Building Intrigue Snippet 4

 

Chapter 4

 

Grand Duchy de Medicini

 

Grand Duke Lucas De Medicini swirled his drink as he considered his scheming and its latest implications. Things had not gone at all as planned.

He fought a grimace. He knew better; he honestly did. Too many annus of success had made him forget that there was the occasional setback and that not every scheme worked. These two had backfired rather spectacularly in fact.

For many annus, his spies had stolen technology, kidnapped artisans, assasinated people to destabilize a region, or formented war between two dominus to keep them fighting each other rather than look in his direction.

He had paid off the pirates with tribute so they would naturally look to his enemies to prey on for a time. He had no regrets over any of those actions. None at all.

This time though … he downed the drink. This time was a bit different he reflected. This one had the potential to bring thousands of annus of rule by his family crashing down around his ears. And he had only his own schemes to blame.

Well, to be fair he had to work through secondary parties, and he had to rely on the pieces moving in the directions he wanted. That didn't always work out. This time it had and had backfired anyway.

Duluth attacking the Imperium a decade or more ago had been anticipated and even encouraged. He had sat back and thought that the war would run for at least a generation, thus protecting him and his people. Instead, it had gotten the newly-arrived gaijin involved.

Duluth had settled into trying to lay siege to duchy Emory while also looting the countryside. He would have loved to have been a witness to the clash of titans on the battlefield.

He had anticipated the old king to have to rally the other dominus, and his spies had been set to have them bicker and stall while sending forces to the north. Duluth would have dug in, and it would have been a gloriously long campaign.

No one, not even he, could have anticipated a group of well-armed gaijin with technology beyond his people's to come from Patria. Nor could he have anticipated the massive changes that were shaking the Imperium and their world to the core.

The gaijin's influences had allowed the Ianna Imperium to smash the Duluth army. Their infernal contraptions had allowed them to smash the dominus as well. Rather than capture them and ransom them many of those dominus had been killed with their sons.

The Imperium had then taken control of Duluth, sending the young princess there. His spies had a few minor machinations to help prod the surviving Duluthians into rebellion. Rather than smash them again and then spend many annus and fortune guarding the north east the Imperium's gaijin had led a raid and rescued the princess as well as broken the rebellion.

Now instead of looting the fallen country, they were rebuilding it. That had killed a lot of resentment in the rusticus. The peons had taken the food and the aide that the gaijin had offered and were well on their way to converting into loyal subjects.

He shook his head. He'd thought the Duluthians were more prideful than that. Apparently, the giajin's allure had driven a wedge between them and their dominus. Most likely because they had been starving and the war that would have given them food had ended badly. Instead, their so-called enemy had helped them and wanted to teach them … he shook his head. Even he could hardly believe that.

It definitely inspired loyalty, though his spies he had recently sent to Duluth would put that to the test soon.

His latest schemes to destabilize the Imperium had failed. He was still struggling to understand how. Of course the gaijin had a hand in the failure of one. The other, well, that may yet succeed in diverting the gaijin from his borders for another few annus.

He reached over to the decanter and poured himself another drink.

Ever since the war in Duluth had ended, his spies had been reporting that the gaijin had convinced the queen to hold a Harvest Festival in her capital. It was just before the beginning of Autumus, when the largest harvest was finished and the winter crops were put in. Each festival was more impressive than the last. At the festival, they taught new things and showed the rusticus how to make things and of course sold many things as well.

They even had a university, a school of learning to teach such things. He had yet to get a spy in there for long. He didn't have such things; the guilds were jealous over their territory and did not like to share their secrets easily.

His spies had of course come back with many things from the festivals. However, the Imperium's spymaster had gotten wise to their antics. Also, no matter how much gold they offered no one could bribe or steal the recipe for the blasted thunderstick ammunition.

His right fist clenched and then unclenched around his glass. After a moment, he stopped it and gently touched the rim with a fingertip and traced it for a full minute.

The thundersticks and machima had started a race in all of the remaining kingdoms. He had taken advantage of their fear of the Imperium to try to forge an alliance with them. He hadn't anticipated that some would be more able than his own people at implementing the new technology.

One such group were the pirates and slavers off the west coast. He had an ambassador with them paying them tribute to keep them off his shipping. Dominic Cassius was his Legatus, ambassador to the pirates. He was also a spy. Through his reports, the duke had become aware that they were more advanced than he had assumed. But they were wary of him for his machinations and refused to share or sell their new technology.

He grimaced and shook his head. He would do the same if he was in their shoes. In fact, he was doing that very thing. His people had a treasure trove of material from the Imperium. He naturally wanted to keep what his spies had delivered under wraps for as long as possible. But he needed to use it too. It put him on the horns of a dilema.

He was still pushing to have his artisans look at the various things and do their best to recreate them. The weapons were top of the list.

Of course that research and development cost a lot of money. He wasn't happy at the expenses involved. He had been selling the secrets to the guilds but they hadn't been putting them into use much.

Oh sure, they'd made some strides with printing presses but not a lot. He had recently found out that the duchy ones were crude in comparison to the Imperium's. The guilds used wood carvings that were pressed onto paper. The costs had come down a lot for posters and such things but they still take time to produce.

His eyes went to the slate clock on the mantle and then to the map nearby. It studied it with practice ease, eventually shifting to the bottom of their known world.

He was very nervous about Caliope. Word had gotten back to him by ship; Caliope had fallen to the Imperials some time ago. He hadn't anticipated their fall happening so quickly. He'd thought the pass had been impregnable or at least would have turned into a slogging match that would have attritioned each side badly.

He hadn't anticipated the ability to bypass the pass with flying craft. Nor had he anticipated that the Imperials could take it so readily. The details were sketchy; however, his spies in the Imperium had confirmed that there were plenty of news reports stating that Caliope had fallen.

Had the grand duchess' court survivors told the Imperium about the mutual defense deal? How much had she let on to her court? He cursed himself for putting anything in writing. That had been foolish.

He still thought that playing her as a patsy had been a good move. Had he waited until the armies of the Imperium had been committed to attacking Caliope, even during the invasion, he might have been able to get in and take some of the northern reaches away from them.

Maybe. But they and their infernal gaijin would have taken it all back and then come for him next.

The new weapons gave a single man the power of many. It was amazing as to how small their army was and how easily it could break larger more conventionally armed ones. It was also a bit terrifying given that his army was still armed with those now antique and useless implements.

The one bit of good news was that the pirates had played into his hands in a way. The news from the Imperium had reported that they had somehow forced one of the Imperium planes to land in the water near their land. They had taken the people on board hostage.

He had to get a look at the thing. There were no doubt many wonders on board.

More importantly, the downing of the craft and the pirate raid on Nuevo Imperium's coast had fixated both Imperiums on them for the foreseable future. Which meant he might have time to get his people to finally crack the secrets of the thunder sticks and other mechanical marvels.

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Building Intrigue Snippet 3

 

Chapter 3

 

At Sea

 

Captain Chamas saw the trawler and noted it was flying the colors of the Nuevo Imperium. He had the surviving crew tack to get as close as they could while he readied his pistols.

It was late evening; the sloppy crew hadn't even manned a watch in the crow's nest or on deck. He slipped aboard and then took control of the ship.

"Who is the captain?" he demanded.

An anxious lad looked furitively to an old grizzled man with gray hair and beard.

Captain Chamas looked at his pistol and then put it in his waist band and pulled his dagger. He slit the throat of the old man. The old man's eyes were wide as he gargled and fell over. Blood sprayed across the room, getting on the pirate.

The other pirates laughed maliciously.

"Now, I'll ask again, who is the captain," he demanded.

"You," the lad stuttered, pointing to him.

"Better," the captain said. He nudged the body. "Strip that and then throw it over the side," he growled. "Save the boots; they may be my size," he growled.

They had been in the lifeboat a hafta. Their clothes were encrusted with salt. Having a spare set of clothes would be nice. He watched as the lad and one of his sailors stripped the body and then moved it to the stern.

"Tie off the lifeboat; we may need it again," he growled. "Search the ship. Find me some rum," he growled as he heard a splash in the stern. The lad and any other able-bodied prisoners were about to be sold into slavery once they got to the pirate island.

"Let's get this dung heap of a barge squared away and then head home," he growled. The other pirates growled in agreement.

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 Ziyougang City, Pirate Island

 

Dominus Dirk Wheeler had been initially proud of achievements and had taken great pride over the navy. Still worried about what Imperials will do.

He was pushing innovation and the machine shops and shipyards hard to turn out new machines. The research on the technology was tricky, but knowing that it had been done while also having a physical example and paperwork helped immensely in the copying and understanding of the things.

They needed to close the gap on innovation with the mainland if they were ever going to have a chance at survival long term.

As usual there was a need for more iron for steel and more coal of course and so on and so forth. He looked at the pile of notes and shook his head.

"So many calls for iron! From ships to machines to  buildings—it seems that this is getting out of control!"

"It is just moving faster than we ever dreamed," Hala, his mate said with a smile.

"The Gaijin are devils!"

So many things had been learned from the festival spies as well as the captured PBY Catalina craft. Standardized tools, fittings, screws, bolts, so many, many things. Access panels, motors, turbine engines, the lists went on and on. He was sometimes dazed by it all.

His artisans were going crazy with the work. Of course Captain Pasha was smug since it had been his clan to bring the craft down. He was reeping a lot of what the artisan clan made from their research.

Dirk might have complained at an earlier date. Now he didn't care. They were all benefiting from the capture.

His mate ran her hands over his shoulders and then hugged him from behind. "They are just men. They have many annus of change that they brought with them. The plans for it all. We have seen some of it over the many annus, but never understood it all."

"Very little."

"Correct. Much of it lacked the basics on how it works," she said. She looked over him to a sketch and smiled.

There was an exploded diagram of an engine transmission on the paper. The sketch was ingenious; no doubt the concept had been taken from the festival spies but the drawing was new. "For the aircraft?" she asked as she picked the sketch up and examined it.

"And other things. Vehicles, cranes, all manner of machines," Dirk said as he turned to watch her. "It is all about gears and moving them about to find the right size gear to apply just the right amount of power and torque to do the job."

"Ah," she said in approval.

"They have to be made out of the right metals," he warned.

"I see," she said as she laid the paper back down again.

"We have some casting issues but I'm transitioning to diesel and gas. Primarily gas, the diesel engines are still more trouble than they are worth," Dirk said with a grimace. "They are costing a lot so I'm selling the steam engines to the market as they come online."

"Ah?" she asked in amusement. "Should you sell one or two to the duke?" she asked in malicious amusement. "He might pay richly for one."

Dirk cocked his head. "That is a thought," he admitted. He'd probably get two or three times what the market would bear locally if he sold a steam engine to the Grand Duke of Medicini. After a moment, he nodded. "Their tribute ship is due in a mens or two?"

"Something like that," his mate said. "Aren't you going on a trip again?"

He nodded. "Isaac and the others have parts to try in the plane. If they work, we will be slightly closer to replicating more of it," he said. "We leave in the morning."

"Ah. Well then, I have you all to myself then," she said huskily as she climbed into his lap and cradled his face. He smiled as she leaned in and kissed him.

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Domina Ching Abbas had her hands tucked in the sleeves of her robe as she wandered through the alchemy building. Dominus Wheeler was pushing for more change, and she agreed with him. His work and that of the spies had improved their alchemy ten fold in only a few short annus.

She exited the building and went across the street to another which was making drugs. All sorts of pharmacuticals were being made, from medicines to those used for entertainment. She was amused that some of the other dominus like Wheeler were so trusting with her, and others didn't trust her at all. Of course it might be that they were suspicious of her because of her use of poisons. She had in fact removed an annoying dominus recently for his stupidity.

That had actually backfired when he had been replaced by Pasha. Pasha was a chuavanistic fool, a bit of a blowhard. He had youth and energy though, something that Omar had lacked. He was eager to prove himself, which was one reason that fool and the other dominus with him had raided the Nuevo Imperium.

She grimaced and nodded slightly as she made her way through the lab and then out another door and over to her office. She didn't bother checking the massage parlor, which doubled as a brothel, or the medicus building further down the street.

She had hopes that Wheeler would turn up something new for her soon. She also hoped that the Imperium would hold off a bit longer, though she doubted that they would hold out forever.

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Building Intrigue Snippet 2

 

Chapter 2

 

Imperium Capital

 

Dean Eratosthenes worked with the engineers to open a series of trade schools. Not everyone needed to go to the university to learn a trade, many of the hands-on jobs needed just that, hands-on training. What they set up was essentially a trade university—engineers, machinists, carpenters, plumbers, electricians,  and so on. Many worked off of an apprentice system which the natives were intimately familiar with.

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Doctor Sue Carter recieved detailed files from Doctor Cassie O'Connell and her 3D printed organ and limb project. She was keen to implement such a practice in the Imperium.

They had some long-term cases in wards and hospicies in the city. There was also an institution for people with disabilities. Many elders were retired in homes across the kingdom. They tended to families and the hearth but would go hungry if the farm lacked food. Fortunately, that practice was ending in all but a few of the most isolated farms.

The doctor would love to help those people and more. There were so many that needed help, and like any good doctor, she was frustrated by her lack of tools in some cases. They had some cases where they had to sadly watch someone die and just comfort them in their end time.

She had made great strides with her students to improve things in the kingdom, but she was always aware that there was so much more that could be accomplished. Hopefully, Doctor O'Connell could arranage the time for a visit.

She had recently become aware of an institute for dead, dumb, and blind people in the capital and in several of the duchies. They were hovels, living off of whatever charity was thrown their way. She had started to change that for the better, giving the folks there a new lease on life. Just instituting better care practices, teaching brail and sign language, and basic medicine had made a large impact.

She was not sure about curing all of the blind folks; however, an exam had weeded those with a degnerative disease out from those who had cataracts or just very poor vision. The optotrician had performed a series of cataract surgeries for nearly a mens, what the natives called a month. Just that had gone a long way to clean out some of the folks in the properties.

The truly blind folks had to wait until they could find a means to surgically correct their eyes. She was still leery about attempting replacing an entire eye. Hooking up the optical nerves was scary.

They had also gotten to work on deaf people. Sadly so many deaf people had not been taught how to communicate by sign language. They had learned some rote activities but were considered stupid. She lacked corrective measures beyond the very basic and rudementary. That was changing though.

The time with the institutes had made her reconsider mandatory eye, nutrition, and hearing exams for children. Many children had poor grades and dropped out of school because of one of those three things. Getting to them early helped to change their lives for the better.

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Diedra was overseeing the preparations for the upcoming Harvest Festival when word came in about the attack. She called the cabinet in and they listened to the radio as Ginger described the strike.

"Hopefully, this will serve as a lesson to them?" Winston, the treasurer, asked.

"Only if there were any survivors,"  Ciara, the dominus of textiles stated.

"And if they can get home safely. This happened off the coast of the Nuevo Imperium,"  Eugene frowned as he studied a map. "Ginger, any ideas on if any survived?"

"One small lifeboat got away. I don't know how many people were on it," the pilot reported.

"Okay," Eugene said with a nod. "So, they'll either flag down another of their ships or a merchant or fishing vessel."

"If they flag down one of the latter two, all money is off on the safety of the crew," Sergeant Waters, their gaijin expert in military matters, growled. They turned to him. "Remember the crap that pirates pulled off the coast of Africa? Small boat raiding or capturing ships at sea?"

Eugene, Charlie, Sue, Mary, and Max winced. The natives looked confused.

"Warlords off the coast of Africa sent small boats to attack shipping that was coming out of the Persian Gulf region," Mary explained. "They had small fast boats with weapons. They would run up to a bigger ship, many of which didn't mount a watch, then get on board and take the crew hostage. Sometimes they tortured and killed the crew. They would then sell the cargo and ship back to the proper owners."

The natives grimaced.

"The navy got involved. Many navies actually," Ginger stated. "They did like we did or sent in commandos to rescue ships. The pirates are still a threat, but they are not pulling off many raids anymore, at least before we left that is."

Eugene nodded. "So, the crew of any ship that they encounter might be in danger and there is no way to warn them."

"Sorry," Ginger stated.

"Not your fault, Ginger, you did the right thing. We can't have it all our way," Eugene stated. He made a slight puttering sound. "Any other issues?"

"No. Well, yeah, I'm about out of munitions," Ginger reported. "I had four missiles, and it took all four to hit."

"Darn."

"The good news is that they don't have many of those ships," Ginger stated. "But I could use a replenishment."

Eugene looked to Max. He grunted and spread his fingers in a flicking motion. "We'll work on that," Eugene said slowly as he looked back to the radio. "How are you on fuel and parts?"

"Okay. When do we have another PBY coming?"

"Two more and two more DC-3s and then I'm done building them and the Douglas for the time being. I'm switching everything to the Hercules project," Max growled.

There was a long silence. "Hercules?"

"Yeah, we're going for that instead of a bomber. That platform has more flexibility, and the Bootstrap folks have the plans already," Max stated. Eugene nodded.

"Damn good idea!" Ginger stated. "Good range, lots of stuff we can do with that bird. Awesome. When do we get them?"

"We need the plans first. I just got a lot of stuff to sort out from them, and we're going to build the infrastructure too. Plus as many common parts with the other birds as we can."

"Good," Ginger said. "I can't wait to get my hands on the controls," she said. There was a slapping sound and then rubbing. Eugene snorted. Those that knew her knew that the pilot was eagerly rubbing her hands together in glee.

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