Chapter Fifteen

Acceleration

Marls clasped the man’s hand, three firm shakes before clasping wrists for a moment. It was the traditional greeting between the headmen of the villages.

“Thank you for coming, Mayor Tensor,” Marls smiled at his old friend.

“President Marls,” Tensor nodded. “Or is it Mayor again, you old rogue?”

“No, no. It is still President, for my sins.” Marls grinned. “The Emissary has not yet spoken of replacing me.”

“I’m stunned,” Tensor shook his head. “And here I was, hoping I would finally get to take your job.”

“Maybe next year, you scumbag!” Marls laughed.

“So, I am here.” Tensor said, the cheer slipping a little as he grew more serious. “Why am I here? Why are my people summoned to the capital and away from our village?”

Marls let the man sweat for a moment before finally letting his smile bloom across his face. It was nearly a permanent fixture these days. That, more than anything was why he had contacted his oldest friend first. He saw the bushy eyebrows draw together, the quick anger of youth still in Tensor.

“I want you and your people to move here,” Marls said when he could not stand to tease the man a moment longer.

Tensor stared at him, confusion on his face.

“I am not joking, Tensor,” Marls said, serious now. “We have need of your people. In time, we will need many more, but I wanted you and yours to be the first.”

He held his hands up to forestall the complaints and questions he knew were coming. “It will be much easier to show you.”

Tensor looked to his wife and council and then nodded.

“Good. Good. Come and see the future of our world.” Marls waved for them to follow him as he led them away from the meeting spot. One he had explicitly chosen because the capital was out of sight.

Marls had walked this land since he was sixteen years old. His father had sent him to this village to claim a single plot of land and a bride, and that day had been full of anxiety but no real fear. For fear, there would have had to be hope for a better life than he had left behind.

A chance of failure.

That was something this world had never offered. Not once in generations.

Now, he was afraid. His dull and predictable world was shattered when the dreaded Black Port exploded like the most giant firework in history.

That had been a day to know fear, or so Marls thought.

And then the Emissary had come.

He heard the gasps as they rounded the line of trees, and the capital was revealed. Marls did not look up, his eyes fixed on that same mud and stones that he had walked so many times in the years between that birthday and now.

“Marls, what is this?” Tensor sounded faint. “Marls?”

Marks just looked back and smiled before finally turning his eyes to the capital.

There were still the farms, of course, with their tumbledown houses that had seen dozens of families through the cycle of seasons, but beyond them…

Lines of granite buildings were topped with new thatch, and the new stone was rendered shiny by the strange machines that turned rock into bricks, the likes of something out of old stories. From here, in the morning sun, they gleamed and sparkled. The muddy streets, so long neglected, had been replaced with wide paving stones that slanted towards drainage ditches on either side.

The town hall rose above them all, the old barn torn down to make way for the four-story wonder that had taken its place. Even from here, he could see the six columns decorating the wide frontage.

“Marls, they have taken the capital and—” Tensor started.

“No!” Marls smirked. “No. These are not their houses. They are ours. More than that, there are enough for you and your people, too.”

Marls pushed open the doors and led the council over to the center of the lobby. Workers were busy, going back and forth around the table in the center. He whispered quickly to his friend.

“That is the Emissary,” Marls said quietly. “The strange one to her left is Trevor, her second.”

“How do I address them?” Tensor had a slight quiver in his voice.

“Trevor we just call Sir,” Marls smiled. “The Emissary we call Mistress.”

“Mistress?” Tensor looked fearful.

“Yes, it bugs the hell out of her.” Marls chuckled. “Trust me and give an old man his fun.”

Tensor hesitated, and Marls was reminded of his own first impressions of the outworlders.

Emissary Cheape had seemed such a contradiction, then. Short but powerfully built, she struck him as intelligent but somehow reserved despite her attractive figure. She could almost have been a local girl if not for how she carried herself. There was a stiffness, a posture about her at all times that reminded him of the great dragons in the old stories. That described the woman well enough, he supposed. Here be dragons.

Trevor was like a cross between a child and a Wiseman, all energy and joy before he seemed wise and confident a moment later. It was unbalancing to those around him.

“Morning, Marls,” Cheape smiled at him. “How are things today?”

/===<<<>>>===\

Cheape was sure these people were new, but she was not 100 percent sure. Her mind had been on the expansion plans for the last hour, and this was not her first project this morning.

“Good morning,” Marls smiled. “Allow me to introduce Mayor Tensor and his council. I invited them to come and join us here. We do need more manpower.”

“We certainly do,” Cheape smiled ruefully. “Mayor Tensor, thank you for coming.”

“It is my pleasure, Mistress,” Tensor bobbed his head in greeting.

Cheape heard the word ‘Mistress’ and felt a twitch in her cheek. That was happening more and more often now. Someday, somehow, Paren would pay for this.

“No need for that,” Cheape said as calmly as possible. “Officer or Emissary is fine.”

“As you say,” Tensor bobbed his head again.

“Join us, please,” Cheape invited the group over.

“This is amazing,” Tensor said, eyes fixed on the map tacked to one edge of the table. “Is this what you plan to do?”

“No,” Cheape smiled, proud of her progress, “This is how things are today.”

“But, but,” Tensor looked over at President Marls, who just nodded. “You have only been here two weeks.”

“They have been hectic weeks,” Cheape nodded. “Shall I take you through it?”

“Please, Mistress,” Tensor nodded eagerly.

Twitch.

“To the west of the capital, we have discovered a reasonable amount of ore,” Cheape pointed out the marking on the map. “We have a small mining operation there now, thanks to Tee.” She smiled at her friend. “And to the north is the current quarry site. We have people out there right now, cutting stone to be fed into the Material Processors.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Vauban is doing a good job out there,” Tee said happily. “I think he enjoys the work.”

“He enjoys the mining laser,” Cheape chuckled. “But, yeah, he is doing a great job.”

“And this?” Tensor pointed to the ridge to the south.

“The mushroom farms,” Cheape nodded. “Your people lack a good source of protein. In time, we hope to find more varied sources. For now, however, this will work.”

“Mushrooms?” Tensor asked. “Like the healers use?”

“Yes,” Marls smiled at the Mayor. “You will not believe how much of a difference they make.”

“And this?” Tensor asked, pointing to an area marked off next to her base.

“That is the best part,” Cheape smiled. “That is the training center.”

“Training center?” Tensor frowned.

“You must see this for yourself,” President Marls said, placing his hand on the man’s wide back.

“No time like the present,” Cheape smiled.

Cheape was proud of the training center, even if it was only a tiny thing as yet. Materials were limited at the moment, especially some of the rarer minerals. Hopefully, Vicky would drop some by soon. Cheape had put in a request for the raw materials, and Queen Lucy had approved it, so she was hopeful.

They had used everything they had, even ‘borrowing’ some of the non-essential parts of the Indomitable-class shuttle. She just had to cross her fingers that they could replace them before too long. Cheape did NOT want to get caught appropriating materials.

Still, it had given them enough materials to make six of the complete immersion training pods. The design had been in a hidden folder on the Material Processors, but it was in the machine, so that meant Cheape was cleared to use it, right?

Either way, they were running them twenty-six hours a day. Each hour inside was equivalent to five outside them, and the changes were showing. She had started with the Healers. They were all getting crash courses in modern medicinal treatments. They wouldn’t be doctors or anything in the near future, but they were at least approaching Medic levels of training.

While the pods ran in their mostly empty room, whoever was available occupied every other room in the place.

“We have people run the training programs, and then they pass on the knowledge to others in the rooms around,” Cheape said, feeling like a tour guide as they moved through the space.

“What the blessed rain is that?” Tensor gasped, pointing into one of the training yards.

“Ah, that is one of the Walkers,” Cheape smiled. “He seems to be teaching the basic operations of one of the new building rigs at the moment.”

“He?” Tensor asked, looking pale.

“They?” Cheape shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly how they operate in that regard. It seemed rude to ask.” More to the point, she was horribly afraid they would answer the question, and those were images Cheape just did not want in her head.

“Uh,” Tensor shook himself. “I apologize, Mistress. I had just never seen a person of that species before.”

Twitch.

“No problem.” Cheape smiled. “Shall we see the Processors next?”

Once Cheape showed them the Workshop, she left Marls and the rest to it. That place was actually living up to its name now; with metal ores from their mine, they had started to construct some basic machinery and a very limited number of more advanced rigs. Other than the Learning Pods, everything was well below even the most backward planets, but Cheape was working on that.

One of the new rigs clomped past, the mass of metal and pneumatics running off the only bit of modern computing they had made so far. Each one was less than a third the strength of her Boost Suit, but they were functional and adaptable.

So far, they have had three versions of the rigs: a building rig, a mining rig, and a transport rig that can haul ore and stone back to the Processors for conversion into useful items.

Cheape suppressed a twinge of guilt as she passed the partially striped shuttle and hurried back to the planning table in the Town Hall.

“I have had a new idea!” Tee beamed at her in that way of his, and Cheape tried to ignore the distraction. His last ideas had been the rigs and the mines. Both had jumped the project ahead by weeks, if not months.

“What’ve you got?” Cheape asked.

“The sandy soil we wish to use is currently hosting a large amount of trees, is it not?” Tee asked.

“That’s right,” Cheape joined him at the map they had printed out. “This area here.”

“If we harvest those trees merely for wood, much is wasted,” Tee frowned, always tense around the idea of removing any organic life, “but if we burn the waste in a carbon capture device, they will yield a large amount of carbon that we can use to make carbon fiber. A very adaptable material.”

“Isn’t that a little advanced for us to make?” Cheape frowned.

“Normally, yes,” Tee nodded. “But the Processors can make it much easier, allowing for the creation of the polymer base quite easily. In short, it comes out of the machine already made.”

“Plus, this gets us easy access to the sand in that soil, allowing us to vastly increase the number of computer chips we can make,” Cheape was starting to get excited.

“More than that,” Tee said excitedly. “We can make many more windows!”

The next few days saw the already busy capital explode into frenetic action as Tensor’s three hundred or so people arrived. This almost doubled their workforce, and this time, there were people ready to train the new recruits. Marls’ people spent every rest day teaching their new neighbors, and work accelerated massively.

With twice as much stone coming in each day, the first phase of building would be finished in less than a week. Cheape was already planning to send most of the quarry workers to the mine. The rest would join the crews in clearing out the small forest and collecting the sand-laden soils from which it was growing.

TRV-4 was hard at work updating their rig design to take advantage of the new technology options they would have at that point. He had been a marvel, had Tee. Cheape was stunned to learn that the man was capable of redesigning many aspects of the designs in the Processors. She had asked him how he knew how to do all of this, and his response had been as logical as it had been surprising.

“Transfer Units explore the unknown,” Tee had told her, “We must know how to make what we need from almost any level of technology. It is how we are to survive long enough to report back.”

The result was a man who was capable of engineering incredible solutions to almost any problem while standing and staring in wonder as a flock of birds flew past.

Cheape knew she was in trouble when he found the feather.

It had been several days ago, and Cheape and Tee were walking the tree line north of the village to check the soil quality there when she saw him stop and pick up something from the ground.

Coming up behind him, Cheape had seen her friend cradling something in his hands and been excited, thinking he had found some new resource. Instead, he had found a feather. Tee had rested it on his palm, stroking the brown and copper-colored thing like it was the most precious thing in the world.

There had been a look on his face then, one she had never really seen before. It was something complicated, but his smile a moment later had made her heart flutter in her chest.

It was a feeling she had always assumed was a romantic fairy tale made up to hawk trashy novels or cheap flowers to needy people. Discovering it was real and happening to her was not a pleasant surprise.

She had a job to do.

This was just… not the time for this.

Two drop pods arrived at the end of the week, each one loaded with rare ores courtesy of Vicky. Cheape had done a little dance of joy, forgetting that there were about a hundred people behind her waiting to unload them.

She hid herself away for hours, claiming to be planning ahead until she could leave her apartment without glowing red.

When faced with the choice of what to spend the materials on, Cheape considered everything from more advanced rigs to base computers or even a set of drones before settling on more Training Pods. Over the next week, they added another thirty pods to their collection, just in time to take advantage of the new Carbon Fiber options.

“Welcome to the next step!” Tee called as she walked into the Workshop one morning.

Cheape looked up to see her entire staff standing there, along with Marls, Tensor, and a good few others. They had a sheet over something, and Tee was beaming with pride.

“What have you come up with this time?” Cheape grinned.

“I present the Mark One Cheape Learning System!” Tee gestured, and Marie pulled the sheet away.

Cheape gasped, seeing a stand holding what looked like a Carbon Fiber set of armor, with large goggles and oddly thick gloves and boots. The belt was similarly huge, with large bulges on both hips.

“Full Immersion learning in a virtual environment,” Tee said proudly. “Force feedback to allow the lucky student to experience everything as if it were real! The onboard microcomputer system is much smaller than the Training Pods, allowing us to make a dozen of these for the same material use as a single pod.”

“It’s very good,” Marls nodded proudly. “Tested it myself last night. Excellent. Truly excellent.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Also, being on my own feet rather than in one of those strange pods was much more satisfying.”

“I have to admit it does not offer the full course list,” Tee said hesitantly, “But it can hold up to twelve courses at a time, and they can be swapped out when you are done with them.”

“Tee, this is just…” Cheape was not going to cry. She really wasn’t. Nope, not crying. “Thank you!”

“Show her the other thing!” Marie encouraged.

“Oh, right!” Tee slapped his forehead. “I also made this,” he reached behind the stand and brought out a set of smaller goggles. “It’s an independent version.”

“Independent?” Cheape asked.

“It comes with a pair of gloves,” Marie said, holding up a set of gloves. “You can interact with the training module with them!”

“It is only able to hold two modules at a time, and it will only be for the less hands-on things.” Tee shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “You can only learn in real-time as well.”

“Trevor!” Vauban laughed. “Tell her the modules.”

“The modules?” Tee frowned. “Oh, sure. I have four options so far. One is the basics like reading, writing, mathematics, and sciences. Really basic, I know. Another is technology skills like programming, design, and engineering, which are, again, a basic set. The other two are engineering and medical skills. A limited selection, I know.” He looked crestfallen. “Most will take months or even years to learn.”

Cheape felt like the world was spinning around her.

“We can make DOZENS of these for each pod’s worth of resources,” Vauban said with a beaming smile.

“So, so limited,” Tee shook his head. “I just don’t have the knowledge to improve these further.”

“D-dozens?” Cheape said, trying not to hyperventilate.

“Hmmm?” Tee looked up, “Oh, yes. Easily. Very cost-effective to produce, I suppose.”

Cheape carefully walked over to a chair and sat down, breathing heavily.

“I need to contact the Queens right away,” Cheape muttered.

“For this?” Tee asked, holding it up. “Have I missed something?”

President Marls came forward and put his hand on the silicate man’s arm.

“Son, you have just made a device that will allow anyone, anywhere, to learn everything they need for a good life in this universe,” Marls said gently. “That gadget you have there? That there will allow people on worlds across the galaxy to access the kind of knowledge many would never even have dreamed of before.”

“We-we,” Cheape swallowed hard. “We need to get the Imperium mass-producing these things.” She looked up. “I think you just made the Imperium’s first export product.”