"…And this is the barracks where we keep the Silhouette Knights." Arthur finished, indicating a largish stone building near the castle's western wall. "Your office will be built nearby for quick access, of course."
"Of course." Gojass agreed.
They entered the cavernous, gloomy building, and Gojass could not help but sigh when he saw the pitiful, outdated Silhouette Knight models that rested on their stone benches. There were only six, and he had a suspicious feeling that these six were the only ones Brittania had. They were old Zaloudek models, at least a dozen generations out of date. Two of them looked nonfunctional, their entire outer frames were open, exposing a tangle of Crystal Tissue fibers, stretched over a frame that had seen several lifetimes of use.
"These are your Silhouette knights?" Gojass asked, more than a little aghast.
"I'm afraid so." Arthur admitted. "They're not in the best condition…"
"I'd have thrown them out as scrap were I in Zaloudek." Gojass interrupted. "Even looking at them now, I can see that you're going to need to replace the entire frames if you want it to do anything more strenuous than a slow walk, much less fight anything."
"Well, that's the dilemma." Arthur agreed. "We don't have the resources to fix them ourselves, and despite what you may think of the treasury, importing the necessary materials would drain it completely, only for the Knights themselves to end up like this all over again."
"Nonetheless, this will not do." Gojass insisted. "I must have the proper materials!"
"This is why I hired you." Arthur answered, unperturbed. "War is like throwing money into a fire. It vanishes with no discernible effect. We need an engineer of your caliber not to make the Silhouette Knights more powerful, but to make them more enduring. I need a Knight that can last for a hundred years and still fight, not one that could wipe out an army and fall apart next week."
"I see." Gojass said, stroking his chin. "A challenge worthy of my talents. I will need a staff, of course."
"You have one, he's around here somewhere." Arthur replied. " GEORGE!" he shouted.
A bedraggled, graying head emerged from one of the damaged machines. "What?" a voice asked.
"Come meet your new boss, George!" Arthur replied.
"Agh, another one?" George complained, worming his way out of the tangled wires and cables. A rotund man emerged, saved from being fat only by his impressive height. His hair was a tangled grey mess, chunks of it missing or filled with what appeared to be mud. His hands were callused and exerted a crushing strength as he ambled over and shook Gojass' hand. A film of motor oil was left behind.
"Oratio Gojass, at your service." Gojass said.
"George Foreman, at yours, I guess." George replied. "What can I do for ya?"
"Why don't you begin by telling me what condition all these Knights are in, before we get into the supply of replacement parts and the overhaul cycles of the Ether Reactors?"
"Alright." George turned and pointed. "Dead, dead, dead, dead, mostly dead, fine." He indicated each Silhouette knight in turn. "As for spare parts, I've got two paper clips and a dead rat. The Ether Reactors haven't been overhauled since the gods created the world, but Number One, Four, and Five all still run."
Gojass pinched the bridge of his nose against a rising headache. "Then it would appear we've got a lot of work to do."
Gojass spent the next three days going over each machine in elaborate detail with George Foreman and the gaggle of part-time mechanics who sometimes assisted in the barracks. Gojass was informed that most of them worked as machinists or clockmakers in the city, and worked in the barracks as a sort of hobby. Most were young men and women who came to goggle the huge machines and pester George with questions as much as to actually help. The machines were, if possible, in worse shape than Gojass had first suspected. Many of their steel parts had failed over decades in the humid, seaside climate. Instead of pay the exorbitant fees to ship replacements all the way north, George had made the decision to carve replacements out of wood. They would never stand up to actual movement, but served as a mold for the joint, and served as a blueprint for the perpetually-delayed replacement.
The only highlight of the entire tour was when George showed Gojass the few small parts he'd been able to replace with the odd metal found of Brittania's coast. Gojass had learned the locals referred to the metal as "brittanium", and it was significantly lighter than if the parts had been made of steel. George revealed that the metal was not as strong as the Knight's armor plating, but it was resistant to corrosion and was lighter and thus easier to move around.
"It all seems to come back to brittanium." Gojass remarked at one point, hefting a small lump of it in his hand.
"We use it for as much as we can, up here." George agreed. "If demand weren't so high at home, we'd sell it to other countries. As it is, we mostly trade in wool or leather for whatever we need."
"And if a means to mass-procure brittanium were found…" Gojass mused, "It would have tremendous benefits."
"Without a doubt." Foreman agreed. "Not to mention how much lighter and more agile we'd be able to make the Silhouette Knights."
Oratio Gojass was bent over his new desk, installed earlier that week. He could already feel the next headache coming on as he stared at the expanse of rich varnished wood, empty but for three items. One was a pinkish-red stone, flecked with small spots of coal. The second was a small bowl of ocean water, more for symbolic reasons than anything else. The third was a lump of brittanium, uncut and lumpy.
There had to be a connection somewhere. Gojass was certain that these stones were an ore of some kind. Then there was the sea water. Further inspection had revealed that the entire island practically rested on a bed of the stuff he had elected to call "Box-ite", a reference to its status as a sort of mystery box, for there was something within it that Gojass was still missing. He had tried applying extremes of temperature and force, even setting up an Ether reactor to send thousands of units of mana through the stone. Nothing had worked.
For the hundredth time that day, thunder rumbled outside. The weather of the past two weeks had held true to Isak's prediction. Rain, from a miserable drizzle to a window-shaking torrent, was a constant on the island. Lightning flashed again, and Gojass watched the white-hot bolt strike the water far out at sea. Half a minute later, the rumble sounded again. Gojass narrowed his eyes as an idea began to coalesce in his mind.
Gathering up the lump of Boxite, Gojass stepped through the rear door into the Silhouette Knight barracks. George Foreman, as usual, was shoulder deep in Unit Four. Cables and piping spilled all over him, giving the appearance of a man midway through being devoured by some ancient sea beast.
"George, fetch a hammer and give me some help, please." Gojass instructed. "I may be on the verge of an important discovery!"
With a sigh, George extracted himself from the machine's embrace and located the requested tool. "What is it now?" he grumbled.
"Break this stone in half." Gojass told him. "Pulverize one of the halves, but leave the other whole."
As the ringing sound of the hammer filled the space, Gojass scavenged about to find a large curved piece of steel armor plate and sent Isak out with a bucket to fetch some seawater. The water, dust, and stone were mixed together inside the impromptu witches' cauldron, and Gojass stuck two graphite rods into the muddy mixture to serve as conductors.
"Now, how much mana can Unit four send through that?" Gojass asked.
"About fifty thousand, I think." George replied. With surprising agility, he climbed through the hatch and set about bringing the machine's Ether Reactor online. Gojass unclipped the main power cables from the back and attached one to each rod, taking pains to ensure they did not touch and cause a short circuit.
George Foreman threw the final switch, and the Ether Reactor hummed as it warmed up. Thunder rumbled outside once more, and Gojass grinned as sparks danced across the surface of the basin. The Ether Reactor whined louder and louder as Foreman eased the throttle wide open, and the murky water began to bubble and roil. There was a flash, and at once the mixture exploded. A hot fist of steam bowled Gojass and Isak over, a chunk of steel plating embedding itself in the wall above Gojass' head.
In the middle of a scorched crater on the floor, a small lump of silvery metal gleamed.
"I've done it!" Gojass exulted. "I have created Brittanium in a controlled environment!"
George Foreman crawled out of the Silhouette Knight's cockpit, coughing on the clouds of smoke that emerged with him.
"You and I need to have a long talk about your definition of 'controlled'." He said.
"Yes, yes." Gojass swatted away the objection like a bothersome gnat. "I think the king will want to hear of this."
"Well done!" Arthur grinned like a child for a moment. "Will it be difficult to mass-produce?"
"Not at all." Gojass replied. "And once it is mass-produced, I've had a few thoughts of my own on the usefulness of brittanium."
"Do tell."
"It's a light metal, but still somewhat more fragile than true steel." Gojass explained. "This makes it poorly suited to form the structures of a Silhouette Knight, as we would need to make each piece about forty percent larger to hold up the same weight or stand up to the same impacts. I have a few ideas that may alleviate these issues, but The larger picture is this. These same properties that make it ill-suited for ground combat make it ideal for flying machines, which depend much more on maneuverability and speed than sheer strength. Therefore, I urge you to consider devoting your resources towards the creation of a Flying Knight Corp rather than continuing to use the outdated Zaloudek models."
"A Flying Knight Corp?" Arthur mused. "Well, you've certainly proven yourself so far. I'll assign one of my engineers to test out your methods of artificial brittanium production, and we'll begin work on a refinery once the concept is proven. Until then, keep working on your flying machines."
"With pleasure, Milord." Gojass bowed and made his exit.
The micro-Levitate ship (name subject to change) was rolled out from its place in the stables, and Gojass set tow work, disassembling its main structure and sails. He took a brief stock of the parts before hunching over his desk to begin drafting. The basic mechanism of the Levitate Ship need not change. But several ideas had been fermenting in Gojass' brain during his long flight to Brittania. He sketched out the basic setup of the Levitate Engines, then added a pair of large triangular sails, set on the same plane. The structure around the control seat would be lengthened and narrowed, for air to better flow over its surface. The last new addition was a pair of large divots near the nose, taking advantage of the craft's forward movement to direct Ether-rich air into the Reactor.
The result, Gojass concluded, was an odd-looking machine indeed. It bore a passing resemblance to some sort of bird, but it was all hard angles and aggressive, sharp-looking points. Gojass penned his name at the top of the blueprint, along with the words: "Type 1 Air Striker"
[Author's note: a few liberties have been taken in describing the aluminum refining process, but the overall concept is a result of a very thorough reading of the Wikipedia entry.]