Chapter 157
Chapter 157
Two guards climbed the metal steps, went into a small room, and told what had happened to the head of the sector.
A short bearded man glanced out of the booth and didn’t believe his eyes. A smile appeared on his face. He looked at the guests as if there were local fools about to come up with a new joke of the week.
The dwarf went back and after a second later, his voice rang out in the l speaker:
«Attention, attention! Hermand speaking! Bee, Bo, Dunley, Shooter, Kickley come up to me! The head of the sector has a funny surprise for you!»
Five dwarves with grim faces approached Hermand. Today, their brother drowned in a tank with liquid metal. The poor guy decided that he would get the superpower of the dwarves’ god and become the best blacksmith in the world this way…
«Guys! The best engineer Stone has come to us! Juno, the patriarch’s granddaughter, said so herself! I am sure he will amuse us with his wonderful skills!»
«Seriously? The best?!» … «A human? А-а-а-аh! I get it! Ha-ha-ha!» … «Let me have a look at him!» – Everyone looked at Kyon and laughed.
«Boss! You know how to make a surprise!» … «You truly care about us. You did cheer us up!» – The dwarves looked again at the simpleton and burst into a new peal of laughter.
Juno wished the ground would swallow her up.
«What’s your name, engineer?» – The head of the sector asked Kyon.
«Kyon Stone.»
«That’s wonderful, Kyon! Tell me what you can do. Do you have anything ready?»
«Unfortunately, I did not take anything with me. But I have drawings of my own inventions.»
The dwarves exchanged glances and smiled. The rascal got a nerve! A perfect buffoon for the day!
«Wonderful! You don’t mind if we take a professional look at your work?»
«Sure!»
«Wonderful! Ha ha ha! Perfect! Follow me.» – The dwarf giggled and headed for the empty room, conveniently equipped for the engineering paperwork.
Kyon laid out huge sheets of drawings on the table.
«My invention is called firearms. This kind of weapon uses the pressure force of the powder gases to accelerate the shells from the barrel bore. The pressure force is generated during the combustion of a special substance in a closed system. With a flick of the finger, you can set an impulse to a bullet that can kill the enemy even in the superior phase.»
The dwarves’ smiles froze. The tall monkey had too professional vocabulary! They had been planning to poke holes in Kyon’s theory and crush the smarty pants with their great knowledge. But the boy was talking about closed systems and impulse as if he did it every day.
The boss looked at the hesitant dwarves (they were not laughing) and decided to use the old tactic, the idiot test.
«Kyon, do you have any idea what a closed system is?» – He asked meaningfully, pretending to be a specialist in this field.
Kyon answered confidently:
«If two or more bodies interact only with each other (that is, they are not exposed to external forces), these bodies form a closed system.» – Kyon smiled. – «Gentlemen, don’t you know the momentum conservation principle?» – When he saw their empty eyes, he added. – «When you pull and release the bowstring, its impulse is transmitted to the arrow. I took this principle as a basis in an artificial closed system. Then I increased the vector sum of the momenta of all the bodies inside the closed system due to the gas emission after the chemical reaction. And they transmitted the entire momentum to the weapon, releasing it from the barrel at an extremely high speed. Simply put, the bullet flies out of the barrel like a cork from a bottle with sour wine. Does it make any sense?»
«А-а-аh! I get it!» – One of the dwarves exclaimed and immediately got a smack upside the head.
«Boss! Aren’t we going to have some fun?» – The other dwarf asked and also got a thrashing.
Usually, dwarves felt like geniuses in the society of monkeys when they talked with people. However, the situation was different now. They failed to make a fool out of this guy. Quite the opposite, he made blockheads out of them!
The head of the sector banged his fist on the table with a frown. «Do not take us for idiots! I’ll take a look at your work and express my opinion.»
Hermand bothered to look at the drawing of the gun. The beautiful drawings were perfect. He couldn’t find any fault with them! The formulas were accurate, nothing to criticize! The calculations were also correct!
A few minutes later, the dwarf’s eyes widened. An accurate drawing is one thing, but logical, reasonable laws by which the design works is quite the other!
«Get to work, gentlemen! We will laugh next time.» – The boss said sternly, and the disappointed dwarves left the room. They came to have a good laugh, they were going to think hard!
«I’ll be back soon. Don’t leave.» – The dwarf said to people and went away.
«Hmmm… What the hell is going on here?» – Juno asked, scratching the back of her head. Her head was ringing with emptiness, as usual. Closed systems? Momentum?! Could this nonsense be worthy of such a reaction of the dwarves?!
Kyon said nothing.
Soon two dwarves entered the hall, Hermand and another one. He was about 60 years old, decorated with a thick black beard. His eyes were full of arrogant importance. It was not difficult to guess that he was in charge here, the king of the whole factory, the best engineer and sage, all in one dwarf.
«Mr. Gennady, there he is! Take a look at his drawings!»
The old dwarf came closer to the drawings to examine them with his insightful eyes of an experienced engineer. Among them was a drawing of a gun.
Kyon was planning to reveal the drawings of a sniper rifle and an artillery system later.
Time passed, and doubts on the dwarf’s face gave way to shock.
«Low cow! How is possible?!»
The bearded old dwarf looked incredulously at Kyon, went up to him and tapped his legs.
«There are no stilts. He isn’t a dwarf, after all!»
Juno burst into laughter and covered her face with her hand. {А-А-АH! What’s going on?!}
«Are there any dwarves in your family, young man? Or maybe your friend dwarf came up with all this? Or maybe your father is a gnome disguised as a dwarf? They are easy to confuse! After the first sentence, anyone will know who is who.»
Kyon coughed dryly. «Gennady, everything here is completely and utterly my job.»
«It’s impossible! How do you know the momentum and energy conservation principle, as well as strange chemical formulas and so on?! They take years of mental work and experiments! The human scientific base is poor!»
Kyon shrugged.
Gennady first thought that the information had been stolen from the dwarves. However, everything he could see was formulated much more accurately and concisely than the laws of physics the dwarves discovered hundreds of years ago. Their formulas had errors that manifested themselves at macroscopic or microscopic scales, but the talented young man had eliminated all the shortcomings.
The old dwarf lost himself in the drawings that showed the complete sequence of production. Ten minutes later, he grabbed his hair.
«Oh my god… It’s brilliant! Why did we invent the steam engine, but did not think of this?! Damned humans had led us to believe that all our toys are weak before pure energy! They said that one quality mount is hundreds of times stronger than any steam engine! They are right, of course, but damn it… It’s incredible! It turns out that any practitioner in the superior phase can be finished off with a swipe of a finger!»
The head of the factory felt like a monkey looking into the drawings of a primitive catapult. Intuitively, he understood by what laws the invention would work. However, the old dwarf could not believe in the very concept of firearms!
«Can it be true?!» – The shocked head of the sector asked.
Gennady grabbed ahold of him and shook.
«It is! We found a golden grain in a pile of human shit!» – The old dwarf approached Kyon and shook his hand. – «Glad to meet you, young man!»
Kyon casually glanced at Juno.
The girl blushed and hastily averted her eyes. She felt uneasy. She had thought up so many things, and she had no clue what was coming. She would have never believed in this turn of events. Why didn’t they kick Kyon out? When did he make the drawings? What the hell are the drawings about? What did the dwarves find in the drawings of her assistant? Or maybe the dwarves put up a show?
But all her doubts were dispelled when Hermand bowed before her with the words:
«Juno Stone, forgive us our sneers! The best engineer in your family is a true genius that happens once every hundred of thousands of years! He deserves to be a descendant of a great race of dwarves! I am so sorry!»
Juno was shocked and speechless.
When Kyon the desired reaction of Juno, he lost interest in her and said:
«I’m glad to meet you, too, Gennady. Can we discuss a couple of business opportunities while we are having a mug of dwarf ale?»
…
A quarter of an hour later, Kyon and Juno were sitting in the main office of the factory, drinking ale.
Next to the dwarf was sitting a cute, short girl with red cheeks. The old dwarf lovingly stroke her shoulder.
«Kyon Stone, meet Mila, my granddaughter and your future wife.»
Kyon and Juno splurt ale at once.
«Mr. Gennady, thank you for this amazing offer! But I’m already engaged.»
«With whom?!» – The dwarf was surprised to hear that.
«Uhm… Here, with her! Juno, confirm my words, please.» – He nudged the girl.
Juno looked like a stone idol. Her lips had to say “yes” because of Kyon’s order “please.”
Mila pressed her lips and ran out of the office in tears. She was deeply hurt.
«Ugh! My beloved granddaughter’s heart is broken!» – Gennady grunted. – «Alright. Let’s talk business. Kyon, you are a bright guy. How about being my right hand? I can guarantee you total immunity in the kingdom, high status and a huge pay. In exchange, you will work with us for the dwarf race. In addition, you will get inexhaustible access to the best ale in the world! Within the bounds of reason, of course.»
«Thanks for the offer. But I have other life priorities, Gennady. In exchange for my technology, I will ask a little. I want a hundred units of each prototype and a total of one hundred thousand rounds of ammunition. Provide me with a VIP status among the dwarves, which means discounts for any orders and free access to the territory of the factory. Oh, and one more request that you cannot refuse.»
The old dwarf couldn’t catch his breath. No one had any privileges among dwarves apart from their patrons! And even those didn’t not have a VIP status! Only dwarves who didn’t work at the factory deserved this honor.
«What a cheek! Aren’t you asking too much?! Why are you so sure that your drawings are accurate? We will probably have to modify them! In fact, you shared a lofty idea and now we, the great dwarves will have to implement it into life! It will take us lots of time and energy!»
«Gennady, if there is a single mistake in at least one line of my drawings, I will gladly terminate the engagement with Juno and marry your granddaughter. Even more than that! I will bury my bride alive!»
Juno opened her mouth and stared at Kyon. Her sharp teeth were eager to dig into his hated flesh, feel the metallic taste of his blood.
The old dwarf’s eyes sparkled with interest. However, the overconfidence of this human was alarming. Was he really so good at drawing? Were they really so flawless as he claimed?
Kyon decided to be more persistent. He rolled his eyes and created in his hand a solid bar of iron with an attribute of the earth.
«To crown it all, I will give you a hundred of spheres-copies of the technique to creating iron. When you take orders from the government, you won’t have to spend their money on the purchase of iron, you will create it yourself. It will give you your own currency.»
Gennady’s jaw dropped. «Do you bend the earth element?! That’s a blessing!»
Dwarves are predisposed to the earth element. A chance to create iron cannot leave them cold.
The old dwarf grabbed the bar of iron and began to bite it and tap on it.
«Impossible! It’s perfect iron of the highest standard! Where did you get the technique to create it?! No family has it! Do you have the slightest idea how much it costs?!»
Juno grabbed her mug of ale and drank in one go. Golden trickles flowed down her small lips and thin neck. The number of questions in her head reached a new critical level, causing almost perceptible pain. She needed a distraction, or at least beat her assistant! To death. Or practice alone.
«I have an idea.» – Kyon took out the nephrite and copied the legacy of creating iron which can be studied a hundred times. The complete analysis and understanding of the elements made him a master who could copy his knowledge in nephrites. Thanks to Synergy, he has an unjustified ability to steal any heritage as soon as he studied it even at a superficial level. His technique to create iron was the result of his knowledge of chemistry, a science that didn’t exist in this world.
«Here is a hundred copies of the iron creating technique. I forgot to tell you I have lots of ideas that I will gladly share with you in exchange for the previously stated terms. Deal, Gennady?»
The old dwarf’s answer was expected. He shook Kyon’s hand tight.
«Deal! Of course! Ha-ha-ha! It’s incredible!» – Gennady gasped, took out a nephrite from his spatial ring and handed it to Kyon. – «As a sign of our close cooperation, I give you a copy of the superior grade of the earth element! If you have enough talent, you can study it in the future!»
The three of them drank another mug of ale.
«How soon can you make a prototype of a pistol?» – Kyon asked Gennady.
The dwarf glanced at the drawings and assessed the options:
«Alright… If I engage the whole factory in the business… Well, well… I think we will definitely finish everything in two weeks. But I didn’t quite understand what alpha powder is? Is it a kind of flammable mixture?»
«It’s an ideal mixture for firearms. It consists of saltpeter, sulfur and a few other chemicals. I’ve already given you a more detailed method of its creation. It’s nothing complicated or expensive, the main thing is to do everything according to the instructions, without the slightest deviation. You know what? I’ll give you Mendeleev’s periodic table!»
«Whose table? I have no idea what you’re talking about! I don’t need any Mendeleev’s tables.»
Kyon laughed. He did not know exactly how to organize a high-tech production now, but it would greatly simplify his life. Dwarves were unlikely to understand the whole universe of chemistry. Kyon had to explain the smallest detail of the alpha-gunpowder creation. Let the dwarves feel like children for once, creating something according to the instructions, something outstanding and incomprehensible, but effective.
«I’ll tell you all about it later. Call me, Gennady, if you have any questions. When you make the gun, I will send you the drawings of a sniper rifle and artillery system. I expect the first prototypes in two weeks!»
«Artillery system?!» – The shocked dwarf blurted out.
The flame in the old engineer’s heart sparkled anew. If he didn’t make the gun in the announced time, he would bury himself underground!
Both of them firmly shook their hands and said goodbye.
Kyon had acquired a significant connection – the dwarves! Only they could create the technologies of his world at least for a fraction of a percent, hiding the information from unnecessary people. If Juno hadn’t taken him to the factory, he would have come up with another way to get there.