You shake off the momentary chill that just afflicted you and go back to planning the Count's summer retreat. It's just The House, of course, but the Count wants it on a hill! It'll be a few year's work figuring that out; the rest of the village is all on flat ground! The Count is generous, though; he gave you ten. You'll have plenty of time to figure out where to dig out a flat patch of ground without breaking your back doing it.
To be fair, unless I'm mistaken, this is usually how we build substantial buildings on slopes in real life? Dig out a flat foundation surface, then build on it. For buildings with basements, we even
excavate to get a flat foundation surface...
You are Kakarot Roma, and you are about to make your fortune.
The Duke squints suspiciously at the arquebus, clearly doubting its structural integrity. "And you say that this...works, Karl?"
"Perfectly, milord," you say, nodding. "As you can see, the force it projects-"
"Looks pretty unstable," says the Duke with all the confidence of a man who's never held a hammer in his life. "You say this spits fire?"
Smile, smile. "It only looks that way, sire," you say. "What it spits is a small metal ball, at high speeds-"
"And a ball can outperform an arrow?" sneers one of the Duke's courtiers, to general polite laughter. They all give the musket nervous glances, though.
"If it's travelling quickly enough, yes," you say, smiling.
"I'll be honest with you, Karl, I don't trust this," says the Duke. "Perhaps they do things differently in -- ah, Kreisholt, you said? -- but here we don't tend to put much faith in...inventions."
At that, the assemblage shudders, to a general murmur of agreement.
And at that, you play your trump. "Oh, this is no inventions, sir," you say, laying a hand on the arquebus. "No, this is a family possession -- been with us for centuries!"
Silence.
"Would you like to see Great- Great- Great- Grandfather's notes?" you ask, picking up the sheaf of papers you most certainly did not forge last night.
The Duke looks at the notes. He looks up. "Centuries?"
"At least two, although records get a little sloppy before then," you say.
The Duke looks at the papers again. "...perhaps a demonstration of this family heirloom would be in order? While you explain how it is meant to work?"
You smile.
Mitsuba:
"WHY OH WHY DID HE FORGET TO ADD IN A FLINTLOCK AND RIFLING!?"
239 GE
Garenhuld
You sprint away from the musket and dive behind the earthworks, panting heavily. Your friend pats you down. "Alright?"
"I'm fine," you pant.
"It didn't get you?"
"Nah," you say. "You ready?"
"No. But we don't have a choice."
You two of you slowly peek out from behind the earthworks, looking at the musket where it stands. It shifts slightly in the wind. The two of you panic and hit the deck.
Nothing happens, but it takes a few minutes before you muster the courage to sit back up.
Before you can lose your courage again, you pick up the string attached to the trigger and yank. At the bang, the two of you descend into panicked shivering once more. It's a long time before you look back out.
Your friend blinks. "It...it worked?"
"Once," you say, looking at the musket with even more suspicion. "It worked once."
"We don't have time for a proper ten-year testing cycle," says your friend. "Aramaian troops are getting closer to the capital every day!"
"We have time to test it at least a few more times," you say. "I'm not putting something-" Unknown "-untested in the hands of boys young enough to be our sons." You shiver in the grip of a sudden chill. "Did you feel the wind turning?"
"Little bit," says your friend, also shivering. Then he sighs. "Alright, fine. Matchlock ignition mechanism, test two. I'll go reload."
[blinks]
Wait, what was the
previous system of triggering muskets?
270 GE
You're not sure where that unusually energetic man who built the railroad through your town got the idea for it. He claims that it's the result of a seventy-year project, and you hear that he has papers saying as much.
You don't much care. The trains have been running without fault or failure for twenty years, now (in fact, the owner's been a damn fanatic about keeping the rails clear and in perfect condition). That's enough for you.
After all...who really wants to live away from the city? After all, the countryside is butting right up against the Unknown is poorly settled and far from many things cities have to offer. Nowhere is more Known than a city Cities are replete with the comforts of civilization. Honestly, you only ever lived in your village because it was impossible to live closer to a city and still get to the fields each morning. With this train, though, you could start your day miles from your fields, and go home to a place filled with other people in the morning.
In a week, the home that your family has owned for seven generations is empty, and you're only ever near it when you come to work your fields.
Now see, that's pretty much how I imagined that working.
300
GE
Garenhuld
In secret, a group of saiyans meet. In secret, they draft out plans. In secret, they toast each other's success.
In secret, a thousand superhuman laborers travel out into the untracked wilderness of Garenhuld, where no humans dare to live, and begin building the infrastructure for a postindustrial economy until it's ready to present, pre-completed.
* * *
301 GE
Garenhuld
SECRET RESEARCH GROUP REVEALS FINDINGS
AN ADVANCEMENT CENTURIES IN THE MAKING
TECHNOLOGIES OLDER THAN STEAM UNVEILED
SPOKESPERSON CLAIMS, "A GRAND LEAP TO FIRMER GROUND!"
GROUP TO ADDRESS ARAMAIAN SENATE TOMORROW
...I begin to sense a deliberate conspiracy to
first get all the Garenhulder peasants out of the countryside,
then build factories until they could be presented with a fait accompli. Looking at the calendar, it sounds like this must have been going on back when Yammar was Lord. And you know? If he in any way helped to make this happen, I can't hate him as much anymore. Just can't. My head hurts too much from watching Garenhulders think.
Of course, if so, presumably Apra was involved too, but we already love her anyway.
312 GE
Garenhuld
You are Bruce Marsden, and you are a mechanic.
You have a book in your workstation, filled with entries on every make and model of car on the market. When a car comes in with a problem, you take it from the (invariably nervous) owner, crack open your manual, and begin inspecting the car. You find the problem. Whatever part is broken, you remove, and then you order a new one. You install it as directed in the manual. When the car is back to factory standards, you return the car. If you change the car from factory standard in any way, the owner can sue you for malpractice.
(If you find anything in the car that's not broken, but is nonstandard, you have a hazardous waste disposal bin in back, right next to the phone so that you can call the police.)
Every time, you roll your eyes. Garenhulders. So afraid of the unknown.
See, I can buy this, but if so,
someone must have designed the car, and that someone was definitely a saiyan. And unless
another saiyan designed the truck, and the tank, and the ambulance, and the ice cream van, and so on,
none of those things would actually exist.
Which means I'm having to mentally retcon a lot of important stuff about Garenhulder technology, which exists yet cannot exist given the size of the technical base (namely, all technologically literate saiyans
and no one else) responsible for developing it.
313 GE
Garenhuld
You're an engineer.
Your job is, broadly, to apply existing technology. Sometimes you're hired by manufacturing plants, in which case your job is to plan the workspace and determine how everything should work together. Sometimes you're hired by people who want to build a bridge, and you are responsible for the (insanely dangerous) work of making the small tweaks to the standard bridge design that make it fit with its new location.
You do not design things. You do not change the fundamental design of things. Yes, you alter standard designs to suit circumstances, but standards are standards for a reason (what that reason is, you couldn't rightly say -- but then, nobody thinks too hard on things related to the Unknown). You wouldn't dare change a thing.
This is how bridge design works on Garenhuld?
Small bridges can be standardized, but large bridges pretty much have to be tailored to their location. If their designers don't think in terms of "design from scratch according to underlying principles..." Well. Let's just say the Garenhulders must have a loooooot of ferries.
Actually, I'm surprised anyone built a ferryboat the Garenhulders were willing to believe could carry cars and trucks and railroad cars.
Maybe they just don't cross rivers with large vehicles?
314 GE
Garenhuld
You stand carefully, being careful not to look like you're asserting yourself; the men to whom you're speaking wouldn't appreciate assertion.
They stare back at you with a skeptical air, but you can tell that you've won them over.
At last, the chairman of the board lets out a sigh. "Very well, Mister Davis, the board agrees with your findings. While a mere five-year testing cycle makes us uncomfortable, your studies have displayed nothing but the most exacting standards of research. In conjunction with your previous project designing the Teris II, we are prepared to accept your assertion that sufficient evidence on the mechanical shortcomings in the Teris II has been gathered to justify a rebuild. Furthermore, your various failure analyses have proven to our satisfaction that the 14C bolt in the engine assembly is the part that, upon review, wears out the fastest even accounting for statistical error. Combined with your cogent, if impolitic, analysis of the public relations meltdown regarding the failure rates in the Teris II, and the warnings which -- as you pointed out -- you presented along with the original Teris II regarding the various reliability issues, the board is willing to authorize a project to replace the 14C bolt with a more reliable version."
You bow your head. "Thank you, sirs. My team will commence our work immediately."
(The work is already done, has been for years, you've just been proving to these idiots' satisfaction that it was necessary all along, and now you'll need to waste more time waiting until you can present your findings in a plausible amount of time-)
The chairman nods, and the board shuffles out of the room.
Later than night, poring over the blueprints for the Teris II, having already made the changes and prepared the recommendations for an improved 14C bolt, you stare down at the paper. Slowly, daringly, you reach up, erase a few lines, and make a second change -- this one regarding the suspension, which is unsteady over less level ground. You know it's an issue. You know you can fix it. You know how.
You look around. You make sure you're alone. And then -- quietly, so quietly it barely reaches your own ears -- you whisper, "How's that for the Unknown?" You shiver at it and imagine, briefly, a world where you could make this second change.
And then you go back and put it back the way it already was. You were authorized to make one specific change, and it's a change you've just made. This is as much as a curious man can do, on Garenhuld, and Garenhuld is very good at crushing anything further.
You are a researcher. And this is what your job title means, on Garenhuld.
Again, I accept this, but now I'm gonna have to go back and mentally retcon out all references to technologies that logically cannot exist given the size of the technologically competent base of people fit to develop them.
Unless this firm is hiring
many many thousands of people to do this
in parallel, and knows it needs to, which it doesn't sound like they do. It sounds like they're in hard denial about it.
