Chapter 9

Security was tightened and I was given the services of some of the other security forces in the house. If a door opened by accident, the accident may find themselves bleeding. Articles were put nearby so that a door or window opening would make a noise.

Though I did not like it, I had three witnesses as I questioned our captive accordingly. As usual severe pain was used and I had to do so more times than anybody I had been forced to compel before. In the end the man screamed his surrender but the only thing wrong was that he screamed in a language none of us understood.

There was a lot of pantomime until we got his name. It was something like Zhu Park. The first name I knew was his family name. He was close to thirty at a guess and looked to be more of a student than a soldier.

Maps were used to get his country and we discovered that it was China. He came from an area on the coast but that I assumed was where he was born. We got the name of the dead man but only after a bit more persuasion. The third man took two more times but we got his name too.

The tattoos were shown on the man himself and he spoke but we had no idea what was said. Our hand gestures and his told us nothing.

The man was put under a heavy guard in a basement room without windows. To be safe about it, I put the man to sleep. In the mean time we were going to have to find some people that could speak to the man. There were so many dialects that this would prove difficult.

The girls and I were not happy with the way the day turned out. They were also waiting to have buns put in the oven. They were in sync and would not be fertile for a few days anyway.

After I awoke, I was a bit surprised to find that our captive was still alive. I guess magic had its limitations or the man that got away did. Park was bathed and dressed. He was basically treated like Klement in the hope of gaining his voluntary cooperation. The servants hated him for what he had tried to do to me and I had to intercede for him. He basically stayed close to us and remained very weak so he could not do anything physical.

The reception that should have been last night, now had to be done again. A lot of food had been prepared and for this time and most of it could be used today. The ladies organised this but I still got a lot of complaints about some things not being the same if they were not eaten fresh.

We boarded the train once more. It was around noon and people would be anxious to eat. The trip was much more subdued this time and Park was watched by the guards and most of the rest of us too.

The party was at the stadium because of its size. It was where we had our soccer games and other sporting events. The ground was grass covered and the bleachers provided most of the seating. There was a very large circus style tent erected near a slightly smaller version. Inside were more seats but not many. Tables though were all over the place. Food was loaded onto them and a great many women had to keep little hands from making off with the tastier tidbits.

The tents were made of canvas with a rubber coating on it to keep out rain. It served a few purposes. It provided shade and protection if the rain came up but it was also a way to show that we had a new product that could serve the rest of the world too.

When it looked like it was time to start, I told the crowd about yesterday and showed them Zhu Park. I explained openly what I was attempting to do with the man and hoped to get a lead into who would want me dead. This lead to another sermon where I introduced both my new and old relatives along with any other news. The power of the crowd came quickly to me because I never really let it slip. The benediction was what the crowd was after and I did this as good as I could.

As soon as possible we tried to get into a party mood. The beer was opened and it was both cold and good. There were no waiters here accept at our table. A buffet served everybody else. Some of the higher ranking guests were a little perturbed about this. There was a lot of work just keeping these tables full. Our own food came from my home this morning so that I did not have to worry about poison in the food or drink. Park did not seem to understand what was going on but he did eat.

AsA, Mehrnoosh, HidA, Klement, and I kept constant watch for anything magical but still tried to enjoy ourselves. There was juggling, wrestling and a lot of the entertainment people of this time enjoyed. Since this was going to be something like a carnival I had booths set up. Children fished for small prizes. Games with darts and ring toss had to have a small fee so that there was some excitement at the prospect of winning. Bingo had been around for six months but now there were a lot more people exposed to it. Sudoku had been introduced in the schools and in my magazine. Like in my time, it was now a craze.

My wives and I danced and some times it was the three of us. There was never a time when we were not moving around. I danced with many women. I tried to look pleased but mostly I was trying to see if they were ready to pull a knife on me.

We had an exposition of all the things that were new to this time. The tables were monitored very well and some of the young people gave a talk about one or more products. Usually this was by the one who made the article or helped develop it. One table was isolated because it was fed with six hundred volts which in turn fed a transformer that put out ten thousand volts. This project was actually a simple device to make. The only thing really new was that the steel in the core of the transformer had a lot of silicon in it. Two iron wires were attached to two insulators and an arc started at the bottom where the pair of wires were the closest. The arc climbed further up as the wires separated. This was just a simple Jacob's ladder. It was made to teach the students but to also draw a parallel between the gods that threw thunderbolts and what we were now doing.

My guests were spellbound by the display but eventually I was asked by Sapor, "What is that?"

"I think you should ask the student? Her features lead me to believe that she may be able to speak Pahlavi." She was one of the girls Sapor had sent me and now Sapor could get some of the payback." The two spoke for a long time. At first the girl was very hesitant to speak to her king but Sapor had a way of making her feel at ease. Clovis and Julian smiled at the situation. They liked the device too. It was actually useful in finding small cracks in glass tubing and other products I had hoped were insulators.

Park had to stay with us too. An attempt on his life or mine would lead to the possible elimination or capture of another mage. Our guest marvelled at the arc that grew from the base and went upward only to be renewed from the base one more time.

Another stall had balloons filled with hydrogen. Helium was more expensive to acquire. The collection was something relatively new. It was also energy intensive because of all the compressors I had to use. The pressure was very great and I did not even have any good insulators yet. The gas had to be chilled to very low temperatures but at least I could extract liquid oxygen when I would eventually needed it.

My hope was to make condoms eventually and the balloons were a natural way of working towards this goal. I was not using latex from natural rubber but polyurethane. The material worked just as well I hoped and I believed that polyurethane was stronger. I would prove that one day when we sent an expedition to South America to gather natural rubber. Nearly every child from six months to seventy was holding a cord and marvelling at how the balloon wanted to float into the sky.

"Jón," Sapor said, as he held the cord tethered to a balloon. "Has this device anything to do with the device that will carry a man into the sky?"

"It could. It has to be very large to start with. These balloons have a flammable gas. It lifts much more because its size but there is a risk of fire. The other gas does not burn but it is difficult to extract."

"How long before you have one of these craft?"

"I am not planning on making any soon. You want a steel mill and I have to make the parts for it. Julian needs one as well and all of that takes time. In a few years some of the cadets can go and develop your iron deposits. They will not know everything but they will know enough to get started."

The next table showed our carbon arc lighting. These devices sucked up a lot of power so we made smaller units but they almost drew as much. The plasma arc cutting was shown with a portable unit now that we had rubber hose. Another unit nearby was almost the same but this unit welded instead. This is what we now used to fuse our pipe. Little progress was made in mig welding or stick for that matter. We would need one or both of these to construct the steel frame for larger buildings. Rivetting was great but welding was stronger or at least kept the structure from flexing too much and the rivets losing their grip.

There were a lot of cans on display with pictured painted on them showing what the contents of the can was. Fish was a commodity that commanded a high price and this could be processed on a factory ship instead of using refrigeration. Vegetables and fruit were on display here too. I used no lead or even solder at all. They were welded so the cans could be used to cook in if that was what the customer wanted. Cans were valuable and would be recycled but at the moment all of them were kept to be used as pots and pans even if they were small.

I showed the men these products. They had already seen them but I pushed another fact. "A soldier needs to eat or he cannot fight. This food is light and will last for at least a year. He can march to where he has to go the old way but those on patrol would benefit from canned food."

Clovis said, "How much does this cost?"

"You buy the cans and lids from me. To start. You gather the food and fill the cans. A small machine seals the lid to the can. You have to buy a large pot that the cans go into to be cooked. It is expensive to start out but after you paid for the machinery all you have to pay for is the cans, the food and the fuel to cook the food. In the future there are very large buildings that will display all the canned goods. You walk down the aisle and pick out what you want to take home with you. The point I am making is that you can sell the food for a profit. When there is a poor harvest then you can use what was made in previous years. Your people are employed and your army is fed. You come out ahead because you make a lot of gold even after providing for your army."

We talked for ten minutes until Julian started to stare at something behind my back. I was immediately worried about another attack and moved quickly to one side and crouched.

Five hundred metres away was a yellow sphere not far above the ground. Beneath it was a basket with a young man in it. I adjusted my eyes and I saw that it was probably Tertius. A rope was tied to the two extremes and the balloon was pulled by people on the ground.

My guest left and so did most of the people in the park. I did not have to fight my way through the people to get to the balloon because the crowd gave way to Julian and Sapor.

When I got closer, I saw that a large net was draped over a sphere of about six metres in diameter. The balloon was of the same material as the tent. The material was quite strong but also heavy. Lazeez was one of those holding a rope and he had a big grin.

I was not as happy as the young men were by any means.

The bottom of the wicker gondola was only two metres in the air so I could not really lay into Tertius for not being safe. There were sand bags around the edge but Lazeez and the other young man were not pulling down on their ropes very hard.

I called to Tertius, "Why did you make this now of all times?"

"Ah... I thought you would like it. We were very careful. We stayed away from flames and heat. We made..."

"You used hydrogen?"

"Yes. It is stronger. You said so yourself. It was used in your time for many years and it could be done safely as long as a long list of procedures are done right."

"Hydrogen is still dangerous. You did not clear this project..."

Sapor interrupted and said, "I want to go into the basket."

"The basket has not been checked. The seams of the bag have not been checked. If they rupture then you and the basket come down very quickly."

"I want to be suspended above the ground."

"You can if you want but I want to check it first."

"The device looks safe. I want to do this now."

"You are the next best thing to a father-in-law to me. I want to make the world safe for all of us and I need you alive to do that. You can only go up when this device checked properly."

"I am the leader of the Persian people and I do not need your permission."

"You are not going up unless it is safe. Fight me on this and you will not see your nieces and nephews. I am not going to look into KhAvar's face and say how her favourite uncle died because he was too bullheaded to wait and see if it was wise to do something or not."

Sapor did not like to be thwarted and especially not in public. This was his fault for being so impatient. The gondola was pulled down and I inspected it carefully. It was not strong enough in my opinion. I checked the cord holding the basket to the net over the balloon and this looked sturdy.

"Tertius, tell me how you made the seams."

The young man was nervous now but he spoke in detail what he had done to the seams. In this case he had done very well. The edges had been folded back and then rubber compound was put between the joints in the adjacent panels. Finally this seam was double sewn with strong line, the same material that held the tent together was used.

"Why did you build the basket so weak?"

"We made this quickly but not without some consideration. We suspended the basket from a wooden beam and jumped up and down in it. We could not break the bottom out. That was with Lazeez and me doing it at the same time."

"I am still angry at you for bringing this out now."

"You wanted to show how good we were and I think we did that."

"I should have seen the stitching and then the testing of the basket. This is not that safe of a device."

Sapor pushed his way into the conversation and demanded, "Is it safe enough?"

I was angry at Sapor too but said, "It is safe enough for you if you do not go very high. I want a stronger railing around the basket and some stronger ribs to support the bottom of the basket."

"Then let me in."

Sapor had to remove a lot of his weapons but I made him keep a dagger in case he had to slash the bag to descend. He got in first then Tertius was allowed to leave. The sandbags were removed one at a time until there was just two left. The basket was now buoyant.

The rope was played out until the balloon was as high as it was before. Sapor said, "Play out more rope."

Lazeez looked at me and I said, "Two metres more and tie the rope around your waist."

The balloon rose the two metres but did so slowly. The two young men and all of Sapor's guards walked through the field. It was well over an hour before the balloon came back. The guards with me were trying to see what was going on and also do their jobs.

When the balloon came back I wanted it to leave but two other big boys had to play with it too. Sapor was still angry at me but it was better that it was just anger and not the prospect of dealing with his death.

Sapor called his guards to him and left the reception. AsA and KhAvar tried to talk to him but he would not listen. I had to stay with the other two boys to make sure they did not do something foolish.

When Clovis came back with the same glistening eyes that Julian had. I knew that my plans were in trouble. The balloon was quickly taken away and I tried to bring the party back to any topic besides flying.

Suppertime came and went but Sapor had retreated to his ship. When I could, I took my wives and went to see the man but his guards said he was tired and resting. I was angry at this too but had to let it ride.

The party lasted well into the night. I tried to be a good host but the combination of the attempt on my life and an intransigent guest was too much. Knowing Sapor, I had the balloon deflated and transported to my home.

We were given some gifts but this was something I did not want to start. Julian gave me a property in Constantinople that he had purchased from the family of one of the fleeing senators. It could have been given to Patricia too but Roman woman could not own property until they had at least a dozen children for the empire.

Julian and Clovis tried to talk to Sapor but the man was getting his ship ready to travel. Julian had to do the same thing. There was just too much work for a leader to do. The duration of this vacation would take a long time to be caught up.

AsA assisted me in getting some gifts delivered. They were bombonieras in a way but now they would command a lot of money. The shipment was fifty plate glass mirrors. They ranged in size from small to the largest being two metres by three. At the same time I got Klement to gather his property because I wanted at least one person that knew magic to be with me.

The rest of my guests got mirrors too. A good deal of shopping was done by those same people, so I came out ahead when everything was considered.

We had some time to talk to Park about his magic but the language barrier was too much. He was able to disappear for us and I tried all I could to detect him more than the vague feeling I was getting. When this did not work I used my ability on him to see if there was anything that had changed in his body. I concentrated on his brain mainly and I did find some small differences. The ladies and Klement did magic too and I studied their minds and found their changes to be less evident.

Later in the day Sapor came out and told me that he had too many commitments to stay longer. For him, he was being polite. I sent him a load of coal but it was directed to the captain and not to Sapor. There was a lot of tears at the parting of KhAvar and her family but Sapor was above showing that.

When the ship pulled out, I was not sure of my status. I had documents signed by Sapor to build plants for both of us but I may not get the cooperation I needed now. Mithridates went with Sapor as did some of the cadets in rotation but some that he brought stayed with me.

Julian said, "He will come around. He wants to fly badly. He will try to make a balloon by himself now and it will fail and this will make him angry. In the end he will see that you were right about his safety."

"He has a hardhead. I do not think he will ever completely forgive me. He will see, over time, that I have to help him or his empire will suffer."

"You can work on producing steel in the east and my ship will reduce the amount of transportation you need. I can then share with Sapor the way he does with the sugar."

"If he does not get a steel mill then he will hold that against me. If I go there to set one up then I may or may not get his help. I need canals dug, mines opened and then the railway built. He can make it very difficult for me if I try to help him then blame me for not getting something done."

"I can only suggest that you get Aldúlfr to whisper a few words in his ear." I had to smile at that and so did Julian.

Julian got ready to leave too. He got his load of coal and some nice mirrors too. More tears were shed and Julian's family left with him because he was going to visit Lutetia on the way back.

The rest of the guests wanted to stay and also be both entertained and pampered. I put up with it for a week and hinted strongly that I was too busy and I needed their rooms in the apartment buildings for my workers. This was not the way this were done at this time but usually a host did not have to carry the thousands of guests that I did. The best I could do was provide transportation to the Danube or any place I was going in the vicinity. The Princess was sent off with a full cargo of ironware.

During this time I worked with Klement to see what information we could gain from Park. I found more anomalies in the bodies of Park and Klement. I worked on Klement to see if I could bring him up to what Park was like but as yet I had very little success. It was like the riddle of manipulating DNA. It was difficult to understand and I had to work on it through knowledge and not intuition.

Klement took it upon himself to try to learn Park's language. If Park chose to not cooperate then all this effort would be wasted. The man could pretend to assist us but feed Klement garbage.

Klement helped me with the mental exercises he had to do to so that he could become a mage. I did these whenever I had a spare moment and simply hoped that it would do me some good.

Lazeez and Tertius were given the job of turning out more machine shop equipment and the people to run them. I hoped to keep them out of trouble this way but I had to promise them that we would work on a dirigible when time permitted.

During this week Patricia and KhAvar became pregnant. This act was deeply satisfying for us especially when I was able to tell them the progress of my little swimmers toward each of their eggs. When the fertile eggs attached themselves to their uterine walls we had a celebration but much different from the one we had been having. We didn't want anything getting knocked loose.

Clovis as the last to leave. He congratulated us on forming a family. There was the usual hugging but in reality they could return very easily with the railway. The rail system brought some of his army to Toronto and he put them under my command. I did not know what to do with them in a way because they could not see mages any better than the other guards I had.

Park's appearance brought more interest in the Far East. I would have to go there soon and the best ship to use may well be the Discovery. The Princess could make the journey almost as quickly but would be hindered with the problems of obtaining fuel. More priority was given to completing the Discovery now.

We had working diesel engines but they were in the experimental stages. We planned on steam power but kept the option open for the diesel if they became available.

On a trip from our home to Toronto on the train, both Park and Klement stiffened and I too could feel a presence. This was three kilometres from out destination at the time. Our mage had to be close.

Klement said, "Did you feel that?"

"Yes."

"He has to be close or very powerful. I think it is the latter."

"Me too."

That day I layed out a trap with Park and me as bait. The time to build the trap would be at least six months if not more.

Our research park was protected by a chain link fence that was three metres high and then topped with concertina wire. The process to make this should be simple but we had problems with production. This was not out of the ordinary because we had problems everywhere.

Some of the new unskilled recruits were sent out to put a fence up in the vicinity of my home. It would include the area reserved for children. This would be viewed as a prudent thing to do with the animals we had in this area. Heavy equipment was brought in to excavate for a pool and other sporting projects. The fence though would make a barrier that could be circumvented but did not look particularly like a portion of a trap.

A new river bed was dug with our steam shovels. A temporary railway was set up to take the soil away. A shovel load of soil was usually two tonnes for each scoop. The railcars we made had to be long enough to make this sort of work feasible. This was shown in our magazine and tooted as the way to dig canals in the future. There would be lots of pools but the long course of the stream would only have two bridges. This lead to a reservoir I wanted dug and then to a small hydro project.

Dogs I was told could detect people even if they used magic so a large kennel was built. Again it was chain link. Even if a mage could keep people from recognising him, a dog could smell him. The smell of the eastern spices had given me a good start into finding a weakness in an attacker's defences.

Romans and Persians used dogs when they travelled and their armies did too. There was very little said in any literature that had managed to survive into the time I was born. History was important to me and all sorts of data was stored for future historians.

Patricia, KhAvar and I had a puppy each that could be thought of as a house pet but was not. The dogs would stay near each of us to warn of some eastern spice or we hoped a person using magic.

Ponds were dug so that ornamental fish could be stocked in them. This would reflect an eastern form of art but also produce another type of barrier.

It would soon be the season to plant and another large area was cultivated for hemp. Thin copper wire would be strung between the rows and a small current put through it. When the current failed as when a man pushed through the plants then we would know approximately where the person was.

Grapes were planted and long heavy gauge steel wire was used to string between the posts. This would not be a good barrier but an intruder would probably choose to pick another route into my property.

All this work would take years if it were not for the amount of help I had. The park, ponds, small river with its pools and bridges was seen as something ornamental but close to what Asgard would be like. Because of this, I had a lot of dedicated people helping when they did not have to.

Patricia and KhAvar were showing their pregnant state very prominently. They always had children around them as they went about their duties. They saw the parks and other construction as for their children and I did not set them straight. They worked tirelessly to make sure all the work was done intelligently and also the way they wanted it.

During the last eight months the Discovery was taking much more of its final shape. The carbon arc welding had been completely dropped in favour of our own plasma method of welding. Compressors had been made much larger and we could now fractionate air. Steel cylinders were made for all the compressed gases but oxygen and nitrogen were the most used. The majority of the units were cryogenic in nature so that they did not have to be so heavy. Propane torches now cut steel or used for welding with steel rods for filler. We had some flux for this process but stick welding was still too crude to use.

The Discovery had six massive engines fed from three separate boilers. All of this power was needed to drive the ship of two hundred and fifty metres in length at the speed I wanted. Diesel engines had been installed but they were only for manoeuvring, pumps or for generating electrical power.

I had continued my correspondence to Julian, Clovis and Sapor. A team was sent out to prepare a site for extracting iron ore in Sapor's land. Coal was available but the deposits were not that large. We would deplete all of them over a few years. As a responsible citizen I planned on turning all of them into lakes even if they would eventually get too salty. So far he had not obstructed me but I had not asked for help yet.

We were started to become a major exporter of salt. The world water levels were rising. I remember some of this from my study of history but not much. Salt beds were flooded and even the Dead Sea rose seventy metres. It had to do with the rains that came more constant but I did not understand how the water levels dropped in later years. My only guess was that the sea beds opened more to allow water to settle to a lower level.

Little of the salt came from salt beds but from our extraction of potassium based fertiliser. The potash on Frisian land could now be sold without leaving millions of tonnes of salt to pollute the rivers like what had happened when I first went to Germany as a chemical engineer.

A rail system in Persia was started to reach the ore and coal. They were far from the coast and I wanted land for this effort even if I was going to be the primary beneficiary for a the next few years. The short railway that lead from the Nile to the Red Sea was finished and making good money. Sapor was paying the most but he was using it the most too. He did complain about this even if he was making great profits in trade with the Romans and now the Frisians.

He had made business contacts in the east so they would have the kind of production we would need to provide for his empire and that of the Romans. This would also take years to develop and the profit ploughed back into the farms. Most of the spices came from trees and trees took a while to grow.

It was a lot of work but I got all four of us agree to see about finding out just what the Huns were up to. In the old time they had been seriously pressing the Romans and the Persians as they expanded their empire westward and southward. Frisian cannon along with better weapons and armour had actually pushed them back. The Visigoths that had plundered Rome were still in their native land and serving in the Roman army in protecting all of us.