Princess Rescue Inc (116 page)

“The
steam engines will make a good impact on things next year. Once we've got them
sorted out and we've got rail lines down,” Max said smiling. “I wanted to go
with an electric arc furnace for it, but we're having trouble making long
lasting heater coils... and don't get me started on the batteries,” he said
shaking his head.

Ryans
and the Queen gave him a look. “Oh we'll get it folks, it's just a matter of
time, sweat, and a lot of chemical burns,” he grimaced, holding up a bandaged
hand. Ryans nodded.

“The
electric is smart. I take it you don't want too go too far too fast by building
electric engines?” Ryans asked.

Max
rolled his eyes. “Give me a break. The stators are a pain in small scale,” Max
said, jerking a scarred thumb to the ceiling fans overhead. Ryans chuckled as
others looked up at the ceiling fan. Several people pointed to it and murmured.
“I'd like to go directly to electric, but we'd have to build some sort of power
source with it... and that opens up an entire can of worms we don't want yet.
So far we've got about a dozen hand built ones and that's it till we figure out
a better way of making the things.”

Ryans
held up his hand. “I know, I know.” He chuckled as Deidra touched a clear glass
ball with a spark generator inside. She was fascinated by the fat blue sparks
inside. They arced to each of her fingers. After a moment the crowd tittered as
her hair began to rise.

Zara
giggled. “What?” Deidra asked. Zara covered her mouth.

Her
mother did as well. “It seems your hair has a mind of its own daughter,” she
said smiling. Deidra reached up with her free hand and felt her hair standing
on end. She grimaced and tried to comb it down.

“Step
away from the sphere and the static electricity will stop your hair from
rising,” Ryans said smiling himself. She did, backing away slowly. The crowd
chuckled as she angrily brushed at her hair.

“I
like it. It's a good look for you,” he teased. He obligingly oofed as she
elbowed him. Her mother chuckled softly at that.

“I'd
say the best is here,” Max pointed to a final booth. “Zara?” he asked. “You
have the honor since it's your project.”

Zara
grinned nervously and then waved. “Ladies and gentlemen what we have here is a
simple ham radio.” She pointed to the wooden box on the table then to the
diagrams and glass covered display model. She picked the microphone up.

“Hello?”
she said, touching the mike.

“Come
in. Who is this?” a voice answered. The crowd reared back in shocked surprise.

“This
is princess Zara. Over,” Zara answered, smiling.

“Oh,
right. Pardon princess. Roger,” the voice replied. Zara nodded.

“What
you’re seeing here is an electronic device, this,” she held up the microphone.
“This takes my voice and turns it into signals for this wire.” She pointed to
the antenna running up the tent pole. “To send through the air.”

“It
goes to another box antenna somewhere else then goes down to the box, and then
the signal is turned back into my voice and it comes out here.” She pointed to
the speaker.

“Ingenious,”
a lad murmured in awe.

“It's
so simple,” a woman murmured, clearly awed. Ryans recognized her as Serena,
Duchess of Rojer. He looked around. The Duke was nowhere to be found however.

“Hardly.
It's easy to use yeah, but a pain to make,” Ryans said shaking his head. Deidra
looked up at him. “Don't get me started on how to make capacitors, inductors,
or resistors, let alone diodes and transistors. We'll be here till the snow
falls if I tried.”

Deidra
chuckled at that. She edged over to a water heater. “Now this I like.” she said
running her hand under the water. “So warm,” Deidra smiled. He nodded.

“Remind
me to draw you a bath later dear,” he smiled. She smiled back.

  <==={}------------>

Yorick
looked at the man. He was so eager to please, the fool. He didn't know he was a
dead man no matter what he did. He'd join his wife and children in the
afterlife soon enough.

The
lord Duke had ordered their deaths right after Decrius had been recruited. Now
he nodded to the man and passed him the small vial. “Don't screw it up,” he
growled.

“I
won’t,” Decrius said, gulping.

“I
mean it. Do not displease our master,” Yorick said and then moved on, bumping
the man's shoulder with his own. Decrius turned to look at him and then
clutched at the vial in his hands. Slowly his fingers loosened so he could look
at it. He looked at the bluish fluid, staring at it, knowing that more than one
life depended on what happened next. After a moment of decision he nodded and
then clutched at it once more.

  <==={}------------>

Sue
blinked at a strange man as he passed. He was dressed as a royal chef but he
wasn't familiar. She shrugged it off, most likely a new hire she thought as she
turned and nodded politely to the approaching Queen and her guards. “Good
morning your majesty,” she said, bowing her head.

“And
good morning to you, Doctor Carter,” the Queen said with a slight smile of
welcome on her lips.

“Nice
day isn't it?” Sue said smiling.

“I
had thought so as well,” the Queen said, smiling more fully. “A day full of
promise, of so much potential,” she said, smile turning ever so slightly into a
gleam.

“All
because you added what? Ten thousand new subjects to your realm? Twenty?”

“Indeed,”
the Queen's eyes gleamed in mischief. “And yesterday's event's went so well,”
she said. “Despite my daughter's attempt to send me to an early grave,” she
said mock darkly.

“That's
children for you, I swear they do it on purpose,” Sue teased as the Queen
indicated they continue walking.

“I
had always thought so when I mortified my own mother and father,” the Queen
admitted with a small chuckle. Sue grinned as the Queen tucked her arm in hers.

“Well,
I wanted to let you know the immunization project just started to get off the
ground. I'm hoping we'll get some more support from the House of Lords but they
aren't in session. Now that most of them have gone home...” she shook her head.

“It'll
keep for now my dear,” the Queen said.

“Maybe,”
Sue said, not entirely convinced.

“Have
you found a suitable husband yet?” her Majesty asked. Sue blinked at her. “Or
more than one?” the Queen asked with a knowing smirk. Sue's eyes narrowed at
her and then she chuckled.

“No,
not that I haven't had some interesting proposals recently,” she said wryly,
thinking of that oaf of a knight who'd come into her office and demanded she
marry him then and there. She shook her head. “I'm still thinking things over.”

“Ah,”
the Queen nodded sagely. “Tis the right time to have a child dear,” she said.

“Well...”
Sue shrugged. “It depends on the child actually. If you're talking about
natural conception, well, I'm still thinking about that and I haven't found a
partner yet. If you are asking about an implant, well, I'm not ready to be a
single parent with my current workload,” she said.

“Implant?”
the Queen asked, slowing her pace. Naturally Sue's pace matched hers.

“Um,
embryo implant?” Sue asked. “We, ah, brought along a bunch,” she said.

“Embryo?”
the Queen asked.

“A
fetus. A seed of a child ready to be implanted,” Sue explained as the Queen
abruptly halted. “Into a host mother. We also brought seeds of animals and
plants. Though I don't know why we brought the animals when their hosts
remained behind,” she said shaking her head.

“How
many?” the Queen asked.

“Oh
hum?” Sue asked and then shrugged. “Twenty five thousand give or take.” Her
majesty blinked in shock. Her mouth dropped. Sue was looking away and turned to
catch the look of startled attention. “Sorry,” Sue said. “It's not really a big
deal. Earth has over eight billion people. I think Eugene was shooting a little
high with that number but I checked. It takes two or even three implants to get
some embryo's to take. So you'd get about half that.”

“And...”
the Queen blinked in consternation. “What was he planning on doing with all
these unborn children? Why didn't someone tell me earlier?” she demanded.

“We
weren't sure who to trust,” Sue said with a sheepish shrug.

“But
you're trusting me now,” the Queen said.

“No
time like the present,” Sue replied, smiling. “Shall we?” she asked cocking her
head to the door to the hall. The Queen nodded.

  <==={}------------>

Over
the past several months Ryans had taught the royal cooks how to create several
more Terran dishes. Omelets, especially cheese omelets were a hit. He used thin
wire bent and welded to a piece of pipe to form a whisk, then bent thin plates
of metal for the spatula. His simple tools had already been copied by pita
makers and other chefs all over the capital. Wanda had teased him about the
missed opportunity of patenting his invention but he had just shrugged off the
ribbing.

He
made a fast friendship with Cassius, the head chef. They improved the sugar
recipes; Cassius added his native knowledge of edibles to the mix. Some things
were a hit, others not so much. Now that the festival was winding down and many
of the distant lords were leaving they had more time to experiment and explore.

The
girls were amused and impressed and complimented both efforts. Later that
afternoon as they were sitting in the hall, waiting for a late lunch, they
heard pots falling and then a commotion in the kitchen. A man dressed as a cook
burst out but tripped on a rug and fell. A cook came out running and brained
the man with a pot, then called urgently for the guard. Getting up, Ryans came
over.

“What's
this about?” he asked as the guard came and bound the man, kneeling on the
small of the unconscious man's back.

“Dominus,
he was poisoning the food,” Cassius snarled wiping sauce from his shirt front
with a rag. “It's in the sauce so be careful.”

Ryans
nodded pursing his lips. The Queen came over but Ryans blocked her with an arm
from getting too close. Cassius bowed hastily to her. “Your majesty please
excuse this disturbance. This dog...” He kicked the groaning man on the ground.
“Wished to poison my food.”

The
Queen's eyes glittered savagely. She turned on the helpless man. The guard
rolled him over. He looked up at the Queen, eyes confused, but as they focused
they widened in fright.

“Who?”
she asked, toe of her silken shoe on his arm. “Who, wretched dog, sent you to
poison me and mine?” she hissed. The man gibbered and then recovered.

“Perhaps
a week with the royal tortures will loosen your tongue?” the Queen asked,
sculpted eyebrow raised. The man began to sweat.

“Come
to think of it, I've been meaning to give them a new toy to play with,” Ryans
said smiling to her. She eyed him. He tapped the blue tooth. “Max can you send
over a live car battery and a set of jumpers? Seems we've got a poisoner who
needs a little convincing to talk.”

He
crouched down to the man. “I don't think you'll like the jumpers. See we attach
one lead to you, either your toes or a finger,” he said softly. “The other end
has these nasty
sharp
teeth,” He smiled as he made a pinching shape with
his hand. “We touch that one to oh, say your balls.” He flashed his hand open.
“POP!” he smiled. “Your balls sizzle and explode inside you. Another touch and
your manhood will sear, and then fall off after a few days.”

Max
came in hefting a battery with a set of cables coiled over a shoulder. “Where
do you want them?” he asked looking around in confusion.

“Over
here Max,” Ryans said getting up. “We've got a fresh customer here, hope he
lasts longer than the last one,” Ryans said with a cold smile down at his prey.
The man gibbered again as Max eyed him then set the battery down and hooked up
one end of the jumpers.

“See?
What did I tell you?” Ryans smiled, flexing the alligator clips so the man
could see the teeth. “Course we could go the other way, clip one of these to
your... manhood, what little there is of it, and then touch other parts of your
body... it leaves quite nasty burns.” He brought the ends together. They
sparked and popped. He did it a second time then stopped. The man was staring
at the jumper clips in terror. He toed the man until he blinked and voided
himself.

“Or...”

The
man gulped, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. He was pale in his terror,
shaking like a leaf. “Or?”

“Or
you could take the second option. Tell her majesty what she wants to know,
provide as much evidence as you can, and she'll spare your life. It won’t be a
long
easy life, I understand the mines can be a dangerous place, but that's better
than going through all this... unpleasantness right?”

The
man seemed to wilt for a moment and then nod. “Who are you?” Ryans asked.

“Decrius
sir,” the man nodded.

“All
right Decrius, who sent you and why?” Ryans asked.