Chapter 20 August 406 AD Paulsland Capital-Reaction

            Malkia was sitting in her office when a messenger brought her the news that would be printed in the next day's newspaper.

When the news of the iron horse powered by steam reached the editor of one of the Pauslon family newspapers, he immediately sent a messenger to Malkia. The particular messenger wasn’t anyone important, just a random apprentice learning their trade at one of the many Paulson family newspapers. The only thing of note about this youth was that he was missing three of his fingers on his left hand, a wound from one of the recent wars. He was sent because he was the only apprentice who could run, as the other apprentices had leg wounds from the recent wars. When the youth told the office staff that the editor had given him a message to deliver to Malkia, he was immediately sent through.

            After he handed over the message, Malkia sat still for several minutes, considering what to do. The young apprentice stood still and quiet. He did not want Malkia’s ire taken on him. As minutes passed in quiet, the youth grew more and more nervous; in fact, he was beginning to become more nervous than when he entered battle. It was almost a relief when Malkia shouted out, “SECRETARY! SECRETARY!”

            A moment later, a middle-aged man came into the room, and she said, “First, send a message to the Illuminati asking them for diagrams on a steam engine. Then send word to our people near their headquarters that the fastest horses are to bring this to me as soon as possible, and not only are they allowed to run their horses to death, I expect them to. Then send word out that I want anyone in the Paulson family with  stock in our companies in the city to come here at once, we have to have a meeting.”

            The man said, “Yes, Miss.” And immediately went to work. Technically, this order would include Shimbir, but the secretary was well aware that Shimbir Paulson was a puppet, not a family member, not a stockholder.

            As the secretary left, Malkia turned to the messenger and said, “Tell your editor that he is to run a story about how the iron horse caused animals to panic, and there needs to be a discussion among the two halls of representatives about whether this technology should exist at all if it is going to create danger and disruption.”

            The apprentice said, “Yes, Miss.” And gladly left in a hurry.

            Malkia ignored him and began writing out her thoughts. Over the next few hours, messenger after messenger came with the same news. Some from one of the many Paulson family newspapers, others from their corporate espionage employees, and still others were informants. Malkia listened to all, gleening bits and pieces of information from each. She even paid some of the informants, just to encourage them to look more into the company making the steam engines. She wasn’t happy that all the informants missed the fact that they were building steam engines, and that they built the iron horse and steam shovel in a warehouse a long way away from a water source capable of powering a water wheel, which meant they already had a factory powered by steam, which was a fact that escaped all the informants and reporters. Normally, she would fire them for incompetence, but right now she needed as many eyes and ears as possible.

            Two hours after she sent her secretary out, he came back in and said, “Our people are telling us that the Illuminati are ignoring us, and the other families. It seems that they have decided to fully cast their lot in with Jinka.”

            Malkia shook her head and said, “It's not that they are fully casting their lot in with Jinka, it's that they are well aware that many of the seventy families started with a member of the Illuminati, and they see this as the time to make their play to cast us aside and become the head of new families.”

            “Should I inform the stockholders who have shown up already?”

            “No, I will do it myself. How many are here?”

            “Thirty.”

            Malkia nodded. She wasn’t surprised. Although there were hundreds of people qualified to be at this meeting, they were scattered across Paulsland. After a moment of consideration, she said, “Tell them to come to my office, and post guards at all the entrances to my office, including the windows. I do not want anyone overhearing this conversation.”

            The secretary nodded and left to obey. Minutes later, thirty rich and powerful individual members of the Paulson family crammed into her office. Many of them were irritated by the indignity of it, feeling like peasants, but that was why Malkia was the leader of the family, and they were not.

            One of them asked, “Why are we here?” It said a lot about Malkia’s power, that he came without knowing why Malkia had called him there.

            Malkia said, “How are you this ill-informed? Jinka has defied the seventy families and not only produced steam engines, he has made a moving one called an iron horse and another that digs. Steam machines are out of the bag, Pandora's box cannot be closed, we must react or we will no longer be one of the seventy great families.”

            One of the men said, “We are the Paulson family, as long as a Paulson is on the throne we will be a great family.”

            “The throne and the corporation are not the same thing. If the throne persists and the corporation dies, then we will all have our own farms picking fruit and riding oxen pulled plows as the oxen crap all over us. The king’s power is only our power as long as our corporation stays strong. If you do not understand this, then shut up and do what I say, or your fate will be to eat oxen poop from the back of a plow every day.”

            That shut the men up.

            “Currently, we have two problems. The first problem is Jinka and his steam machines. The second problem is that the Illuminati has cast their lot in with Jinka. The only way to deal with Jinka is to begin building our own steam machines and sell them for less than the cost for Jinka to make his, and slowly put him out of business. The problem is that the Illuminati has the design for steam machines, and they have decided to ignore our requests for them. Since the Illuminati decided to give those designs to Jinka, then by law they are supposed to make them public, so we are going to have to sue them for the designs. This will give Jinka time to solidify his market share. The longer he has, the harder it will be to bankrupt him.”

            One of the younger Paulson men asked, “If we are suing the Illuminati why not just sue Jinka as well?”

            “Because its obvious that we would be maliciously suing Jinka, and the ury that had to waste their time dealing with a malicious lawsuit would likely have us flogged. If I catch any of you trying to do a malicious lawsuit, then I will personally see that your food is poisoned. We do not have time to deal with something ineffective. That said, I have already arranged to make sure all the public rails near where the iron horse and steam shovel are are filled with oxen pulled rail cars. Right now, our goal is to use every means, whether legal or illegal, to slow down Jinka.”

            Another relative asked, “Why the panic? Our family has hundreds of factories, newspapers, and shipping companies. Jinka cannot compete, even with this new thing.”

            Malkia wanted to curse, but she composed herself before speaking and said, “Because King Paul, our ancestor, said that this would be the next big thing. That it would transform the world. That all the effort we put into building our water wheel factories, printing presses, and shipping companies would be for naught as the new technology would change the way we did everything. Simply put, everything we have built is now outdated. In fact, I am preparing an order to go out to our corporations requiring all maintenance worth more than a gold coin must go through me before being approved. I intend to turn all of our resources to building steam factories, steam transports, and steam machines.”

            “Well then what is the problem?”

            “Do you know which steam engine is the most efficient?”

            “No.”

            “For the next decade, we, and all our rivals, are going to be spending an enormous amount of wealth building steam engines for dozens of uses, but only some of those engines, and the methods used to build them, will come out on top. The losers are going to go bankrupt. Many of the seventy families are about to fall, and chances are some new families will rise up. It is our responsibility to not fall, and to absorb the new families into our fold as friendly rivals, not bitter enemies.”

            “That makes sense, but what does that have to do with us.”

            Malkia sighed and said, “We are in a whole new world. We don’t know what is and isn't going to work. We are going to spend fortunes learning these lessons, so we need lots and lots of capital. I need you and the rest of the family to go out and convince anyone you can to invest in our research. If our family is going to survive this crisis, we are going to need to invest other people's money, not our own. Every member of our family are to become salesmen selling shares in the Paulson Steam Company, Paulson Steam Machines, Paulson Steam Industries, Paulson Iron Horses, Paulson Rail, Paulson Steam Ships, and any other Paulson corporate name we can think of.”

            “Oh… We are going to make a lot of people very angry doing that.”

            “Who cares as long as our family survives?”

            “But we don’t have any steam machines to show off yet.”

            Malkia gave the man a dirty look and said, “We have steam weapons, and the people are unlikely to know the difference. Furthermore, we have the king. We will take him out of his little castle, have the brat use some of our steam weapons in front of some random soldiers, and claim that he has used many steam weapons, but the Paulson weapons are the best. We will get lots of pictures for the paper, and say something along the lines about how the experts in steam weapons are the experts in all things steam, and invest in Paulson companies to make a fortune. The world has changed, we must change with it or get pooped on by oxen all day.”

……………………………………

Rome-Several weeks after the Iron Horse and Steam Shovel were made public.

            Michael, Bishop of Rome, entered the Emperor's throne room in a bit of a hurry. As he entered, the guards stopped him, and he said, “Let the Emperor know I have sensitive information that he needs to hear at once.”

            The guard informed another guard, who informed one of Trajan’s personal guards, who informed the Emperor. The Emperor waved for Michael to come forward and asked him, “Do you have information about a plot against my life, or the life of one of my sons?”

            “No, sir, I have information about Paulsland, and plans to exploit it.”

            “The men in this court can be trusted to keep their mouths shut. If not, they will have their tongues removed before being crucified upside down.” Several of the men in the Emperor's court shuddered.

            “The first part of this information has already been made public to the world. Apparently, Jinka of Paulsland has managed to turn steam weapons into steam horses and shovels. A steam horse is able to pull more than a hundred oxen can pull, and a steam shovel is as big as a cart and can scoop dirt out several times a minute.”

            “How is that possible?”

            “I have no idea, but many sources have confirmed the immense ability of these machines.”

            “Have your sources been able to discover how these machines are made?”

            “Not yet, but since Jinka already has the favor of the Universal Church, my agents in Paulsland will attempt to use this favor to develop close relationships, and either steal, buy, or trade for their designs.”

            Emperor Trajan tapped his fingers on his throne while he thought, and after a few seconds, he said, “We have to stymie Paulsland and create strife before they turn those machines against Rome. Have our priests in Paulsland publicly call for Jinka’s rise to the throne of Paulsland. Hopefully, it will trigger a civil war. If not, it should trigger civil unrest.”

            “Yes, my emperor.”

Authors note-Next week not only will I be super busy, my mom will be visiting with me, and possibly my uncle, so I just wont have time to write a chapter next week. Sorry about that. Oddly enough the next chapter in this story will be a keystone chapter as its one that was always imagined for part 2.

As for the dungeon story, it will likely post late Friday, or sometime saterday.

Anyway have a wonderful day.