Chapter 40

Mai Woo's new job was actually bigger than just being a 'girl Friday'. In my eyes she was going to be my official go between in all my dealings with her Earth and the people who ran the networks and anyone else there that I needed a favour from. With that in mind, I pointed out to her that she needed to prepare herself to be by my side twenty-four and seven until the end of the year. While this news put an enthusiastic smile on her face for a moment or two, as she imagined what that meant, I quickly wiped it off by telling her the facts of life. I told her that she needed to learn how to ride a horse and how to use a weapon to defend herself and that she needed travelling clothing and a pack to carry all her gear in whenever I went off on an expedition because she was going to be there right beside me when I took on Onyx Network and anything else that came my way in the next seven months. While she went off to deal with that, I went off and dealt with matters closer to home and of a more pressing nature.

Samira was awake but she wasn't better. The young woman had slipped into a depression after learning the fate of three Minoan girls and what had almost happened to her and the rest of us. My visits didn't help her and my concern for her grew with each passing day. The only one who seemed to be able to pull her out of her funk was Asana. My youngest and newest mate spent her days and nights take care of Samira and I routinely thanked her for her help in this matter. Asana assured me that it was the least that she could do. I did make certain that Asana was routinely spelled throughout the day and that she had assistance around the clock to help her out. I even called in the Wu Chin physician hoping that a little eastern philosophy and medical perspective would help.

That was another major problem that I needed to address that had been sitting in my pending basket ever since we reached Oak Hall. The problem was communications. I'd originally addressed it back when Rory and Caitlin had joined Kola and me when I had liberated them from the slavers. While everyone spoke the local native dialect, Kola hadn't spoken English and I had started teaching her it so that she wouldn't be left out of any conversation. As we travelled, we'd continued with those lessons, including Zahra into the mix when she joined us and then Felicity. Later on when we met Tagus who only spoke Silurian and the trade dialect used by the merchants on the Black Sea and the villages that they visited, I had everyone work on learning the trade dialect so that we had a common tongue to communicate with. Since the trade dialect was similar in some ways to the local native dialect it proved easy for people like Kola, Caitlin, Rory, and Zahra to pick up. At that time Nimue already spoke it and she was able to help everyone learn it, although much of her time was spent helping Felicity. The trade dialect worked well in Blue Harbour, Oak Hall, and Izmir, but it didn't work well when we captured the French crusaders and it certainly didn't work well on Minos. None of the French men and women that Elsa had kept to work on the new settlement as indentured workers spoke anything besides French and a little Latin and very few of the slaves that we'd liberated from Minos spoke anything other than their own language which was usually something other than English and Minoan. The Princess and the three girls had certainly spoken only Minoan and while they'd learned a little trade dialect in the company of my mates, they hadn't learned enough and personally I felt the inability to communicate with anyone was one of the reasons that Samira had slipped into a depression.

Since Minos we'd added even more people who didn't speak the trade language and problems had started to arise in Oak Hall and those problems were being brought to me to solve. Of course all of this would sort itself out over the long term. People would eventually learn enough trade talk to get by and to do business and that would be that, unfortunately the long term didn't solve the immediate and for that I could only think of two possible solutions. One would be the holding of night classes in trade talk for everyone who didn't speak it. It was something that we could do, but it would take time and resources that were very limited. As it stood, there were ex- slaves who spoke some trade talk who could take over teaching the rest of the ex-slave population and there were a couple of French speaking ex-pirates who were working with the French crusaders as translators who could take over teaching them, but I was the only one in Oak Hall who could teach the Wu Chin and I was certainly too busy for that. It meant that I needed a second solution to my problem and to obtain it, it was going to cost me.

I asked Mai Woo for universal translators. I figured that such a thing had to exist out there amongst the more advanced Earths that populated the infinite universes that I'd been told about and I also figured that Mai Woo's people had to have one since they were watching the denizens of Game World going about their lives, speaking whatever language they spoke. My assumption turned out to be correct. Mai Woo admitted freely that such devices were integral to all communications devices on her world and that they were relatively inexpensive and that her network could provide one to every citizen in Oak Hall if I wanted it for a price.

The first thing I told her was that I didn't want one for every person in Oak Hall since I did want people to become fluent in more than one language and I knew immediately that people would become dependent on the device if it went into general circulation. I did however want enough so that men like Sir Humphrey and his city watch could deal with public disturbances and people like Elsa Mueller and Lord Barnabas could rule the city and the new towns and command soldiers in the field if necessary. I was torn between asking for one-in-ten translators and one-in-four, knowing that more would make things easier but less would force most people to attend the night classes and learn trade talk. We shelved the actual number of units for a bit and discussed what her network wanted in payment.

"Sex," Mai Woo said bluntly, without even hesitating. "Your party introducing Asana into your family group was a big hit back on my Earth. Everyone thought it was one of the most erotic things that they'd ever seen and they want more. My network will provide the translators to you if you marry Princess Samira and do another welcoming party."

I told her no as bluntly as I could. I immediately pointed out that Samira was suffering from a depression and that the last thing she needed was for me to pop her cherry and then make her the centre attraction in a nearly all woman orgy. In retort Mai Woo suggested that a lot of viewers would be happy if I took Elsa Mueller as a wife and did the same thing with her. I replied again that while I liked Elsa and felt attracted to her, I wasn't going to put her through marriage and a polygamous relationship in payment for the devices. That was when Mai Woo stunned me.

"You could fuck me," she told me, lowering her eyes submissively as she said it, "and you could use me any way you wanted. I don't mind pain or doing things that others find disgusting. Basically you could use me and abuse me and I wouldn't mind and my network would be very happy about it as would the viewers. Most people on my Earth like really kinky sex."

I was stunned into silence for several seconds. I'd known that Mai Woo was a bottom from the first moment I'd seen her. All my past lives had sensed it and they'd screamed at me about it from the very beginning. To be honest, I'd been a dominant in most of my other lives and I had no qualms about that kind of relationship in this one. Unfortunately, I hadn't pushed that in my relationship with my current mates. While the sex was great and I was usually in charge, normally it was fairly vanilla compared to things that I'd experienced before. Still Mai Woo's suggestion took me aback and made me wonder what I was getting into once again and in the end I told her no as well.

"Mai Woo," I said to her, as gently as I could, "while your offer is tempting and I know that you are making it freely and consensually, I can't accept it. Regardless of our current working relationship, to my mates and to me, you represent the enemy and I assure you, none of my mates would approve of me sleeping with the enemy. As well, while you state that I could 'use you and abuse you' and then walk away from you as if it meant nothing, I couldn't do that. One of the reasons I haven't been taking concubines and screwing every woman that I've come across is because I view them as people and not as objects. I know it might be hard for you and your people to understand, but that is why I'm here fighting you and your Earth. Your people treat everyone on Game World as objects that you can do with as you please and that is wrong. I'm here to teach you that it's wrong and doing what you suggested would go against everything I believe in and what I'm trying to show you, and I hope that you'll understand that I'm not rejecting you personally, but I am rejecting the values that your offer represents."

Boy did that shock Mai Woo for a while. She cried for a bit but eventually she pulled herself together and she ended up thanking me for my honesty. We did come up with a payment that met what her network was looking for but I'll leave that alone for now and tell you about it later on when it becomes important. I will state however that I increased what I wanted from the consortium. In the addition to the universal translators I asked for a complete refill of Felicity'[s med kit and two extra packs; one for Felicity and one for her nurse trainee, Sarah Williams. Mai Woo readily agreed.

In the meantime I went on and dealt with other issues. Food was a major issue facing Oak Hall with the sudden influx of all the new immigrants. The one hundred and eighty-one men from Wang's expedition increased to almost twelve hundred people once they were reunited with their families. I had them settled on the eastern side of the promontory. This area included fertile fields, vast stretches of woodlands, rivers and streams, and access to both the Bosporus and the Black Sea. We'd need to eventually build a road over the promontory and through the woods so that they would have a land route connecting them to Oak Hall but for now it didn't matter. I gave them six of the ships that we'd taken from Lufkin and they were making use of them to get back and forth between where they were going to settle and Oak Hall. Having the ships helped in more ways than one. They were the smaller craft and all of them could be used for fishing. That helped provide the Wu Chin settlers with food but it didn't meet their every need and given the time of year, planting crops wasn't something that would help in the immediate. What did help was the fact that when Jade Network moved them from Formosa, they'd moved them with everything except for their homes. This meant that while everyone was sleeping and living in tents while the men struggled to cut wood and fashion homes, they had their personal affects and they had their livestock. The network amazingly had included every chicken, duck, goose, sheep, cow, horse, ox, and pet that the Wu Chin had owned, much to my relief and that of Lord Barnabas' council. Still we needed more food and not just for them. The ex-pirates ended up split between Elsa's camp on the promontory and another new settlement to the west of Oak Hall. Again we gave that group a ship that we'd taken from Minos and some supplies that we'd taken from Wang's ships but they needed more and I needed to provide it.

To solve the problem I sent a trade mission to Indigo. That city-state was bigger than Oak Hall, Izmir, and Blue Harbour combined and they had access to more resources than we could hope for so it was logical to head there and try to trade for what we needed. I gave the job to Tagus who welcomed the opportunity to do something other than ferrying me and my people around and standby while I took his ship into action. After consultation and the divvying up of our accumulated wealth, ensuring crews and others were paid off and the remainder got split correctly between Tagus, Lord Barnabas, and me, I gave Tagus money to use to buy foodstuff for the two settlements. I also arranged for a number of vessels to sail with him.

The Windrunner was larger than most craft that plied the waters of the Black Sea, but it certainly wasn't huge and what cargo that it carried back wouldn't last more than a couple days given the number of mouths that needed feeding. As such I put together a trade convoy that included the captured Minoan bireme and the transport bireme that we'd given Blue Harbour. For a few gold coins, Lord Tailem welcomed the opportunity to help me out. With these two large vessels and the Windrunner, we sent the five remaining craft that we'd taken from Minos. With these vessels Tagus could bring back enough supplies to feed everyone for at least a month and while he was there he would commission a trade agreement that would see weekly shipments of foodstuff coming to Oak Hall for the next year. Of course that created another problem for me that needed resolving. Oak Hall needed to expand its port into a proper harbour with all that it entailed. Unfortunately, it had to wait until homes were constructed for everyone.

All of this took time and it was time that I spent at the keep in Oak Hall rather than out doing what I'd originally intended on doing which had been to keep travelling and provide as little of a target for the networks as possible. Unfortunately it was becoming very clear that I was going to have to abandon that plan for at least the immediate future. Hopefully, with my new stratagem coming into play, I wouldn't end up regretting it.

Speaking of stratagems, my plan to find Dindraine was implemented two days after Samira woke up. By then Felicity was willing to leave Samira in the career of Asana, Hui Ping the Wu Chin physician, and Sarah Williams, Felicity's nurse. After another chat and a little preparation that included me presenting Nimue with my pistol and spare magazines and introducing her to the concept of using a firearm as a weapon with some training in immediate actions and stoppages, my two mates kissed me good-bye and took off heading west. Their first trip of one thousand miles took them over the Aegean and then across mainland Greece. From there they crossed the Adriatic and the Italian peninsula. They finally put down in the mountains east of ancient Rome. The trip took them a little more than five hours and Felicity decided to call it a day once they were down on the ground again. Together they camped out for the night and returned to Oak Hall the next day. Both women returned looking enthusiastic and feeling hopeful even though Nimue had not felt her sister's presence at all during the whole trip. Still they intended to try again in a couple of days.

Lord Barnabas called me to task this morning shortly after breakfast. We ended up taking a stroll about Oak Hall together, with him leaning on my arm and me listening to him about his concerns. He appreciated that I was busy addressing the immediate issues faced by Oak Hall as a result of the population influx, but he wanted to remind me that I had obligations that included the signatories of the alliance. While we'd rid the big island of all pirate activity there, we still needed to attend to the smaller enclaves that existed in the territory belonging to Lord Tailem and Blue Harbour and I still needed to put together a proposal for a raid on Minos. This last point was of particular importance since I had given the man a promise to respond by a certain date and that date was approaching in a hurry. Additionally, the seasons were changing now that summer was over with and I needed to take that into account if I wanted to strike Minos before next spring.

I hadn't thought of that at all. I'd been wrapped up with Samira and the population influx and everything else and I hadn't even thought about how the weather was going to affect things. I hadn't even mounted a single expedition to salvage a vehicle yet and I had wanted to do that first and foremost just before I'd been poisoned. I suddenly realized that I wasn't getting to do half the things that I wanted to do and that I'd taken on more jobs in the process and while I was delegating some of the jobs, either there were too many jobs that needed doing or not enough people that I could delegate things to that I trusted to get them done properly. I sighed loudly when it became clear that I needed to start prioritizing what I was doing and what I wanted accomplished before everything decided to fall apart. Lord Barnabas just chuckled good naturedly at my exasperation and welcomed me to his world.

I spent the rest of the day in Barnabas' private office pouring over intelligence provided by Mai Woo and company, trying to put together an operation that would get Lord Omar off my back for at least a few months. It really wasn't that hard to do given the information provided to me and given what resources I had at my disposal. The big issue was timing. I wanted to take the Windrunner with me and it wasn't going to be back for at least two weeks. Neither was one of the transport bireme that I wanted to take with me or almost two hundred crewmen who were with Tagus that I would need for the upcoming venture. All of this would delay the operation for at least three weeks if not more and put us into weather that wasn't the most hospitable at that time of year and the trip home would be risky for vessels like the two transport biremes that I wanted to take with me. Still the Windrunner and the transport bireme were an important aspect to my overall plan and until they and their crews returned, I wasn't budging regardless of what anyone else said. I trusted the Windrunner and I knew what it was capable of and I knew what I would use it for. I wrote up my plan and then locked it up for the night. Tomorrow I would discuss it with Lord Barnabas and Elsa Mueller and Nimue, before sending it to Izmir for Lord Omar's attention.

In the meantime I ate supper with my mates and my friends and few special guests and during it we had a private meeting. Over the meal I told them what Lord Barnabas had pointed out to me and then we discussed it. In the end I asked certain people to take over certain jobs so that I could handle other matters.

"The first thing I want to delegate is an obvious one," I told everyone, "and I should have divested myself of the responsibility weeks ago. The defence of Oak Hall and the obligations it has under the treaty with Izmir and Blue Harbour should go to Lord Barnabas and his administrative council, which of course includes Elsa as Lord Barnabas' right hand woman and seneschal. While Elsa has overall authority, that authority is delegated downward to Sir Humphrey of the City Watch and Captain Eric the current Captain of the Guard. Unfortunately those two men only manage two-thirds of the responsibility for the proper defence of this city. That means we need a third man to command the naval elements of Oak Hall and to deal with the pirates who still threaten the commerce sailing through the waters that we claim as our own. I'd like that commander to be Glenn Dupree."

Glenn was stunned by the proposal and everyone at the table could see it. I'd spoken to Elsa before the meal and the meeting and she was in on it. She too had been feeling the strain between serving Lord Barnabas and supervising the construction of her former band's new home, plus everything else that was being tossed at her and she agreed that we both needed to delegate more responsibility to men and women that we trusted to get the job done when it was needed to be done. With a little cajoling and the support of everyone else at the table, we quickly convinced Dupree to acquiesce to our proposal. With one down I moved on.