Secret Santa 2010
Dear Santa,
Thank you so much for everything! If you have any questions/comments, feel free to send them my way.
With lots of love,
Mayuko
Thank you so much for everything! If you have any questions/comments, feel free to send them my way.
With lots of love,
Mayuko
"Not yet, dearest," Granby says with a sigh, checking the time once again for the sake of it.
Iskierka hunches down again in a sulk, staring at the tarp covering the contraption in the center of the clearing. "I do not see why we should have to wait, the contraption is no good if it cannot work at any time we want it to."
If Granby had been less charitable, or if he had any hope of Iskierka taking it to heart instead of becoming more difficult about it for the remaining twenty minutes until the appointed time, he would have made a pointed comment about how being able to talk at any time she likes not meaning that anyone would be listening. Instead, he just pats her flank absently. "Eventually it will, I promise."
"If it does not, I will complain to Temeraire until it does," Iskierka says.
Granby sighs.
***
Temeraire had hauled the device back to his valley from Sydney Harbour himself. He hardly trusted Caesar or Kulingile with it, and besides, it was his, an especial gift from Perscitia sent all the way across the world, not something for just anyone to have, especially if they were not even present for the theoretical development of it. He could not say that latter point, precisely, of course, because Laurence was of the opinion that spreading word they had spent months two hundred years in the future of a strange alternate world was ill-advised. Temeraire supposed it was unlikely they would believe him, anyway, especially when he had not even been gone, to all appearances.
It is only barely morning, which is good, because Perscitia's letter had mentioned how she wasn't certain how well the circuits would function in extreme heat, and Temeraire supposes she hadn't managed to test that very much, back in England. They had arranged the time that way both for that reason and to make the time differences line up conveniently.
He had instructed Laurence and what volunteers he had managed to gather on how to wire the thing up, yesterday; it was not terribly complicated, and Perscitia had included a helpful diagram, but even so it took longer than he had expected, and he was glad he had done it ahead of time, as the others were only now rising from their beds.
Perhaps Temeraire had been awake a bit earlier than strictly necessary, himself, due to the anticipation, but surely that made more sense than sleeping in when something so momentous was about to happen. He waits impatiently beside the device for the others to gather and the time to arrive.
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The clearing Perscitia has arranged is a bit crowded. For some reason the last letter she had received from Temeraire had urged secrecy, and while she still saw no reason whatsoever to hide her invention, she hadn't quite expected that she would acquire so many onlookers. Even some of the men in her militia had brought along others to watch, and after some hesitance they squeezed in between the dragon spectators so they could see the device as well.
It made Perscitia a bit nervous; it would work, of course, she had run all the calculations herself and tested the components thoroughly, and it had worked before, on a smaller scale. It was only that the very problem she was attempting to solve made this test unsure, as of course she had not heard back from either Temeraire or Iskierka yet, and could not be certain their versions of the device had reached them at all, much less intact and functional. So she waited for her appointed time a bit warily.
When it finally came, though, she was very satisfied by the hush that fell over the crowd as she reached out for the main switch; it was built to dragon-proportions, of course, although even so she had to hook a single talon over it and pull it down.
An electrical crackle breaks the air, settling down into a buzz after a moment. Then, after an agonizing pause, something else breaks though.
"G...anby, it... on, why is it not... yet."
Part way into the sentence something else comes through. "Iskier... don... be silly."
"Oh! Oh, it is working!" Perscitia tries to restrain herself from showing too much excited surprise. "Only, I think the transfer is delayed a bit. I suppose I should have expected as much given the relay stations and the transatlantic cable. But it is still better than months."
"Perscitia, is... you?" Temeraire's voice comes through again. "Perscitia, it worked! ... calculations were correct!"
"Of course they were," Perscitia says smugly.
***
It doesn't take any of the dragons long to adjust to the lag times and static gaps in the conversation, and they are swiftly chatting excitedly about future possibilities. Even Laurence can see that this technology will be revolutionary, even given the vast amounts of effort that had gone into this one conversation.
"Temeraire, your time is waning," Laurence says in an undertone. "Your, ah... power supply is limited, correct?"
"Oh; oh yes, I am sorry. And here I have been monopolizing all the conversation. We have a few minutes yet; was there anything you wanted to say, Laurence?"
Temeraire's voice interrupts the others, after a moment, and there's a longer pause than necessary as Laurence is abruptly confronted with the decision of what he wants to say, knowing that his words will be carried across the world in two directions.
"Happy Christmas, John," he manages eventually.
"Thank you," Granby responds after the requisite lag. "To you as well."
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