Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 41

The Armory 4 of 7

The discovery of the Ark Lords' armory deep beneath the Tevatron would eventually change the course of the entire war against the Erklirte. When the time came to attack, they'd be hit by their own weapons, something they'd never expect. This is how Jack Henry's ragtag army discovered the secret weapons cache and how they deduced the operation of the arms that they found there:

     Jack and Red looked at each other, grinning like fools. Jack re-engaged the safety then gently set the rifle down. The two men hurried out of the armory, down the steps and across the corridor. Red whistled at the size of the holes the rifle had made. He aimed his flashlight through one of them and saw that the projectile had traveled clean through to the concrete wall on the far side.
     “That is one hell of a weapon,” Red said, beaming.
     Jack’s smile disappeared and his expression became dour. He stood there silently, staring at the holes he had made.
     “What?” Red asked. “Don’t you think this is amazing? These fire sticks or whatever they’re called will give us the edge we need.”
     Jack said nothing.
     “Come on, Jack, what are you thinking?” Red asked.
     Jack shined his flashlight on the hole then on Red’s face. “It is a very powerful weapon,” Jack said. “But it’s forbidden technology. If we use it, doesn’t it make us as bad as they are? As bad as the ones who caused the Great Dying?”
     “We already use the light stick weapons that we capture. What’s the difference?”
     “The difference is they run out. They just make holes. These things? These fire sticks are beyond anything we have ever seen. They are evil incarnate.”
     “I’ll make it easy on you,” Red said. “Do you plan on ever using one of these against our own people?”
     “Of course not,” Jack said. “Only the Ark Lords.”
     “And after we defeat them, and we will,” Red said, “do you plan on keeping them?”
     “Why would I?” Jack asked. “They are nothing but death.”
     “Then there’s your answer. We use their own weapons against them. It’s only fitting. They provided them. After we defeat them, we’ll destroy all of the things we found here.”
     Jack thought about it for a minute. “You’re right, of course,” Jack said. “Louis, Sam, come with us,” he called out. “Leave your torches outside.”
     Jack and Red went back up into the armory.
     “Louis, you can use these flashlights,” Jack said, waving it around. “Red will teach you how to work them. Then I want you and the men take as many of these weapons and clips as you can carry topside. Take some of the boxes labeled Ammo, too. I don’t know what they are for but I’m assuming they’re related to the fire sticks. When you’re done, come back down.”

Tomorrow, bayonets and Berettas. Pretty cool, huh?

The Armory 3 of 7

The discovery of the Ark Lords' armory deep beneath the Tevatron would eventually change the course of the entire war against the Erklirte. When the time came to attack, they'd be hit by their own weapons, something they'd never expect. This is how Jack Henry's ragtag army discovered the secret weapons cache and how they deduced the operation of the arms that they found there:

     “Wow!” Red said. “Torches with no flame. Amazing!” Jack’s lieutenant reached up and grabbed another one of the flashlights and quickly got it working as well.
     “These will come in real handy down here. We won’t need our torches at all.”
     “Yeah,” Jack replied. “That must be how the ceiling lights up. Let’s see what else they have in here.”
     Jack turned to his right and saw the far wall was a giant pegboard with a hundred or more identical items mounted there. He walked over to it and shined his flashlight on the placard mounted at the top. It read ‘M4 Carbines: Semi-automatic Rifles’.
     “These look too much like Ark Lords’ light sticks not to be weapons,” he called back to Red. He reached up and removed one of the rifles from the wall. Turning it carefully in his hands, he inspected the barrel, the stock and its underside. Mounted on the top was a compact telescope, very similar to his mother’s spyglass.
     “It has a trigger,” he said, pointing to a stud on the underside of the gun. “But what does it fire?” Jack pointed to the rectangular hole on the underside. “See if you can find something that fits in this space.”
     Red shined his flashlight around the room. On the near wall, to Jack’s right, was a workbench with shelving underneath. Red walked over to it, stooped down and shined his flashlight beam into the shadows. The shelf under the workbench was filled with cartons labeled ‘Clips’. Red removed one and set the box on the bench. He opened the carton and pulled out one of the slightly curved metal cases. He held it up and saw one end was open. The clip itself was tightly filled with small cylindrical objects. He handed the clip to Jack.
     “See if that fits,” Red said.
     It only took Jack a few seconds to figure out where to insert the clip. As soon as he locked it in place, he heard a clicking sound as one of the small cylinders entered the upper chamber. He placed the rifle stock on his shoulder, closed one eye and peered through the scope. He had a sudden inspiration. He walked over to the doorway.
     “Everybody clear away,” he yelled. When he was satisfied that no one was in the line of fire, he aimed the gun out the door at one of the metal cabinets on the far side and tried squeezing the trigger. Nothing happened.
     Jack pulled the rifle back to inspect it more carefully and noted a small lever pointing to the word ‘Safe’. He rotated it so that it pointed to the word ‘Fire’. Once again, he peered through the eyepiece, aimed it across the tunnel and squeezed the trigger. This time, a loud bang emitted from the rifle. The recoil pushed his shoulder back slightly. He squeezed the trigger two more times in rapid succession then lowered the rifle.

Did you feel it? The balance of power between the rebels and the Ark Lords has just shifted. Tomorrow, they start to load up the weapons.

The Armory 2 of 7

The discovery of the Ark Lords' armory deep beneath the Tevatron would eventually change the course of the entire war against the Erklirte. When the time came to attack, they'd be hit by their own weapons, something they'd never expect. This is how Jack Henry's ragtag army discovered the secret weapons cache and how they deduced the operation of the arms that they found there:

     Two men mounted the steps next to Red. It was quite a struggle to turn the wheel. After it would go no more, they pulled and pulled but they couldn’t open the large circular door.
     “Let me,” Red said. He pushed on the lever mounted next to the door and suddenly there was a hissing sound as air rushed into the chamber. Once the sound stopped, the heavy door opened easily although it was accompanied by the squeaks and groans of age.
     Panels mounted to the ceiling switched on, illuminating the chamber with a soft white light.
     “Look at that!” Red said pointing at the overhead lights. “What makes them light up?”
     The men who opened the door craned their necks to catch a glimpse of what Red was talking about. The rest of the men started inching forward.
     “Everybody stays back,” Jack commanded. “Let me and Red take a look first.” He set the other torch on the ground and mounted the steps. Together, the two men entered the chamber.
     Jack stared up at the lights for a minute. “I’m guessing those are skylights,” he said. “Maybe there is a valve or shutter connected to the door.”
     The two men looked around the room. There were cabinets and shelves filled with crates and boxes and other paraphernalia. Many of the walls had racks attached with a bewildering number of devices hanging from hooks or resting on pegs. Surprisingly, there was very little dust on any of the surfaces.
     “There’s a sign here that says ‘Flashlights,’” Red said, pointing straight ahead. He pulled down one of the devices from the shelf. The object was a metallic tube with a flared end, capped off with a piece of glass. Red shook it up and down, then clicked a switch on its side several times.
     “I’m assuming this is some sort of portable light,” Red said, “since it’s called a flashlight. But I can’t figure out how to activate it.”
     Red set the tube down on the bench. Jack came over to where he was standing.
     “After all this time, they probably don’t work,” Jack said. “On the other hand, whatever makes the overhead lights go on, maybe the same thing applies.” He inspected the wall and shelving beneath it. One box was labeled Thorium Batteries. Jack bent over and pulled out the heavy box and placed it on the bench. He opened the carton and found it filled with little round canisters sealed in a thin, transparent wrap. He reached in and picked one out, unwrapping it. It was remarkably heavy for being so small. Jack stared at the flashlight, sitting on the bench.
     “I bet you I know how these work,” he said. He picked the flashlight up and after a quick examination, he unscrewed the narrow end. Once it was opened up, Jack could see that the inside was hollow. He inserted the small canister into the tube, tip-side down. It was a perfect fit. Seeing that there was room for more, he inserted two more canisters, also tip-side down. He screwed the end cap back on and suddenly, the flashlight lit up.

Thorium batteries. Wouldn't they be neat? I wonder if they'd let you carry them on an airplane. Probably not. Tomorrow, the rebels discover some serious weapons.

The Armory 1 of 7

Yesterday, I showed you a picture of what the Erklirte armory looked like. It was buried deep underground, underneath the Tevatron. Here is the "true" story of the freedom fighters that stumbled across this weapons cache and how it was able to turn the course of the revolution against the Ark Lords:

     Illuminated by the burning torches, the interior of the building appeared somewhat eerie. Jack could see in its day that it must have been rather elegant. However, that was before the Great Dying. Now it was just dirty, dusty and disheveled. They found a stairwell and followed it down two flights until they came to a sub-basement.
     The hallway was cylindrical, nearly 30 feet in diameter. The only flat part was the concrete floor. It stretched in both directions. Jack checked his drawing and pointed to his right.
     “That way,” he said. The group followed him forward. In some places, the ceiling was rounded. In other places it was flat. All around them lay metal boxes with dials, knobs, wires and thick cables. There were many places where huge columns made of a shiny material began at the floor and poked up through the ceiling. Nothing here made any sense. Jack didn’t want to take the time to study the artifacts. Minutes passed as the group slowly advanced. They soon came to a juncture with the hallway splitting off into three narrower tunnels.
     “Which way?” Red asked.
     “That way,” Jack said, pointing to his left. “It’s at the end of that hallway.”
     They entered the tunnel which was perhaps twenty feet in diameter. Jack looked up and noted there were red and blue boxes, not made of metal, but some other material, lining the walls. They passed more cabinets, tubes and other kinds of strange machinery. Looming ahead of them, on the left, was a giant white cylinder with rounded ends. It was lying on its side, propped up on stilts. There was a small set of steps leading up to a door mounted on the side of the tank. Sticking out from the center of the door was a large metal ring.
     “What’s that?” Red asked, pointing to the tank on stilts.
     Jack walked up and held his torch close the writing on the side. Suddenly, he shouted, “Everybody get back! Quick.”
     The men obeyed and hurried away from the imposing structure.
     “What is it, Jack?” Red asked.
     Jack pointed the writing on the side. “Look,” he said, holding his torch up high. “It says, ‘Danger. Propane. No smoking or open flame’.”
     Red handed his torch to Jack and walked up the steps. “No danger,” he shouted back. “The door says break seal here after opening. It’s meant to be opened. They just reused this cylinder. I don’t know for what, though.”
     Jack set one torch on the ground and used the other to match the markings on his drawing to what he was seeing. Suddenly, his eyes grew wide.
     “Aha!” he shouted.
     “What?” Red asked.
     “It’s an armory!” Jack said excitedly. “You were right, Red. Guys, quick,” he said. “Open ‘er up.”

Tomorrow, the Pandora's Box is opened and Jack Henry's men are delighted with what they find.

Discovering Their Armory

Every guerilla conflict starts out the same way. You have two forces, the invaders, heavily armed with superior weapons and manpower and the rebels, outgunned, forced to hide in the woods and make lightning strikes with surprise being their only weapon. However, over time, as the guerilla forces capture the enemy's own weapons, eventually the forces become balanced out and ultimately, the rebels drive the occupying force out because the rebels are fighting for their homeland and the invaders are simply there fighting for a paycheck. This is the pattern that was followed by Jack Henry's ragtag army.

What they stumbled across within the bowels of the Tevatron changed the course of the entire war. They found a weapons store hidden within a hollowed out gas cylinder deep underground. This is what it looked like:



Over the next few days, I'll play out its discovery for you. Some of the parts are even a little bit funny. You'll see.

Helen Henry dies 3

We learned about Jack Henry's origins in the middle portion of The Ark Lords. Jack Henry's father, Jim Henry, was one of the last remaining good Cavaliers, the futuristic police force which was a combination of Canadian mounties, British bobbies, roving judges and so on. Jack's mother Helen helped Jack track down what happened to Jack's father. He was killed by the Ark Lords who had descended to the Earth some 600 years earlier than the main story. At the end of their discovery, Helen Henry was kidnapped and Jack thought he would never see her again. However, ten years later, after Jack had formed a pretty serious army of rebels, Helen appeared suddenly and unexpectedly:

     “No!” Helen said forcefully. “You don’t understand. “They are going to unleash a disease. It will kill every man, woman and child on the Earth. When they are done, they will be the only people left alive.”
     “How can they do that?” Jack asked. “How do they unleash a disease?”
     “The map,” Helen said. “The people that sent them to the stars. They buried a can, a canister that holds the disease. The map shows exactly where it’s stored. It’s buried beside a figure eight. You have to stop them. If the Ark Lords get there first, it is the end of everyone.”
     Jack looked at the map. The place where the disease was kept was eight hundred miles to the west, past the Great Lakes.
     “When, Mom?” Jack asked. “When are they going there?”
     “In three weeks,” Helen said, gasping for air. “You have to go now. And you have to stop them.”
     “Three weeks?” Jack said. “Eight hundred miles? Even with our best horses, we might be able to make fifty or sixty miles a day. That’ll take us two weeks or more.”
     “That’s why you have to go now,” she said. “You have to be ready.”
     “I can’t leave you, Mom,” Jack said. “I just found you.”
     His mother sagged. “Jackie, I know this is hard. But I’m not going to make it through the night. I’ve spent years collecting those papers, putting up with their brutality. If you don’t do this, it means it was all for nothing.”
     More tears fell from Jack’s eyes. He bent over and kissed his mother on her blazing hot forehead.
     Helen told the truth. She was dead by the next morning. After a proper burial, Jack steeled himself and assembled his band of fighters. He selected fifty of his best men and the best horses. They packed supplies for the long trek west. Along with their primitive weapons, they packed their last two functioning laser rifles that they had managed to capture from the Ark Lords they had killed. To maximize their horses’ endurance, they traveled at night, starting out as the sun was setting, always guiding them west. When the sun came up in the morning, they let the horses rest.
     They made good time. The band of freedom fighters rounded the tip of Lake Michigan in only twelve days. From there, they headed northwest. Warily, they traveled the final fifty miles during the day. They finally reached the destination indicated on the map that was given to Jack by his mother. Ahead of them lay buildings in various stages of decay. One, however, stood almost 20 stories tall. It was built out of concrete and still looked sturdy, even though most of the windows were blown out.

Helen did not die in vain. Her information was crucial to Jack's success. Of course, now we know that the Ark Lords were headed to Batavia, IL, the home of Wilson Hall and the Tevatron.

Helen Henry dies 2

We learned about Jack Henry's origins in the middle portion of The Ark Lords. Jack Henry's father, Jim Henry, was one of the last remaining good Cavaliers, the futuristic police force which was a combination of Canadian mounties, British bobbies, roving judges and so on. Jack's mother Helen helped Jack track down what happened to Jack's father. He was killed by the Ark Lords who had descended to the Earth some 600 years earlier than the main story. At the end of their discovery, Helen Henry was kidnapped and Jack thought he would never see her again. However, ten years later, after Jack had formed a pretty serious army of rebels, Helen appeared suddenly and unexpectedly:

     “Your father was dead by the time we got to their camp. They didn’t capture him. They just plain killed him.”
     Jack rocked back on his legs. It had been so long, he had buried his feelings. He wasn’t sure how to get in touch with what he already knew deep down inside.
     “When they got me, they took me to a shelter. They tied me down. They beat me and they raped me.”
     “What!?” Jack exclaimed. He started to rise. His mother reached out and grabbed his arm.
     “Jackie, listen to me!” she ordered.
     Jack closed his eyes fighting his instinct to strike someone. He took a deep breath and settled down. “All right,” he said.
     “I got pregnant. Once they knew that, they put me in a different place, like a dormitory. And the beatings stopped. I gave birth to a girl. After I was done nursing her, they took her away and it started all over again.”
     Jack pounded his clenched fist into his palm but remained silent.
     “Jackie, forgive me. But every time I got pregnant, the beatings stopped so I let them use me. I am so sorry. But I had given up.”
     “Oh, Mom,” Jack said.
     Helen sighed and closed her eyes. “I had five children and then got toxemia with the sixth. I had a miscarriage but they didn’t treat me. They put me in a field hospital or something but basically they were just waiting for me to die.”
     Jack covered his eyes with his hand. The tears seeped out on both sides. The image of his loving mother being so mistreated was almost too horrible to consider. He wiped his face so he could continue listening.
     “They’re in the process of moving their camp to the East. They are setting up a fortified city. They were so busy with the move that they didn’t pay any attention to us in the hospital. I escaped and walked as far as I could. Do you remember Bill Franklin?”
     “Yes,” Jack replied quietly.
     “He found me wandering and he brought me here. Bill and all of them, they all know about the Resistance and they want to help but not if it means suicide.”
     “I know, Mom,” Jack said. “We’re trying. It’s just so hard. We don’t have the weapons to stand up to them.”
     Helen tried to rise up from the stretcher. Jack helped her sit up. She reached inside her clothing, mere rags that may have once been a dress, and pulled out a pile of papers. She handed them to Jack.
     Jack took them from her and opened up the largest one. It was a detailed map with names and places that he did not recognize.
     “What is this?” he asked.
     Helen coughed. Her lungs spasmed and she went into a coughing fit. Jack reached forward and enveloped her in his arms. He could not believe how thin his mother was. All he felt were bones. When the coughing subsided, he gently laid her back down.
     “Jackie, whatever you are doing. It is making them so angry. They are going to unleash a weapon that is going to kill everyone.”

Tomorrow, Helen's end.

Helen Henry dies 1

We learned about Jack Henry's origins in the middle portion of The Ark Lords. Jack Henry's father, Jim Henry, was one of the last remaining good Cavaliers, the futuristic police force which was a combination of Canadian mounties, British bobbies, roving judges and so on. Jack's mother Helen helped Jack track down what happened to Jack's father. He was killed by the Ark Lords who had descended to the Earth some 600 years earlier than the main story. At the end of their discovery, Helen Henry was kidnapped and Jack thought he would never see her again. However, ten years later, after Jack had formed a pretty serious army of rebels, Helen appeared suddenly and unexpectedly:

     Jack raced out of the tent and saw a group of men coming toward him carrying a stretcher. He cocked his head and stood where he was as they brought the stretcher to him. What he saw made him go weak in the knees.
     “Mom!” he said, bending over and grabbing the frail woman. “What? How?” he stammered. “Take her into my tent,” he commanded.
     The group hustled their way in and set her stretcher on top of Jack’s sleeping bag. Jack followed them in then knelt by her side. He was crying. “Mom,” he said, “I’ve missed you so much.” He bent over and hugged her. The battered woman could barely lift her arms but she managed to drape them over her son. Even though he knew her to be only fifty, the woman before him looked like she was eighty years old.
     “Oh Jackie,” she whispered. “I never gave up hope. I’m so sorry I left you.”
     “It wasn’t your fault,” Jack said angrily. “It was those monsters. What happened?”
     “I need some water first,” his mother said.
     “Red!” Jack shouted to his lieutenant.
     “On it, boss,” Red said. He quickly returned with a wooden canteen which he handed to Jack. Jack held the canteen to Helen’s lips as she took a few sips.
     “Jackie, you have to listen to me. I don’t have much time.” Helen’s voice was barely louder than a whisper. Her breath was foul with the stench of urea.
     “Why, Mom?” Jack’s face was contorted with heartbreak.
     “I’m septic. My kidneys have failed. I haven’t peed in three days. I’m not going to make it much longer.”
     “No, Mom,” Jack said. He reached forward and put his hand on her forehead. His mother was burning up.
     “What happened, Mom? What did they do to you? Why are you here?”
     Helen took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She opened them but they looked rheumy, almost like there was a thin cloudy film covering them.
     “Jackie, just listen and say nothing. I have to tell you what is important.”

Tomorrow, Helen's story.

Out of room

How many times have you tried to take a picture with your phone or downloaded a movie, only to discover you were out of room on your memory card or thumb drive or whatever? It's happened to me plenty of times. So I decided to employ this decidedly human experience and tie it in to the future world of Rome's Revolution as well. Here is a little scene where Ursay has to deal with this exact problem, just using whammy-jammy science fiction terms:

     Rome stood up. “Perhaps you should allow me. As you know, I was very skilled at data archiving. I think I can formulate the proper search terms in such a way as they are oblique to our main area of research.”
     Ursay stood up and switched places with Rome. As she settled in her seat, Ursay remarked, “You were more than skilled. You were literally the best on the planet. Your mosdurece heritage made you the perfect candidate. I specifically requested you for our mission. I was just too blind to acknowledge the wisdom of my own opinion.”
     Rome looked at Ursay and placed her hand on top of his. “That is very kind of you to say so,” she said. “Thank you.”
     “It is not kind,” Ursay replied. “It is simply an acknowledgement of a fact. Rome, you are very special. It was clear, even back then. It was just beyond my capability, and I suspect yours, to recognize the truth.”
     Rome blushed slightly.
     “I recognized it,” Rei piped in. “She was awesome.”
     Rome turned back to look at her husband and laughed. “Men,” she muttered. She returned her attention to the workstation in front of her. “I will activate a data conduit to the local storage before we offload it to a data-cube,” she said. “Let me check the capacity.” Her hands flew over the keyboard and produce a bar chart of processor and storage capabilities. “Hmm,” she observed. “There is not as much room as I would like. Do you have a data-cube handy?”
     “I do not,” Ursay said. “I keep them all off-site.”
     Rome looked back at the graphical display of the local storage allocation. “Is there anything stored here that you absolutely must preserve?”
     “Erase it all,” Ursay said. “It is just images and recipes. I have everything backed up that I care about. I can restore it at any time. Do what you need to.”
     “Very well.” Rome pressed icon after icon, erasing large chunks of local data until the bar chart in front of her indicated nearly empty local resources.
     She stared down at the input interface.
     “What is it, sweetheart?” Rei asked.
     Rome sighed. “It is times like these that I miss my bloco and stilo.” She exhaled strongly. “No matter, I can do this.” Her hands flew over the interface, pressing keys and icons. She glanced up at the screen as her query took form. At last, she said, “I am ready. My query will request a time line of the events concerning the Erklirte in bulk form with two levels of hyperlink spidering. I will start with the arrival of the Erklirte and I have put a stop after their defeat. We can analyze it afterwards.”

Every time I get a new phone or new card for my camera, I always boost up the memory because I know I will run out of room at some point. You too? Tomorrow, the light bulb goes off.

Good wine

We know from a previous post that Rome's first taste of wine came at the Mullen household. Rei's group had planted an experimental vineyard to the southeast of Lake Eprehem. The wine they produced was not totally awesome. It was too strong, more like port than table wine. And while Rome enjoyed the experience, we all know the best wines come from Earth. Thus Commander Ursay's surprise was all the sweeter:

     Ursay led them back through the small vineyard, past his farmhouse, to a ramshackle building resembling a barn. Rei was surprised to see no sign of Vuduri aerogel anywhere. After all three entered, Ursay pulled the doors closed and directed them to one end of the building where there were multiple racks of oaken barrels stored on their sides. The floor was nothing more than combed dirt. Ursay had them sit at a rough-hewn table pushed up against the wall. To Rei, the chairs appeared to be hand-made and slightly mismatched. Once they were settled, Ursay left them to amble slowly back the way they came, pausing briefly at each barrel. Finally, he stopped in front of one of the larger ones. After reaching down for a pitcher that was dangling from a peg, he fussed around the spigot at the base of the cask. He returned to Rei and Rome carrying the pitcher filled with a dark, ruby-red liquid and placed it on the table.
     Noticing the liquid’s aroma, Rei inquired, “Wine? Isn’t that a little out of character for a Vuduri?”
     “I find myself more spiritually aligned with the mandasurte than the Vuduri these days,” Ursay said. “Probably because of you two. I have not quite made up my mind to go Cesdiud.” He reached up to a shelf mounted on the wall and brought down three glasses.
     “You sure have mellowed from when I first met you,” Rei said. “But still? How do you even know what to do?”
     “I agree I do not have much experience,” Ursay said. “But we are just north of Douro, which used to be known as the premier wine-growing region in a thousand square kilometers. They do not let the mandasurte near here so I decided to try it myself. It interests me, what can I say?” He lifted the pitcher and poured the wine into each of the glasses then handed one to Rei and one to Rome. “This red is young,” he said, “but I think you might like it.”
     Rei lifted his glass and held it up to the light. He swished the glass in a small circle then took a sip. “This is good!” he said. “Better than the stuff we grew.”
     Ursay took a swallow from his. “It needs to age,” he said. He looked at Rome who was staring at her glass. “Do you not wish to try it?” he asked.
     Rome looked up at him with some pain in her face. Rei reached over, took her glass and moved it away from her. “Rome had a bad experience not too long ago. Wine was a part of it,” he said. “No offense but I don’t think she’s in the mood. Commander Ursay please do not be insulted.”
     “No,” Rome protested. She extended her arm and pulled the glass back. “I refuse to allow one ompasil to take away the pleasures of my life.” She lifted the glass and took a healthy swig. “Mmm,” she murmured. She turned to Rei and said, “I believe you call it getting back on the horse?”
     Rei laughed.
     Ursay replied, “I cannot say I understand what you are talking about but I will send a bottle along with you. In a year or so, it should be ready.” He set his glass down. “Now tell me why you are here.”

The bad experience highlighted above, of course, was Edgar Mullen assaulting Rome after he had too much to drink. I had not planned on introducing wine in this scene originally but while I was researching where to put Commander Ursay's farm, I discovered that the Douro region of Portugal is famous for its excellent wines so I just folded that into the story to give a little more veracity.

Tomorrow, Rome and Rei get down to business.