by Chris Hechtl
“How many will be leaving?” she finally asked, looking down. She'd heard that the gaijin were serious about going.
“I'm not sure. It all depends on if they can of course. Max has got the plateau base set up. It's crude, but it should work. Now that we've got windmills in production he's got a dozen up along the coast. We should see another dozen in the next month. Hopefully between them and the reactor it will be enough power to trap the vortex.”
“Ah,” she said. She nodded looking a little forlorn.
“I'm not sure he'll go back,” he replied watching her. She looked up surprised.
“He won’t?” she asked surprised and a little elated.
“No, I think the challenge here's a major incentive. Then again the girl he's been dating may have something to do with it too,” he replied dryly. She grinned suddenly.
“Cecily. I met her. She's... stubborn. Good for him. He needs a keeper. Someone to keep after him because he forgets to take care of himself,” she said seriously.
Ryans chuckled softly. “Yeah, I heard,” he said. Max had forgotten to eat a few times, and sleep; sleep had been a luxury sometimes too. He shook his head, rubbing his chin. “I'm not sure about Doc, she's on the fence. She's divided between duty to her fellow man and going home to her family. The others are all up in the air.”
“Ah.” Zara nodded. “And the military?”
He frowned. “Well, they have to go back. They have their orders,” he explained. He grimaced as her face fell. “I think a few would like to come back. We'll see. If we can iron out the vortex on both ends I wouldn't be too surprised if some come back... and bring their families. I told those talking about staying that they can send word to have their families join them.”
She looked up at him and smiled, clearly delighted by the idea.
He felt little claws climbing his pant leg. He looked down to see an imp looking up at him. “And how are you this morning?” he asked, keeping his tone light and soft. It cheeped. He tried to stroke it but it bit him. “Owww!” He shook his finger but it held on then let go mid air.
Zara hastily caught it. She glared at him. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, looking at his finger. She looked down and crooned at her young charge, stroking it with a finely manicured fingernail. He shook his head as the little imp glared at him then closed its eyes and purred.
“Show off,” he said shaking his head. “So, do they get much bigger?” he asked, now sounding a little worried.
“Oh about four times bigger. But not for a long time. When they do their necks get longer and they...” She flicked her fingers up to the poles above. “Lose most of their fur... except the fur on their heads and tails. The ones on the ground get bigger, fatter I suppose.” She looked over to the pile of rags. “They don't like a lot of light actually. They're most active at night.”
“I'll say. From the size of their eyes... Nocturnal. Those eyes are quite large. It looks like two eye cells on each side fused together into one large eye. That might be why they have that sort of cross iris. I bet they have great night vision.”
She paused looking up in thought then nodded. “It fits with what Nate was saying earlier, since they live underground they need good night vision,” she finally said. He nodded. One of the imps drank from a bowl on the floor. It paused to burp then went back to drinking. Ryans had to snort at that.
“They've got whiskers too,” she said pointing to one. “And very short tails.” They watched one groom its short stubby tail, then move on to a leg. It seemed to get frustrated because it couldn't hold it still, then got into a tussling match with it. Zara chuckled as a second one came over, cocked its head one way and then another, then attacked the first one's thrashing tail.
“Cute,” Ryans smiled. “Well Deidra wants to see you for dinner tonight, and no your friends can't come. She said something about you needing a bath too,” he said wrinkling his nose. He smiled as she sniffed at herself then made a moue and shrugged. She looked ready to object but he held up his hand.
“She also said something about a couple of friends of yours are here for dinner. Some of your classmates and a Duluth lord-ling...” Zara's eyes went wide then she began to brush at her dress and comb her fingers through her hair.
“Oh dear, why didn't she tell me earlier!” she said testily getting up. The snoozing imp fell to the floor and then rolled into the rags. She turned. “Sorry,” she said but it was oblivious, out cold like any youngling. She brushed it to be sure and then rushed to pick up the books. “Let's go.”
He chuckled as she rushed him out the door and then rushed past him up the corridor to the stairs leading to her quarters.
“Was that Zara?” Perry asked, amused, from behind him.
Ryans turned, clearly amused. “Yeah, I reminded her she had company.”
“Ah.” Perry snorted and nodded. “Got a minute?”
“Sure... I was heading to get a bite, why don't you join me?”
“Phew! No offense but what have you been into? You stink,” Perry said, waving a hand in front of his face. Ryans sighed.
Chapter 31
“What's going on?” Perry asked, looking at the people hanging decorations. It was pretty dark out, and cold to boot. Even in the castle he could see his breath most of the time now. Damn cold. Everyone was wearing heavy fur coats and boots, stamping their feet and keeping their hands in mittens under their armpits for warmth. It was still the local equivalent of mid-December. Two and a half months of winter with god knows how many to go. Four or five if they weren't lucky he thought bleakly.
“Winter solstice festivals,” Sydney replied, coming up behind him. He was filming it all.
“A little early but um.... Okay...”
“The origins of most winter festivals on Earth. Christmas for one,” Sydney said absently. “Though it was different in medieval times.”
“How so?” Perry asked, watching a giggling woman stand on a man's shoulders to hang what looked like branches from a native fir tree. It looked weird; the fir tree's needles were blue.
“Well, from what I got from the database, they got pretty rowdy. Caroling and drunken parties, quite a mess.”
“Oh. Lovely,” Perry sighed. He knew that meant his men were going to need to be kept on a tight leash. Most likely they would be called in to break up problems.
“Yeah, don't plan on much sleep for the next eleven days.”
Perry immediately scowled. “You're kidding me,” he growled, eyes locking onto the historian's.
Sydney shook his head. “Nope. There is another party lasting a local week, about ten days, that's two local weeks after that too.”
“New year?”
“Yup. Eat, drink, and be merry. Not much else to do while it snows,” Sydney chuckled silently as he filmed the woman as she jumped down into the waiting arms of a loved one. There was some tom foolery; she batted at his wandering hands blushing as they both laughed.
“Thanks for the info Sydney,” Perry walked off shaking his head.
<==={}------------>
Half way through the winter solstice fair Max knelt before Cecily with a ring made out of something or other he'd found and reworked and proposed to her. She'd informed him they were getting married earlier in the year, now he was making it official with a more traditional method. She'd tearfully said yes of course, hugging him. Deidra had smiled softly at their antics and had even offered to pay for the wedding. Cecily had been unsure about that offer but Max had reluctantly agreed to it.
<==={}------------>
Grand Duke Medicini finally arrived to a fanfair of trumpets. Ryans watched from the parapet. The independent Duke came in a caravan. Each sleigh wagon was pulled by a pair of white shaggy ox beasts. Each beast had a jeweled harness. The Duke made annual visits to the capital since he had been boyhood friends with Andreas and Duke Emory. They'd told him about the death of the King but he'd insisted on coming anyway. Ryans sighed. Deidra looked at him. He shrugged.
She was w
earing furs, a heavy fur coat, nice supple white leather gloves and a fur hat that matched the coat and boots. He couldn't wait to get her out of it and into something warmer though. Unfortunately he had to wait.
“First state visit,” he said.
“Yup,” she said, syrupy sweet. He glanced at her, amused by her flippant reply. She snorted.
“Nervous?” he asked. She shook her head.
“He's a pissant little duchy less than a tenth our size on the other side of the North Western mountains. He may impress dad and Duluth but he's just a fat blowhard to me. Even if he still holds a warm place in my heart,” she answered.
“Ah,” he said with a wary nod. She smiled at him.
“Come on. Let's get him settled in and let's get out of this chill,” she said, shivering. He snorted and tucked his hands into his pockets. She hooked her arm through his and together they walked to the stairs.
<==={}------------>
At midnight on New Year’s Eve Cecily and Max were wed in a quiet ceremony in the castle chapel. All the gaijin were there of course, along with the royal family, Cecily's parents and all of Max's students. Sue, Wanda, a couple of the engineering girls and Zara acted as bridesmaids. Scooter stood in as best man. “See, now this is how a wedding is supposed to be performed,” Ryans said out of the side of his mouth to Deidra. She'd dimpled and smacked him on the stomach. He smirked at her until she blushed and turned away.
<==={}------------>
Perry smiled as he admired the new shiny locomotive. It was full sized, complete with cow catcher. “Nice Max, Scooter, each of you and your crews have outdone yourselves,” he said nodding to the men. He smiled leaning back as they acknowledged the praise. They had, the damn thing was big and shiny since they'd added a lot of chromium to the steel. The copper was already turning green. He wondered if they were going to clear coat the thing to keep the copper nice or were they just going to let it age? After a while it'd start to look like the statue of liberty.
“Well, wasn't like we had a whole hell of a lot to do all freakin' winter,” Max's voice echoed from the cab. There was a clatter of metal on metal, then the window opened.
That was true Perry thought. They'd had a hell of a long boring winter. His men had been a handful; he'd had to come down on gambling and drinking in the barracks monthly. The Silent Knights had been busy though, he'd had Gunny Paris out training them in winter ops off and on. To date they'd only lost a couple of toes to frostbite.
Now that it was spring things were looking up. It was an early spring; some of the natives were worried about a last minute change in the weather but so far so good. They had an extra month of spring to deal with. More mud, cold rain, and muck.
Max leaned out of the cab. Perry snorted. The beefy engineer was dressed as a rail road engineer, complete with denim overalls and a cap. “Ayup, she's a beaut isn't she?” he grinned. “I can't wait to get her going. We've got a rail line going in between here and Bixby mine now that the snows cleared. Spent all winter figuring out how to make rail and spikes. Stockpiled a crap load but it's going out damn slow! I was hoping to get things rolling but it's going a tad slow.” He shook his head in annoyance. “I forgot about the damn rail road ties,” he finally grumbled.
“What about them?” Perry asked in confusion.
“They're made of trees remember?” Max asked testily, shaking his head. “We gotta have a hell of a lot of them. Either that or plastic ones,” he growled. Max leaned against the window. “I'm using iron spacers, plywood, even a rebar and cement thing someone cooked up.”
Perry nodded. “Whatever works.”
“Yeah well, we found out the hard way that the native plywood doesn't,” Scooter said dryly. “We need to work on the glue some more. Maybe a kiln or something,” he grimaced.
“Whatever,” Perry said shaking his head and smiling.
“We can make do with that though.” Scooter pointed to the hand car on the test track. Ryans was on it with Deidra. He was pushing up and down with her as the crowd watched. A few pumps and the car, really just a wheel truck with a plywood platform on top began to move slowly and then faster. Deidra was smiling despite the work out.
“Nice. Real get up and go. I'd hate to try it on a hill though. How are we set for autos?” Perry asked.
“One thing at a time!” Cecily said in exasperation, leaning out beside Max. She was dressed just like Max but had some soot on her nose and right cheek. “I just finished the valves on this monstrosity, give us a break!” She rubbed her belly. From the scuttlebutt that was floating around she was pregnant. That was hard to believe since they were all fixed. Unless the big machinist had gone to Doc to get it reversed he mused. Possible, quite possible.
“Sure, which vertebra?” Perry asked. Max grinned. He opened his mouth to reply but his new wife elbowed him firmly and then dragged him away from the window. Perry snorted. The two of them were living in the castle still but Max had a townhouse under construction in the capital. Deidra and the House of Lords had deeded the land over to him, no taxes on the land for his remaining life.
“You’re in good spirits,” Ryans said coming over. He was a little sweaty. He ran his hand through his hair and then used a purple towel with the royal crest on it draped over his shoulders to wipe the sweat. It was still pretty chilly but a lot better than it had been a month ago. He didn't want to get sick, Deidra would kill him. That was if Sue didn't first.
“Sure. We're making good progress. Spring has sprung, and we've got most of the military turned around. No problems on the horizon now, so why not be chipper?” Perry asked. What really had him in a good mood was the immanent capture of the vortex. It was now stable and the machinery was charging. Now they needed the right window to return home. Plus there was a bit of other good news.
“Good point. Take things one day at a time,” Ryans smiled politely, turning to his wife a short ways away. She was talking with some of the lords. A few of the teens were on the hand car, giving it a try. Lord Appleworthy looked ready to have a go with young Zara. Zara climbed on with his help and then started it going. They'd better get their fun in now; the two of them were due to leave for Duluth soon. The advanced parties of Silent Knights and diplomats had already left yesterday.
“Well, there's that, but then there's the news I got.”
“Oh?”
“Vortex watch got a signal this morning,” Perry said with a grin.
“You’re kidding!” Ryans said smiling. Deidra looked up at him and then turned back to the lords with a slight frown. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders. Something that had bothered him in the back of his mind was that the vortex would somehow shift to another world. Silly since the MALPS had come back and forth through it, but it was a nagging worry. One he could now apparently put to rest.
Perry shook his head. “Nope. We pinpointed the location of the vortex. It's coming back, just like you said.”
“And you got a signal through?”
Perry nodded. “Yup. Which means our side is primed. We've got a couple of months before we enter into the sun's highest sunspot cycle though.”
“How'd you figure that?” Ryans asked wrinkling his nose. Sergio was their amateur astronomer. He was working with the Da-Vinci’s lone son to build a better scope since the elderly couple had died in the epidemic. The astronomer merchants were out and about, already running caravans. Apparently they wanted to take advantage of the cold and lack of snow before the thaw really took hold and the grounds totally melted and the muck made roads impassable for a month.
“Sydney. He got the inkling from compiling the records in the library.”
“I was actually building an almanac. Or at least trying to do so. They don't have barometric or temperature readings though so it's not accurate,” Sydney explained, coming over.
The two men turned to him. Sydney of course had a camera out, ready to document the event for posterity. Hopefully it would go better than the garden locomotive. There was one good thing, S
cooter wasn't driving this time. “But you instituted it now so we've got something to build on,” Perry replied.
“Weather forecasting looks really important here. They're going to need it. Those summer storms were hairy,” Sydney said. He shivered. “Don't even get me started on the winter blizzards,” he said firmly. Both men nodded. The blizzards had been nasty, like living in the arctic back home. It made one yearn to move south for warmer pastures. Preferably beach front property.
“You think it's bad here away from the coast, try it on the ocean,” Deidra said shaking her head. “Father told us of a bad blow when he took his one and only trip on the seas,” she replied wrinkling her nose She grimaced as she hugged herself to Ryans. “He said half of the fleet was lost. The rest were scattered.”
“Well, since they were using square sails and boats with a light draft I can believe it. Those things are death traps. Mediterranean designs, not something you can use in deep water,” Sydney replied shaking his head. “It'd be interesting to get some shots of the triremes though. Wait....If he took one trip how'd he get back?” he asked.
She shrugged. “He said it was the return trip.”
“Oh,” Sydney shook his head. Ryans snorted.
“Well, we've got a couple of months before they can get things sorted out with the vortex Sydney. If you want a trip to the coast, I'll see if we can arrange something,” Ryans said.
“I'd like that,” the historian said and then nodded. He glanced at Perry.
The lieutenant held his hands up. “Don't look at me. I'm going to be busy enough as it is. We've had our winter vacation. Time to get back to work.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Deidra said smiling.
<==={}------------>
Perry smiled at Ryans as Answorth and Coji came in. The teenagers had changed since they had started out as pages assigned to Perry and Ryans a year ago. Now they looked more like Terrans than natives.
Both were dressed in denim jeans, complete with a hardy long sleeved shirt in the red and gold of the royal house.