Grantville Gazette, Volume 46 by Eric Flint

Author:Eric Flint [Flint, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Action & Adventure, Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Space Opera
ISBN: 9781618248718
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2013-02-28T18:30:00+00:00

Ein Feste Burg, Episode 7

Written by Rainer Prem

Chapter 9: Too Hot

Jena Lokschuppen, Jena, Saxe-Weimar County

May 1633

Nikki Bourne didn't exactly know why she was here.

One year ago she had started a chicken farm in Grantville—something she thought she was good at—but then the Croat Raid came, and the Croats had torched the farm and killed all her chickens and her future.

Then she had concentrated to get the best grades in her senior year, but now she still didn't know what to do after graduation, which was due soon.

When the principal announced that the senior class of the Grantville Tech Center would arrange a career day at the R&D facility of a new railroad company in Jena, and that the senior class of the high school, her class, was invited, too, it seemed a good idea to her to attend. But now she was the only high school girl among all these tech geeks.

The whole morning had been full of information about the jobs and training as machinist, surveyor, engineer, etc.—that the facility (everybody here called it Lokschuppen, even if there was not a single locomotive or even tracks to be seen)—had to offer for the tech center and high school graduates.

But manual labor was not exactly fitting for her. Ninety pounds, five foot high—or short— delicate, blond. Not a figure to operate one of these enormous lathes they had been shown or to haul a twenty pound theodolite through the wilderness.

At least Marshall Ambler, the guy who was in charge here, had promised to talk about office jobs in the afternoon, not that that seemed to her like a primary target to aim at.But what was her primary target?

Now was lunchtime. The large canteen was already nearly full of Germans, when the Grantville students—eighty percent of them Germans too—arrived. They got their share of vegetable stew and dark bread and now she looked around for a place to sit down.

"He, Püppchen, willste dich setzen?" Her German was not perfect, but "sit down" was something she could easily understand. And when she saw the friendly faces of some young workers—cute, they had introduced dungarees and overalls here—she smiled back and sat down on the space they had freed.

"Hi, ich bin Nikki." She introduced herself.

"Johann," "Hannes," "Hanns," "Johannes," were the answers from the four boys around.

"Are you joking?"

"No, welcome to the Four Johns, as chief Marshall calls us."

They didn't speak the Grantville Amideutsch but German with an admittedly not too heavy dialect. Nikki had enough contacts with Germans since the Ring of Fire to understand them—as long as they were talking to her. But when they talked to each other, Nikki was left out.

So she concentrated on her stew and let her thoughts wander. Nice guys, but no nice job in sight.

Her thoughts traveled back to the table, when she noticed that the boys were studying a book. An American chemistry schoolbook.

". . . need a bowl of china . . ." Hannes was reading haltingly. Then translating "eine Schüssel aus China. . .

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