Chapter 33: New World

“The sea will grant each man new hope, and sleep will bring dreams of home.” – Christopher Columbus.

York, Great Britain. October 1074

Luke had a map rolled out on his desk, and Captain Morwenna stood on the other side so she could see as well. They were looking at a map of the eastern seaboard and the Caribbean as Luke showed Morwenna where he wanted her to land. He was after the bauxite deposits in the Caribbean so he could begin the production of aluminum. If they could develop some of the gold reserves in the region, it would be like icing on the cake. He was still deciding if he wanted to develop the shallow oil deposits.

Captain Morwenna would travel to the New World during winter to avoid the hurricane season. She would travel on the Explorer with eight supply ships carrying supplies to build a mining town and start the development of a bauxite mine. After the town was established, mining would begin, and the bauxite would be shipped to Iceland for processing into metallic aluminum.

“You know, I’m jealous of you, captain. You get to spend the winter in the Caribbean while the rest of us are here freezing our arses off.”

“Well, it pays to be special.”

“Bite me, captain.”

Captain Morwenna winked at him. She was looking forward to six months in the sun because she found she loved catching rays during the trip to China. However, Morwenna would rather go to China since she knew what she would find. None of them knew what they would find when they went to the New World.

After their briefing, Captain Morwenna left so she could catch the train back to Hull. There, she would supervise the loading of supplies for the ten-month mission. They figured it would take a month to get there, eight months to build the town, and a month to return. The first journey would be exploration and building the settlement. Only after the settlement had been established would the mining crews be sent in.

Luke sat back in his chair after Morwenna left and sighed. He was entering into a delicate dance, and if he didn’t dance the steps correctly, it would lead to a world worse than the one he came from. The hardest decision was whether he should proceed, but since he had already changed history, Luke knew it was only a matter of time before other European countries made the same move. If they became established in the New World before the British could establish the ground rules, it would lead to his old universe. That was the last thing Luke wanted.

The problem was that the individual conditions were already in place; all that was needed was for them to line up. If Luke was being honest, the conditions for his old world existed long before he was brought back. There was a sizable technological difference between the Americas and Europe, and tribal warfare had been eliminated in Europe by the Romans, which would lead to Europeans feeling superior to the natives. Feelings like that could only lead in one direction: slavery, exploitation, and extermination. That was what Luke desperately wanted to stop.

Luke was realistic enough to realize that the most likely result of his efforts would be the same world he came from. If he did nothing, the consequences would be the same or worse. With the highly advanced firearms spreading over Europe, the native tribes could be annihilated before they knew what hit them. Luke was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

Finally, it was time to leave, and Luke was glad; he was tired and wanted to relax. As usual, Luke was mugged by a hoard of children when he entered their chambers, and he laughed as he greeted each child. What was unusual was that Mackenzie was last in line.

“You okay, Kenzie?”

“I’m fine, Dad, but Kukka isn’t.”

“Oh? What’s wrong with her?”

“She says nothing, but she has been moving much slower today and seems to have constant stomach pain. What do you think is wrong?”

“Well, kiddo, if I had to bet, I would say Kukka is only hours at least and a few days at most from being a mother.”

“Oh. Why didn’t any of my other mommies act like that?”

“Going into labor affects everyone slightly differently, even though the result is the same.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“So, where’s she at?”

“Where else,” Mackenzie giggled. “The library.”

Luke smiled at his oldest and kissed the top of her head before he went to find Kukka. As Mackenzie said, Kukka was trying to study in the library. She was so close to knowing enough to be able to begin working as a chemist that she could taste it. The problem was her child had other thoughts. As soon as Luke saw Kukka, he knew she was in labor.

“MACKENZIE! GET IN HERE!” Luke yelled.

“Yes, Daddy?” Mackenzie came running while wearing socks on her feet and slid to a stop. Luke shook his head at his daughter’s antics.

“Get one of the guards in here and ask another to take a message to Doc Mom. Tell her Kukka has gone into labor and will be headed to the birthing apartments.”

“Okay, Daddy. Anything else?”

“Nothing you can help with. I will need the help of a couple of male guards to carry her down so she can be taken to the hospital.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Luke!” Kukka cut in. “I have too much to study.”

“And it will be there in a few days,” replied Luke. “Right now, we need to get you to the hospital.”

Just then, one of the guards came in, and Luke explained what he needed. The guard took off and returned a few minutes later with three men and a litter. Luke was still battling Kukka about going when her water broke. The guards took one look at her and forced her onto the liter. Since she insisted on fighting, Luke had Mackenzie go along with them to distract Kukka at the least or push on her shoulders to keep her on the litter at most. Mackenzie loved helping and talked to Kukka constantly while they headed to the hospital. The guards smiled at each other, hearing Mackenzie’s talking. As Luke said, you take 16 months teaching them to walk and talk and the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut up.

Alice met them at the hospital gate and placed her BP cuff on Kukka’s arm. Kukka was still trying to get up but didn’t have the strength to force Mackenzie off of her. Inside the hospital, Alice took over and ordered everyone to where she needed them. Kukka squealed in pain and surprise when the first serious contraction hit her. As soon as she recovered, she began cursing at Luke in every language she knew. The guards grinned but wisely kept out of it.

When Marion and Gabriella arrived, they smiled at Kukka’s cursing. They knew what she was going through and knew it would get worse. At least she was at the best hospital in the world and had the best staff to work on her. Marion and Gabby couldn’t stay too long because they had a very long day and were tired. Luke stayed to offer all the support he could. Marion smiled warmly, hearing Luke as her heart swelled with pride in her man. He was the best man she could hope for, and she prayed all her daughters would find men like their father. Looking at Gabby, she had the same thoughts.

Twelve hours after Marion left, Kukka screamed, squeezed Luke’s hand, and gave the final push that introduced her daughter to the world. Luke and Kukka’s daughter was a big baby with a mop of fiery red hair they named Matilda MacDougall. Matilda wailed until she was given a nipple. Kukka settled back as she held her daughter to her breast and smiled warmly at Luke. She was exhausted but still had the energy to put everything into a deep kiss for Luke.

Luke stuck around for about an hour until Kukka and Matilda fell asleep. Since it was late evening, he returned to the palace to shower and sleep. When he entered the chambers, children mugged him, asking questions about their new sister. The women had decided that Kukka’s children wouldn’t be included in the succession line, which suited Kukka just fine.

After the birth of his newest daughter, Luke had to return to work as quickly as possible. The mission to the Americas took up a lot of time as he worked with Captain Morwenna to ensure she had everything she needed to succeed. Another drain on his time and a source of worry was the regiment of grenadiers in Sweden.

When Luke and Marion returned from their tour of Iceland and Ireland, Marion got the letter from Ingegerd begging for elite troops to break the natives’ resistance in Sweden. Marion spent a week thinking about her response and talking with her military commanders. It wasn’t surprising when Brigadier Baker was eager to go. She wanted to send one of the new units to bloody them, figuring it better for them to have their baptism of fire in a war against some natives than in a serious continental war that might threaten Great Britain.

To Marion’s surprise, Luke agreed with his most aggressive commander. This was the perfect opportunity to give the new grenadiers a taste of combat. Gabriella was on the opposite side, favoring sending no aid. She had seen enough war to want to stay out of all possible conflicts. The war between the Norse and the Swedes didn’t affect Britain, so why get involved?

In the end, Luke and Brigadier Baker won. It was the perfect opportunity to test out the new troops, and if the Norse defeated the Swedes, it would open up vast high-grade iron ore deposits. Another factor was the Swedes were too close to the shipping lane between Britain and Lapland. If they wanted to, they might be able to intercept some of the merchant ships, which would be costly for the British.

The troops had loaded onto transports in July and had been taken to the Norse beachhead on the eastern shore. By landing there, it was easier to keep the grenadiers supplied. The men and women of the 2^nd Grenadier Regiment were excited and anxious to see combat. They had heard all the tales the older grenadiers told and wanted to add their own stories to grenadier history.

When the grenadiers landed, they weren’t a moment too soon because the Swedes were driving the Norse back into the sea. They were only ten kilometers from the sea when they ran headlong into the advancing Swedes and routing Norse. Early that morning, the Swedes launched a surprise attack that hit the Norse as they were eating breakfast. The attack shattered the Norse lines and sent them reeling.

As the grenadiers met the routing Norse, the commander of the grenadiers, Colonel Wulfrun Mersctun, was determined to prove herself. She had her grenadiers dig in across the road. With the Grenadiers to anchor the line, the Norse halted their rout and copied the British. The Grenadiers didn’t have long to wait before the Swedish and allied tribes hit them like a hurricane.

It only took five minutes for the smoke in the forest to be so thick you couldn’t see 50 meters. The British repeating rifles produced copious amounts of smoke when fired, and the British were shooting as fast as they could. Colonel Mersctun stood firm as she directed reserves to plug holes in the line. As soon as one gap was filled, another would open up. The Swedes sensed the weak line and kept attacking. If they had been on open ground, the Swedes would have never gotten close to the Brits, but they had plenty of cover in the thick forest.

All afternoon, the momentum swung from one side to the other. The Swedes would force the British back before the attack stalled, and the British would recapture the ground they were just on. To the Norse, the British Grenadiers were super soldiers who fought more fiercely than anything from legend.

Instead of fighting like the Norse officers, Colonel Mersctun had a rifle in her hands and powder and dirt covering her face as she fought alongside her troops. Norse officers tended to fight from the rear and stayed much cleaner than the troops. Under the colonel’s direction, the Norse soldiers held firm and fought with a tenacity they had never fought with before.

The lines stabilized as night fell, and the Allies could count their losses. The Norse went into the battle with approximately 4,500 effective soldiers but ended the day with only 1,700 capable of combat. One thousand more were wounded and being treated by the British medical unit, with the rest missing; they had been left behind during the rout. The British started with 1,000 Grenadiers and, by nightfall, were down to 678 combat-ready and another 106 wounded. The rest were killed or missing.

Usually, combat ended at night, but the British were trained for nocturnal combat. Colonel Mersctun sent a company to make trouble in the Swedish camp and maybe recover some of the missing soldiers. To maintain secrecy, the colonel didn’t bother to inform her Norse allies.

An hour after the sunset, the company moved out and slipped into the forest like ghosts. It only took them 35 minutes to reach the Swedish camp, and when they did, it took them everything not to throw up. Some of the missing Norse were hanging alive from trees where they were being tortured. Others were being roasted alive on a spit like a pig. The worst for the British was seeing a couple of female soldiers who had been captured. They were being brutally raped, and the soldiers in the shadows could see black ribbons of death flowing from between the captured soldier’s legs.

It didn’t take long to form the line, and the British attacked with an unseen fury. No quarter would be given as the advancing British swept the enemy camp. As they advanced, the medics stopped to aid the former prisoners. Some were beyond help and were given a powerful painkiller to make their final moments more comfortable.

The attack only lasted fifteen minutes, and by the end, 1,000 Swedish warriors lay dead. After the attack, the British checked the Swedes, and if any so much as twitched, they were shot again. It took almost an hour to pick up all the weapons and prepare the fifteen rescued prisoners for transport. As the summer sun brightened the eastern sky, the raiding company stumbled back to their lines. It had been a hard and long night, but it had been worth it.