Eric Flint: Grantville Gazette Volume XI

"Herr Yost, if you examine the history of what someone earlier referred to as the 'Zwaanandael disaster,' you will find that despite great provocation – the murder of thirty settlers in America while I was still in the Netherlands – I did not retaliate in kind. I was able to trade for furs, with the Lenape. And I kept all of my crew alive, without having to kill any Indians."

A gentleman with a moustache and a goatee stood up. He was dressed in a staggering variety of colors, leaving David with the impression of a somewhat cadaverous peacock. "Captain, I am Doctor Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz. You mentioned mining for gold. But there is a mineral, prolific in Guyana, which is a necessary precursor to the preparation of the 'Quinta Essentia of the Human Humors.' This mineral is called bauxite. Perhaps – "

"No," Tracy Kubiak moaned. "Not aluminum, again."

Doctor Phil sighed. "Perhaps we should talk about it privately. I will call upon you."

There were no more questions. Hugh Lowe repositioned the mike. "Okay, our next speaker is going to bring us an update on the concrete project… "

"Captain, I am Johann Georg Hardegg, of the law firm of Hardegg, Selfisch, and Krapp. My clients were quite interested in your presentation last week. They think there could be some commonality of interest."

"I beg your pardon?" said David. He had learned English in his youth, but he wasn't sure whether that was what Hardegg was speaking.

"He thinks you can work together," Kaspar explained.

"If you will follow me, I will introduce to the principal members. "

They walked down an elegantly decorated corridor of the Higgins Hotel, and Hardegg knocked on the door. David heard a muffled "About time."

There were both up-timers and down-timers in the room. David recognized several of them, and exchanged greetings with Hugh Lowe and Endres Ritter. There was no sign of Claus Junker.

The nobleman at the head of the table said, "My name is Count August von Sommersburg. I am also the Secretary of Transportation of the USE." David bowed.

"Our group has some interest in that part of the world. For example, in Trinidad. It has great deposits of tar."

"The place Sir Walter Raleigh visited when he needed to caulk his ships?"

"Yes, that's right. We can use that tar in road building. Then there is a material called rubber. It's used in the tires of our cars. The rubber comes from – call it the sap – of certain trees."

David raised his hand. "I know nothing about trees."

"That's all right. We have a tree expert who wants to go to Guyana to study and do research. As for your proposed colony, Captain, hopefully it will be able to tap the Guyana rubber trees. If not, we have some other economically interesting plants which we are hoping can grow there. Coconut palms, coffee, a few others. Of course, you should be looking for native plants of value."

"Tell him about the other rubber trees," urged Joseph Stull. He was the SoTF Secretary of Transportation.

The count nodded. "If we can't get rubber from Guyana, you'll have to go into the Viceroyalty of New Spain."

David steepled his fingers. "They don't exactly welcome foreigners."

"The source we're interested in is pretty far from the Spanish towns. Here, let me show you on a map." He rolled one out on the table. He jabbed a finger down. "There." He was pointing at southern Honduras.

"Hmm," said David. "That's convenient." He pointed to the eastern coast. "Here – " he twirled his finger over the Bay of Honduras " – that's prime hunting ground for capturing Spanish galleons."

Hugh Lowe shook his head. "We aren't interested in privateering. We don't see a distinction between it and piracy."

"Oh, no? I think Dutch privateers capture a ship a week in that part of the world. Galleons, caravels and coasters. Ship and cargo worth as much as two hundred thousand guilders."

Someone in the back of the room muttered, "let's keep our options open, then. It's not like the Spanish are friendly to us."

"You have been in sea battles, Captain?" asked the count.

Kaspar interrupted. "Captain De Vries is famous in that regard. He had some great victories against the Barbary pirates."

"But no Spanish treasure ships came my way, unfortunately," David admitted. "Or I wouldn't be talking to you now."

"So, Captain, I understand that your only reservation to our 'counterproposal' is the choice of a woman, Maria Vorst, as your, uh, 'Chief Science Officer.'"

"That's right, Herr Lowe. I am sure that she knows her plants and all, but I don't believe that she can possibly comprehend the rigors of an expedition.

"It is true that there are Dutch colonists already in Guyana – at Fort Kykoveral on the Essequibo – but I doubt that there are any white women among them. It would be one thing if she were going to stay in the new colony, but she intends to join us in exploring the rainforest.

"Moreover, it is quite possible that we will have to go to the Miskito Coast for this rubber, which will put her in hazard of capture, and worse, by the Spanish.

"How can I agree to put this delicate flower of Dutch society into such straits?"

"Hmm, well, you did agree that it was only fair to meet her before making any decisions."

"Yes, I so agreed. I am not sure why we had to meet out here."

"I think she wanted to show you something."

They stood on a hill near the southwest rim of the Ring Wall. When Grantville was deposited into seventeenth-century Thuringia, it was such a way that, in general, the Grantville terrain was lower than the surrounding Thuringian land. Nowhere was the transition more dramatic than here in the southwest, where the Ring separated the power plant from the castle of Schwarzburg.

"Well, I can't complain about the view." Where the Ring Wall was intact, it was perfectly smooth, and shone like a mirror in the morning sunlight. Some of the rock had been destabilized by the change, and had fallen onto the American side. The Schwarza river dropped sharply, perhaps fifteen feet, forming the Schwarza waterfall. It was a triangular curtain of water, higher on river left than river right. It then descended, in a series of smaller drops and rapids, over the bed newly formed by the fallen rock, to the Grantville valley floor. The path was not a straight one. First, it paralleled the Ring Wall, then it curved away. Ultimately, the water entered the Spring Branch, a tributary of Buffalo Creek.

"So, when will I meet this Maria?"

"Here she comes now." Lowe pointed upriver, at a lone figure in a bright red kayak at the top of the falls. As David gaped, the kayaker pencilled over. David ran to a better vantage point, expecting to see an overturned kayak, and perhaps, a lifeless body spinning in the foam.

Maria was already past the hydraulic at the foot of the falls, and gave them a quick salute with her paddle as she rested in an eddy. She then paddled on. They watched as she boofed over a second, smaller waterfall.

"So, I hope you are up to a bit of a hike, now. We have to go down to the valley floor so you can properly question this, uh, delicate flower of Dutch society."

To be continued

Yaroslavich Dacha, outside of Moscow

A Dissertation on the Value of Freedom and Security

"Those that give up their freedom for a little temporary security deserve neither freedom or security and ultimately will lose both." So goes an up-time quote. This humble writer doesn't know if that' s true or not. It is demonstrably true that the nation it comes from – founded on principles of freedom – grew to be one of the richest and most powerful in the world.

That nation had no greater resources than the Russia of its time. But it had a great deal more wealth. Why is that, I wonder? The question troubles my sleep at night.