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revolutionary that nobody would even dare think about attacking us again.”
“Yes mate! Right now I rather have a chat with Genghis Khan and get my bow and arrow problem sorted. What did he do?”
“The short bow!”
“You’re joking! That’s been tried, long bows scaled down to short bows, and they just don’t work. Either they have no power, or they’re too inflexible to draw properly.”
“Better known as the Mongol bow,” says Haywire, “and suitable for use on horseback. The Garrison has some already, but you were on a merchant navy ship. Anyway, making a composite bow like the Mongol bow takes months not days. And you need to bond wood with bone. That’s tricky, especially with the bones we get from sheep, or goats, or deer.”
HayWire finished school two years ago, and is on the verge of completing his two year probation at Harrison Time Pieces. The probation will determine if he completes the standard five year apprenticeship track as a regular watchmaker, or follows the Harrison Research Institute track to a Diplôme Supérieur. That’s something that only 5% of the workforce achieves. It’s worth aiming for, because only the best engineers get to work on precision instrument design for the medical service, the ship builders, and the power companies.
At eighteen years old HayWire is two years younger than MaxChaos, but he’s a savant when it comes to engineering. He loves to talk about making things, but he talks about very little else. Social interaction doesn’t come easy to him, though he does get along well with NutJob, and with MaxChaos.
Fascinated by materials in particular, HayWire is interested not only in making better watches and clocks, but in improving anything that’s man made. From fountain pens to wind turbines! And he loves experimenting, mainly by substituting new materials in the unlikeliest of ways. He spends hours in his workshop even when he’s not working, trying out his bizarre new inventions.
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