Chapter 5

Julian was pissed now and ordered his men to get on their horses. We pulled the cannon to the home of Sextus. I knew the place well and I felt good to be going there this way.

The streets were empty though we had everybody looking at us from their windows or rooftops.

Sextus' home was walled and the stout gate was closed. Armed guards were above the wall. Julian called out, "Call your master."

It took a while but a very frightened Sextus came to the wall and said, "Oh, you are safe. I was so worried that you may have come to harm. What can your faithful servant do for you, my Augustus?"

"Come out here now."

"The streets are dangerous. I have cool wine here in my home and it is safe too."

"Come out now or you will not have a home."

The man came out with seventeen of his men but Julian used his fingers and the men retreated to the closed door. Sextus came forward hesitantly and said, "I just heard about the conspiracy." Sextus gave the names of the two that we had learned first.

Julian said, "There are more than that." He turned to me and said, "See if you can get him to talk."

Sextus said quickly, "I will tell you everything I know."

Julian said, "I know you will but it will be the truth my way."

Sextus froze and I got close to support him. In a second all he did was quiver. I let him recover but at his age it was a while. When he could speak again it was Julian that said, "Do it again, Jón. I never did like this man."

Sextus blurted out, "No, I will tell you everything..."

He was fifteen minutes until he was able to move and ten more before he could talk.

Julian said, "Who are in your group? Each lie gains you one more time of pain."

The names came out quickly. After a while Julian said, "What traps do you have in your home?"

"None, I only have a lot of men waiting to protect me."

"I want your cool wine now."

We entered the compound and all of the hired help was against the back wall where they were told to go. I was able to interface with them easily and left them to rest until we were ready for them.

The servants and family came out next but nothing was done to them. The older male members did join the mercenaries on the grass.

We struck only one more home that day. The rest saw that Sextus had broken and they fled the city. Julian called out the legion to give chase and we went to see what had happened in the palace. All we found here were a lot of frightened servants.

I questioned Sextus about a possible mage and he admitted that some had come at Constantius' bidding and had been put to use by some of the senators. The mages' current whereabouts were not known.

The girls came to the palace with me along with the cadets and a frightened woman with her child. The rats that fled the city had to be pursued. Lucius took the Patricia and gave chase to one ship that had left a port further up the coast. It fled north into the Black Sea. From there it could go anywhere including the Danube. Rufus was ordered to give chase to another senator with the Enterprise but he had the Mediterranean to search.

My trip home was put on the back burner as I stayed for the trials of the senators that opposed Julian. Since almost everybody now was a Wodenist there was no way the culprits were going to get off.

The senators were too high to just execute and they were fined heavily and banished instead. Their families were not penalised though but I knew that the next generation was not going to be as highly regarded as the last.

While waiting to find any new problems, I worked on the generator. I did not have the machines necessary but I did have some good smiths that helped me wind the armature and the fields then make the commutator. The generator weighted eight hundred of our new grams but there was no easy way of driving it.

Rufus came back nearly a month after he left. In his holds were the family of one of the senators that fled. The slaves, servants and guards were free to serve their masters but they could not leave their confinement. The trial was quick and the results were the same.

Julian settled down to running the empire while I got the population firmly behind him and his efforts to modernise. I had to start this process and sailed back to Berytus. Full diplomatic relations were extended to Persia and Sapor knew what was happening. I needed machinery to help me make everything happen.

Mithridates and Lazeez were very glad to see us. The channel into my property had been dredged deep enough to take the fully loaded Enterprise. Within a day the generator was hooked up to one of the steam engines and we had lots of power but I did not know how much. I used all of my electrical knowledge to deduce that the generator put out 90 volts at a low RPM and around 200 when it was turned as fast as it could be with our engine. The current was variable too but I figured we were getting 250 amps at the lower speed.

The voltage was too high for my present needs, so instead of altering the generator I made a smaller unit with more silver wire. Julian was very generous since I helped him remove the traitors from his nest. The smaller unit took eleven days to fabricate and it put out 90 or better volts at full RPM but something much more reasonable at a low speed.

Mithridates had processed many tonnes of sugar and now we used similar tanks to electroplate copper. One electrode gathered the pure copper until we cut up the electrode itself. The original portion was not pure. When this started to work we just made more baths and hooked them in series. The steam engine worked a little faster to take care of the voltage drop across each tank.

The copper was very soft and we made it into wire by drawing it through dies. The cadets were with me in this all the way. Anoushak was the one that was most taken with this process. Her father came for a visit and his copper covered suit was electroplated with a much thicker layer of the metal.

Sapor said, "What are you going to do with that other generator?"

"We can make steel pipe with it. The hot metal is closed up tight and the electricity is fed through the joint to make it fuse. The pipe is slowly pulled through the device and it is welded as it travels."

"Is that all?"

"All? I could make a tower and put a large tank on the top. I can fill it with water and during the day anybody that is hooked up to the tower with pipes can have as much water as they need."

"That is convenient; not necessarily good."

"What if I took the water from a river and pushed it inside a large pipe that lead to the lands you owned that were dry most of the year?"

"Now that is useful."

"Do not get your hopes up because it is also expensive. Steel or iron will rust through in time. There are many places that have large wood pipes that are held together with steel bands. These may last even longer."

"Show me."

I drew some pictures of a wooden pipe I had seen in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland. It ran beside the road and was elevated so leaks could be seen and the metal bands tightened.

"That is like a long barrel with iron to hold it."

"You are right. All you need is some trees and I can make a saw that will make them the right shape."

"I know just where you could do this."

Later in the conversation I slipped in, "Anoushak is doing very well. She is a lot like AsA in many ways."

"Those women will be the death of me yet. It is hard to get a moment's piece."

"I agree and the reason I brought this up is that Anoushak can again go with us to Germania. Now you know that she fits in well with the rest of us."

"I hate to see her go but I think it is for the best. I see that she has caught the eye of some of the young men."

"One young man in particular thinks your daughter is very special."

"His father is not even a general."

He was talking about Tertius. I said, "Lucius may be an admiral. That is a general that fights on the oceans. The navy is going to be more important than ever. Lucius and Julian are friends now and Julian favours Tertius. The boy will be famous and already is for that matter."

"Would he make a good husband and father?"

"I think he would."

"What would he accept for a dowery?"

"I think he would take what I was given and be very happy to get it."

"I gave you nothing."

"I got the girl, that is what was important."

For the next month I tried to make welding rod. Smoked glass was as easy to make as was a helmet to hold it. We now had lots of pure copper wire and it was only experimentation that allowed us to learn. I had no idea what was in the flux used in electrical welding. I did know that a carbon arc could be used too. Here two carbon rods arced to both sides of a seam that needed to be welded. The problem arose that carbon entered the metal and made the joint hard and brittle.

Julian was sending dispatches the same as Sapor and I were. We were friends and business partners now. There was a lot of sugarcane but we had to go a long way to get it sometimes. I was kept very busy as were the cadets. They had to be taught many different subjects so school took up much of our time. Lazeez gravitated to this group though he and Tertius were a bit older.

The cadets did everything I wanted then they built equipment that interested them. We made spark plugs but there was nothing better than leather for insulation of the wire. The insulation in the electrical motor was nothing better than varnish that did not conduct very well. This is what modern motors had but they had years to develop a good product.

It was time to leave a second time. The hold was filled with copper wire, many sizes of motors and generators and as much sugar as we could carry. I cut back on some trade goods and substituted books of all kinds. Knowledge was a great thing to have and mine was far from complete.

I remembered from my previous life that many things were unclear about this time. Books were burnt like those in Alexandria or in house fires. I wanted this knowledge to be handed down to the people that would live thousands of years from now. Writers had to be paid to write books for me so different facets of Roman and Parthian civilisation would be clear. So far there were more things to write about than there were competent writers.

Lucius had returned empty handed because the particular senator he sought, had fled overland. The nearest legion was informed and they took up the pursuit. Sapor got the Patricia but most of the guns went to Julian until we made more. Sapor was still happy with the share he got.

Sapor made a point of sailing to Constantinople but left days ahead of us. We tied up at the docks at nearly the same time. He had a lot of sugar to sell here before he started to cover the rest of Asia Minor.

We said our goodbyes and took some couriers with us. Mail was important and we were about the fastest thing going.

We stopped in Rome. Part of this was to bolster Julian but it was good for me too. The few days turned out to be a month but it was time well spent. The sugar sold exceptionally well. The rum that I had made from the first successful batch of sugar went even better. I picked up more books and even started a memorabilia collection. This started out as coins but got to be everything that would be lost of this time or previous times. It would not go to my children but to everybody to view.

Rufus was our captain and he bitched all the time about not having enough to trade. He was right because I was rich from this one trip alone. We travelled through the Pillars of Hercules. I pointed out where the British had a base that could fire across the straight and still withstand a nuclear attack. This time the UN would own both sides of the straight.

We dropped off couriers all the time and picked up others. When we got to the Seine, we dropped off some men because I was not sure how deep the river was. Our previous survey only showed the depth that was safe for the Patricia. More of the Patricia class ships had been made and I could come back in a few weeks with one that would not run aground.

Just before the mouth of the Rhine, we pulled shoreward and we all saw the flame that was still coming from the ground. There were people there because I could see tents. I took a small boat to shore and Rufus came too telling everybody how we had come to this place not too long ago.

I had not stopped before to plug this leak up but now I wanted to. Soon I would need the gas to make ammonia to produce explosives and fertiliser. The flame was now sacred as I knew would happen. I gave a sermon and then talked about this place when I first arrived. I was lucky since the escaping gas was through a small crevice in the rock. This material could take the forces of erosion much better than the well above Antioch.

"Woden wants us to prosper and to do that, we need good food. The good food will be more abundant if we have fertiliser. The gas and liquid that escape is not magical but it can make all of your farms more productive. I need the this to further Woden's word. The flame must be extinguished so it will light up your lives a different way."

I took a rock that was the size of a skull and ceremoniously threw it into the hole in the ground but the gas and liquids just went around it.

"Everybody take a stone and throw it into the pit. You will be doing Woden's will."

It did not take long to fill the pit. Shovels were fetched and clay was dug and thrown on the much smaller flames. It took hours though to fully extinguish the fire and then plug up the leaks. We had another sermon and the participants felt the Hand of Woden caress them.

The Rhine had a lot of forts that needed mail. I did pause at the mouth of the Ruhr River where Duisburg would one day be. "Our new home is to the east of here. There is a lot of coal and iron and I mean to use it." I had been slowly leading up to this for a long time and my mates didn't seem to care as long as I was near. The valley was very large and was worth billions of dollars but iron was still easy to find today.

We visited Horatius Postuma and he greeted me as if I was the Augustus himself. I gave him the mail personally because one was from Julian. The man shook with the letter and had to open it quickly even with us here.

Tertius was near and had a giant kite with the flaming figure on it. It was not long until it was in the air and the man almost forgot his letter. All it said was that Julian thanked him for his support during the last crisis.

Horatius had to wear the harness and he too was pulled a bit into the air but only once. The kite was very reluctantly pulled in and Tertius gave it to the man and said, "I am giving this to you."

"But... but... thank you for the gift. I do not think I could ever give you something that comes even close to the value of this kite."

"Then you should watch what my very good friend Anoushak has."

We cleared a wide circle around the girl. Tertius adjusted the engine and showed Horatius the propeller he had seen when I first came here. Tertius then pulled a long thin silk cord at least a dozen times before the engine started to roar. He put it to the ground and waited for his girlfriend to nod her head. The plane took off and in seconds Anoushak had it airborne. She went around a dozen times until she started to do acrobatics with it.

If Horatius was stunned before, he was catatonic now. When the plane came into a soft landing nobody spoke and nobody moved. Anoushak went to the man and brought him to the place she had just been, while the plane was readied by Tertius. Once it started, Anoushak got Horatius to hold the controls. The man was simply enthralled at what he saw. It was the third circuit that the man finally figured out what he was doing and smiled.

When the plane landed the same thing happened. Nobody moved. Tertius and Anoushak got to see what Horatius had been working on for all this time. The two made appreciative comments because the gliders were much better than theirs but they had no engines.

Tertius left and brought back three engines and a large jug of fuel. He handed the engines to the man and told him about the balance and where to put the fuel tanks.

Horatius was allowed to see the documents that Julian gave me concerning the railways and especially the one that allowed me the clear title to all of the Ruhr Valley. The river was near but so were more forts. I figured it might be good to have him know who the property belonged to.

We left a very befuddled man that could not stop smiling.

We heard a sharp whistle after leaving the dock. A larger version of the Patricia was coming towards us. The barge she towed was much larger and the cabins were three stories high. Her smokestack was even higher to let the smoke clear the barge. We could see that she was much more powerful. The waves coming from her bow were much larger even with the impediment of her load.

Rufus waved but didn't need to. The Enterprise was just too noticeable. We did not stop her or allow us to stop but we did stare at each other. On the deck of the boat was an old Roman physician and one of my first Roman friends. With Iulius were Atrius and Manlius. They waved madly and the stoic Manlius called out, "Will you be here in a week?"

"No, but I will in six. I need to check on the school on the Weser."

"We will meet you then."

They looked excited enough to just stop and talk for days. The hundreds of people on the barge though would do the same if allowed. Most were military people but some looked to be the people I had taken in.

Instead of pulling in the river going to my property, we went to the one that separated Lucius' from mine. The dry dock was here and it had been enlarged. More land had been taken from the shore to fit the business. Inside were four large barges and an equal number of hulls like the ship we had seen just pass.

On the far side of the dock was a ship that was even larger than the Enterprise. She was 112 metres with a corresponding increase in the beam but proportioned much like the Enterprise. What surprised me was the amount of construction that was done. The large keel had been cast and the hull looked almost ready to set sail. I knew from experience that there was lots of detail within a hull to complete. I would have to see the ship to find out when she would be ready. This was the one I intended to place engines in.

All work stopped as we got near and I waved to all those that were working. The number that lined the walls was staggering. It took a bit to get used to the surroundings. I held my girls as we watched the trees go by. Soon we stopped and the sails furled. Men got out in one of the boats and proceeded to pull the ship up the slow moving river. More people had to do the same task. With ropes from the stern to keep the ship centred in the river and more from the bow we were pulled forward. There were tracks beside the river that went to the dry dock but as yet there was no engine coming our way.

The dock where I first stopped had been expanded but not as much as what I heard mine was. There was little need too, because large shipments were sent from the other river. By this time people has lined the river and did whatever they could to help. Some of the people wept and I had to think of all the things they had gone through because of me.

The people were a lot more respectful in a way because they kept their distance. I carried the boy that had brought the warning to me about the attack in Constantinople. His mother was further back with the rest of the people leaving the ship.

From the location the Enterprise had first begun, I started a long sermon. They must have heard of what had happened since I left this land but now heard it from my own lips. I had not finished much of the news when Tertius and Lucius had brought Licinia.

I continued with the news but had a smile at the woman that looked to have difficulty walking. I had another smile because Anoushak was there too and being solicitous.

The high points were of the most interest so I included Lucius help in securing Julian's rightful place but also helping him in the short lived insurrection.

It was easy to hold the essence of the people around me. They seemed to want to give me everything they had. I gave the power back so they would live better and concentrated much harder on Licinia.

The boy Liburnius was brought up. He was happy to come because I had been working on him when I was free. I used the power here to do research because I could not heal this problem away without knowing what I was doing.

When it got late I stopped the sermon and just went out among my family. The guards that I had met here before my voyage tried to stay reasonably close without hampering me.

When I got to Licinia I knew that I had to break some old fractures to reset them correctly but this could be done later. I was sure that tonight the man and woman would want to show their love for each other.

Everybody found a bed and I found two warm ladies that wanted to keep me warm.

The next morning there were a lot more people around. The guards now were the ones that gave the news so I could save my voice. The slant on the information was what I wanted to give. It was still the truth but I wanted them to get a clearer picture of what I wanted them to do in the future.

It was the next day that I was able to get to my own home. Here the crowds were much larger. It seemed like all of Germany was here and working for me.

Most of the land was stripped of trees. Large multi floored buildings stood in their place. They didn't look like slums though. Roman style roads were everywhere and the road level was higher than the surrounding land. The railway was everywhere and it too was elevated.

The water powered mill had been obsolete when I left but still useful. It had bred and now there were six more. There was no shortage of lumber or cut trees.

The coal mine was now covering an area seven kilometres by three. I could see the seam of coal still. It went progressively deeper into the ground. At the far end the overburden was taken out by buckets using the steel rope I had tried to make before I had left. What I did like was the large vehicles with steel wheels that were pulled by tractors to a place where the overburden was dumped.

In the pit were steam driven shovels with cable used to manipulate the bucket and put the soil in the trailers. They looked very much like the small models I had shown long ago with thread to show how everything worked.

The coking equipment was what disturbed me. There were a lot of substances expelled that would cause cancer. I had not done enough to contain this. The tar, gases and liquids were also useful but it was the pollution that I hated the most. I burned what I could and stored the tar to preserve the ties the rails rested on. Some products like the ammonia I could do little with at the present.

We took the railway to the mill and I showed my family and guests what we were doing. Everything had changed greatly from when I had left. Furnaces had been destroyed when the iron froze in them. The last time was in the raid where Patricia and Tertius were captured. The furnace had been ripped down and a new and even larger furnace put in its place.

Tertius took Anoushak and the new cadets with him because this is where he worked.

KhAvar said, "It is so big and dirty here."

"It is bigger than when I left too. The dirt though is just here and not spread over the countryside. I reuse water over and over again to wash the gases that leave."

KhAvar pointed to the flames that roared from the large stacks. "What is that?"

"I have not made engines that will use all the gas to power them. At the moment, the gas is fed back into the furnace to reduce the iron and heat the furnace but some always comes out. In the mean time it is better to burn what we cannot use to make steam."

"But... but this place does not look like people should be here."

"You are right, Honey. We learn as we go along and make small improvements. Over time it will be safer and cleaner. It is like the flames above. I want to stop them but I have to make a large device to do so. This takes time to make it right because I know only a little bit about it. Once it is built though they can be used in other places too. This construction took a great many centuries to perfect and it was still not that good. We are like a baby that is taking his first steps. As he learns and gathers strength, he will learn to run or dance."

KhAvar loved my home. The Romans had tried to loot it and did a lot of damage but it had been repaired in my absence. The two girls got the job of taking over most of my domestic responsibilities. There was more than enough for two women. The cadets would stay with us temporarily but they would usually stay where they were studying.

The Greek scholars tried to find out more of what I learned. There was a great deal but I was not ready to take weeks on each facet. I would have to write books on this. I had mountains of paper now to do anything I wanted. The Greeks though treated the books I brought with the reverence they deserved and placed them in the library then took my memorabilia too. They understood my reason on collecting this but thought that the material would always be around.

I had enough surplus track to complete the Baghdad line. There was enough track for our own needs and I meant to use it. The maps were taken out now and the routes were gone over once more. The land had been surveyed and plans made but we did not have the permission of the Augustus and Sapor until now.

I had sufficient people to make three full crews. There were Roman engineers, surveyors, stone masons, guards and labourers. I explained to them that their numbers would swell to thousands. They believed but I did not think it went too deep.

"I need one group to put a railway to the north. The valley that the Ruhr River runs through is now mine. Once you get there the rails will have to cover the entire region. We can work on the valley after we get there."

I went over what I wanted and explained why. Usually this was to do with bridges, roads and the double or triple sections I needed. I also left more room for expansion. This was costly but cheaper than ripping a good bridge down just to build a better and larger one in later.

Another group was given the job of going south then east. It would then parallel the Danube. Bridges would have to be built to carry trains to all the countries along the way. Again I knew the track was there from my time in the future but the bridges were very high to let ships clear them. Those bridges alone would be major undertakings. Ferries designed to handle trains would have to do until the bridges were done.

The third group would go east. I wanted to link up to the lands that Clovis governed. When enough experience was gathered we would then head west to Gaul and Hispania.

All the equipment had not been made. The land could be cleared and some of the simpler bridges could be fabricated out of stone and wood. We had earth moving equipment and I was sure that the next versions would be made better. One of the major materials we needed was crushed rock to get this we needed crushers. Transporting all this stone was going to be expensive in time and money but I could do little to avoid it.

Security would be a problem later. Some landowners had to have their property severed by the track. They would be compensated but they would still be angry. There were still millions of barbarians that had not been educated enough and could see the crews as wealthy people they could rob.

I called in Tertius and the cadets. "Cadets," I said, "I want you to build a new motor. This will have four pistons. Make it strong and we can make improvements in it later. The valves we have been using will not work now. We are going to have to make the diesel I have been telling you about."

Anoushak spoke out, which she would not have before. "What about the springs we need? That motor is a lot more complicated."

"We have been working on the alloys used in making spring steel. You are just going to have to continue this work. I know much more about chemistry than metallurgy. You are going to have to learn to be smiths and find what steels will take repeated bending."

"But..."

"But you are a girl or but you are going to have a difficult time?"

It took a moment and she said, "It will be difficult."

"Yes, I know. I also know that good spring materials exist. You just have to find them. And before you do all this I still need a compressor."

I got some pained looks but I still felt that they would find something for me."

When they left, I rode out to the foreman that had helped me start the wire rope project. It took a long time to get back to the relationship we had before.

"I want you to draw some very fine wire so that it is finer than the hair of a baby. This is woven into a cable that is a millimetre or a millimetre and a half in diameter. It has to be able to bend."