“I’ll take that as a yes,” Dave said. “Well, what I did was encode a set of instructions into the soul gem. Basically, it follows a set bunch of commands, like make a sword, or make some armor.”
“Or make a house?”
“Pretty much. The smithy was my first try, but these are going to be better. Also, they have a whole bunch of safety features in them, making them perfect for Terra. You can put them anywhere, feed them power and they’ll grow into the structure you want. You can stick them together, or alter the coding to change the building as you want, though I am putting a code on it that only someone with the correct access can do it,” Dave said.
“What is your aim with this?” Bob asked.
“First, I want to make growing towers from them. They’re much better at catching any stray energies, they look good, we’re going to need a few of them, and having my coders working on them all is still going to take weeks to get a complete growing tower going. With this, I can pump some almighty power into it and could have it up in a few hours to a day.” Dave grinned.
“Damn. If you ever wanted to build another city, all you would need to do is mine the hell out of the thing, then put these soul gems in the right place and voilà! Aleph City in a few hours,” Bob said, impressed.
“Exactly! Also, they can store an incredible amount of power. So we will have plenty of storage for any and all energy we produce.”
“What is with you and conserving energy?” Bob asked.
“Hey, better to have it and not need it than need it and be fucked.”
“Eloquent as always.” Bob snorted.
“Though, I also have other plans and those might need a hell of a lot of power, so, over-building everything now so that later, we’re not totally screwed,” Dave added.
“What kind of plans?” Bob asked.
“Portals.” Dave grinned. “Oh, and while we’re on the subject, could you make a copy of your teleport spell and one of the one in my house? I’m going to be trying to learn more about it and the more information I have about teleporting, the better.”
Bob shrugged as he created the spell and held it, ready to be activated. Dave looked it over. Once he was sure it was memorized, he nodded to Bob, who then pointed to an open space of the lab; runes started to appear on the floor. Dave wheeled over, studying them all, working on memorizing them as Bob looked over the coded soul gems and the various screens of information.
“You’re not that bad of a teacher,” Bob said absently, the two of them looking over the other’s work in interest.
“Oh? You been to one of my classes?” Dave moved to a different Magical Circuit, trying to understand it. Its complexities were not simple.
“Well, with all my copious free time, I thought it would be more interesting to see what all this magical coding is all about. I’m impressed. It’s a pretty simple method, but it’s really effective. Spells that are more complicated are really easy to mess with a person’s mind. By making one system that everyone can understand and is nice and linear, it will push people into a magical coding revolution,” Bob said.
“Did you check out any of the other classes in the mirror?”
“Yeah.” Bob sat back and looked at a soul gem in his hands. “I wish that you didn’t have to run combat classes and others on survival, though it makes sense with all that’s supposed to be coming down on Emerilia. With even a few levels that someone just checking out the classes might gain, it’s well worth it. The stronger the POEs, the less likely they are to get run over by someone else.”
Dave looked up from the runes and looked to Bob. “I’ve also figured out what to do with the last of the resources you gave me.”
“The last of them? You make it seem as if you’re scratching the bottom of the barrel instead of having the majority left over!”
“Well, when building teleport pads, that many resources go quick!”
“Okay, that makes sense. You’d get, what?” Bob looked upward, doing some mental calculations. “Thirty or so teleport pads?”
“Yes, if we were building the older generation ones,” Dave said.
“Hey, it’s not kind to keep old people in the dark! I swear, this newer generation.” Bob shook his head, mumbling the second part to himself.
Dave grinned, enjoying Bob’s frustration. “So, teleport pads are really expensive, because they’re made to connect to each other. Resonating with two teleport pads is a lot of power, even more if it’s adjusting from resonating with another teleport pad just moments before. So, what if you had tens of teleport pads and then connected them to just one location?”
“Well, the power cost would go down considerably.” Bob shrugged.
“You would also be able to cut down on all of the extras—the complicated runes to dialing different teleport pads and the massive power reserve soul gems. What I’ve been working on is this.” Dave shared a three-dimensional mock-up of what looked like a greatly slimmed down teleport pad. “We will have these in every city, in every village and town. Then we will have them posted at every portal and key locations around Emerilia. Five of them will connect to one teleport pad in Terra. The teleport pads here will be able to connect to any of the pads, which will only accept people coming from Terra. The teleport pads out there will only connect to the teleport pads here,” Dave said proudly.
Bob sat there, thinking about it all. “Dave, you’re going to eliminate the need for people to work ships. Wagon drivers are going to drop dramatically.”
“We need people to handle all of the goods that are going to be passing through here. We’re going to have plenty of jobs and with Terra connecting Emerilia, trading is going to increase dramatically. Yes, the world markets are going to be a bit of a mess, but I think that Josh will have a way to get that sorted out.”
“Terra isn’t just going to turn into a hub of travel—it’s going to turn into a hub for everything. You’re going to have goods, people, services, the best of everything right here. You’ll become the trading capital of Emerilia. Do you know how many enemies that’s going to make you?”
“Probably a lot, but I’ve heard that we might be seeing some action soon with someone trying to show up the Stone Raiders. We’re not going to stand for that anymore. They come at us, we’re going to hammer them flat. We aren’t going to do this overnight and we’re growing in numbers every day. Right now, we’re just making plans for the future,” Dave said.
“Well, the damn future sounds a lot more exciting than I ever imagined.” Bob laughed, still trying to just understand the impact of what Dave was doing and what Terra would become.
***
Kol wandered through the Cliff-Hill Smithy. With only half of the smithies working, it felt half-abandoned, though with the older and trained smiths moving around, inspecting the new smiths as they worked and the newer smiths doing whatever they could to impress their teachers, it was no less busy.
Kol looked to a stream of carts thatwere coming in from the teleport pad. There was a constant stream of people hoping to work at the smithy or in Cliff-Hill, as well as materials that traders wished to sell or supply the various industries in Cliff-Hill.
Aleph driverless carts moved to the smithy, dropping off rolled steel. Laborers moved the metal, their increased strength helping them. From there, the metal was cut down and then formed into different parts of armor. Then it was sent to a growing textile mill that Suzy had made a contract with and was a holding under the Cliff-Hill Conglomerate.
“That’s a damn mouthful.” Kol sighed and shook his head as he worked his way through the smithy. Once the armor was at the textile mill, they were fitted with leather bindings and padding. Sure, the armor could have been fitted with auto-fit coding, but that would take a lot of time and effort.
With Dave’s classes, it might become a lot easier. Kol walked through the enchanting area of the smithy. Smiths looked over the shoulders of the higher-level trainees in here. All of them were taking Dave’s classes and learning magi
cal coding first, over the more complicated Magical Circuits.
Many were working on strips of waste metal, improving their skills. Kol moved through.
Shift Manager Yori was one of the first to come to Cliff-Hill from another place. He was an Orc, not a normal sight in Opheir, but no one batted an eyelid with all the races now in Cliff-Hill.
His gruff appearance hid his almost childlike excitement when he learned new things or started work on a new project. Right now, he had that cockeyed grin on his face, his two large lower teeth fully uncovered.
“Yori,” Kol said in greeting.
“Hey, boss. Got something you might want to check out.” Yori waved for him to follow.
Kol followed as they came to a table where there were parts of an Aleph automaton, specifically a number of arms, that were poised over a piece of metal.
“What is this scary-looking contraption?” Kol asked.
“I took automaton limbs and attached carvers to them. Having our people make the same code over and over again, while good practice, becomes mind-numbing after the first twenty times or so. If we can get more of them trained in fitting people, then we can speed up production. I was there for the talks with the Aleph about making our work more like an assembly line, as they said. I got talking to them about their various practices. When I was thinking of a way to speed up things, I thought of how they use various moving limbs to do welds and move items. Watch.” Yori placed the breastplate underneath, just so. Checking its positioning, he reached up into the mess of limbs.
The limbs came online, moving as if studying the metal beneath them.
Then, all at once, they started to carve runes into the breastplate, several limbs working at once to make different parts of the runes. A circle formed, encapsulating the runes. The arms pulled away, leaving a magical code surrounded by a circle.
Kol read the runes, checking their depth and their quality. They would make a contained ball of Mana that would be as large as the circle, what Dave called his bomb-bay.
“How many times can this machine do this for?” Kol looked to Yori.
“As long as it has a charge. The only problem is that it can only take breastplates of a certain size and they have to be placed according to these markings.” Yori pointed to lines that framed the breastplate.
“Okay.” Kol nodded, impressed. “We can teach the smiths coding later on anyway and they can read the information on it in their free time. The faster we get them trained in making the armor and then fitting it, the faster we can get to making different kinds of weapons and armor. Now, what do you need to make ten of these machines? I want them set up for every size of breastplate we have coming out of the shop.”
“Well, mostly, just need people who have a good handle on magical coding, maybe some people who really enjoy it. Then I can get the supplies from the Aleph. These limbs were second-hand ones that they had. The machines were broken, but they still had these replacement limbs. We can get those easy enough and we have the carver factory as well, so nothing too complex.” Yori looked to Kol.
“Okay, get to it. You can get fourteen people to help you out. I would prefer if they’re trainee smiths, but if you can’t find enough of them who are interested or have the skills for this, you can pull from the trained smiths. Once you have these arms all set up, I want you to go around the smithy and see what you can do with speeding production up. I know that Dave has made a lot of things that have increased our productivity, but the man has other concerns. You and your team’s job will be to speed up production and the quality of items coming out of this smithy. Once you have a plan, come to me and we’ll look it over. If it sounds viable, I’ll let you test it out in a controlled area. Even if it fails, it’s better to know what we can and can’t do than being too scared to try it out.” Kol clapped the large Orc on the back.
“Thanks, Kol! I’ll go find some recruits!” Yori’s childish grin spread across his face.
“You do that.” Kol chuckled.
The big Orc went off as Kol looked at the odd carving machine. “The first time it’s innovative or good practice, but afterward it’s just repetitive. Having people carve the same thing day in and day out is going to kill their sense of creativity. Maybe this automation isn’t as bad as everyone’s been saying.”
Kol shrugged and started his way back through the smithy.
To most, the smithies would look like chaos. To Kol, they were an old and familiar sight, a second home to him. He weaved through it as easily as someone might walk down a street. There was a simple etiquette to follow when in a smithy to make everyone’s lives easier and Kol was well versed in it.
He frowned as he felt a familiar presence, a bunch of them. His frown deepened as he growled, marching through the smithy. There was no need to weave as people got out of Kol’s way.
“What are you lot doing here!?” Kol demanded, coming out to where a large group of Dwarves were talking to one another and inspecting a pile of armor.
Well, some were talking; most were arguing with one another, growling and pointing to the armor or one another. To many, it would look as if they were about to start a brawl. To Kol, it was just another meeting of Dwarven Master Smiths. Each of them had a necklace or bracelet that showed all of their metals. Some wore it proudly; others tucked it away or hid it under a large beard.
“Well, we did say that your smithies were acceptable! Did you think we just said that we’d stay in the mountains when there’s so much going on here!” Quino moved to Kol and slapped him on the back as if they were best buds.
It was all Kol could do to stay upright. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is just a nightmare. I’m going to wake up and there won’t be twenty Dwarven Master Smiths in my loading bay. Just wake up any minute now,” Kol said/prayed to himself.
“Don’t worry, we’re here to stay,” Endur said, a grin on his face with his massive arms crossed over his chest.
“Fine! Though, you’re only taking master wages and fitting armor until we’re done! We’ve got some repair jobs, and when we’re done with the armor fitting, we’ve got a list of weapons to be made. None of that ‘take materials and work on your pet projects’! You want to work on them, do it in yer own time!” Kol said.
“Sounds good to me,” Sola said.
“Where’s your nearest tavern? Been awhile since I got employed somewhere! Need to celebrate!” Ankol said, a large smile on her face.
“Up in Cliff-Hill. Don’t make too much trouble and be here for first shift tomorrow morning. Give your names to the foreman and he’ll get a schedule made up. You’ll all be going to Devil’s Crater tomorrow!” Kol said.
“You got it, boss!” Quino said. The Dwarves headed off to find the foreman, returning to their arguments and looking forward to exploring Cliff-Hill and the taverns.
If there were gods, then Kol bet that they were similar to Bob in order to drop so many Master Smiths into his lap.
“Well, looks like production is going to go up.” Kol sighed. Having one Master Smith was like a hundred trained smiths. With their tricks, smithing arts, and knowledge, they churned out better products faster. It would also mean that the trainees would have a larger information pool to pull from. It would also be a big draw for the better smiths to join the Cliff-Hill Conglomerate in order to learn from the best.
“I just wish they weren’t all a bunch of degenerates.” Kol rubbed his forehead and turned back toward his smithy.
There was nothing like pounding on some steel to try to forget the mess that had just arrived.
***
Sato, Edwards, and Captain Adams all sat in Sato’s office.
Edwards had just finished talking about his new work. He had dozens of scientists working on all kinds of magical coding. Fifteen of them were attending Dave’s magical coding class, and another forty-three were attending and testing out the growing class selection available through the Mirror of Communication.
It had been so successful, Sato had asked
for volunteers for the combat classes. Many had volunteered and he had people spending hours hooked up to a Mirror of Communication. When they came out, it took them little time to incorporate what they’d learned into their fighting style. His people were stronger and deadlier than ever.
The whole station felt as if it were brighter. No longer were they just sitting on the rim of inhabited space, trying to survive and avoid detection. They were improving themselves and becoming stronger. Tomorrow wasn’t as bleak as it was just a few months ago. There was hope, and hope was a powerful drug.
It’s also why everyone is pressuring me to let Captain Adams go and check out a few star systems, to check on the validity of Bob’s information.
“How does the crew feel?” Sato looked to Adams.
“They’re ready; they want to be let off the leash, sir.” She paused. “I agree with them.”
“The new corvette is operating well?” Sato looked to them both.
“There were issues in the beginning, but Edwards’s people went over it with a fine-tooth comb,” Adams assured him.
“Everything checks out on our end; she works better than we hoped. These runes are a lot more stable than we thought. They’ve decreased the number of moving parts by an impressive margin. There’s actually not a whole lot that could break that easily. The crew all has a basic understanding of magical coding. If anything breaks, they have the tools and materials to fix any issues. Also, with the Mirror of Communication, we can monitor them constantly.”
“What about the slip drive?” Edwards asked. The drive was old Human technology that had been adapted and upgraded with Jukal information in the war. Now, with their better understanding, they’d upgraded it again, trying to make it reach as far as possible while also keeping the corvette-turned-scouting ship as hidden as possible.
“Through the tests, we haven’t had a failure,” Adams reported.
“We worked the bugs out in the unmanned test vehicles,” Edwards said, as he and Adams eyed Sato.
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