The Alchemist Chapter 17

Chapter 17

We were down to the wire. The first afternoon bell chime had rung almost an hour ago, and we had yet to perfect the musket’s construction. One positive of my alchemy power was my ability to rapidly prototype, but even with that we were running close.

We finished just as the second bell rang and dragged our cannon out to the street, where a team of two horses was waiting to transport it.

We rode on a cart behind the cannon, following it to the parade ground. A number of high-ranking army officials were waiting in a line at the parade ground’s edge. The one who looked the most important stepped forward.

“We will now proceed to view the demonstration by the Shop of Wonders,” said the official.

We uncovered the cannon. The officials began murmuring amongst themselves. It felt as if electricity were hanging in the air.

Note to self: persuade people to install lightning rods.

After loading the cannon, I stood bedside it with a lit torch. “This is going to be loud!” I said.

I lit the fuse. The time spent waiting for it to burn felt like an eternity.

The cannon went off with a ferocious boom. Acrid smoke filled the air. The wall on the other side of the parade ground exploded into shrapnel.

“Oops,” I said. “We should have set up a better target.”

“Well, we certainly impressed them,” said Moray.

The officials, to a man, were stunned speechless. Of course they would be. They just witnessed a technology with the power to totally overhaul the traditional method of warfare. I had no doubt, either, that I would be showing them machine guns in ten years time.

Next, we uncovered the musket.

“Please pay attention,” said Moray, as he handed me the musket.

I loaded it with our gunpowder and inserted a bullet. I aimed at an archery target.

The musket cracked and a hole appeared in the target. Almost perfect—a stroke of luck.

The officials were stunned silent, not even speaking amongst themselves.

The highest ranking official stepped forwards. “Please,” he said, “Tell me where you learned the principles behind the construction of these devices.”

I shook my head. “That’s a secret, and the Crown has backed its secrecy.”

The official looked distraught.

“If you want to know, go talk to the bureau of information.”

The official wiped sweat off of his head. “How many of these can you make in a month?”

I looked at Rachel. “Fifty?” I said. “Maybe sixty?”

Rachel nodded. “If we hire enough help, yes,” she said.

The official bowed. “Then we shall make that request of you.”

“I have an order to fulfill for the Guardians and their incursion first,” I said. “So your order will have to wait.”

The official wrung his hands. “We need weapons like this now.”

“Rachel?” I said.

“Right,” said Rachel. “I’ll get to negotiating.” She grabbed the official by the shoulder and brought him into a building bedside the parade ground. The other officials stood silently.

I glanced at Moray. He appeared to be satisfied, and his lips were curled up a bit.

“I never thought we’d get to this point,” he said. “Your crazy ideas never end.”

The officials lining the parade ground seemed to come to an agreement and approached the cannon and musket.

“Do you mind if we try to use these weapons?” said an official with bright red hair.

“I’ll show you how,” I said. I set up the cannon with powder, fuse, and ball, and then gave the tar torch to the official.

The official aimed the cannon, lit the fuse, and demolished a field of straw dummies. Pieces of hay fluttered down around us.

Another official picked up the musket after Moray had loaded and primed it. The official fired the musket and, in his surprise at the loud noise, dropped it on his foot. He began cursing and hopping around on one leg. Blood trickled out of his shoe.

Moray chuckled. “These people still have a lot to learn.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” I said, pointing to the official’s foot.

“Not unless it gets infected,” said Moray. “Besides, these are hardened warriors. A little scrape won’t hurt them.”

“Okay …” I said. After we finish the cannon order, I thought, I need to start culturing penicillin. For myself as well as everyone.

“Are you okay?” I asked, to the official who had hurt his foot.

“I’m fine,” he said, still cringing a bit.

Painkillers too, I said. I paused. “Do you know where I can find some poppy flowers?”

Moray pointed to a small patch of grass next to the parade ground. “They’re everywhere,” he said.

Well, that was convenient, I thought. I went over and picked a couple of poppies. I was looking for opiates.

I had not tried messing with organic chemistry yet. Somehow, I knew exactly which compound to extract from the flower to produce painkillers. It was the one that felt a bit fuzzy when mixed up with the hundreds of other compounds inside the flower.

I extracted about a gram of opiate material and went over to the officer.

“Here, eat this,” I said. I handed him the pill-like ball of opiate material.

The officer looked at it weird. “That’s poppy milk, ay?”

“Just take it,” I said.

The officer took it and ate it. He paused. “I feel a bit better,” he said.

“That’s the placebo effect,” I said. “The actual painkilling effect will kick in in half an hour.’

The officer tilted his head. “Well then. I thank ye, even if nothing truly does happen.” He saluted, and then limped over to where the other officers were examining the cannon.

“One thing about cannons,” said Moray, “Is that they’re heavy.”

“We still managed to drag it through town with just the two of us,” I said. That’s how we had transported it after firing in the middle of the night. It had been tough, but we made it.

“Sure,” said Moray. “But your alchemy power extends to more than just manipulation.”

Truly, I didn’t understand the depths of my own power. I hadn’t really thought about digging deep to see what my limits were. I was too busy working on cool inventions.

Rachel emerged from the parade ground building with a grin on her face.

“We have two months to produce seventy cannon and two hundred muskets,” she said.

“I think we can manage that,” I said. “We’ll have to fulfill Claude’s order first, though.”

Rachel nodded. “We’ll hire more people.”

I turned to Moray. “Do you think you can help us with the production process?” I said. “I could use someone smart to help implement a certain kind of manufacturing.”

“Manufacturing?” said Moray. “Do tell me.”

“I’ll explain on the way back,” I said.

As we rode back to the shop in a carriage, I explained the details of the assembly line and factory production to Moray.

“If what I’m imagining is correct,” said Moray, “This will greatly increase the speed at which we can create things.”

“It’s called the assembly line,” I said. “Trust me, it works. You can make things very cheaply.” I turned to Rachel, who was also in the carriage. “Can you secure us a large warehouse in the city?”

“Of course,” said Rachel. “The recent recession has opened up a lot of space in the warehouse district.”

“We’re going to have to do a lot of work,” I said, to Rachel and Moray. “First off, we have to design our products using easily built interchangeable parts. Then we have to build an actual assembly line.” I pointed to Moray. “Do you think you can put together an interchangeable part recipe for muskets by next week?”

“Of course,” said Moray. “I’ll draw on the help of the entire Royal Society for this.”

I turned to Rachel. “Do you think you can take care of the printing business while we’re working on this order?”

“My schedule isn’t completely full yet,” she said. “So I’ll offer whatever help I can. But yes. I can handle it.”

Our carriage came to a stop right outside my shop. I dismounted, along with Moray and Rachel, and we entered.

Rachel grabbed her telepathic communications device and started calling various owners of warehouses. I stood with Moray around a table explaining the intricacies of the assembly line that I hadn’t covered in the cart.

“So you’re saying that we don’t have to train each individual worker on the whole set?” said Moray.

“Exactly,” I said. “This eliminates the need for skilled craftsman. Anyone can work on an assembly line, no matter how stupid or uneducated.”

“Children would be perfect for—”

I slammed my fist on the table. “No kids. Never. Child labor is never going to happen under my watch.”

Moray looked a bit confused, and then nodded sagely. “I respect that. I apologize for making the suggestion.”

“While we’re at this,” I said, “I have two things to work on as side projects.”

“Explain,” said Moray.

“Lightning rods and antibiotics,” I said. “Have you ever seen someone die of an infection? Or how about a house burn down due to a lightning strike?”

“Both,” said Moray. “The gods punish those who build too high.”

“I’m going to have to teach you about what lightning is, exactly, but trust me on this one.” I began sketching. “Lightning strikes the tallest object in its range. Thus, if you add a rod about the height of a man that runs from the roof to thee ground, the lightning will strike the rod and be channeled into the ground.”

“Will it work?” said Moray. “It feels a bit flimsy as a solution to this problem.”

“Do it,” I said. “Get lightning rods installed on all buildings above two stories tall.” I then picked up a small glass petri dish I had created before on a whim. “Next. Penicillin.”

“Peni … What?” said Moray.

“Antibiotics,” I said. “There are ways to kill the tiny germs that cause some diseases with purified fungal extract.”

“I have an extensive knowledge of fungi, but I do not know of any fungus that can cure an infection.”

“Bread mold,” I said. “When you culture it in a petri dish, it produces a compound called penicillin. We can refine that into basic antibiotics.” I took the petri dish and added a reduction of gelatin in it, as well as some moldy bread I had lying around. I placed the dish on a counter.

“I’ll show you exactly how powerful antibiotics can be,” I said. “If we produce it this way, a normal chemister can extract the substance.”

Moray picked up the petri dish. “This?” he said.

“That,” I said.

Moray put the dish back down.

“Okay,” I said, taking another piece of paper. “This is how our factory is going to be laid out. We’ll have casting facilities here, machining facilities here, and a main assembly line here.”

“How many people do we need to hire?” Moray said.

“You do the calculations,” I said. “We’re also going to have to start thinking of overhead. Managers, human resources, accountants.”

“Human … What?” said Moray.

“Human resources. They’re the people who deal with our employees.”

Moray rubbed his temples. “This is all a bit to take in,” he said.

“Oh, there more,” I said. “Much more.”