trade my soul for a wish [Steel] | Glowfic Constellation

"Don't lie or embellish about the new stuff's capabilities. She'll like concise descriptions of what the things you can make are, what they can do, any drawbacks or limitations they have stated up front, how they are not particularly dangerous unless mistreated. A description of how you can make things with whatever arbitrary limits you want to make up to discourage immediate attempted exploitation of you. Repetition of the very generous lease terms. Emphasize how great the city will be with all this new stuff, but don't go overboard with the rhetoric."

from_scratch

"All right." Cam pulls out his computer and writes up dumbed-down technical specs for the dam and the water pump. They require no routine maintenance; absent deliberate sabotage, severe earthquake, or similar magnitude of destructive force, they won't even need non-routine maintenance for about fifty years. Anyone who is not really stupidly determined to tamper with the things will find them harmless. They will produce, at peak capacity, a (comprehensible) volume of water and an (incomprehensible) amount of electricity. The terms under which their use is offered to Opri boils down to "no upfront fee, water's free, electricity's very very cheap, modest installation charges for things that use the electricity and any of Cam's time spent on teaching other people about it, and all of these prices are subject to change at any time depending on what Cam's doing with his valuable time and how friendly he is feeling towards Opri's representatives that day".

He describes his ability to make things as a non-transferable form of magic. He lists the real limits that will make sense in context (things cannot appear in motion, he can't appear things he knows nothing about) and asserts that he can't make anything complicated without design input into it (that should stop them from trying to sneak anything past him he doesn't like).

He lists some things electricity can do. With appropriate infrastructure - unmanned, low- to zero-maintenance, nonexpert-controllable light, heat, transport, communication and computing technology, household appliances, industrial processing - he stops short of talking about electric string instruments. Just won't have the right impact without a demo.

He shows it to Steel in its draft form on his computer screen. "How's this look?"

"Very impressive. If she believes you at all, which she almost certainly will after a tour of the new water plant, she'll be all over it. This will probably end up turning the civil service on its head, since electricity will take over something like half of what we do. But she's not the type to shy away from positive changes just because they're new and scary."

from_scratch

"Well, that's good."

"Shall we head back to town, then?"

from_scratch

"Yep. I'll make the main cable from the dam as we go."

Up into the air he goes, and the cable, hidden by appropriately hidey layers of stuff and insulation, comes into existence below.

Steel follows, a bit slowly. "I'm going to need a nice big lunch. Flying burns calories like nothing else. And hey, it's probably a good idea to stop the cable about half a mile of the city walls, at least for now. Kell would make a stink if you encroached on the defenses built into the stream without his permission."

from_scratch

"All right. I can leave the rest of it coiled up or just leave the end unfinished or put some sort of cap on it, I guess."

"Sorry I didn't warn you sooner." Fly, fly, back to reading her intro to engineering book. The relatively little math involved in this introductory book is not that tricky, especially since thermo-kinetics involves a lot of math already. Calculus is confusing, though.

And then they are at the city. "We can fly in without annoying anyone, this time, you're registered properly." She navigates to the civil services building.

from_scratch

Cam leaves the wire unfinished, under some turf to keep it hidden that will be easy to dig up later.

Steel goes in and knocks on Grind's office door.

Yelled from within, "What?"

"I've got that detailed plan you wanted."

"Okay, come in." Steel opens the door to reveal a much larger office with a wide glass window and a desk that almost looks grown from the wood floor. "Welcome back, Cam. Let's see the goods."

from_scratch

Cam hands over his writeup in written form. It's not actually all that detailed, mostly because Grind doesn't know what a watt is, but nonetheless.

Just for show, he makes the writing when his hand is already halfway to her.

She glances sharply up at him when he does this and reads through the whole thing extremely quickly.

"I would have called it a pack of lies if you didn't do it right in front of me. That said, a tour is in order. I can cancel my meeting with Vine for this." With immense sarcasm, "O kind sir who will quickly become absurdly rich, do please show me the source of your electric power."

from_scratch

"You want to see the dam? I can show you a diagram if you'd rather not go all the way there."

"I was being sarcastic. This looks extremely good, but we have a saying 'The shortcut to the top of the mountain always conceals a trap' so I want to see the pumping station and the dam in action, in person."

from_scratch

"If you like. Do you fly? Is there flying pattern laid out there, I wouldn't know?"

Steel answers, "Yes she can fly, no the flightstream doesn't go all the way to the dam. There's a road that goes most of the way, but stops a mile or two short. It's a lot faster to show you the new pumping plant?"

"Pumping plant it is." Grind gets up and marches out of the office, barking at the secretary along the way, "Tell Vine something came up! Reschedule for tomorrow, and I don't care how upset about it he is."

Steel leads her out of the city on shaper-accessible paths, then down the mainway towards that bridge. "There it is."

Once inside, she asks Steel, "You understand what the hell all this stuff is doing, right?"

"It's using electricity to pump water. It's a hell of a lot cheaper at the rate he's willing to lease it to Opri than shapers manning pumpjacks. You gave me control over the water district, I will remind you. And I'm reading some books on how exactly it all works, he may be willing to give you copies as well."

"You're a sarcastic uppity valuable district manager, you are. Alright. How about one of those books?" This is directed at Cam.

from_scratch

"The books are not in your language, and it would take a long time to teach enough of same to my computer that I could translate them. Steel's working in Italian, which she's started learning and taken to pretty well."

"Will you say boo if she distributes translated versions of your books? Intellectual property law is a bitch."

from_scratch

Cam laughs. "I will not start throwing around intellectual property law regarding any books I supply unless someone else starts using intellectual property law in a way I don't like."

"I'll probably translate some sooner or later. First I want to get the city wired, then we can teach people about how it all works."

Grind asks, "I'm guessing you won't need the twenty guys you sent back early today?"

"Nope. And soon the entire water district will be pipe-maintenance only, Cam said he'd redo the aquifer pumps too. And then there's the light and elevators."

"We'll want training on all this new stuff sooner or later, Steel. Consider it part of your job."

Steel gives a polite little bow. Grind snorts. "Cam, to put the cable through the wall you'll need to deal with Kell. Brace yourself for scheming."

from_scratch

"Scheming. Oh no. Is it the sort of scheming I can wave away with bribery and wit?"

"Bribery is more likely to work than wit. Threats, perhaps, too. Managing the water is Steel's job, but when it comes time to do elevators or lights I'll want maps and layouts prepared. Steel, write up a summary of the elevators' and lights' abilities and limitations by end of day tomorrow so I can make plans. Cam, on behalf of the city of Opri I accept the lease conditions. I'll have you a down payment by sunset."

She walks out of the building and flies back towards Opri.

"I know where to find Kell," Steel mentions.

from_scratch

"Should we go find him or wait for him to find us?" wonders Cam.