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break up into eleven pieces so that they can be transported by rail! Can
you imagine something eleven times as big as a rail car? Those things
are built to dig a tunnel twelve yards in diameter through solid rock,
loose sand, and everything in between. The cutters in the front can take
on anything natural, even granite, chew it up, and spit it down a
vibratory conveyor line that it drags behind it. They can move at a yard
a minute through granite, and three times that fast through dirt. Actually,
it's the conveyors that slow them down, just hauling the stuff away. And
if the material is too soft to hold itself up, the tunnelers are equipped to
build a metal tube to line the tunnel with. They take a coil of stainless
metal, form corrugations in it, and then weld it in a spiral around the
inside, all automatically. They've each got their own fusion power
supply, too, and can run for a thousand years without refueling."
"That sounds impressive. It also sounds a little big, just to have juvenals
running down it a few times a year."
"Right, sir. But there is also an eighth tunneler, intended for exploratory
work. It cuts a tunnel three yards in diameter, dragging an extendable
conveyor line behind itself, just like the big ones do. Through dirt, it can
do twelve yards a minute, since it uses the same conveyors as the big
ones do."
Kren said, "And does it put in the metal lining, like the big ones do? I
think that most of the tunnels from the train stations to the wintering
centers will be shallow, and through dirt, not rock."
"Oh, yes, sir. It does everything that the big ones do, except break up
for shipment. It doesn't have to, since it will fit on a flatcar."
"Then that solves one of our problems."
Duke Dennon walked in through the open doorway.
"You were having problems, Kren?" The duke said in stilted Keno,
which Dol and Kren had been using.
"Just the minor problem of getting the juvenals from the wintering
centers to the train stations in the wintertime. If we had the use of your
small tunneler, we could put in an underground connection to each of
them, and thus avoid the inevitable losses that would occur if we took
the children outside during bad weather."
"Oh. Yes, I can see where many of them might freeze to death, doing
such a thing, and that would cut into your profits. Well, I'm sure that we
can arrange something, one way or another. I've found a surplus
equipment buyer who has offered to pay me one sixth of what I had to
pay for all of that stuff, but that's the best offer I've had."
"Just how much did you pay for it, if I may ask," Kren said.
"You may. Including transportation charges, but not counting legal fees
and the atrocious penalties I had to pay for late payment, it came to just
over eight dozen billion Ke."
"Hmmm. It is possible that I could better the offer that the scrap dealer
made you, but there would have to be a number of stipulations."
"I am interested. Just what stipulations did you have in mind?" The duke
unconsciously slipped over to Meno, which he was more comfortable
with.
Kren said in Meno, leaving Dol out of it for a while, "First off, I don't
have anyplace to store so much equipment. Could I leave it here until I
need it?"
"I don't see why not. We have plenty of room. I could let you store it
here for, say, twelve years, before I start charging you rent on it."
"That would be adequate. Next, I'm a little low on ready cash just now.
Would you be willing to take stock in my corporation in return for your
equipment?"
"Now that would take some mulling over. How much were you thinking
of offering me?" the duke asked.
"I offer to take it all for one quarter of what you paid, two dozen billion
Ke."
"That sounds reasonable, and more than anyone else has offered. But
this stock of yours, what sort of dividends do you intend to pay?"
"I intend for my company to continue reinvesting all of our considerable
profits back into the business for the foreseeable future. There won't be
any dividends for a very long time," Kren said.
"Well, what bloody good is an investment that doesn't make me any
money? I'd be better off working with the used equipment dealer.
There at least, I'd get something for my machinery! Why should I
accept your strange offer?"
"You should accept my offer because it will make your army invincible,
and you a world conqueror!"
The duke closed the door and sat down. "That is a remarkable
statement. Would you care to expand on it?"
"I'd be happy to. You have admired my athletic abilities, and yesterday,
you were impressed with my prowess as a warrior, yes?"
"Certainly. You are the perfect athlete. I've been saying so since I saw
you win that first fencing tournament."
Kren said, "Would you like to have every soldier in your army be as
good an athlete, as good a warrior as I am?"
"By the Great First Egg, I certainly would! Are you saying that this is
possible?"
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