Vivid Stars Online

This time I remembered to use the noble's entrance to the palace and, as I had sent a message ahead, they directed me straight up to the Professor’s office. He bid me enter as soon as I knocked, and I moved inside to the familiar, cluttered space.

The last time I had been here, the professor had a group of people analyzing models of the spaceships that I’d found. This time all evidence of that was gone, the projectors instead displaying a dizzying array of plants.

The Professor himself was whispering with a young man in front of a projector. He looked up as I entered, a smile forming on his face.

“Lord Hope,” he greeted with a small bow. “It's good to see you again. Please meet Mr. Wild, a doctoral student from the capital university.”

The man copied Professor Henceforthe’s bow a little uncertainly before straightening back up. “Please call me David, Sir. As the professor said, I’m currently doing a doctorate in agricultural science.” Despite his initial awkwardness, the man seemed enthusiastic as he spoke.

“Unfortunately, most of the experts I contacted were frantically busy trying to help with the drought crises,” Henceforthe continued. “One of them, however, could spare David here. He is free for at least the next year to help set up an agricultural operation.”

David nodded excitedly before speaking back up. “My original thesis topic was on drought-resistant plants, but when I heard about this opportunity, I was quick to sign up. There’s like fifty other students doing that same thesis right now and Psionically active plants sound a lot more interesting, anyway.”

“Oh, so you think the background Psi energy will be the biggest issue then?” I asked, glad to finally have someone to talk to.

“Absolutely,” David responded. “While it’s true the climate is colder here up north, that’s an easily understood issue with plenty of solutions. While I couldn’t find a lot of records on the early attempts in this area, the ones I could find suggested that the plants just refused to grow.”

“It could be a soil imbalance issue,” he continued, waving a hand at a complicated image of dirt behind him. “But that’s a simple test that I’m sure someone would have thought to try. We’ll do it when we get to the site anyway, but I’m not expecting too much of an issue.”

“Isn’t the entire planet Psionically active, though?” I asked, curious about why they didn’t have a problem further south.

David shrugged but continued speaking. “I’m not much of an expert, not being a Psion or anything like that, but I know the energy is a lot weaker toward the south. While there are areas with strong pockets of energy, people tend not to settle in them.”

“Right,” I said with a nod. “That might be down to the beasts that show up, but it could also be because they couldn’t grow anything there.”

“Yep. They tend to be left alone because rare and valuable plants grow there naturally,” he said, an eager look forming on his face. “One thing I’m going to suggest is that we try to grower some of those rare plants up here to see if the background energy is enough for them to be domesticated.”

Sensing that he was about to go into a detailed rant right there in the Professor’s office, I held up a hand for him to stop. “That sounds excellent,” I said with a smile. “When can you leave? I plan to head back to our primary site soon.”

“I can be ready in an hour,” David responded, his eagerness increasing if anything. “I’ll go get my gear in order,” he finished, before walking toward the door. Halfway there, he paused and gave an awkward bow, as if just remembering that he should.

“Ah, to be young again,” Professor Henceforthe sighed with a fond smile. “Take care of the young man, please. I know it can get dangerous out there.”

“Of course,” I said, looking him straight in the eye. “He should be staying in the town or its environs mostly. I’ll make sure he has an escort for when he has to go further out, and I’ll take him myself if it’s anywhere too dangerous.”

“Thank you, my lord,” he responded with another bow. “Now, is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Yes, actually, I wanted to talk more about getting people to sponsor a settlement in my territory. I’ve found a suitable location for a mining town, and I expect to have it cleared of danger in the next few weeks or a month, at the outside.”

“Of course,” he said, gesturing me through to his office. “Please sit, and we’ll talk.” Moments later, we were seated in his office and soon after, one of the palace servants arrived with refreshments.

“First,” he started after taking a sip of his tea. “You have to get the word out that you’re seeking such investment. While many will have already heard of your promotion, it’s unlikely anyone will approach you until they know your intentions.”

“That is a fairly simple matter. If you write up a notice the staff at the palace can send it through to everyone who might be interested,” he continued with a shrug. “Just be sure to mention that you are seeking competent investors for new settlements.”

“The competent part is a sort of code, showing that you are willing to promote people to Baron for their support. After all, you wouldn’t need them to be competent if they were just handing over the money,” he finished with a laugh.

“OK, that makes sense,” I responded while taking a few notes. “That shouldn’t be too hard to organize. What’s next? Seeing interested people?”

“Exactly,” he said with an approving nod. “Put aside a few days and book in anyone interested. Do a bit of an interview for each of them, sounding out their budget and if they have any experience in leadership or managing projects.”

“It’s probably also a good idea to find out what kind of village they are interested in funding,” he continued, frowning as he looked off into the distance. “When I was regent for my cousin, I organized such an investment and only found out that the man had no interest in forestry just before the paperwork was to be signed.”

“I had to scramble to find another investor at the last minute, while also trying to find another location for the first. It was a massive mess that could have easily been solved by asking a few more questions at the start.”

“Right,” I said, quickly jotting down more notes. “So find out if they can afford it, if they have any experience, and what their interests are. Then weed out anyone unsuitable and try to match the locations I find to the remaining list.”

“That is about it, yes. The usual progression after that is when they put up the money, you ask if they would like to manage the project through to completion. That is something of a last test if you would.”

“Assuming they do well in building the actual village, you promote them to Baron for ‘services to the kingdom’ at the end of it and put them officially in charge. Then, once you have four or more villages in the same area, you simply promote the most effective of them up to viscount.”

He paused in thought for a moment before chuckling. “It sounds awfully simple when I lay it out like that, but be aware that politics will always play a part as well. Many will try to leverage their family connections to try to get priority, either to be picked first or to be promoted to viscount first.”

“It will be up to you whether or not to accept their offers. Some will undoubtedly offer significant incentives to pick them,” he finished.

Never thought I’d have to worry about politics, I mused with a sigh. But yeah, if one of them were to offer a slot in a Psi chamber, I would definitely consider giving them priority. I wonder what that says about me.

Remembering where I was, I shook those thoughts off and thanked the professor. We spent another half an hour going through more details of the process, particularly where the line between acceptable political maneuvering and bribery was.

It mostly seemed to come down to who was affected by it. If it only impacted the nobles who were jockeying for position then it was considered all part of the game. Even if I accepted something to promote a particular person to viscount, it was considered acceptable.

When it came to overlooking something that affected the people I or they were responsible for, it became bribery in the eyes of the government. Things like overlooking incompetence or criminal behavior were well over the line.

I thanked him again at the end, before leaving to find Linnea. I still had some time before I was due to pick up David, so I decided to meet up with her in person rather than sending a message.

It didn’t take me long to find the armory again, and I was quickly led to a weapons testing range once I arrived. There Linnea was aiming down the range with the largest hand-held plasma weapon I’d ever seen.

I’d always thought that her combination assault/sniper rifle was a large weapon, however, this dwarfed it by far. It looked more in line with the weapons mounted on the gunboat than anything a human should be using.

“Hey, Jared,” she suddenly called out, letting the gun come to rest at her side. “Look what I found!” she continued, gesturing happily at the massive weapon hanging by a sling at her side.

“What even is that?” I asked with a laugh and a shake of my head as I walked over. “Did you just walk in and pick the biggest gun they had? And how are you even standing with it?”

“It’s a squad support plasma cannon,” she responded with a broad grin. “Usually it’s mounted on a vehicle or in a fixed emplacement. But sometimes it’s carried by multiple people to be deployed in the field.”

“Because of the strength enhancement the new armor has,” she exclaimed, before leaning in to whisper, “and my really high Brawn stat.” Leaning back, she continued at her normal volume, “It turns out I can use it all on my own.”

“Impressive,” I said with a grin. “It certainly looks powerful enough, I bet it would have been very useful against that tentacle beast.”

“Oh yeah,” she responded, her grin almost splitting her face in half. “I’ve done a few tests and while it’s slow to fire, it hits harder than those empowered shots you can do with your new rifle. Stand back, put on some ear protection, and I’ll show you.”

Nodding, I backed well away before she turned back toward the targets, pulling on a pair of earmuffs they had handed me on entry. She typed something on her watch, and a section of the wall shot up with a holographic image displayed over it.

It was a massive beast that looked like a mutated elephant, something that I was in no hurry to meet in real life. Pulling the cannon back up into her arms, she visibly braced herself before opening fire.

A massive plasma bolt shot from the cannon with enough recoil to send her stumbling backward. It launched forward and exploded against the wall with such force that I felt the shockwave over fifty feet away.

“Bloody hell,” I yelped with a shake of my head. Pulling my ear protection off, I continued, “That’s crazy powerful, I bet you could kill a lot of things in a single hit like that.”

“Yep,” she said, bouncing over toward me despite the massive weight she was carrying. “It's far too slow to hit most agile enemies, but it will be amazing against the big ones. Also, I bet it will be a great combo with that one ability of yours,” she finished with a wink.

I guess she means Ethereal Roots but isn’t saying it to avoid giving things away, I thought, before nodding enthusiastically at her. If I could hold down even an agile enemy for her to hit with that, the results would be amazing.

Anything relying on Agility to defend itself would almost certainly be killed in a single hit.

“If you're ready then, we should go,” I said, gesturing toward the door. “The professor came through on someone to help with my agricultural issues and I want to get them in touch with the mayor as soon as possible.”

“Sweet,” she said with a nod. “I’ll just go complete the purchase on this and we’re good to go.”

I nodded, smiling fondly as she dashed off. Things were looking up on both the combat front and building up the town. I could barely wait to get started.