jumped without a jump drive

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick, in a full environment suit like any sensible person would wear in untamed wilderness, is overseeing a small swarm of robots harvesting various useful plantlife from the uninhabited parts of a sparsely settled planet, when something suddenly comes tearing through the undergrowth towards him and it's not showing up on scanners-

He raises his hand-phaser, notices it has a mirror for a face and hesitates a little too long. And then he is in a clearing, cut off from his ship and 'bots, with all available sources of data telling him he just went through a jump.

What.

Comments

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He starts crying. "Oh, thank god, I'm not insane."

[alicornucopia]

The paladin does not untie him right away; he checks the other ear. "There might be some in your home. I'll find a novice to sit with you while I go check."

He finds a novice, who is a twelve-year-old girl who pats Nick's shoulder comfortingly and also doesn't untie him.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He looks at his phaser. "Could you fetch that thing for me, put it back on my belt?"

[alicornucopia]

"What is it?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It's a phaser. A weapon. If you don't want to give me my weapon back quite yet, at least make sure nobody else touches it?"

[alicornucopia]

The novice picks up the phaser carefully and puts it in her skirt pocket. "Once he's sure all the shadows after you are gone and you're feeling calm and collected we can untie you," she tells him.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"They started the very same day that somebody ignored all my warnings and managed to electrocute themselves on their lights. I would almost think someone she knew sent them after me, but I'm no private investigator."

[alicornucopia]

"The paladins will do their best to find who woke the shadows."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Would you happen to know if my radios have been useful yet? Last time I asked they had only given false alarms."

[alicornucopia]

"A radio called a band of paladins over to fight a lich, just yesterday. They aren't back yet."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick pulls up an engineering sim in his eyelid-screen and works on his plans for coal and iron mines, and a steel mill, until someone unties him.

[alicornucopia]

Eventually - it takes a few hours - the paladin who killed the shadow in his ears comes back and says his residence and business are clear and his employees haven't been having bad dreams. The paladin and novice untie him, since he's been pretty placid.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He thanks them, receives his phaser, and goes on his way.


Three days later he drives a horseless carriage to the moneylender's place.

As soon as she's free, he reports, "I would like another loan, to produce those."

[alicornucopia]

She looks at it.

"How fast can it go?" she wants to know.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"On good roads it can outpace a horse at full gallop for hours on end. On poor roads it will need to move more slowly. This is a prototype, I have discovered small flaws and opportunities for improvement, so the final version will be better."

[alicornucopia]

"How does it do with snow?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"About as well as horses: If you take it slowly and carefully, it'll do."

[alicornucopia]

"Deep snow?" she asks, looking at it skeptically. "You haven't seen winter here yet."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"You're right, I haven't. If deep snow is such a concern I can build one with treads, perhaps. Such a thing would be more expensive, and slower, but capable of plowing through two or three feet of snow with ease, and deeper snow with slightly less ease."

[alicornucopia]

She nods, quotes him a lower interest rate and a longer period for payback.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

The problem here is that he'll need a lot more than 30 gold to get the mines and steel mill and coal-to-oil plant and assembly line up and running. He wants 400 gold in total, and has an itemized budget showing why such a large amount is necessary.

[alicornucopia]

She reads his budget.

She looks at the car.

She informs him that he will wish he'd never come to this world if he stiffs her, and lends him the money.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I wouldn't blame you for hunting me down if I stiffed you of this much money. I would do the same."



It takes months to get the coal and iron mines working. Winter comes and is as difficult as described so work stops. It takes half of spring to get steel mill operational. He uses the first few tons of it to build mining and industrial equipment and expand the operations. Come summer he has: Cars, mechanics, and a steady supply of fuel. Thanks to the production line a car is just slightly less expensive than a good horse, and faster, and cheaper to feed.

(He insists that anyone buying a car take driving lessons - included in the price of the car - for their own safety)

[alicornucopia]

People want cars! A considerable number of them, actually. The value is obvious. And they've had all winter to radio to other towns about them.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He sells two kinds of car. A cheap one that pretty much just goes and steers and stops, and an expensive one for the more well-off folks, with heating and air conditioning, built-in radio, comfy seats, and so on.

The next vehicle he produces is a harvesting machine, which he demonstrates to great effect by bringing in a farmer's entire grain harvest in one day. He builds three and rents them out.

(He is set upon by woke shadows again by some jealous soul and troops up to the paladin compound after the first nightmare.)

By first snow he has a nice, treaded all-terrain vehicle. He sells them, and also fits some with snowplows and tries to get himself hired to clear all the roads so people can still use their cars.