Autochrome?'
'No, we have left Hans working hard on that problem back in Jena. If he, with the resources at his command, hasn't discovered the solution yet, then the two of us working together won't succeed. No, we need to think outside the box.'
'What is it the king wants?'
'The king wants to be able to take a photograph of his son and hang it across from his bed.'
'What about doing what Schmucker and Schwentzel do and just make printing plates?'
Phillip reached out a patronizing hand again, but Lips managed to avoid it. 'Okay, what did I say wrong this time?' he asked.
'One pleases one's patron not by replicating what has already been done, but by creating new and different things that he can show off. The printing process Schmucker and Schwentzel use is well known, and so not sufficiently impressive. What we need is something completely different.'
'But there are only so many ways to lay colors onto a surface to produce a color image.'
'The king doesn't know that. We only have to have something sufficiently different from everything else that it has the appearance of being unique.'
Lips chewed over what Phillip was saying. He fingered the T-shirt he was wearing, and suddenly had an idea. 'Phillip, are you familiar with staining slides so that cells are more visible under a microscope?'
'I've read about it, but never done it.'
'Well I have, in some classes in Grantville I sneaked into. You use dyes to stain the cells and various parts hold more or less dye so that you can see everything a lot better. Could I try something?'
'Of course.'
Lips made up some gelatin and poured a little into several watch-glasses. Then he added a different dye to each watch glass. Finally, he painted a design on several blank glass photographic plates, using one color per plate. When they dried he stacked them and held them up against the light.
'Very nice, now how do you paint a photographic image onto the plates?' Phillip asked.
'We don't. We photo-transfer the images. Lori showed me how to do it when she taught me how to silk- screen print. What images do we have in three-color?'
'Just the spectral lines, but I'm sure Dina would be happy to have a photograph of her and the twins.'
Lips shivered as he paced around the room. Phillip had been gone for hours. Surely it didn't take this long to show the king the new Gribblechrome, as they'd decided to call their new process. He pulled his leather jacket closer round his body.
'You wouldn't be so cold if you changed into something more suitable.'
He glared at his sister. Yes, his blue jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket weren't really warm enough in this room-why they couldn't have central heating like they had in Jena he didn't know-but what price comfort when he could look like James Dean? He ran a hand through his closely cropped locks. 'Phillip should have been back ages ago.'
'He's dealing with a king, Lips. Kings work to their own schedule. He might not even have seen Phillip yet.'
'Frau Kastenmayerin,' Frau Mittelhausen called as she burst into the room, 'the Doctor, they've just carried him home on a stretcher.'
Dina erupted from her chair and ran off. Lips followed.
****
'Can you tell me what has happened?' Lips asked the man who'd accompanied the royal guardsmen who'd brought Phillip home.
'I'm not really sure myself, Herr Kastenmayer. You have to understand, I wasn't there when it happened. However, it seems Dr. Gribbleflotz has been putting his health at considerable risk caring for the king. Dr. Stone's assistant saved Dr. Gribbleflotz by performing emergency surgery to remove a
Lips wanted to ask what a Mishawaka was, but there were more important questions to ask. 'Is the doctor going to be all right?'
'Oh, yes, Dr. Stone was most definite. The emergency surgery has removed the problem, although Dr. Gribbleflotz should be allowed to rest for several days.'
'How long will it be before the anesthesia wears off, do you know?' Lips asked, wondering what sort of pain Philip was likely to be suffering.
'There was no anesthesia. Actually, although there was a lot of blood, there appears to be no wound. A most amazing piece of surgery.'
Lips barely noticed when Christoph Seidel left. He was deep in thought, and his thoughts weren't pretty. Something was wrong here. He needed the opinion of an up-timer he knew and trusted. That meant writing Lori a letter.
****
A week later and Lips had a reply, and it reinforced his disquiet over what had happened in the king's chamber. Phillip hadn't been able to tell him much. He'd just shown the king the Gribblechrome of Dina and the babies when Dr. Stone and his assistant-the assistant who wasn't listed in the list of up-timers-had burst in saying something about his chakras fluctuating so dangerously the effect could be felt in the antechambers. Then there had been the surgery. Phillip had been adamant that Guptah Rai Singh had pulled something out of his body, even though there was no wound, or even a magically quickly healed scar.
Lori had called it 'psychic surgery,' and Lips had been left in no doubt she didn't approve. Corrupt fakery was amongst the more polite terms she had used to describe it. Which raised the question of why would Dr. Stone fake not only an illness-if fake surgery could cure a problem, surely the problem had to be fake-but also a cure?
Frau Mittelhausen appeared at the door to the office Lips was occupying. 'A gentleman to see you.'
Lips shot to his feet. He wasn't used to greeting anyone Frau Mittelhausen would class as a gentleman. The man who was guided in was a shock. Lips instantly recognized him as the king's private secretary-although he'd heard that Heinrich Niemann was the king's secretary the same as Frau Mittelhausen had been Phillip's housekeeper. The title didn't adequately describe just how much responsibility either of them had.
'Herr Niemann, how can I be of assistance?'
'I wish to convey the king's regrets for Dr. Gribbleflotz' illness and discuss a reward suitable for the risks Dr. Gribbleflotz has taken in caring for the king's health. I do hope the good doctor is recovering?'
'Yes, Dr. Gribbleflotz is almost fully recovered. Please, have a seat. Can I get anything for you? Tea, coffee?'
'Could I have a Tincture of Cacao?'
Behind Heinrich, Lips saw Frau Mittelhausen nod. 'Yes, that will be possible. Could I have one too, please, Frau Mittelhausen?' Lips returned to his chair behind the desk. 'Did the king like the Gribblechrome?'
'Yes, he was most impressed. And to get a result so quickly after making the request! Most impressive.'
Lips clamped down on his tongue before he could say the first thing that entered his head. This was the client he was dealing with, not Phillip, or even one of the people who attended his seminars. Instead he smiled and shrugged. 'Sometimes everything just comes together like that.'
'The king wishes to know how long it will be before Dr. Gribbleflotz will be able to create a Gribblechrome of his wife and son?'
'If we don't ask too much of the doctor, I'm sure we could start the process any time His Majesty is ready. It will then take but three days to produce a finished Gribblechrome.'
'Then there is just the matter of a suitable reward for Dr. Gribbleflotz. Before he took ill the doctor was talking about his Society for Improving Natural Knowledge by Experimentation, and how they swapped ideas about the new sciences.'
Lips nodded. He knew all about Phillip's group of natural philosophers. They spent half their time arguing over the most insignificant detail in the methodology of experiments they demonstrated.
'His Majesty believes that it would be beneficial to have a group of scientists keeping abreast of the latest developments in science and technology, and has decided that he will become patron of Dr. Gribbleflotz' society,
