Black powder and lace
copyright 2011 Faeriemage
When the entire universe is stacked against you, all you can do is change the game.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote most of this with an INSANE sinus headache, that and the cracked tooth I have not taken care of in way too long is causing pain as well. Basically, I have my normal aches and pains, in addition to being ill with a nasty virus.

Yes, I am drinking tons of water.

The problem is that I am not 100% sure I am coherent. Please, do NOT bear with me ;) I need to know exactly where things break down, so for once I actually welcome bad press. PMs for this will be preferable, but if you want to let everyone know where I messed up, comments are fine too.

I realize that I am still in the early part of this book, but this is one of the important chapters for understanding things that will be coming later, and if it is unclear it might lead to misunderstandings.

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"Lorentius! There's someone here to see you!" Minerva called out to the empty house. "Lorentius!"

Lorentius was in the basement, as usual. The nature of his work was such that he could not allow others to see. There was so much prejudice about lightning. Sometimes he wondered if the ancients weren't right to revere it's power in the form of a god.

Once again, he sealed the glass ball and turned on the mercury drip. As the air left the sphere, there were momentary flashes of light, and a popping sound. When he was pulling out the air like this, he always worried that something would happen to the carbon filament that was so fragile in its clamps.

To distract himself, he looked around his laboratory. So many things he wished to try out in the open that the college of sciences refused to acknowledge. They had no vision. They thought some of what he was proposing had merit, like the pump he had invented. Such a simple concept to put a screw inside a tube. The simple rotation of the shaft drove the water up the tube. It was simple, and yet no one had ever thought to combine those two concepts. The 'pump' he was using was much the same. Combine simple concepts to come up with something no one else have ever thought of before.

It was the flying machines, and the other, less recognizable, models that they really questioned. He needed to prove that he could achieve a steady light so that they would take him seriously. Slowly the popping became quieter and quieter until the steady flow of mercury out of the drop tube slowed and finally stopped.

Taking a deep breath, he connected the wire to the anode of his battery, mentally praying to Jupiter, even though no one did that any more. Lorentius held his breath as the light began to glow brighter from the filament. It grew brighter. Always before it would grow bright and then suddenly fail. And as soon as it got to the level where he was sure that it would fail…it stabilized and held.

And it continued to hold.

He turned over the glass and watched as the light continued to hold. Just before the last sands of the glass fell the light began to fail.

"No. No no no no. No!" It faded completely. The anger spiked in him, and he was about to yank the bulb from the clamps and hurl it across the room when something occurred to him.

It had faded. There hadn't been the flash the of other experiments. He looked carefully into the bulb and realized the filament was still intact. He opened up the battery and looked at both the anode and cathode. There wasn't any corrosion on either of the leads, but the levels in the cells were low.

He carefully filled them back up, and reconnected the light to the battery.

It light up, much faster than last time, and stayed steady.

"I've done it! Mother, I've done it!"

He ran upstairs and into the group of men waiting with his mother. Minerva looked at the excitement that her son exhibited and shook her head.

"What now, Lorentius?"

"I've made light! Electric light!"

"This again, Lorentius? For how many seconds? I'm sorry gentleman, but as you see my son is not the genius that you take him for. The water screw is the only practical thing he's ever developed."

"Mother! It is still going!"

Her stunned silence set Lorentius to smiling and he ran downstairs into the lab. The light continued to shine.

"Shit, captain. It's a Sprengel pump. Archimedes screw. Ornithopter. This is well beyond a class A infraction, sir. No one ever even classified what this is. He's Leonardo Friggin DaVinci in a toga," one of the men said gesturing toward the drawings and paintings at the back of the room. Most of them containing more sketches of ideas, but one or two were vistas or still-life. There was even a portrait of a woman at the back.

The somber looks of the two man flanking the one that they'd called captain was enough to quell even Lorentius' enthusiasm.

"You're not from the college, are you. The fabric in your robes is…not quite right. Sure the color is accurate as far as I can tell, but it is so…fine."

"Lorentius, you are being given a choice," the man they called Captain said. Only now Lorentius noticed the slight delay from when the man spoke, and the words arrived. The lips didn’t match what they were saying either. "Either you come with us, and we destroy your lab and all of your notes, or we destroy you and your lab."

Minerva's look of shock and fear was crushing. "Go with them, my angel boy. I never realized…just go with them. It is better that you are gone and alive than here and dead."

"But mother?"

"You would never have amounted to anything great here, my angel. I don't understand who this Friggin-DaVinci is, but from their tone he is important. If he can teach you even more, then go. Become who you were meant to be."

Anhelette woke with a start. She hadn't thought of that moment for so long. The portrait of her mother still hung in her cabin on board the ship. That moment when she'd thought that she was truly on the pinnacle of creation. When she had created electric light.

She laughed bitterly to herself. No one remembers the person who rediscovers something. Not even the protectorate. People who they want to make disappear. People who learn too much about the world around them. People who invent.

People who threaten the very existence of mankind in the universe.

Roma had been so far down on their priority list as a possible infraction planet that it had been on a thousand year schedule. Visits once every thousand years.

Anhelette shuddered to think of what would have happened to all of their plans had they been even six months, let alone a year, later.

One man had bridged centuries of innovation. Anhelette had bridged centuries of innovation. She had come so close to condemning her entire city to death.

"Well, Lorentius, it seems you've really stepped in it this time."

Anhelette put her hands to the back of her dress, grabbing onto the ties of her corset. It was too late already for her to complete her…no his mission. Pretending to be a woman had no more point.

But even as he was ready to throw it all away, the words of his mother came back to him, "Become who you were meant to be."

His mother had been dead for seven hundred years, but still her words had power over him.

"Who am I supposed to be, Mother? This? Is this what you saw for your angel? Dressed as a woman and waiting to die on a planet so far gone that we have to destroy it?" Anhelette screamed at the ceiling. She collapsed again crying. She didn't care about the planet, but Mar…she cared about him. She would do anything to be with him, and if that meant continuing with the charade, then so be it.

It also meant that she had to get out of here and report back in to the Captain before things advanced beyond the point of no return.

She got up and applied her scientists mind to getting out of this room. She saw so many useful items, all of which would have taken time…

If she had her tools, she could get out in no time. She only needed to get out to get her tools. Damn the captain and his rules. Next time she was going to strap her tool to her leg under her dress, and propriety and rules be damned.

Mar didn't really enjoy watching other people drink. Sure, she'd said that she was fine with it, but that had been before they had begun drinking. She stayed with them for a while, and then, with a wink from Sikes, she said she was off to find more interesting company.

Yes, she was thinking about Anhelette. That seemed to be about all she did these days. They were threatened with war, one of the lords had become a traitor, her entire world was about to fall apart, and all she could think about was that beautiful, strange, wonderful girl.

One evening alone that they'd spent time together and she was completely enamored with the idea of spending more time. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost missed the sergeant standing at a door he had no business guarding.

"Sergeant, what's going on here?"

"Sir, I have orders."

"What exactly are your orders, Sergeant?"

"That I am to keep Miss Anhelette in here and not allow anyone to enter."

The sergeant took an involuntary step backwards from the Mar. Her prowess with a sword was almost legendary among the other musketeers, of which the sergeant was one. That Mar hadn't even laid a hand on her hilt didn't matter to the sergeant. The look in her eye suggested that she had already run him through in her mind.

"Let me in, Sergeant," Mar said in a voice cold as steel.

"But sir…"

Mar softened her tone, "I never told you to release your prisoner. You have done your duty to the best of your ability. Allow me to enter and I will take the blame for your lapse."

The sergeant sighed, and then smiled at the young officer, "begging your pardon, sir, but I never liked taking orders from a woman. That matron, though…"

Mar gave a rueful little smile, "I understand completely, Sergeant."

Mar was still smiling when Anhelette launched herself at Mar. Noticing her body language, Mar took a step to the side, tripping Anhelette and then offered her a hand.

"Anhelette," Mar said with a smile, "Even taking me hostage, should you be able to do it, isn't going to get you out of here."

Anhelette looked up at Mar, and then at her hand, and glowered. "I need to get out of here, Mar. We're all in danger the longer I stay in here."

"What are you talking about? Are you working with Genin? Is that why…"

"No, I'm working with…some people who are even more powerful. I can't explain it to you."

Mar's expression darkened. She felt her heart being ripped out, but steeled herself against the emotion. She wouldn't cry. That would be unbecoming of the role she played. "What did you say to the Matron that led to you being held here?"

"I told her that this world has to be destroyed." Anhelette wasn't under the same limitations that Mar was. She began to cry. "We can't have any radiating emissions coming from this planet. If they were to pick up on them…the entire human race would be lost."

"Radiating…you mean radio waves, television, that sort of thing? Any electromagnetic radiation really?"

Anhelette looked up at Mar as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second head.

"My mother was terrible at keeping secrets, and when the previous Matron told my mother about the edict, she shared it with me. I was supposed to follow in her footsteps after all."

"But you're a man! Men do not dabble in science."

"I'm a woman, Anhelette. I know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lead you on…"

Anhelette rose to her feet as Mar was talking and kissed her.

"Wa…" Mar was stunned and off balance.

"I was so worried that I was falling for a man, Mar. It was just you all along. So, back to the matter at hand, what is this edict?"

Mar shook herself, but couldn't get rid of her grin. "It is all of the proscribed areas of research."

"Proscribed…"

"Yes, like electricity, steam power, pneumatics. I thought you'd know all of that."

Suddenly, the fact that they'd achieved iron, and then steel, when so many others weren't even able to rediscover iron, became clear. Somehow they knew about the threat to all sentient life in the galaxy. Somehow they knew about the Protectorate, and its role in safeguarding human life. Somehow they knew technology that was proscribed.

But iron wasn't specifically proscribed. It never had been. The Protectorate had just put the colonists down without the knowledge of it as a deterrent to future generations' progress.

The problem with iron, was it began to allow the development of other technologies. Other areas of research. It allowed for labor saving devices that then allowed for more leisure. More people working not to stay alive but to move the progress of human understanding forward.

The existence of Latin on a planet that didn't speak Latin became clear as well. They'd adopted the language as their scientific code because of all the Latin words that were already a part of science. Part of the science of Earth.

"Mar, we're in terrible danger. We have to get out of here."

"It's going to take a bit before…"

"No, we have to get out of here now. I need to talk to my captain. I have to tell him what's going on here."

"Your…captain?"

"Corporal Lorentius Arrelius, sir," Anhelette said with a strange salute, "Protectorate Space Force."

"They allow women in this…military?"

"Yes, but I only look like a woman. Sir, we really must move. They have enough power to be able to destroy this entire planet. And if I don't report in, that is the most likely outcome."

"Space…how are you able to communicate with something orbiting the planet without the use of electromagnetic radiation?"

"I'm not, but using a communications laser we minimize the escaping radiation."

"Laser?"

"Apparently your information only includes the basics of the proscriptions. Don't worry about it. That's our job, sir."

"Well, corporal, let's see if we can get you out of here." Mar turned toward the door, but stopped short.

"Is there something wrong, sir?"

"No corporal, I just wanted to give you this before we left," and Mar kissed her deeply for a moment before drawing back. "I like the way you look." Mar said.

Anhelette blushed and mar chuckled.

"Sergeant, there's something wrong with the prisoner. Sergeant!"

As soon as the door opened Mar grabbed the front of the sergeant's tunic and pulled him into the room. Anhelette contributed by smashing his head with a heavy bookend on the table, and the sergeant collapsed to the floor.

Mar reached his hand out to Anhelette and she took it. The two of them ran out of the Palace heading for her rooms and an appointment with destiny.

"Captain, we have a call coming in from Corporal Lorentius."

Captain Manheim looked up from the report he was reading. "Direct it to the chamber, Collins."

"Aye, sir."

Manheim stood and walked to the booth at the back of the room. It was dark for a moment and then he was in the corporal's room down on the planet.

"Corporal, you're early."

"Sorry, sir, it can't be helped. We have a problem."

"A serious one," Mar said speaking up.

"Damn it corporal…"

"Hear her out, Captain."

"Her?"

"Yes, captain," Mar said shifting her voice to her soprano ranges. "Apparently you are unaware that we are aware of you and the Protectorate. We are self policing."

"What?" The captain looked at the man…woman…officer in shock.

"All members of the scientific community are either completely in the dark, which is most of them, or they have been informed of the edict against electromagnetic radiation. The Matron is the person who enforces our compliance.

"My own mother was killed by the Matron to protect us when my mother insisted on continuing her development of steam power."

The captain looked shocked. Anhelette wasn't too far behind. What they'd talked about on the way to her rooms hadn't even touched any of this.

"When she discovered, too late to save my mother, that it was my father who had been pursuing the knowledge…apparently she was part of the reason I was able to secure my commission. Or at least I think she might have been."

Anhelette put a comforting hand on Mar's shoulder, and he covered her hand with his own…her hand covered his hand…this was driving the captain nuts keeping track of who was actually which gender.

"Captain, we are not breaking the proscriptions, and we will be able to keep ourselves in check."

The captain was about to speak, when Anhelette interrupted him, "there is another problem. Genin, the other nation we were considering infiltrating, has breech loading cannon."

"What!" The captain was about to lose it right there. The veins were sticking out on his forehead, and his skin began to turn red with his rage.

"Sir," began Mar, "we believe that we have a solution to this. It isn't enough that we police our own city. We need to police our own world. We didn't understand the full reason for the proscriptions, as some of the knowledge has been lost in the last few millennia since we colonized this world.

"The plan isn't working, sir. At the rate that humanity reproduces, we should have reached the numbers needed centuries ago. It was a plan created in fear, not one created in wisdom."

"It is the plan."

"There are one billion people on this planet, captain," Anhelette said, "and we were about to kill most of them. Consider that, sir."

Captain Manheim was about to speak, and then he slammed his mouth shut. How was a ship that only operated for six months every century or so supposed to come to any real understanding of these planets it was sent to observe.

And in the two millennia that he'd been captain of the vessel since the previous captain had retired he'd been responsible for destroying five planets much like this one. Five planets that were finally up to the point where they were stable and ready to really start producing the soldiers and scientists that humanity would need to survive the inevitable conflict.

As he considered that it was time for a change, he felt the death of every planet, both the ones he'd ordered destroyed while captain, as well as the ones he'd watched destroyed while serving aboard this ship of the damned.