Napoleon

by Stephen Arseneault

  “As you will see soon enough. It was more than flight-worthy.”

  The playback was again forwarded.

  “When the plane was complete, everything was put into a preserved state with the cabin and barn being covered over and hidden from discovery. The same could be said of the track. I then led my team back to Halifax where we boarded a ship and returned to France. I slipped away and terminated my clone.”

  “What of Napoleon?”

  “I'll need another clone readied. Everything is in place at the cabin. We will only need an hour to ready the plane. I will wait at the bottom of the mountain for Napoleon, and when he arrives I will lead him up to the top where we will fly away to safety.”

  Vara looked at the image on the display. “So you bring him up and then fly to where?”

  “Halifax. And from there we sail home. I ran the math and we have the amount of fuel needed to make that trip, with at least an hour of cushion. The plane has pontoons that will lower when we reach the harbor. I know the landing will be tricky, but I've read enough where I believe I can do it.”

  Reno shook his head. “May I at least review the design while you go warm your clone?”

  “Absolutely. You should find it in the archive.” Naffi left the room with a grin on his face, proud of the plan he had conceived and made ready to be executed.

  The design was pulled up on the display.

  Vara winced. “I can't say I have any expertise with this.”

  “I am familiar with the principles and most certainly with the math. And I already see an error in his rate of fuel consumption. He has no account for the wind, which could be beneficial or it could cause him to run out of fuel beforehand, especially with the drag to be experienced with those pontoons. The wings and frame look adequate, but the passenger compartment... he will have to fly low. And the temperatures even at low altitudes will be sub-zero at that time of year.”

  Vara pointed. “What is this piping? Is that not a heating system?”

  “It would appear to be. But without some analysis, I can't say it will be adequate, given the conditions.”

  Vara looked toward the door. “He was certainly proud of himself.”

  “Pride before performance is a fuel that may set one's house ablaze.”

  “Is that a Human quote?”

  “No. It just popped into my mind.”

  Vara chuckled. “Those Humans are big on their sayings. I wish our own people displayed some of that culture.”

  Reno typed out a list of things that were either wrong or substandard for the aircraft design, including a flaw that might cause the launch track to fail. The list was ready and waiting when Naffi returned with a clone.

  Naffi pushed in the gurney with his new candidate, stopping to look at a smiling Reno. “You look as though you just discovered treasure.”

  “Better,” Reno replied. “I have a list of improvements for your aircraft.”

  The clone was injected with a bio-link.

  “Perfect. Prioritize them by what I might be able to do in three days. And keep in mind, the craft has been sitting for four years now. If it doesn't work I will have to lead Napoleon out through the forests myself.”

  “First is your launching track. An ingenious design given your lack of an engineering background by the way. I would reinforce the rope both here and here.” A diagram of the design was pointed to. “And you'll want to add several hundred kilograms of weight to your drop-box if you want to achieve a minimum flight speed. Those pontoons will cause extra drag that I don't think you accounted for.”

  “I believe I can make those modifications in the time I will have.”

  “Also. Your heating system. Crude. And it might leave you without enough heat to cope with the frigid cold. I've highlighted three areas where insulation may help, but I would advise adding another heating tube from the engine compartment into your meager cabin. And you'll want to take extra blankets if you have them.”

  “I left a number of blankets in reserve.”

  “And of course I have one final question. How many? The archives mention Napoleon having sixteen members of his staff with him when he was captured. That cabin will fit you and three others at most.”

  “He will have to make a choice as to who will go with us and who stays. I do have a contingency plan, you know.”

  “How would we know if you haven't told us?”

  “I have two trained squads of mercenaries who will be waiting on that mountaintop when I arrive. That is, so long as the people I paid do not cheat us. Should the airplane fail, the squads will escort us down the other side of the mountain and through the forests going all the way back to Halifax. Should Halifax be blocked, a second ship will be waiting in the Northumberland Strait.”

  Reno sat silent for several seconds. “I must apologize. The plan sounds well thought out. I have underestimated you, Naffi.”

  “And I must apologize to the two of you for not including you. My pride got in the way of reason. We will always produce a better result when we combine our knowledge and intellect. This will be my last one-man venture.”

  Chapter 21

  _______________________

  The clone appeared in the woods on top of Mt. Chocorua. A short walk through the snow had him in the cabin and getting dressed.

  Naffi woke on the table and sat up with a sigh. “Huh. All I can say is wow. I thought I would freeze to death before getting a fire going in the cabin.”

  Vara said, “Tell us.”

  “These happenings we will have to watch.”

  The video was forwarded. “Here was my first introduction to the mercenaries who were hired. At first I was less than impressed, but each knew how to survive in the wild. Not a crew you would want to have over for a dinner party, a gruff lot. Anyway, I spent an hour getting to know them as we would possibly be spending the next month together if the plane proved unusable.”

  The playback was again sped up. “I took them up to the cabin with the plane. What I was not expecting when I first landed was the five meters of snow on top of the mountain. I put them immediately to work at clearing it away from our launch rail. It took the remainder of the day.

  “That evening, I went over the plan to move the group of people who were coming, down the mountain and across what was later called the State of Maine. It was claimed to be part of the Massachusetts Commonwealth at the time. To a man they were all eager to get off the frigid mountain and eventually back to civilization.

  “The following day the plane was revealed and readied. The fuel was of course my biggest concern. I took your prior method of storage and was able to resurrect the four hundred liters I had budgeted for. A quick test showed it to be viable. The engine was checked, lubricated where possible, and started. I must commend you on its design, Reno, it started and ran as desired. The wooden storage barn was then readied with the roof being pulled back, after the dense snow removal of course.

  “I then began work on your suggested updates to the rope and track system while my mercs toiled at loading more rocks into the weighted-box that was to be used to send us into flight. All of the suggested important work was completed that day. We then returned to the cabin for the night.”

  Vara said, “It sounds like everything you planned out was working.”

  Naffi shook his head. “I didn't plan on the half-meter of snow that fell that night or how much work it would be to de-ice the plane's wings and clear away the remaining powder. But that wouldn't be realized until later. The morning was spent trekking down the mountain and establishing a camp where we would wait for Napoleon. The camp was constructed that afternoon, just before another storm dumped an additional half-meter of snow. That night I began to panic as I thought of the aforementioned snow-problem.”

  “Given the time left on the display, you obviously resolved the issue.”

  “Yes, well, things did not go as well as I would have liked. The following morning, just after the sun shown over the mountain, our sc
outs spotted the retreating Napoleon as he came our way. What had begun as a force of a thousand men had dwindled to the sixteen, twelve of whom were his staff. Two were guides and the last was his personal bodyguard. They were hesitant to accept our help until I showed my face and claimed to be another cousin of Jacques Lamonde. He immediately stated that he saw the resemblance.” Naffi chuckled. “Which was funny because of course my clone and Jacques were exact duplicates.”

  “So you found him and took him up the mountain?”

  “Only after he argued with his staff. They were less convinced of my authenticity than he was. The trek up the mountain took the remainder of the daylight hours. It was too dark to launch the plane, and another snow was coming in. We slept in the warmth of the cabin that night and got to work on the snow issue at first light. I sent the others down the other side of the mountain with two of the mercenaries as guides. They were lowered over the cliff face two at a time in a basket. The other mercs would catch up to them on their way to Halifax when we were safely away.

  “Back at the plane, the ice and snow had grown to be a two-meter-thick problem. And to make matters worse, one of our scouts reported a large contingent of soldiers were marching up the mountain.”

  “They found you? The snow didn't cover your tracks?”

  “Apparently not well enough. So after, Napoleon picked those who would go with us, which turned out to only be himself.”

  Reno nodded. “Only taking the two of you should have made for a better launch.”

  “And it could not have been a better decision. When the last of the snow and ice had been cleared, I could hear the voices of the soldiers coming up the mountain. And I'm certain the one shouting the loudest was Marwal's clone. It sounded just like me.”

  Naffi let out a long sigh. “Let me forward to the final action. The engine was started and roared to life as expected. I ordered the mercs to go down to the stop that was holding the box of rocks in place. They were to knock the stop out when I gave the signal, the box would then fall, pulling the rope and in turn pulling the plane forward, acting as a catapult. That's when the first shots of gunfire could be heard. Four of the mercs had gone back down the trail coming up to try to buy us more time. I should have planned for that, but they did it on their own.

  “So the engine was running and the mercs were in position to release the box. I throttled up only to have the engine sputter and stall. I tried a restart but it wasn't firing up. I jumped out and with a short inspection I noticed the air intake was mostly iced over, causing the engine to flood at anything but idle. Pulling my knife from my sheath I chipped most of the ice away.

  “It took three additional tries to get her started, with Napoleon himself out there flipping the prop. It was a nerve-racking ordeal. With my passenger back in the cabin, I again throttled up. This time the engine roared, only a small stick kept us from racing down the track. I signaled the mercs and the stop was knocked free... just as three bullet holes formed in the side of the fuselage.

  “I have been beaten to death, shot, and stabbed, but never have I experienced the fear I was feeling at the moment the plane lurched forward. The small stick holding us in place had been snapped off as the box of rocks fell over the side of the mountain and down the steep rocky face before us. As we raced forward, I was gripping the yoke so tightly that there was no blood circulating through my hands.

  “Seconds later, the nose of the plane went over the edge and we began to dive toward the trees and ground below. Again, it was a terrifying ordeal.”

  The group watched as the image on the display showed a ground that was fast approaching as a pair of hands were pulling back hard on the yoke. At the last possible moment, the plane began to arc up toward the horizon, coming out level at just above the treetops.

  Naffi chuckled a nervous laugh. “I glanced over my shoulder and Napoleon was white-faced. His eyes looked as though they were ready to pop from his skull. But we were safely away.”

  The image on the display showed the view from a windscreen as the plane skimmed along just over the treetops.

  Reno said, “A magnificent escape.”

  Vara nodded. “I concur. And suspenseful. I found myself gripping the arm of my chair as I watched.”

  “So it was seven hours to Halifax?”

  Naffi shook his head. “That would have been too easy. We made it just over ten kilometers and had to ditch. After the terror of being catapulted over the cliff I was not ready for the smell of fuel that was filling the cabin. I had to crack open a hatch to be able to breath without passing out. The leak was small, but enough to force the opening of the hatch. We inevitably ditched because the cold was intolerable.”

  “Ditching in a lake. The pontoons should have made that easy.”

  “You would have hoped. But the reality of it was the right pontoon leaked. We successfully splashed down and came to a taxi. That taxi was good for less than a minute. We had to bail out into the freezing water while still ten meters from the shore. I climbed out and then struggled to pull Napoleon out behind me. We went immediately into the water. The plane was fully submerged by the time we reached an ice-shelf that projected from the shoreline.”

  Vara asked, “Wet and cold? How did you survive?”

  “I managed a pair of dry blankets held over my head as I swam. I threw them onto the ice when it was reached. When I had Napoleon ashore I dug a hole in the snow and wrapped his upper body in a blanket, had him climb in, and then covered him with snow. I did the same for myself and stayed in that position until my body temperature stabilized.”

  Reno frowned. “That was obviously not a long-term solution.”

  “It was not. I knew the mercs and the others would be hiking around the north end of the lake. So we pulled ourselves from the snow and trudged our way toward that location. Thankfully the clouds of the night before had cleared and a midday sun made the walk tolerable. When we reached a clearing I was certain the others would come through, I again dug our snow-holes and we took refuge. The two guides and Napoleon's staff came along less than two hours later.”

  Vara said, “The recording only runs three more days. What happened.”

  “Pneumonia happened. My body had gotten too cold. We were camped outdoors each night, having to stay on the run as to not get caught. I just couldn't recover from the cold. So please bring up the archive. I'd like to know the final outcome.”

  Reno typed on the keyboard. “It says Napoleon boarded a ship four weeks later and steamed home. A negotiated peace was still reached, and Napoleon remained Emperor for another sixteen years. After that... rebellions crept in. And by 1840 the Empire had dissolved.”

  “And the ancestry logs?”

  “We have... only minor changes... and none that we had hoped for.”

  Vara crossed her arms as she sat back in her chair. “Well, we at least got him out. And science progress was made during his remaining years.”

  Reno added. “And it was those guided rockets that were used to drive away our fleets. They could far outdistance our cannons, hitting us from almost over the horizon.”

  Naffi replied, “We can equal those rockets. That technology is obviously not out of reach.”

  “Speaking of technology, perhaps we should once again try to accelerate advancements. We have two important British scientists of this time period, Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday. Davy was a chemist and isolated a number of elements, including chlorine and iodine. Faraday discovered the electric motor. We could move much of the industrial revolution forward by a hundred years.”

  Vara nodded. “We do have a stable Empire for the next sixteen years. And who knows, with the advent of electric power, we may be able to keep the Empire together longer. Prosperity has a way of making other grievances seem small and petty.”

  Reno rubbed his chin. “We are talking about discoveries that accelerate industry. Naffi? Growing companies is what you were good at.”

  The former business tycoon smiled as he thought ab
out the prospects. Yes. And with prosperity comes power. “I think this is an excellent direction for us to turn. While I enjoy the fight, there is a certain satisfaction that is gained from creating that is not present with the wanton destruction of war. This is an excellent idea. Reno, you go push these scientists forward and Vara and I will build factories and product like the world has never seen.”

  A clone was readied and connected to Reno. A new name was chosen, Marc Lamonde, another supposed cousin of Jacques Lamonde, which afforded him an invitation to join the studies of Humphrey Davy. Within the first few months, four new elements were isolated and named. Also during that time, Michael Faraday came on as an apprentice. With the guidance of Reno's clone, he was working on galvanization and following soon after, magnetic induction.

  Only a year into their experimentation, the first electric motor was constructed.

  Reno smiled as he watched the recordings of the experiments in the lab. “That motor turning, knowing it was the first time seen by Humans, was thrilling. And to see the look of wonder in their eyes... priceless, as the Humans say.”

  Naffi asked, “And what is the plan for us to make use of this new discovery?”

  “Michael Faraday will soon be known for some of the discoveries of Nikola Tesla. The advent of alternating current to be one of those discoveries. My clone will be checking out in about three months. That will leave time for you to go back and turn these discoveries into product. It will be your clone who is responsible for electrifying the French Empire.”

  Vara stared at the display. “What of Marwal? Are you worried of his discovering you?”

  “Not at this time. I convinced the others to not release these discoveries until we had a comprehensive list where they could all be claimed in the proper manner.” Reno reviewed the parameters of Mentox-II. “There is no new journey by Marwal. So I can only believe he remains in America, attempting to accelerate their growth.”

  “You need to be extra careful. The archives will reveal your location. Each of these discoveries cause change that can easily be identified. If he knows Davy is on a tear as compared to what he originally achieved, he will know right where to look.”