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The student turned off the projector and turned on the lights. "And that is our department's proposal for the celebration, should you agree to divert funds from the grant," said Lucinda. The brown rat sequentially cracked the knuckles on her hand, nervously waiting for a response from Dr. Neer. A lanky and unusually tall female, she was in her nearing the end of her studies and was ready to move on to teaching; she felt that staring at Dr. Neer while waiting for an answer could perhaps be considered rude.
She settled on gazing at Dr. Neer's assistant, a young rat named Joseph who had almost all grey fur except for a white circle around his right eye-at least, that's what was visible outside of his clothes. She smiled a bit at the thought of finding out more about him, but then Dr. Neer cleared his throat and twitched his whiskers.
Joseph seemed able to interpret a great deal of meaning from this. "And your zeppelins, these aircraft; they are directly fueled by the cold fusion power cells? And developed here, by the college?"
Lucinda unrolled some blueprints. "It would be a touch of authenticity, don't you think? Dr. Bennet and her companion adapted an electric bike to run with the cell; we'll be using a vehicle powered in a similar way, though of course with a little less contact with the bumps on the road."
"Definitely a more comfortable ride," said Joseph to Dr. Neer. Lucinda had trouble deciding on the doctor's age; his portly frame and rather hidebound personality made him seem to belong to a generation who had no business going on excursions into disputed territory. Los Angeles had become something of an oasis in the world, a literally lighted city in the dark due to the re-establishment of a lot of infrastructure and electricity generated through fusion cells several decades ago. Had Dr. Neer been around to see all that? Lucinda decided that no, he probably was not more than 15 years older than her or Joseph. Old enough to have gotten a Social Science degree and a professorship; the rest of his apparent age was an illusion due to his attitude.
Dr. Neer was a cultural expert, a historian and studied mythology; perhaps one of the strongest indicators of the new peaceful age in the city was that there was time for pursuits like the scholarship of legends, history, and mythology...as well as funding for a fanciful jaunt across dangerous territory in celebration of actual bravery. facing hardship and a gamble of your life for a future you might not see.
The old rodent finally nodded his blessings; the plan was set.
The design of the ZB series zeppelins was almost purely reliant on the famous Bennet cold fusion cell, including the source of helium for its lift (the main byproduct of the massive fusion cell that powered the center of the city). So even though electric powered bikes were the first choice, a fusion core powered zeppelin was (in Lucinda's opinion) not a bad choice of vehicle for the 75-year anniversary of the famous journey Dr. Bennet and her companions had taken to bring the prototype cold fusion cell to Los Angeles.
She had been selected by her advisor, Dr. Pike, as pilot and engineer. "Nobody worked harder to get grant money out of that old rat's paws," he told her. "You deserve it!" She had spent the past three days getting their third and best member of the fleet, ZB-250, into the best shape it could be. The trip was expected to last only about a day there, and a day back.
The young rat knew that airship inside and out, and aside from devoting some time to rest, was checking and rechecking everything until the morning of the departure. Joseph then appeared with a surprise: he held up a small cannister. "This," he said proudly, "is one of the original cells. Not THE original, of course! But one of the first made here in Los Angeles based on the plans, a sort of proof of concept. Dr. Neer wondered if it could not only be brought along to symbolically make the trip, but he suggested it might be installed?"
Lucinda smirked. "Well, the power demands for the engines would be a lot more than this little thing could put out." Joseph's expression clouded over. "But it would work fine for some of the maneuvering fans' engines. I'll install it right away."
His expression lightened; the male rat looked enthusiastic and scurried off to report to Dr. Neer. Lucinda seriously considered stowing the old fusion core in a locker and pretending it was installed. But she had a sudden vision of an indignant Dr. Neer demanding to be shown the piece in all its glory, powering their journey. Of course, he'd recognize the genuine article even if he had no clue what it was doing or how it worked.
Installing it made the young rat admire the genius of Dr. Bennet all the more; despite its age, the terminals were of almost a perfect size to be compatible with many different pieces of modern equipment. On further reflection, that was probably more due to these cores being the centerpiece of most modern technology in the city; but it was a very elegant design.
Dr. Neer and Joseph arrived with their travel bags as well as recording equipment to produce a documentary of the journey, and they were off. The two males kept to the forward deck where the windows allowed a commanding view of the broken landscape. They chattered away about this or that landmark, various accounts and stories about the adventures of the small group that helped the precious core make its way to the city, and how a better equipped return trip might be made to interview some locals with second- or thirdhand knowledge of events.
Lucinda tuned them out and focused on navigating. Straight lines were all she dared to do out here after dark, due to the lack of any sort of infrastructure or support for airborne travelers. She also questioned the wisdom of using ZB-250's lights to search the ground for landmarks. The continued unrest outside of the city was obvious, even from their vantage point in the sky: almost nobody noticed their passing in the day, as the zeppelin was naturally very quiet. Occasional patrols or furtive excursions to scout played out below, some by rats, some by remaining humans who lived out here.
At night nobody out here could waste power on excessive amounts of light. And yet...
"Is that another city out there?" Joseph had come into the cockpit a while ago but had been quietly writing down notes and arranging pictures in a document on his tablet.
Having grown up in the city her whole life, Lucinda had taken lights for granted; they were everywhere. She felt embarrassed at not having realized that there shouldn't be one here, but there it was. "I...was just about to ask about that. My specialty at the college is engineering and tech, not geography."
"Why don't we swing past it and get a closer look?" The male rat opened a map on his device and tried to determine who the light might belong to. "Who knows how long they've been operating? We don't get many refugees talking to us at the school, we may have been missing out on something developing right under our noses."
After several flips of switches and a turn on the wheel, the rats only heard a soft clicking sound, and then a sad tone. "That's not good," said Lucinda. She tried the procedure again and produced the same series of sounds. "There's a fault somewhere in the steering propeller fan control mechanism." She didn't add "Where I put that ancient fusion core at your request" to Joseph; no sense crying about that now.
"Can you fix it? Are we going to crash?"
"I can't fix it without going outside; and it'd be tough to crash without a leak, since we're lighter than air while we're on the helium chamber. There aren't any nearby mountain peaks we can run against. We might have to do a controlled release since I'm not sure if the compressor is on the same breaker. I don't think we have a lot of options other than to sink and sit on the ground to make some repairs. It'll be gentle until we hit the ground, but we might bounce. Go tell your boss: you both should strap yourselves in, after securing everything that you can. Maybe cover your faces and heads too in case stuff you didn't strap down comes flying at you."
Joseph hurried off to inform Dr. Neer while Lucinda scanned the ground for likely landing spots. It seemed wrong to call it a crash; it would only become that if she released too much helium. A nicely sized field that looked as if it was tilled and planted recently was in view. "A small amount of civilization may be all we need," she said to herself as the ground loomed closer. "Brace yourselves," she called over the intercom.
For all of the build-up she had given Joseph for the potential issues during an uncontrolled landing, the actual bump into the ground was very anti-climactic. They bounced twice, and ZB-250 started to roll onto her side but righted herself after tipping and hanging for a few seconds. "Good girl," Lucinda said as she patted the instrument panel.
She unpacked her tool kit and selected the few pieces she felt confident she would need; she could hear Dr. Neer and Joseph rummaging around their belongings, taking an inventory. As she walked past them, Dr. Neer spoke directly to her, a rare event. "A most excellent crash, young lady. Most excellent. This is truly the beginnings of a wonderful adventure; I can feel it!"
It took a few moments for her to decide if he was trying to be sarcastically insulting, or if he was really unaware of how dangerous it could be out here. She had to admit that she herself didn't really know that either, from personal experience. But a fully lit bright and shining airship the likes of which nobody had seen for a century at least, landing in a stranger's farmstead out in the middle of nowhere? That was going to get some attention.
But maybe the spectacle of electricity wasn't going to be as big a showstopper as she supposed. She glanced at the lights; they were spotlights, swinging around and looking for them. There was a house nearby, under trees; it had dim light, but it was unmistakably powered by electricity. Had the portable cold fusion cores really made their way out this far?
Dr. Neer and Joseph emerged from the zeppelin as Lucinda made her way to the rear of the vehicle to start pulling apart the assembly, and they all saw the weak glow of a flashlight coming their way. "Not as underdeveloped as believed," said the doctor. "I knew it, I knew that ingenuity would find a way!" He took a deep breath and shouted "Hello!"
Joseph looked nervous. "Are you sure that's wise, Dr. Neer?" Lucinda had to agree; having hostile locals to deal with while unable to lift off until enough replacement helium was produced or decompressed sounded like a weak position.
"No, but the search for truth often requires us to take steps that seem foolhardy," said the sociologist. It might have been the poor light, but some of his age seemed to have melted away.
The approaching party turned out to be three of the most buff and conditioned rats Lucinda had ever seen. They were all easily as tall as she was. She and Joseph looked almost like gangly adolescents compared to them; Dr. Neer would barely register as the same breed.
"What a marvelous airship," said the one with the small flashlight. The other two were armed, Lucinda noted. Sensible precaution, of course-was it something for her group to worry about? The speaker continued. "This didn't seem like a planned stop. Having some sort of trouble?" He was addressing Dr. Neer, without acknowledging her or Joseph.
"Of a sort! We might need some sort of jump start if that sort of thing still happens! You'll have to ask this lovely young rat about that, she's in fact the specialist of our little party." It was strange seeing the doctor, who had been so taciturn since she had met him, becoming friendly to the point of being jolly.
"In any case, Sir Anthony will want to meet them," one of the strange rats said. "He may want to see the vehicle, as well."
The way the name was dropped into the conversation made Lucinda feel as if she wanted to dart back inside ZB-250. Joseph showed signs of being frozen to the spot. Who went by "Sir", anymore? She broke the fearful spell over herself by imagining a knight from an old story, complete with a lance and perhaps a mace, coming to help her repair the maneuvering fan electronics.
"Splendid," said Dr. Neer as he rubbed his hands together. He was turning out to be quite a diplomat. "Let's seek an audience with him."
They went back to the house, which would have been hard to spot even without its tree cover. The lights just weren't very bright. "Are you having electrical problems yourself," she asked one of the large rats.
"Oh no, at this hour they start to give out. The community's grid doesn't support us through the whole night." The one who had mentioned Sir Anthony pointed to a small outbuilding, closer to the house than the barn they were all heading toward. "We'd have to make our own to last more than another hour." Lucinda pondered what they might have meant by making their own.
The barn was opened, and Joseph almost squealed with delight. "Rickshaws? I haven't seen one of those in action for years."
"Would you like to pull one," one of them asked. Looking again at their physiques, it wasn't hard for Lucinda to imagine one of those fellows being able to pull the three members of her party for miles. They split into two groups, though: she and Joseph in one cart, and Dr. Neer in another. The strange rat with the flashlight stayed at the house while the other two pulled their guests to the mysterious Sir Anthony.
"I can't imagine you three were able to power that airship all by yourselves," said the rat pulling their rickshaw. "My name's James, by the way! Nice to meet you."
"You mentioned 'making power' in that shed by your house," Joseph said. "I hate to be rude, but are you Stirrers? Is this one of the settlements I've read about?"
James laughed while keeping up the pace. "We are! What gave it away, our healthy glow?" He looked over his shoulder at Lucinda and winked. "We're usually really popular with the ladies, you know. But I couldn't help but notice you wanted to run for cover back there. Are you two engaged?"
"N-no," said Joseph. "We just met a few days ago. She's our pilot, I work for Dr. Neer, in the other cart.
"We are indeed Stirrers. Sir Anthony is our sect leader; he'll likely give you the help you need if we can help you at all and send you on your way. We don't usually want much to do with your modern ways."
Lucinda listened to all of this, lost. Joseph leaned toward her and whispered. "It's a religious sect. It branched off from certain Luddite groups and takes an unusual form of human leadership, with a bunch of rats following their lead. Living off the land, and such. Pulling loads or passengers like us themselves would fit right into typical Stirrer thinking: limited use of machines that they can't build or understand themselves."
James slowed his gait to let his housemate arrive with Dr. Neer first. The pair of them were chatting along like old friends. "Yes, I am on a pilgrimage of sorts," they heard the doctor say. "Fate does work in mysterious ways." He jumped down and approached their rickshaw. "Frank tells me that you are named James. A pleasure, a real pleasure. I apologize we didn't get a chance to talk more at your homestead, but perhaps there will be time for that after we meet your Herder.
Lucinda whispered to Joseph "A human who herds rats? This is one wacky cult."
"It's just the title they use. Like a shepherd. Don't read too much into it," Joseph said. They walked toward the door, and were met by a man with a robe, a staff, and a garland of some green flowers on his head. Definitely not a knight, thought Lucinda. More like a court wizard.
"Be welcome," said the human. Behind him was a loud whirring and cranking sound, as if the house was actually a factory. Lucinda supposed that a decently sized community might be able to build or understand a fair amount.
Dr. Neer and the Herder entered the structure, and it seemed natural to follow them. They were met by a sight that was astonishing as well as somewhat hypnotic: dozens of large exercise wheels spinning around by the motions of many more of the Stirrer rats, while rather sophisticated batteries collected a charge from dynamos on each wheel. They weren't that loud, but Joseph and Lucinda were both stunned into silence in their presence.
James stood behind them, and after a moment spoke. "Each of us spends three years of our life spending shifts on the power wheels," he said. "Sir Anthony designed a great dynamo and inherited good battery designs from his predecessor. We create all of our own electricity, most of the community is powered by this one building. It really gets to you right here, doesn't it?" He tapped his chest, over his heart. "Good and proper practice for any decent rodent."
Rats running in stationary exercise wheels seemed somehow derogatory, as if based on a slur or a stereotype. But Lucinda felt a pull from it, as if the strong neodymium magnets in the dynamos were able to exert force on her heart and mind.
Joseph seemed less enthusiastic about it. "Thank the stars for Dr. Bennet and her fusion core," he whispered.
Lucinda's mind raced about possibilities. If it were true that this community had tweaked their dynamos to maximize performance and had some insight to better batteries, there were direct applications to the zeppelin: turbines to generate more power as they glided through the air; stationary turbines on the ground wouldn't be a horrible idea either. It could be a new area of research, if they could get one of these assemblies back to the college.
It appeared that Dr. Neer was also excited about new vistas for study. "Of course! I'd like to stay here for some time to interview volunteers; crafting language-neutral surveys can take time and can only be done by those with more than a passing familiarity with a population," he said to Sir Anthony.
Lucinda supposed that this was the sort of thing that had attracted him to social science at the beginning of his career: here was a community stepping out of the past into a different sort of future than the rats of the city had imagined. Maybe there was something they could all learn here. She turned to look at James and started to appreciate the view.
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The student turned off the projector and turned on the lights. "And that is our department's proposal for the celebration, should you agree to divert funds from the grant," said Lucinda. The brown rat sequentially cracked the knuckles on her hand, nervously waiting for a response from Dr. Neer. A lanky and unusually tall female, she was in her nearing the end of her studies and was ready to move on to teaching; she felt that staring at Dr. Neer while waiting for an answer could perhaps be considered rude.
She settled on gazing at Dr. Neer's assistant, a young rat named Joseph who had almost all grey fur except for a white circle around his right eye-at least, that's what was visible outside of his clothes. She smiled a bit at the thought of finding out more about him, but then Dr. Neer cleared his throat and twitched his whiskers.
Joseph seemed able to interpret a great deal of meaning from this. "And your zeppelins, these aircraft; they are directly fueled by the cold fusion power cells? And developed here, by the college?"
Lucinda unrolled some blueprints. "It would be a touch of authenticity, don't you think? Dr. Bennet and her companion adapted an electric bike to run with the cell; we'll be using a vehicle powered in a similar way, though of course with a little less contact with the bumps on the road."
"Definitely a more comfortable ride," said Joseph to Dr. Neer. Lucinda had trouble deciding on the doctor's age; his portly frame and rather hidebound personality made him seem to belong to a generation who had no business going on excursions into disputed territory. Los Angeles had become something of an oasis in the world, a literally lighted city in the dark due to the re-establishment of a lot of infrastructure and electricity generated through fusion cells several decades ago. Had Dr. Neer been around to see all that? Lucinda decided that no, he probably was not more than 15 years older than her or Joseph. Old enough to have gotten a Social Science degree and a professorship; the rest of his apparent age was an illusion due to his attitude.
Dr. Neer was a cultural expert, a historian and studied mythology; perhaps one of the strongest indicators of the new peaceful age in the city was that there was time for pursuits like the scholarship of legends, history, and mythology...as well as funding for a fanciful jaunt across dangerous territory in celebration of actual bravery. facing hardship and a gamble of your life for a future you might not see.
The old rodent finally nodded his blessings; the plan was set.
The design of the ZB series zeppelins was almost purely reliant on the famous Bennet cold fusion cell, including the source of helium for its lift (the main byproduct of the massive fusion cell that powered the center of the city). So even though electric powered bikes were the first choice, a fusion core powered zeppelin was (in Lucinda's opinion) not a bad choice of vehicle for the 75-year anniversary of the famous journey Dr. Bennet and her companions had taken to bring the prototype cold fusion cell to Los Angeles.
She had been selected by her advisor, Dr. Pike, as pilot and engineer. "Nobody worked harder to get grant money out of that old rat's paws," he told her. "You deserve it!" She had spent the past three days getting their third and best member of the fleet, ZB-250, into the best shape it could be. The trip was expected to last only about a day there, and a day back.
The young rat knew that airship inside and out, and aside from devoting some time to rest, was checking and rechecking everything until the morning of the departure. Joseph then appeared with a surprise: he held up a small cannister. "This," he said proudly, "is one of the original cells. Not THE original, of course! But one of the first made here in Los Angeles based on the plans, a sort of proof of concept. Dr. Neer wondered if it could not only be brought along to symbolically make the trip, but he suggested it might be installed?"
Lucinda smirked. "Well, the power demands for the engines would be a lot more than this little thing could put out." Joseph's expression clouded over. "But it would work fine for some of the maneuvering fans' engines. I'll install it right away."
His expression lightened; the male rat looked enthusiastic and scurried off to report to Dr. Neer. Lucinda seriously considered stowing the old fusion core in a locker and pretending it was installed. But she had a sudden vision of an indignant Dr. Neer demanding to be shown the piece in all its glory, powering their journey. Of course, he'd recognize the genuine article even if he had no clue what it was doing or how it worked.
Installing it made the young rat admire the genius of Dr. Bennet all the more; despite its age, the terminals were of almost a perfect size to be compatible with many different pieces of modern equipment. On further reflection, that was probably more due to these cores being the centerpiece of most modern technology in the city; but it was a very elegant design.
Dr. Neer and Joseph arrived with their travel bags as well as recording equipment to produce a documentary of the journey, and they were off. The two males kept to the forward deck where the windows allowed a commanding view of the broken landscape. They chattered away about this or that landmark, various accounts and stories about the adventures of the small group that helped the precious core make its way to the city, and how a better equipped return trip might be made to interview some locals with second- or thirdhand knowledge of events.
Lucinda tuned them out and focused on navigating. Straight lines were all she dared to do out here after dark, due to the lack of any sort of infrastructure or support for airborne travelers. She also questioned the wisdom of using ZB-250's lights to search the ground for landmarks. The continued unrest outside of the city was obvious, even from their vantage point in the sky: almost nobody noticed their passing in the day, as the zeppelin was naturally very quiet. Occasional patrols or furtive excursions to scout played out below, some by rats, some by remaining humans who lived out here.
At night nobody out here could waste power on excessive amounts of light. And yet...
"Is that another city out there?" Joseph had come into the cockpit a while ago but had been quietly writing down notes and arranging pictures in a document on his tablet.
Having grown up in the city her whole life, Lucinda had taken lights for granted; they were everywhere. She felt embarrassed at not having realized that there shouldn't be one here, but there it was. "I...was just about to ask about that. My specialty at the college is engineering and tech, not geography."
"Why don't we swing past it and get a closer look?" The male rat opened a map on his device and tried to determine who the light might belong to. "Who knows how long they've been operating? We don't get many refugees talking to us at the school, we may have been missing out on something developing right under our noses."
After several flips of switches and a turn on the wheel, the rats only heard a soft clicking sound, and then a sad tone. "That's not good," said Lucinda. She tried the procedure again and produced the same series of sounds. "There's a fault somewhere in the steering propeller fan control mechanism." She didn't add "Where I put that ancient fusion core at your request" to Joseph; no sense crying about that now.
"Can you fix it? Are we going to crash?"
"I can't fix it without going outside; and it'd be tough to crash without a leak, since we're lighter than air while we're on the helium chamber. There aren't any nearby mountain peaks we can run against. We might have to do a controlled release since I'm not sure if the compressor is on the same breaker. I don't think we have a lot of options other than to sink and sit on the ground to make some repairs. It'll be gentle until we hit the ground, but we might bounce. Go tell your boss: you both should strap yourselves in, after securing everything that you can. Maybe cover your faces and heads too in case stuff you didn't strap down comes flying at you."
Joseph hurried off to inform Dr. Neer while Lucinda scanned the ground for likely landing spots. It seemed wrong to call it a crash; it would only become that if she released too much helium. A nicely sized field that looked as if it was tilled and planted recently was in view. "A small amount of civilization may be all we need," she said to herself as the ground loomed closer. "Brace yourselves," she called over the intercom.
For all of the build-up she had given Joseph for the potential issues during an uncontrolled landing, the actual bump into the ground was very anti-climactic. They bounced twice, and ZB-250 started to roll onto her side but righted herself after tipping and hanging for a few seconds. "Good girl," Lucinda said as she patted the instrument panel.
She unpacked her tool kit and selected the few pieces she felt confident she would need; she could hear Dr. Neer and Joseph rummaging around their belongings, taking an inventory. As she walked past them, Dr. Neer spoke directly to her, a rare event. "A most excellent crash, young lady. Most excellent. This is truly the beginnings of a wonderful adventure; I can feel it!"
It took a few moments for her to decide if he was trying to be sarcastically insulting, or if he was really unaware of how dangerous it could be out here. She had to admit that she herself didn't really know that either, from personal experience. But a fully lit bright and shining airship the likes of which nobody had seen for a century at least, landing in a stranger's farmstead out in the middle of nowhere? That was going to get some attention.
But maybe the spectacle of electricity wasn't going to be as big a showstopper as she supposed. She glanced at the lights; they were spotlights, swinging around and looking for them. There was a house nearby, under trees; it had dim light, but it was unmistakably powered by electricity. Had the portable cold fusion cores really made their way out this far?
Dr. Neer and Joseph emerged from the zeppelin as Lucinda made her way to the rear of the vehicle to start pulling apart the assembly, and they all saw the weak glow of a flashlight coming their way. "Not as underdeveloped as believed," said the doctor. "I knew it, I knew that ingenuity would find a way!" He took a deep breath and shouted "Hello!"
Joseph looked nervous. "Are you sure that's wise, Dr. Neer?" Lucinda had to agree; having hostile locals to deal with while unable to lift off until enough replacement helium was produced or decompressed sounded like a weak position.
"No, but the search for truth often requires us to take steps that seem foolhardy," said the sociologist. It might have been the poor light, but some of his age seemed to have melted away.
The approaching party turned out to be three of the most buff and conditioned rats Lucinda had ever seen. They were all easily as tall as she was. She and Joseph looked almost like gangly adolescents compared to them; Dr. Neer would barely register as the same breed.
"What a marvelous airship," said the one with the small flashlight. The other two were armed, Lucinda noted. Sensible precaution, of course-was it something for her group to worry about? The speaker continued. "This didn't seem like a planned stop. Having some sort of trouble?" He was addressing Dr. Neer, without acknowledging her or Joseph.
"Of a sort! We might need some sort of jump start if that sort of thing still happens! You'll have to ask this lovely young rat about that, she's in fact the specialist of our little party." It was strange seeing the doctor, who had been so taciturn since she had met him, becoming friendly to the point of being jolly.
"In any case, Sir Anthony will want to meet them," one of the strange rats said. "He may want to see the vehicle, as well."
The way the name was dropped into the conversation made Lucinda feel as if she wanted to dart back inside ZB-250. Joseph showed signs of being frozen to the spot. Who went by "Sir", anymore? She broke the fearful spell over herself by imagining a knight from an old story, complete with a lance and perhaps a mace, coming to help her repair the maneuvering fan electronics.
"Splendid," said Dr. Neer as he rubbed his hands together. He was turning out to be quite a diplomat. "Let's seek an audience with him."
They went back to the house, which would have been hard to spot even without its tree cover. The lights just weren't very bright. "Are you having electrical problems yourself," she asked one of the large rats.
"Oh no, at this hour they start to give out. The community's grid doesn't support us through the whole night." The one who had mentioned Sir Anthony pointed to a small outbuilding, closer to the house than the barn they were all heading toward. "We'd have to make our own to last more than another hour." Lucinda pondered what they might have meant by making their own.
The barn was opened, and Joseph almost squealed with delight. "Rickshaws? I haven't seen one of those in action for years."
"Would you like to pull one," one of them asked. Looking again at their physiques, it wasn't hard for Lucinda to imagine one of those fellows being able to pull the three members of her party for miles. They split into two groups, though: she and Joseph in one cart, and Dr. Neer in another. The strange rat with the flashlight stayed at the house while the other two pulled their guests to the mysterious Sir Anthony.
"I can't imagine you three were able to power that airship all by yourselves," said the rat pulling their rickshaw. "My name's James, by the way! Nice to meet you."
"You mentioned 'making power' in that shed by your house," Joseph said. "I hate to be rude, but are you Stirrers? Is this one of the settlements I've read about?"
James laughed while keeping up the pace. "We are! What gave it away, our healthy glow?" He looked over his shoulder at Lucinda and winked. "We're usually really popular with the ladies, you know. But I couldn't help but notice you wanted to run for cover back there. Are you two engaged?"
"N-no," said Joseph. "We just met a few days ago. She's our pilot, I work for Dr. Neer, in the other cart.
"We are indeed Stirrers. Sir Anthony is our sect leader; he'll likely give you the help you need if we can help you at all and send you on your way. We don't usually want much to do with your modern ways."
Lucinda listened to all of this, lost. Joseph leaned toward her and whispered. "It's a religious sect. It branched off from certain Luddite groups and takes an unusual form of human leadership, with a bunch of rats following their lead. Living off the land, and such. Pulling loads or passengers like us themselves would fit right into typical Stirrer thinking: limited use of machines that they can't build or understand themselves."
James slowed his gait to let his housemate arrive with Dr. Neer first. The pair of them were chatting along like old friends. "Yes, I am on a pilgrimage of sorts," they heard the doctor say. "Fate does work in mysterious ways." He jumped down and approached their rickshaw. "Frank tells me that you are named James. A pleasure, a real pleasure. I apologize we didn't get a chance to talk more at your homestead, but perhaps there will be time for that after we meet your Herder.
Lucinda whispered to Joseph "A human who herds rats? This is one wacky cult."
"It's just the title they use. Like a shepherd. Don't read too much into it," Joseph said. They walked toward the door, and were met by a man with a robe, a staff, and a garland of some green flowers on his head. Definitely not a knight, thought Lucinda. More like a court wizard.
"Be welcome," said the human. Behind him was a loud whirring and cranking sound, as if the house was actually a factory. Lucinda supposed that a decently sized community might be able to build or understand a fair amount.
Dr. Neer and the Herder entered the structure, and it seemed natural to follow them. They were met by a sight that was astonishing as well as somewhat hypnotic: dozens of large exercise wheels spinning around by the motions of many more of the Stirrer rats, while rather sophisticated batteries collected a charge from dynamos on each wheel. They weren't that loud, but Joseph and Lucinda were both stunned into silence in their presence.
James stood behind them, and after a moment spoke. "Each of us spends three years of our life spending shifts on the power wheels," he said. "Sir Anthony designed a great dynamo and inherited good battery designs from his predecessor. We create all of our own electricity, most of the community is powered by this one building. It really gets to you right here, doesn't it?" He tapped his chest, over his heart. "Good and proper practice for any decent rodent."
Rats running in stationary exercise wheels seemed somehow derogatory, as if based on a slur or a stereotype. But Lucinda felt a pull from it, as if the strong neodymium magnets in the dynamos were able to exert force on her heart and mind.
Joseph seemed less enthusiastic about it. "Thank the stars for Dr. Bennet and her fusion core," he whispered.
Lucinda's mind raced about possibilities. If it were true that this community had tweaked their dynamos to maximize performance and had some insight to better batteries, there were direct applications to the zeppelin: turbines to generate more power as they glided through the air; stationary turbines on the ground wouldn't be a horrible idea either. It could be a new area of research, if they could get one of these assemblies back to the college.
It appeared that Dr. Neer was also excited about new vistas for study. "Of course! I'd like to stay here for some time to interview volunteers; crafting language-neutral surveys can take time and can only be done by those with more than a passing familiarity with a population," he said to Sir Anthony.
Lucinda supposed that this was the sort of thing that had attracted him to social science at the beginning of his career: here was a community stepping out of the past into a different sort of future than the rats of the city had imagined. Maybe there was something they could all learn here. She turned to look at James and started to appreciate the view.
A while back, Kiyofox had a really neat series of stories.
I randomly got assigned Kiyofox in a story gift drawing, so this is what we get: more than a couple decades in the future, it seems everything turned out all right. But geniuses can overlook basic solutions to tough problems...
I randomly got assigned Kiyofox in a story gift drawing, so this is what we get: more than a couple decades in the future, it seems everything turned out all right. But geniuses can overlook basic solutions to tough problems...
Category Story / All
Species Rat
Gender Any
Size 120 x 117px
Listed in Folders
Nicely done, and not a surprise the Stirrers are so buff! ;)
I thought about calling them Gym Rats but I felt that would give away too much. :>
I'll admit these Stirrer's are quite a fun concept and I always love airships.
Did we give up too soon on Zeppelins? One major accident after 15 years or so of use doesn’t seem like THAT bad of a track record.
And I’ve been feeling more and more drawn to rat protagonists lately…
And I’ve been feeling more and more drawn to rat protagonists lately…
If I remember they also tend to have a lot of probably that just make them far less efficient than airplanes. I guess when you do have your power generators generating what you need for lift that probably does skew the equation though.
Misplaced response!
And now repurposed response.
Would you take a trip in an airship whose lift was provided by hydrogen?
Or is it helium all the way?
And now repurposed response.
Would you take a trip in an airship whose lift was provided by hydrogen?
Or is it helium all the way?
I'll stick with helium. Rather not risk a burning death if I can help it.
I remember that series and liked it a lot... this was a wonderful continuation...
Vix
Vix
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