Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (21 page)

* * * *

The conference room was filled with the small team. Everyone who knew about the portals and the Nexus was there, even Rifod and Nerila, who had put off their research at Ygooro in anticipation of his return. Jolan was warmed by the smiles directed his way.

“
First, we had best get to this before it is too late,” he said, and lifted the small cooler from the floor and set it on the chair next to him. “It’s nowhere near as good as a Mage’s Box.” He opened it, and reaching inside lifted out a small stack of paper cups and a number of heavy-duty plastic spoons. Then he lifted out two containers of ice cream.

“
This is Tishe’s request. “At least an answer to one of her requests.”

He dished out a scoop from each container, and passed it over to the girl, who looked at it uncertainly.

“
It’s called ice cream,” he said. “Try it. I think you’ll like it.”

While she hesitantly dipped her spoon into one of the cool mounds, Jolan dished out ice cream for the rest, and handed the small dishes around. He was gratified to see the smile of pure delight when Tishe finally found the will to taste the substance. The others followed suit, and the supply was soon exhausted.

“
I was surprised how good it tasted after so long, and I couldn’t remember anything like it here, so it seemed it might meet Tishe’s requirements. It’s not that hard to make by the way.”

Tishe nodded enthusiastically, and the group turned back to business.

For the next half-hour, Jolan summarized what he had experienced using the Nexus and what he had found back on Earth. Explaining that he had brought back what he could quickly put his hands on, and not necessarily the best items for their needs, he went through the various items, showing their function.

“
Most of you have already noted the copper. I suspect we now have more copper than the whole of the Settled Lands combined. In addition to the large sheet, I have several large spools of solid copper wire in various sizes. It seemed that the wire was a convenient form to select smaller amounts and carry it. It could easily be wrapped around something, or inlaid into patterns, etc. We’ll put it in Buris’ shop for now, and I’d like an assessment of whether more would be useful. I had another nine sheets like the one here, but I wasn’t able to bring them all at once. They are waiting at my home on Earth, and I can bring them when we want or need them.”

He reached over and pulled the largest of the rifle cases towards him. Sliding the zipper, he reached in and pulled out the .300 magnum rifle.

“
This is one of my old rifles. It is quite powerful, and it has a telescopic sight on the top. For those of you who have looked through Asari’s binoculars, the scope does the same thing, and has a special sight inside. The advantages of this rifle include no large clouds of white smoke to give the shooter’s position away, and the accuracy to be able to consistently hit a man-sized target at more than five hundred yards. I have several hundred rounds of ammunition for this.”

“
Five hundred yards?” asked Major Wylan doubtfully.

“
I’ve taken deer at almost that range with this very rifle,” Jolan said. “A skilled shooter could do better.”

“
How do we develop such skills?”

“
I have a plan for that. We’ll talk later.”

Jolan then went through each of the others guns, explaining the differences and advantages of each.

“
I plan on bringing a dozen or more rifles that are even more accurate than these, and all will be alike. Those will be used to build a couple of special wizard hunting teams.”

Next he pulled out a pair of the two-way radios. He had Asari come up, and explained to him how they worked and then sent him down the hall.

“
For now, we have a dozen of these. They are radio communications, and don’t require wires between the devices to work.”

“
Asari, can you hear me?” he said into the device.

The group was startled when moments later they could hear Asari’s voice come clearly through on the small speaker. He showed them how it worked, and several talked to Asari before handing the unit back to Jolan. “It’s good for up to five miles outside, and it has a set of earphones, so the conversations can be kept private if desired.”

When Asari came back, Jolan showed them the computer gear and explained what it was. Sliding the half dozen large books across the table so they could look at the type of information that was available, he then fired up the iPad and pulled up the same book on trains that lay open on the table.

“
The paper books have the disadvantage of requiring a lot of space and are heavy. The electronic version doesn’t have that problem. Look what you can do with it electronically.” He showed how easily one could scroll through the pages, and enlarge any particular page or detail one wanted to see.

“
I brought the equivalent of several hundred books that we can view on the computer and the tablet here. I still need to work on a means of printing material, but that will be on another trip.”

Familiar with the iPhone operation, Asari latched onto the iPad as soon as Jolan was finished with it. Eagerly, he was scrolling through the menus, while Jolan explained the issue of power.

“
I brought a number of batteries, and the means to use the sun to charge most of the devices, but we need to have a serious discussion on what we can do about power. Even if we only have a local power station, many of the devices I can bring require far more than we can effectively supply with batteries. One of the books is on power systems, and I would like Buris to have a look so he can see what might be possible.”

The meeting lasted another hour, until everyone had their chance to look over the items and ask their questions. When they were done, the group gathered up the treasures, and carried them downstairs where a wagon waited to carry everything over to the College and down to Buris’ lab. Finally, it was just Jolan and Asari alone.

Reaching down to the floor where he had placed the heavy case, Jolan picked it up and laid it on the bed.

“
This is for you,” he said as he snapped the latches and opened the lid. He pulled out the blue zipper bag and handed it to Asari.

Feeling the weight, and perhaps suspecting the contents, Asari beamed and opened the bag. His eyes widened as he saw the magnificent pistol inside.

“
The one we lost was old, and really not very good,” Jolan said. “This is supposed to be one of the best available. It is very accurate, and has special sights.”

Jolan explained the improvements and how the sights would provide pointing in the dark. Asari had to pull the blanket over his head so he could try it out, returning with an even wider grin. He then looked over the holsters, and gasped when he saw the almost infinite supply of ammunition.

“
Dragons, Jolan. This is too much,” he said finally.

“
No, you deserve it. The minute I saw it I knew it was meant for you. Now, I’ve got to go see Chancellor Vaen for a minute, then I’m going to bed. I see you have the iPad. Have a look at the movie
Avatar
. It is truly spectacular..”

* * * *

They cornered him at breakfast. Apparently Asari had pulled in most of the group when he started the movie the previous evening and they had all been entranced by it. The discussion started with a lot of questions about the movie and what was real and how it was made. There were also a lot of questions about what was going on in the movie, since they’d had to try and guess what was taking place by the actions they could observe without the benefit of understanding any dialogue. Given that handicap, and no cultural anchor point to start from, they had not surprisingly totally missed the main point of the movie. Jolan tried to explain as best he could. Fortunately Timmy had insisted he watch the movie back on Earth so he knew the plot.

“
You have to teach us English,” insisted Nerila when he had finished explaining what had been happening. Several others nodded in agreement.

They were right Jolan realized. He had realized the need, but it was something well down the list of his need-to-dos, and he had figured he would work that out after the winter was over and he was back here full time. Once again he’d fallen into the trap of how things were done back on Earth. There was a better way here. He promised to look into it, and headed off to see Chancellor Vaen immediately after eating.

“
Of course it could be done with
pairing-crystals
,” Chancellor Vaen said when he explained what he had in mind. “It would take a bit of your time, but the technique is straight-forward enough. We have a team of experts that could work with you. Once the master crystal is made, you would have to spend a bit of time to finish off each individual crystal before it could be used. We have come a long way, but still haven’t managed to find a way to simply duplicate a loaded crystal in quantity.”

“
What if I wanted to pass additional information to some people?” he asked.

“
What did you have in mind?”

“
I think that my background in the sciences might be useful to at least two people here. If I could make up crystals for them that exceeded just the language and a bit of culture, it might be useful.”

“
We probably should have considered that a long time ago, although many are not willing to share their knowledge so freely. But to answer your question, I am certain you could have the techs add the additional knowledge when you do the finish work on those two crystals.”

“
Is this something that could be done in the next couple of days before I go back to Earth?”

“
Come, let’s go see our experts.”

As a result of the inquiry, Jolan found himself back on a table much like the one they had used on him long ago to remove the block to his development.

“
Once we start, all you need to do is scan through your mind. That sounds strange, but you will find that it is easier than you might expect. The spells we use will guide your efforts. When you locate knowledge to be transferred, simply indicate your desire by focusing on that area. The appropriate area will be marked for copy. Once you have completed the selection of materials to be transferred, simply close off further scanning. The means to do so will be obvious once your have started the process, and the copying will begin. It will take about an hour, perhaps a bit longer. The day after tomorrow you can come back and we will complete the finishing steps.”

“
This will transfer knowledge to a non-mage as well?” It was important to Jolan that Asari be given the information as well.

“
Absolutely, although the transfer to that person will take a bit longer. You want how many copies of this made?”

Jolan had spent a bit of time considering how to approach this to come up with the number copies of the language and culture. He wanted three of the copies enhanced, although one a bit differently than the others. “Ten,” he said. The tech looked surprised, but nodded.

It had been as simple as they had said, and he’d felt nothing as the process proceeded. In fact, he fell asleep while lying there as they did the copying after he’d completed the selection process. Promising to come back in two days, he left the medical building and headed down to see Buris. There seemed to be a great deal to take care of in the few days he was going to be here.

Unlike the show and tell meeting Jolan had held with the group, Jolan spent a great deal of time working with Buris and showing him how each of the new pieces of equipment operated. The charging systems were all rolled out, connected, and tested. While much of the computer system was beyond Buris at the moment, Jolan explained he was in the process of making English language learning materials and that Buris would soon be able to read all the materials directly. At that time, the functioning of the system would make much more sense.

Buris was fascinated by the small batteries used in the electronics and wanted to know more about their construction, which Jolan promised him was in the materials or would be in a future delivery. They spent a long time talking about power systems, and whether a small steam engine could be set up outside the lab to be used with some equipment that Jolan wanted to bring so they could generate standard 120V power for the lab. Just having it in the one location would significantly affect what equipment he could bring from Earth.

The next morning Asari and Jolan went to see Major Wylan. He had selected the man who would be the lead for their “Seal” teams, and Jolan was going to show him the .300 magnum and how it performed. Asari was coming along and was going to test out his new pistol at Jolan’s insistence. Asari hadn’t wanted to waste his ammunition, but Jolan promised to bring more and explained that he needed a bit of practice so he was comfortable with it. Despite the remarkable performance Asari had shown with the old Colt, practice could only make him better. Reluctantly Asari brought along a full box of fifty rounds of the precious ammunition.

“
This is a bit different than the guns I hope to bring later,” Jolan explained to Wylan and Samm, the man chosen by Wylan to lead the teams. For one thing, they will be a bit more accurate, and they won’t have the same kick. This one is quite powerful, and that makes it a bit harder to shoot.”

Samm settled down behind the rifle as Jolan suggested, and peered through the scope. It took him a bit to get his eyes in the right location and adjust the focus, but Jolan knew he’d figured it out when the man gave a grunt of surprise.