Princess Rescue Inc (105 page)

“Your
parents probably did the same thing. One takes a hard line, then the other
comes in and gets what they want. Or they switch. Or change tactics,” Perry
said shaking his head. “My parents did it all the time; they called it parental
jujitsu when I figured it out.”

“Thought
you weren't into politics?” Ryans asked amused, looking at the officer.

Perry
snorted. “You don't have to be into politics to understand the battlefield. And
besides, when you’re an officer, the higher the office the more paperwork and
politics. It's a good idea to get a grasp of the basics right off if you want
to get above lieutenant.”

“Ah.
True,” Ryans said nodding. “Gramps used to mutter about that a lot.”

“Yeah,”
Perry said nodding. “What were you after?”

“More
rights. Basic rights of every citizen.  I want the same as we've got
stateside.”

“Ah.
Constitution,” Perry nodded. “That's quite a stretch going from a medieval
monarchy to a republic,” he said shaking his head. “Can't be done in one
generation.”

Ryans
nodded. “No, I was thinking more of a constitutional monarchy. Like we'd talked
about. The UK has one. It's not perfect but it works,” Ryans said. Deidra
looked a little exasperated. He smiled.

“The
UK is a country, or actually a group of countries all with their own parliament
but with one monarch ruling over them,” Ryans explained. She drummed her
fingers on the table then ran a hand through her hair, adjusting her tiara.

“England,
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, maybe a couple of others
in there somewhere,” Perry said, expanding on the explanation. “It works.”

“Oh,”
she said nodding. “And you want these rights?”

“Well,
actually, I was shooting for the rights we have in our country,” Ryans said,
nodding his head to Perry.

“You’re...
You’re not
from
this United Kingdom?” she asked.

He
chuckled. “No. We're from a former colony now a democratic republic. Um...
Think of a more modern version of the Roman empire or the Greek states you've
read about in your library.”

She
nodded in thought. “And these rights?”

“The
basics are the right to speak your mind and not get punished for it, which we
call free speech. Then there's the right to a fair trial, right to bear arms,
rights to practice your own religion...”

“A
lot of which you already have,” Perry said nodding.

“Yes,
it's on those tablets in the great hall. It's just that some aren't enforced
and others are actively suppressed,” Ryans said.

“Which
was why you've been pushing this, parliament thing. Now I understand,” she
nodded. “Mother knows?”

“Yes.
I talked to her about this,” he said. He smiled suddenly. “Actually, this is
her plan.”

“When?
I don't remember this,” she said looking at him.

“You
were out riding,” he said with a shrug. “She agreed to some of it. She had
stipulations for some, and the free speech had her up in arms, she has no
problem with the freedom of religion since you have that now of course,” he
said and smiled at her expression. “But she really doesn't like the speech
thing.”

“Yes
that... is a problem.”

“Understandable.”

“But
your hard line attitude isn't helping,” she said shaking her head. “You're
making enemies when you can least afford to do that. We need to cement a
coalition of support.”

“Which
we're doing,” Ryans said smiling.

“What
he means is you're going to soften his hard line, and sweet talk him into
accepting it. That will mollify the hard liners in the court and cement them
behind both of you,” Perry said softly.

“Oh!”
Her eyes widened and she looked from one to the other. “I...”

“Your
mother reminded me of the trick. She and your father pulled it a time or two
over the years. And by doing this it makes you approachable to some, and me
approachable about other things,” Ryans explained, deciding to come all the way
clean.

“Ah,”
she nodded warily, eyes narrowed. “But we're really working together. At least
now we are,” she said. She gave him a long look.

He
spread his hands. “Yup.” He smiled and then looked over to a lord entering the
room. “speaking of work, I've got to go. Later.” He kissed her hand, then her
cheek. His fingers stroked her cheek gently for a moment then he turned and
walked off. “See you tonight dear. Dominus, I was just about to go looking for
you....”

Perry
snorted. “He's good.”

Deidra
shook her head. Eugene hated politics or so she believed. Why was he throwing
himself so much into this? “I... It's hard to believe.”

Perry
smiled as she turned to him. “Oh believe it. His company is quite large on
Earth. He's got about the same number of people looking to him there as you do
here your Highness. And he has to navigate all the laws and politics of
countries his company has offices in. It can be incredibly complex.”

Deidra
nodded. “Ah. Something to keep in mind then.” She nodded to a lady in waiting
looking at her near the door. “I must bid you adieu lieutenant.” She gave him a
regal nod then left as he rose politely.

“So
it works?” Ryans asked hands behind his back. He watched as teams of
branacks
towed wagons loaded with hay to the wood pole slide. Workers would unload the
wet hay onto the slide then when they were finished a driver would whip a pair
of
branacks
hooked to a set of pulleys. The whip didn't hurt them, but
the snap on their flesh made them work harder.

These
pulleys pulled on the shuttle, making the entire assembly go up the ramp and
then tip to dump the load into the box. “This is a beaver slide?” he asked
shaking his head.

“Yeah,
I heard about it. Watched a show on one of the Discovery channels. Ranch thing.
That's where I got the idea. See we stack the hay, let it dry out, then bail it
and we're golden,” Scooter said nodding. “I wish we had steam for some of this.
Take a lot of the work out.”

“Tell
me about it,” Ryans sighed. He'd heard Max was close to a steam engine but he'd
believe it when he saw it. Steam was technically not all that hard to use, but
a pain in the ass to keep up. It all used a lot of material. Max was busy
beating swords into plows but it was still going too slow for some. “And this
allows a minimum footprint? Allowing more hay to grow?” Ryans asked waving to
the box.

Max
nodded. “Yeah, Mary said in this climate we might get another harvest if we're
lucky. Once it's boxed we put these things...” He hefted a set of poles that
were joined together in parallel. “They'll hold the stack up while we relocate
the box and slide and do it all over again. We can probably do this a few
times. The more we get, the more we have for the long winter. As long as the
cold hangs off. We get a long cold front and we're done. The grass will all go
to rye.” He looked up, scowling at the sky.

“Oh,”
Ryans said. He frowned. They were just entering fall, temperatures were still
high during the day but as soon as the suns went down the temperature dropped
fast. A forty degree drop in less than three hours had quite a few people
coming down with colds.

The
second, more distant sun of the binary system seemed further away; he'd have to
look into it when he had the time. Right now there was just too much to do, too
much to see and talk about. Entirely too much talking for some, he thought
wryly.

A
quarter of the military had been sent to Duluth's capital under one of the
general's aides to occupy that nation and help in rebuilding and distributing
the gaijin designed tech. Duluth would be paying reparations for years, and the
surviving lords would also be indebted to the Imperium for the loans to buy
food and gaijin designed equipment.

Some
of the Imperium lords like Duke Rojer and Pryor had stepped up with high
interest loans and bonds, but the Queen had been forced to open the treasury to
back notes and bonds.

Wanda
had started another side business; out of annoyance at the weather she'd
created weather caulking and wood putty. Her two native assistants had taken an
interest. The Imperium used a sort of wood sap that hardened when it was cold
but turned into a sticky gummy mess when the heat hit. It was great to seal
windows that you later wanted to open but come summer the sap attracted hordes
of unwanted insects.

Sergei
Valenkov, her and Charlie's lab assistant had idly commented about his interest
in astronomy and glass blowing when she had him caulk the expensive windows.
He'd done it in the hearing of Princess Zara who had then directed him to the
capital's glassblowers. He'd dug into the research files and come up with a
better, cheaper, and faster method of making plate glass. Zara had invested
some of her personal fortune into the project and Wanda had been bemused by the
loss of her assistant but the addition of insulated glass to her newly repaired
windows two weeks later was well received.

Deidra
had heard about it and she and of course Zara had insisted on getting the first
insulated windows for their suites as well. Ryans had yet to move into the
royal suite, he still liked his space, though he didn't mind sharing his bed
with the nubile princess. Even when he felt more exhausted at dawn sometimes
than when he went to bed, he thought with a slight grin.

“The
good thing is, this is clover hay. Not the crap ranches on Earth were growing.
This is the real deal, rich in nutrients and stuff. Much better. Not a lot of
weeds to deal with either.”

“Good.”
Ryans nodded. “So, what else did you boys want to show me?”

Scooter
grinned. “Come on, I'll show you.”

  <==={}------------>

Ryans
smiled as he took in the test track. It was small, a garden railroad really,
but it looked to scale. “looking good Max!” he called, then snorted as he saw
the over sized machinist turned train engineer trying to squat into the
locomotive. Typical, he griped about Max's lack of interest in steam power and
the machinist had already anticipated him. Hopefully he'd get somewhere with
making them during the long winter.

The
capital was importing heavy loads of coal and pressed logs now, wagon convoys
were arriving daily from the mines and farms. The pressed logs were grass and
other plant material, dried and glued together in a press to form a log like
the stores sold back in the states. It served as firewood since wood was so
hard to come by.

He
looked at the iron track and frowned. It was shiny, so was the locomotive
despite the soot. No doubt Max had mixed chromium into the iron to make
stainless steel for it to keep the rust down to a minimum. Still the winter was
long and the tracks were going to be exposed to the elements. They'd have to
see how they weathered the season and the muddy early spring.

Max
was doing a bang up job with the pipe works now, a couple of the soldiers
turned factory workers had become partners with one of the local smiths to turn
out copper pipe and fittings. They had just started but seemed to be on a roll.

Some
of the piping was being used by the rich to run water to their homes.
Apparently none had twigged on to using the pipes for heating as well. Or they
were waiting for the prototype under construction in the castle dungeon to
prove itself.

The
educational opportunities the soldiers were being exposed to were just now
filtering into their mindset and the minds of the public. All the gaijin
trained soldiers were now partially literate, and some were now eagerly taking
advantage of that education.

He
turned to look at the castle. Sooty men and boys were on the roofs, dropping
down the chimney's to clean them. They were preparing for winter, using long,
extended poles with chimney brooms and brushes on them. Some were repairing the
roof tiles, using tar or Wanda's caulk and copper roofing to patch things. He
was hoping none of the roofs would leak. He'd be miserable all winter if they
did.

Some
of the men were putting copper covers and screens over the tops of the chimneys
once they were done. He nodded, shading his eyes to get a good look. Good, he
thought. That should keep the snows and animals out. All of them were avoiding
the aerials and copper wiring as well as the helix wind turbines. He was glad.
The last thing they needed was for one of those things to be broken. He wasn't
sure how well the wind turbines would hold up in the winter cold and snow.
Probably not well, Max was betting they'd freeze despite the predicted gale
force winds.

The
castle also had a pair of paddle wheels that turned a pair of generators. These
provided half the power for the castle. But when the snows and bitter cold set
in the moat would freeze and that power source would be gone as well.

He
was seriously reconsidering leaving the reactor in the pass. He didn't
want
to bring it here, didn't want the natives to become dependent on it, and he
wanted to use it for the portal but he wasn't at all keen about not having any
electricity all winter either.