Tag: book1

Chapter 8 As Good as Gold 063

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Though she’s slightly taken aback and wonders what’s actually wrong. She looks up, but there’s nothing dangling from the sky.

“That necklace! You can’t wear jewellery like that when you’re riding a horse. You can’t wear jewellery of any sort when you’re in the Garrison!”

Puzzled, and genuinely wanting to know more, KristalClear sheepishly says, “you’re wearing earrings, so am I, isn’t that allowed?”

“OK, simple stud earrings are permitted, and nothing else.”

“And a watch?”

“I have a Garrison issue watch. Not a pocket watch with a dangly chain. And this one has a leather strap. Yours is fine too. Simple and functional. The rule is ‘no dangly things’ which is probably the same one as at school. What exactly did Mr Rafone say?”

“Oh he wasn’t talking to me. One of the weird boys came in wearing a wolf’s tooth on a leather bootlace around his neck. We all thought it was Mr Rafone just being picky.”

“Garrison rule. Engineering rule. Health and safety rule. I’m not surprised if it’s a school rule too! You don’t want weird boys claiming to be Pagan wizards and casting spells with their little dangly things.”

KristalClear giggles, as she carefully removes her new gold necklace.

As they walk down to the stables they start chatting about their earrings. They’re made with Meirionydd gold from the mine in Dolgellau.

“Married personnel can also wear a plain gold wedding ring if they want to.”

KristalClear looks at CandiCrush’s left hand.

“You don’t.”

“I’m not married!”

“No, neither am I!”

“You’re young! Plenty of time. I spend half my life at sea. I just haven’t met the right man yet.”

“How old are you? If you don’t mind me asking?”

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Chapter 8 As Good as Gold 062

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“Wait a minute! Hydroelectric generators? They’re big heavy things aren’t they?”

“No! Not now! Well they’re still big, but we’ve manged to get them down to roughly the size of a wooden chair, like the ones in school. Faraday wheeled one of the generators up to the brook, and I wheeled the other one. We ran the power line 50 metres back to the works, lowered the mill wheels into the stream, and bingo! Electricity!”

Questioning her own sanity, she continues, “OK … and what are … what are load balancers?”

Excited, NutJob’s speech becomes a little faster, and is delivered at a higher pitch.

“One generator was better than the other! We harnessed their output together, but the phases weren’t the same. The presses ran fast, then slow, then fast again. Too fast, and too slow. Faraday said the cycles were out of sync. Sometimes amplifying the current, and sometimes almost cancelling it out. We need to balance them. He knows what a load balancer is. He says there are massive ones in the Leven dam. If we want a smaller one we’re going to have to build it ourselves. From scratch. We just need to get our hands on the right components.”

—o—

By the time the cavalry returns from Ormskirk it’s mid afternoon on Saturday, and all CandiCrush wants to do is have a rest.

KristalClear is keen to get a full update on the news and is disappointed, though not surprised, to learn that nothing much happened.

CandiCrush changes the subject. Raising her right index finger in front of her, pointing at nothing in particular other than the sky, she uses her strictest head teacher voice and says, “no dangly things!”

“That’s what Mr Rafone says!” responds KristalClear.

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Chapter 8 As Good as Gold 061

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gently letting it cascade back into the palm of her hand. She’s too preoccupied with thoughts to notice the time passing.

“Hello!” says NutJob, with a genuine note of surprise.

“Oh! Dave! Hello!”

“I didn’t expect to see you here.”

KristalClear quickly puts the necklace into the pocket of her jeans. Switching into softly softly mode, she says, “I was able to finish early after the cavalry left. I was telling Franklin about the news. How was your day?”

His face beams as they start to slowly walk along Common Garden Street, and NutJob launches into full geek mode.

“You know that side project, those standby generators that Faraday and I have been working on?”

“Uh huh,” she says politely, wondering if she could have chosen a simpler topic of conversation.

“Well they work! Not the mini turbines on the roof, there wasn’t enough wind for them to produce any viable electricity. But the portable hydroelectric generators. They work! We had power. We used two of them and we had the presses running on electricity. Last time there was a power cut we had to crank the presses by hand. We worked until midnight, did half the print run, missed the distribution deadline and it was Monday before any of the outlying towns had their copies.”

KristalClear knew all about last time. The distribution network relies on horses so she’s aware of who does what. This time around she’s interested to know how NutJob and Faraday managed to move hydroelectric power generators. The last time she saw the prototypes, they were the size of household stoves!

At the same time she’s wondering about the wisdom of pursuing this line of enquiry, because she really doesn’t want to have a science lecture in the middle of the street, late on a Friday evening!

“Tell me more,” she says cautiously.

“Load balancers,” says NutJob “we have to figure out how to balance things!”

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Chapter 8 As Good as Gold 060

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“Not exactly. On one of the trips, I was on a Garrison ship. I asked Major Hastings about Boot and Wally. That was a long time ago, he was a lieutenant back then! He kindly persuaded the Commander to let us leave Fflint really early one morning, take a little detour, and see the docks in Wally and Boot. From a distance mind! I couldn’t make out much, but I know where they are, and I know what the ships look like!”

“And they look like?”

“Ships! Same as ours! Some of them are ours! Stolen Allied ships! The BlackCircle paint theirs black, and the RedCircle … ?”

“Red?”

“Precisely! Listen, we’ll have to wrap up now. Before you leave though, let me show you this. Actually you have this one, I brought several of these back from Fflint.”

Franklin hands her a modest, thin necklace, like the one she’s currently wearing.

“This is real gold?”

“It’s Meirionydd gold, it matches your earrings. It’s a little thank you from me for always taking good care of the horses, and for spontaneously bringing me today’s news story.”

“Oh thank you, thank you so much!”

“You were scanning the works for NutJob weren’t you? Do you want me to take you into the print room, or shall we slip out quietly through the Penny Street entrance?”

“Yes … I should wait … outside.”

“Yes. Don’t appear too keen. Wait for the right moment and you’ll bond more firmly. Play your cards carefully with this one. He’s as good as gold!”

—o—

            Outside, the sun has already set, though the evening is comfortably warm. KristalClear walks as far as the corner of the building and stands there, examining the necklace. Delicately twisting it around her finger, picking it up and

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Chapter 8 As Good as Gold 059

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Chapter 8
As Good as Gold

With the troops and horses gone, there’s really not much else to do. Having started earlier than usual, KristalClear reasons that it’s OK to finish earlier, and to head off to catch up with NutJob. But he might still have to work until 21:00 as usual, and she doesn’t want to make it too obvious that she fancies him. Neither does she want to miss their normal chat on the way home, along the short section of the route where their walk home coincides. So she’s not going home just yet. She decides that she needs to visit the PrintWorks in order to discuss the news with Franklin.

“Hello Kristal! I wasn’t expecting you,” she says, “ I think NutJob’s probably going to be busy for a while yet.”

“No, don’t let him know I’m here, I came to see you! With news from the Garrison.”

Over a cup of tea in the office they end up chatting more about horses than conflict, though KristalClear’s keen to learn more about Franklin’s adventures over the years. She’s seen the Ormskirk incident happen before, and she’s not surprised  hearing Handsome’s version of the story. The novelty is having the news on the same day, and having it almost directly from the horse’s mouth!

Not for the first time during the conversation, KristalClear is looking through the window of the editor’s office towards the print floor. She strokes her neck gently whilst trying to spot NutJob. She can’t see him, and wonders if being here was really such a good idea after all. What if he sees her in the office?

“Have you ever been to Worringfolk?” asks KristalClear.

“When I was a journalist I went to Fflint many times. Fflint’s in Meirionydd, though it’s not far from Chester. I think there’s some informal line of communication into Worringfolk, but it’s all hush hush and even I wasn’t able to find out what’s going on.”

“Have you ever seen the pirates?”

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Chapter 7 Floods and Famine055

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In the opposite stable Samson, the Captain’s horse, is happily watching all the commotion. The Captain and his horse only ever leave the Garrison in the case of the most intense conflicts. Commander Crush is leading the cavalry today, and Handsome is used to long, arduous excursions.

KristalClear and Handsome know each other well. There’s a certain telepathic chemistry between them. Handsome seems agitated. KristalClear can tell, and tunes in to the wavelength.

« What’s wrong? »

« Wild goose chase, » says Handsome, « the pigeon tells me that the raiding party is led by BlackDog. »

« So, what does that mean? »

« BlackDog is the second in command. BlackCloud isn’t there. The raiders will be long gone by the time we arrive! A long journey for nothing. An overnight rest, and then another long journey back here tomorrow. »

« That’s a good thing isn’t it? No fighting? »

« All that energy being expended for nothing. And it intrudes into my weekend! I’ll have only one day’s rest instead of two. Have you ever been to the outpost down south? Only one groom, and he can barely cope working his stable alone. I’ll be hot and smelly! The whole cavalry will be hot and smelly! Samson and the Clydesdales are going to get all the attention until we get back here tomorrow. Are you coming over tomorrow? And hose me down? Make me feel human again? »

« You’re not human! »

« You know what I mean! Can you be here? »

« I’m always here on Saturdays! Though I guess there won’t be much to do until you lot get back. Just equipment cleaning! Followed by tons more cleaning when the whole cavalry returns. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! It’ll be a long day for me too. »

As CandiCrush leads a party of 36 mounted marines out of the gates, KristalClear blows her a kiss. Or perhaps that was a kiss for Handsome?

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Chapter 7 Floods and Famine054

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around, but they manage to cope at a subsistence level, running farms and smallholdings. And because there are so few of them, they have enough drinking water, and they’re too focussed on survival to be interested in harming their neighbours.”

“The story is the same with Worringfolk. But different! They’re nothing like the good people of the older Merseyside. Those who were able, moved north towards the Lake District, or west towards Eryri. It’s said that the remaining Worringfolk are descended from Visigoths and sportball hoodlums, and they’re a bit monosyllabic.”

“Their version of English was called Scouse. Even that word was too much of a challenge for some of them, so it’s been shortened to Scow. Lots of words have been shortened. Some of the legendary places of old, like Everton, Liverpool and Manchester have been abbreviated to Ev, Lool and Manch. These places are shadows of their former selves. However, there’s still a harbour at Boot, and the sparse population stretches from there along the Merse as far as Wor and Stock.”

The ElderWolf asks about the system of government in Worringfolk. Franklin continues.

“Unlike Wolfland the Worringfolk don’t have a proper Chamber. They have a Wor Council. More like a War Council if you ask me! And the principal industries in Worringfolk are piracy, forgery and extortion. They have just enough resources to perpetually disrupt trade between the allies of Wolfland, Meirionydd, Mannin and Leinster. The allies regularly debate the value of establishing a land corridor between Wolfland and Meirionydd. But that would take time and money, and manpower. All of which are in short supply. So for now, it’s the Worringfolk who officially control Boot, and periodically ThunderCloud sends out BlackCloud and BlackDog to wreak havoc on their neighbours.”

Before the discussion ends CandiCrush offers her apologies, and heads back to the Garrison.

KristalClear has already saddled up Handsome.

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Chapter 7 Floods and Famine053

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were now landscapes of detritus where once there had been thriving businesses and commerce.”

“Drinking water became scarce, forcing widespread migration. Inland! Especially to higher ground with sources of clean, fresh water. If you had the energy, the will, and the money you went as far away from London as you could. North Wales, Scotland, the Pennines, and the Lake District. They all saw local populations grow again, quickly returning to the pre Great Famine levels. The new breed of Pennites are a hardy lot, although most people prefer to be within easy reach of the coast and not build new lives on windswept mountains. It’s the fishermen, the shipbuilders, and the merchant navy who really thrive.”

The Chancellor continues the history lesson stressing the importance of commerce and money.

“Farriers, and stables thrive too. And in a few places, like the coast of Meirionydd, the railways still function. Road traffic is limited to horses, carriages, stagecoaches and carts, and although steam trains can operate, there’s no coal. Their range and their cost effectiveness is limited, because they run on timber instead. Steam traction engines haven’t been economic, though static steam power can be useful for some businesses. Farriers now tend to use charcoal instead of coal. Except for those located right next to old mines, where some coal can still be scavenged.”

“Horses and ships are vital in the modern economy.”

As Franklin joins the meeting the Engineer is speaking, “Wolfland isn’t particularly prosperous you know! Just in comparison to our neighbours. In any case it’s an enormous ladder and we’re nothing but one tiny step further up.”

The ElderWolf greets her and says, “Franklin, tell us about the territories around us. Start with the floods and the famine.”

Unsure what’s already been said, Franklin begins.

“Well! When the floods and the famine struck, most of the people across the South East moved. What they left behind were the poor, the weak, and the aged. The Chalkies and the Swampies are their descendants. Not the brightest people

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Chapter 7 Floods and Famine052

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There is no separate Minister of Defence, so the Justice does that as well. In effect, the Garrison and the Constabulary are the same thing. It’s one government department with one boss.

Marines and constables might look like they’re from different organisations, but in reality it’s a unified system. Crime is relatively low and even though there’s a prison at Kingsway Hall it’s rarely more than half full. And half of those inmates are prisoners of war.

The core Chamber is augmented by four lay members:

  • The Captain (head of the Garrison);
  • The Chief Constable (head of the Constabulary);
  • The Economist (from the business community); and
  • The Historian (honorary role held by Franklin).

The emergency session of the Chamber hasn’t started formally, because the Captain and the Professor haven’t arrived yet. Franklin is still en route, so the Provost is about to give a brief history of Wolfland.

Commander Crush arrives.

“Sorry I’m late! The Captain’s a bit preoccupied right now,” says CandiCrush, “so I’m here instead. However, I’ll need to leave soon as I’m leading the cavalry south!”

The Provost begins.

“More than 200 years ago, the exhaustion of fossil fuels changed industry and agriculture dramatically. The Great Famine reduced the population of the world almost by half. Rising sea levels wrought havoc on coasts and low lying areas. Some powerful nations declined, and some smaller places rose in importance dramatically.”

“What was once London became a chaotic place, sparsely populated by the Chalkies and beyond that, the Swampies. The North Sea reclaimed much of East Anglia, Essex and Kent. The posh houses in Kensington and Chelsea were under water. The parts of the City and the West End which hadn’t been flooded

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