"I've never seen anything like the armor they're wearing," Kren said.
"Actually, those are old space suits," the duke said. "New ones would be hideously expensive, but these all had to be scrapped because they leaked air. But that's not a problem down here, and I always buy them, when they come on the market. I've got eleven gross of them now, and my best units have them."
"Those are space suits?" Kren said.
"They were. The Space Mitchegai all clip their claws very short, so we have to open up the gloves and boots to let ours out. We've taken the fittings for the breathing packs off, along with the heating and cooling apparatus, which wouldn't be allowed by the rules of war, and I never bought the space helmets in the first place. After that, well, a coat of paint in my colors, and there you are."
"I didn't know that any of the armies were using full armor."
"I might be the only duke with any large number of armored troops. Most of them find it cheaper to hire new troops than to armor the old ones. And in fact, I've never committed my armored division to combat. They've always been my strategic reserve, and so far, I've always won before they were committed to battle. But someday, I will need some real shock troops, and when that day happens, I'll have them."
"Conventional wisdom is that armor slows you down more than it is worth."
"To a certain extent, it does slow a soldier down. Also, the extra weight upsets your coordination and balance. To get good in it, you pretty much have to live in the stuff, full time, which is precisely what all of these troops do. They even sleep in it, usually."
"I'd like to try sparring in armor, sometime."
"We can do that tomorrow, if you'd like. I just bought four new suits that haven't been assigned to individuals yet. I think that two of them should be ready."
"I'll look forward to it."
When the individual matches were over, the two platoons formed up a battle line and fought a general mêlée, which left three troops standing from one side, and none from the other. The points were tallied up, and the losing side went back to their barracks. The winners got to join the party, and hobnob with the aristocracy, still in their armor, but with their helmets off so that they could eat.
The next day, a palace servant escorted Kren back to the arena, where he found Duke Dennon already putting on a suit of armor, with the help of some armored soldiers.
"Ah, there you are, Kren! Well, get suited up, and we'll try each other's mettle."
"As you wish, Dennon, but I hadn't expected to be fighting you."
"Well, it would hardly be fair to put you up against someone who had been living in armor for years. I'm not a novice to fighting, of course, so I expect that I'll give you a bit of a challenge. Just be sure that you give me your best effort as well. I would be seriously offended if I thought you were faking it just to make me look good."
"Again, as you wish."
It took two soldiers twelve minutes to get Kren's armor installed and fitted properly, and he spent another two dozen minutes moving around, getting used to the feel of it. The weight of the tail armor was particularly bothersome. It threw his balance off considerably.
Finally, Kren said, "I think that I've got the feel of it now. I'm ready if you are."
"You are doing better than most," the duke said. "Many troops spend most of their first week getting up again, after they've fallen down, again. On guard!"
They started slow, feeling each other out the way professional fighters always do. Then the duke launched a fast attack, feinting with his spear while attacking with his sword on the other side. Kren was just able to parry both weapons, but his riposte didn't get through, and he had to leap backward to avoid the counter. After a short breather, Kren attacked, and after six counters, he doubled under the duke's sword, fencing style, and caught him in the chest with a thrust.
"Well done, Kren! I should have known to guard better against your point, having seen you fight at an épée tournament. Well then, do you want to have a go at one of my troops?"
Kren agreed to it, after a few minutes to catch his breath. The armor around his waist interfered with his lung exhausts.
In the course of the morning, Kren beat six of the duke's warriors, without losing a match.
"Wow, but your troops are good!" Kren said, "That last one in particular almost had me at least six times there! I hope that I never have to go to war against this bunch!"
"That last one was my weapons' master, Kren, and you are the first one to defeat him in his last three lifetimes! We are all astonished at your prowess, and to fight this well on your first day in armor, well, it is simply astounding!"
"Thank you. I think that I've had enough of a workout for today, though. I'll be happier when I get this armor off. My tail is protesting more than anything else. If this armor were mine, I think I'd have the tail armor removed, and just let my tail take its chances."
"Most novices to armor say that for the first two weeks. They get used to it in time, though, and an armored tail is sometimes useful. Once the strength in it builds up, the tail is useful for blocking with."
"Yes, I noticed two of your soldiers using it that way. But for now, get me out of this stuff!"
They spent the rest of the day strolling around the palace and its grounds. Most of the conversation revolved around Duke Dennon's problems in managing his estate.
To the duke, managerial details were simply a nuisance. His true and only intrest was in war, and in further developing his army. All else was trivia. In the late afternoon, the duke was called away to settle a minor emergency. He and Kren agreed to meet again in the morning.
Kren spent the evening reading a novel from the duke's small library.
In the morning, Dol came to Kren's room and started waxing enthusiastically about all of the machinery that she had spent the day before examining.
"I said that there were seven big tunneling machines, sir, but from the drawings, I didn't realize just how big they are," Dol said. "They each break up into eleven pieces so that they can be transported by rail! Can you imagine something eleven times as big as a rail car? Those things are built to dig a tunnel twelve yards in diameter through solid rock, loose sand, and everything in between. The cutters in the front can take on anything natural, even granite, chew it up, and spit it down a vibratory conveyor line that it drags behind it. They can move at a yard a minute through granite, and three times that fast through dirt. Actually, it's the conveyors that slow them down, just hauling the stuff away. And if the material is too soft to hold itself up, the tunnelers are equipped to build a metal tube to line the tunnel with. They take a coil of stainless metal, form corrugations in it, and then weld it in a spiral around the inside, all automatically. They've each got their own fusion power supply, too, and can run for a thousand years without refueling."
"That sounds impressive. It also sounds a little big, just to have juvenals running down it a few times a year."
"Right, sir. But there is also an eighth tunneler, intended for exploratory work. It cuts a tunnel three yards in diameter, dragging an extendable conveyor line behind itself, just like the big ones do. Through dirt, it can do twelve yards a minute, since it uses the same conveyors as the big ones do."
Kren said, "And does it put in the metal lining, like the big ones do? I think that most of the tunnels from the train stations to the wintering centers will be shallow, and through dirt, not rock."
"Oh, yes, sir. It does everything that the big ones do, except break up for shipment. It doesn't have to, since it will fit on a flatcar."
"Then that solves one of our problems."
Duke Dennon walked in through the open doorway.
"You were having problems, Kren?" The duke said in stilted Keno, which Dol and Kren had been using.
"Just the minor problem of getting the juvenals from the wintering centers to the train stations in the wintertime. If we had the use of your small tunneler, we could put in an underground connection to each of them, and thus
avoid the inevitable losses that would occur if we took the children outside during bad weather."
"Oh. Yes, I can see where many of them might freeze to death, doing such a thing, and that would cut into your profits. Well, I'm sure that we can arrange something, one way or another. I've found a surplus equipment buyer who has offered to pay me one sixth of what I had to pay for all of that stuff, but that's the best offer I've had."
"Just how much did you pay for it, if I may ask," Kren said.
"You may. Including transportation charges, but not counting legal fees and the atrocious penalties I had to pay for late payment, it came to just over eight dozen billion Ke."
"Hmmm. It is possible that I could better the offer that the scrap dealer made you, but there would have to be a number of stipulations."
"I am interested. Just what stipulations did you have in mind?" The duke unconsciously slipped over to Meno, which he was more comfortable with.
Kren said in Meno, leaving Dol out of it for a while, "First off, I don't have anyplace to store so much equipment. Could I leave it here until I need it?"
"I don't see why not. We have plenty of room. I could let you store it here for, say, twelve years, before I start charging you rent on it."
"That would be adequate. Next, I'm a little low on ready cash just now. Would you be willing to take stock in my corporation in return for your equipment?"
"Now that would take some mulling over. How much were you thinking of offering me?" the duke asked.
"I offer to take it all for one quarter of what you paid, two dozen billion Ke."
"That sounds reasonable, and more than anyone else has offered. But this stock of yours, what sort of dividends do you intend to pay?"
"I intend for my company to continue reinvesting all of our considerable profits back into the business for the foreseeable future. There won't be any dividends for a very long time," Kren said.
"Well, what bloody good is an investment that doesn't make me any money? I'd be better off working with the used equipment dealer. There at least, I'd get something for my machinery! Why should I accept your strange offer?"
"You should accept my offer because it will make your army invincible, and you a world conqueror!"
The duke closed the door and sat down. "That is a remarkable statement. Would you care to expand on it?"
"I'd be happy to. You have admired my athletic abilities, and yesterday, you were impressed with my prowess as a warrior, yes?"
"Certainly. You are the perfect athlete. I've been saying so since I saw you win that first fencing tournament."
Kren said, "Would you like to have every soldier in your army be as good an athlete, as good a warrior as I am?"
"By the Great First Egg, I certainly would! Are you saying that this is possible?"
"I think that it is. But first, I must tell you that before I got this body, I was not a particularly adept soldier, and I wasn't any sort of an athlete at all. I was in fact physically very ordinary. Then I was badly injured in a field exercise, and didn't stand a chance of living half a day. It was night, and we were out of touch with our commander. There wasn't a normal metamorphosed youngster available to eat my brain, but a friend of mine found an ordinary slave, without much of a brain of his own. It could have worked out badly, but I urged my squad to give it a try, and they did. You have seen the result. There is something very special about this body, and I think perhaps it has something to do with the nerves. I think that with proper breeding and a lot of work, we can get it to breed true. It will probably take three or four generations to do it, but I am confident that in the end it can be done before this body is worn out. Then, we will have a breed of Mitchegai that can be the finest warriors the universe has ever seen! You were willing to bet a gross billion Ke on the outcome of a fencing tournament. I'm willing to bet that you would wager some useless machinery on the hope of building the finest army in this world, or any other!"
"You would win that bet, Kren! I'm with you!"
"Excellent, Duke Dennon! I see a long and mutually profitable partnership before us."
"Partnership?"
"Well, this is premature, and it will be many years before it brings fruit, but think on this. My interest is in business and management. Your interest is in armies and war. If we had a trusting relationship, together we could, in time, rule this entire planet!"
"That is a very interesting thought, Kren, but as you say, it is for the future. For now, I will have what we have agreed to today properly written up, and sent to you in a few days for your signature."
"Excellent, Dennon. You'll be hearing from us soon. For now, there's a train to catch."
"Very well, Kren. For war and profit!"
"Yes! For war and profit!" Kren switched to Keno. "Come along, Dol. It's time to go."
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER
Billions for Building
Again, Duke Kren satisfied the needs of nature, with the pain in his head pulsing. Yet, as he reviewed his memories, he couldn't help but think that those were the great old days! The days of joy and fulfillment!
He lay down, and put the recording helmet back on.
Once they were in their private cabin on the train, Dol said, "Kren, just what was all that about?"
"Sorry, but the duke's Keno isn't very good. I just made a deal whereby Duke Dennon will give us all of the machinery that you inspected yesterday, in return for two dozen billion Ke worth of our corporation's shares, which he doesn't expect to make any money off of!"
"How wonderful, sir."
"You don't seem to be very enthusiastic about it," Kren said.
"I'm not! Don't you see that you've just blown me off the board of directors?"
"Perhaps, but not necessarily. The corporation only elects a new board once a year. You have plenty of time to come up with a few dozen billion Ke, and invest it properly in your favorite corporation. Then you can blow Bronki off the board."
"There is that, yes," Dol said.
"And anyway, the corporation is going to need a lot of spending cash."
"I expect that it will get it, since Bronki won't like being pushed out, either. She'll be buying more stock, too. Watch her!"
"Right, she will. Have fun, you two. If you both get really enthusiastic with the competition, maybe you can blow Duke Dennon off the board," Kren said. "Next, I want you to hire a crew who knows how to use our sort of mining machinery, and start them digging three-yard tunnels from the train stations to the wintering centers."
"Oh, we've already got them, sir."
"We do?"
"Duke Dennon's engineers have all been through an extensive course in how to use all the machinery they bought. The original plan was to have them set it up in that old copper mine themselves. They spent a year in mining school, came back eager to work, and the bottom promptly fell out of the copper market. They've all been sitting around for a year now with nothing to do, and getting very frustrated about it. I've already discussed the project with Chief Engineer Dako, and she wants to start immediately," Dol said.
"Then as soon as we get home, phone her and tell them to start on it! Do you think that they would be willing to take company stock for their work, instead of cash?"
"So far, there has been no mention of money. I tell you, sir, these girls really want to get going on something! But if the subject comes up, I'll relay your suggestion to them."
"I suppose that we can take the dirt we remove and load it directly on to railroad hopper cars," Kren said.
"That is the plan, yes. Dako suggested that the best thing would be to just dump it in the Borako Ocean Trench. There's a railroad station built on the grass mat right above it, and everybody within a thousand miles uses it for a dump. That trench is so big that at present usage, it will take three dozen million years to fill it up."
> The Mitchegai tend to worry about ecological things in the long term, but not that long.
Dol continued, "That's what they were planning to do with the waste material from the Senta Copper Mine. I'll have to make arrangements with the MagFloat Corporation, for cutting holes in the walls of their loading docks, shipping in and out our equipment, and using their floor space to package the children. And hauling away the dirt, of course. I think that once we get the lighting strung up in the tunnels, we'll be able to buy the electricity for them from the railroad as well. It should be a lot cheaper than putting in our own power supplies."
"So you're way ahead of me on this thing. Good. Do it!"
"Thank you, sir," Dol said. "I'll get on it, directly."
"Right. Next subject. I'd been planning on building conventional buildings, big buildings, for growing grass in, and for feeding the juvenals until they are big enough to eat. I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to use the big tunneling machines to make underground buildings. We could take these big, metal-lined tunnels and weld floors in them. We could put lights and water sprinklers on the ceilings, and grass on the floors. Then we could have mowing machines running along rails mounted on the side walls. It has the nice advantage of keeping everybody else from knowing what we are doing."
"That's interesting, sir. I'll do some cost analyses in a few days, once I get the tunnels to the wintering centers going."
"Fine," Kren said. "But talk to Bronki about dealing with the MagFloat Corporation. She probably knows somebody on their board of directors, and can cut us a better deal."
"And get herself a kickback in the process."
"Which she'd better invest in company stock. I'm going to take a nap. Fighting in armor is a real pain in the tail, and I think I'll be sore for days. Wake me when we get home."
Kren felt perfectly safe, sleeping in the same room when Dol was awake there. If he was killed, she wouldn't have a sure thing to bet on.
* * *
When they returned home, Dol filled Bronki in, and she agreed to talk to several old friends on the MagFloat board of directors.
Kren of the Mitchegai Page 24