"S. M. Stirling - Sea of Time 03 - On the Oceans of Eternity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

Scanned by Highroller.

Proofed more or less by Highroller.

Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.

PROLOGUE
August, 1240 B.C.

August, 10 A.E.тАФNeayoruk, Kingdom of Great Achaea

"But Lord Cuddy, why does the interior of this furnace have to
open out?" Augewas asked. "It made the construction much
more complex than the earlier ones."

William Jefferson Cuddy, onetime corporal in the United
States Marine Corps, onetime machine-tool operator with
Sea-haven Engineering, and currently ekwetos and Master of
Engineers to the High King of Great Achaea, stopped his
thoughtful pacing. Production scheduling for something as big
as a steel mill was a nightmare, even for this miniaturized
antiqueтАж especially when even the executives he had to rely on
were mostly ex-peasants who could barely comprehend that "on
time" didn't mean "in a while, maybe."

Even if you explain twice about the big hand and the little
hand, with diagrams and a boot up the ass, Cuddy thought. A
simple technical question was a relief.

"Ummmm," he said, racking his brain and looking up. The
interior of the furnace was dimly lit by a shaft of light from
above, more brightly by the kerosene lamp the slave behind them
held. It smelled of rock and fresh brick and mortar, and the
special firebrick and calcinated limestone that lined it.

"Ah, stuff gets bigger when it gets hot, right?"

The Achaean architect nodded.

"So when we put the ore and flux and coal in at the top,
they're pretty coldтАж"
 Behind Augewas Cuddy could see the Achaean's son and
apprentice Philhippos rolling his eyes, left hand resting proudly
on the cased slide rule at his belt, and fought down a grin. The
younger Greek was at the stage where you just couldn't believe
the ignorance of your old manтАж just about the age Cuddy had
left home in Milwaukee to enlist in the Crotch with parental
curses and a flung beer bottle following him.

Of course, Philhippos had grown up in the new world Cuddy