Chapter 384
Chapter 384
When Gimli flew a dozen meters away, the other dwarfs stood rooted to the spot in shock. Gennady’s and Lenny’s eyes nearly popped out of their heads. Even the guards were shocked. How could a harmless girl with no cultivation (judging by their sensations) give such a powerful push?
«Leila, what are you doing, silly girl?» – Kyon barked.
«But he… He grabbed you by the collar! I just wanted to help!» – Leila said resentfully, her eyes bulging with fear. She had acted reflexively! Leila didn’t like the arrogant dwarf pressing Zosimos!
«He didn’t grab me, he was trying to reach me!» – Lovr snapped. – «I had everything under control!»
«Human trash!» – Dorin yelled as he came to his senses. – «Guards, take her!»
The nine dwarf guards in gilded armor took a step forward.
Leila squeaked in fear and shivered. It was so stupid of her! What had she done?
Kyon bravely stepped between Leila and the overdeveloped brothers dwarfs and exclaimed, spreading his arms: «Hands off my daughter! She didn’t mean to hurt you!»
«Take him, too!» – The third brother yelled furiously.
As the guards rushed forward, a loud commanding voice ordered: «Stop!»
Gimli shook himself from the dust, approached Zosimos and roughly poked him in the chest with a thick knobby finger: «I’ll ignore your daughter’s disgusting behavior if you explain to me how you found the answer to my question!»
«Did he really give the correct answer, elder brother?» – Baladin said, surprised.
«You will let them away with such insolent behavior and disrespect?» – Dorin gasped.
Kyon cracked a smile: «Gimli, I could answer your questions using my knowledge of chemistry. This science is quite difficult to understand, and it will take me some time to explain it with more details. Let’s save it for last? How about after we take the factory tour?»
Gimli gave him a scorching look but agreed: «Alright.»
The tension in the air lessened significantly.
Leila looked at Zosimos’ broad back with wide-opened eyes. She found his concern really touching. It was nice to know that he would always protect her! Leila had a vague feeling that she had never experienced this before, which was stupid, right?
«What’s your family name?» – Gimli asked.
«I am Zosimos. No family name.» – Kyon replied, surprising the dwarfs once again.
«I must admit, Zosimos, you have extensive knowledge for someone from the human race.» – Gimli said reluctantly.
Soon, the five dwarfs, the man, and the two girls passed through the main entrance. The nine guards stayed outside, following Gimli’s order.
Kyon whispered to Gennady to make someone bring a Tesla coil and some magnets. They would help him save time for explaining some of the nuances.
The eight of them walked along a long corridor. The three great brothers were surprised to see the complete absence of anything superfluous or unnecessary in the decor. Even the light crystals were embedded in the ceiling, or rather, in a simple but ingenious mirrored contraption that distributed the light in the room. A curious technology.
Gennady went to a large steel door and proudly waved his hand as he opened it: «Behold! The smelting shop!»
The three brothers found themselves in a huge room with the wonderful lighting they had just seen and caught their breath. They expected to see a typical smelting shop with chaotically placed furnaces, rails with trolleys, ropeways loaded with containers, drains and pipes, the constant sound of pouring metal, high temperatures, and sweaty workers, but that was not the case! Relatively tiny ovens were placed like chess pawns. Cranes were hanging from the ceiling without disturbing anyone. The pipes were hidden underground, out of sight. The workers looked neat, with relaxed smiles on their faces. The atmosphere was unusually calm with no shouts or loud noises. Everything looked so perfect that the three dwarfs were speechless.
«Greetings to the great brothers dwarfs!» – A horde of workers yelled in unison…
«What’s this?» – Gimli cried out. He thought it was impossible to surprise him. He had promised himself to remain calm even if he saw something unusual, but it was beyond him to keep calm among this minimalism and simplicity!
Kyon sounded impassive when he said: «A network of underground vacuum tubes connects sixty-four furnaces of SSS rank. Those are cranes for loading metal into the furnace. And those…»
«What do you mean SSS rank?» – Dorin exclaimed. – «It is known that the best furnaces in the world are in our factory! Hence, they were assigned an S rank!»
«That’s the thing. Our furnaces are more efficient than your furnaces of S. Hence, they had to be assigned a non-existent SSS rank because if they were of S rank, yours would be of C or even D rank.» – Zosimos replied matter-of-factly.
«Explain yourself!» – Baladin demanded, his voice full of resentment
Kyon walked up to the furnace and pointed at it: «The efficiency factor of this furnace is almost one…»
«But it’s impossible!» – Gimli interrupted him. – «Even if it’s made of ultra-low thermal conductivity materials and equipped with heat-insulating barriers, a good percentage of heat will still be lost in fuel combustion along with smoke!»
«Did you see any smoke from our factory pipes?» – Lovr asked.
The three brothers were taken aback. Indeed, there was no smoke! But how was it even possible?
Kyon continued: «There is no smoke because we do not use fuel. Our factory, including the furnaces, is powered by electricity.»
«Electricity?» – The three brothers asked in unison.
«It’s one of the most useless forms of energy in the world! Electricity is a weak resource that is difficult to extract. Moreover, it turns into ash or melts everything that it passes through! You can’t use it without consequences, especially on a factory-wide basis!» – Gimli retorted.
«It’s because you use direct current. An inverter can make it variable, changing its properties and it can move along an enchanted copper wire without any resistance. With alternating current, you can heat furnaces, produce thrust of thousands horsepower, illuminate the factory and even purify impure metals by electrolytic refining…»
«Nonsense! Fairy tales!» – The three brothers disagreed in unison.
Kyon took a magnet and a Tesla coil from the messenger dwarf who came up just in time and connected them to the electricity supply. Crackling, purple sparks emanated from the electrode of the coil. Zosimos defiantly touched them and invited the brothers to follow his example.
«He didn’t get electrocuted?» – Gimli gasped.
While the dwarfs studied the coil with wide-opened eyes, Lovr explained: «This coil is operated with currents of very high frequency that practically do not interact with matter and therefore are harmless to the body. If you lower the frequency, the situation will change. Electricity can be transmitted at high voltages and used as energy for heating and more.»
«It’s… It’s unbelievable…» – Gimli muttered, staring in amazement at the harmless sparks falling on his fingers. – «How does an inverter work?»
«It’s classified information.» – Zosimos smiled slyly. – «But I will tell you everything you need after you sign the “beard agreement” after the tour.»
The three brothers looked at each other grimly. The purpose of the contract must be to create a worldwide dwarf center in Dantes. So, it was Zosimos’ idea to unite the dwarfs, not Gennady’s? Was it pointless to persuade him to go with them to Saturn?
«May I?..» – Eve said quietly.
«Of course, love.» – Zosimos said tenderly, passing the coil to the girl, after which he turned to the three brothers. – «The highest possible temperature for this furnace is thirteen thousand one hundred and one degrees…»
«It’s pure nonsense?» – Dorin objected at once. – «The hottest furnace is in Gimli’s factory! It can heat the metal up to nine thousand degrees! However, it requires special barriers and enchanted refractory insulating materials!»
«If you delve deeper into chemistry, you will find that there are many alloys that can withstand more than ten thousand degrees. With enchantment, they get even more effective.»
«Chemistry this, chemistry that… What on earth is that?» – Gimli sounded really irritated.
«I will tell you about it after the tour.» – Zosimos winked slyly and pointed to a little temperature sensor that indicated 10561 degrees at the moment. – «The melting point of some refractory metals is more than twelve thousand degrees. That is why I created this furnace. However, some refining processes are characterized by extremely high temperatures…»
Lovr pointed to a tiny bagel-shaped furnace: «This special furnace heats metals to one hundred and fifty thousand degrees under high pressure. Powerful electromagnets do not allow them to come into contact with the furnace, so the structure does not melt, which helps to obtain about a hundred percent pure metal.»
The three brothers were speechless. In their opinion, nothing could be a hundred percent pure!
Gennady broke into their conversation: «We have not yet fully understood how it all works, but it works! Many furnaces as well as the alloys they are made of are created according to the exact Zosimos’ and his students’ instructions. It will take us years to learn how to create one on our own! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.…»
«What electromagnets are you talking about?» – Gimli interrupted the old dwarf.
«Look at your hair. It’s because of the coil.» – Kyon replied softly.
The dwarfs suddenly noticed that the hair on their heads and their beards had mysteriously stood on end.
Lovr held out a magnet and two metal screws: «Electromagnetic waves consist of vibrating electric and magnetic fields that can exert force over objects at a distance. These magnets use a similar principle. Their unique structure allows electricity to flow through them, making alike magnetic poles repel each other and dissimilar magnetic poles attract each other.»
The three brothers studied the powerful magnet with interest. They knew about magnetite, the iron ore that attracted some metals. This property had no practical value and was explained by the elemental energy in the atmosphere. Now that they knew the truth, the dwarfs started to believe that electricity was the most underrated energy in the world.
«Where do you get so much energy, Zosimos?» – Gimli asked with reverence without realizing it.
«One million spheres is enough to power a huge factory for a day. It’s nothing with the Russells’ financial support. Formations transform the energy of the spheres into electricity…» – Kyon wasn’t afraid to tell them all about it. The three brothers wouldn’t be able to reproduce these technologies even if they wanted to. He had even invented the formation that converted the energy of the spheres into the ether.
After a short explanation, Lovr clapped his hands: «Gentlemen, you can make sure that it works in practice, but first, let’s proceed to the next workshop…»
The dwarfs followed him as if he were a wizard.
Next, Kyon told them about pyrometallurgical, electrolytic, and chemical refining (purifying an impure metal). He also showed them a chemical laboratory, the production line, and facilities under development or construction.
The evening wore on.
Eve and Leila were amazed at what was happening in front of them. They were curious (even if it didn’t make any sense to them) about everything their father showed and said, but even more than that, they were stunned by the striking change in the dwarfs’ attitude! The arrogant, aggressive, skeptical brothers turned into good boys! They were growing silent and polite, even Dorine the most aggressive of them all. Instead of arguing, they asked questions and paid attention to details. Their eyes sparkled with interest and admiration. They saw endless prospects for their people! There was a nascent hope they wanted to believe! Their skepticism had turned into blind adoration of the “wretched” human.
The girls concluded that Zosimos was incomprehensibly smart, on the verge of being omniscient. He seemed to be from another reality! The dwarfs could feel it, and now the sisters felt it too.
The three brothers enjoyed everything! They were shaken by the furnaces of SSS rank. It took them a long time to understand how chemical purification worked. They marveled at the efficiency of various machines. Back home, they would not be able to repeat even half of these miracles! They were also interested in high-speed pipes that conducted cylinders with spatial rings.
When everyone got into the spacious elevator, Dorin said shamefully: «Gennady, forgive me for calling your factory a shithole… Despite its small size, it is many times more efficient than any of our factories. I’m sorry.»
«It’s alright. We owe a debt of gratitude to Zosimos. We plan to build up the entire industrial area. The Russells have already given their approval. All private properties are already under demolition. I am sure that we will construct the largest factory in the world.»
«It is going to be noisy. Here, put in the earplugs, my sweet ones. There’s nothing to fear. I have everything under control.» – Zosimos said tenderly, holding out the plugs to the girls.
Eve and Leila obediently inserted soft things into their ears.
«Where are we going?» – Gimli asked excitedly.
«To the shooting range!» – Gennady announced solemnly.
As soon as the door opened, the eight of them saw a spacious hall with thick metal walls. Shots and explosions thundered everywhere from artillery, grenades, explosives, rifles, and pistols! A hundred dwarfs managed the weapon effortlessly, broad smiles playing on their lips. Some of them had lost their limbs but didn’t seem to have any regrets. The workers used to let off steam drinking and dancing, now they could come here.
«Oh, great Тhor!» – The three brothers screamed in unison, crying in front of the indescribable beauty.
Gennady raised his chin with a smug grin on his lips: «Pneumatics! Thanks to it, the Russells have been generously sponsoring us. They have placed an order big enough to provide the entire army! And it’s only the beginning. We will show you an outstanding presentation of the new generation of weapons that will mark the new era of dwarf greatness! Zosimos will be the first to test it as he is the greatest man in the world!»
With a bow, the three dwarfs handed Kyon a gold patterned case with weapons inside.