by P. S. Power
He didn’t mention names at all, but Dorgal wasn’t stupid or selfish that he’d seen.
“Of course! I wouldn’t have it any other way. Ambassador Hess, would you and your friend be able to recommend who we should invite? You two are expected, by the way. If you can come?”
Hess nodded, and blinked with all four eyes at once. That was a bit different, since they normally alternated, Dare realized.
“Ohsh. Issss…” He let his mouth drop open, and looked at Neesa, who rather adroitly took over.
“We can do that, sir? How many would be allowable for this?”
That got Dareg stared at, but he had an idea already, so nodded.
“Sixty? Not including anyone that wants to volunteer to be on the crew. That will allow twenty from each of the main groups. Tell Erath that we expect to hear of a tiny Ysidril volunteer however. There will be floors to clean, I’m certain. Trash to pick up and so forth.”
That got Neesa to drop her head and then smile, her mouth open wide.
“I’ll make certain to pass that along.”
The rest of the table looked on then, not getting the idea, so Dareg explained it, not really saving Erath’s pride that well. Not that he was mean.
“Erath is a Ysidril child. They don’t select a sex until they turn about ten or so, how do you refer to them before that age? Instead of he or she, I mean…” He’d used it a few times, in his head mainly, but that had to be rude.
“Ye.” Neesa didn’t seem upset to be asked about that at least. So far the Ysidril didn’t, when questions came up. About anything.
“Right. So ye, who is seven, I think?” That got nods from both Ysidril, showing he was correct enough. “Ye managed to, um, borrow, one of the jump ships and take it to the lost Ysidril home world. We found the ship all right, and its fairly big news, but a certain small someone is going to have some privileges revoked, I bet.” That got polite chuckles and a few covered mouths down the table. “I mentioned that we should send Erath to you, Alice, for pilot training. The way it happened wasn’t that great, but notice, the lost home world was found. That shows real promise.”
Instead of slapping the table and screaming about how no child was good enough for Fleet, she looked over at him, and nodded.
“Good thinking, Canton. Set that up. We won’t induct the child however, but classes won’t hurt anyone. Queen Tiera was talking about increasing the amount of Jump ships our new friends have soon, so getting a few others in as well makes sense. New pilots? We’ll want you on the training for that. Possibly this Erath as well. That kind of skill should be copied if we can work it out.”
Neesa seemed baffled, a bit, but didn’t yell no and start to flee. She could of course just refuse; which Dare would make certain she understood. Erath was a kid and young enough that waiting ten years for that kind of training wasn’t all that unexpected, really.
They worked out what Dareg needed to do for the party, which was a lot, actually, given that he was the Captain for the trip. It was his job to make certain they had the correct number of rooms, food, supplies, cooks and all that. Servants, too. On top of that he was in charge of the entertainment, which as far as he knew, meant more than getting Marco and his band to play a few songs.
The media crew was his as well. All of that got committed to memory, but it didn’t really take that long to work out, meaning that Alice was able to stand, about fifteen minutes later, clearly feeling bored with what they were talking about.
“Now. Dareg here is going to demonstrate his new armor and weapons systems. The design is meant to protect against Adversary attacks. We don’t have anyone of that nature to test this for us, unfortunately, so a simple demonstration will have to do. Canton?”
She started to leave, which, very oddly, got everyone in the entire room to follow along. Hess needed to be helped, which was done by Count Ward, who managed to do it while seeming only companionable. Like he would have done for any of his peers that were having trouble, while allowing them to save face.
It was interesting at the door, since they had to open the front of the building a good way to get all the cases out. Tor moved to them and actually touched one of them, looking a bit troubled about it, as the front of the white and cream building was closed up.
Wincing, Dare nodded, understanding that particular look.
“I know; they aren’t that great. I blame the fact that I was sloppy and unskilled when I made them. I have a different plan for the next batch.” He felt almost ashamed of his failure, but Alyssa wrinkled her nose at him, and shook her head as they all walked along, away from the buildings. That move was led by Petra.
Her voice called back to everyone else.
“This way a bit. These things can be a bit hard on the environment.”
Then, as if invited too, she waved at Dareg.
“Do you have some of these we can test?”
He did, the floating case behind him being the ones for that. Opening it, he started to hand things out, providing hemp strings with the amulets. Then he took out one of the lights he had with him and made the world glow brightly enough that it seemed like it was noon. The color even matched sunlight perfectly and was warm. Before he could speak, or do anything in particular, Petra took over again.
“The armor is a physical creation, which should work against the Adversaries, unlike the more traditional energy shields. They use resources from the environment to create it. Piscean armor, based on the design that you’ve been using, Alice. Like this…”
The dark skinned woman tapped her throat, and the world around her rushed in, as a gray cloud. Two seconds later she was in armor from head to toe.
“I don’t know the specs on all of it. It goes through a regular shield however, so you can wear both at one time. Under stress it holds up very well. We haven’t been able to break it with a physical object yet at least. Dare? Anything else?”
“Um… Yes. If you’re in space, say in a ship, it will use what’s inside of your intestines for material, then your hair. If that isn’t enough, the whole thing will abort. So it’s something to think about. On the Ysidril it won’t take your form fitting outfits, though it will regular clothing. It has to fit tightly, so the forces can be absorbed correctly. If you have a clothing amulet on, it will be turned off, so keep that in mind. When you turn it off it turns to dust and falls off, but you’ll be naked.”
That warning didn’t stop Alice from trying it, doing it several times, and not seeming to be bothered about being nude when she dropped the thing. On the fourth round of turning it on, she stopped and ran for a bit, then spoke, her voice sounding pleased.
“It feels correct. I’ll have Morris go over stress tests for it, later. Good. Now, the weapons system?”
That was a bit more fun, for most of them. Petra did tricks, having Ali use the device, while targeting and destroying stones tossed into the air. Everyone, including Neesa, took a turn doing it. Then she risked trying the armor as well, which was impressive on her. It looked totally different, but fit perfectly and allowed her to move around about as well as she could on Earth anyway.
The gravity was just too much for her or Hess to be comfortable there. Which got him to nod. They had shields that would allow them to float or fly, which meant he could reduce their weight as well, easily enough. He decided that it would be his next project. Later that night, after they were done with the new toys.
Everyone there was given one of each of the things, with full explanations on how to use them.
“That way, if we have to fight, we can. It isn’t perfect, but it’s something.” A start, Dare hoped.
Tor nodded, his face a bit blank. The man looked at him, and a wave of concern flowed off of him. About what he was planning to say next, instead of anything else. That much was clear.
“We… Should make certain that the Royal Guard has some of these. Possibly some other people…” It was, Dareg knew, that he didn’t want to make more work for his son at the moment.
“I’ll trade you? You go over how to make jump ships with me, and I’ll get that done as soon as possible?”
That got Sam to laugh, and then shake his head.
“I suppose it is about time for that lesson. It sounds like a fair bargain to me. Tor?”
“Right! We can do that now. Would it be all right to leave from here? I hate to kill the party, but…”
That, it turned out, was fine with almost everyone, except Collette, who wanted to make certain that Hess, Neesa and Alice all realized that they were welcome to come and stay, or even live, there with Dorgal and her. Tor even nodded at that, smiling. It was his house after all, but it didn’t seem to be a problem.
“Agreed. We should at least set up a visit.”
It took a bit, since bows, hugs and sweet words were needed for a lot of the people. Then over half of them rose into the air, and followed along with them, all of the cases traveling in the same direction. It was a bit of wasted effort, but the alternative would have been leaving all that work just sitting outside of his tiny pod house. It was possible that no one would have touched it, but putting temptation in the way of people like that was a poor idea.
As they traveled, Tor murmured to him about how to not only make ships, growing them, but also how to make millions, or more copies of things at one time. It made sense, but he was going to either need help getting the tiles for that, or was going to have to make a new magical device for it. That no one had probably either meant they were lazy, or he was, for thinking of it in the first place. Still, it made sense to him to give it a try.
Once he got home, ducking under the small floating port river, he nodded and did his own bowing to people.
A few moved in for hugs, which included Alyssa, Countess Ward, and cutely enough Neesa. Petra just pounded him on the back a few times.
“Taking a rest day tomorrow? That was an impressive practice earlier.” She didn’t explain it, but he shook his head firmly.
“Nope. I missed three days. I’m going to come and work in the morning. Then in the afternoon I have a date. Wendra and I are invading Timon’s palace, since her parents live there.” Before he could explain who that was, Tor smiled, standing back a few feet.
“Wonderful! Alyssa and I will be here for a week or so. We came so that she can meet with you, Karina and Connie about the wedding. That could be set up for tomorrow evening? Unless you need that to spend with your friend?”
The words were a bit pushy, but Dare got the meaning. Tor wasn’t ordering him around, just trying to give him a way to leave Wendra without having sex first, since it was still possible that he might not handle that part very well. He’d been planning to enlist Alice’s help with that part, but she’d left directly, already having taken off even.
So it was a good idea to put Wendra off that way, for the time being.
“That should work. Not too early. About six?” That would let them work before dinner was served. As it was, as soon as everyone else left, he was going to need to eat again. Then do some work. He had six or seven things that suddenly seemed incredibly important for him to build. Meditation was also in the cards, if he managed to find the time for it.
Tor bowed to him, but Ali gave him another hug, pressing against him a bit too tightly, her breasts perking up enough to show how interesting she found him. It was a bit inappropriate, since everyone else was still right there, waiting for her and Tor to leave, so they could without being rude.
It took a while to get those with ships off for the evening, but finally, at about midnight, he was alone again. That meant he got to spend six hours doing nothing but working, only managing to lose one of the new builds he tried. That was because Dare was forcing himself to be clever about it all. He needed tiles, part of the time, but the same magic he had in mind for that could also be used to go and get dirt, turn it into focus stone tiles, of various shapes on command, and to either deliver them outside his door into cases he put out for that purpose, or into the side of Tam-Unit.
That part wasn’t hard really. The issue was that the Tam-Units in Austra weren’t being filled regularly by the people there, so she needed a way to control the device herself. Being magic, she couldn’t actually just use her mind for the job, which meant she had to be able to tell the things what to do. In the end that meant they had to be smarter than the average device. By far. Nearly as much as one of the Tam-Units, or the comps.
They didn’t get a face, like she had, but did get a voice, and the ability to see and hear.
It took most of the night, but as the first load of tiles came in, it was clear that the whole thing had worked pretty well. After that Dare made a thousand copies of it, and finished the other work he had in mind. Then he started a batch of jump ships, planning a thousand of them out. There was no reason to do fewer in particular. It would still take about a month for that to be done, but there was another thing that he had in mind that would be similar, but much faster. Simpler, in a lot of ways, meaning he could do the work directly, rather than growing the things like plants.
Which meant he had several new items the next morning when he got out for his run. He only did one lap, and grabbed some of the new tiles, setting up what looked like a small magical hut, about half the size of his pod house, though taller by nearly five feet. That was just put out over by Tam-Unit, who called out to him when he passed.
“Dareg! Do you need something to eat? More of those drinks? Did that work for you? I wasn’t certain the cans would go over well…”
“It was perfect. That really would work pretty well for now, if it isn’t a problem? Oh… I also have someone that I’d like you to meet?”
“Oh? That’s fun! I do like meeting new people.”
It required going and getting some of the new devices out, since he’d really only needed the one so far.
Setting it up, a two toned box like thing floated above the ground by about two feet and a bit. It had a head of sorts on the front, but looked a lot like a tiny child’s wagon behind that. In all, it seemed a lot like a little Tam-car, except there was an extra box in the middle. It was about four feet long and half that wide.
“Tam-Unit, this is Tyler. He makes tiles.”
She giggled a bit, the face on the display smiling.
“Pleased to meet you, Tyler! Are you going to be working here?”
There was a half moment of silence and then a voice came out, in rather good standard. The accent was nearly noble. That was the plan anyway. It was how they all sounded to him, more or less.
“Indeed, mum! Master Dareg was telling me earlier that I could simply fill you up with tiles as you need? Please do feel free to let me know where to make the deliveries. Soon I should be at all the ports, I hope!”
The large blue box went silent for a bit, and then chuckled a little.
“I see! This is wonderful! For Austra?”
Dare nodded, smiling.
“Exactly. The new red huts are for the ports as well. If they work. I’ll go over that later. If anyone asks, they aren’t restrooms.”
They chatted for a bit, Tyler setting out to make certain that all the Tam-Units were filled, as Dare took off for the morning, holding a large wicker basket with cans of dense high calorie drinks in it. Plus, some nice cloth napkins. Those were a new touch, but sweet of Tam-Unit to have thought about.
The flight over to Printer didn’t take long, but there was no one in the practice area, when he got there. It was only about nine in the morning there, and on an off day. That meant there was no one to complain when he set up a second red hut, in the far corner that no one used much.
No one arrived until he did a full stone rotation, or really one and a half, and broke
one of the older pells in two. That meant he had to replace it, which took him longer, not having done it himself before. That was just being finished when David Derring got there, warming up for the day. He looked at the hut, but didn’t ask about it. Not until he finished stretching for a bit.
“Prince Dareg! I couldn’t help but notice that the place has changed suddenly. Is it all right for me to ask about that? Or is it a secret?”
Dare blew out a full breath suddenly, and then tilted his head.
“Both? Do you want to try it? I haven’t yet, so we could both die, if it doesn’t work. Then again, it’s probably safe. Maybe.” It was. He knew that the worst that would happen would be nothing, but expected the other man to hedge a bit.
That didn’t happen. Instead he nodded seriously, but gamely enough.
“Sure. What do we do?”
That got him to walk over to the thing and touch the door sigil.
“If you can see that blue star, that means the box is ready for use. We just go right inside. Don’t worry, the ceiling glows. Like this…” The door on the front vanished and let them walk inside, not reappearing until he touched the star on the back wall. That sealed them in. There was no air inside the thing, except what they started with, so staying there for a long time was a poor plan. If anyone tried it, the thing would shut all the way off, the amulet falling to the ground, after ten minutes.
“Right now there’s only one of these set up. At the Capital Port. Touch that sigil there?” It was glowing, in large blue letters, off to the far left. They were nearly half an inch high, and said the name of the place.
“Like a communications device?”
“That’s how it works, right. I copied the basic interface from that. As we add more it will list the names of where they are out, and you can scroll through it by touching the arrows on the left.”