Multiverse Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

So, I'm plugging away at Bootstrap Colony 5. It is slow going but I'm picking up speed as I get back into the rhythm.  

I have also been making some progress with the revamp of the Bootstrap 1 cover. The base cover is done, I'm going to work on the lettering and the back flap in a bit.

In other news, Goodlifeguide let me know they'll have MV7 back next week sometime.

On to the snippet!

The following is from the PRI story Dragon Carrier, which is a follow up to the PRI story in Multiverse 6.

Dragon Carrier

Tuanku Cayao stared out at the bricklayers erecting a smokestack and considered how far they had come in such a short time period. It was all due to the gaijin in the Ianna Imperium.

Well, to be fair they had set the spark and alarm had fanned it into competition, a sense of urgency to do something or get left behind or worse, get invaded and have their lives and freedom ruined or cut short.

In one of the rarest moments in history, the twelve pirate clans had banded together like never before. They had opened their archives to the makers like Dirk Wheeler to compile what they already knew but didn’t understand with what they had seen from the Imperium’s craft. Dirk had mentioned that seeing something done was halfway there to actually doing it themselves.

Well, they’d known the realm of possibility from tales from his home world of Patria, Earth. He had left there at the tender age of eleven from the seas near Indonesia thirty local years or annus as they called them ago. The years didn’t quite match up on the alien world, one of many differences between the two planets.

They had seen and heard the stories, seen samples of craft and technology that survived to get to the island. But none could understand enough to implement the technology, at least not until a group of gaijin had come across with a seemingly complete computer database of technology.

Seeing was believing though, and when a pirate captain had seen an Ianna aircraft buzz his ship and prevent him from catching a prize, it had sparked the lords to do something.

That and well, the stories of the Imperium using that technology to utterly destroy the army of Duluth and conquer it in short order. They had to upgrade if only out of an urgent need for self-defense.

Knowing something could be done was great, but they hadn’t the understanding of things until Dirk dug into the archives. That and they picked his brain. He hadn’t expected the changes that had been wrought in such a short time.

They had alcohol fueled motors now. They had crude electricity with little understanding of how it worked; he only remembered so much to help. The materials were an issue of course; he knew they couldn’t replicate a microchip when they were still struggling to produce the basics of other components.

Teasing his memory helped to break through logjams of things that had been described in journals from gaijin. That was something he liked. His adopted people had bought or taken in gaijin from various cultures, and they had been paid to write down what they knew.

Unfortunately, less than a tenth of that knowledge had been applied up until now. But now they were making a great deal of headway.

Dirk Wheeler’s Maker Clan had been working to innovate before the Imperium had grown in importance. His clan had engineered gliders and flying beasts. They had implemented many other things. Adding new tech was just pushing things faster.

He looked over the top of the building where workmen were covering over the truss sections with plywood. Plywood had been around for a while but they now made a lot more of it. Dirk had introduced workshops and other facilities and a better shipyard. The building he was watching grow was a new workshop being built where a group of old workshops had been torn down two hafta ago.

Even though he and an elderly Chinese lady had filled in important pieces, they still had many left glaringly open to puzzle over. The Chinese lady had passed away recently but not before finally revealing the secret to gunpowder to the clans.

He heard shots and turned to see puffs of smoke where men were drilling at a gun range. They had flintlock pistols and rifles at the moment, but it was far better than bows, crossbows, and swords. They had to use flintlocks since they were recreations of the few originals that had survived as prizes in collections and could use the black powder. The chemists in the Abbas Clan knew of smokeless gunpowder and guncotton but lacked the recipe to make them at the moment.

The fact that the Imperium had both wasn’t lost on the clans. Their spies were working with the Duke of Medicini to redress the balance there and elsewhere.

Pierre Fouche, lord of his own clan, was steering that effort. He was dealing with Duke Medicini as well as managing the spy efforts in Ianna with Cheung Leung’s support.

Already they had received some useful bits, like pamphlets on vaccines and a tattered children’s book with pictures of gaijin technology. It was proving useful but maddeningly vague.

Perhaps more would come in soon.

~~~\^/~~~

Captain Ahmad felt his ship rock as the two boats lined up. He was in his old clipper. He wanted to use the newer vessels but his lord had decreed that those ships had to stay close to port. They did not want to tip-off their hand that they were moving away from sailing vessels so quickly.

He understood it, but the newer ships were faster. Perhaps they could find a way to work some of the new gadgets into his old ship? That would be nice. A motorized winch would be ideal. The same for stoves and things. He made another mental note to look into it as the breeze picked up.

A lookout called out a sail sighting and he turned in the indicated direction. “About time,” he muttered.

The small fishing vessel came alongside warily. Once they were alongside, a plank was extended between the vessels and he went aboard.

The fishing captain was ready to do business. He offered papers and things that had been handed out in his small village. They had been crumpled at one time but smoothed out. “You do not need them? Or did you make a copy?” Captain Ahmad asked as he looked the material over. There were new pamphlets, a paper on events, and another book.

The fisherman looked away. It became clear but unsaid that he couldn’t read. Most of the fishing families couldn’t read.

“They want to put our children in a proper education,” the fisherman said and then spat over the side of the boat. He was careful to do it in the offside away from the clipper out of respect or fear.

Captain Ahmad nodded. It was typical in the fishing villages. As soon as the children were old enough to mind themselves they worked clamming or in the docks running messages or carts or gutting fish. You learned what you could. If the family wasn’t too tired, they would do something during the long winter or hire a tutor if they were well off. The poor didn’t care, however.

Most families inland liked having kids because they did chores and helped out with the farm. They were accidents though. “They might as well pay for their own upkeep. My eldest son will be coming out with me next trip,” the fisherman said.

“Ah,” Captain Ahmad said as he nodded and handed over a small pouch of coins. It was a bit ironic that the coins had come from the Nuevo Imperium vessel that they had captured and looted. The crew didn’t need such things anymore.

“Thank ye kindly, sorr,” the fisherman drawled as he made the small pouch disappear. His eyes gleamed.

The two captains conversed; Captain Ahmad was careful to question the man in different ways about points of interest that Pierre’s men had given him to follow. When he was certain of the answers, they parted ways.

Once he was on board his ship, the captain went below and came back with a massive fish. He tossed it to a deckhand on the clipper. “My thanks!” he said.

The deckhand took it with a grin. “We’ll be eating well tonight!” he said.

The crew cheered.

The captain snorted. Once the fishing vessel was underway again, he ordered his first officer to set course for home and then went below to his cabin to write up everything that had been said while the memories were fresh.

~~~\^/~~~