section here at…” Damn, he didn’t have a name yet.
Ursala however, saint that she was, did.
“Wildlands Station. Sara Debri and I came up with it last night. We decided it sounded a little less “Austrans please come bomb us now” than “Tor base” did.”
He beamed at her, a bit of love touching his heart for the tall blonde woman at that moment. Both of them. It was so much better.
“Oooh, good point. So, Wildlands Station. Godfrey has those duties, as well as what he already has. But, obviously, Kolb needs to be in charge of his own section, since we’re going to be training what are pretty much the hyper-elite’s here. For that matter, if we ever come under attack, we want Kolb and his people to take command. Not all of Kolb’s people will be military; it will vary depending on the situation of the moment, so sometimes they might be… anything, even being military one day and something else the next. But while they’re here, they need to follow along with what Godfrey says, even if that means taking a beating, or mucking the stables. Not that we have stables and really, I’d like as little beating as possible… Um, understood Kolb?”
His head came up just slightly.
“That sounds fine. For now at least. I need a better description of what “my section” will be doing, I think. Still, I don’t mind dumping the discipline problems onto someone else. I’ll back your calls.” He said this last to Godfrey directly, getting a nod in return.
“Good. Now, um, we suddenly have a lot of women here, compared to a regular military situation. We haven’t had a lot of problems so far, but for the time being, I’d like for Ursala to be in charge of that? What this means is that, where the ladies, all of them, are concerned, she’s in charge, even if that means over ruling any of us. Functionally this shouldn’t mean much, I don’t think. If one of them gets out of line, Godfrey still deals with it, and all that, but if any special situations come up, girl things that I can’t even foresee, we dump it on her. I mean… Ursala is in charge?” Tor grinned at her hopefully.
The men didn’t seem unhappy with it and the Countess just raised her eyebrows at him and looked bemused. OK, he hadn’t asked first, but she was about the only one he could have do it. Sara was already military now after all and having two military leaders would have unbalanced things. Besides, if it became important, she was the only one he knew that could go head to head with both Godfrey and Kolb at the same time. She was a sitting Countess after all. They had to listen to her. Literally, it was an actual law.
“Good, now, what am I missing?”
A lot, according to the people around him. They needed more buildings, restrooms especially, but at least one more bathhouse, which Tor expanded instantly to two bathhouses, one for the ladies section too, which meant more water. They didn’t need more kitchen space yet, since what they had was incredibly overbuilt as far as that went, but they needed more cooks and bakers. He already knew that, but apparently if he wanted them fast, he was going to have to requisition them from the military, which may not work, because they were in short supply at the moment, A thing which he had no idea how to do at all. Godfrey would have to show him.
If they were doing that, then Godfrey wanted to put in a new shop so that they could keep up with the orders coming in for transports, which, if they did, meant more work for Tor personally. But then most things did. Ursala smiled and suggested that they look into getting some more girls as well, so Tor nodded and suggested that she do just that, getting with Madam Clarissa to find out what she’d need or want. It was her section after all. Of course she’d want it to grow.
Then, grinning, Ursala suggested that they get some boy whores too.
“Um…” Tor said brilliantly.
That was even a thing? Were there enough women that wanted such services here? Really, couldn’t the women just get some of the guys to do that for free? He asked Ursala who shrugged.
“Like the women, most will work for whoever pays them, they’re professionals after all.”
Instead of stammering or judging the suggestion through his own tiny moral window on the world Tor took a deep breath and shrugged.
“Right, well, you and Clarissa work that out, right? Um, I’m suddenly out of my depth here. Totally. I guess… Unless any of them want to cross train with Kolb, Ursala should be in charge of them too? The same is true the other way though. If any of the ladies want to work into Kolb’s section and make the cut, I guess that flips the other way. Confusing.”
Everyone else just agreed with him though, Kolb looking… Oddly considering, to tell the truth.
They also, it seemed, needed a supply depot and store. That way the men, and now ladies, could make small purchases without going all the way into the Capital or waiting until their off days to get things that are convenient from day to day, like soap or thread and needles for clothing repair. Boring stuff, but needed none the less. The physical building they could do, and having the goods shipped, well, they could manage that too, he realized, what they needed was a shop keep. There he drew a blank. Did he even know anyone that could do that?
Well, technically he did. Several. Sara could do the job for instance and Rolph would probably excel at it. He had all those people skills, and could even balance his own books, with his accounting background. The problem there was that Sara already had a military position that was more important than running a tiny store and Rolph was the heir to the kingdom. It would be funny to make him run a little operation like that, and probably a good experience for him, but he was kind of busy, what with the war and all. The only other person he knew personally that could do the task was… Dorgal Sorvee.
Whee, import your own bullies. Brilliant plan.
Tor decided to simply ask in the Capital if there was anyone willing to take up the task. It at least had going for it that it supported the war effort after all. No one paying attention could doubt that.
He left the others discussing everything that was needed and started making copies to see what he could get done before bed time. He was making decent time really, and had made a full batch of water heaters and to his surprise not one but ten full copies of the rivers for Afrak, which he’d thought might be too hard to do at first, but was decently easy, taking only about an hour for all of them, when he found himself being hit in the head repeatedly.
It wasn’t hard or anything, but came from two sides, alternating the thumping. Flicking really. First from a blond girl standing in dust covered leather on his right, and then from another, taller blond on his left, who wore something far cuter than leather, a thin shift that looked to be made of something like silk in a violet color and hugged below her bosoms accentuating them greatly. Ursala had larger breasts than he’d noticed before. He had an excellent view of them from this position, so he could determine that for a fact.
“There he is!” Sara cried out as if she hadn’t just been hitting him in the head.
“Alright, alright, I’m done, for now. Is there an emergency?”
Ursala chuckled at him and moved in to give him a hug that hit him square in the face with her breasts, since he was sitting on the bed. It was closer than he’d ever been to a breast on purpose he though. That he knew of for certain anyway. The soft thing against his arm the day before in the tub might have been one, but he wasn’t sure. Trice had… a few times, but those didn’t count. Not now.
“Yes. Its dinner time and we had to make sure you weren’t planning on going into a coma for another twenty odd days or something. You’re not supposed to be pushing yourself right now, kind of implied in the whole “taking a break for a few days” thing, don’t you think?” She grinned and held his head to her lovingly for a while, making him turn a lot redder than could be strictly healthy.
Dinner that night was decent enough. The bread was fresher than normal for the time of day and they had berry pie for dessert. He proudly pointed out that Sorlee had made it herself for them. That thought brought up the fact that the girl needed help baking if they were going to double the number of people again. He shook himself a little when he heard what Sara was saying.
“So, I told them that you’d have the letter ready to go out in a few days. Is that all right? I know it can’t be a fun thing for you to do, but the King and Queen both requested of mother, through channels, to ask me, to ask you. You see how this works?”
He nodded. Tor saw it clearly. They were ambushing him. Using a sneak attack. In his own home too. Poor form on their part.
Another thing for him to work on it seemed. Alright, what did he need most right now? Oddly enough, other than to finish dinner, and sleep, what came to mind were griddles for the kitchen. He thought he could do the heating devices for them before bedtime. It was a little more of a unique problem than he’d thought at first, but he’d done so many variations of putting heat in one place or another that it just didn’t take that long over all.
