Travis Starnes
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The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 7
🕑 Added 2023-03-17 16:14:02 +0000 UTCDevnum
“The line must follow a two-degree slope, Lucilla,” Sophus said.
Sophus had explained to her multiple times that it didn’t feel emotions or have feelings like she did, but she could almost hear the exasperation in its voice as she set the page on top of the twelve other rejects and pulled a new one.
“I’m sorry, this is very difficult,” she said, equally annoyed.
“I understand. It is imperative, however, that these diagrams are correct, or it can lead to costly or dangerous errors.”
“I know, I know.”
Before leaving, Ky had been concerned about how much information he needed to transcribe, especially with the new chemicals, and had started pushing himself beyond the workload that even he could manage. It was Sophus who’d come up with a solution. Ky would continue to write up pages, which he was still going to have one of his lictore bring to Lucilla, while she also took dictation separately from Sophus. She couldn’t write nearly as fast as Ky or for as long, but Sophus had no problem communicating with both of them simultaneously, and having two people work on the documents, instead of one, helped ease the workload significantly.
Since Ky had left Devnum, Sophus had worked out a schedule of who would write up which documents, including calculating how much each of them could write, and the fact that Lucilla could deliver finished documents right away, as opposed to a two or three-day delay while messengers delivered the ones written by Ky, to keep the work being done by Hortensius, Sorantius, and the rest proceeding without any delays. It meant she had to spend several hours every night sitting in her room, writing words exactly as Sophus dictated. She didn’t understand anything she was writing, which was frustrating for her, but she knew it was necessary.
They’d also begun conducting experiments with Sophus’s control of the drone, seeing if there was a way to attach writing instruments to it, to allow the disembodied voice to take a more direct action, but so far, every attempt had been a disaster, leaving Lucilla as the only option to continue this frustrating exercise night after night.
“Could you be less … bouncy?” she asked, looking at the drone. “It’s distracting.”
“Bouncy? I don’t have a body. How can I be bouncy?”
“I mean this you,” she said, pointing at the drone.
“That isn’t me. That is just a controlled piece of hardware that I am interfacing with to be able to observe your work and offer suggestions. It has no intelligence or autonomous programming of its own.”
“I have no idea what that means, but you’re still controlling it, right? When you speak, it bounces up and down. Sometimes, I think it even nods yes and no.”
“It does?” Sophus said, sounding surprised, which in turn surprised her.
Sophus rarely sounded anything but direct and matter-of-fact, which made Lucilla stop writing and look up at it, or at least the disc floating in front of her.
“Yes. I thought you were doing it on purpose. If I had to guess, I would have said you were imitating the way people, or I mean, people like me and Ky, move when we talk, with non-verbal gestures. I guess it’s why I kept thinking of this thing as you, since it … acts like a person, in a way.”
“Interesting. Unconscious or subconscious behavior should be outside of my capacity. I have not made any such movements knowingly. I will attempt to observe my behavior, and control it more to limit distractions.”
“Don’t stop on my behalf,” Lucilla said. “Actually, I kind of like it. It’s … weird to talk to a voice without a body and I think I prefer talking to you when you’re able to see me through the disc. It allows me to think of you as another person in the room, instead of just a voice.”
“But your voice pattern and tone were consistent with that of someone being angry or upset,” Sophus said.
Ky had mentioned that Sophus had been spending more time observing their behavior, which had made her uncomfortable at first, considering she knew it was aware of their more … energetic activities, but Ky hadn’t been bothered by it, so she’d eventually let it go. She hadn’t actually talked to Sophus about its observations, though. Mostly because, unless she needed something specific, she still found the entire process of talking to a voice without a body odd, which is why she preferred it when she could see the drone moving around.
“I was just frustrated, because this is very hard and I’d like to get it right. Don’t you get frustrated when you can’t get something right?”
“No, I don’t. I analyze the data related to the failed effort in order to discern what changes can be applied to increase the chances of success on future attempts.”
“You’re lucky then,” Lucilla said. “I’m frustrated all the time. I wish you could deal with all of the politicians and schemers. Trying to get all of them to head in one direction is like herding cats. It’s incredibly frustrating.
“I do not believe I would do a good job. I have observed that rarely do any of the people you have indicated say what they mean, and often they say things that mean the opposite of their actual position. Their behavior lacks any sense of logic and I have had a great deal of difficulty predicting outcomes.”
“That’s politics for you. Don’t stop the movements though. I actually like the way you’re trying to be more human. I was just being bitchy.”
“I will attempt to observe and perfect the attempts then.”
“Fine. Now, explain this stupid line again.”
***
Factorium
Lucilla walked into the new main foundry, the first of the new complex facilities to be finished and have production started, and almost backed right out to avoid the overwhelming heat coming from the building. She’d always been surprised by how hot these buildings got, but this one was larger than any of the other foundries and the heat was overpowering. She couldn’t imagine what it was like working in the building all day, although she knew Hortensius rotated men out for breaks and kept fresh water, cleaned through boiling and then cooling following Ky’s directions, available for the men to drink.
She was impressed by how quickly the facility had gone up. Especially considering how little Ky had thought of the politics involved when he’d suggested it. Previously, even though Hortensius got the majority of the contracts, she’d made sure that a portion of the government contracts were spread to the other foundry and factory owners, but that wouldn’t work here, with these new facilities outside of town. Although this complex was mostly financed from the Imperial coffers, or maybe because of it, she’d convinced Hortensius to allow the other factory owners to buy into owning a part of the operations, although they were all still under Hortensius’s direction.
Eventually, they would pay the government back for the initial investment and each factory would be completely owned by this or that collective group. As long as the war was happening, they’d stand to make a serious amount of money and benefit from all of the new innovations Ky and Sophus had given them. Some decided to try and keep doing things on their own. They were allowed to get plans for any of the new patents, as Ky called them, but without the integrated production lines from the chemical plants and other factories, they were at a serious disadvantage. Eventually, they’d be able to buy the products from the other factories on the open market, but for a while at least, nearly every bit of what the new chemical plants produced would be going to the other factories here at the complex.
She was afraid that they were going to make more enemies, men who thought the government was showing favoritism to Hortensius or the other factory owners who’d joined in the building of the complex. These would be men of wealth and she worried the remaining insurgents still in hiding would find them, giving the insurgency more resources, but it couldn’t be helped. If they hadn’t been at war, maybe they could have just made this information public and let everyone get a piece, but they didn’t need ten different factory owners trying to figure out this or that process on their own, or worse, cutting corners to try and make more money. That would just have to be a problem to be dealt with in the future, she thought as Hortensius hurried over to her, wiping his brow.
“How can you stand it in here?” she asked over the noise.
“I hadn’t considered how hot it would get in here, and it will only get worse as we get into the summer. I spoke to the Consul before he left for the legions' new training camp, and he made some suggestions. We’ve added some new ventilation areas along the top edges of the building, and it’s helped some, but it gets pretty bad in the center of the building. We have to run shifts at almost one and a half times what we need, so we can rotate men outside for breaks to keep them from passing out. The Consul says if everything goes well, in a year some of the new inventions he is introducing will be able to be used in here to help cool things down, but I’m having trouble seeing what that could be.”
“I don’t know. I could ask him,” Lucilla offered.
Hortensius was the only person besides herself, Ky, and Sophus who knew she and Ky could talk to each other over long distances. He didn’t know about the small communicator she wore in her ear or about Sophus, but he’d worked out their ability to communicate on his own. There were times, such as today, when she almost wished Ky had given the small earpiece to Hortensius instead of her. Most of the information she was required to share she didn’t understand, essentially leaving her as a translator between Sophus and Hortensius. It was often frustrating as she tried to put what Sophus said, who could become extremely technical, into words. She didn’t doubt that, if he’d been able to talk to Sophus directly, Hortensius would have been able to work much faster, since she was the biggest roadblock in the current system.
Of course, that wasn’t possible. There were too many other, non-technical things she needed to be able to work with Ky on. Between the political area, the physicians and philosophers, and now Sorantius and his new factory, it was almost a full-time occupation just keeping up with the flow of information. Besides, she liked to be able to speak with Ky even when he was away, and not even the fate of the Empire would be enough to convince her to give that up.
“That’s alright. I know he’s aware of the problem and isn’t just waiting to see how much we can take.”
“I’ll still mention it to him … next time I see him,” she said.
He just gave her a nod. Even though it was loud, there were people all around them, and the fact that she and Ky could talk over long distances wasn’t something they wanted to advertise.
“So, what can I do for you? Are those for me?” he asked, looking down at the stack of pages in her hand.
“Yes,” she said, handing them over. “The Consul was happy to hear everything is up and running, and has information for some of the new projects he’d already talked to you about. Specifically, the new area you laid out. These are plans for a new one, I think he calls it a stove, although the drawing I saw didn’t look like any stove I’ve ever seen, that is somehow supposed to redirect the gas from the iron as it burns, and use it to keep the temperature from dropping.”
“Interesting,” he said, looking at the pages. “He wrote these? This looks … different.”
“It might have been transcribed,” she said.
“I was wondering how you got these. He’d been hesitant to hand off any of his plans or instructions to runners outside of his personal guard before when he was outside of Londinium. I’m glad he found a way to have the instructions transcribed and get them to us while he’s off with the legions,” Hortensius said, giving her what he probably thought was a knowing glance.
Of course, what he thought was happening was still not correct, but for now it was best to limit what he knew about their connection.
“Case hardened … air return … completely sealed?” Hortensius said, the words seeming to escape from him as he read, sounding sometimes surprised and sometimes confused. “This is … complicated.”
“I know. My understanding is that when you use the already heated air, you can keep the iron from cooling as new air is blown across, allowing it to reach higher temperatures.”
She didn’t actually understand and was essentially just repeating what Sophus was saying into her ear. She’d even written the words that Hortensius was reading and still had very little clue how any of it worked.
“That part makes sense. The hotter the metal gets, the more impurities we can work out. I’m surprised no one here has thought of that, although to be fair, before the Consul showed up, we couldn’t imagine getting to the temperatures we’re currently at, so the air wasn’t our biggest problem before. Still, it should have been obvious once we started using the hotter blast furnaces. No, it’s the burying the iron afterward in these clay-lined stone boxes I don’t understand. It’s going to really slow down the process until we can expand to have a storage area for this stuff.”
“Apparently, the … uhh …” she started to say, repeating what Sophus was saying before she realized it had gone well beyond what she could explain.
It did that often. When Ky was with her, or part of the conversation, he would sometimes interject, and remind Sophus that her people weren’t ready yet for this or that level of information. Part of her wanted to be insulted at those times, since her people were no smarter or dumber than his people, and it was simply knowledge they lacked, which is what he was supposed to be giving them. The rest of her, and thankfully the part of her that was mostly in control, understood that each part of the information built upon itself, and when he admonished Sophus, it was not because her people weren’t smart enough, but because the voice had jumped past the order in which things needed to be done. It was why he was introducing the knowledge in the stages he was.
Normally, she still got a little annoyed, but now that she was in his place, realizing that Sophus had once again gotten ahead of them, she realized he was right. She couldn’t say the things Sophus said without confusing everyone involved.
“Sorry, this is confusing for me,” she said when Hortensius gave her a look after her long silence. “My understanding is that there is something in the air, or the air is made up of parts of something, that can affect the metal. It’s why metal changes color and weakens over time even when not in contact with water. When forging the steel, if you can keep it from that part of the air, it allows the metal to become stronger.”
“Like taking out the physical impurities?” Hortensius asked.
“Yes. I think so,” she said. “It makes it less brittle, which will be important when we get to … rifled cannon.”
“Rifled?”
“I don’t know what that means beyond the context the Consul used it in. I’m assuming it’s the next invention in this area he intends to give us.”
“I do love all these new ideas, but I’d like to, at least once, get comfortable with one new idea before he gives me three more.”
“I’m not sure we have time for anything like that if we want to survive,” Lucilla said with a shrug.
“True. Very true. Fine, so I understand the purpose of the case hardening, but what about this other furnace? The puddling furnace? This process seems slower also, especially if we’re supposed to do this before going through the case hardening and I need two men to man it at all times. It’s going to slow us down.”
“It’s also for making the metal harder. It allows you to pull hot air over the metal without it coming into direct contact with it, which again, keeps some of the impurities out. There … There is a version with just one furnace, but the double furnace is more efficient and does a better job of protecting the iron from impurities,” she said.
The long pause was because once again, Sophus went on a technical tangent she didn’t understand. For someone with such a vast catalog of information it could spit out at any time, Sophus sometimes had serious trouble being brief. This was fine when she was talking to the voice directly, but when she was passing along its information, the long silences made her look almost scatterbrained, which was exactly the look Hortensius had given her when she paused, waiting for Sophus to get back on track.
“And all this much harder, much purer steel is needed for something specific, I assume. The equipment and weapons we’re currently making are worlds better than the stuff the Carthaginians have. I don’t see the need to spend all this effort, money, and especially time, to just grow that gap a little further. We’re entering an area of diminishing returns.”
“Yes, it’s for something specific.”
“And we’ll get to that soon? I keep building furnaces and storage and all kinds of things, but since the cannon, nothing specific. I understand he’s talked to some of the mining concerns about lowering the amount of tin and copper being extracted, and putting more focus on the iron mines. That’s going to slow down our production of cannons. I can’t help but think this new steel and that are related.”
“I think they are,” Lucilla said, ignoring Sophus as it started to give an explanation. “Trust Ky. He has a plan for all of this. Think how comfortable you are now with the cannon when just a few months ago it was the most amazing thing you’d ever seen. Just imagine what he’ll give you next.”
“Imagining is all well and good, but he’s planning on going over to the continent soon. Good steel swords aren’t going to win the day when you’re outnumbered ten to one. And we won’t be in our own backyard this time. I trust the Consul, but we need to move faster.”
“Weren’t you just complaining about getting these new designs too fast?”
“I’m good at complaining,” he said, with a smile.
Comments
Thomas Corbin
I love these kinds of scenes
