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CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER

The Death of the Faithful 

Having nothing better to do, some of the party goers stayed on for weeks after the party officially ended, and four were there for the entire summer. Kren spent most of his summer in the breeding room, trying to manage his corporation from a computer that he had brought in. He was starting to learn how to use it, and he was swearing much of the time. Some of his braver guests tried to help him out, but most of them wisely avoided him when the thing was turned on.

But mostly, he was trying to make sure that every egg was fertilized. He moved his work station every day, pulling long wires behind him, to cover the whole area.

* * *

A group of sociologists that Kren had hired to observe the juvenals on his land reported that the children spent over half of their day walking to and from the watering holes on his property.

Kren ordered that a system of wells, pipelines, and watering troughs be set up so that it was never more than a half-mile walk to get a drink. The sociologists predicted a four per dozen improvement in juvenal weight gain. Kren hoped that they were right.

* * *

A group of grass biologists found that over large areas of his land, the growth of grass was reduced because of the lack of sufficient water and nutrients. To a certain extent, the grass acted like a single plant, sending water and nutrients sideways to other plants when there was a local surplus. But this sharing was not perfect.

Kren ordered the planned watering system to be enlarged to include sprinklers in some areas, and chemical fertilizers to be added where needed. With proper watering and nutrients, the land's productivity was predicted to almost double.

* * *

Bronki turned the sales department over to a manager that she'd hired and trained, and spent the summer writing at Kren's country cottage, keeping her promise to Sava and Zoda.

As long as sales kept on increasing, Kren had no objections. And increase they did, despite the temporary drop in population as many students went elsewhere for the summer.

At midsummer, the College of Mathematics created a new chair for Chaos Theory, and invited Bronki to fill that position as a department head. She graciously accepted the promotion, with its higher status and pay, and resigned her former post as senior professor at the College of Literature.

* * *

Kren asked Dol how the big mowing machines were coming.

"It turns out that we already had a dozen and nine of them, sir. They came with the property."

"They did?"

"Yes," Dol said. "Each of the juvenal wintering centers had one. Huge things, they ride on rails set into the grass above the caverns below. Usually, they only use them once a year, for the fall harvest, but this year, I'm having them mow the lawns up there every week, on half of them. The total yearly production looks like it will be about the same, but the biologists tell me that the weekly clipped grass is much richer in protein, and has less cellulose. We're just dumping it into the same silos they've always used, and will feed it to the kids next winter. I want to see if there is any difference in weight gain."

"Is it cost effective?"

"To do it over the wintering centers, yes, by all means, since we already have the machinery and legal permission to fence the land. To do it over the rest of your estate, I doubt it. Let's give it a few years, and get some solid data before we try getting any legislative approval, though."

Dol worked on, managing the day-to-day operation of the corporation completely without pay, but becoming very wealthy even so. There was much that she had learned from Bronki.

* * *

Duke Dennon prepared for war, training his best soldiers, his shock troops, in the fine points of fighting indoors, and doing considerable damage to his newly refurbished palace in the process.

Entering into Tendi's castle through a single, small opening, it was vital that they enlarge their beach head quickly, so as not to get stuck in the bottleneck of the tunnel entrance. His troops had to be trained in a manner that humans would associate with marines, specialized troops willing to take casualties in order to push forward quickly.

Besides the special training, Duke Dennon planned to use certain illegal drugs that he had purchased from some of the assassin organizations that existed in most of the larger cities. These would encourage his soldiers to take reckless chances during the initial assault.

By late summer, the machinery for the armor-building project was completed, and mass production had begun. Soon, thousands of sets of nicely painted red and lavender armor were being issued to all of Duke Dennon's soldiers, starting with the officers so that the troops would think that it was a privilege, and not a punishment. They were required to wear this armor constantly, and most of the soldiers soon hated it, considering it to be a pain in the tail. Which, of course, it was.

* * *

Also, at this time, the "exploratory tunnel" was approaching Duke Tendi's land, ahead of schedule. For secrecy, Dol had kept the same six-worker team constantly at the small tunneler, sending food, water, and instructions to them on the same specially designed truck that delivered the metal coils. They were paid triple time for this arduous duty, but they complained constantly anyway. The only possible security leak was the truck driver, a trusted old sergeant who had been with Duke Dennon for many regenerations.

* * *

Kren held another party at the end of the summer, and two more in the fall and early winter. His theory was that there's never enough unless there's too much.

* * *

Bronki and Dol had each managed to make enough money on their gambling to buy more stock than Duke Dennon had in the corporation, despite all of the stock he had received for his machinery, for the use of his army, and the stock he had taken in place of his payment for his military protection.

This stopped Dennon from being made a member of the board of directors, which made Kren uncomfortable. The duke was too important to offend.

He phoned the duke and explained that his two fellow board members had gotten into a stock fight so severe that Kren had had to buy more stock himself, just to maintain his majority.

"Your Grace, would you like me to enlarge the board of directors to four, so you can have a seat, too?"

"Now, why would I want a thing like that, Kren? I am only interested in war, and in my army. I thought that I'd made that clear to you. Everything else is a nuisance! As far as I can see, the three of you are handling this commercial venture just fine. If I become unhappy with your management, you will certainly be the first to know of it. At that point, I will expect you to take such actions as are required to make me happy again. Until then, I don't want to be bothered."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Kren decided not to tell Bronki or Dol about this conversation. And the corporation could always use the money that they had effectively donated.

* * *

The new school year started, and Kren changed the white belt of a freshman to the yellow belt of a sophomore, even though most of the classes he took were for freshmen. At least, he was no longer confined to remedial classes.

With the director's permission, Kren dropped the javelin tennis games, and only won at one of his other three major sports once every three to five weeks or so. However, he trained in one of the other three dozen collegiate sports for typically three weeks each, and when he had become sufficiently proficient at the sport, he was brought in at the last moment as an "emergency replacement." He invariably won the gold, whenever he competed in a new sport, and then he never repeated the performance.

This meant that most of the gamblers on the planet never had a chance to bet on him, and the odds were fairly high, often a dozen to one. They were that low because the small In Crowd was now in a position to bet fabulous sums. The money rolled in, and Kren gouged his bookie twice more during the year, forcing her to buy more stock that never paid any dividends.

* * *

By winter, the exploratory tunnel had been finished, the corrosive gasses had been released to give the tunnel an ancient-looking patina, and enough time had passed for these deadly gasses to react with the tunnel walls and be safe.

When the tired group of small tunneler workers finally came home, Kren made a point of being there to greet them and the sergeant who drove them their supplies.

Dol, along with Bronki, who of course had figured out what they were up to, encouraged Kren to kill these soldier-workers for security reasons, but Kren had decided that one of his major long-term goals was to increase the planetary population. Unnecessary killing was therefore to be avoided.

Also, the duke was very attached to his soldiers, and Kren thought that killing some of them might offend His Grace.

Kren told the workers, "I wanted to personally thank you for the long and arduous job that you have done for my corporation. I have your pay envelopes here, three times what it would normally be, and in cash money, so that you won't have trouble with the income tax goons. We carefully examined the dirt you sent out, and since you are interested, yes, you did find some very valuable mineral deposits. However, these deposits are such that the corporation won't be in a position to exploit them for many years. It is therefore vitally important that word of this does not get out, ever! Some have suggested that the most expedient course would be to kill all of you immediately, but you know that I am a soldier myself. Know that I know of the honor and the integrity of Duke Dennon's warriors! However, you all have doubtless heard of my prowess as a warrior, and I promise you that if any word of what we have done does leak out, I will find all of you, and I will kill you."

The soldiers looked at each other apprehensively.

Kren continued, "That's the down side. There's an up side, and it too is a secret. I have a bonus for you. This coming Saturday, I will win at the pole-vaulting competition at the University of Dren, even though I'm not presently listed as being entered in it. If you bet on me, you will make a lot of money."

"This is a sweet deal," the old sergeant said. "Triple pay and a tip on a bet that will make us at least a dozen times more than that! You guys ain't been watching the news lately, but Kren's wins really has been paying that much! And all we got to do is keep our stupid mouths shut!"

"Yes sir," the senior corporal said. "But what if he loses?"

"Soldier, if I lose, I will personally reimburse all of your losses three fold," Kren said.

"Then we are your silent but obedient servants, sir!" the corporal said.

* * *

Without Kren's knowledge, Bronki and Dol had visited the duke two days before. They had told him very privately about Kren's intentions of releasing the tunnelers, and that they both felt that it was an unnecessary breach of security.

Duke Dennon thanked them, and said that he would think on it, but warned them that they should remain silent on this matter. He secretly considered killing both of them for the very same breach of security.

A few minutes after Kren left the tunneling team, a lieutenant with six soldiers behind him stopped the workers. The officer told them that the duke was granting them an extended leave, with full pay, but that he wanted to talk with them before they left to enjoy it.

The lieutenant and his troops escorted the workers back to the duke's palace and waited with them in a certain small room as he had been instructed. The duke was to call when he was ready.

The door locked after they went in, and could not be opened. The same corrosive gas that had been used to give the secret tunnel an ancient patina was released inside of the "waiting room." The old sergeant, six tunneler workers, the young lieutenant, and his guards all died quickly, and then the room was permanently sealed.

A palace repairman had secretly fixed the room's door lock for the duke, released the gas, and then plastered over the door.

This repairman died in an unfortunate accident the next morning.

It turned out that the amount of gas used was sufficient to kill the soldiers in the room, but not enough to kill the eggs that the Mitchegai always spread about them. And one of them was a male. The resulting grubs soon ate the dead bodies of their parents, and then each other, when that food supply ran out. Eventually, nothing was left but a single mummified pollywog who was never able to get to water, along with some scattered weapons, and seven well-filled pouches of currency.

Duke Dennon would have been happier if he could have killed Kren, Bronki, and Dol along with his own troops, but on consideration he decided that he had entirely too big an investment in the Superior Food Corporation to let it collapse without its management team. But he would keep an eye on them. Perhaps forcing Bronki and Dol to accompany Kren to the battle would increase their commitment. . . . 

And anyway, the duke said to himself, Kren is entirely too softhearted to worry about. 

 

 

 

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