Chapter 10

Lucius said, "If you are not plotting to take over the empire with this man but to just inform him of his future then this does not conflict with my oath."

"Then I will tell you that Julian Constantius will be your next Augustus. I am not sure but he may be called Victorinus already."

"He is the Caesar of this portion of the empire and the man I take my orders from. He is a scholar turned Caesar but still cousin to the Augustus. He has just been given the honorific Victorinus by his men. "

"You hold the life of your future Augustus in your hand."

"How is that?"

"How many people think that I speak for the gods?"

"I understand. If Constantius hears of this, the man will die like his brother; whether he is a cousin or not."

I said, "Can you really trust all your men not to mention any of the words I have just spoken to you?"

"Only some and then not very far." Lucius asked, "Tell me how Constantius' death is auspicious?"

"He is a recent convert to Christianity. He is using the religion to gain more power for himself. The Christian followers in the past faced death because the men will not fight. Later they will fight as their religion is twisted about and corrupted by men. One of my goals is to separate the state from religious matters and keep religion out of the matters of state."

"That cannot be done. A man has his religion as well as his commitment to the Augustus."

"They can be separated and this has to happen. Laws have to be clear and an official can see if any matter before him is religious or not. If it is the state then those laws apply. Religious matters will be dealt with by their respective officers but no penalty can be applied unless the man abides by the judgment. There will be no deaths or fines for that is the jurisdiction of the state."

"The priests will not follow that law."

"Then they will be prosecuted just like any common felon. The law of the state is uppermost not the other way around."

"The gods want this to happen?"

"The gods do not mind a bit of ceremony but they object to how man is using religion for their own ends. Some of what the priests are trying to do is valid because men need some controls. The state though will use religion to control men for their own purposes. Some of this is beneficial but most is not. A good rule is to have the state and the various religions have their own areas, and where they come close rules are made. The secular courts will decide though."

Lucius said, "You are not just wanting to change the empire but the basic structure of man. That cannot be done."

"It is all a matter of how you look at things. Religious matters are handled by the priests but the great majority of human activity is handled by the state."

We stopped again to look over the beginnings of my little lake. Lucius just stood and looked over the land but I was sure he saw nothing. There was a lot of facts and ideas he had to resort in his mind.

It was a full twenty minutes later that he breathed out noisily and said, "What would you have me do?"

In the coming days Lucius was given a quick course in metallurgy and then the workings of both the bloomery and the copula. The pouring of the liquid metal seemed to thrill him. It represented a power that was beyond anything he had known before.

Stone and timber had been cut and laid for the track. A limited number of cars had been made and these were used to carry the castings of more cars to a place where they could be cleaned, roughly machined by hand and then assembled into new cars.

Iulius was sent with some of my gold to buy the untenanted land next to Lucius'. The family next to that property happened to be in financial trouble. Lucius offered a fair sum and bought the slaves as well as the obligations of the freemen living on the property.

Lucius, not me, offered freedom to the slaves and their families if they would work fairly for him. The freemen were offered a good wage to do the work he requested.

The property next to us was three miles by twenty instead of the usual two. The land was unsuitable for much farming and the added area was an encouragement to buy and settle it. It also had an exposed coal seam but I had no idea of its extent. With Iulius on the way to gain the title we would start mining operations.

Roman roads were built but now they were wider and stronger. The heavy loads would destroy any road in time. Lucius sent some of his men to the nearest cities to hire additional labourers. I wanted the soldiers to hire by the family unit because they would be separated too long otherwise. They were also on the look out for all the hemp and seed they could find. Rye and silk were needed and they would look for them too. The grain was commonly grown here but just not in this vicinity.

Lucius was away from his family a lot and had come here for a vacation. I suggested some large tents and have his family near him. Since the home was relatively close he agreed.

Trees were cut or pulled from the ground and the road made directly to the foundry. This also required a lot of small and one fair sized bridges. The river we had to cross could take the coal down the Rhine but it was not navigable without a lot of work.

Felicia came with her family but now we had to stay strictly platonic. Lucius was no fool but then again neither was Licinia.

The farm we bought was cultivated with our ploughs and then seeded with all the hemp seed we could find and the remainder with the rye. Raw hemp was also talked about in the towns and cities. We could use more if we could get it. The hemp had to be collected though and shipped here for processing.

Men and their families trickled in and they were put to work making their own homes to my specifications. They worked harder when they found out that they would live in the buildings they made.

The foundry was making cast iron products for sale now. My idea of the wire wrapped steel bar worked well enough to make a long threaded rod out of steel. The cast iron was too hard on the surface to machine well though it was softer underneath. Neither the metal lathe or the mill was a reality yet but there were some promising people working on it.

Hagen and his people now made the steel armour and swords. Lucius was worried about an Alemmani doing this. Rome was currently fighting them. The two men met over some fortified wine and were good friends by dawn. This wine was now in demand but I think that the Alemmani drank most of it themselves.

Lucius had a bad headache the next day and said, "Tell me again what you poisoned me with."

"I supplied the wine. It was your hand that kept pouring more."

"Don't quibble. What is it again?"

"It is first, some inferior wine I had purchased and then extracted the part of the wine that makes you feel happy. This was added to your own wine to make you very happy."

"My head hurts too much but why did you do that?"

"Wine makes money but so will vodka and rye whiskey." I had to explain this to him and he now saw the reason for the rye I had planted.

Summer came and our crops flourished. Buyers from all over came to the estate to purchase our products and to see how well they worked. Hagen sent people to trade for him while he took over the production of all steel products. Lucius bought the armour, swords, knives and stoves from me at almost full retail price. He could now justify saying that they were worth that price to the buyers. Enough of the profit went back to him but that was another matter.

Lucius had found ways of putting off rejoining his unit. The legion was destroyed but the remnants were absorbed by the IX legion stationed further down the Rhine. A suit of armour and a sword was enough to keep the commander happy until the new year.

Lucius had sent messages. One had gone down the Rhine then west through the English channel then up the Seine to Paris or Lutetia as it was called now. Along with the message were three suits of armour, swords and knives went with them.

Julian Constantius was in Paris and would be for a while yet. He was a studious man and his interests may be piqued by our gift. The armour was now called 'the invincible' while the sword was called 'the devastator'. Nobody else had thought of doing this sort of advertising yet.

By mid summer we had a crude milling machine. I remembered the fine machines we had in the gun factory in Ontario and wished that I had looked inside a few before having to come here to this time. I guess I should have looked at the lathes too in that case.

With a lot of fudging, we were able to make more accurate parts and these went into a better lathe. Tooling didn't last long and we tried to keep track of what worked and what didn't. Like the story of Eve, the lathe was born from the second mill and then we worked to make even more accurate parts for newer versions of the tools.

The first mill was then put to use finishing the insides of the cast iron frypans. The second version machined the top of a large range then cut six holes in the same top. Blanks were cleaned and cut to fit the holes and a large wood burning stove was made. It was very heavy but it worked just fine. Baking became more common though large clay ovens were always used to bake bread.

Iulius and I started training people in medicine. Tertius was one of our students. There were a lot of accidents on our property no matter what we tried to do to prevent them. This gave a lot of practical experience for the students.

Two medium sized billows powered by two people were enough to supply the air to turn a very small drill bit. It leaked air all over and the men had to work hard but I began to fill teeth. Ether was not usually used but we found a way to make sure the patent breathed in some without the anaesthetic overcoming the dentist.

I showed Lucius the still and explained how it worked and then had to show him with a sample of pure water and my alcohol that had already been distilled.

He learned about my sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol. The saltpetre didn't get used up but was only a way of giving the sulphur dioxide molecule one more oxygen atom. This had to be kept secret too. He had his own family making this for us.

Diethyl ether had to be made in large quantities now. It was awkward to make only small batches.

This brought on the need for glass and I showed him how it was made on a large scale. He wanted his own family to do this too but we ran out of family even though Licinia got pregnant. Both were very happy and happier when I told them that I could reduce the mortality rate by a few simple procedures.

The glass itself was sold in the form of bottles but we made other products with it like plates, bowls, mugs, and even art. Cork was already used by the Romans and large bung plugs in barrels but also for the soles of shoes. I needed the bark of the cork tree too for a lot of articles besides stoppers for wine bottles. Cork screws would have to be invented and of course sold too.

More chemistry was used when the hemp we bought was treated with sulphuric acid and then turned into paper. I wanted to use hydrogen peroxide but had to wait until I could do so economically. I had not located any barium salts yet and this was used in the old method for producing this bleaching agent.

The lathe had made the heavy rollers that both flattened the paper and dried it out. The paper came out in long sheets that were cut by knives and not a laser. The production run was short and there simply was not enough hemp.

We cut a steel drum and shaft on the lathe and then attached lead to the drum. It was then turned again to get a uniform surface. One young woman that was a fair artist drew a picture of a Roman soldier on paper. The image was then placed on the lead cylinder and marked out the lines through the paper and onto the lead. The rest of the lead was labouriously cut away by hand but it didn't take long.

A pool of ink was used to wet just the edges that stuck up from the lead and then this was rolled on a piece of paper. Nine others were done and everybody saw how easy it was to make multiple copies.

The shaper was an obsolete tool. One tool on it went back and forth linearly. It did make nice dovetails in a steel drum. Babbitt blocks were cast of all the characters I needed and more besides. These fit into the dovetails in the steel drum. When this was used we could put out multiple pages of print. Again I used indents and lines between paragraphs. Even quotes got a new line.

Like Johann Gutenberg, I printed a religious book or a book of the history I wanted people to believe. The bible had been the only common book for quite a while and I wanted mine to be both more inspirational and clearer to understand. I used up a lot of my own paper to get my ideas straight. Confucius had been around for six centuries but I was not sure. His teachings as well as those of every religion I could remember were formed into a creed whereby we could all live.

The book's title was "Valhalla Visited". It started out with my previous life and I got the Romans to tell me what the spies had found out about this matter. It would be nice to come across as a saint but I was a boy then a mean boy that deserved a spanking. I listed the reasons for this as a life of indulgence because of my father's position.

The actual accident was important for inferences would be drawn to it for a long time. I tried to get across that the boy was good inside and worth saving. The gods though had to find a way to do this and also give me a great task.

Like books in the bible, my awakening in the land of the gods was done. I was not a literary writer but I had to put emotion into this and dialogue with the gods to prove each of the points I wanted. Aldúlfr was the character I named as it didn't seem to be in any of the sagas. It meant old wolf and fit the characteristics I attributed to the god.

Aldúlfr showed me the glories of his civilization. This started with the gods themselves and how they acted then reacted to each other. I made them human but ethically superior with some occasional failings.

Aldúlfr and I talked about transportation then showed me examples of each. We went into many features of Valhalla. My naïve questions were put in for my mentality was still that of an eleven year old boy at the time.

The compass we now had was mentioned but I had to mention undiscovered land and the people that inhabited this land. Though I had never been in space, I knew enough to say that Aldúlfr took me there for a visit. This is how I mentioned how much more land their was but I did not give any bearings to it. I did mention going over the north pole to get to Greenland and Canada but it was an impassable barrier and impractical to use. Antarctica was mentioned but the Romans would see no value in a continent of ice.

I said that I did not need much sleep in Valhalla but what I got was in Aldúlfr's home with his wife and two children. This was a subtle jab at families with lots of children and not enough time to devote to them. Television, radio, telephones, cell phones and computers on the internet were talked about with enough detail to give someone a small start at understanding them. I gave the image of a library in a large city but it was difficult to get across the sheer number of books. Various levels of schools were discussed which led to a plug for our own school of medicine. My anaesthetic would be another proof that I could use to show how this and dentistry worked.

I went to movie theatres to see entertaining and educational works on the very wide screen. I learned of war long ago and of the way gods and weapons changed as they killed each other. This was to show that the gods had their feet of clay but had overcome some of their baser urges.

Aldúlfr talked to me about the parables of his people and how they were used for educational purposes but were not actually true. This was another slam at religious books that had parables taken as 'gospel'.

The first parables told of sanitary practices that would save lives. The small trichinosis worm was discussed and how the meat of the pig and bear could only be safely eaten when it was well cooked.

Family planning too was stressed though Rome wanted more children not less. Various methods of ancient contraception were put in along with the truth about human reproduction.

Aldúlfr gave my version of the beginning of the universe with the big bang and then over a billion years gods arriving through evolution. The gods in turn altered our ancestors as an experiment. The only difference was that the gods looked after us.

The world of the gods was discussed in parable form and some of the good details explained in greater detail. This was the interesting part and made the travelogue as good as I could. The gods of course lived in an alternate dimension of space but still here on earth.

We switched from parables to Aldúlfr teaching me about science. Astronomy was touched on and the basic action in our sun was mentioned. This lead to numbers and allowed me to put in the Indian numbers the Arabs brought us. I added a bit of the four basic mathematical operations. These of course had been slipped into the parables a few times to make sure they were grasped. Three hundred and sixty five and a quarter days were our year but the start was when Jón was first summoned to visit Valhalla or when he got kicked in the head by his horse.

History was intermixed with evolution and the extinction of the dinosaurs. This allowed me to talk about chlorophyll and plant life. This in turn let me talk about grafting apples and grapes which I thought very useful.

Basic chemistry was taught so the readers could try the experiments to see that they were true. The same was done for simple physics. The periodic table was put in for all to see whether I could prove the existence of the elements or not.

Printing and book binding were not mentioned and neither was paper making. The book alone would prove that we had this technology. I wanted to keep control of this media as long as possible. I even made cylinders of each page and stored them to be used when reprints were necessary.

Ethics in all matters took up most of the book. It covered all the commandments from the various religions and put the best down as coming to me from talks in Asgard.

The way the followers of my religion had to treat not only their own kind but those of other religions was explained. I may not turn the other cheek but an understanding had to be attempted. It also happened to be what the gods themselves would do.

I had to make religion easily accessible to the common man or woman and chose the Möbius strip as our symbol or its simplified version as the symbol for infinity.

I had heard that Willie Shakespeare had the task of completing the King James version of the bible but I was not that good of a story teller. Licinia and her family would listen to my work and make suggestions. They did not see it as chicanery but as me trying to say the truth in the best possible way.

Mamercus and his wife Fausta along with Publia were over when they could make it. There was just too much being done for them to keep away. All the neighbours spare labour worked for us and got paid in our products. The labourers were paid too even if they were slaves. The parables were now given out to selected audiences and again the reaction and wording monitored for improvements.

Bernadette married a good man and as head of my religion I performed the ceremony. Again I had been to a lot of weddings and could make a good service out of it. Some of the more off beat ceremonies of my youth helped me here.

Deaths too happened and I conducted the funeral. Here everlasting life was stressed. Everybody went away happier but I felt like a hypocrite. I had to have baptism though I did not think that the Christians did this yet but I could be wrong unlike the Popes of later years.

Men and women started coming to me for religious training or education in how the gods worked. I gave my interpretation but always said that the gods would make it clearer to me at a later date. Finding ethical people to carry on was difficult. One convert was so close to any other. One fact was for sure; none of the male or female priest would be single.

Publia came crying to me one night. I held her but this was in front of Iulius. "What is the matter Publia?"

"My parents want me to marry."

"Do you not love him?"

"He is ok but not the one I want."

I figured who she wanted and skirted it by saying, "Is the other one available?"

"No."

"Is there any other that you would rather marry?"

There was a long pause and a small "No," was heard.

Two days later Lucius told me that Felicia was getting married too. She had been mooning over me for too long and she needed a man to fill her needs with sex and then with children.

I suggested to both sets of parents that the wedding be held together. The girls were neighbours though their homes were not that close. I felt it would be better this way because they were both upset at the weddings and could lean on each other.

I asked Lucius, "I want to give a gift to each of the couples. Can you think of something suitable?"

"As a brother of one you could give a horse."

"That sounds fine but could you tell me what they will be doing with their lives?"

Lucius looked at me oddly and said, "I guess start a farm."

"With farms soon able to produce more then land prices will fall and so with the prices of crops. Are the husbands capable of managing some small businesses? I am asking this because many Romans are class conscious and cannot work with their hands even if they want to."

"Both our families are well able to start them out right but what is your proposal?"

"The both of you go to the largest cities nearby and buy some land. Build homes that will have our products. The water will be contaminated in a well so we can use a cistern to catch rain water. You then build a large building with thick walls to deter thieves and stock the business with a few of our cheapest products. This is an incentive for the men and your daughters to get into selling. The profits are used to buy more of our products and they sell them for us.

"They will live a very prosperous life and you will hear from them all the time when deliveries are made."

Mamercus said, "That is expensive. I have many children."

I said, "Then I will help with the cost. They are my friends."

Two weeks later I got dressed up in some fancy clothes and married the two couples. I started a double ring ceremony and the rings had the Möbius symbol on each.

The mill was taking shape but it had not even cut its first board. The river that lead to the Rhine was cleared of more rocks and debris. This was easy. The lake was now filling and the river was nearly dry. This process had been going on for a long time but now we could get the rocks that could not be brought out before.

Boat ramps and docks were made out of stone and put in place and the narrow areas widened. Where we could, the soil and rock was dumped in low spots on the bank because we may have to put in locks at the Rhine to get the water high enough to let in the larger ships that I expected.

The lake eventually filled but we were not ready to use the water. With everybody present, the dam was opened and thousands of tonnes of water rushed down the dry river bed to wash away what we could not get before. The dam was then closed and many people went to see just what had happened. This was an environmental sin but I was just starting out and needed all the shortcuts I could use.

Scythes and pruning shears were sold by the thousands not the hundreds. Word had spread and people wanted what we had. I heard of competition from cheaper units but they didn't work as well.

We had a nursery started and in a few years we could sell grafted grapes and apples. This tied in with my book on the land of the gods. Proof of their viability and productiveness was years away.

Last year's crop of wine was put in glass bottles. Labels with a family crest and the name of the particular grape was on the label. The year was there too and it was listed as the year '0002'.

Hagen the barbarian, now had to manage the bloomery and another at the coal seam. The coal had to be converted to coke. Large wagons carrying coke to the cupola came back loaded with iron ore to be processed into steel.

The lathe and mill allowed me to make a large steam hammer. The machining was the most critical yet and I had to wait for the tools to make this device. A boiler also had to be made and this had to stand the pressure and the heat we subjected it to.

A letter came back to Lucius from Julian Constantius. With spies all around the man, we had to talk around some subjects and spies are not stupid people. I was asked to visit Constantius if I chose and I definitely chose to do so.

The mill got into operation with two main saws cutting trees into slabs and smaller saws cutting the slabs into boards. We would build our own ships but there were not enough people that knew what to do or a good design considering what material we had available.

The best we could do would be to charter Roman ships. They travelled on the Rhine regularly. They were not large in my estimation and our iron and steel products were heavy. We were going to take a full range of salable articles and that included soaps, wine, fortified wine and last year's brandy.

Julian would get these cheap if he wanted them and give them as gifts to get cooperation or silence as the need may be. Before I went, three copies of "Valhalla Visited" went in a double sewn leather pouch with six metal seals that were used in my time to show that somebody had entered a container. Nobody had the technology to repair the seals so the books and the letters would be safe if they managed to get to the man.

We made a lot of sturdy wood containers with places to affix ropes. These would get packed on the three ships we charted. We paid a premium for well calked vessels because all ships leaked. We just didn't want the salt water to destroy what we had spent so long to make just right.

Because I know what was ahead of me, large boxes contained large glass containers of glycerine, sulphuric and nitric acid. Cellulose in the form of hemp went too along with the necessary materials to remove the residual acids later.

We now made matches that sold faster than we could make them. They also made handy fuses when contained in a small cast iron sphere that would be filled with something that would go 'boom' at a later time.

I had visions of det cord but I was not comfortable making it and besides it would take months to get a production facility made and more months to make the explosive.

It was at the end of the year that the ships showed up or at least one did. It was inspected and we found a lot of new caulking. We had a portable crane made that was mostly oak but also used a lot of steel. It had even been used a few times already. There was no wire rope and we had to rely on hemp. The captain and crew liked how this was done. The heavier articles went in the bottom but these were usually larger. There was a lot of fiddling to get the available space used efficiently.

There was not that much room to start with because this ship also used rowers but had a small sail. Most of the time this would be used for getting in or out of port but also for moving when becalmed.

The captain of the ship was named Rufus, probably because of his red hair. He owned the one here now as well as the other two we chartered. He greeted Lucius with the warmth of a paying customer and ignored me. Lucius and the officers and men he had with him were going to sail with us as far as their post. Men had already gone ahead with the horses so the mounts would be there when they arrived.

The mounts had saddles with a high cantle and stirrups. I was not afraid for the safety of the Frisians. The calvary was obsolete with the invention of the cannon. Horses though were still good for transportation and hauling loads.

Lucius called me over and said, "Captain, this is Jón. He is the one that owns the cargo and is actually paying for this trip."

"He's a boy," he said incredulously.

Lucius said, "His gold is all self made. When he came here he didn't even have two asses to rub together."

Rufus nodded his head and I extended my hand. It took a moment but he eventually got the idea.

"Hello, Captain. I hope there will be no problem with my age. There will only be five others beside myself that will continue to Lutetia."

"I was told that but I was told it was important that the cargo get to its destination without getting wet."

"That is true Captain. I have the bonus with me for each ship that is dry. I do not intend to pay it if the goods need to be cleaned."

"What is our cargo?"

"War materiel."

"What kind?"

"War material is all I will say."