Chapter 13

Archer sat at a desk in the office overlooking the shipyard floor, studying a collection of documents and blueprints intently.

Sol entered the office.

“Archer,” Sol said.

“Yes, Sol?” Archer looked up from the documents.

“Something happened, and I think you should know about it.”

“I’m listening.”

“As you know,” Sol began, “the artificial people you painted and I brought to life were taught to play musical instruments. At first, only the drums, and later about a dozen other instruments.”

“Yes, I remember,” Archer said.

“Today, we had one of our regularly scheduled tours of the shipyard for the citizens of Ramman.

“As usual, the tour was conducted by one of our artificial workers. Worker Number Eighty-Nine.

“At the end of the tour, one of the visitors gave Eighty-Nine a xylophone.

“The visitor suggested that Eighty-Nine try playing it.

“He did.

“Within a few minutes, he had taught himself how to play the instrument and was performing melodies familiar to the visitors.”

Sol fell silent.

“Yes, and?” Archer asked.

“Archer, Eighty-Nine taught himself to play a musical instrument he had never encountered before in his life.

“We never taught any of our artificial people to play the xylophone.

“Other instruments, yes.

“But not the xylophone. I’m certain of it,” Sol said.

“That means our workers are capable of learning on their own.

“And acting independently.”

Archer scratched his forehead.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” he asked.

“More than anything, it’s strange,” Sol said.

“We created machines designed to follow instructions precisely and never deviate from what had been programmed into them.

“And we gave them very few instructions.

“Self-directed learning was not one of them.”

Archer remained silent.

“What are you saying, Sol?” he asked after a while.

“I’m saying that we are dealing with a new form of life capable of improvising independently,” Sol said.

“Are you suggesting we do something?” Archer asked.

“No,” Sol replied. “I’m simply informing you that the artificial people we created are capable of going beyond their programming.”

“Is that dangerous?” Archer asked.

“Not at the moment,” Sol said. “But we should keep an eye on the situation.

“If these workers begin deviating too far from their programming, we may have to deactivate them.”

“Do whatever you think is right,” Archer said.

“Yes, Archer,” Sol replied.

Sol walked over to Archer’s desk and looked at the documents.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“King Panfred gave us a catalog of technologies from their colonial era,” Archer replied. “These technologies are far more advanced than anything they have today.

“For example...”

Archer flipped back about fifty pages in the catalog.

“This. Look, Sol.

“It’s a ship capable of leaving the atmosphere and traveling into space.

“A spacecraft.”

“Incredible,” Sol said.

He moved closer to examine the description and technical drawings in greater detail.

“Are you going to paint one?” Sol asked.

“No, Sol. Not yet,” Archer replied. “But someday, we definitely will.”

“May I look through the catalog?” Sol asked.

“Yes, of course.”

Archer handed the thick document to his companion.

Sol took the catalog and rapidly flipped through it.

He was capable of absorbing information almost instantaneously, so he needed only a fraction of a second to look at each page.

After going through the entire catalog, Sol said:

“Remarkable technology.”

He handed the catalog back to Archer, then walked over to the windows overlooking the shipyard floor.

Construction of the second ship was well underway.

The iron workers were hard at work.

Several human shipbuilders sat nearby, watching them.

“I’m ready for the next step,” Sol said. “Creating more artificial workers.”

“Glad to hear it,” Archer replied. “How many iron mannequins should I paint?”

“None,” Sol said.

“I want to create the next artificial people without your involvement.

“I want the existing iron workers to build the mannequins themselves.”

“Out of iron?” Archer asked. “We don’t have the specialized foundry equipment for that.”

“No, Archer,” Sol replied. “We’ll make the next workers out of wood.

“I want to make the process as simple as possible.”

“How many new workers do you want to create?” Archer asked.

“I don’t know,” Sol replied. “As many as my own fragmentation will allow.”

The following day, timber was delivered for the construction of the new mannequins, and shipbuilding operations were temporarily suspended.

The iron workers began carving new artificial workers out of wood.

The machines also assembled the speakers from components delivered to the shipyard.

Sol brought each completed body to life with his wand.

And so the second hundred artificial people came into existence.

The second hundred did not join in the production of more humanoid machines.

Instead, they went to work building ships.

Sol and his original hundred artificial people went on to create another five hundred and thirty-two machines before Sol was finally forced to stop.

“I feel as though my soul has been fragmented to its limit,” Sol told Archer.

“I don’t want to divide myself among any more artificial people than I already have.

“There are seven hundred and thirty-two of them now.”

“That’s more than enough, Sol,” Archer assured his companion.

“No, Archer. It’s not enough,” Sol said.

“I want to see more of them.

“But for now, that’s impossible.”

Once the hundred iron workers had passed their shipbuilding skills on to their wooden counterparts, production at the A&S shipyard accelerated.

Wagons loaded with timber could barely arrive and unload before every piece of material they delivered was put to use.

Within a week, it became clear that a frigate—the most common class of ship in the Four Crowns—could now be built in just six days.

At that rate, given a single year, A&S could build the largest military fleet in the world.

There was only one problem:

A shortage of crews.

It was time for A&S to master the art of sailing the skies.

Only one experienced crew of sky sailors remained in the entire Kingdom of Ramman:

The crew of the Green Ripper.

They were given the task of teaching the machines how to operate a flying ship.

For ethical reasons, Archer and Sol had no intention of allowing the machines to perform actions that directly harmed another human being—even an enemy.

The cannons, for example, could only be fired by humans.

But even in battle, there were plenty of tasks the machines could perform.

They could carry ammunition.

Load the cannons.

Repair holes in their own ship.

The human crew taught the machines everything, including the skills of combat—not so that the machines could fight battles themselves, but so they could teach future generations of humans the art of sailing the skies.

Numerous training flights followed, with both the crew of the Green Ripper and Sol’s machines participating.

Months passed.

Eventually, the Archer & Sol shipyard took on another role:

A skyfaring academy where new human sailors were trained.

The machines played an active role in the cadets’ education, serving as instructors and teachers.

The King of Ramman wanted to put as many ships into the sky as quickly as possible.

Ramman itself was in no immediate danger. The combined fleet of Tonki and Paoriana was not powerful enough to attack King Panfred the Second’s heavily fortified city.

But Panfred wanted to show the coalition exactly what his new shipbuilding system was capable of.

The king believed that military strength was the key to securing a peace agreement on his terms.

And so, after just seven frigates had been built and crewed, the king proposed a far more ambitious project:

The construction of the largest ship in the world.

Sol designed the vessel in collaboration with Ramman’s finest naval architects.

The new warship would carry a crew of eight hundred and be armed with two hundred cannons.

And these were no ordinary cannons.

They were exceptionally large-caliber weapons.

The ship’s wooden hull would be so thick that standard cannonballs would be unable to penetrate it.

They would simply bury themselves in the massive layers of timber.

Apparently, word of the construction of this titan among ships had reached the other kingdoms—particularly the allied kingdoms of Tonki and Paoriana, with whom Ramman had recently gone to war.

The A&S shipyard was repeatedly targeted by saboteurs working for the enemy kingdoms.

But despite fires and explosions, the project survived, and construction continued.

At one point, the king asked Archer what he intended to call the enormous ship.

Archer said he would name it the Arrow.

Thanks to seven hundred machines working around the clock—and Archer using the magic brush around the clock as well—the Arrow was completed in just two months.

Experts estimated that under the military shipyard’s old system, a vessel of this size would have taken at least two years to build.

The A&S Skyfaring Academy began training eight hundred cadets who would eventually become the crew of the Arrow.

It was then that Prince Glimorsky appeared at the A&S shipyard for the first time since the private shipbuilding company had been founded.

“Long time no see,” the prince announced.

“Your Highness,” Archer said, unsure what to expect from a man who might have been changed by his newfound power.

Glimorsky laughed.

“I’m ‘Your Highness’ to the royal court and foreign diplomats,” the prince said.

“To you and Sol, I’m just Glimorsky.”

“All right, Glimorsky.” Archer smiled. “What brings you here?”

“I’ve come to meet the largest ship in the world,” the admiral said.

“The king is placing her under my command.

“The crew of the Green Ripper and I will form the core of the Arrow’s crew.

“And the king wants to give the Green Ripper to you.”

“I’ll gladly accept the Green Ripper,” Archer said.

“That’s the spirit,” Glimorsky said. “When are you going back to your world?”

“Soon,” Archer replied. “I was planning to build two frigates for myself, but now that I have the Ripper, I only need to build one more.

“Other than that, all we have to do is finish training the Arrow’s crew.

“Then we’re free to go.”

“And when will the crew be ready?” the prince asked.

“Two weeks,” Archer said. “But they’ll only have the basic skills. No practical experience.”

“Yes, I know,” Glimorsky said. “They’ll have to learn on the job.

“They’ll get their experience once we take to the skies.”

“What does the king plan to do with the Arrow?” Archer asked.

“Diplomacy,” the admiral replied. “The king wants to negotiate a ceasefire and make the people who attacked us pay reparations.”

“And if they refuse?” Archer asked.

“Then we have two hundred large-caliber arguments,” Glimorsky said, completely serious.

“We will not accept no for an answer.

“Paoriana and Tonki made a grave mistake when they attacked the previous admiral.

“Now they can pay for it.

“Or we’ll take what we’re owed by force.”

“Aren’t you worried the Arrow might be destroyed?” Archer asked.

“No, Archer. The coalition has nothing left that could pose a threat to a ship that large,” Glimorsky said confidently.

“You probably don’t know this, but when Admiral Fenrik’s fleet was destroyed, the coalition fleet suffered heavy losses as well.

“Fenrik made them pay dearly for his life.

“They don’t even have enough ships left to finish their war with Darcia.

“Now that we have the Arrow, we have the most powerful fleet in the Four Crowns.”

Archer said nothing.

“All right, enough talk,” Glimorsky said. “Show me around the Arrow.”

A couple of days after Prince Glimorsky’s visit, Archer was painting cannons for another frigate when a woman dressed as a shipyard worker entered the construction hall.

Archer noticed her almost immediately and lowered his brush.

The woman approached him and extended her hand.

“My name is Kaori,” she said.

“Archer,” the Painter introduced himself, shaking her hand.

“Listen, Archer, I’ll get straight to the point.

“My employers would like to meet with you privately.

“They believe they can offer you more than Panfred the Second can.”

“Who do you work for?” Archer asked.

“I can’t tell you that,” the woman replied. “But believe me, you’ll be interested in what they have to offer.

“All we’re asking for is ten minutes of your time.”

“I’m sorry,” Archer said. “At the moment, I have no interest in intrigue or secrets.

“How did you even get in here?

“Did you get past the guards?”

The woman smiled.

“We’ll be in touch,” she said.

She turned and walked away.

Archer let her go.

He returned to painting the cannons.

But a few minutes later, he began to feel dizzy.

“Get a doctor,” he ordered one of the artificial workers. “I’m dizzy.

“I may have been poisoned.”

“Order understood. Executing,” one of the wooden workers replied before running toward the infirmary.

The dizziness grew worse.

Archer leaned against the wall of the workshop, then slowly lowered himself to the floor with his back against it.

He felt as though he were about to lose consciousness.

He grabbed the brush and tried to imagine an injector containing a universal antidote.

But when he raised his hand to paint it, his body stopped obeying him.

The brush slipped from his fingers.

Archer tried to pick it up.

Then he lost consciousness.

When he came to, his head was still spinning slightly.

He opened his eyes and realized he was lying in a hospital room.

Five medical workers in white coats stood nearby.

Sol was standing by the door.

“What happened?” Archer managed to say.

“You were exposed to a paralytic toxin,” a doctor said. “You’re in no danger.

“We administered an antidote, and your bodily functions should return to normal shortly.”

“It was the woman,” Archer said. “She was wearing shipyard clothes.

“I shook her hand.”

“Yes,” the doctor said. “It’s quite possible that the toxin entered your system through the handshake.

“We thoroughly washed the toxin from the surface of your body and administered intravenous fluids to counteract its effects.

“I expect you’ll be able to walk again within a few hours and return to work within a day.”

Archer looked down at himself.

His armor was gone.

His clothes were gone.

His brush was gone.

“Where’s the brush?” Archer asked, suddenly alarmed.

“Sol, where is my brush?”

“Stolen,” Sol said.

Archer tried to get up, but his body still refused to obey him.

“Sol!” Archer shouted with all the strength he could muster.

Sol walked over, placed a hand on Archer’s shoulder, and said:

“We suspect agents of Tonki and Paoriana.

“A woman matching the description of the one seen at the shipyard is wanted for questioning.

“We’re searching all of Ramman.”

“Damn it,” Archer managed.

“Sol, without the brush, we’re nothing.

“Without the brush, we’re trapped here...”

“Archer, we’ll do everything in our power to get the brush back,” Sol said.

“King Panfred knows what happened. He has promised to help.

“All we can do now is wait.”