Princess Rescue Inc (57 page)

“An
interesting prospect. I shall apply for an appointment with her forthwith,” the
Minister of immigration said.

“To
other matters then,” the Queen murmured.

<==={}------------>

“A
word Eugene,” Sue said, pulling him to one side later.

He
glanced at her and then moved to a more secluded place away from the traffic in
the corridor. “What's this I heard about you sicking the ministers on me?” she
demanded.

That
was fast, he thought. He'd only put the offer through a few hours ago. He
snorted, looking around. “Sorry Sue, I was going to call you but I got tied
up,” he said indicating Ciara the textile minister.

“And
you didn't think to ask me before you offered
my
services?” she asked,
hands on her hips. He realized she was in a rip roaring snit.

He
huffed a sigh and spread his hands. “Again sorry, look, I want you to do a
double assessment. One for the patient but I also wanted you to see a broader
geriatric profile while also getting a handle on these people. How they think,
act, react, that sort of thing.”

“In
other words spy?” she demanded, crossing her arms. “Ever hear of a little thing
called doctor patient confidentiality?” she asked dryly.

He
pinched the bridge of his nose, closed his eyes and sighed again. “Look, I'm
not asking for you to tell tales out of school. I want a general psychological
profile. Who you think we can trust. Who you think is going to be a problem and
who sounds like they are going to be trouble. Can you do that?”

She
frowned and tapped her foot staring at him. Finally she looked off to the left
for a moment and then grunted. “I suppose I can let you know something like
that.”

“I
want them to see what we can do for them up close and personal. I want them to
see first hand our technology and see its benefits and how by working with us
they will gain from it.”

“Ah,”
she said nodding. “Getting more than one bird with this rock aren't you? Lucky
I don't beat you with it,” she mock growled.

“Thanks.
This is also to help the Queen out. To get them to see that she cares about
their well being.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,
a little mending fences, tossing her a softball to help her out and keeping us
in her good graces. Hopefully it won't be too hard on you and your students.”

“Students,”
she muttered.

“Think
about them as a teaching method Doc,” he said. She nodded. “And yeah, I want
you to expand to the entire castle and the capital in stages as well.”

“Shit,”
she muttered. “Don't want much do you? You realize I've only got a finite
amount of medical supplies and equipment. Once it's gone...” She shrugged
hopelessly.

“Yeah
I know. Try to use supplies we're getting from the natives first. Triage. And
don't get bogged down by cosmetic crap, that can come later,” he said.

“What
have you gotten me into,” she muttered, shaking her head as she stopped off.

<==={}------------>

The
next morning Sue checked the minister of immigration aka the minister of gaijin
and told him she could restore some of his sight, but not all of it. She
explained that he needed artificial corneas, something she didn't have in her
limited bag of tricks. “I can scrape the cataract off your existing cornea, but
what would be left would probably grow back in a year or two,” she explained.
He sighed.

“What
about stem cells?” Charlie asked. The doctor shook her head. Charlie had
insisted on helping with the crush of new patients. Sue was fairly certain that
Charlie wanted to get away from her lab and Sergio.

“Not
happening, we don't even begin to have the gear for something that complex.”
The minister stared at them. She explained that by taking healthy bits from one
eye, she can culture them like a gardener would in a petri dish and then plant
them in both eyes. When the bits took root his eyesight could be almost normal.
The minister was amazed. She shrugged. “But that's not the entire problem here,
you've got cataracts, we'd need a laser and artificial retina's to repair
that.”

He
looked confused. “Equipment beyond what we have here for years to come,” Sue
explained.

Charlie
shook her head. “Not so Doc, we've got a couple of lasers in the storage cave,”
Charlie reported with a gleam. They both looked to Charlie who shrugged. “If we
can get this damn war licked we can get in there and dig it out. If it didn't
get soaked in all that rain,” she grimaced. Doc nodded.

The
minister looked glum and then nodded. Doc treated him for kidney stones, a
common ailment with men in his age bracket and then gave him a few gentle
pointers on his diet and cutting back on the salt. After he left Doc rounded on
Charlie for getting his hopes up. “There aren't any overnight cures here Charlie,
some things yes, we can fix, but not a whole hell of a lot,” she growled.
Angrily she ran one hand through her hair. “Hell, just in what we've been
teaching them we've accelerated their civilization by a couple of centuries,
but that's still not even
close
to where we were on Earth!”

Charlie
nodded, sobered. “Sorry Doc, guess I got carried away with the moment,” she
sighed. “What about all that gear the boss man brought though? Can we make some
of what you need?” she asked giving Doc a look.

“What
other gear?” Sue asked sitting down on a creaky wooden stool.

“You
know the databases,” Charlie explained as she too sat on a stool. Sue blinked
at her. “Those silver brief cases he's got are protected databases. Some
petabyte sized drive clusters, DVDs, solid state drives, all in a lead
container wrapped by a Faraday cage. He picked my brain about the chemistry
stuff, had me dump a copy of what I wanted into the central database. I was
dating a tech and he told me about it. Did any of it survive the transit?”

Sue
looked thoughtful, toying with her stethoscope. “Could be. Maybe, that might
have been where he got that anatomy poster.”

“Or
he got it from the medical DVD he's got Doc. Or the net. Or one of the first aide
booklets,” Charlie said looking away as she picked up a tray of culture dishes.

“Medical
DVD?” the doctor asked, parsing it out. “You mean he's had it this
entire
time and never said anything?” she asked dangerously.

Charlie
shot her a startled look. “Sure Doc, so do you. So do each of us for that
matter. It's in your kit,” she said. She waved to the doctor's kit. “Your
tablet PC has the database; he's got the hard copy back up in case you or it
gets lost.”

Sue
suddenly nodded. “Oh, okay, that makes more sense,” she said. She sighed again,
running a frustrated hand through her hair...

“Too
much work, too little time Doc,” Charlie said as a nurse waved to the Doc.
“Looks like duty calls,” she said.

 Sue
got up with a groan. “Yeah tell me about it. Well, back to the salt mines,” she
said.

Charlie
chuckled. “Careful Doc, they have the real deal around here somewhere,” she
said. Sue chuckled tiredly.

“Not
on your life or mine,” she muttered patting Charlie's hand as she passed by.

<==={}------------>

“Do
we have any intel on the enemy? I mean other than the refugee reports?” Ryans
asked, looking at General Pendragon. They had just finished a military working
dinner and were sitting back relaxing over beer. The meal was a way for the men
to form a common bond and get to know one another. Ryans was there because of
his leadership role. Surprisingly none of the other lords were present. Only
the gaijin officers and the native officers and Maximus were present.

Captain
Maximus sat back, holding his goblet. Lieutenants Perry and Galloway looked
thoughtful and then turned to the general as well. “Come to think of it we
haven't seen anything at all. That's odd, no one has tried to get better
information?”

“We
have some reports,” the general rumbled cautiously. He wasn't certain what to
say. He looked definitely uncomfortable. Ryans couldn't really blame him,
revealing intelligence was tricky and dangerous to you and to your sources.

The
general had turned out to be a decent military commander. His aides were brown
nosers to the first degree but Pendragon had a good head on his shoulders and a
good sense of tactics and strategy. A few demonstrations of the new weapons and
tactics and some game theory with the help of an improvised Risk board had
tightened up his skills and made them appreciate them even more.

The
general in turn had come to appreciate both gaijin military officers and their
people. He'd found they had a treasure trove of military knowledge that matched
his own. Instead of being jealous or threatened by such things he'd taken both
men in as subordinates and shown them a level of trust he didn't even show his
aides.

Of
course both Galloway and Perry had not only held field command; they'd held it
in combat and done well. That was a brotherhood they shared with the general.
Even Maximus had little actual combat experience. The general's aides had none.

“I
realize you don't want to reveal any sources general. I can't blame you. And
revealing that you even have spies in the enemy camp could be a risk. But let's
say for oh, a hypothetical exercise you do. Now, if you did, what do you think
they'd be looking at right now?” Ryans asked.

Perry
shot him an amused look and then snorted softly. Galloway played with a pen,
flipping it end over end on the table.

“Harrumph.
If, and only if we did they would be there to try to get the number of enemy
soldiers, how they are supplied and to try to overhear or gain access to any
maps or plans they have.”

“Dangerous,”
Ryans murmured nodding. He immediately wondered if it was some sort of servant,
a high placed one at that. To gain access to the maps and plans of the enemy
took access and steady nerves... and a keen eye to note anything and pass it
on. It also spoke of a network to get the information out of the enemy camp
without being detected.

“I'm
curious if our numbers were confirmed. And how many soldiers they have lost
since the siege started,” Galloway said not looking up.

“The
siege is still ongoing?” Maximus asked.

Perry
and Galloway looked at him. The general grunted and looked away. “Oh yes, if
Emroy had fallen they would have sacked the place and been at our doorstep by
now. Or headed to another duchy to pick that one off,” Perry explained.

“Ah,”
the captain replied nodding in understanding.

“I'm
curious about conscripts and their supplies themselves. They can't have a lot
of supplies. Do they have a supply line to Duluth I wonder?” Ryans mused,
rubbing his chin as he sat back.

“A
possibility,” the general said, not committing an answer to that.

“Can
we, oh, say cut that off? Or at least harass the supply line?”

“Why?”
an officer asked. Ryans glanced at him. He was a new recruit, Tiberius, one of
the young men Perry had put forward for officer material. He was filling the
native equivalent of a junior infantry officer.

“Some
juniors should be seen and not heard,” the general growled.

“He
has to ask if he doesn't know sir. Better to ask a seemingly stupid question
than to get caught out when your commander assumed you knew what they were
referring to,” Ryans replied. “It's been known to happen in war. Take um...
Gettysburg for an example.”

The
native officers blinked in confusion. Perry however snorted. “You would bring
that up,” he mock growled.

“Not
my fault someone couldn't understand implied intent,” Ryans smiled.

“He's
talking about the commanding General Lee who passed on an order to a
subordinate named Ewell but as a request not as an order. He assumed the man
would understand 'if practicable' and press hard to achieve the objective and
deny the defensive position to the Union. Instead the subordinate's men had
been hard pressed already so the subordinate declined the request. It was one
of the reason's the South lost that battle and the war.”

The
general grunted and then slowly nodded.

“As
to your question, Tiberius right?” Ryans asked the acne scarred young man. The
young man nodded. Tiberius was on the fast track, apparently a good solid kid
with a good head on his shoulders. Perry had him in the Silent Knight platoon.
“By cutting off the enemy's supplies we would be in effect laying siege to
them. They would die on the vine with little or no supplies. Or if we harassed
them and hampered their supplies it would take twice as long to get the
supplies to them... and they would have to find some way to protect them.
Spreading their forces out or adding them to the convoy escort.”

“Thus
thinning out their centralized numbers and allowing us to maximize our own
forces by leveraging them against smaller packets of the enemy. Defeat in
detail,” Galloway said nodding. “We would blood our men in small skirmishes
giving them much needed battle experience while hurting the enemy’s ability to
wage war... and pissing their leaders off.”