Chapter 12

It sounded like all the planes were out in force, pursuing the Huns. They were to try to keep the males from joining their families if possible. I did not want to kill women and children while I reduced the threat to Europe.

Later that day, Mithridates took the Discovery four kilometres upstream and found a place to dock. A long steel gangplank was used to unload the ship. Our dragon may not be useful at the moment but the blade on the tractor would be valuable in making some mass graves.

It took much longer than three days to unload what we brought. It was a day alone to prepare the dock. The empty tanks were taken off and then filled from the full ones in the bottom of one of the holds. This allowed the heavy equipment that was below the formerly empty tanks to be removed.

Disturbing photos were taken of the piles of the dead. The Huns were searched and thrown into pits while officials made an official tally. Some of the dead were just boys but there was nothing I could do about this. They fought that way and had to die the same way too.

Two dump boxes had been brought and they ran all the time carrying Huns. The dead numbered just shy of 83,000. Our own dead were numerous too. The Romans and the Persians in the city came out and helped strip the bodies. For some reason the only surviving Huns were a few children.

The main body of the Huns were the noncombatants. They fled and we tried to keep them together and guide them. There was a good valley close to sixty kilometres away. Bombs were used to force them to this location without killing any. I was going to try to pen them up there until I could deal with them.

The city and the army was happy to get fed. We used the camo outfits for additional warmth and soon everybody else was doing the same. Many men had to agree that the uniform helped them stay undetected. The Persians and Romans were macho and wanted to be seen and feared.

We radioed Julian to ask for aid. We needed a lot more food and none would be grown until spring. Julian's ships brought food and I had to get buildings constructed to store what was brought. While I was at it I decided on building another outlet here.

Julian came for a short visit. The news of our victory had shut up those wanting peace on the terms the Huns wanted.

The two men received pistols and a web belt with a holster. They did not see the sniper rifle and I wanted it existence kept a secret. I had to talk about how the deck gun and both the M16 and the pistols worked. The materials I used were already known to them apart from the improved propellant and explosive charges.

Sapor shared our Emperor Suite with us but then again he was family. Jurgen was the apple of his eye but Sapor tried to give some time to Eleanoor too. He thoroughly enjoyed talking to those in the Ruhr valley from where we were. He did not have to ask to get the radio of his own because I had promised him some years ago.

Julian stayed in his own ship which had some very nice quarters too. I commandeered part of it and with a large table layed out the latest aerial photos of the land in this area and the fleeing Huns. This was a new development and the men loved this feature.

"One day in the future, we could put a camera so far above the earth that it will not come down. A camera there will send pictures by radio to you. After you have made an assessment of the data, you can move your armies. When you have enough skilled help, the generals with you can order individual soldiers to do what you want. A device the soldier carries will allow you to see exactly what the soldier sees."

Julian said, "Where is there a chance for a man to show his bravery? A Ro... a soldier needs to do this."

I had been expecting this and said, "Those working with a fighting man will know and tell. I have sixty people in the air now either guarding or killing Huns. The soldiers of the future will fight on the ground too. A dozen men may attack an army. They either kill the leaders or put fear into the common soldiers. I think the men show bravery in doing this. Eventually every army will grow to fear the United Nations army."

Sapor said, "Not the Persian Army?"

"The UN army is made up of Persians, Romans and Germans. The two of you plus Clovis decide what the army will do. Is that not enough?"

The facilities on the ship were used all the time. The galley never stopped preparing food. The showers cleaned people and there was soap enough to clean clothing too.

Ten days after we arrived, the wounded men were doing quite well. Others were growing new limbs and were not as dispirited as they would normally be in this situation.

Julian took flying lessons with me and Sapor had to do the same. I tried to be diplomatic but I also had lots of other duties to do. They flew with me so there was no problem with them wanting to take over. Cadets helped me and knew how to treat the men better.

There were still Huns in the area. They were easy to spot from the air. Most of these were with their families so instead of bombing them we lead Sapor's men to them. There were less deaths and now we had interpreters telling them that we were just trying to capture and teach.

A very large refugee camp was started. They were nomads and had to move to find food to feed themselves. I had to provide food now. The Huns I now walked among were just frightened people and worried about their future. They were stunned by their defeat but it was not the same to them. They were in a state of denial. It was another tribe that was defeated and not theirs. If it was just widows and orphans I saw then it was justified as just a war.

The Huns did have some traits that I liked, they were honest among themselves and had a sense of honour. This only applied within their group though. Huns of other groups would still attack if provoked or if they saw a way of increasing their wealth.

I had a latrine built but they only used to see how it worked then they went back to using the old way. The old saw about leading a horse to water was true here too. Usually it worked better if I did not need an interpreter when I was dealing with barbarians and I tried to find people that would do the leading for me. I wanted them to come from the Huns themselves.

Julian then Sapor soloed on the same day and I had to release cadets to go with the planes to keep them serviced. The cadets thought it an honour but I also saw that they would not get their full education with me.

The large valley full of refugees had to be fed and cared for too. They were just as much refugees as the others. In a way this was their natural state. I gave some orders to the cadets and they carried them out even if they had a great deal of misgivings. The dragon made its ponderous way to the valley. The dump wagons were clean, and now carried food.

Patricia, KhAvar and I flew to meet the column when it reached its destination. Klement and an interpreter came with us so I could find out about the mages and to help the Huns.

I was trying to draw a fine line here. I risked my family to show that I was not going to attack and try to save these people. There was at least half of a million people here with a relatively few men to protect or feed them.

We were well armed but there was only three that way. The interpreter was an old Roman man and Klement was just a middle ranking mage. I wanted it this way because if there were more then we would have to be repelled with force. This meant needless deaths.

There were some men on short horses aligned against our dragon but by then it had stopped moving forward. I circled the valley and then the warriors below before landing. There may have been a thousand or more of them. Most looked to be older men or ones that were wounded previously. Some of the Huns looked to be very wealthy and I figured that perhaps their king had survived. I tried to spot the mages near this man. We were too far away and Klement was not much help.

After landing, two cadets came running with Bali and Nasim in the lead. They were happy to use my plane to fly. I wanted them above the Huns as a back up but also a way of spotting the mages. Other planes were in the air to help me in this task.

The ladies and I were in gold washed armour that would glow if it were not overcast. All five of us walked towards the centre of the Hun forces. There was a silent fight as I gathered more and more power and even when I stopped walking at six metres, the struggle continued. I had been gathering the power of the Huns as soon as I could. There was some opposition so I knew that one or more mages were doing this.

"I am the Hand of Woden." The interpreter was prepared and spoke in Hunnish. "You have displeased our god but he will forgive because you did not know better."

The person I thought was the king brought back his spear arm and I froze him in place. Those beside him started to attack too. I had to immobilise the entire line of men.

Huns felt less powerful when they were on foot. I made the animals sleepy then very sleepy. The line started to break up as the horses wanted to lay down instead of the way they usually slept. To avoid crushing, I gave the men some freedom to avoid being pinned to the ground.

The men were granted enough power to stand and I had the interpreter call them to me. We turned around as if with no care and walked away from the horses. Only a fraction of the men had come.

I did not feel too threatened by those that were close. I did want to see what was happening to the rest of the contingent. I picked my way through the men and both Patricia and KhAvar followed.

Balimir or whoever was trying to move but his arms would not obey. I released his jaw muscles. "What have you done?" This was in Hunnish and the interpreter had to give me the Latin equivalent.

"I control your body. If you had not threatened me then we could have talked."

"I have heard all about you. You came to destroy my people."

"I came to change your people from nomads to a people that will farm or construct cities. Nomads, like your people, want to gain nice things by robbing others. This is what has to change."

"You want to kill us. We are only going to be used to feed your power."

"I killed to save the city. The mages that you talked to, lie to you. They want to use you for their own gains. Tell me how many people were sacrificed so that the mages could fight?"

Beside me I heard an explosion then one more half a second later. I pulled my own gun and crouched down looking for threats. Patricia and KhAvar were standing with their guns out and searching. I reluctantly stood and looked around myself. The interpreter and Klement had knives out.

"What happened?"

KhAvar said, "One of the men was moving his hand. He had a knife in it."

"Which one?"

I moved to the side and saw a man on the ground. He was fairly well dressed but a poorly dressed man behind him had fallen too. There was no room so I dragged the first man out. He had two holes in his chest. One of the holes had gone right through. That explained this man behind being shot.

We looked around for more men that could move and I guessed that only mages would be able to circumvent what I had done. The other man was dead and there was nothing I could do.

I asked Klement, "Can you find them?"

He was very nervous and he tried while I waited to protect him from physical harm. After a few minutes he said, "There are some but they may be just people with no training."

In Latin I called out so all could hear, "Come forward so you are separated from your friends."

From high above I heard the large speaker on the plane say, "Two men are running away."

I froze the men in front of me and then I had to run around the Huns. I had armour but I was still fast. In a few minutes I caught the first and used the old method of making him stop. He was too afraid to remain invisible. The next took much longer and those in the plane had a difficult time finding him.

I heard single gunshots behind me and I had to assume that my wives were safe. The cadets had the M16s and I would hear those if there were real problems.

A flash bang dropped from the plane and soon the chase was on once more. This time the man stayed invisible. I could feel him running before me and I called out. "Stop or I use a weapon that will kill." It was only a threat though it could do just that.

We continued running and I used one of my own flash bangs. I at least had the benefit of armour and the man was almost on the grenade when it went off. He went flying through the air and I was on him as soon as he fell. He had a broken neck and there was nothing I could do for him.

I hurried back and found the cadets and my wives guarding the Huns or rather the hidden mages in this group. They looked like very determined women with the guns in their hands. One man was on the ground away from the rest but he was still alive.

He had a serious gunshot wound in his thigh. I did what I could to treat the man. Patricia said, "There are more in this group that I cannot see. They cannot seem to hide from the pilots at the same time they are hiding from us."

If mages could avoid my grasp then I had a way of finding them. The well dressed men were targeted with pain. The forth one flinched and I used my sword to get him to come out and lay on the ground with his hands behind his head. A cadet came up and watched that the man did not move.

I used my meagre power with Klement's to try to find people with the magic ability. We were able to pull two people out. Both of these seemed to be frozen and I had to release them.

The women of the camp came charging at us with weapons. Bombs were dropped and then some napalm. None were hit but it did not stop them for long. Our friendly dragon drove toward the group and shot fire out of all the nozzles. This stopped the women cold. The dragon started toward the women and they turned and fled. The dragon now patrolled a few kilometres away to keep the women from coming near.

The pain process was repeated. During the next three hours we found seven more people. Most were really frozen in place and were not that trained or powerful. I had to get the Huns to line up so that the selection could be done quickly. The mages looked similar to the Huns in facial characteristics but not the same. I guess the Huns were even less tolerant of people that did not look like them.

I knew that there should be many more so a stronger pain was now used on more people at a time until one more person was found. He seemed to have a better tolerance to pain. He had been able to hide his aura but the pain reduced this ability until he was found.

Our total haul was fourteen including the two dead men. Two looked to be Huns that could be trained.

Starting all over again, I talked to the first man and found he really was Balimir. He had to be encouraged to talk and then he did quite willingly.

Balimir talked to the interpreter about his dealings with the mages with Klement writing down the responses.

At the same time the Huns were released in small groups. They used their horses to take away the food and of course the news of what was happening. Not all the Huns were uneducated and a few could speak broken Latin. These I talked to because I helped give out the food. Those that left made a very wide detour around our dragon.

Some of the mages could speak Latin. They were now dressed in camo uniforms after they were photographed in the buff. The two Huns were overwhelmed even more than the Mages and I talked through the interpreter about why they had been selected.

I could have said that Woden had made them this way but that was a way of bringing a supernatural being too deeply into their culture. When at some future date the man needed help in a tragedy he would not expect it from a god that knew everything all the time. A culture where a man relied on himself was much saner in my estimation.

The two dead men were buried with no religious fanfare. The majority of the Huns had been set free but some were the body guards of their king. They stayed but they had to get into fatigues because they stank so much. They did not see the problems themselves.

The king did not think the two men I had singled out were mages but said that I had most of them. There were seven more but they had not come because they were all children. They just may be or very old adults living in the body of a child.

We set off for the Huns' main camp now and although we brought the horses, everybody walked except the wounded man. The dragon preceded us until we got close then stayed behind. A few snorts now and again made sure everybody knew that the dragon was awake.

Balimir gave his orders, and his people diligently tried to apprehend the 'children'. Not all were found but I figured this would happen. I heard flash bangs going off and knew that some fleeing people were spotted. Some Huns left on horses to pick up the mages if that were possible.

I got five of the seven but the Huns were now after the rest to get the reward I offered.

I gave a sermon to all of the camp and I had to use the PA system that was on my plane. It did not work as well through the interpreter but it did work. I had lots of people to heal and the Huns enjoyed the benediction as well as any people did.

Balimir learned that he and his people had to build a city to learn how to become more civilised. The best way to do this was to produce some salable commodity. I would help them to do this. There was a lot of iron here but I wanted to avoid this industry. Nickle was available in the far north but I needed a large infrastructure in place before I even looked to extract that metal there.

Farming was the only thing I could think of. The Ukraine grew a lot of wheat and sugar beets but sugar beets had not been developed yet. A city would not be practical for farming and I could only think of making a city devoted to furthering the rail system. This location may not be good though.

In hindsight I had shot my own foot. By killing off a portion of the Hunnish nation, I had left a power vacuum that would draw in other aggressors. Most of those would be other Huns but others would come too.

What I did want was a canal linking one of the Don's tributaries to one of the Volga's. I did not want slave labour to do this as had been done for most other construction projects in history. Again, I could not proceed without the needed infrastructure.

The infrastructure was a long way away. One of the rail lines was now near modern Poland and I needed two thousand kilometres of track to get here by a straight line. In reality I needed closer to three. We could lay a lot of track in a day on flat land but it was the bridges that took the most time. Even cutting through a hill was much shorter. To speed this up I made ferries to carry the trains over the major rivers a few cars at a time. It was not economical but I could build bridges later.

The Huns had captured a lot of slaves and these were brought to me. At a rough guess I had to figure that every family had two or three. Many of them were children. The huns were better than the Romans because a child of a slave was not a slave in their eyes.

That night we slept in the Hun encampment. I slept very little but tried to appear sure of myself. The next morning I found that most of my people had not slept either.

Balimir was invited to come to us tomorrow with a hundred of his men so we could talk. Those men I wanted to learn a bit of Latin and the man agreed. It was a thinly veiled threat to him if he did not come. He, like most men, knew about pain.

We left the camp around mid morning and after another sermon. The dragon was the last to go. It snorted a few times into the blackened earth as a reminder. The reward for the escaped mages had not been collected yet. If they had been captured then there would be some very happy Huns.

It took eight hours to ride back on horseback. During that time I talked to the mages and the two Huns. I tried to be patient with them but it was difficult. The young looking ones tried to hide behind their apparent youth but it did not last too long. I was not going to have more old mages lusting after me.

This time I was alone apart from my wives and Klement. There were some young people but they happened to be the Huns and one of the other mages.

When we returned, I sent all of my visitors through a shower with Huang and Oppia showing them the ropes. We would all have a chat tomorrow morning. In the mean time there were some locked doors they could not pass. The two Huns and the young mage were sent with the cadets. I would try to be less severe with the young ones.

The next day around noon, Balimir arrived with exactly one hundred men. Julian had left to attend to his empire and even Sapor had left to continue his work. I was polite to the king. Oddly he was responding to this and he was polite back.

He saw the ship from very close and had a chance to look at our small deck gun. He knew how well this worked already. He had seen the bombs dropping from the planes but I did not show him any.

Balimir was presented with photos of Toronto. There were some close ups so the man could grasp the size of the buildings. I said, "I want cities like this for you too. Some of those images showed planes flying. You too could get these. Your people would be happy to live this way and gain the freedom of the sky."

"What would I have to do?"

He did not sound happy. "I have ploughs that can be pulled from behind a horse or great ones that are pulled behind a machine. Farming becomes very profitable for you." He didn't seem happy at this.

I said, "Do you think your people should suffer all the time? Hunting is good but is it the only thing to do besides digging in the ground with a stick to get roots?"

"A man is not meant to live indoors. He becomes soft like the Romans."

"I live indoors most of the time and nobody would call me soft."

"I did not mean you."

"I know you didn't. You are right though. Your people will become soft but soft people can kill yours very easily. They use their minds first and think then they plan. They also train how to fight but your people will be too busy digging with a stick to survive to do this."

"They are still not men."

"What to you is a man?"

"A man fights for his family. If he is a man, his sons will grow strong. A man respects his father and his chief. A man will give to those that cannot hunt for themselves."

"Those facts I agree with. Does a man and his family have to suffer? What if he finds a good land where crops grow very easily? If he stays here he will grow many sons."

"They will all be soft."

I asked seriously, "Did you bring some strong men with you today?"

"All of them are strong."

"Let us have a test. Your strong men against my soft children."

"What will this prove?"

"That my sons and daughters live indoors but are not weak. They make devices with their hands and trade this for food. They learn many facts and their minds are quick. If my sons and daughters can beat your men in a contest then you will have to say that my way does not make weak adults. If your men win then I will say that your men are stronger."

"We have games like this once or twice a year when we gather."

"Then you agree to some tests?"

We sat down and made up a list of tests and how they were going to be run. I directly asked some of Balimir's men and they gave their own interpretation on how the tests should proceed.

We broke to have a meal. If you thought you ever had barbarians over to eat then you would reconsider after seeing the Huns. If they had more containers then they would take more food for later.

They did not like getting up and helping themselves until they saw how much they could each get. They only got one bottle of beer each and there was fights over this when they found out what it was.

More tests were devised but the games of the Huns all revolved around horses and I said, "Are your men like women if they have to walk on their feet?"

"We can fight on our feet too."

I started to get more tests that the cadets could win at.

Later in the day the cadets showed the Huns how to hang-glide. This was not a test yet just a way of showing how this was done. At the same time some of the Huns were teaching how to play a game similar to polo. The rules the huns used meant that they could foul the opposing players.

I had to find some large cadets to play them and ones that were not dainty either. I did insist on helmets for everybody and I had to supply them for the Huns.

We won this event by a small margin but mainly it was because of the stirrups I think. I saw the Huns looking at our saddles very carefully.

The huns used their bows in the first event. Men would shoot an arrow up into the air then shoot another at a target. Both arrows would arrive at the same time. We could not do this very well and the Huns laughed. The weakest looking cadet loaded a twenty centimetre cannon with solid shot and hit a target two kilometres away. It had to be a very large target though but the Huns were impressed.

They had a game like soccer and I made sure the rules were written down. The game lasted hours. The Huns were good at first and pulled ahead. They had short legs and no stamina running and the cadets surpassed them later.

All the cadets were good with a bow but they could also use the rifle. Edana out shot the Huns champion even though he was given fifty rounds to practice with.

We rested that night with a good meal. There were some orphaned Hun children and some stayed with us. They played with the dogs as did those that had come from the city. I fed all of them but I wanted Balimir to see that I fed others. He already knew that I fed his people yesterday but this was more direct.

The Huns liked rum and whiskey but they got only a bit each. I wanted no drunken brawls. Balimir and I drank fortified wine and the man was able to not make too much of a fool of himself.

The next day the Huns wanted to walk a rope. I strung one for over twenty metres and then I had to show the cadets how to do this. Some were familiar with this but only Guinevere was any good. We lost this event but I promised to win in a rematch in a year's time.

We won in hang-gliding but the Huns appeared fearless. They all were very afraid but did their best to not show it. Stepping off a high wall into air is a frightening experience.

My cadets could swim but the water was too cold and most of the Huns could not do this.

The Huns were very good at tracking but our people were good too. The Huns won but not by much.

We had a meal and I used the radio. Ships had been dispatched from the Ruhr even before we arrived at the Black Sea. Most of it was cargo that I had no time to make never mind load. As time went by, more and more supplies were added to my shopping list. This also meant that more ships had to be rerouted to supply us.

Balimir was familiar with maps but the scale we were talking about was beyond him. The Ruhr to him was just too far. He showed me on my maps where his people had come from and basically it was China. Long ago there had been a war and they were forced to flee. The Chinese kept good records and I wanted to find out more when I got there. To help me do this I was learning what I hoped was Mandarin but I was not sure.

Julian and Sapor sold me lumber that they had cut with the steam saws. It was a way to have money go the other way this time. They even delivered it and the boats had a much easier time crossing the Sea of Azov.

We went as far as we could up the Don. There was supposed to be a large lake in this area from my old memories but the locals knew nothing of this. We just went far enough to not be a threat to Tanais but also near an exposed seam of anthracite. This was good enough. My people started to put up some simple housing. The boats went back and brought Balimir, some men and a lot of the orphans. The Mediterranean moderated the weather here but it was still very cold.

Some local Huns came to us as did some other tribes but they were impressed about my ability to lock their muscles and then make them feel good. I sold iron goods in lieu of using gold, they hunted for me and brought the game to feed us.

We had a few Roman and Greek neighbours too and they were happy to see us. There was lots of land and you could have all you wanted as long as you could hold onto it.

Balimir was asked to watch how a building went up and then he was asked if his men were skilled enough to do the job as good. We helped them all we could without letting it seem that we were doing the building. The Huns were given the opportunity to name the city and they came up with Tai-tang. It certainly reflected their past.

Ice was forming on the Don, and we tried to break it but it was a losing position. A large radio had come in and we set up a very tall antenna and secured it very carefully. There was a lot of wind here.