“So, you gun’ have your house done up too, Jedin?” A grey, salt caked, miner shouted over the roar of a drill he clutched heavily in his arms.
The men, who’d just gotten familiar with the strange new tools in their workplace were speaking, of course, about the transformation spreading across their village home as Arna and Reynolds surplus of power was slowly divvied out.
Many of the miners had already swallowed the expense and quickly began bragging about the lack of putrid oil smell from the old, replaced lanterns. But while Jedin and others certainly saw the benefits of their new drills and hydraulic rams, many couldn’t rationalize spending a ton of coins to replace their candles and oil lanterns.
For the few like him, it would take until winter for their minds to fully change, but there was no real rush. The electrification of Varn was still considered a side project until power could be created for cheaper, fusion or fission for example.
The air around the Arna and Reynolds complex was constantly stirring now that aircraft were coming and going regularly.
Some would load up with coal or salt headed south towards Yopir-Fan, or north-west towards Irias and the shipyard where they could be loaded on boats destined up the coastline, while others unloaded precious resources for the slowly reviving industrial complex.
Shipments of bauxite for aluminum production were brought from hundreds of miles to the east via a small farming village.
Triple 7s were packed with oxen-like livestock, and flightless birds, to feed the tremendous machine necessary in running the company.
And of course, there were no shortage of people on those flights now that other sites had been discovered across the continent. The region had turned from ignored valley into a small hub of travel and tourism.
For the people like Jedin, and the others he worked with in the mine who’d lived in the area their entire lives, the change was more nuisance than gift. Small shops they’d frequented their entire lives were suddenly packed and expanding; and finding a seat in a bar was next to impossible. But for all the griping, they had also seen a major increase in their wages as the cost of transport was reduced, so they weren’t too eager to complain.
And A&R weren’t the only ones investing in the area, ever since the Irias Gala, more than a few trade organizations and foreign companies had started opening bases in the area around the village. The Gaurdian Trade Union for instance purchased a large plot of land directly from Count Ruker, and the Passage Group had even expressed interest in widening the river so they could have closer portage for the village.
Things were happening quickly, and the miners deep underground could have no idea of the revolution happening above their heads.
At one of the various new buildings sprouting up around the village, a set of two, quite different, types were facing off in a roughly formed circle.
“It’s a bit like magic you could say.” Sophia nodded, thinking the small man’s explanation was a bit too on the nose to deny. She wasn’t sure how to handle the dwarf; her HR mandated training had taught her not to even use the word, so she nearly fainted when the job was placed in her lap.
Going back a few days, you could easily trace the job to Third’s latest expedition. Apparently, while he was dirt biking in a valley, he was discovered an extremely territorial cohort of dwarves.
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Figures.
The group immediately captured him and dragged him to their underground home. His fear was that he would be eaten, but instead, even worse they began disassembling his precious Yamaha. They interrogated him about its operation for hours, but fortunately his answers seemed to be sufficient in abating their curiosity. Still, they held him prisoner as they discussed how they should proceed.
The cave they lived in was small, and so Third was able to overhear much of the discussion, they seemed to be split about how they should proceed. One group were embarrassed to have found a machine that surpassed their knowledge, while the others wanted to prioritize some new discovery they’d made nearby.
Third took this opportunity as his best for freedom and announced something that made them immediately interested.
If they freed him, he would give them a machine capable of replicating itself.
Which, in theory is possible Gary and a few engineers agreed regarding the holy grail of industrial machining. The lathe, the tool that built the industrial world. And now, in this new world, could there be any group better to demonstrate the power but the dwarves?
As promised, a few days after they let him go, the group arrived at the valley Arna and Reynolds had occupied. Which brings us back to the magic.
“Just wait till you see the chips, it’s quite the machine.” One of the local villagers gushed to the new group of guests. The young mason who spoke had taken interest in A&R immediately and was fortunate enough to get into the vocational training program through the academy. It was there that he’d first become enamored with the lathe. The very first thing he did was bring home a round rod he’d created. It was the most perfect item he’d ever laid his eyes on and even touching it felt like disturbing its subtly perfection.
Which was true in more ways than he yet knew, but he’d only just begun those classes at the time.
“Let’s see then, what you’ve set-up for us.” The dwarf with the stoutest beard grunted with a jog of his head. Taking the lead, he stepped up the short stairway and meet a door with a rounded knob. Cocking his head with a twitch of his eye, he gripped the handle and subtly moved it on each axis. Starting with a pull that gave no responses, followed by a push that gave the same, he eventually settled on a turn based on his observation on the features of the base. Satisfyingly, his third guess ended up correct and the door smoothly pushed open as he turned its knob.
Instantly his greasy wrinkled brow was kissed with a cool gust of conditioned air as he stepped past the threshold. Seeking the source, he found nothing but cleanly painted walls and ceiling. It baffled him, so he continued down the hall allowing the other dwarves and Sophia’s group of supervisors to enter behind him.
When the shock began wearing off, the hall opened into a large unobstructed shop space. It was here that the dwarves would be founding their next enterprise. They were surrounded by machines unlike any they’d ever seen before. They immediately scrambled to inspect and possibly disassemble the various machines but what halted their steps was the sight of something far larger than any of the others.
The drill-presses and slotting machines could wait, in the very center of the room, with dozens of feet of clearance on all sides, was the mystical machine that Third had courted them with.
“It’s got forty-eight inch jaws, nearly a four hundred horsepower, it can spin a few hundred tons at two thousand rpm.”
The dwarves gazed at the machine with complicated expressions. They saw countless mechanisms within it that they’d never even considered before. Rack and pinon gears for driving the massive tool head, thick flattened chains for transferring the power; their brains roared with inspiration as they quickly comprehended the possibilities. But at the same time, they felt defeated in a certain way. Their stubbornness wanted them to turn around right then and there, but they knew their place was here.
The short men looked to each other after a few moments with grave eyes. They weren’t ones to back away from their word though, so after confirming enough nods to be a consensus, the dwarves returned their attention to the Arna and Reynolds representatives with Sophia at their center.
“Very well, a deal is a deal. We will arrange for someone to lead you to the location of the mithril deposit we discovered.”
Sophia and her team blinked blankly as they computed the words slowly. Remembering who had caused this all in the first place, Sophia was first to recover, but her mind couldn’t even form a business-like response.
“You’ll… where?”