Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (62 page)

“Cute,”
Irons said shaking his head and wiping at his chin. “You were saying?”

“Yes.
He even had a tech wizard named... get this, Merlin.”

Irons
stopped what he was doing to look into the silvering mirror. “The Latin was
Myrden I think.”

“Something
like that,” Sprite said with a snort. “The tech wizard's real name was Myren.
He offered his services and repaired some of the tech around. From what I have
on him he wasn't from this planet.”

“Tourist?”

“Or
immigrant. He even rigged a sword in the stone act. With electromagnets in the
stone.”

“Ah,”
Irons thought about it for a moment. “Could work.”

“It
worked enough to get a few people on his side. Or at least amuse and impress
them.”

“And
he hammered them into a solid following to unite the planet? That was all it
took?” He was surprised by that for a moment, then annoyed with himself.
Sometimes all it took was an ideal to get people motivated and moving in a
direction someone wanted. If you showed a dream that synched up with their own
and enough leadership to appear to be able to make it happen...

“That
and some utter ruthlessness. He's a smart bastard. He organized a parliament,
complete with a house of lords. Then when they fell to arguing one too many
times he closed the doors and flooded the room with mustard gas. Primitive but
effective.” Sprite's avatar smiled maliciously. “Bet you wish you could have
done that a time or two.”

Irons
winced. “Yeah,” he said then realized he wasn't breathing and took a breath.
“Yeah,” he inhaled, nostrils dilating. Chemical weapons... great. “Bad way to
go.”

“Oh
yeah. One nasty way to go. He caught a few of his supporters too though. That
caused a brief civil war. He stomped on it hard. He had all the advantages, he
had the center cutting off most of their supply lines, the initiative since he
knew what had been planned and planned contingencies in case of an uprising...
and he had one hell of a good field general on his side. Anyone who revolted
got the axe if they were caught. Literally. Them and their entire family. Right
down to pregnant women and newborns.”
Irons was pretty sure that fear alone would have cowed many of the lordlings
who had been sitting on the fence. “Well, that's one way to make sure they
don't come back in twenty years to haunt you I guess.” Irons said with a
disgusted grunt.

“Correct.
Their lands were divided up between the supporters. After a couple more
gruesome public examples no one dared cross him.”

“Yeah.
Smart. Keep their heads down.”

“But
that wasn't enough. He demanded each lord send their children. They are here
somewhere. Or so the file says. I haven't found them though.”

“I'm
starting to feel like I don't like this place,” the Admiral said firmly.

“A
nice place to visit on a hunting vacation but not to stay you mean?” Sprite
asked dryly.

“Not
even that.”

“True,”
Sprite sniffed.

“What
about this tech wizard?” That had him curious. Could it really be someone from
his time? A sleeper?
“Gone. Some say he vanished. That he'll reappear when he's needed. I haven't
found him in the system.”

“Cross
check the ships in the system at the time of his disappearance. Before and
after. Maybe the guy got wise and jumped planet.”

“Possible.
I'll have to access other files for that. They are in the space port.
Unfortunately I don't have access. It isn't part of this net. It's a hardwired
one, and it's old. By the way, this system is now virus free thanks to me.”

“Oh
goody.”

“I'm
still betting Merlin is in a stasis pod or he got the axe.”

“He
could be locked in a tower somewhere,” Irons replied.

“Highly
doubtful but also a possibility that cannot be discounted.”

“Remind
me to get you a peek at the spaceport net when we go for a walk,” The Admiral
said with a nod. He stretched. “Give me a run down on the players in court
again. Just in case I run into them again. I want to be prepared.” He sat down
and laid out on the bed, hands behind his head.

“Very
well Admiral,” Sprite sighed.

Irons
paused on the tour. He wasn't at all impressed with the castle. It was one
stone corridor or room after another. All of them stank of various smells,
mostly urine since there was apparently no form of public rest room. He was
fairly certain Willis, Mayfair and the other female Pyraxian's hated that
oversight. He'd seen Willis's look of disgust a few times enough to be sure she
was ready to leave. He looked around just long enough for a page to come over.
“Is something amiss lord?”

“No,
not really. And I'm not a lord son,” he turned to the young man. “I am a Fleet
Admiral.”

“Oh.
My apologies sir,” the young man said in confusion and bowed. He had the red
tunic livery of the royal house but it was trimmed in silver not gold.
Apparently they took sides, silver for the queen, gold for the king.

“No
problem,” he said looking over to a drab tall tower. It was out of place. It
took him a moment to realize why. When he did he pursed his lips. The rest of
the castle was built of stone. That tower was made out of concrete. He turned
to the young man. “Is that a relic of the past?”

“Oh
no sir, that's Merlin's tower.”

“Oh?”
he asked. “Is he in?” he asked and started towards the tower. His sensors were
being blocked by the thick walls and rebar. He needed to get closer to get a
better reading. The young man gasped and quickly got in his way.

“Oh
no sir. We can't go there. It is forbidden.” He held his hands out, blocking
the Admiral's way. A guard looked up at his antics and nudged another. The
first grunted irritably but then scowled when the first pointed his way.

“Is
it? Why is that?” he asked turning to look at the kid.

“By
order of their majesties,” the young man said nervously, looking around and
toward the guards at the tower entrance. Both were scowling now.

“All
right. In this case I can respect it.” He let the boy guide him back the way he
had come. “I take it Merlin doesn't like to be disturbed?”

“No
my lord. He's ah... gone.”

“Oh?”

“He...
some say he died. Or that their majesties had him sleep the sleep of ages once
more so he may be woken when he is most needed.”

“That
sounds suspiciously like a stasis pod,” Sprite said for his ears alone.

“Not
to mention slavery,” he said under his breath.

“You
say something sir?” the page asked. He looked down to the black haired youth.
He was probably about twelve or thirteen. His hair had been bowl cut. He wasn't
sure why. Tradition maybe. A bioscan showed that he was suffering from lice.
Ugh.

“Just
thinking out loud,” he said. “I am curious. What did Merlin do?”

“He
ah, invented many things. Or repaired old things. The king's armor for one.”

“Interesting.”

“Do
you like it here? How is living here in the castle?”

“I
know of no other way sir. I've been in the castle my entire life.”

“Interesting.
You're the son of a lord?”

“Yes
sir,” the boy said curtly, passing a pair of guards and opening a door to the
stairs. He followed the boy up to a familiar hallway.

“Your
room sir.”

He
hadn't specified going to his room, but didn't comment as he went inside. He
turned as the boy did. “Your dinner shall be sent to you sir if you are not
interested in going to the main room. Please ring if you need anything.” He
indicated the rope hanging near the door. Irons looked at it just as the kid
made his exit. He pursed his lips. Smart kid, he thought and then shrugged.

“Have
you found anything more about this place?” he asked, looking out the window
into the rain. He'd been going over his notes and decided to take a break.

So
far he'd seen slimy stone and lots of guards. Most of the courtiers and lords
were in another part of the castle. He had thought about that, wondering why.
Then speculation had taken hold. What if the monarchs wanted to keep them
separate to keep the lords from making deals to import weapons?

That
led to another interesting thought. What if in their little coup the monarchs
had gathered up all the energy weapons on the planet under one roof? It would
make it almost impossible for anyone with simple spears and swords to go up
against that kind of firepower and win. He for one wouldn't want to try.

“No
Admiral, and I don't think I'm going to. I'm at the long end of the LAN range.
Which is pretty limited to begin with. Even more so with stone walls around
us.”

“So
you are saying..?” he asked. He was starting to get cabin fever. This place was
a nightmare for any scientist, let alone an engineer of his caliber. He'd
thought about helping them, but after examining the situation dispassionately
he'd given up in disgust. The list was endless, starting with bleach and going
on and on from there. He'd taken to the exercise to keep boredom at bay but
come to realize it was just a waste of time. The best thing to do with the lot
would be to flush them all and start over.

“That
I'm running into a lot of outdated material, boat loads of hidden viruses that
I didn't know were there, and crap I can't use that's cluttering up the
corrupted index. And oh, by the way, the node I'm in is not the same one I was
in when you were in the throne room. Apparently that is on a separate system.”

“Interesting.”

“I
did get a brief tantalizing moment of conversation between Miss Mayfair and
someone unidentified. It was less than ten seconds of poor audio.”

“Spare
me.”

“It
was about you Admiral.”

“Oh?”
He turned to look into the room so he could see her avatar better.

“She
was pointing out how you need a new place to live.”

“Oh
really,” he growled. Hell if he was going to stay on in this dump much longer.
Three days was long enough. Three long days of greasy, barely edible food, no
coffee, and enough insect contact to make him start to have a phobia about the
damn things. Nope, he'd had enough.

“I...
Accessing. Someone just brought a tablet within range of the Wi-Fi port. I've
piggybacked a signal through it to another system... ah, it's the Merlin
tower!”

He
waited a minute when she didn't say anything further. “Well?” he asked sitting
up.

“Still
accessing. Here is what I've got.” She began feeding him screened data. Some of
it was redacted. “The redacted parts are where viruses corrupted data. But it
looks like Merlin isn't in stasis. And he didn't escape.”

“He's
working in there?”

“No.
Apparently he offended the establishment and they cut his head off.”

“Seriously?”
he asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. “A techno nerd, one of the only ones...”

“Apparently
after the coup he became redundant.”

“You
mean he outlived his usefulness.”

“Yes.
I'm in his personal journal. He speculated that it would happen in his last few
entries. The last one was of him saying he had a meeting with the red queen.
I'm compressing a copy for further review... there is a video of him. Do you
wish to view it?”

“Spare
me,” the Admiral said in disgust, tossing a pebble down into the fountain
below. A young girl looked up to see him and then looked away. Her braided hair
bobbed as she moved off.

He
stared into his goblet and tried not to think of the mercury in the paint. Not
to mention a rather unhealthy dose of lead. Lead was a soft metal, easily
worked. It was also poisonous, affecting children in rather disturbing ways. He
wondered if that had anything to do with the mental faculties of the natives.
He nodded politely to the woman next to him. She had silver ribbons braided in
her white wig and a hairnet of fine gold wire. “So you like this world?”

“Oh
yes my lord,” she said, fluttering a feathery fan in front of her. She had
enough make up on to well, the thought didn't bear thinking about. Okay, enough
face paint for a shuttle, not a tin can as he'd originally started the thought
with.

He
toyed with the stem of the glass for a moment. She was coming on to him strong.
Really strong. Which was both amusing and annoying. He wasn't ready for
something like that so soon after April. Even if he could get around the face
paint, lack of hygiene and over use of perfume to compensate. She wasn't quite
fat but she had ample cleavage and a bright yellow smile. He was surprised she
had most of her teeth.

“Are
you from around here?”

“No
my lord. I'm from the country.”

“Ah.
Which?” he asked, looking around to their dinner companions. Most of the time
the lords and ladies were dressed in the colors of their house. He was still
trying to get a handle on who's house belonged to what color. She had an off
white gown on, with a purple coat trimmed with pinkish fur. There were only a
few stains on it, most were on the front lapel. There was a suspicious stain
stripe on her left flank. Either she wiped her hands there or someone had wiped
something else there. He didn't want to think about it.