Chapter 8: Factorium

Lucilla was back in Factorium. Once again she was happy that the train line had been installed, making this a quick morning visit and back home by mid-afternoon.

Hortensius was away, dealing with an ore supplier that had significantly slowed its output, but Lucilla’s main goal was to talk to Sorantius. The chemist had a habit of getting overly focused in his workshop, failing to report on his progress, which was very much needed as the war started to heat up.

The city, always busy, had been kicked into high gear, as Hortensius had started saying lately. People were everywhere, carts and wagons delivering supplies and finished products, and workers going in every direction. Lucilla was happy the city was taking the war seriously.

It was so busy that her arrival didn’t disrupt the crowd, drawing attention as she normally did. Her guards had to actually clear the way for her to keep people at a safe distance, more concerned about her being run over by the crowd than by someone attacking her.

Reaching the primary chemical plant, she and her guards had taken only a handful of steps inside when a young assistant, wearing one of the ubiquitous leather aprons and arm coverings found in the chemical plant, came running up to her, bowing deeply.

“Your Majesty, this is unexpected.”

Lucilla frowned. She had sent a telegraph message communicating that she was coming, and this lack of preparedness spoke to the disorganization in Sorantius’s domain. Workers tended to reflect their leader, exemplified by this miscommunication and sloppiness that would not have happened in one of Hortensius’s factories.

“I need to speak to Sorantius.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty. Please follow me,” he said, bowing again.

The assistant escorted her through the crowded factory full of large vats and cauldrons and packed with employees. Passing through one of the several barriers that separated sections, mostly for protection in case of an accident rather than organization, they found Sorantius near a large drying table of some kind.

Even with the entourage following her, the chief chemist didn’t seem to notice her right away.

“Master Sorantius,” the assistant said, prodding his boss and pointing to Lucilla. “Her Majesty, the Empress, is here to see you.”

Sorantius looked up from his workbench, at first annoyed, the information clearly not registering right away, before his eyes widened in surprise. He quickly set down what he’d been working on and wiped his hands on his apron.

“Your Majesty, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Really?” she asked, a little annoyed. “I telegraphed ahead to let you know I was coming. I am surprised the message did not reach you.”

“You did?” he asked, looking around as if he might find the message right next to him somewhere.

“I did. Sorantius, I appreciate your brilliance in this area, but you have been lacking in reporting and communication for some time. I know how you get absorbed in your work, but you need a factory manager of some type to help run your domain and keep things on schedule.”

“Your Majesty, I’m not sure...”

“I’m sure I didn’t word that as a suggestion, Sorantius.”

“Yes ... of course. Of course, Your Majesty. I will ... umm...”

“Talk to Hortensius and get his assistance in finding the right fit for you. I will mention to him that you will be coming for advice once he returns.”

“Certainly,” Sorantius said, clearly none too pleased.

While the two were certainly not adversaries, both defended their domains rabidly and did not like the other intruding. She didn’t have time to address their feelings in this regard. The train may have made visiting faster, but many of her visits could be eliminated by properly sent reports.

“Good. Since we have not been informed of your progress so far, I came to check on it myself. Specifically, on the nitrocellulose production Ky gave you instructions for before we left for Gaul.”

“We did encounter some difficulties initially, Your Majesty, but I assure you, we’ve made significant progress in resolving them.”

“What kind of difficulties?”

“Heat. The Consul’s directions were very detailed and, while it was complicated in some places, we were able to follow them and replicate the process laid out in the blueprints. However, we have had significant problems with temperature regulation, as this process seems much more sensitive to heat than the other formulations we worked on in the past. Once the reaction starts, it generates a significant amount of heat, which then causes the nitrocellulose to break down, making it all but worthless.”

“Wasn’t this mentioned in the instructions, the need to control the temperature?”

“It was, but once the reaction started, it wasn’t clear how we could lower the heat and it was hard to determine how bad the problem was until it was out of control.”

“This is an error I have been concerned about for some time,” Sophus said in Lucilla’s ear. “As we begin to push further into more complex, reactive formulations, heat was always going to be an issue and we have yet to devise a properly functional thermometer capable of measuring those reactions. I will speak to the commander about options for dealing with this issue, as it will only get worse as we increase the complexity of formulations.”

Lucilla listened to him but gave no reaction, keeping her focus on Sorantius.

“However, I believe I have come up with a solution to this problem that seems, at the moment, to be working.”

“Ohh?” Lucilla asked.

Sophus had already started listing off possible solutions they could give him. The chemist was very good at his job, but he tended to be more workmanlike than Hortensius, following instructions more than experimenting with variations. So his offering a solution was a surprise.

Sorantius waved for her to follow, leading her and her retinue to a new section of the factory. He stopped in front of what looked to be a complicated setup. A large vat was crisscrossed with copper tubing, in a loop, one side toward a cistern and the other toward a trough coming through the wall and filled with water, which then returned to the tube-covered vat.

“He’s created a water-cooling system,” Sophus said.

“You’ve implemented a water-cooling system,” Lucilla said, repeating Sophus’s words.

“Yes!” Sorantius said excitedly. “You see it right off. We run these pipes over the mixing vat with cooled water, which allows it to exchange some of the heat from the vat itself with the water in the cooling pipes, which we then shunt off to a holding cistern. From there, it slowly runs through our water intake, which is generally very cold, and then back to the vat to start the process over again. We have these valves, here and here, that allow us to control the flow of water or, of course, shut it off when we are not processing the sulfuric and nitric acids together.”

“Why not just run it from the vat to the water intake and back?”

“It was picking up enough heat to not be cooled off sufficiently by the time it made the round trip. We needed it to drop some of the heat first, to allow the stream water to bring it below room temperature, which is why we add to the top and pull from the bottom. The water pressure created by the cistern filling pushes the water up and creates pressure through the process, although we have a steam pump connected to help it get started.”

“That’s very clever,” Lucilla said.

“Thank you, although it’s still very difficult. If we cool it off too much, the reaction can be stopped, ruining the batch, and obviously, it’s hard to tell how hot it is. We’re still in the trial-and-error phase, I’m afraid. Small-degree changes are causing the nitrocellulose to either break down or become volatile. It will take time to find the precise temperature for maximum potency.”

“Of course. I’m still very impressed with what you came up with. I will message the Consul and discuss the problems you’re having with him to see if he has any thoughts for you.”

“If that were possible, Your Majesty, it would be excellent.”

“What other projects have you been working on?” Lucilla asked.

“They are all either on or ahead of schedule. We’ve had successful batches of saline, which was relatively straightforward to achieve, only leaving us to work out the process of scaling up production. The chemical the Consul called ‘ether,’ however, has proven far more challenging, especially when it comes to storage.”

“How so?”

“It’s highly volatile, evaporates quickly at room temperature and is extremely flammable. We’ve repurposed some of the containers the Consul designed for acids to prevent it from escaping or igniting. That seems to be working, but we are currently limiting the production to small batches, leaving the ether to sit for a time to test its long-term effectiveness.”

“It sounds like you are handling your assignments well and everything is on task. I will send over what notes the Consul has for how to better control temperature and talk to him about your storage issues as well. Until then, keep up the good work. And please see to getting that manager. I would hate to have to come see you to get another update.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty. I’ll take care of it.”

“Good man,” she said.

Eastern Germania

Ky lay on his cot, staring at the canvas ceiling of his tent. The pain in his side had dulled to a persistent ache. His frustration, however, had only gotten worse. Sophus had only woken him a few hours ago, pulling him out of the medical coma he’d been in to allow his system to repair the massive damage done by the bullet more quickly.

That should have been good news. It meant he was out of any serious danger and would be up and moving in a week or two. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of cause for celebration. As soon as he’d woken, Sophus had told him he had to remain prostrate and still; Ky had sent his drone out of the tent to get a look at what was going on.

The first thing he’d noticed was that their position had changed from the more rugged ground near the Urals to the thicker forests further west. Another legion had joined them, but they’d continued to retreat, with the Easterners close on their heels. He’d watched a short skirmish that morning as his army’s rear guard pushed back their pursuers to allow the wounded and supplies to put more distance between them.

His men had done well, fighting exactly as they had been taught and had given the enemy a bloody nose when they’d gotten too close, but it had been costly all the same.

While it had been the right call when faced with cavalry and massed infantry attacks, Napoleonic-era tactics with tightly packed men firing in volleys weren’t going to work here. Not when the enemy was using the same tactics against him with the same weapons. That would only result in the larger force winning.

Ky had issued orders changing their standard fighting style, and Ursinus was already putting the men through whatever training they could provide as the retreat continued. They would, for now, try to fight on the defensive, in looser sections. They still had to be somewhat tightly packed, due to the slow-firing nature of rifled muskets, but they could at least do it from cover, instead of marching in the open. They also could stop using volley fire and switch to isolated, targeted fire from cover, if they weren’t worried about infantry charges. It would make them more vulnerable to cavalry, but so far, it appeared to him that the enemy was more infantry-focused.

For now, the enemy had pulled back for the night, creating a mile gap between their forces. Ursinus was still being cautious, running heavy patrols to ensure he knew where the enemy was, but even through heavy forest, Sophus was able to read the heat signatures and pick out most of the men, and they were in the clear for the time being.