JANISSARIES

2

Rick used charcoal to add another equation to the list on his whitewashed wall. He wished he had been a better physics student. He couldn't remember the basic equations of harmonic motion, and he wasn't sure he had derived them correctly. "Newton was one smart cookie," he muttered to himself.

The wall was covered with equations and notes and memoranda. One whole section listed things urgently needed, such as paper, and better lamps, and an adequate supply of pens and ink-all of which would be needed so that he could copy out a table of logarithms from his pocket calculator before its batteries failed. Another held the best data he had been able to obtain on crop yields. Next to that were diagrams of plow designs and crop-rotation schemes.

There were endless details. The work would never be finished; but it was more satisfying work than building the army had been. The raid had bought time, but now he could do something lasting. Tamaerthon could become a center of learning, a place whose security rested on something more solid than military power. If only he had decent light to work by…

When he heard the knock at his door, he turned with relief. The work was satisfying, but conversation was a welcome diversion.

Caradoc stood uncertainly in the doorway. "Come in," Rick invited. "There's good wine in the flask on the table."

"Thank you." Caradoc poured a cup of wine and looked curiously at Rick's charcoaled equations and the diagrams of the Tran system. Rick knew that Gwen had been teaching Caradoc to read, and the archer commander had shown a lot of interest in Rick's work in the past. Today, though, he said nothing.

Rick frowned. "Some problem, Captain? Speak up, man."

"I am concerned for the lady Gwen," Caradoc said. "She sits and stares at the fire, and wants no one with her. It ca

"Don't let her be. Stay with her."

"Lord, I try, but she has an evil temper."

"That she does." Lately she had taken to throwing things. Rick had long since given up trying to talk to her. He looked at his chalked calendar. Tylara had grown increasingly moody as well. Certainly the long winter had a lot to do with that, but she seemed to be brooding over something else as well- something she wouldn't discuss. I'm surrounded by unhappy women, he thought. Just when things are going so well.

Whatever Tylara's problem, though, there was a simple explanation for Gwen's moods. "Her time comes near," Rick said. "I do not have personal experience, but I am told that all women are hateful for their last days before a child is born. Especially a first child."

And, he thought, it would be particularly tough for Gwen. She didn't even know when the baby would come. The local day on Tran was slightly more than 21 hours long, and the gestation period seemed to have stabilized at 290 local days, as opposed to 270 on Earth; but would that be true for Gwen? No one knew. Straight mathematics; multiply 270 by 24 and divide by 21, and you'd get 300 days. How much of human physiology responded to hours passed, and how much to the day-night cycle? And was Earth's moon involved? Women's menstrual cycles seemed to coincide with Luna, but Tran's double moons were small and much closer than Earth's. Did they have an influence?

"You care for Gwen, don't you?" Rick asked.

"Yes, lord. And before the raid, I believed she cared for me. Now I do not know."

"She mourns her husband," Rick said. "But you are right. She is too much alone. I'll speak with her about it."

"Your boyfriend's worried about you," Rick said. Gwen sat close to the fire. She looked up without smiling. "Oh, leave me alone!"

"For God's sake, Gwen, snap out of it!"

"Why?"

"Do you think your problems are unique?" Rick demanded.

"Yes."

"Okay, I put my foot in it that time," Rick said. "Look, I've talked with the midwives. And Yanulf. They think everything's normal-"

"The medical experts," Gwen sneered.

"Well, they've delivered a lot of babies," Rick said.

"Sure. And lost a lot of mothers. Rick, I'm scared out of my mind!"

"Sure you are," Rick said. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Suit yourself."

"Thanks. Look, I've probably started a population explosion here, but I've taught them the begi

"You couldn't have. I've tried," Gwen said.

"You didn't go about it the right way. I told them diseases were caused by little tiny devils, and that blessed soap and boiled holy water would drive them away. They can accept that." He looked thoughtful. "You know, I maybe right about a population explosion. It happened that way on Earth."

Before the end of the nineteenth century, women often died of "childbed fever." But then came Ignaz Semmelweis with his theory that childbed fever was caused by physicians' dirty hands. His colleagues forced him to resign for saying it was their fault, but though he ended his days in a madhouse eventually enough of them believed him-after that most women lived to raise their children and have more. "There's no way we won't change things here," Rick said. "It isn't easy, but I'm trying to look ahead. Maybe we can avoid some of the problems we had on Earth."

"Maybe we can't."

"Look, dammit, snap out of it," Rick said. "You're working yourself into a depression. Keep it up and you'll get to me, too."

"I'm sorry," Gwen said. "I really am. But it all seems so futile."

"Why? Because we can't go home? We can make a home here," Rick said. "And-dammit, Gwen, we're more useful here than we ever were back on Earth. There wasn't much chance that anything we'd do there would change history, but we can here. We've already changed political history. We've got peace with the Empire and land to farm. Even if Marselius loses, we can hold those border hills for long enough to get in a harvest. With the new plows I've got the smiths working on, we'll triple the yields. We've helped these people already, and there's a lot more we can do!

"Sure, I've got an ambiguous status. The bards are trying to make up ballads about the raid, and they keep ru

"Gwen, we can start a university! Well, we start with grade school. But we can found a learning center that will really change this world. Look at what we can teach! Just the idea of scientific method and experimental science will bring on a revolution. And mathematics. We're not genius level, but we know more about geometry and algebra than was known on Earth through most of history. Medicine. Dental hygiene. Physics. Even electricity. I'm not up to transistors, but I can make batteries and vacuum tubes and-what the hell's the matter with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Rick, for God's sake-you haven't built radios, have you?"

"Not yet. I'm still having trouble getting wire. But-"

"Don't! Please, please don't." Her voice held genuine panic.

"I see," Rick said. He stood arid went to her, then took both her hands in his. "Don'tyou think it's time you told me about it?" he asked. "For God's sake, Gwen, what did Les tell you, and why can't you tell me?"

Tears welled in her eyes. "We're safe now," she said. "Just don't change anything. Oh, Rick, I'm scared-"

"I know you are. But I don't know why. Gwen, please. Please tell me."

She buried her face in her hands and wouldn't talk anymore.

Three days later a messenger arrived from the west. Drumold summoned his counselors to his great hall to hear the news.

The messenger was a young clansman who was proud of his mission. He said greetings to Drumold, then spoke to Tylara. "Six days ago there came to Tar Kartos a dozen lords and knights of Drantos. They had traveled in great haste and could go no farther. One lord asked if the Lady Tylara lived. All were overjoyed to learn you are safe in your father's hall. They then asked my chief to send a messenger to you, and I left that night. They asked me to greet you as Great Lady, Eqetassa of Chelm, and to say they regret they ca