I was exhausted, but kept drawing raw materials, tools, and dwarves out of my saved game anyway. One of the first things I had tried to do was summon a second Urist Copperstiker, but he wasn't there. Apparently I could only summon each dwarf once. The dwarf with the missing arm was gone from this world, and the save. When they died, they were gone.

That made things a lot scarier. I had been hoping to use artifact doors and grates to build a safe area, duplicating them to create entire rooms. That wasn't possible. My fort was well established, with a substantial number of artifact items, but a lot of it was useless. An artifact cinnabar flute was not going to be useful. Besides, cinnabar had mercury in it.

The dwarves were madly carving out a new fortress. I had summoned all of them out of the saved game fort now, except for the children, and there were dwarves everywhere. One hundred eighty dwarves madly trying to build traps and defenses, storage areas and workshops. It was no surprise to me that they insisted that the brewery and kitchen were built first.

Right now though, I was speaking with the bookkeeper, who was tugging on his beard nervously. "Overseer, I'm having a really hard time here. Some of these things that the outdoor scavenging crews are finding? I have no idea what they are. The craftdwarfship on some of it is amazing, but made of such terribly flimsy materials. Refined hydrocarbons for the shells of tools? I can't wrap my mind around it. I have never seen tools like this. I don't rightfully know if they are tools."

"Tikon. I understand. Anything you cannot identify, we will put in a separate stockpile. I will identify it, and designate it for melting if I don't want it for myself." A thought struck me. "Actually, I will only designate for melting if the fortress needs the materials. Otherwise I want to keep human technology items in the secure storage area with mood materials. I would be very interested to see what sorts of things a moody mechanic or weaponsmith comes up with."

"I, well, yes. I can do that, Overseer. But can I join you when you go identify things, so I can learn what they are? Surely they aren't all incredibly complex technology that requires mastery level skills to comprehend?"

I sighed. "All of you want to learn so much, Tikon. I understand that. Especially since you were a founding member of the fortress, and an accomplished mechanic before I put you in charge of bookkeeping and the trade depot. Defense, however, comes first. The S9 said they were coming back. They want to make me one of them."

He nodded his massive head. As a non-warrior, he did not braid his beard. It was a luxurious growth that covered half of the width of his chest. "I understand. I would like to offer a suggestion though. You keep mentioning 'electricity' as a requirement for so many of these devices. You describe it as if it were controlled lightning." He paused, waiting for me to respond.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Yes, electricity is vital to a great number of human technologies, and hydrocarbons too." I really needed to end this conversation. I desperately wanted something to drink.

Tikon squinted at me. "Overseer. As a mechanic of no small skill, even though those skills are rusty, I tell you that the thought of potentially harnessing lightning to use against enemies in traps fills me with a great need. A growing need. We have already established that, somehow, we can read human texts. You do not have the time to teach us all, but we have found a great number of tomes in these strange self-articulated carts that the haulers are bringing in. Allow us to study them."

I was puzzled, momentarily. What did he mean, being filled with a great need? Oh, shit! My eyes snapped to his. "Tikon, are you saying that you feel as if you are about to enter a mood? I wasn't aware that you could know it would happen in advance."

Tikon nodded, then shrugged. "I have no idea how you know so much about us, or why we even listen to you. You're human, for Armok's sake, but reality is reality. He leaned a bit forward, across the table. You don't know everything about us though. Let us study the books. If you can find books that explain this, electricity, then I need them." When he said 'need' his eyes bored into mine.

I stared back at him, thinking thoughts about berserk dwarves and tantrum spirals. Tikon knows everyone in the fort. He's one of the three surviving out of the original seven. God, I need a drink. "Tikon, I don't know how well this will work, because, well, weird shit. I'm giving you a new job. Electrician. Have a new storage facility designated for books. Remove books from the main tool storage. Make sure that all human-made containers are opened and checked for books as well."

My brain screamed. Alcohol. NOW.

Tikon was watching my face, and his head tilted a bit. "Are you well, Overseer Shayla?"

I reached forward and grabbed his beard in both hands, and yanked, trying to pull him closer to me across the top of my desk. I only succeeded in making him wince, and pulled myself halfway across my desk towards him. It wasn't exactly the image I was trying to cultivate. I let go of his beard and lifted myself off my desk, back to my feet.

"No. I'm not well, Tikon. I just watched my sister and a lot of my best friends torn apart in front of me. The S9 want to recruit me, or kill me, or turn me into a sockpuppet for Bonesaw. On top of that, I'm tired and I'm fairly sure I'm going insane."

Tikon looked up at me, mild concern on his face. "I see."

"And I need something with alcohol in it. NOW!" I screamed.

Tikon jumped to his feet. "Now, that's serious!"