by T J Trapp
Alec and Daniel walked back to the front office. Alec put his arm around the young man’s shoulder. “Daniel, you did very well. You will be a strong user of dark energy.
“Let me tell you what my plans are. I have a special project in mind – but first I am going to make a dark energy collector. That will make it much easier for us to work, and to produce the rare earths and other materials that we need. After I do that, I will teach you how to make your own medallion.”
33 – Running the Business
Lunch was at a little café next to the college. Celeste gave each of them a big hug.
“Your hair is getting long,” she said to Erin.
Erin ran her fingers through her hair. “Not as long as I would like, yet,” she said.
“Bad haircut last time, huh?” said Celeste. “Oh, I see you’re wearing your cool necklace,” she said, looking at Erin’s elf-mother rod. “Do you always wear it?”
“Yes, almost always,” Erin answered. “Like our rings. We seldom take them off.”
“I love my ring!” Celeste said. “I think that I have a much more positive outlook on life since I have been wearing it. It seems like I can sense the world and all the people around me – I feel like I almost know what they are feeling! So I have much more enthusiasm too.” She looked at her ring and smiled. “Thanks again for giving it to me.”
Erin smiled. “Yes, the rings are special.”
Celeste continued, speaking thoughtfully. “In one of my art history classes we talked about talismans. In ancient times people had lots of talismans. People thought they were magic, and had special powers. The professor said that she believes that a talisman serves to enable the mental power that is already within us, instead of providing any additional powers. I think this ring is a talisman for me and enables me to feel more positive. And now, I really think that I don’t feel as clear-minded when I take it off.” Then in a slightly lower and conspiratorial tone, she asked, “Do you think maybe it has special powers of its own, or is it just my imagination?”
“No,” Alec said, chuckling. “The ring does not have special powers. The special abilities rest within you. The ring just allows you to realize the abilities you have always had. It is just like driving a car,” he continued, paternally. “We can all drive a car, but the steering wheel allows us to direct it where we want it to go, and the more we practice, the better we get.” He looked at her, proud of his analogy.
Celeste gave him a blank look. “‘Drive a car?’” she repeated. “‘Steering wheel?’” She looked perplexed. “Oh,” she said, finally understanding. “I keep forgetting that you have been in a different country, that … pardon me … sounds pretty backwards, really – and that you don’t have driverlesses there. I don’t know how to drive a car – nobody I know does – but I remember that my grandparents used to do that, and I remember sitting in one that had a steering wheel when I was a little girl.”
Alec looked a bit chagrined.
“I feel so much better with the ring,” Celeste continued, leaving Alec’s explanation behind. “For example, now I can tell when people are telling me the truth – and I know that you are telling me the truth, and that you are my friends.” She smiled. “You know, I have always felt that the ability to do that was just outside of my grasp, but now when I am wearing my special ring, I can really do it. It is nice.”
“I suspect that you have far more abilities than you are aware of. I can do many things when I am wearing my ring,” Erin told her. “Sometime I will show you other things that the ring might allow you to do. Right now, you should just get used to feeling the world around you when you are wearing it.”
“How’s Doctor Smidt?” Alec asked, and Celeste was off telling them all about the latest happenings in her office, the local gossip, and the weather, for most of the meal.
“I’ve got to run,” Celeste said, as she dipped her last French fry into the puddle of ketchup. “Same time, same place, next week?”
“Sure,” Alec answered.
“Oh – I forgot to tell you – those same people – you know? The ones who came looking for you the day you got here? The woman with the three men? They have been back a couple of times looking for you. Once just this week. I don’t know anything about them or what they want. They refuse to leave a number and I didn’t give them yours.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, I told them that I was sure you’d catch up with them sooner or later. Bye! I gotta go.”
They watched Celeste leave the small restaurant. Erin laid her hand on Alec’s arm.
“The people looking for us must be elves. You didn’t mention elves on your world, Great Wizard.”
“No, because I didn’t know that there were elves on my world,” said Alec. “Should we confront them?”
“No,” Erin said thoughtfully. “If there weren’t elves on your world before, and now there are, that means that they are up to something. And probably that ‘something’ is not good.”
“Then it would be best if for right now, we just lay low,” Alec said.
“‘Lay low?’ you mean: get on the floor?”
“No, I mean try to avoid them, and don’t go looking for trouble.”
“Dear Wizard,” Erin reminded him. “I do not look for trouble.”
✽✽✽
The next morning soon after they got to the office, two men drove up and got out of their driverless, leaving the vehicle parked near the front door. Erin looked them over. They were wearing some sort of uniform, she decided, with dark brown pants and tan shirts with lots of pins stuck to them. Their driverless had a large round decal on the side flap with some sort of bird in the center surrounded by a string of runes. I wonder what they want? Erin thought.
Frederick led the men into their little conference room and Erin and Alec joined them. “I would offer you a donut, but I’m sorry – all of our donuts are gone,” said Erin.
“We didn’t come for donuts,” the first man said. “We understand that you are the new owners of this business. We came here to register you into the neighborhood Community Protection Service. Of course, there is a modest use fee.”
So far, they are telling the truth, Erin thought to Alec.
“And you are …?” Alec asked.
“We are members of the Community Protection Service here,” the second man said. “Your business needs to be registered, and then you need to pay the use fee.”
“Okay,” replied Alec. “I didn’t know that. We want to be good neighbors.”
“By the way, we need to tell you – the previous guy didn’t pay the fee for last year, so your business is in arrears. You have to pay all of the overdue amount.”
“With interest,” said his partner.
They speak truth, Erin verified.
“How much?” Alec asked, and groaned when they showed him the amount.
“Sorry, Boss,” said Frederick. “I thought you knew.”
“Okay,” Alec said; he extracted his cell from his pocket and touched the screen a few times. “Here.” One of the men held out his own cell, and Alec touched his cell to the man’s unit. The man looked at the three-dimensional flashing lights for a few seconds, then smiled.
“All right. Your payment went through,” he said, pleased.
The other man spoke up. "Welcome to our local district. We patrol this sector. This part of our area doesn’t have too many businesses. It is a tough area, and I’ve got to warn you, the locals aren’t always friendly. As long as your fees are paid, and you don’t cause any trouble, we will make sure the locals don’t bother you.”
“Thank you,” Alec said, feeling a bit uncertain.
“And you will be here if we need you?” Erin said, thinking of the clutchmen.
“Sure, we patrol this area at least once a week.”
“If you need anything and we’re not around,” the other man added, “you can always talk to Veranzo.”
“Who?” Alec asked, and noticed that Frederick clenched his jaw
at the mention of the man’s name.
“Veranzo is our chief service officer.”
“And where would we find him?”
“You can always make an appointment to see him at the station, but if you really want to see him, he is at ‘The Crow’s Nest’ bar on most evenings. Buy him a drink, and sometimes he will listen to you.”
✽✽✽
It had taken several weeks to build the first dark energy collector and concentrator, longer than Alec had anticipated. Using rare earth materials in the assembly created a strong and steady field of dark energy, but several false starts had stretched out the schedule. Now it was complete and operational, and Alec was eager to let his staff pick up more of the routine workload to manufacture parts for the shop’s regular clients.
Alec had taught Daniel and Sylvia how to make their own medallions and both of them had learned how to use dark energy. The more capable they become, the more time I will have to build a transporter to let us return home. Alec was especially proud of Daniel. The young man had learned to focus and link his medallion to the background dark energy and could produce small pellets of dysprosium. Considering that he is an engineer, and not a physicist, he does pretty well, Alec thought.
“All right, Daniel. Are you ready to take our new system for a spin?” he asked.
“Sure Boss,” Daniel said, his eyes lighting up. “You tested it – you think it’s ready?”
“Absolutely,” Alec said confidently. He had tested the new system several times.
Daniel took a deep breath. He focused and linked his medallion to the dark energy from the concentrator. The energy coursed from the concentrator through his medallion; the rich flow of dark energy was much more robust that what he was used to. He had enough energy to make several pellets – it would be more efficient to make more than one at a time, he decided. Focus. He visualized three pellets.
Shit. Daniel could tell when things started to go wrong; he lost his concentration. The energy surged and unexpectedly moved from a stable point to an unstable point, then started to oscillate up and down in big waves. Daniel tried to remember what he had learned and tried to change his focus to decrease the size of the waves, but everything he did seemed to have the opposite effect and the oscillations continued to increase. The more he tried, the more quickly the oscillations grew; now the dark energy moved rapidly between very low and very high.
Daniel started to sweat. He knew that he was creating a dangerous situation, but didn’t know how to stop it. Then he felt a quiet mind gently nudging the energy at almost the opposite points from where he had been pushing. The huge oscillations started to get smaller with each nudge, until the unwanted oscillations became still.
“Release the energy,” a calm voice near him intoned.
Daniel released the dark energy and three dysprosium pellets materialized on his workbench. He heaved a sigh of relief.
“Thanks, boss. The dark energy from the concentrator was so different from what I was expecting – I lost control.”
“It is easy to happen. I would suggest that you stick with one pellet at a time. Trying to make multiple pellets was what caused the energy to become unstable.”
“What would have happened if you hadn’t stabilized the energy?” Daniel asked.
“From the size of the oscillations you were generating, if you had released the focus, you would have released enough dark energy to create a fatal situation.”
“‘Fatal situation?’ An explosion? You mean it would have killed me?” asked Daniel.
“Not only you, but probably also everyone else in the entire building,” Alec replied.
Daniel looked shaken at the thought.
“You will get better at recognizing the instabilities when they are still small. They are easier to control then.”
Daniel shook his head. “I like working with dark energy. It has such an empowering feel when I use it. But, should I even be working with dark energy? I don’t want to kill everyone around me! I guess I understand now why they banned all dark energy work years ago, if it is that easy to kill people.”
“Without the concentrator, you can’t generate enough energy to do that much damage, but you are right about the risks. I have been too cavalier about safety. We need to create a better setup for our work.” He nudged Daniel. “For the rest of the day, why don’t you just stick to what you can do without using the concentrator.”
✽✽✽
Erin joined Alec in the conference room. She could tell that he was concerned about something. “What is it, Consort?”
“We have established ourselves in this world and are getting the equipment setup that we need to make the stuff for our return trip, but we have a problem,” Alec said.
Erin nibbled on a chocolate eclair as she listened.
Alec continued, “Daniel almost caused a catastrophe this morning. He’s new at this, and new people are going to make mistakes as they learn. It will take too much effort for me to make everything for the transporter without other people’s help, so I need him to help me. But Daniel just about destroyed everything and everyone here with a simple accident this morning. If I hadn’t been watching his efforts, everyone in the building would have been killed. Maybe even the people for several blocks around us.
“This shop is great for making our specialty materials to fund our project, but we need to find a place with enough land so that we can locate the concentrator where an accident would only kill the dark energy user, and not everyone else. Someplace big enough for a buffer zone. We need to have enough room for all of the development work – some of what I need to do generates a lot of energy, and it can be dangerous.”
“You have something in mind, Great Wizard?”
“I think that we need to find a large ranch and relocate the collector and the concentrators to it.”
“What is a ‘ranch?’”
“It is a large piece of land that has no people on it. Farmers use a ranch to raise cows or sheep, or sometimes just grow trees on it.”
“You mean like the Queen’s Woods behind Mother’s Residence?”
“Yes. Something like that. A big empty space.”
“Is there a ‘ranch’ near us?”
“Probably not. We probably would need to go to another part of the country.”
“Would that be far away? What about our people?”
“We can keep the current shop and our business here,” he said, thinking out loud. “Our people could keep on doing what they do now. That pays the bills and brings in extra money. Once we find some land, I can build some portals so that we can move back and forth between the ranch and the shop without any issues. That will be a lot easier than it was in Theland, now that I know more about rare earth materials and how to create them. I realize now that rare earths are what the elves use in their portals to make them work.”
“What about Celeste?”
“Well, she’s in school, so she would still be here at the Institute, but with a portal we can continue to visit back and forth.”
He looked out the window at the blustering winter wind. “Also, we could find a place with a better climate – soon it will snow here, and it will be difficult to get our work done in bad weather.”
“I noticed when I woke up this morning that it was getting cold in our room.”
“That’s another thing,” Alec said. “We need to find a better place to stay than a rooming hotel. We need to find a ranch that has a house on it.”
Erin helped herself to another cup of coffee. “I also have been thinking, Great Wizard, and your ‘ranch’ might help us in other ways.”
“Yes?”
“When we return home, you do not know where we will appear. We might not find ourselves at the Residence with our children, or even in Theland. We could appear in the Grasslands, the Elf Mountains, or even Gott. Those places may be hostile to us. If we had a trained guard force to accompany us, our journey would be safer. There is no place to train a force here at the
shop, but a Queen’s Woods would give me plenty of room.”
“I see what you are getting at – but how are you going to find people for your guard force?” Alec asked.
“I also have been busy while you have been working with your sand. My morning trips to the donut shop and my afternoon runs around this ‘park’ have given me a chance to sense out the inhabitants here. There are many young men and women near here who are longing for an adventure. I could find enough of them.”
“What would you tell them?”
“The truth,” she said levelly. “I would tell them that we are going on a dangerous mission in a foreign land and we need a trained force of bodyguards to help us. It will be very dangerous, and they might not ever return, but if we succeed they will be well rewarded. The people I want will jump at the chance.”
“You need people to direct, don’t you, my Princess,” Alec said.
“The only thing my force will not have is rings to protect them against the elves. I do not know how to fix that.”
Alec smiled. “If you just had a ‘great wizard’ on your staff, he might be able to fix that problem.”
Erin gave him a quizzical look, “You are deliberately talking in riddles.”
“Yes I am.” He laughed. “Remember when we were in the elf city, back at New Haven, and I was looking through their archives, and I told you that I stumbled across how the elves make rings? What I couldn’t puzzle out from their archives was the materials they were using. Now that I have been working with the rare earths, I can feel that the dark energy signature from our rings is similar to some of the rare earth materials we have been using here in the shop.”
“Yes – I know that you told me you would be able to make rings, perhaps.”
“I think I understand how they made the rings: they used rare earths and micro-tricrystals. With a little work, I should be able to make rings for your guards.”
“You and your wizard-speak,” she said, knowing full well that he did not expect her to understand anything he was telling her.