Long live the King!

"Damnit Drew, you couldn't wait two hours for me? You know how long it takes to get here from that cursed city." An angry Daniel Conners threw his shiny helmet down on the ground, "Look I even polished this crappy armor so I could stand there like tits on a bull."

"You know, if any other knight came into my private office acting like a teenager throwing a tantrum I'd have him killed, Sir Conners." The King did even bother to look up from his desk still working on writing a document.

"Sir Conners? Is that how it's going to be now, Drew? I don't think so." He walked over and put his armored boots up on to the King's desk. "What are you writing there? You trying to make me your champion, that's sweet of you, but I refuse."

"How did it go, did she get settled in?" He signed the document with a flourish.

Daniel nodded and set his feet back on the floor, "Did you know she accepted the service of what's left of Lion Brigade? Not sure how she did it, but she even convinced Sir Alexander to swear fealty. I think he might be thinking of becoming your nephew in law."

"Why don't you just tell her how you feel about her?" He took out another document and started to add to it.

Daniel slammed his gloved fist into his other gloved hand with a metallic clank, "You know she is too young for me. Besides, she probably hates me now for being a part of your scheming."

"You mean you are too old for her, right? She's an adult now, you should try becoming one yourself." He signed another document with a flourish.

"Why did you exile her to that place, Drew, she could have stayed here." Daniel pouted and tapped his finger on the desk, "Those scheming old men are never going to listen to a cute young sweet child like her."

King Andrew rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was getting a headache, "Ok, it's like this, there are some things I haven't told you, Danny. The Church is ready to start a full purge of all science on the continent. That girl would have thrown this Kingdom right into war with the Church and you know it. She called the Church the opiate for the masses right to the Cardinal's face. That's why the Cardinal all but ordered us to destroy Connaissance in anger. I had you go up and clean that place out to appease the Church and I used the cover of giving her the City Lord position to show that I still have that city under Church control so that she could do what she wanted and create the bastion of science she always dreamed about." He looked Daniel in the eyes and said, "Until she dies of old age happy and at peace, I am going to shield what goes on out there from any prying eyes. That's why I had you close off any other roads to Connaissance aside from here to there. That's also why we are going to establish a hardened border on that road. She is going to think that we are trying to keep them isolated from the world because that's exactly what we will be doing."

"The embassy?" Daniel looked concerned.

"It's there as a counter-insurgency office to look for Church spies and eliminate them, quietly." He leaned back in his chair, "The Church can run amok within the borders of my Kingdom, but touching that road crosses my bottom line. You are going to intercept all trade going down that road. The goods they purchase will be taken by a caravan run by our soldiers." He took a deep breath and then said, "Danny, you'll be in charge of it. I want it filled only with your own most loyal soldiers. Make sure none of them are in bed with the Church."

"Half a million refugees are headed back to the City of Connaissance right now, they passed us on the trip back. Will the Embassy be able to find all of the Church spies?" Danny frowned.

"Yes, the late Cardinal, my grandfather, had me establish that embassy as the contact point for his spies." The King smiled, "Not only will we be able to identify who they are, but they'll allow us to root out the future spies on the road that come up from within your own troop."

"So you're saying I should tell her how I feel about her before it's too late?" Danny slumped down.

"Unless you want her to become the future, Mrs. Jon Alexander." The King went back to writing documents, "Either way, I am happy with the choice. As long as she has a knight for a husband I will be content."

"That's ruthless Drew." Daniel frowned hard.

The King made a motion with his hand dismissing Daniel from the office, "Danny." He looked up, "I swore to her mother that I would keep her safe. That means safe from me as well. You understand?"

*****

Emily, James, Thomas, and the Professor were looking down from the top of the City Gate looking at the steep winding road, "Well gentlemen. Could we use the Rhinoceros to pull wagons up that road? They would be hauling food, lumber, cloth, and eventually people as well."

Thomas took out a note pad and started to scribble notes on it, "We'd need a station down at the bottom to refill water and coal. We could make the track similar to our small scale track and have it run in a loop, but I don't think it's possible on such a steep path. The Rhino would go too fast on the downhill and wouldn't have the power to climb on the uphill without major modifications. It would be just like when we tried to use it on soft ground."

The Professor rubbed his chin and then asked, "What if we put one Rhino at the rear and one at the front? We'd use a lot more coal, but we'd have the power to restrain it going downhill and the power to lift it going uphill."

James looked at it and then asked, "What if the Rhinos are placed up here at the top and we use them to power a lift using a pulley system?"

Thomas made a quick drawing of a large platform on straight rails being pulled by cables and a counterweight system. "We can use a counterweight like this to take the weight off the Rhinoceros. We'd use a lot less material this way as well. We'll need to think of a failsafe system that activates if the cables fail. Something that would hold the platform in place while the new cable is strung."

The Professor nodded, "Indeed, the miners here use something similar to pull the mining carts out of the deepest parts of the mines."

Emily nodded and said with a bright smile, "This is why I was willing to buy your company for one million Sprite. Ok, then let's use the Rhinoceros as we first discussed, It will move from this area to the industrial area and back, then we'll use the Duhan Lift to bring the loaded wagons up and down the mountain. The horses can be left to stable at the bottom which will also help with the weight."

"Lady Connaissance!" A man in a tall brown tophat came running along the top of the wall.

"Mr. Murray!" Emily smiled at the man as he came running up, "Did you have any trouble getting the Beehives installed on the wall?"

He grinned at her and said, "We have installed enough boxes on the wall to kill a million-man army. We have also instructed the city guard on how to use the machines. We'll need to have them test-fired from time to time but thanks to the Professor's Auto Lathe we have been able to manufacture bees at a speed that would amaze you. We thought it might take a year just to replace the bees we used at the first battle, thanks to the Auto Lathe, we can make enough for one box each hour."

The Professor frowned and then blurted out, "Make sure you change the blade each hour doing that many!"

Mr. Murray looked at the drawing in Thomas's hand, "That's pretty clever, what problem are you trying to solve? If it's to make it easier to get goods from the valley floor up here to the City, that looks pretty impressive, but it's a colossal waste of resources."

Emily spoke up before any of the others could say anything, "Mr. Murray, please, do you have a suggestion?"

He scratched the back of his head and sheepishly looked down, "Uh, well I don't want to step on any toes here."

Thomas shook his head, "Mr. Murray, please, if you see a solution, don't hesitate. We are men of science!"

Mr. Murray nodded and then said, "Well, the thing is, you guys look like you are seeking an elegant solution to a simple problem. If you want to move goods and materials up an incline efficiently, just use a pulley system. You can move several wagons with a single horse, or if you want to use your steam engine, you'd use a single winch to move several wagons. Of course, the simplest answer would be to continuously move smaller loads of goods up the hill."

The Professor slapped his forehead and laughed, "We just need a conveyor system. We don't need the wagons to come up or down, just the things from the wagons."

Mr. Murray nodded and then added, "Rather than one incredibly long conveyor, I would say you would want to have a chain of conveyors with warehouses at checkpoints on the way up and down. That way, the goods could be stored outside of the city until needed at the top or bottom."

James and Thomas started speaking softly with each other, "Lady Connaissance, could you check our figures? We believe that using the conveyor method, we might be able to get away with having just one warehouse at the midway point, with one at the top and one at the bottom."

Emily looked at the notes and then handed the notebook to Mr. Murray, "Yes, just like that. It might not be as impressive to look at as Mr. Duhan's Lift idea, but it should use a lot fewer materials to build and maintain without the worry of a huge out of control sled falling down the mountain."

One of the City guards came running up, "Lady Connaissance, there's trouble in the slums! A group of protestors is refusing to work until they get a promise to only be worked an eight hour day!"

Emily nodded turned to the others and said, "Gentlemen, please continue brainstorming ideas and then have Mr. Murray submit the final draft for me to approve." She then turned to the guard and smiled, "I don't believe we have met before, are you from the residential precinct?"

The two then walked away at a casual pace chatting as they headed over toward the area with the problem. Mr. Murray spoke up after they were long out of earshot, "Is there any woman in the world more worthy of being every man's dream woman? She's beautiful, smart, charismatic..."

The others chuckled, "Don't forget ruthless and bold." James slapped Mr. Murray on the back and gave him a friendly grin, "I have no idea what your first name is, you can call me James, that's Thomas and this is the Professor. We tried to call him by his first name before but he always throws a tantrum if we do."

"I didn't graduate from college to be called 'Sammy', James!" Professor pouted.

"Ah, well you can call me Winston, thank you, gentlemen." He grinned and then the group returned to thinking up ideas and arguing over the physics of moving weight from top to bottom.