Wand Book and Candle Part 1
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The news of the railway had spread very quickly and we had even more visitors. Many came by ship and marvelled at our docking facilities then at just about everything else. They were not kept away from the open hearth furnace because there was just too much technology here for them to duplicate our work.
The track was laid quickly and the tractor recalled. The wheels were removed and rail trucks put on. Tertius spent the day transporting his family then all the other people to the coking plant and back. There was no way to turn around so he pushed one way and pulled another. The track was not ground like the usual track and I would just have to get some people working on it and on machining the matching face of the wheels.
Everybody wanted a second set of tracks and I let them build it. This could only happen after they put more track to our other facilities in the area. This was acceptable too because they could go to more places. The small car with the double handle used to move along the track by hand was drawn up but I had to let others think of how to make it work.
The railway reminded me of models I had seen and got some of the men and women to make interlocking wooden cars, track, and engines used by the preschoolers of my time. They would get sold to the adults here. I could put the price high and they would still buy them and I was also sure that their children would never be allowed to touch them.
What amazed me the most was the joy everybody had in making something new. This was so strong that they studied to learn more and then did experiments to expand on that knowledge. The Greeks were not used to doing this but once they learned of the scientific method they made sure everything was done right. All of this was reinforced by those that had expanded on our knowledge and then were able to voice their discoveries. It was far short of as scientific paper but it was still very rewarding.
Iulius talked of his organ, not mine. The Greeks added their own input about the frequency, amplitude and wavelength of the sounds. A tuning fork with a pen nib was shown to corroborate their findings when the pattern of the waves were shown and counted on paper.
One enterprising individual took a table and used glass containers with water to form an instrument. This was the same thing as what I had seen in the old portion of Québec City. We all clapped our approval and I was sure there would be more of this sort of entertainment produced later.
We had started something new here by selling toys, food, and excursions. It looked to be lucrative so I asked for suggestions. I got a lot and two secretaries wrote them down.
"A Capitalist society is one where people work hard to get rich. That is the system the world follows now. We are something different in that we also are given food, education, clothing and all the other things we enjoy. This would normally be called a Socialist society except we are between the two types.
"You all work hard and some work harder still because you are doing something you enjoy. I think we can become even more prosperous by doing more tasks. Toys are a good example of this. Men and women in their spare time use our wood and machines to produce these articles. The articles are sold by me and I give a portion of the profits back to the people that worked harder. I can sell these toys in Gaul."
One of the Greeks said, "What about the organ?"
"You were paid to make this thing. You get no extra profit for doing so." The man looked a bit glum and I added, "If you learn to play the organ as an extra duty I would pay you for this. I suppose that if you put extra hours in working on the organ, I would feel obliged to pay you for them." The man looked much better now.
"Iulius, we are going back to Gaul in a few weeks. Will you find some people that will listen to suggestions for making money? We will have to do this in Gaul too."
He said, "This is to separate the good ideas from the bad?"
"I think the decisions will be based on the ones that show that they can make the most money the easiest way. It is not the same thing."
The few proposals we did get that sounded practical were sent back to the people that suggested them so they could improve on their ideas.
We prepared for our departure and word was sent to Horatius Postuma. The other forts were told too but Horatius might provide a chance to bring the mail.
Helvius was working on the boiler for the school but I knew that four men were designing a compressor without the basic physics. They would not get far without the ammonia so I ignored it. I knew a form of butane would work too but we could do one job at a time. Helvius was also working on another steam engine to pull rail cars and since it was on steel track it was simpler.
Just before I left we were treated to a musical recital. There was a forty three key organ that played notes that sounded good to me. Three women sang and one was good. Six men sang and none were very good, though I clapped for all of them. Children sang as a choir and this was excellent. We got two songs because they had not been practising long. A mixed choir of adults sounded good and I suggested that the men sing to one side and the women to the others as opposed to the men in front. They sang one song again and it sounded even better.
On the day we were to sail I found a Roman in the garb of the Imperial Courier Service near the Patricia with four burly men behind him.
He came up to me and said, "Are you Jón of Germania?"
"I am. Who are you?"
"Publius Cornelius Castus."
I put out my hand and said, "Hello Publius."
He didn't look pleased but he did shake my hand. I asked, "What can I do for the Imperial Courier Service?"
"We require transportation to Lutetia as soon as possible."
I looked at the four men and said, "I can take the mail without charge to the empire. I do require help with the nets and the cleaning of the fish we may catch on the way. For this service I will pay a share of the profits. This is not negotiable though."
"I am not a fisherman," he said haughtily.
"I am not either but I want to find out about fishing and to do so I must fish this new way. I will carry the mail for free and you too but you must become a fisherman for at least a few days but you should also be well compensated. It is to be both or none."
The man thought and said, "One of my men may do this work."
"All of you work and all of you share in the profits. When I have some of the other ships finished we will take passengers and pamper them. We cannot do that now."
"I can demand that you take me."
"Sure you can but when I leave, you will be left standing on the dock."
"I am a representative of the Augustus."
"I am the prince of a foreign power."
"I can have you arrested."
I relaxed though Rufus and Iulius were prepared to fight. "You can only try to arrest me. There are only five of you and one of me. You are outnumbered."
The man didn't understand this because it must be the new math. The man reached forward for me and grabbed my shoulder. I had one sword over my back and no armour. I also had a large duffel bag of clothing and possessions in each hand.
The bags were dropped and I had his arm rotated as I held his wrist at arm's length. The bully boys started to reach for their swords and I said, "You come closer and you will regret it. I have used no weapon yet."
I flexed the wrist and the Publius Cornelius Castus cried out in pain.
"Were you trying to arrest me?"
"Your tricks are no good. I will report this."
I worked on the man's speech centre for just a minute then let him go. He stood up with a snarl on his face and started to talk but no words came out, only croaks. His hands went to his throat and his eyes got big. His head was pushed forward and the veins in his neck stood out. Nothing intelligent came from his throat.
The bags were left on the ground and I walked around the stricken man and to the four men. "Hello. My name is Jón of Germania. Have any of you heard of me?" I got four nods and this was the reason the men had kept their distance.
"The man has problems with his voice but he is not hurt otherwise. Now if you would be so kind tell me your names and where you are usually stationed."
It took a while and I need to do a bit more prompting. The men were from a fort much further up the Rhine and had been down this way on official business. When Publius needed guards these men had been detached into his service.
Publius came running at me now and I listened to his steps and moved at the last minute. He had no weapon in his hand and I only pushed him off balance. He fell to the ground.
"Well Publius Cornelius Castus, what am I going to do with you? Working for the Augustus means you deserve some respect but you squander it on a patrician attitude that is not suited to Germania Inferior."
The man got up with a knife in his hand but I kicked his wrist first and the knife flew away. I also heard the distinct break of the bone.
Publius looked from me to his oddly hanging wrist and didn't know what to do.
I turned back to the men and said, "Are you to accompany this man to Lutetia?" One said yes while two nodded.
Taking pity on the man on the ground I put my hand on his head and in a few seconds he fell over unconscious with his damaged wrist on top of him.
"Will you carry him onboard please? Where can we drop off the horses? I don't want to carry them all the way to Lutetia."
The youngest man said, "The courier drops them off at any fort and takes new mounts."
"Thanks. Put him on the barge. Iulius will show you which room."
Licinia arrived a bit later but had not seen the encounter. Her family and mine wished us a safe trip.
Iulius said when we were underway, "What are we going to do with that man?"
"I guess we have to heal his wrist but I may leave his voice until later."
"What you did is a crime."
"It may be but there is time for the man to come around."
Iulius splinted the wrist as Rufus piloted the Patricia out of the Don and into the Rhine. The soldiers were very nervous and I had to calm them down and told them why I did what I had done.
"I am polite to those that are polite to me. Iulius has splinted the wrist and I am going to heal the break now."
The men had heard of this but I guess they had not believed all of what they had heard. It took three minutes and I held the break as close to the original position as possible.
"Publius will be healed enough to help us when we get to the Seine but he will miss the fun when we leave the Rhine." I talked about the paying passengers I would be picking up on the way down the Rhine then I gave them a tour of the upper portion of the barge.
When I found that one man could read I directed him to my rule book on chess and I said, "I will challenge you gentlemen later if you want. I am sure my Romans will defeat your Persians. They didn't understand and were still worried. "I will be back around noon to cook a meal. This chore moves to all of us so you have to learn how to cook if you don't already."
We picked up a six officers a few hours later. There was a crowd on the shore. When I went on deck most of them gave the sign of the Möbius. I thanked the people for coming and talked about the gods. I stayed away from prayers as much as possible.
The officers though were not followers and remained aloof. They were given one common room. They may have been used to better quarters with slaves but the cost was too high to bring slaves. The cost of separate room would have been much higher.
At noon I made a meal for all of us. I started with basic hygiene and then went on with the way to cook the meal. I tried to act like a TV chef as is sipped some watered wine and made a few jokes.
Decimus was the most outgoing of the four men and I got him to help me. Some wine facilitated this greatly. Decimus got to eat first and then I served the guests. Decimus assisted again by feeding his friends.
The officers didn't want to have anything to do with the lower ranks so they didn't find out about Publius. The officers were introduced to the library and one of the chess sets then a copy of the book for the game itself.
I said, "This is a game of skill and strategy. It is of war too. Some people pick up the game quickly but even the very best take many years to hone their skills."
The men looked at the book's thickness and didn't seem interested. "There is another game called checkers that is simpler but again there is strategy and skill involved. There are pictures so you can see how to play."
I went to see Publius and took one of the men because I was going into their room. The man woke up at my touch and this startled the guard.
Publius started to rant at me but found that his voice had not returned.
I said, "We will talk later. At the moment we are sailing down the Rhine. There is food in the kitchen for you. There are four paying passengers onboard. They have paid for their meals with their passage. Crew eat free but crew help with the fishing."
The man was nervous now but his patrician blood didn't allow him to show much of his fear. "I will make a wager with you. There are some books on chess. If you beat me in any game I will return your voice to you."
He didn't seem to like this so I added, "The gods assisted me in removing your voice. You will never get it back without me. There are many copies of two books that I have written. Read either of the books and I will return your voice to you."
He didn't like this either but I just got up and left. I left the poor soldier with the insufferable man. I walked the plank from the barge to the ship and jumped the final distance. This was dangerous but there was also a rope stretching across the distance too. After checking with the rest of the crew I went to my room to work on the book about females in the land of the gods.
After an hour I found I was writing a story about a girl of fourteen in the twentieth century. The technology was secondary to the story but it had to be explained. This gave me a chance to talk about all the small details of my time that were not in any of the other two books. Newspapers with coloured pictures and words in columns were explained and then so were the ads. School and the relationships she had with her friends and with the young males were explained. Conflict was the fact that she wanted a boy named Chad but her parents didn't want her to go with him. Contraceptives were explained but most of all the culture was shown as male lead but not as strongly as it was here and now.
Bus rides and car rides were talked about as well as the highway system. Sporting events were popular with the boys so the girls had to go to. More conflict with studies when social events and television competed. The radio and the portable MP3 players were talked about.
It was dark when I looked up and I was only part way through the story. I had to show some girls that failed and ones that surpassed many men. In between were the majority and how they would be just mediocre.
One university was where Woden worked. I planned on showing how he and his trusted companions worked to help mankind while juggling responsibility to their own world.
The papers were locked up in a box and I only took my k-bar with me as I checked on the crew. Iulius was busy with some sheet music and I avoided going in to help by saying I was looking for something to eat. The engines had stopped and so had the supply of hot water but I could live with this until tomorrow morning.
Back on the barge I found some fish stew so Rufus must have been cooking. He was even quite good at it. When I was done I watched the officers trying to play checkers from the rule book. They rearranged the board and I was asked to show them how to play.
The part they didn't like was that they had to hop my piece if the opportunity arose. To make the men feel better we started over again many times with nobody losing.
It was not long until one of the officers said, "What happened to Publius Cornelius Castus?"
"He attacked me. Why do you ask?"
"He is an officer and a Courier. You cannot interfere with him or his duties."
"I am a prince of a foreign land. Nobody fools around with me. Have you forgotten how Woden and Aldúlfr helped me with invaders?"
They were not fools and didn't react with anger. One said, "We have heard."
I replied, "I may not be important but Woden, I think, is superior to any human that ever lived."
The man or his friends had nothing to say about this. I went on with, "I was attacked by a man that thought he was superior to a young man. He moved unhurriedly, his reflexes were slow and he had a very poor method of subduing me. Any of you could have done better I think."
The man changed the subject and said, "When are you going to return his voice to him?"
"When he reads the book on chess and beats me in a game. Failing that he has to read one of the two books I wrote. Woden may also direct me to repair his voice but he may also want to come here and turn him into a frog."
The men moved back from me and I said, "I would not do that unless ordered. Woden may also turn Publius into a woman with large breasts. The intention was to teach a lesson or to educate the man. Woden is not vindictive."
The men were worried now and to get off the subject said, "We had heard that Thor has given you his hammer."
"He has in a way but I am unable to throw it. It takes the arms of a god to do that. He has allowed Aldúlfr to give me a small part of the power of his hammer in the form of arrows."
"May we see them?"
"They are not something to be brought out to show guests. The gods showed me checkers and chess. They showed me how to kill with my hands but they have recently shown me how to heal the sick. My duty to the gods is serious and not to be taken lightly."
They didn't dare push the matter now and were at a loss of what to say. I got the men seated and got one man to move and then his opponent. The four guards had quietly left and I found them in their room with Publius.
I knocked on the door and was admitted. One man had a book in his hand and I had heard him speaking the words out loud. It was the book on chess.
It just occurred to me that Publius might not be able to read and I felt bad about this. "I see that three of you cannot read. Would you like to come to another room and I can teach you. We may not get far on the trip but it will pass the time." I looked at Publius and said, "You are welcome to come and observe." The man did some thinking then nodded his head.
I copied out the alphabet onto the blackboard. Latin used K, Y and Z for Greek words and J, U and W for some other languages but not their own. They also did not use lower case letters like I did. All the punctuation and the arabic/indian numbers had to be put in and this was seen as unnecessary by most. Under this I put the names of a soldier's equipment. I parsed one word at a time and explained how certain characters produced certain sounds. All of the men had to repeat the sounds except Publius. I used their names next and they then had to go into their families.
The lesson was stopped as I asked them about their families and where they came from. This got to be fairly friendly and I said to Publius, "I am going to teach your men how to read. The chess book will be what I am going to teach now. Will you actively take part even if you can read like Decimus?"
He nodded his head much more quickly. I added, "This means that you say the words and the sounds the same as the rest. This is on your word as a Roman."
It was not said as a question but Publius nodded. I went over to him and he pulled his head back then after thinking put it forward. I held his head in my hands and said out loud, "Woden, please aid me to repair this man's voice." I was also triggering the release of the endorphins into the man's blood stream. I corrected what I had done to the muscles controlling his larynx.
When I stepped back the man looked radically changed. I may have caused too much of the hormones to be released. We all waited and in a moment Publius said, "Thank you and thanks to Woden as well."
I went back to the board and restarted the lesson.
The next day Publius seemed to be a new man. This may last but it might not too. He, at least, was amendable to some ideas that he would not have encompassed before. The four officers soon pulled him to one side and had a lot of questions for him.
The four guards were given a tour of the boat now and I showed them the engine. It was noisy here so when we went on deck I asked, "Do any of you want to learn how the engine works?" There were a lot of eager smiles so we went back to the blackboard. We had not got far when Publius hurried in and took a seat.
"Hello Publius. We were going to talk about how the engine works for a while first."
"Please go right ahead."
I talked about how Rufus explained about the power of steam to the Frisians. None of them knew about an explosion but I did the best I could. I got five smiles now.
The engine was drawn at its simplest form and then the double linkage to the wheel that turned the propeller shaft. The next part was to teach them about a propellor but that was easy with a knife and a piece of wood. This one flew through the air though and that was easy enough to understand.
Gigi
- 18.12.2021
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