“I suppose that you are right, sir.”
“I am.”
* * *
The collector path stretched for half the length of Kren’s property. This was like a double fish-weir fence that allowed juvenals to enter in between them, but not to go out. Additional sections of fish weir between them forced the children to walk to a central processing station, where some were selected for packaging, and the rest were released to grow bigger. Watering troughs were placed along both sides of both fences to keep the youngsters fresh and the losses down.
By early spring, about the time when both the outer fence and the collector path had been completed and paid for, the last tunnel from a train station to a wintering center was completed. The plans were to mothball the small tunneler.
At this point, Duke Dennon called and said that he wanted to borrow it.
“Of course, Your Grace. I’m sure we can work something out. How long would you be needing it for?”
“Oh, probably for several years, actually.”
“Hmmm. Then you would probably be better off buying it than renting it. I could sell it to you at two dozen per gross off list price.”
“Kren, that price is atrocious! You just bought it from me for nine dozen per gross off list!”
“Well, if you needed it, why did you sell it to me in the first place?”
“Because I didn’t need it then, but I do need it now.”
“Oh. What are you planning to do with it anyway?”
“I don’t want to talk about that over the phone, and anyway, I’ll be needing your help on this. Can you visit me in the near future?”
“Certainly. If I took an express train right after physical training tomorrow, I could be there by twelve in the evening. I wouldn’t have to leave until five, an hour before noon, the next morning.”
“I’ll have a servant waiting at the station when you arrive.”
“That would be excellent, Your Grace.”
* * *
Kren booked a private cabin because he didn’t want to risk having to sit next to one of his fans for two hours. Anyway, he billed it to the corporation, which was currently flush.
“So, Your Grace, what is this secret thing that you are planning on doing with the small tunneler?” Kren asked as they sat down privately to share a small snack. He was proudly wearing the sword that the duke had given him.
“War, of course. What else?”
“You are planning to take a tunneler to a war? Wouldn’t that be against the Laws of War?” These laws strictly forbade the use of powered vehicles of any sort in warfare, either for fighting or for transportation.
“It certainly would, but I don’t plan to use it directly, of course. But what if I were to discover that an ancient, forgotten tunnel just happened to go from beneath my palace to beneath Duke Tendi’s castle? If I were to then march my men through this tunnel, and break through to his basement, would I bring down the bombs of the Space Mitchegai on me? I think not.”
“So you need me to make this tunnel for you. Well, I presume that you have a map around here? Then let’s take a look at what we’re talking about.”
In a few hours it was decided that Kren would run a big tunnel across one of the hexagons of his property that was closest to the duke’s palace. A small tunnel would be run from this large one, and the dirt from both would be shipped out together by the railroad. This was to cover the fact that they were digging the small tunnel at all, if anybody checked the MagFloat Corporation’s records.
A total of eight gross miles of small tunnel would be required, going entirely across the Dennon’s lands, under Duke Tendi’s castle, and considerably beyond that. There would be a maze at both ends of the tunnel with a series of deadly traps to discourage further exploration.
It would then be cleaned, all equipment would be removed, and it would be sealed up at Kren’s end, beyond the maze. A mixture of corrosive gasses would be injected into the system to give the tunnel’s metal walls the patina of great age.
Kren estimated that they could have the work completed within thirty weeks, if there were no hitches. If they ran into unusual soil conditions, hard rock, or underground water, it would take longer and cost more. At worst case, the battle might have to be delayed until the following winter.
Then, in a few months, when the gas had time to dissipate, some of Duke Dennon’s workers would just happen to be digging a well, and accidentally find the ancient tunnel system. Naturally, he would have it explored and mapped, regretfully losing a few soldiers in the wicked traps in the mazes.
And in the coming winter, when most armies were standing down, Dennon would use it to attack his old enemy, Duke Tendi.
“Kren, I like it! Now, what would you want to dig this tunnel for me?”
“Well, first, I would expect to be reimbursed, in cash, not check or an electronic transfer, but actual cash money, for all of my expenses, the largest of which will be for paying the MagFloat Corporation for hauling away all of the dirt.”
“That would be acceptable.”
“Then, in the fall, I will owe you a gross million Ke, my annual payment for your military protection,” Kren said. “I will want you to take that payment in my company’s stock, instead of cash, and I will want you to continue doing so for the next two dozen years.”
“If you’ll tell me when you next intend to win at an athletic event, you have a deal.”
“Very good, but there’s one more thing that I want.”
“Indeed? And what is that?” Dennon asked.
“I want to come along when you attack Duke Tendi! I enjoy a good fight.”
“Your aid would be most welcome! Okay, we have a deal, but we’d better not put this one in writing!”
“Excellent! Now, let’s finish off this party snack. The poor thing must be feeling very neglected,” Kern said.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The Weapons of War
New Yugoslavia, 2214 a.d.
Things progressed, but the important thing that happened this year was that my loving wife, Kasia, gave birth to a magnificent baby boy, our fifth. She also said that enough was enough, and that if I couldn’t give her at least one girl, she was going to give up on it.
I said that I would have loved to have had a little girl, but I didn’t have much say in the matter. She was just going to have to take it up with God.
She said that she would do just that, and until He answered, she was going on the pill.
Well, I loved her, and five really was a houseful.
* * *
Another of our lost planets had been found. New Palestine. Our ship got there to find everyone, both on our side and theirs, dead. Somebody had made a deadly virus and let it loose. Our intelligent machines were working on resurrecting the planet, but until the virus was eliminated, people dared not return, nor could we permit the electronic people to return to us. Repopulating the planet was being debated.
* * *
The basic weapon of the Human Army was the tank. This was essentially a well-armored box that contained a muon-exchange fusion power supply, a series of computers, one of which was intelligent enough to pass for a human being, and was smarter in some ways. It had a coffin that contained a real human, together with a life-support system capable of keeping him or her alive indefinitely. The human floated in an aqueous liquid that protected him from shocks and accelerations of up to fifty Gs.
This observer was linked through cranial and spinal inductors to the tank’s computers, which could keep him in Dream World, living at thirty times the speed that he could live at in the world outside.
There was also a combat mode, where he became essentially a single entity with his tank, and lived at typically fifty-five times as fast as normal, depending on the individual.
On a planet surface, the tank used a track-laying MagLev system that laid magnetic bars before it, floated over them, and then pulled them in to lay them in front again. On a metallic surface, it could magnetize the metal under it, dispense with the bars, and travel much faster. On a real MagLev track, and in a vacuum, it could hit three thousand kilometers an hour.
A wide variety of weapon and propulsion systems could be magnetically bonded to the tank, depending on the mission. A tank could function as a land weapon, a machine for tunneling beneath the earth, an aircraft, a submarine, or a space ship.