by Chris Hechtl
The castle also had a pair of paddle wheels that turned a pair of generators. These provided half the power for the castle. But when the snows and bitter cold set in the moat would freeze and that power source would be gone as well.
He was seriously reconsidering leaving the reactor in the pass. He didn't want to bring it here, didn't want the natives to become dependent on it, and he wanted to use it for the portal but he wasn't at all keen about not having any electricity all winter either.
“I think he's a little too big for his toy,” Wanda chuckled. Ryans turned back to the show before them. Wanda had come out to see what the hell was going on when she saw the tracks and the guys hanging around them. She'd wondered what was up. It was now obvious and she was glad she was here to see it. She was still getting used to being followed around by a soldier. It looked like Ryans had gotten used to his entourage. He had a pair of soldiers and Answorth in his wake.
“Yup, just a tad bit,” Ryans said smiling as they watched Max and Scooter argue over who got to drive.
“Boys, Boys! One at a time! Take turns or I'll take your toy away!” Wanda called. They both glared at her and then shrugged. They did a couple of passes at rock paper scissors before Scooter won. Grumbling Max got out and watched the mechanic climb in.
“Looks like fun. If they ever get the thing working that is,” Wanda chuckled. “Maybe I'll have a go,” she said smiling.
Scooter accidentally pulled the whistle, people started at the loud high pitched steam powered sound. “Well, it works!” he said grinning. He used the tiny shovel to shovel some coal into the tinderbox, then closed the door with the blade of the shovel and hit the brake release.
“Not going anywhere,” Ryans observed dryly.
“Wait for it. Remember they've got a lot of bulk to get up to speed,” Wanda replied.
“What do you mean? There's only Scooter on it,” Ryans said giving her a look.
“Exactly what I meant,” she said smiling. She waved as the machine began to chug, then move faster. Steam was coming out of the side pistons, almost as much as the smoke coming out of the smoke stack on top. “Not bad,” she said watching the industrial students cheer, “not bad at all. Is this supposed to be a test project or a model for something greater?” she asked crossing her arms.
“Both. This can be a production model for trains in the mines actually,” Ryans answered. He watched as the train built up speed then began to rumble down the test track.
“That is if Scooter remembers to brake!” he called, voice rising in volume at the last word. Scooter raised his hand with a one fingered salute then hit the brake.
“Not good,” Wanda said watching as the brakes kicked in but the wheels kept pistoning. Something broke and parts began to clang out from under the vehicle.
“Oh definitely,” Ryans said sounding resigned as he started to trot toward the runaway locomotive.
“Yup, that's not good. Is he going to bail?” Wanda asked starting to trot. Max and the students jogged past them.
“Right about...” Ryans said watching the mechanic frantically pulling levers then putting his feet out to try to slow the lumbering craft.
“Pull the steam release valve you dang fool!” Max bellowed, cupping his hands to his mouth. “The steam release valve!”
Scooter looked back and pulled the valve. Steam poured out of the emergency vents, mixing with the smoke and dust. They could just make out the shadowy sight of him bailing out as the train hit the end-stop and crashed through into the hay bales and dirt berm beyond.
“Oh boy,” Wanda said shaking her head. “See if he ever drives again. Shouldn't we call Doc?” she asked as they thundered up to the crash.
Scooter was sitting on his ass on the side, brushing himself off with his hat. He was laughing. “What the hell's so funny?” Max snarled as he passed. He was throwing out orders to salvage what they could. One of the apprentices sprayed the wreckage with a makeshift fire extinguisher.
Ryans offered a hand. Scooter took it. “Well, that was fun,” Scooter said getting up. He brushed the seat of his pants off and then smiled to Wanda.
“Not hurt I take it?” she asked, clearly amused.
“Only my pride,” he said rubbing his posterior. She giggled.
“What happened?” Ryan asked.
“Brakes jammed and the valves stuck. Heat welding I bet. Then something weak broke. That sucked.” He shook his head.
“You dang fool! I told you to brake at the half way point!” Max said coming over and throwing his hands up. “A fucking month of work down the toilet no thanks to you and your damn joy riding!”
Scooter swelled and then sighed. “Sorry Max, I forgot the valves were sticky like you said,” he said looking down. Max visibly cooled after a moment, scuffing at the rocks around them.
“At least he wasn't killed and no one was hurt,” Wanda said. That seemed to take some of the excess steam out of the machinist.
“Damn, I shoulda done it,” he finally sighed, running his hands through his hair.
“Well, you ain't getting me on one of those! That's for sure!” Wanda said smothering a laugh. Both men glared.
“It's not for passengers. It's for... oh never mind!” Max sighed. He turned to see the apprentices looking glum. A few were trying to right the vehicle. “LEAVE it, let it cool off!” he called waving to them.
“So what were you planning on using then?” Wanda asked.
“Electric,” Max said. Scooter nodded.
“See most modern trains, hell even a lot of mining equipment use electric. Big, giant electric motors. The diesel is for the generators to power the motors.”
“Ah,” Wanda nodded. “Makes sense.”
“It does. With a distributed network of motors under every other car we can build and run a train more efficiently while using smaller cheaper engines... which are easier to make anyway...and use less power.”
“Ah,” she said dryly. “Get that out of a book?” she asked, lips parting in a slight smile.
“No, I remembered it,” Ryans answered. She looked at him. “Bullet trains use that method. That way they don't pay a penalty when they move up a grade or when they need to brake.”
“Ah. Well, boys and their toys I guess.” She shrugged looking over her shoulder to the mess. “What's left of them.”
“Cute,” Max growled. “We'll have the electric one up as soon as we can. We've got casting problems with the engine block still... we keep running into cracks. Once we get that licked we can move on to other bottlenecks.”
“I told you that we should have just done batteries,” Ryans sighed.
Wanda and Max were shaking their heads.
“First the acid's a pain in the ass,” Wanda said.
“And we've got to make the electricity and transport it to where it needs to be,” Max said giving Wanda a look. She nodded. “The generators are the only way to do it. Same as what we've got now, so that once we get the logistics sorted we can keep things rolling.”
“Thought it used diesel? Where are you going to get it? I don't see any 7-11's around you know,” Wanda said dryly.
“Don't need one. One of the benefits of being on an alien world is that it has some mighty wild plants and animals. One of the plants is some sort of oily thing. Mary ran into it, said the natives call it phoenix weed. Sucker oozes sap which when cleaned and reduced is a damn good veggie oil... so we can use that. Cut it with some methanol and lye and we've got biodiesel.”
“And environmentally friendly. How about that,” Wanda murmured. She remembered now, someone, maybe Nate had waxed poetic about it at a dinner a month or so ago. She turned to Ryans and then to Max. “So that's why you wanted the lye.”
“Yup,” Max smiled. He'd put in a big order of phoenix oil and lye. They had a lot of oil left over from the war effort that he was re-purposing for the trains and other things now. “And even the waste is used.” He opened his mouth but she held up her hand.
She nodded. �
�Glycerin. Yeah, I'm the chemist remember?” She nodded. “Used in soap and a thousand and one applications. Now I know why Charlie was lecturing her class about it the other day. Cute. Methanol is a pain in the ass though.”
“Yup, that's the bottleneck I mentioned.” Max sighed. Scooter nodded.
“Well, we'll figure it out. Even if I have to do some old fashioned wood cracking and distilling...“ she thought out loud rubbing her chin. “Why not use the ethylene?” she asked.
“Cause it's a pain in the ass to make. Energy intensive. It's exothermic but it takes a lot of energy to make it, and even more to process it...and that doesn't even include getting the carbon monoxide!” Max said throwing his hands up in the air. “You’re the damn chemist and you don't know that?” he demanded, rounding on her. She blushed. He turned to Ryans. “Boss I know you were behind it, but I wish you hadn't been.”
“It's paid off for us. Try doing what we did with straight gas,” Ryans smiled.
Scooter shuddered. “Yeah, right. The vehicles we've got are gas hogs. Five miles per gallon is average remember?” He gave Max a look. Max grimaced and then nodded. “Still, having that option available might be a good idea... at least as a backup...” He wrapped his arm around Max's shoulder and they walked off talking. The apprentices came over. Soon an animated discussion started.
“We'll figure it out Wanda,” Ryans smiled to her, shaking his head. “Or at least they will,” he said, nodding his chin to the two guys and their students. He chuckled.
“If they don't get themselves killed first,” she said, eying the wreckage and chuckling with him.
<==={}------------>
“Max, why aren't you an engineer? You know all this crap backwards and forwards. I mean, why just a machinist?" Scooter asked as they hauled parts back to the garage. He'd tried talking to Max about this before but Max had always had some excuse or they'd been interrupted by one thing or another going on around them. It seemed something or someone always needed their undivided attention.
“And just what's wrong with that? You’re a driver! 'Sides you’re a fair to middlin' mechanic. You just suck at driving a locomotive.”
“Gee thanks... I think,” Scooter said eying the machinist.
“Truth is, I'm not all that fond of book crap. I hate paperwork, and don't get me started on tests. I always screw them up. I know I know it, I can do it...” Max held up his hands. “With these... but when it comes to putting it on paper or on a screen... it's just sucked out of me. I feel so stupid.” He grimaced, looking away.
“Ah. Test anxiety,” Scooter nodded. “My sister had it. You’re not as dumb as you look... Well I take that back.” Max glared. Scooter held up his hands grinning as Max brandished a fist. “Not as dumb as some of those hoity toities we've had to put up with lording over us from time to time.”
Max sniffed. “Right. 'Sides I like to get my hands dirty. Hell with dressing up in a suit and playing kiss ass. That's for the birds! I'll play with a drill press any ole day. The suits don't know what they're missin'.”
Scooter grinned. “Yeah, there's that!” He chuckled in appreciation. “speaking of which, I think that's the latest delivery of parts from Miyagi's foundry...” He turned to see the pack branack coming in, loaded with boxes strapped to its flanks. The kid leading the animal waved to them.
“Yup, looks like it. Let's go see if we can get this done. Hopefully using that weapons grade steel made the difference,” Max said wiping his hands on a rag. “Once we've got this mess sorted out I've got to go check on the ma bell project. We've got a wire company up and running now and I'm trying to get a speaker built. Ryans was supposed to help me but he keeps getting yanked off to play politician,” Max growled.
“Get'r done!” Scooter said chuckling.
<==={}------------>
“Um, dumb question,” Wanda said, watching the clean up. Ryans grinned and opened his mouth but Deidra poked him. He gave her a glower then turned back to Wanda.
She snorted then shook her head. “See? Even he is trainable,” Deidra said conspiratorially to Wanda. Her eyes twinkled as she turned back to him in time to catch him as he shook a fist at her. He pretended to shake it out with his best innocent expression on her face. She glowered, he knew he wasn't fooling her but he had to put the effort in anyway, at least for appearances sake.
“What were you thinking?” Deidra finally asked smiling politely to the chemist.
“Well, I was wondering how you’re going to get people to let you lay the track. And access roads and such.” She waved to the test track.
Deidra looked up to Ryans who shrugged. He turned back to Wanda. “We had a session in parliament about it a while ago. A bill was passed to buy up the land needed for roads and track.”
“Oh.” Wanda shrugged. “Could work. What about land speculators and hold outs?” Ryans grimaced. “Oh let me guess. Feudal lands, kick them out at sword point?” She shook her head looking a little grim. “Eminent domain?”
Deidra blinked and then frowned. Ryans rested his hand on her shoulder. “No, not if we can help it. We've come up with an incentive plan. We've blocked out where we want the first three lines to go. Fortunately the tracks don't take up that much room, about thirty meters of space across for both.”
“Both?” Deidra asked.
“Remember? Two ways?” He used his hands to illustrate. Her face cleared and she nodded. He turned back to Wanda. “So we're going with the carrot and stick approach. For some it's a straight buy out. For others it's a land swap, either for another empty parcel nearby or three times as much land on the border now that we're expanding.”
“Ah,” Wanda nodded. “And the stick is the feudal thing?”
“Got it in one. I think we'll have a few hold outs, but not many,” Ryans shrugged. “Most will either be die hard I've lived here for generations or people fishing for more money.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.”
“Gee thanks,” he deadpanned.
“Anyway, some parcels are only getting lightly shaved so they don't have to move. Also, since the train doesn't need a lot we can repartition the land for resale or swaps.” He shrugged. “We're also looking into tax write offs and other things to sweeten the pot.”
“You can't have it all your own way,” Wanda said shaking her head.
“We can try. The hardest part is getting the line to go on the straightest, shortest, most level route. Don't even get me started on physical obstacles.”
“Ah,” Wanda smiled. “So where is the first line going?”
“All roads lead to the sea,” Ryans shrugged. “Or at least some. We're going to run two lines, one to the nearest mines, and a second main line to the ocean port of Nautilus.”
“Ah,” Wanda looked thoughtful. “I'd think you'd want to run a line to Duke Pryor's back yard.”
Deidra nodded. “Oh we will. It's on the agenda at least, but the logistics are a priority. Una is getting more iron.” Deidra answered, one finger raised. “Duo is expanding the trade to the coast and beyond.” She darted a glance to Ryans.
“That is if our resident experts can get their acts together,” Ryans said, waving to the train wreck.
“So it's a diesel engine? Thought you wanted to skip to electric?” Wanda asked.
Ryans frowned. “We do. But we don't have the infrastructure. Not to mention the batteries.”
It was the chemist's turn to frown. “Ah. Yeah, there's that.” She looked rueful for a moment. “I'm working on it.”
“We know Wanda. We know.”
“It's I mean, it's not easy,” she said and grimaced. “The acids are one thing. But the lithium...”
“We know Wanda,” Deidra said nodding patiently.
“What about steam?” Wanda said looking up from her ruminations after a second.
“What about it?” Ryans asked.
“Don't they use coal for heating?” Wanda asked suggestively.
Ryans nodded. “And for the foundries. Not much
though. I'd like to stay away from that path if possible.”
Wanda blinked. “Oh.”
“Besides, if we did steam engines we wouldn't have coal for fuel in winter. And since it's a long long winter...” Deidra said.
Wanda frowned. “Right. I get your point. And it's not like you can cut down trees easily or use natural gas.” Wanda said grimacing again.
Ryans held up a finger. “Yet.”
“Yet,” she smiled, good humor slowly returning. “I take it that's a project we're working on?”
“Something like that,” Ryans said chuckling. He hated being stuck in long winded meetings trying to explain, and then re-explain in shorter sentences what they were trying to accomplish. Some of the lords got it, others were just bricks. Some he had come to realize were being obstinate on purpose. “We're actually doing things a bit different than on Earth, we're tapping a lot of our own waste from the get go for recycling.”
“Ah?” she asked hopefully.
“Waste like city trash,” Ryans smiled. “We're recycling a lot now, but now that we've some organization underway we're starting to compost some of the waste outside the city. We're going to bury it with tubes embedded...”
“Oh. To siphon off the methane,” Wanda smiled. Deidra looked confused. Wanda turned to her. “Methane is a form of natural gas. It's given off by living things and decomposing things,” Wanda explained. Deidra frowned.
“Farts. You know,” Ryans made a farting sound. Deidra and Wanda rolled their eyes.
“He's real subtle isn't he?” Wanda asked smiling slightly. “So much for his training,” she teased.
“Hey I got the point across right?” Ryans said giving them a look. “We can get methane from trash and from biological waste. Compress it and then we can burn it,” he said, trying to keep on track and not rise to Wanda's bait.
“Oh,” Deidra looked a little confused but then shrugged it off. She'd figure it out later she thought.
“And we get to recycle the waste later too. The biomass breaks down into fertilizer over time,” Wanda said grinning. “Mix it with other types of fertilizer and the crops will grow like never before.”
