The Project

Chapter 18

The Project Chapter 18

As they approached the capitol, Alex noticed that Brookliyah was surrounded by a large stone wall but that the large blocks looked more like concrete. He wasn't an expert on building materials, but he knew the difference between cut stone, and formed concrete. He also became aware of a number of the locals moving along the road as well, they looked like dwarves. He also spotted elves as well, and an occasional Centaur, but there were an awful lot of dwarves out here.

There was a dwarf living in Durango who worked at the grocery store where his mother shopped, but these guys didn't look like him. For one, they were a bit taller, five foot he guessed, very hefty but muscular, and all seemed to have beards of varying lengths. They wore an assortment of clothes, most looking like the kind of clothing guys working construction wore. Brookliyah certainly looked "squared away," but then so did Gwyn Wood. The streets were paved with brick with designs laid out at various intervals, and the houses and buildings reminded him of pictures he'd seen of small German villages. As they continued down the street, Alex couldn't believe what he saw coming towards them. It was a large wagon but with no horses or centaur's pulling it, instead it appeared to be running on steam.

There were two dwarves sitting in the open cab, with the guy on the right operating the steering wheel. The wagon wasn't making a lot of noise as one would expect, there was a small smokestack behind the driver's box that was emitting black smoke. As it passed them Alex noticed the wagon was carrying several large metal barrels,

"Probably beer," he thought. As for the others, Garmik was chatting away with Zeb and Datt, while everyone else was taking in the sights. They finally pulled up under a large portico attached to a large red brick building where a dwarf and a female elf directed them inside.

As they started down the hallway, Alex noticed that there was nothing lavish about this place. Oh it looked clean and well maintained, but no fancy artwork, or sculptures or even a whole lot of furniture to speak of. As he looked things over, it suddenly dawned on him that this was a palace of working people, and when they were directed into a meeting room and he saw the king, his suspicions proved correct. King Valsung was dressed in light brown trousers, wearing a grey long sleeve shirt with a leather vest. Alex took a wild guess, and speculated that this was the dwarf's everyday wear. Unlike some of the dwarves he'd seen on the way here, the king wasn't wearing a long beard, instead his was very short and looked well groomed. There were a number of assistants moving around, but he could see that not all were dwarves. Everyone was directed to a large round table where the king called the meeting to order.

"I want to welcome everyone here, Lord Giselbert, Halx, our friends from Fort Kamata, as well as you first time visitors." He then looked over at Arna and Garmik,

"You two must be the androids from Xindus?" They both nodded,

He then directed his attention towards Lord Giselbert and Halx Dalewick

"Well I've already discussed this business concerning a transport craft or two with Lungdil over there, and we are both for it, however we think one is sufficient at this point, but depending on how things go, that could quickly change."

As the king started going over the business of acquiring a transport ship, Alex was impressed with how quickly he made up his mind and knew what he wanted. The king then began asking Garmik specific questions about carrying capacity, mechanical reliability, cost, antiquating a pilot and engineer to operate the craft. He was especially curious over the fact that king Valsung was very focused and knowledgeable on the subject, especially coming from someone in charge of a planet that had the look and feel of a medieval town.

The meeting went forward with the king and his foreign minister going over everything that the contractors would be loading up to take back to Fort Kamata. Alex was interested in the fact that there were an awful lot of edged weapons being shipped along with ore, and some agricultural products. Garmik and Zeb spoke to the king about Xindus, and the availability of a place to manufacture items needed on Doradus. Both Valsung and his foreign, and trade ministers politely deferred on the offer for the time being, but showed interest in the offer.

For the most part, Alex remained rather bored at the proceedings, but he watched carefully as Garmik made a case for his people. During a refreshment break, the king took notice of Alex and asked.

"Well young man, I understand you come from another galaxy and in fact the very world where the Aos sí made their home."

"Well all I can tell you your highness is that they only live in our ancient legends, although there are dwarves on my planet, they look nothing like your people, yet when I first saw them they appear just as artists have portrayed them."

"Well that's very interesting," replied the king. Alex then spoke,

"Your highness, I think you have a very beautiful country. I come from an area in the United States that closely resembles this very valley."

King Valsung considered Alex's words then replied,

"Very interesting, is there much mining taking place where you live?" Alex shrugged,

"Not so much any more, a long time ago they mined gold and silver out of the area, but all that played out years ago." The king then asked,

"I understand you came here with those androids, tell me, have you been to this Xindus?"

"Yes sir and it's everything Garmik has told you, and even though it's a planet of androids, those people could really use the help."

"So you are vouching for this Garmik fellow I take it?"

"Yes your highness, I am, I like him, he's only looking out for his people."

"Well," replied Valsung, We can probably help them a bit by purchasing a transport ship, but as for any large scale manufacturing, that may have to wait."

The king then moved on to other things leaving Alex to himself. With no one really paying any attention to him Alex was really feeling like the odd man out, so he slowly exited the room and began to wander down the hall. A wall display of various knives and short swords caught his eye, and while he was closely examining them, a female voice behind him caused him to jump.

Turning around, he came face to face with a girl who he assumed was a young dwarf. She was slightly shorter than him, stocky but not fat. Her facial features indicated she was a dwarf, and while not a great beauty, she was far from ugly. She wore her red hair in a long and tight pigtail.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," She quickly replied. Alex blushed at being surprised like that, but quickly recovering, replied,

"I didn't even hear you come up behind me." Changing the subject the female dwarf replied,

"My name is Bria Valsung, what's yours?" Alex's first thought was that he had dome something wrong and the king had sent her to track him down. He gave a nervous swallow, and said.

"Uh my name is Alex Russom; uh do I call you princess or something?" She shrugged,

"Call me whatever you like, but Bria is fine with me. I see you admire fine weapons."

Your father told me you guys exported a lot of edged weapons are these the kind you trade?"

"Well for the most part," she replied, "However the patterns have changed somewhat, ever since we've been trading with the Golians customers have been requesting changes in some of the designs, but we have some of the finest knife makers in the galaxy working right here, our knives and swords travel wherever the Oxynia Trading company goes."

"That's very interesting," he replied, "the legends must be true about you dwarves being masters in metalworking." The princess then frowned,

"You know, I've been on my feet all day if you want to talk, let's go and sit over in that alcove." He followed her over to a part of the hall with a bay window jutting out into what looked like a small garden.

Plopping into a window seat, Bria invited Alex to sit next to her.

"I don't believe I've seen you around here, are you with that bunch that came in from Deneva?"

"Yes," he replied, "I'm from a planet called earth, a friend and I have come all this way with an android called Arna, she's friendly with another droid from Xindus who is talking to the queen of Deneva, and your father about buying a couple transport ships, as well as trying to get manufacturing metal goods on his planet. Everyone has been telling us that my planet is where the Aos sí ended up."

Bria gave off with a brief squeal,

"Have you met any of them? How many are there?" She asked, Alex shook his head,

"Sorry Bria they only exist on lore and legend now, the girl that I'm with has a book with lots of pictures of elves pixies and fairies which she showed to queen Breca, and right now, she's off on some personal "quest" to find herself with the help of the fairies, or something like that." Bria let out a little sigh,

"Well all I know about fairies and pixies is that they do what suites them. If for some reason you've angered them, they will go out of their way to ruin your day, but if they like you, or you've done them a good turn, they will do whatever they can to help you. You say queen Breca is helping your friend?"

"Yeah," he replied, "She even has her head sorceress helping, I guess she kind of oversees the pixies and fairies on Deneva."

Bria grimaced, and then replied,

"Well I don't much about what they do on Deneva, but I've heard that magical forces are much stronger there than here on Doradus."

"Well it looks like all the dwarves settled here, but I think I saw a couple on Deneva," replied Alex.

"Oh we've got a number of pixies, elves and even a few fairies," said the princess,

"Most of the elves either work in the government or run various shops, as for the fairies and pixies…Well they do as they please."

"Back on earth the general conception of kings and queens is they sit on thrones all day passing down judgments on people," remarked Alex. This brought forth a guffaw from the princess. Shaking her head, she smiled and replied.

"Don't let my parents hear you say that, I don't know what it's like on Deneva, but here on Doradus everyone works. But you are partially correct, three times a year my father does sit on the throne and listens to petitioners, but rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty is a badge of honor around here."

"Well I noticed queen Breca was the same way," replied Alex, "She appeared to be a hard worker, doing the national budget, by herself and a bare minimum of aids and staff."

"Well more power to her then," replied Bria.

"So are you in school, or getting ready to attend college?" he asked.

Bria replied,

"We don't have a university as such, although both my parents are working towards establishing one here in Brookliyah. Those that have the coin as well as the intelligence either have a private tutor, or understudy with someone in the professional class. In my case, we have an engineering guild with whom I will train with." Alex looked at her with mild astonishment,

"You want to be an engineer? What kind?" Bria gave him a puzzled look.

"An electrical engineer, why?" Her response really confused him.

"An electrical engineer, for a place without a lot of electrically operated machines and equipment that seems like an unusual choice." This comment seemed to offend her, the princess responded with,

"What makes you think we don't have electricity here on Doradus?" Alex shrugged,

"I don't know, I don't see any power lines, or electric lights, machines, you know that kind of stuff."

"Well looks can be very deceiving my friend," replied Bria. "How long are you going to be here?'

"Not very long, or at least until this meeting is over, why?"

"I think you are in need of a tour of Doradus, we may not be as large as Deneva, but people who have been to Deneva all say Doradus is the more beautiful of the two. One of the things my friends and I love to do is take long walks, I mean really long walks. We usually find a place to camp around dusk, cook our food like they did in the old days over a campfire, get good nights sleep, then either continue on or head back."

"How long is "long," asked Alex.

"Around thirty kults, usually a full day of hiking." Alex guessed it must be around twenty miles or so, then added.

"Is all this hiking done with full field pack rifle and helmet?"

"Huh? What?" exclaimed the princess,

"Never mind," replied Alex.

"Seriously though," she continued,

"The Gleada River starts life way up in the Delkrath Mountains; it then flows down through the Hentus Highlands on its way to the Farnalian Sea. There is a large dam up there that turns all that water power into electricity you don't see any power lines because they are all buried. Although we use this power to operate lights, most of it is dedicated to machines of various kinds. We use natural gas to heat our homes, and cook our food, as well as the majority of our lighting."

"That's incredible!" Stated Alex, "We do too but electricity is more common all our lighting is done with it, as well as all the machines and devices we use."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a palace functionary, who exclaimed,

"Princess, the banquet will be happening very soon it might be time to get changed." She looked at the dwarf in irritation,

"Yes, yes, Farnag, I'm on my way. Then looking at Alex, she added,

"How about you, are you going to be there?" He shrugged,

"I guess, no one has said anything one way or another, either way, the only clothes I brought are what I have on." She looked at him and shook her head. Then turning to the servant she exclaimed.

"Farnag, would you see that this young man has something appropriate to wear, he will be dining next to me tonight."

"Umm yes my princess, but what about Drod?"

"Drod will just sit next to my friend here, simple…Problem solved."