's kit. Kincaid his bunk mate suddenly looked nervous.
“Something to add private?” Ryans asked catching the look on the kids face.
Sweat began to bead. “Ah sir. Ah...”
“I take it your partner was a user?”
“Ah sir... ah...”
“Spit it out soldier!” the Gunny barked. The young man gulped then shivered.
“We ah use it when we have night watch sir,” he said miserably. He darted a look then went back to standing at attention and staring at the far wall. “To keep us awake.”
“Damn,” the Gunny murmured. He shook his head. “This gets better and better.”
“GI party. Now. Contraband search. Then counseling,” Perry said turning.
The native sergeant nodded and then grimaced. “Sir, ah, the rain?”
“Get over it. This shouldn't have happened,” Perry snarled. He waved. “What a cluster-fuck.” He turned and then took his radio off and held it up. “Master Sergeant Waters we've got a GI search in the barracks. Check all soldiers for contraband. Repeat. Contraband search. This means everyone, including Terrans.”
“Roger.”
Ryans sighed as he escorted Deidra out.
“What's wrong?” she asked. “Other than this miserable weather.” She waved at the rain. She went to walk under the eaves but the runoff from the roof made it look like a waterfall. Ryans steered her away. Her guards frowned but followed them into the night.
“Drugs are bad. It... well, when used by doctors or for medication it's one thing. But if people use it for fun or to try to stay awake it means that something's wrong. They have no idea what too much can do.”
“Like that unfortunate private?” she asked, darting a glance at him as they dodged a puddle.
“Exactly,” Ryans shook his head. “You don't want hopped up soldier’s princess. Imagine if he'd had a bad reaction and had a weapon.”
“Yes, this is a problem,” Deidra said after a lengthy pause. She shivered, imagining what a guard could do armed with a gun in the great hall.
“Right. But Perry and his people will get it under control. At least in the military, I just hope none of our people were stupid enough to try it,” he grimaced.
“You mean any more of our people,” Deidra said.
“Right,” Ryans shook his head ignoring the implied rebuke. Water dribbled down his back from a roof. “Remind me to introduce people to gutters,” he said with a sigh and shake. That water was cold.
<==={}------------>
“How's it going?” Perry asked, coming over to him and sitting on the bench.
“Oh the usual,” he said shrugging. Deidra gave him a look.
“In a mood?” Perry asked amused.
“He is,” she said shaking her head.
“What happened?” Perry asked. “Or should I keep my nose short?”
“No, it's all right. I ran into some trouble. Politics,” Ryans said grimacing.
“He locked horns with some of the more... I believe you call them conservatives?” Deidra asked looking from one male to the other. Both men nodded.
“Stick in the muds,” Ryans said grimacing. “Buried in the past.”
“I had to smooth some ruffled feathers. Fur. Whatever,” Deidra said waving a hand.
“Ah,” Perry said nodding as a servant put a tray down in front of him. He waited until the servant was out of earshot. “Did it work?” he asked amused, picking up a fork.
Deidra looked amused. Ryans smiled. “What do you mean?” Deidra asked.
“Good cop, bad cop. It's an old trick,” Perry said. He pointed the fork to Ryans. “One of you takes a hard line. The other a softer tone. He sets them up; you knock them down with a conciliatory tone. Compromise. Getting what you really wanted in the first place.”
She looked from Perry to an amused Ryans. “Was that what you were doing?” she demanded, hands on her hips. Her lips puckered. He smiled over a fork full of food.
“It worked didn't it?” Perry asked amused. Ryans snorted, nodding but not looking up to Deidra's challenging gaze.
“Your parents probably did the same thing. One takes a hard line, then the other comes in and gets what they want. Or they switch. Or change tactics,” Perry said shaking his head. “My parents did it all the time; they called it parental jujitsu when I figured it out.”
“Thought you weren't into politics?” Ryans asked amused, looking at the officer.
Perry snorted. “You don't have to be into politics to understand the battlefield. And besides, when you’re an officer, the higher the office the more paperwork and politics. It's a good idea to get a grasp of the basics right off if you want to get above lieutenant.”
“Ah. True,” Ryans said nodding. “Gramps used to mutter about that a lot.”
“Yeah,” Perry said nodding. “What were you after?”
“More rights. Basic rights of every citizen. I want the same as we've got stateside.”
“Ah. Constitution,” Perry nodded. “That's quite a stretch going from a medieval monarchy to a republic,” he said shaking his head. “Can't be done in one generation.”
Ryans nodded. “No, I was thinking more of a constitutional monarchy. Like we'd talked about. The UK has one. It's not perfect but it works,” Ryans said. Deidra looked a little exasperated. He smiled.
“The UK is a country, or actually a group of countries all with their own parliament but with one monarch ruling over them,” Ryans explained. She drummed her fingers on the table then ran a hand through her hair, adjusting her tiara.
“England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, maybe a couple of others in there somewhere,” Perry said, expanding on the explanation. “It works.”
“Oh,” she said nodding. “And you want these rights?”
“Well, actually, I was shooting for the rights we have in our country,” Ryans said, nodding his head to Perry.
“You’re... You’re not from this United Kingdom?
” she asked.
He chuckled. “No. We're from a former colony now a democratic republic. Um... Think of a more modern version of the Roman empire or the Greek states you've read about in your library.”
She nodded in thought. “And these rights?”
“The basics are the right to speak your mind and not get punished for it, which we call free speech. Then there's the right to a fair trial, right to bear arms, rights to practice your own religion...”
“A lot of which you already have,” Perry said nodding.
“Yes, it's on those tablets in the great hall. It's just that some aren't enforced and others are actively suppressed,” Ryans said.
“Which was why you've been pushing this, parliament thing. Now I understand,” she nodded. “Mother knows?”
“Yes. I talked to her about this,” he said. He smiled suddenly. “Actually, this is her plan.”
“When? I don't remember this,” she said looking at him.
“You were out riding,” he said with a shrug. “She agreed to some of it. She had stipulations for some, and the free speech had her up in arms, she has no problem with the freedom of religion since you have that now of course,” he said and smiled at her expression. “But she really doesn't like the speech thing.”
“Yes that... is a problem.”
“Understandable.”
“But your hard line attitude isn't helping,” she said shaking her head. “You're making enemies when you can least afford to do that. We need to cement a coalition of support.”
“Which we're doing,” Ryans said smiling.
“What he means is you're going to soften his hard line, and sweet talk him into accepting it. That will mollify the hard liners in the court and cement them behind both of you,” Perry said softly.
“Oh!” Her eyes widened and she looked from one to the other. “I...”
“Your mother reminded me of the trick. She and your father pulled it a time or two over the years. And by doing this it makes you approachable to some, and me approachable about other things,” Ryans explained, deciding to come all the way clean.
“Ah,” she nodded warily, eyes narrowed. “But we're really working together. At least now we are,” she said. She gave him a long look.
He spread his hands. “Yup.” He smiled and then looked over to a lord entering the room. “speaking of work, I've got to go. Later.” He kissed her hand, then her cheek. His fingers stroked her cheek gently for a moment then he turned and walked off. “See you tonight dear. Dominus, I was just about to go looking for you....”
Perry snorted. “He's good.”
Deidra shook her head. Eugene hated politics or so she believed. Why was he throwing himself so much into this? “I... It's hard to believe.”
Perry smiled as she turned to him. “Oh believe it. His company is quite large on Earth. He's got about the same number of people looking to him there as you do here your Highness. And he has to navigate all the laws and politics of countries his company has offices in. It can be incredibly complex.”
Deidra nodded. “Ah. Something to keep in mind then.” She nodded to a lady in waiting looking at her near the door. “I must bid you adieu lieutenant.” She gave him a regal nod then left as he rose politely.
Chapter 25
“So it works?” Ryans asked hands behind his back. He watched as teams of branacks towed wagons loaded with hay to the wood pole slide. Workers would unload the wet hay onto the slide then when they were finished a driver would whip a pair of branacks hooked to a set of pulleys. The whip didn't hurt them, but the snap on their flesh made them work harder.
These pulleys pulled on the shuttle, making the entire assembly go up the ramp and then tip to dump the load into the box. “This is a beaver slide?” he asked shaking his head.
“Yeah, I heard about it. Watched a show on one of the Discovery channels. Ranch thing. That's where I got the idea. See we stack the hay, let it dry out, then bail it and we're golden,” Scooter said nodding. “I wish we had steam for some of this. Take a lot of the work out.”
“Tell me about it,” Ryans sighed. He'd heard Max was close to a steam engine but he'd believe it when he saw it. Steam was technically not all that hard to use, but a pain in the ass to keep up. It all used a lot of material. Max was busy beating swords into plows but it was still going too slow for some. “And this allows a minimum footprint? Allowing more hay to grow?” Ryans asked waving to the box.
Max nodded. “Yeah, Mary said in this climate we might get another harvest if we're lucky. Once it's boxed we put these things...” He hefted a set of poles that were joined together in parallel. “They'll hold the stack up while we relocate the box and slide and do it all over again. We can probably do this a few times. The more we get, the more we have for the long winter. As long as the cold hangs off. We get a long cold front and we're done. The grass will all go to rye.” He looked up, scowling at the sky.
“Oh,” Ryans said. He frowned. They were just entering fall, temperatures were still high during the day but as soon as the suns went down the temperature dropped fast. A forty degree drop in less than three hours had quite a few people coming down with colds.
The second, more distant sun of the binary system seemed further away; he'd have to look into it when he had the time. Right now there was just too much to do, too much to see and talk about. Entirely too much talking for some, he thought wryly.
A quarter of the military had been sent to Duluth's capital under one of the general's aides to occupy that nation and help in rebuilding and distributing the gaijin designed tech. Duluth would be paying reparations for years, and the surviving lords would also be indebted to the Imperium for the loans to buy food and gaijin designed equipment.
Some of the Imperium lords like Duke Rojer and Pryor had stepped up with high interest loans and bonds, but the Queen had been forced to open the treasury to back notes and bonds.
Wanda had started another side business; out of annoyance at the weather she'd created weather caulking and wood putty. Her two native assistants had taken an interest. The Imperium used a sort of wood sap that hardened when it was cold but turned into a sticky gummy mess when the heat hit. It was great to seal windows that you later wanted to open but come summer the sap attracted hordes of unwanted insects.
Sergei Valenkov, her and Charlie's lab assistant had idly commented about his interest in astronomy and glass blowing when she had him caulk the expensive windows. He'd done it in the hearing of Princess Zara who had then directed him to the capital's glassblowers. He'd dug into the research files and come up with a better, cheaper, and faster method of making plate glass. Zara had invested some of her personal fortune into the project and Wanda had been bemused by the loss of her assistant but the addition of insulated glass to her newly repaired windows two weeks later was well received.
Deidra had heard about it and she and of course Zara had insisted on getting the first insulated windows for their suites as well. Ryans had yet to move into the royal suite, he still liked his space, though he didn't mind sharing his bed with the nubile princess. Even when he felt more exhausted at dawn sometimes than when he went to bed, he thought with a slight grin.
“The good thing is, this is clover hay. Not the crap ranches on Earth were growing. This is the real deal, rich in nutrients and stuff. Much better. Not a lot of weeds to deal with either.”
“Good.” Ryans nodded. “So, what else did you boys want to show me?”
Scooter grinned. “Come on, I'll show you.”
<==={}------------>
Ryans smiled as he took in the test track. It was small, a garden railroad really, but it looked to scale. “looking good Max!” he called, then snorted as he saw the over sized machinist turned train engineer trying to squat into the locomotive. Typical, he griped about Max's lack of interest in steam power and the machinist had already anticipated him. Hopefully he'd get somewhere with making them during the long winter.
The capital was importing hea
vy loads of coal and pressed logs now, wagon convoys were arriving daily from the mines and farms. The pressed logs were grass and other plant material, dried and glued together in a press to form a log like the stores sold back in the states. It served as firewood since wood was so hard to come by.
He looked at the iron track and frowned. It was shiny, so was the locomotive despite the soot. No doubt Max had mixed chromium into the iron to make stainless steel for it to keep the rust down to a minimum. Still the winter was long and the tracks were going to be exposed to the elements. They'd have to see how they weathered the season and the muddy early spring.
Max was doing a bang up job with the pipe works now, a couple of the soldiers turned factory workers had become partners with one of the local smiths to turn out copper pipe and fittings. They had just started but seemed to be on a roll.
Some of the piping was being used by the rich to run water to their homes. Apparently none had twigged on to using the pipes for heating as well. Or they were waiting for the prototype under construction in the castle dungeon to prove itself.
The educational opportunities the soldiers were being exposed to were just now filtering into their mindset and the minds of the public. All the gaijin trained soldiers were now partially literate, and some were now eagerly taking advantage of that education.
He turned to look at the castle. Sooty men and boys were on the roofs, dropping down the chimney's to clean them. They were preparing for winter, using long, extended poles with chimney brooms and brushes on them. Some were repairing the roof tiles, using tar or Wanda's caulk and copper roofing to patch things. He was hoping none of the roofs would leak. He'd be miserable all winter if they did.
Some of the men were putting copper covers and screens over the tops of the chimneys once they were done. He nodded, shading his eyes to get a good look. Good, he thought. That should keep the snows and animals out. All of them were avoiding the aerials and copper wiring as well as the helix wind turbines. He was glad. The last thing they needed was for one of those things to be broken. He wasn't sure how well the wind turbines would hold up in the winter cold and snow. Probably not well, Max was betting they'd freeze despite the predicted gale force winds.
