The Strange New Metal

"Nightshift is the worst, I know there is no difference between night and day down here at our depth in the mines, but my body feels it." One of the miners yawned.

Another heavily muscled man laughed, "Harben, you would complain even it was midday. We're opening-up shaft Oh Two Twenty tonight so get your ass in gear Harben. I need you to take the lead with Bravo Unit. You need to push to a depth of five-fifty at the minimum. So get to it."

Harben nodded and then called out, "Drill team Bravo with me, lets go get that Iron!"

A group of twenty men pulled a steam-powered drill over to the wall and started cutting. The veteran mining team made quick work of the rock digging a new tunnel at a good pace when all of a sudden the drill bit shattered and the machine quickly came to a stop.

Harben raced to the front as the drill was pulled back, "Franklin, give me your pickaxe." Harben tried to chip at the rock only to have the tool bounce back like it was trying to cut through processed steal. "What the hell is this? Jimmy, run back and get the foreman. We found an irregular piece of something."

*****

Winston Murray hadn't been to the mines in months. This was the first time he had been genuinely excited to visit. He looked over at the mine's owner Mortimer Duke and asked, "The foreman couldn't identify the ore at all?"

Mortimer nodded and said, "They said it was stronger than a diamond and light as cork but it had an oddly low melting point which allowed them to melt it out of the shaft wall, but they couldn't dig it out. They thought you boys might have a few good uses for it."

Winston looked even more excited as he asked, "How low was the melting point?"

"One hundred eighty-five degrees Celvious, perfect for casting. I thought of your new firearms which is why I called you." Mortimer replied with a smile.

Winston shook his head, "If it's truly harder than diamond and light as cork like you said, it will be Norville Hudsucker that will be the most moved. His airframes need those properties the most."

The two men along with workers from the mine descended deep into the Hanston until they reached min shaft Oh Two-Twenty and were greeted by the large muscular foreman and the team leader Harben. Winston Murray near ran over to the see the new metal, "This is it?" He picked up a solid melted chunk of metal that felt like he was holding a few pieces of paper rather than a fist-sized chunk of metal. He unrolled a small tool kit and started to scrape at the metal with various tools, "This is incredible! It's more than I hoped for, who was it that discovered this?"

"That was me and my team, sir, my name is Edward Harben." He held out his dirty hand for a handshake.

Winston grabbed his hand and shook it strongly, "Congratulations, you have discovered... Hmm, usually we let the discovering scientist name newly discovered metals, what do you want to call it?"

The foreman growled out, "Give it a real name Harben, not something childish like 'Ballsite'."

Harben chuckled as he looked at the Foreman, "Harbenite then. We'll call it Harbenite. My Dad will love that."

Winston slapped the miner on the back, "Harbenite is a good name. How much of this do you think there is?"

Harben looked at the wall, "We've pulled out three wagons of it so far, but our probing leads us to believe there could be at least ten more loads down this shaft."

Winston looked over at Mortimer and said, "This metal is of dire importance, I won't ask you to give to us for free, so give me a figure based on how hard it is to get out of the ground."

Mortimer looked at the Foreman who said, "This much took us an hour to melt out and with better tools and equipment we'd be able to get this out easier than Iron. I'd say it has a production cost near Iron but it's a rare metal which right now is closer to gold."

Winston nodded and said, "There is no weight with this metal, so we can't use the normal standards with it. Let's do this, sell it by the square meter instead of by weight."

Mortimer nodded and said, "I like that plan, we'll sell at one hundred per square meter of metal."

Winston smiled and shook his hand, "Deal."

******

Teslaimia looked tired as she walked into her shop's showroom. She walked right past the staff without saying a word and straight into her office. Sitting down heavily into her chair with her head down on the desk. Grace and Chas followed her in and Grace asked softly, "Are you alright, Your Highness? You aren't yourself this morning."

Teslaimia reached her hand out without looking waiting for the morning report. The folder was gently placed into her hand as she asked, "Grace, stay, Chas, give us a few moments please?"

Grace asked, "Did you get into a fight again?"

Teslaimia nodded and said softly, "It was my fault again."

Grace sat down in the chair in front of her desk. "Did you want to talk about it?"

Teslaimia nodded, "I crossed a line I shouldn't have with Jon. Emily was furious with me and Jon is avoiding me now too."

Grace thought for a moment, "I guess that outfit worked?"

"Too well, he was like a fierce animal. We almost ended up in bed together." Teslaimia grumbled.

Grace thought for a moment, "That's what you were hoping would happen though, right?"

Teslaimia thought for a while, "I mean, yeah, I guess you are right. It really excited me the way he would look at me and I was getting addicted to those looks of his... I just pushed things too far this time. Emily asked me if I wanted to break up and see a man instead. That's when it made me realize I was being beyond selfish. If Jon would have pressed just a little more, I would have let him do anything. I didn't think about Emily's feelings at all."

Grace nodded, "You love Emily, but you are attracted to Jon. You don't love Jon at all do you?"

She shook her head no, "I don't even really like him to be honest, he's stupid and oafish. I just feel this pull when I am around him like I just want to make him touch me and look at me. He smells good and he has a great body." She sighed.

Grace laughed, "So you are in lust with him... You want Emily to have his body."

Teslaimia pouted, "No, it's not like that. I mean, Emily lights my fire too. It's just with her I feel like grabbing her and doing things to her. With Jon, I just want him to grab me and do things to me? I hope I am explaining myself right here..."

Grace nodded and smiled, "It sounds like you are attracted to both of them and in love with Emily if I get what you are saying."

"Emily thought that I was in love with Jon and denying it." Teslaimia slumped on the desk, "But I know from how bad my heart was hurting that I love Emily. The way I feel about Jon is like... Um... Just turned on. It's nothing like love."

Grace nodded, "Just avoid Jon then, problem solved, right?"

Teslaimia nodded and said, "I guess, I mean, no, you're right. It's just he's someone important in our lives. He saved our lives so many times."

"He's your knight in shining armor then? When you have dreams at night he saves you at the last minute and you and Emily do all sorts of naughty things with him, right?" Grace said as she opened the work report folder for Teslaimia.

Teslaimia looked at Grace with a disbelieving face, "You're right. Shit. I am in love with him."

Grace smiled and then said, "We found a lead about Patrick's of Beachwood, it's owned by the Emperor of Injia. The designs he is using are modified versions of your designs. The clothing being sold there came from Injia by way of a Fursian importer. We cut off that line of transport so his store will have no new stock. We have also made a few small changes to the rewards program idea and it has been sent out through all channels to all stores. We'll have the first books here at the main office by the end of the month. Our profits will take a small hit, but we'll still be at one hundred percent profit."

*****

Winston walked into Norville's office with a smile on his face, "Norville. A discovery was made at the mines last night. I think you'll like it." Winston pulled the melted lump of Harbenite out of his pocket and pretended it was incredibly heavy, "Here catch!"

He pretended to throw the heavy metal at Norville looked shocked trying to catch it before it hit him in the face, "What the... How can there be a metal this light?"

Winston grinned, "Use your kit. Test its strength."

A few minutes later Norville said, "How much is there? I need this Winston, tell me we have a lot!"

"I brought enough to get you started and the guys at the mine feel like they have at least three times more than I brought." Winston smiled and said, "This metal has one minor flaw I should point out. It melts into a liquid at one hundred eighty-five degrees Celvious."

Norville's jaw dropped, "That's a flaw? Did Lord Léon Jean Reno come over and hand you this metal in person?"

Norville stood up and then walked over to the door and shouted, "Wilber! You said your vacuum idea was just a joke, what happens if you use this?" He threw the hunk of metal over and then walked back in and sat across from Winston with a smile on his face. "I think we just discovered flight without gas."

Winston raised an eyebrow, "You think that stuff is strong enough to create a vacuum balloon?"

Norville shrugged, "I know it's light enough we can at least use it for much lighter airframes at the very least. Our plan on the other side is to use a steam engine to pull an airframe with large wings into the air. If they can make a vacuum balloon work, well that's something much better. We'll have a truly safe flight at that point."

*****

"Your Majesty, don't you think you have been a little too hard on everyone this morning?" Mr. Duke sat across from Emily. "I don't mean to be rude or to cause any problems, I just feel like maybe you are pushing them a little too far."

Emily sat back in her chair and rubbed her temple, "No, you're right. I took out some of my homelife problems on them this morning without noticing it. Thank you, Randolf, for pointing that out."

He smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, those nobles will soon see their worries are misplaced. When they start seeing dramatic improvements to the quality of their territories they'll become your biggest fans just like me." He smiled and then stood up and bowed to her, "Maybe, take a little time for yourself today, Your Majesty."

After the door closed Emily leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh before a crying Teslaimia burst through the door and nearly tackled her in a hug. "I'm such a terrible girlfriend!" She cried out of control.

Emily's eyes opened wide, "What on Hanston!"

Teslaimia was trying to talk through crying, "I love you and I want to be with you but I fell in love with Jon cause he saved us and now I am ruining our lives!"

Emily grabbed Teslaimia's shoulders and softly said, "Calm down, I can't understand you, you love me and you fell in love with Jon? I don't understand what you mean?"

"Grace said I love Jon because he saved me and now I see him as a knight in shining armor and I hurt you because I was too stupid to understand my feelings!" She cried harder.

Emily looked a little annoyed, "Wait, who is Grace? Jon is a knight and he saved you because that's his duty. Why are you crying so much?"

Teslaimia grabbed on to Emily and held her tightly, "Because I don't want you to leave me!"

Emily hugged back Teslaimia tightly, "Mia, I love you, I am not leaving you. I am mad about the incident with Jon because you didn't consider my feelings. The three of us spend a lot of time together so it's not surprising you have some feelings for him, and I am glad that you are being honest with us both in admitting to them. Honestly though, maybe you should have waited until he was out of the room before saying all that."

Jon cleared his throat and said in a hoarse voice, "Maybe I should wait outside..."

Teslaimia's eyes got huge as she turned around and saw a red-faced Jon Alexander looking incredibly uncomfortable.