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 Chapter 20

   John, Joji and Dink were sitting in John's office.  It was a period of
deciding what the next steps were for Hideki.  They had sent him a lot of
the needed technology, but for sure not everything he would need.  The
problem they had was building facilities in his world made no sense, as
they did not have the raw materials yet to run them.

   Joji was first to step up to the problem.  "I don't see any need to send
things that have no use to them now.  He does know where great deposits of
iron ore are located.  So that will be his metal of choice for the time
being.  The ability to produce glass is important.  We must expect the gate
to stay open for many years to come.  It has now for 10,000 years we know
of.  Yes it has moved, but we know how to track that."

   John considered his and could not argue with Joji.  "I would like the
aircraft carrier we have sent before to be set up as an engineering support
facility.  We use the one we put the drop down ramp on now for deliveries.
So David's command ship is the choice.  It needs a large item and small
item machine shop in it.  Buy the machines and as much tooling as can be
found to fit the hanger deck.  Set up good overhead cranes for the handling
of parts.  There is going to have to be a crane to off load to a barge
below the ship.  If they have a good metals lab, machining ability and soon
can cast their own parts, they could build most of what they need.  I at
least would feel better if we did lose the gate."

   "Most of the equipment needed is in Japan at the heavy industries sites.
They are not open or being used now days.  Our bank has claimed two of
these sites for lack of loan payments being made.  The welding equipment is
going to be a key for them.  It is something they don't have the ability to
do now." Dink was sure John was aware of this.

   "I seem to remember your sending me data on that equipment now." He
pulled the list up and read it over and was smiling.  "That is exactly what
they will need once they can make steel.  The plating equipment will be
invaluable to them.  But can we get this set up on just two hangers decks?"

   Joji now was sure that John would back off some.  "I will see that my
tech people make it work.  There are storage spaces that also are large to
use as well.  That plants equipment is at a shipyard, so loading the ship
will be no problem.  With the nuclear reactor they will have power for many
years to come.  They will use far less power than if underway.  But we will
supply refueling rods to assure time is on their side."

   The meeting broke up and Joji went to send his brother the information.
That at least did not require a given time of the month to happen.  He
worked quickly and made sure all the data was there.  Having a good safe
anchorage was going to be critical.

   As Hideki sat and read the email he had gotten he saw Joji's grand plan.
It was brilliant and really very simple.  The ship would be his advanced
machinery building shop.  But he was going to have to make iron and steel
to use it.  There just was no free lunch any place.

   Storm rolled into to the office and noticed Hideki deep in thought.  "Am
I interrupting you?"

   "No, not at all.  Joji is getting another ship ready to come to us.  My
guess is it will take three months or more before it is ready.  It will be
our machine shop for building new equipment.  He said he would have the
machinist needed to run the machines on it included with the ship.  So we
will be able to train new people to operate that equipment."

   "I assume that is a good thing?" Storm had not understood a thing Hideki
said.

   "For getting off on a tangent I am sorry Storm, as I keep forgetting
your lack of knowledge in our world.  We use machines to make parts that
when assembled work together to perform a task.  The elevator coming up
here is one type machine we can build.  The rifle I shot yesterday is also
a type of machine we can build.  But enough of things your not yet familiar
with.  Have you found a plan for us to use short of war to bring people to
us?"

   "I think I have a starting point.  You need to offer trade, some low
technology things and defense agreements with any who come request it. 
Here is an agreement for rulers to look over and make some basic decision
on." He handed Hideki a written sheet of paper.

   The paper offered a free pass to enter Hideki's kingdom for a kings or
rulers ambassador.  He could bring one officer of military leadership and
they would be shown Hideki's ability to help them defend their kingdom or
country.  There was no demands or costs for the representatives being in
Hideki's country.  Lodging, food and transportation when here would be
covered.  They could become part of the kingdom, request defensive help or
stay as they are now?  But for those that decided to stay as they were, no
trade would be allowed with other countries belonging to the confederation.


   "OK I see your point, as it makes us look like trade is our complete
goal.  But are the rulers going to buy it?"

   "Some will and some won't.  But those we do get will start the process.
You had little trouble with the people out as far as my father's lands. 
His people need to give copies of these notices away on trading missions.
But all those mountain people trade with many other clans in the mountains.
It is not nearly as sleepy as it looks.  You have made them wealthy and
they will want to show off their goods."

   "This idea of girls being given to seal the relationship with me is
going to get out of hand.  How do we limit this?"

   "Here and now that can't happen unless we conquer the country.  Now if
we take the country by force no wife is required.  But we will lose some
men and that seems like a bad idea right now."

   Phillip walked into Hideki's office.  "We have that old monk you asked
us to watch for.  He is a real pain in the ass.  The man has taken on three
different men and fought them.  There was no winner or loser each time."

   Storm was laughing now.  "That has had to shock him as he has always won
until I beat him.  Then Joji beat me badly."

   Phillip had slowly started to get to know Storm.  "The man is very good.
But his system is just different from ours.  There is no advantage open to
either man fighting."

   "It was that way to start with Joji and I.  But he soon found the hole
in my style and used it.  So I know there is a hole, but not what it is?"

   Phillip now also was very interested.  "Is it possible to find out what
the hole is sir?"

   Hideki pulled out the book and opened it to the pages covering the
fight. He handed it to Storm and allowed him to read what was said.

   The smile spread on Storm's face now.  "He did not beat me I beat myself
according to this." He handed it to Phillip now.  As he played the fight
over he could see what Joji saw now and it made sense to him.

   Phillip saw it also and knew he could teach his men to handle this
style. "We can learn to adjust to this.  Give me another month and every
fighting man will be ready for this style.  Thank you both for the help.  I
will have the monk brought to you after he has had time to clean up and
eat." Phillip left the office.

   "He does not know the monk Hideki.  He will be here before he washes and
eats.  You are the Emperor here and he will show you the respect you
deserve.  It will be very interesting to see how he handles this new
world?"

   When the monk arrived he fell to his knees and bowed to the floor.  "My
Lord and master thank you for seeing your humble servant so quickly." The
man stayed where he was and never moved a muscle.

   "Please rise and sit with me.  I would like to hear your opinion of the
many leaders here you have come in contact with."

   The man stood and bowed to Hideki.  "I would be most honored to give you
my humble opinion.  With my own eyes I have seen how your people conduct
themselves and am greatly impressed.  Your fighters are better than any I
have seen before.  Yet they are kind and courteous to others.  I saw no one
being like the solders of most areas I have traveled.  They are not as well
equipped or trained as yours, but they are over bearing.  Your men are
relaxed and confident in the company of their officers.  The officers are
willing to ask questions and listen to what the men have to say.  That is
not something I have ever seen before."

   "Please sit and lets talk for a time.  I may be the Emperor here, but I
also am just a man.  When it is possible Storm and I just sit and discuss
the problems I see in front of me."

   "I feared by now he was dead.  To see him looking healthy now is very
satisfying.  It was known he was at deaths door before you got to him. 
There was no way I could have gotten to him and did what your people did.
But how did you save his life?"

   "The assassin was giving him mercury in the drugs he dispensed.  It was
mercury poisoning that was killing him.  The idea was to prove the work our
doctors did for him caused his death.  We have removed much of that metal
and he is now getting much better.  It will be at least 2 months before he
can start working on getting his knee back in shape."

   The monk looked closely at Storm and saw he really was much better. 
"How do you take out what someone has put into him?"

   "The doctors use chelation therapy to remove the metal from the body. 
Our medical abilities are far advanced to the abilities of people here at
present.  We will be training doctors for our mountain tribes aligned with
us.  It is important that people have long safe lives.  A good doctor helps
that to happen."

   "But the people are willing to die for you.  How can they reach that
goal if a doctor is always healing them?"

   "Having people die does not serve my needs.  I need good strong fighting
men to defend our lands.  Having them go into a battle and die means they
cannot fight the next time.  It means they stop having children for the
next generation of fighters.  We have much land we need people to populate.
Far to many have died to young in this world."

   That was nothing the monk had ever heard before.  "People have a value
to you?"

   "Life has a value to us all.  The man who dies today may have been
someone you badly needed twenty years from now.  So yes life has value and
we need to save everyone we can.  Any war needs to cost us as few lives as
possible."

   "I have never heard that said before.  But I can see it is true.  Today
I have learned from you and that has not happened before either.  You
listened to me and showed me a new way of seeing life.  It is curious to me
why I did not see the value in life you do?  But in this land it has always
been treated as if it has little value, unless you're a ruler."

   "Here my life has no more or less value than anyone else's.  We as a
group are a team and each depends on the rest to do their part of each job.
Success comes from everyone meeting the goals.  We each must do our part
for anything to happen.  If done well and by the plan, it will turn into a
winning action.  But failure is always mine to accept."

   This was very different from the way other leaders felt.  Failure was
always someone else's fault.  "I have never heard a leader say that.  It
always seemed like failure was an orphan, with everyone pointing someplace
else from the top down."

   "That just does not work here.  I make the decisions and must take
responsibility for them.  Others just follow my directives.  That means if
I am wrong they will fail.  But if the succeed they do get the credit as I
did not take the actions they did."

   "That is most unusual as it reverses the way all other leaders think."

   Snow walked in carrying a tray, with the two girls assigned to Storm
behind her with trays.  Once all were served and tea poured they left.  The
three men continued to talk far into the afternoon.  Hideki was learning a
lot about life and cultures here and it was very different.  Here men of
power just took what they wanted.  If they could not take what they went
after, they would be attacked and killed by someone who wanted what they
had.  It was a very brutal system and left little room for errors.  The
meeting broke up with the dinner hour set for them to dine together.

   Storm headed to take a nap and the monk was shown to his room.  The
older man was allowed to bathe.  The girl who helped him was a very sweet
young lady.  He did enjoy talking with her about this new land.  The things
he did find was people were not worried, they all had food and everyone
worked here.  They all were paid for the work they did and had free medical
care, education and places to live.  Hideki owned the land, but people were
farming it on a shares basis.  Their share was a percentage of the total
incomes produced.  Business was owned by him also, but people also got paid
based on the income and profits.  It made the hard working and industrious
very good incomes.  None of their income was taxed by the ruler.

   He could see much here that would be of interest to many people he had
known over the years.  But every leader he had known would fight it.  How
it worked here he still did not understand, but he was going to find out.
This was just too important to him not to move as far forward as he could.
Hideki had said common people often owned land, homes and building in the
other world.

   Here no one but the leader owned any land at all.  Yet his people made
very good incomes.  He charged them no taxes and still profited.  This was
different from Hideki's old world the man knew, but he was making this new
one work.  He could see the work Hideki was putting into this.

   He was looking out toward the sea as the large ship came into view.  He
could see it was big, but not just how big?  So he kept watching, as the
ship grew bigger.  He had heard of these ships from prisoners during the
conflict.  But the leaders had just laughed them off as imagination.  Now
he could see they were real and not just something dreamed up.

   As he watched the ship came into the bay and dropped its anchors.  He
could not identify the materials it was made from.  It was a sure bet it
was not wood.  That he could see from the smooth side of the ship.  He
watched the men moving on the deck and saw this odd machine brought up. 
The blade started turning at the top and then it slowly lifted into the
air. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.  The thing came into the
palace and landed at the front gate.  Three men and one woman came out of
the machine.  Then it rose and went back to the ship.

   There was so much new knowledge it was hard to spend the time each new
thing deserved.  This was a learning experience for him and one he would
never have again he was sure.

   Storm came rolling into his room and he saw he looked much better now.
"I see the nap did you a lot of good."

   "Yes I seem to tire easy now days.  But the doctor says it is from the
mercury still in my system.  That should with time change.  What are you
looking so intently at?"

   "The largest ship I think I have ever seen.  I was trying to think of
what it could be made of?  I have never seen anything like it before."

   "It is a metal called steel.  I have been on that ship when they did the
work on my knee.  The entire ship is made from that metal.  From what I was
told it does not sink because of the amount of air inside the ship.  It is
like a clay jar.  If you put a stopper inside one it floats.  If you take
the stopper out it fills with water and sinks.  So making a ship out of
metal does not make it sink, as long as the water stays outside it."

   "That make sense to me now.  But why is it so big?"

   "It is bring many new soldiers and citizens here from Hideki's world. 
You will find it also has needed machines for building a port and harbor
here.  They are serious about building their world here to be the best.  I
can assure you there is not a leader here who could fight them and win."

   "I don't see how that is possible?  There are many great fighting men
here with large armies.  As few military people as Hideki has I can't see
them standing against many of these."

   "Do you remember how the mountain fortresses were destroyed?  That is
the kind of power Hideki's military has.  They have weapons than no one
here has seen before at least not if they never left here.  They can kill
men at distances you could never believe.  The massive explosions and fires
they caused in the mountains can also happen on flat land.  Other soldiers
would refuse to fight them and they would run away.  No leader could hold
them, as the first ones to fall with no known reason and seeing no one to
fight would cause panic.  It is why we are trying to bring the people to us
rather than fight.  They would just go underground and fight a war we could
not win.  Of course we also would not lose, but it would cause more
problems than it is worth."

   Here the old monk was not sure Storm was right.  Yet he did not have
enough information to argue this.  So he just sat and listened.  After a
time he saw Storm's point and could agree.  "I think your right to attempt
to win peoples trust.  No one here has ever tried that approach before.  So
expect people to have doubts at first and not to be willing to give you
their full trust.  But many will be willing to try your way of forming
bonds."

   The two men headed to the dinning room for dinner.

   Snow was just seeing where things were headed.  She had backed off
staying close to Hideki with the monk here.  She did not wish to create a
bad situation for him with the old man.

   Sorry people but I have had an eye accident and will be doing no more
writing for a time.  It is going to require some surgery.  So I am having
this sent to let everyone know why things have stopped for now.  Once
healed and feeling back to normal I will finish this!