Chapter 12: 2008 AD

As Scott had expected, the outcry from his family when he raised the prospect of him returning to his own time was overwhelming. Perhaps surprisingly, it was the normally submissive Eilean who was the most vocal, refusing to accept being parted from Scott under any circumstances.

"It will not do, I will not accept it my Lord. I lost you for six years once before and I will not have it so again. I would be an old maid by the time you came back to me, our children fully grown almost."

"Eilean is right my Lord, we cannot accept this." Added both Fiona and Helfe.

Scott tried to win them over by explaining the importance for Scotland's development of being able to secure the specialists he needed, but it was to no avail. He continued his arguments in the weeks running up to St Andrew's Day but if anything his family's resolve grew stronger.

He discussed the situation with Gabrain once more, explaining his difficulties. He also sent a carrier pigeon to Lachlan, asking him to come to Inveraray, despite the fact that the snows were almost upon them. When Lachlan arrived he shared with his two friends his plan to simply go forward in time regardless of his family's concerns and resistance.

"Gabrain, you will need to support them for me when I am gone. Their outcry will be loud, but I think their love for me will win out in the end and they will come to accept that this is something I need to do."

"I can't help thinking that I've got the poor end of this bargain Scott."

"Lachlan, I am relying on you my friend to support my sons in managing their earldoms, also to see to their proper training. I mean education as well as training in the art of war Lachlan."

"As you wish Scott, but I find it within myself to question your going, even as your family questions it. It will be hard, sore, on those you are leaving behind my friend."

"Think you it will not be hard for me to be parted from you all?" Responded Scott.

He dropped the subject of time travel with his family after that, focussing on trying to come up with a plan for how he was going to convince highly educated and successful professional people to travel back in time with him to ninth century Scotland. He realised that that was going to be no easy task. How would he convince anyone that his story was true? Why would anyone want to travel back in time out of choice? How would he even identify the people he needed?

Scott spent some time simply writing notes on the exact specialists he would need. What were the priorities? He decided that he needed to have a number of streams of development in mind. Nothing would progress unless he had access to power, but power would be reliant on heavy plant such as generators or turbines. The production of machinery would require steel and other metals so perhaps his first priority needed to be mining and the construction of a steel mill?

Would the benefits of mining and metal production only be realised through having someone who understood the chemistry involved and would that mean scientists were the first order of business?

He began to map out a plan for a series of developments, from memory almost recreating the order of developments through the industrial revolution, but cutting out hundreds of years of gradual evolution. Instead of a Ford model T he would be aiming at the latest all terrain vehicles with modern engines. Instead of basic stamp mills he would be looking at state of the art steel production.

He needed electronics and computer specialists he now realised if he wanted to be able to leapfrog so many years of development. Scott began to consider whether it would be possible to identify specialists who covered a number of different fields so that he would be getting the most out of each individual.

The list of the kind of skills and people he thought he would need continued to grow and he was becoming quite depressed by the scale of it all. He had identified over thirty core skills ranging across science, computing, engineering, electronics, medicine, teaching, manufacturing, food processing, and construction amongst others.

The need for labour, a significant amount of labour over an above what he currently had access to, was also very much on his mind. Scott tried to address this in a further discussion with Gabrain and Lachlan.

"My friends, if we are to make the most of the specialists I hope to bring then we will need a workforce to dedicate to the projects that will inevitably follow. We will need infrastructure, the construction of large buildings, miners and the like. There are things that you could both do to help secure additional labour while I am gone."

"How many additional people are you suggesting we need Scott?" Asked Gabrain, focussing on the issues as always.

"Many thousands Gabrain. Even with the modern methods that we should be able to develop, the time to build a road, or build a manufacturing plant, or a power plant will still depend on having the available workforce."

"You obviously have a plan in mind Scott. Why don't you share it with us?" Suggested Lachlan.

"Aye my friend. Here is what I suggest, it might be risky, but worth the gamble I think."

Scott went on to describe how Lachlan should seek to mount a number of raids into England. He should look to capture bands of Saxons from across the whole of the north of England and bring them back to Scotland. These captives should be exposed to the way of life in Scotland with all its improvements - weapons, health, education, food etc - in the hope that they would be impressed by it all. While they were being held it could be suggested to them that Scotland needed many men to help build up the rail network and the sewage works it was committed to and that any who volunteered to work on these would rightly share in the other benefits of Scottish society.

The captives should then be released to return to their settlements so they could share all that they had found with their families, friends and lords. Scott hoped this would lead to a natural migration of people from the north of England into Scotland in the hope of bettering themselves. The risk was that it merely encouraged the Saxons to try and gain access to all of this by force of arms, but Scott hoped the exposure to the capability of their weapons would discourage that.

In the period he was away Scott estimated that Gabrain and Lachlan could complete much of the work they had already started if they had this additional labour. By the time he returned much of the required infrastructure could already be in place.

One other idea came to Scott's mind and he shared this with his friends too.

"See you, when the concrete pipes are being laid for sewage, I suggest a set of pipes be attempted. A number of additional pipes would provide the natural channel for water and the conduit for the cables that modern living requires. It would make sense to have these laid at the same time as the sewage pipes."

The friends discussed their plans and how many men would be needed to complete Scott's ambitious scheme while he was away. Gabrain and Lachlan still voiced their concerns that there would be trouble with Sigurd and the Vikings and Scott could see that he would need to do something about that, even if only to calm their concerns.

Despite the fact that winter was upon them Scott knew he had two more weeks before St Andrew's Day and he decided a show of strength in Orkney might be a very worthwhile manoeuvre before he time-jumped. Messages were sent out to marshal forces for a limited assault on Kirkwall itself, a punitive raid to remind Sigurd of his agreement not to attack the Scottish mainland.

The force was made up of six of Scott's larger and heavier ships, four from Dalriada and two from Fife. These ships were similar in size and design to the Carracks that would be built in the fifteenth century. They had three masts, a fore-mast, main-mast and mizzen-mast. The fore and main-masts carried square-rigged sails and were in three sections - the mast-lower, top-mast and top-gallant-mast. The mizzen-masts were also in three sections but carried lateen-rigged sails. Raised platforms at the bow and stern completed the design.

These were well armed now; additional cannon having been installed on them so that there were thirty to each side. Scott had also had falconets fitted at the bow and stern. Scott's torpedoes were also loaded up in the hope that they could be used against the Norse longships. The firepower was so overwhelming that Scott knew they couldn't fail.

His plan was for a lightning raid, four ships to sail into the harbour at Kirkwall to destroy as many Norse ships as possible while two covered their rear and dealt with any ships that tried to escape from the harbour.

The passage was not for the faint hearted, heavy seas and high winds as they navigated up the Hebridean Sea and round the very tip of Scotland. Once out of the relative shelter of the mainland the seas were even rougher, but the big ships dealt with the conditions well. Many of the men on board fared less well, the swells and huge waves turning many sick with the violent motion of the craft.

The winds speeded their journey however, and it took only three days before they met up with the two ships from Fife and began the difficult passage through the islands that led to Kirkwall harbour.

Now the weather and the time of year played in their favour. Sigurd and his men were caught completely by surprise and off of their guard, not expecting any would be mad enough to risk a sea assault in such conditions. When the six Scottish ships hove into sight of Kirkwall harbour therefore they did so without any alarm having been raised and met no prepared defences.