Heaven's Bridge

    When you have lost everything in life all that remains are memories. For Varan there was no place filled with more memories than Heaven's Bridge. Since times immemorial the members of his family had been buried in this ever growing mausoleum. Before there even was an empire the noble line of Sagras had laid their dead to rest here. At first in catacombs carved into the rock deep beneath the earth, later as the earth did not want to yield any more they started to build upwards into the ever open sky. When Varan had been child he had been filled with pride and awe seeing the Bridge extend beyond the clouds. His ancestors had built a mountain reaching higher than even the peaks of the Shakrash mountains to the south. There was nothing else like it. A symbol of the great destiny of his indomitable house. A bloodline that would not be stopped; not by man, not by nature, not even by the gods themselves.
    These days when he walked through the cold stone corridors past the beautifully carved doors leading to the suites of the dead the only thing he felt was shame and the deep cold of grief.

    "Hubris." he muttered to himself. "Hubris..." he said his voice dry and cracking, he had not used it in a long time. The words escaping his mind while he wasn't paying attention. It had been there all along reminding him and the world what the ultimate destination fore everyone was, regardless if they be peasants or emperors.
    He had thought of Heaven's Bridge as a monument to the tenacity of his bloodline. They had survived whole eras of history rising to the greatest heights, falling to near ruin, but always, always persevering to grow again into a new resplendent form.
    "Hubris." he spat. It was there in front of him, in front of the court, in front of the entire bloody world warning them that the only thing that was certain in this world was death. The one constant that was always there throughout the history of house Sagras.
   
    He had not seen the ruin inching ever closer, he had been distracted. At least that's what he told himself when he begged sleep to take him for the night, while in the far corner of his room death was watching him with a condescending smile. The empire was in declining. The vassal states getting ideas of independence. The fools. It was unity that kept them alive, unity that upheld civilisation, unity that made them strong. Imperial unity not the fickle consensus of the masses who followed whomever's voice was the most honeyed, nor that of the council of the noble houses driven by their unquenchable envy of each others power. It was the true unity brought by house Sagras the only noble bloodline to have survived since the dawn of history. They who had left behind artefacts even before the age of the first great chroniclers. Even now archaeologists were unearthing artefacts from a time now mostly forgotten on a continent they believed newly discovered bearing the crest of the imperial house.
    "Hubris." half choked by tears.
   
    Emperor Varan Sagras LXVII last of his bloodline, bent by old age and broken by grief in a way only the strongest will could be warped and crushed to arrived in the tempest halls. Here was the entrance to great spiralling stair roads leading from its very foundations all the way into the heavens. The heat of the deep catacombs rising towards the topmost floors above created the raging storm that gave this part of the tower its name. He gripped his staff of office tightly with both hands, working his way slowly towards a carrier, pushing against the storm. It took all of what little strength was left in his desiccated body to reach the cylindrical metal carriage container. Trembling with exhaustion he barely made it to the door at the lee-ward side of the cylinder. The carriage was a splendour from the seventh dynasty, wrought from precious metal, and polished hardwood, made to work for centuries but above all else to awe those who laid their eyes on it. The metal forming the shapes of the great predators of the eastern lands, the wood engraved to mimic its overgrown plains and forests. Hands shaking he opened the door and entered. Inside after closing the door there was only perfect silence, in here the storm had no power, was denied any presence. Here he could only hear the  drained beat of his heart and his fluttering breath, nothing else. At first. Then little by little the room around him started to resonate with him, coming alive with a deep lethargic hum. He sat down in the seat in the front of the carriage facing the main window. The wind could not be seen or heard from this place. He let himself fall into the control seat its cushions rushing forward to catch him as he fell, gently, almost lovingly, seating him. He closed his eyes finding for a brief moment a semblance of peace. The resonant hum around him shifting into a deep languorous drone. As he relaxed sleep finally approached him, but as always sleep brought memories, of fire, of disease and of war. Before his eyes his wife, his children, his cousins, uncles and aunts, his brothers and sisters one by one where plucked away from him. Again.
    He forced eyes open, staring out of the window pushing the dream away and with it the memories.
    It was time to move on. He laid his hands on the controls of the carriage activating the ancient machine. Outside it unfolded it wings of woven gold, catching the wind, absorbing its raging power, converting it into fluid motion. The craft moved right into the tempest towards the stair roads. The actual bridge to heaven connecting the depths of the earth with the sky above. The wise scholars of the empire had ascended to the Heaven's since the days the tower touched the clouds. To study the sky, the stars and the winds. Or so they said. Secretly they were all looking for the edge of the realm of the gods. A fact the gods at first found amusing until one day many centuries ago the sage Lirna of Tharas Falls noticed that it was hidden within the air right where the clouds could reach no higher. That lead to the first ever diplomatic incident between humanity and the gods leading to the Celestial Incident a few decades later. A time of great glory for the Sagrasan Empire.
    "Hubris." said the Emperor as his carriage took him past the celestial ring where the first embassies to the gods were built.

    By now the stair road was getting calmer, even the wind lost force these heights, the carriage now mostly moving through the energy it had accumulated before. Varan left behind the stone blocks that had been used to build most of the tower entering the very tip which was wrought from living crystal and transparent metals a structure that defied nature and the gods. After the wind had failed, Varan knew that it was now as silent outside as it was inside his craft. Here even the sun began losing its power. The sky outside now visible through the translucent wall shifted from dark blue to the black of the void of space, the first stars becoming visible.
   
    Not far now. He was almost there. He had reached the part where he knew the name of everyone one who lay here, the name and the person. Not far now. His body remembered before his mind did. His tears pooling into his dry eyes, recognising the grave of his great grandmother before his mind did. Shaliliana the Elder. For others the nigh immortal matriarch to the empire, to him the warm and loving woman who would always dote on him and never return from any of her many state voyages without a little gift. Now there was no one alive who was close enough to him to know that to this day he had kept Vyl a tiny cloth bear she had given him before he could walk. Vyl still sat in his office on the highest shelf, always watching over him, even now that he was an old man. For a moment the old emperor thought if it would not have been a better idea to not hide Vyl from the eyes of the others, but keep him maybe on a tiny chair on top of his desk, reminding his subordinates, that even he, Varan Sagras LXVII was a human like them. Maybe then... His tears washed away his thoughts.
   
    The carriage had reached its destination, it retracted its golden sails falling dormant again, while inside the emperor had to wait until the tears had washed away enough of his pain so that he could move again. When he finally stepped out his eyes where dull. For a short while he felt empty, a gift he was unable to enjoy but was deeply grateful for.
   
    With his head down he moved forward. He knew the way. He did not dare look up and see the exquisitely decorated doors leading to the tombs of his closest family. He knew better than to look at the walls etched with scenes commemorating their greatest moments in life. It was meant as a celebration for those who had come before, yet if he lifted his eyes it would crush him. No, he had to move past, he had to reach his own room. It was waiting for him.
   
    When he finally arrived at his final resting place he scrambled to the control panel next to the gate slamming the emergency button that would seal the room. The great doors thundered shut. Now he could dare to raise his eyes. The room of eternal rest itself was only decorated once the inhabitant had died. So he was now standing in a great hall with translucent walls the colour of white opal with a transparent celling above showing the stars in the black sky. In the centre of the hall stood his sarcophagus on raised part of the floor. Here he would lay down to rest for a final time, rejoining his family.

    "Not today." he told the universe. He moved towards the open coffin faint embers smouldering back to life in his eyes, a faint echo of his once great will. After his last niece was killed by the sword of enemy soldiers, sweet little Laha, the last scion of house Sagras, Varan had almost died with her. Almost. His grief had almost consumed him, then his anger burnt him giving way to suffocating despair. He was too raw, too wounded to die then. After calming down enough to feel the loss, a final drop in an ocean filled with regret, he could start to think again. His life, his dynasty, his empire, everything was over. In the end death had won. It had always been with them, following them wherever they went. They even built death a monument, the greatest that had ever been erected. Somehow they all had failed to grasp the warning growing ever taller as countless generations passed. Now after millennia of patience death made its point clear.
   
    "Hubris." this time his voice was calm. He just nodded to himself. He leaned his staff of office against his sarcophagus. He pulled a crystal rod from his coat. Warm to the touch, almost as long as his forearm, made from a dark blue stone. It had cost him most of the treasures left to the Sagrasan Empire and the sanity of many of the greatest sages of his time. Some of the more resilient sages despite their great wisdom did not know when it was prudent to remain silent. So with great regret Varan had to teach them virtue they lacked. He had laid them to rest inside the imperial mausoleum honouring their great work.
    His fingertips caressing runes into the warm almost pliant crystal, activating it. As the artefact came to live it consumed his, withering the hand and most of the arm that had woken it. The desiccated arm fell to his side, the hand turning to ash slowly raining to the pristine floor. He gently laid the rod now strobing in a strange rhythm onto the floor, pulled out his knife held it between his teeth and cut deep into his still healthy hand. As his blood splashed onto the sarcophagus he spat out the knife. He took back his staff of office.  He spoke the words, tapped the staff against his coffin opening his final resting place. The sarcophagus blossomed open its many arms expecting his body ready to wrap themselves around him to welcome him to his eternal rest. In stead of himself he gave them the blue rod, they took it and the sarcophagus collapsed into itself now pulsing with the blue energy.
   
    Emperor Sagras' eyes where now alive again. Death had come and taken everything from him. Destroyed not only what was dear to him but what he and his ancestors had fought so long to establish, to nourish, to protect. It had come to claim the greatest civilisation that ever was. But he would not allow it. He would not be broken. Death had claimed his realm, well Varan would claim the realm of death in return. The cerulean rod was now part of Heaven's Bridge extending its tendrils of power growing from its very tip down to the deepest foundations finding the dead which had the taste of the blood it had drunk. Using the life force of everything around Heaven's Bridge as a fulcrum it grabbed hold of the dead, ready to pull.
   
    Emperor Varan Sagras LXVII stood in front of what once had been his final resting place, now a throbbing ovoid mass of blue crystal light. He raised his staff of office high above his head ready to strike it down and return every single member of his dynasty who had been taken by death back into this world. 
   
    The staff crashed down.
   
    "Hubris."

Project Coffee Break Redux 015

Chapter 16
   
    The next day the sun was shining from a clear blue sky clearly enjoying the irony of the situation. The temperature was mild, a teaser for the soft embrace of spring that was still many months away. For the people the mill winter had arrived, cold and bitter.
    Jenny had started her day downstairs in the basement trying to sort through her paperwork, but the soothing quiet of the place felt cloying. Instead of relaxing her she felt in turn like an invader that was very politely being shown the way to the door or being slowly consumed by a feeling of peace that she was not disposed to give into. She was all shades of angry, icy shades of resentment, fury, exasperation. She knew that in the end she had to be reasonable, bring it all together again, shoulder the responsibility, blah, blah blah. In that moment she could see her again sitting in judgement in front of her smirking at her failure. She got up, grabbed her papers and left the fucking basement and its fucking, condescending feeling of harmony. This feelings had to run their course.
   
    Upstairs she first met Adrian, they just nodded at each other. Their alliance provided them with no comfort they< had not to convince each other but make allies, without resorting to screaming or snide remarks. That latter part proved the most tricky. In the main room Byron was keeping his head down working on brunch. Edmund was pacing around the main room, judging from his face he was tasting grapefruit in his mind. He stopped in his track when he noticed Jenny his face in the middle of experiencing one that was especially bitter.
   
    'You wanna talk?' his demeanour asked.

    'Not really..." answered Jenny's slitted eyes.
   
    'I'm on your side, all right?' he gestured with slow measured movements. 'You sure you don't want company?' he indicated with a subtle nod.
   
    She rolled her eyes. 'Whatever. Just don't be annoying.'
   
    They went outside where Thomas was pushing a drill into the ground with furious concentration. Judging from the sound the drill was working through hard stone, little plumes of steam drifting from the borehole, their dreams of becoming clouds dying as the slowly dissipated into the endless sky above. He was very busy concentrating on his readouts very pointedly not looking anywhere else. Bettina was nowhere to be seen. Jenny considered walking over the little stone bridge to the other side of the river to put some distance between herself and the stupid building but decided against it. The building was perfectly OK, it was more of a people problem. An acid laced glance hit Edmund who took a step back who worked hard on his patience.
   
    'Still on your side.' he grimaced.
   
    Jenny's shoulder sank in apology. The walked back inside. Somehow coming back inside made everything worse. She could hear Byron working where the kitchen was slowly growing out of the floor and walls. Linda could be heard working on metal in the milling room and upstairs someone else was hammering something into a wall. Everything inside Jenny balled up, for a moment her fight or flight instinct could not decide whether to run away screaming or to just go and murder everyone in sight. Edmund's hand gently descended on her shoulder, startling her. The hand waited for a moment and seeing that no one was trying to rip it off it gently squeezed Jenny's shoulder. Jenny inhaled air smelling of food, plaster and welding. She kept inhaling until the air inside was pushing against all the stress she was feeling. She exhaled slowly getting rid of a good portion of the tension. She nodded to Edmund without looking at him. She knew where she had to go. Upstairs. Into the room with the big chair.
   
    The room was just a cleaner version of what it had been before. The floor clear, the walls cleared of cob webs, with a provisional metal column holding up the ceiling. But the chair was still there. Still old, still facing the window. Still surprisingly comfortable. As she sat down she knew that she had found the right place to be. It was comfortable, it was comforting but it was open, it had enough space for her bad mood, her anger and all her little vicious impulses that felt so out of place in the tranquillity of the basement. She ignored Edmund who had sat down in front of her leaning against the wall lost in his own thoughts, instead she looked out of the window. Into the sky, the forest on the other side of the river, the trees swaying lightly in the wind. Right now, she knew she was being an asshole. Right here she was in a place where that was OK. The chair gave her support and the window ample room to project her anger and her petty impulses. And just like that her frosty anger started to evaporate in the light. Safe as she was she could not start to fill out the cracks her rage had left behind.
   
    "So." she finally said her voice sounding a bit coarse, she had screamed a lot in her mind. "Where do we draw the line?"
   
    Edmund moved his eyes to look at her. He did not answer for a while, some minute twitches in his face showing that he was working hard on finding the right answer. "I... I don't know what to tell you..."
   
    Jenny didn't say anything just looking out the window again waiting for her friend to find the way to his answer.
   
    "I'd say we draw the line where it counts. And that's quality. That's following your dream." he hesitated for a moment. "But then that's easy for me to say. It's your money, not mine. Encouraging you to waste it...", now he turned completely towards her. "That's another thing. I know how much this place means to you and I can't tell you how happy I am to be part of this. I haven't seen you this alive in years. Right now you are at peak Jenny. And I'm loving every minute of it. But I am starting to wonder at what price this comes and who is going to pay for it in the end. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm really on your side or if I'm rather on my own side enjoying the ride. Not so easy..." Edmund let his head sink.
   
    "You didn't answer my question." Jenny said still looking out of the window.
   
    "Well it's complicated."
   
    Jenny turned from the window to face Edmund. "The situation is complicated."
   
    Edmund looked up.
   
    "The question is easy." said Jenny. "Where do we draw then line?"
   
    Edmund gestured towards the papers. "Have you gone through the numbers?"
   
    "That's still not an answer to my question."
   
    Edmund squirmed under Jenny's gaze. "You can't just disregard the reality of your situation."
   
    "If all thing fail, can I crash on your couch?"
   
    "Of course... but I fail to see how..."
   
    "OK." Jenny said. "Now that we have proven that you are actually concerned about me and won't leave living under a bridge or even worse back at my parents, I want you to think about my actual question. Think about what would be the right thing to do and answer it." she stood up stepping in front of Edmund. "Where do we draw the line?"
   
    Edmund looked up at Jenny. "Under these circumstances I'd say... we do it right. Everything else and we are putting a lot of work and money into something that's flawed from the very beginning."
   
    "And if something goes wrong?" Jenny asked raising one eyebrow.
   
    "Then  will fix it." Edmund shrugged.
   
    Jenny smiled. "That's the spirit." she extended her hand helping Edmund up. "Now it's time to put our group back together."

Project Coffee Break Redux 014

    Chapter 15
   
    Bettina and Thomas merged into a single minded unit after having found common ground in the middle of their shouting match. After comparing notes Bettina got the entire east of the mill as well as the western corners, while Thomas got the middle. This lead to the relocation of Byron who was less than thrilled about the situation until Bettina bribed him with dreams of vegetable gardens that would be located in a perpetual summer. Byron noticing the trap commented that he had known about the green house since before her and her friends had arrived, he had even made plans of what to plant where. It was that instant that Bettina's trap closed, when she asked him to show him his plans and if he had thought about irrigation.
   
    "What is your opinion in little canals?" she asked.
   
    "I love little canals." Byron said while he imagined how his gardens would be supplied by tiny streams flowing through the garden.
   
    "Show me where you'd like to grow your vegetables and I can then help you with your canals." Bettina said gently pushing Byron away and giving Thomas a thumbs up behind his back.
   
    Thomas for his part focused his drilling to the space between the mill and Byron's trailer much to the latter's deep annoyance. This led to Byron fleeing inside and helping with the construction more, leading to a collaboration with Dan who had the idea of using tiles of a different colour to mark where the original wall had been in all the rooms that required tiling. Byron did come up with some interesting ideas about the colouring and gradients and one day later they started to lay tile lines along the walls to guide people through the building.
   
    "How would you ever get lost in here." asked Edmund who was not really complaining about the plan but rather wondering what the meaning behind it was.
   
    "You wouldn't." Byron admitted.
   
    "So why...?" Edmund was sure that he was missing something important.
   
    "Because," Dan said, "it's pretty."
   
    "There you go." said Byron.
   
    Edmund unfolded his arms following the carefully lead lines along the walls with his eyes, they did look like veins of precious stone shooting through the rock grey of the wall. "That is a very good point." he said.
   
    Outside Thomas kept drilling holes into the ground. A miserable fact of life that they all had forgotten for a merciful moment. The horrible sound of someone giving an unwilling rock a root canal was enhanced by someone pounding on the door. Edmund, and Byron flinched, Dan blinked in mild surprise.
   
    "Neighbour?" Dan said.
   
    Edmund sighed. "They say there is no bad publicity but I had hopped the people would come over here to ask what we were building instead of complaining about the drilling... Get the food ready Byron." This had become something that Jenny and Edmund thought of as guerilla marketing. Whenever someone came to complain about the noise they would get a free sample of the great food and tea and coffee they would be able to get once the café would open its doors to the public. It was more a guerilla apology.
    Byron jogged over to his gestating kitchen, Edmund went to the entrance while Dan shrugged continuing to look for the perfect place for the scarlet tile he was holding in his hand.
   
    "Good afternoon," Edmund said in a voice that was a mellow blend of genial and apologetic, "I'm very sorry about the noise, there are some very important studies being made but I'm being reassured that the drilling will be done by the weeks end." Edmund was being reassured by his sincere wish that the infernal noise would finally stop. Thomas was much more non-committal about that.

    "I'm not here because of the noise." said the young woman in front of Edmund. "I'm Sonya. You are Edmund." This confused Edmund, which the woman in front of him duly noted and added, "I'm your network expert." She tried a smile.
   
    Edmund looked at her for a few seconds longer, "You look different than on the picture."
   
    Sonya looked back at him blinked and when she noticed that this appearance thing was a problem she said, "New stage in life, new look. Hair open like the new opportunities, the colour the reds of a new dawn, face still the same though."
   
    Edmund looked at her more closely still failing to see the person he had seen on the screen of his phone before, when she had come recommended by one of his many acquaintances.
   
    Sonya was growing impatient. "You are Edmund, that is the watermill, this is the vision of the one called Jenny and you need someone to take care of the computery thingies. So either I am the one you are looking for or I am someone who killed her, are her and took over her life. Either way I'm the one you're looking for."
   
    "Why would I welcome a predatory shape shifter?" Edmund asked to distracted by the hypothetical scenario to not take it seriously.

    "Because you need wireless LAN." Sonya said.
   
    "Fair enough." said Edmund opening the door for the new arrival, "Should the internet not work I still have enough time to drive a stake through your heart."
   
    "That's vampires." Sonya said.
   
    Edmund shrugged, "It tends to work surprisingly well on all manner of creatures."
   
    The tour was by rights the purview of Jenny's however this time it was mostly Edmund who did it as Jenny was nowhere to be found. They started in the main room, obviously, then went through the still wide open kitchen and into the milling room, there they found Linda who had built herself a secret workshop which she had improvised out of blue building tarps, within she was assembling what she called: "the real generator". Lind was not really in a talking mood, she had one short friendly moment when she heard that Sonya would be working on the Internet situation but after that, her social resources spent she retreated back into her blue sanctum.
    Beyond the milling room they found Stu and Adrian working in silence putting the finishing touches on the walls of the store rooms in the east end of the mill. Adrian was politely monosyllabic as usual but today Stu was the same being deeply in the flow of his plasterwork pulling him out of it was both difficult and ill advised.
    The next stop was the basement as that was the place Jenny usually went to if she wanted to get some peace of mind or when she was forced to get order back into chaos that seeped into the project from all sides. No such luck, instead they met Byron squatting in a corner very carefully bending back an almost solid sheet of plaster, paint and wallpaper from the original rock wall. He was mumbling to himself. "Are these runes?" He dug his phone out of his pocket. "Need more light. Maybe..." he said shoving the phone into the gap between the wall and the cover it had grown over the ages, "... maybe I can take a picture?"
    Edmund looked at Sonya shook his head and lead her back upstairs. "That was Byron, I'll    introduce you later."
   
    They finally found Jenny in the top floor. Edmund heard her voice when they went upstairs. She was in the room above the milling room standing hands on her hips looking up to the the skylight above. Barbara was sitting on a folding chair looking watching Jenny with rapt fascination.
    "I really think that that's something that should be there." Jenny said.
   
    "Why would you want to put it there at all?" Barbara asked with utmost care making sure that Jenny would not feel questioned but encouraged to share more of her thoughts.
   
    "Because it feels right. This is a safe space." Jenny said her eyes still fixed on the skylight. "But this isn't a hideout, this is a shelter... no that's not quite it. It is a fortress?" she now shifted her gaze to Barbara, "Still not quite it. Whatever." she shook her head. "This is a rock in a storm and it needs to be a beacon, so that those who are looking for a safe heaven know how to reach it."
   
    "I thought this was going to be a café." Sonya said turning to Edmund.
   
    All tension drained out of the room, Jenny turned towards them. "Oh hi," Jenny said a smile working itself through the tension that had grabbed hold of her face. "You must be... er... Sonya, right?"
   
    "She sees, she understands." Sonya said to Edmund. She turned back to Jenny extending her hand. "A pleasure to meet you."
   
    "Hi, I'm Jenny and I'm very glad that you made it here." Jenny said shaking Sonya's hand with vigour. "And not a moment to soon I might add."
   
    "Really?" said Edmund who checked the room for signs that he might have shifted into a parallel dimension.
   
    "Yep." said Jenny. "We are about to put the finishing touches to the inner walls which means that now is the time to get all those network cables laid."!
   
    "It would actually be better to install..." Sonya paused thinking about how to best describe what she was envisioning, "channels? In the walls. So we can replace the cables if the need arises. Makes it easier to upgrade too."

    "That's a good point!" Jenny agreed. "Damn, we should have done that with all the cables and pipes. Like a modular way to build things... We should have called you in sooner."
   
    "Really...?" Edmund again who was suddenly feeling really tired.
   
    "Yes imagine how much cooler we could have made this place and with those tiley things that Dan and Byron are putting on the walls we would have a perfect way of masking them."
   
    "That does sound like a great idea..." Edmund said his voice now flat and without emotion. "Maybe we should travel back in time and tell you to listen to me directly instead of putting it off until the last possible moment..."
   
    "That sounds like a perfect idea." Jenny said leading Sonya out of the room to give here the tour. When she noticed that Sonya already knew the place they went looking for Adrian to talk about what they could do to realise Sonya's idea.
   
    That evening was dominated by a storm. The weather outside was mild for the time of year almost pleasant and the constant rain had and fog had retreated to open the view of the stars. The stars in turn looked at what the fog and rain had done and twinkled in a polite but unimpressed manner.
    Inside though it was all thunder and lightning. The heated front of enthusiasm for the 'wall channels' spear headed by Jenny and Adrian who to everyone’s surprise including his own was actually arguing in favour of destroying the work of the last two days was crashing into the cold disdain held by Stu and Claire who both thought that they had advanced too far just to go back on a significant part of the work to add something that added only little value at great cost.
    On the sidelines was Barbara enjoying the spectacle together with Sonya who was had left the discussion before it had escalated with a "It was just an idea..." and was now following the scenes with wide eyed fascination.
   
    "Are they always like this?" Sonya asked Barbara.
   
    "Oh no. Mostly this here is hippy central. You're lucky to be here tonight."
   
    "Lucky? I feel like the luck I brought was mostly bad."
   
    "Don't worry to much about it. This here is a crime of passion. Look at them, the fire in their eyes. There are strong convictions at play here." Barbara said.
   
    "Isn't that how the worst crimes happen?" Sonya asked still staring at the rising screaming war that was escalating in front of here.
   
    "Because it is the better solution, for fucks sake!" Adrian shouted one hand snapping forward to add emphasis to his declaration.
   
    Stu, deep red and trembling with more range than he could channel through his mild temperament seethed "Our solution is already good. It is fine. More than fine. We are working here on a strict budget, which by the way is running out rather quickly. And I don't know about you but I am not interested in working on a project that does not pay." He turned towards Jenny, the trembling ceasing for a second, "No matter how much I may like said project. No offence." he turned back to Adrian the trembling resuming. "So as you can see, it would be fucking disaster to ripping open all the walls we have already done."
   
    Thomas who imagined himself removed from conflict but was actually on Jenny's side said, "We will need to do a lot more pipework anyway. And you can simply uncover what you have already done and build the channel around it. Easy."
   
    "Easy?" Claire said her voice cold and vicious, attempting to strip the flesh of her target, "You are going to fuck with the structure of the building again. Again.", she added with a side of acid to give it emphasis. "You're project is truning from an already slightly crazy idea into a Kindergarten project. You need to make a plan and then stick. Too. It." her eyes glinted.
   
    "Crazy plan?" it was Jenny's turn and she was like slow burning magma. "The crazy plan is paying your salary. Apart from that this is the first time that I heard you say that this plan was anything other than a brilliant idea. Is there anything else you might want to disclose?"
   
    "I never said crazy was bad," Claire said, "and I'm working for a very modest fee here. Because I believed in you. Almost past tense. But this shit needs to move forward. It can't be stopped at every  twist and turn and change tack when ever you have a new fancy idea."
   
    "Fancy idea?" Thomas again but this time with a slight twitch in his face.
   
    "Yeah I'm talking about you and your geological voodoo and the green house what's that all about anyway?" Claire said.
   
    "We bring our own money and it is about sustainability. We all profit from it." Bettina said. She was sulking behind a bottle of beer and doing her very best to remain neutral in all of this.
   
    "Oh yeah. An what happens when your money runs out?" Claire asked.
   
    "Then," said Susanne who had been clenching her teeth the whole time and was about to crack them, "we are all fucked. We will leave with an unfinished project. We will have to take responsibility for the failure, our scientific work will be mediocre shit at best and our reputation will be ruined."
   
    This stopped Claire in her tracks.
   
    Stu asked, "So on whose side are you on?"
   
    "I don't know," Susanne said eliciting a choir of sighs, "yet. I'd have to go through the numbers and then decide. Adrian and Jenny are right, that it is better to do the best we can now, because it will be that way for ever. Nonetheless what you and Stu are saying also makes sense. The best idea is worthless if you can't make it real..." silence followed these words. The main storm front had passed but the tension remained.
   
    "How about this," said Barbara standing up. "We all heard each others arguments. We sleep over them and tomorrow we come back together, go through the nitty gritty and then draw some lines in the sand?"
   
    There where a few nods and some shrugged shoulders but no one was opposed to that idea at least.
    Barbara said back down observing everyone in the room.
   
    "Any one want dessert?" asked Byron.

Project Coffee Break Redux 013

    Chapter 14
   
   
    The weekend passed slowly, relaxing, gathering strength for the days ahead. Saturday was just planning while hanging around Barbara's, with Byron only pausing his musings to cook lunch and then dinner, while Jenny and Barbara spent most of the time reading, listening to music or talking about the different type of artists that exist in the world. On Sunday Jenny was alone in the mill walking into every room, trying to feel its essence and drawing red lines, literally with red chalk, on the floors to outline what could go where and then spent hours with colouring in the zones inside which the rooms may grow and shrink in white chalk.
   
    Monday started with the others being slightly bemused by Jenny's explanation of the markings on the floor. Claire who had thought she was there to have a finally look before she could return to her usual work sighed and talked with Jenny about those zones and which of them were impossible. Some new red lines later Claire decided to do some extra calculations, just to be on the secure side. Edmund more nervous than usual asked Jenny if he could start working on the flats upstairs. Jenny who had no problem with that idea in general, but she knew that something was not quite right. What Edmund was hiding from her was that he may have a friend, who might need a place to crash soon and who could not pay rent for the time being. But he protested, even though Jenny had not said anything, she, the new tenant would be able to help them set up their computer network. That was a new one for Jenny.
   
    "Computer network?" she asked casting some high grade doubt over Edmund with her expression. "Edmund, right now we have only one computer here. And that one is not even ours, it's Claire's"
   
    "Are there glasses for visionaries?" Edmund asked, expertly turning Jennies doubt into pure confusion.
   
    "What?"
   
    "Because for someone with such a great vision you are really short-sighted, may myopic, when it comes to some of the basic cornerstones of modern civilisation."
   
    "This is not going to be an Internet café." Jenny said still not knowing what Edmund's point was and trying to stop one possible idiotic idea.
   
    "Of course not. But first of all you and the other people living here might want to have access to the Internet. The patrons of your café would like some of that too."
   
    "I'm not sure if I want to have Internet in the Café.", said Jenny who hadn't really thought about this at all.
   
    "Please. Jenny. This place is only large enough for one hipster and that spot is already taken."
   
    "I thought because this is an old place and it is supposed to be something of a sanctuary, maybe it would be better that way?"
   
    "You are installing a cutting edge generator into the mill, which by the way I'm totally going to call the reactor, and we will have a bunch of German engineers here shortly who will build a greenhouse around the whole site and drill holes to heat this place by getting close to this planets eternally burning core. The only way this place could get any more Star Trek was if you got holograms to serve the food."
   
    "Now that you put it like that... We need Internet anyway. You are right. But why does your friend not have a place to stay?"
   
    "She's from Russia." Edmund said as if that explained everything.
   
    "OK." Jenny answered as if it did. "Just one more question."
   
    "Yeah?"
   
    "What's your problem with hipsters?" Jenny asked.
   
    "They lead such simple, minimalist lives, yet they put so much work into it. I... it... it's very confusing..."
   
   
    The Germans arrived on the late afternoon. Jenny could have mistaken them for three young tourists on a city adventure who, having lost their way had decided to ask the locals for help. The three got out of their battered red VW hatchback, that had seen better days but could not help itself of reminding everyone of them. At this point the tourist illusion began to break. They might still be tourists but they were tourists that asked directions while parking the car, all of them getting out and moving directly towards Jenny. She felt a slight urge to step back as the two women and a man walked towards her. Instead she stepped forward, stepping back was for Jennies who stayed at their boring job living a safe life, not her.
   
    "Hi!" said the woman in the middle of the group. "You must be Jenny." she extended her hand smiling. "I'm Susanne."
   
    "Pleased to meet you.", said Jenny shaking Susanne's hand, who had a surprisingly strong grip more used to tools than feeble human flesh.

    "And these are my friends a colleagues Bettina," she nodded towards the other woman who was more interested in the building than the pleasantries, "and Thomas." towards the man who could not quite decide which of the two things were more important at that moment. More handshakes.

    "We're the Germans." Bettina added.
   
    "Well I'm happy to see you." Jenny said. "I hope you had a good drive here?"
   
    Thomas was about to give an answer that was cut short by Susanne. "It was long and exhausting, I'll spare you the details for now. Why don't you tell us more about the Mill? Linda told us lot about it and we are very curious."
   
    "Sure, let me give you the tour, that way you'll also come to get to know everyone else. Except Claire our structural engineer who isn't here today." Jenny said leading them inside. It had by now become a routine to her. She started with the main room which was still mostly a dream in its current form, although it was now a much brighter room as Dan was busy breaking open the walls to make space for the new windows. Followed by the kitchen area which had Byron's newest design taped into the floor with him standing in the middle staring at it lost in deep thought. The the Milling room where Linda was disassembling the first generator to make room for the new one. They stayed here for a while as the three had known Linda for a while but this was the first time they had met in person since some conference that had taken place in Prague almost two years ago. After some smiling and nodding on Jenny's part who did not get most of that conversation she led them upstairs to the second floor which was the part of the watermill that had retained most of its original ruined character. The room where Jenny had fallen asleep was still there untouched. Most of the work so far had been structural reinforcement and laying the main pipes and cables. Then up to the third floor which now had a properly isolated roof to show. with a few marked sections where they had decided to put some additional skylights. Then they went down into the basement, the highlight, the bit Jenny looked forward most to. In every other instance she had to rely on people understanding what she was seeing in the place above. But down here, it was clear. By now she had gotten rid of everything that was broken, but left everything that was part of the place. Including the old posters, the layers of wallpaper and the endless graffiti. As always the reaction was almost immediate. Everyone felt it. However there was a slight deviation from the script this time around.
   
    "This is solid rock." Bettina said looking at the wall.
   
    "Yes impressive, isn't it?" Jenny said feeling pride for her titanic stone baby.
   
    Susanne turned toward Thomas. "You want to drill through this?"
   
    "Not if I can avoid it." he turned to Jenny. "Do you know how big this rock is?"
   
    "I'm not sure. what I can tell you is that it does not extend completely to the west. Who ever build this place extended to far in that direction and the last room in the north west is actually half stone and half brick work, which is also the place where the water came in. It does not reach into the river north obviously. How far it extends to the south or the east is anyone's guess though."
   
    Thomas sighed. "That means measuring. Fuck me..."
   
    Jenny wondered, Susanne answered, "He hates measuring. He thinks that it's and I quote 'work that any monkey could do', what he wants is for someone to do all the tedious work so that he can concentrate on the interesting bits." a pitying smile kept that statement company.

    "The real work happens after you have the ground mapped. I'm a designer. It's a waste of time. I could do so much more actual work if not for all this tedious shit."
   
    Bettina laughed. "The tedious work of measuring. Yeah, being a professional is sooo inconvenient..."
   
    "I am right though." Thomas said. "And once I earn proper money, I will have an assistant to do that."
   
    "Good luck with that." Bettina said still sniggering.
   
    "This makes part of our work harder." Susanne said, her crooked smile confusing Jenny.
   
    "You don't look very upset." Jenny said.
   
    "Oh, give me time and I will be upset, but the complications make this work actually more interesting as a project. If we can pull this off it will look great on our CVs. Which will mean paid work after university or even work at the the university. Also it is good for you as it will increase the chance of getting more third-party funds."

    "I thought your university and that EU grant paid for this project." Jenny said. apparently she said something incredibly funny as the three started laughing. First it was just normal laughter but it turned slightly towards the hysterical end of the spectrum as it went on. "Was it something I said." Jenny said deadpan not quite sure what to make of this development. She could not quite shake the feeling that they were laughing at her.
   
    "It's not your fault." said Susanne eventually, still gasping for air. "It tends to happen often when talking to mortals."
   
    "Mortals?" Jenny was now one step closer to being offended.
   
    "Normal people? Is that better" Susanne tried again, now much more serious than before. "People who live outside academia? There is still this picture of people at the university having endless funds, following their work where ever it may lead them. But in reality this is a total shit show. Our government back home hates to spend money on science. If you can't prove that it will be of economic value, that what you are doing will result in money made you don't get anything. Either that or prestige by publishing in the best papers. And even then you are... let's call it encouraged to go out and get other grants and funds if you want to get anything done. 'Go and ruin someone else' sums it up."
   
    "And we are the lucky ones." said Bettina who's expression was now grim. "We are engineers. We design and build the things that the industry needs to run. The humanities, the arts? Philosophers? These kind of academics are thrown to the wolves. I once talked to someone from an English department who said that their research library got their funds slashed by 50%. I asked him how much that was and it was about 6000 Euros. A year..."
   
    Thomas snorted. "We are going to spend more on drills in this week alone."
   
    "Still." Susanne said, "If we want to do this right, we need all the funds we can get. So this geologic miracle here will help us. We also have modernisation, sustainability and with a bit of luck conservation.
   
    "Good to know..." Jenny said. "So how exactly are you going to proceed, apart from applying to new grants?"
   
    "Bettina will take care of the greenhouse, she'll do the planning and oversee the construction. Thomas will do the measurements." Susanne ignored the groan. "While I will be working on the integration of their projects, with that of Linda's and yours of course. This is going to be interesting."
   
    That night the Germans joined the rest of the group for dinner. In the warm light of the provisional lighting hanged from the the ceiling by Adrian earlier that day they all ate and drank together. Afterwards when they were drinking the beer the German's had brought, Susanne commenting that they had to maintain the dignity of the German people by providing the world with first class beer, it was difficult to tell who had been there from the beginning and who had arrived just that day. Having had a bit too much social interactions that day, to many cases of facilitating the exchange of information, calming the frustrated, leading the confused to a point where they could focus again, Jenny was standing back from the group. She was leaning against a part of fresh broken wall that would soon become part of the window frame of the large glass doors leading into the garden. She felt the cold of autumn crawling into the room past the plastic sheets they had put up to keep the weather outside. But the cold was just peeking in, the people inside were sharing their warmth, keeping the chill if the night at bay. Jenny sipped her malty, unspeakably named beer and was in this moment perfectly happy. Behind her and in front of her were seas of stress, that from her point of view stretched to the horizon in each direction, but none of that mattered right at this moment. Right now she was on an island. In front of her were people from different countries, walks of life, ages and cultural faiths who were sharing food, and drink and stories with each other. The people were laughing, smiling or just content. This was, what it was all about. Outside time moved forward dragging them all along, some of them to better places others towards disasters large and small. But right now, right here if only for a moment they where all safe.
   
    The week brought a new wave of construction interrupted regularly by shouting matches between Bettina and Thomas. In German. Jenny would not have been surprised if a confused demon had appeared from hell thinking it had been summoned.  Somehow Bettina, who was trying to build the green house and Thomas who need to drill holes around the mill always wanted to work in the exact same sport at the some time. At first Jenny had tried to intercede too keep the piece only to get dragged into the maelstrom that were the 'discussions' between the two. The second time that happened she only realised that she had been part of the shouting after Susanne had carefully pulled her out of the combat zone.
   
    "If you get caught in the cross fire," Susanne said, "you'll just catch fire. Trust me I've been there."
   
    "Why can't they just relax for five minutes and just agree to work in separate corners?" Jenny said arms waving her voice still loud, tinged with an edge of murder.
   
    "If you or anyone else ever manage to find out how to do that, you'll win the Nobel price for peace. For some reason whenever these two work together..." she pointed at the two screaming berserkers, "that happens."
   
    "how can you work with them like that?"
   
    Susanne shrugged. "You get used to it. You learn the signs that show that there will be a new outbreak. That's the moment when you get your things and move somewhere else. I also think that it makes their work better..."
   
    Jenny was not convinced, to here it sounded a lot like improving a street by breaking it open and putting landmines into the holes. "How?"
   
    "I think they don't take it personal. And that somehow helps them improve their work."
   
    "You realise that you sound neither convinced nor convincing?" Jenny said.
   
    A slightly deflated Susanne said, "Yes. It's a hypothesis. It seems to help. I think. But I have no idea why it does."
   
    If it did help Jenny could not see it, as the situation kept escalating. At the end of the week Thomas and Bettina pointedly ignored each other even during dinner where the entire team came together after a long day of work to try one of Byron's newest creations. That Friday they found a new breaking point. Bettina was standing on the other end of the room facing away from Thomas only to turn around in a swift motion, pinning Thomas with wrathful eyes, screaming "Why can't you fucking stay in one fucking place?!"
   
    "Because the ground here is ridiculous!" he screamed back at her.
   
    "What is ridiculous is that you refuse to do you fucking job Thomas!"
   
    Everyone else in the room moved out of the way of the death rays that they were casting at each other. Byron looked like he was considering hiding in a bunker, Susanne didn't care one way or the other as long as she did not have to become part of the battle, while Barbara had grabbed a bowl of crisps and was watching the scene in utter fascination. Jenny found herself bewildered somewhere between Susanne and Barbara, wondering if she should get two buckets full of cold water...
   
    "I am doing my job." Thomas screamed.
   
    "Really?" Bettina shouted back.
   
    "Really!"
   
    "Why can't you then stay in one fucking place for at the very least a fucking day?" Bettina moved towards Thomas index finger pointed at him, stabbing him from afar.
   
    "Because nothing about the ground her makes sense. The rock we are standing on extends in unexpected ways." Thomas moved towards Bettina chin stretched out, his brow a storm front. "And the ground is all wrong!"

    "How can ground be wrong?" Bettina asked her face now moving close to his, "Did you have it make a quiz?" she hissed.
   
    "It's cold." Thomas hissed backed.
   
    "It's autumn." Bettina said, openly placing a 'you idiot' between the lines.
   
    "It's cold for a long way down." Thomas returned the idiot, "As you get deeper the temperature tends to increase. But it doesn't. It does not fluctuate. It just stays at exactly at 4°."
   
    "Oh really?" Bettina was back to shouting.
   
    "Really!" Thomas matched the volume and added a growl to it.
   
    "That's fascinating." Bettina said her eyes growing wide, all the aggression falling off her at once.
   
    "Right?" Thomas said now also to engrossed by the phenomenon to keep up with silly things as radiant anger.
   
    "Show me the data."
   
    "Sure."
   
    Leaving the rest, minus Susanne, utterly confused behind they moved to the milling room to pore over the data on Thomas' laptop.
   
    "What...?" Byron said, slightly shaking finger pointing towards the door where the two had left.
   
    Susanne was pouring herself an extra large glass of wine. "You'll get used to it." she said, "now they'll start producing results."
   
    "What's wrong with the ground?" Jenny said staring at the floor.
   
    "Don't know." Susanne said. "Well find out soon enough."

Project Coffee Break Redux 012

Chapter 13 First light.

    "Do you have the champagne bottle ready?" Jenny asked Edmund, who answered her by holding up a bottle that had been so well chilled the condensation was starting to freeze over.
   
    "Very good. How about the bottles that are supposed to survive?" she looked at Claire and Barbara who were ready. "Glasses?"
   
    "All clear." said Adrian who was holding a tray with empty glasses, as was Stu.
   
    "What about the artificial sun?" Jenny asked looking at Byron who was standing on top of a ladder trying to screw a torpedo formed light-bulb into a socket hanging as far as anyone could tell in the perfect centre of the milling room.

    "Almost done." Byron said. "Although I would like to repeat that this is a very bad idea. These are really bright. Like painfully so."

    "We heard and ignored you the first time Byron. So, are you ready?"
   
    "Yeah," said Byron. "I'm ready." and climbed down the stairs.
   
    "Take it away Linda."

    Linda went to the northern wall to pull the big lever that stopped the waterwheel from turning. They had repaired it today when Linda had been putting the finishing touches on the prototype generator after they had noticed that they had never seen the waterwheel move, even after they had put it up-right again and repaired the central shaft holding it in place. After some frantic searching they had found a hole in the wall close to the floor that they had not noticed up until that moment as it was clogged up with debris. Cleaning it out revealed another round wooden shaft, which was connected to the 'break' of the waterwheel. It were Barbara and Adrian who found out how the mechanism worked, not 100% there was some kind of mechanism inside the wall they did not really understand, but enough to repair it.
   
    "This isn't right." Linda said shaking her head. "It should be you." she signalled Jenny to come over and pull the lever.
   
    "Good point." said Jenny. She walked over to the lever gripped hold of it, "Here goes nothing." and pulled it.
   
    Nothing happened. The smiles in the group grew nervous.
   
    "It should work." grimaced Linda, "There is resistance from the generator, but not this much."
   
    A slight vibration went through the entire room. Jenny, Edmund and Claire all moved towards the walls looking up at the ceiling. Adrian looked at them snorting. "It's safe. Don't worry." A bit of dust came raining down gently from above. It took Adrian a bit of willpower but he stood his ground confident with dogged determination. The roof held its position.
    The drive-shaft creaked very slowly starting to move, gently pushing the generator to live. The first revolution of the wheel took ages but after that it started to gather more speed, making the generator sing in a deep bass tone. The light bulb slowly came to life started to glow in a faint red glow which increased in intensity until no one could look at it directly any more. When the wheel had reached its normal speed any attempt to look directly into the light was met with groans and grimaces. The light bulb now shone like a tine sun hovering in the middle of the room, sending a spear of light through the windows above into the hazy night sky.
   
    "It's too bright." Edmund protested.
   
    "Then stop looking at it." said Jenny herself half squinting into the general direction of their tiny star. "Linda, can I assume that everything worked?"
   
    "Some things worked." Linda said, the only person in the room not trying to look up at the new light but instead focusing on her laptop computer which she was holding at a strange angle to better see what was on the monitor. "We obviously are producing power, and the output is decent. But the power output is a bit shit, really. The generator took to long to run and now that it is running it is doing so much slower than anticipated. However we are right now producing more electricity than we are using so for the first time ever, this place is actually earning money."
   
    "That's brilliant." Jenny said. "How much are we making?"
   
    "Right now a couple of quid per hour." Linda said.
   
    "Oh..." Jenny said.
   
    "No need to be disappointed, this was just a test. Things are, basically, working. Now I'm going to collect data which will help me build the second prototype which will be closer to what we actually want."
   
    "Another prototype?" asked Barbara, her eyes slowly coming alive with the glint of her instincts catching the scent of prey. "So this one is just...?"

    "This one is just a quick and dirty proof of concept. This gives me an idea if the project itself will work and how it does. Once I have collected a robust set of data I can actually design a new generator that works with the peculiarities of this place. I will find weak points, unexpected strengths. And with that I will build the first real prototype."
   
    "So this is basically just junk?" asked Jenny how was slowly sized by a loving embrace of disappointment.

    "No not junk." protested Linda, "this is really important. This is about fact finding. A step most people love to ignore. This would be junk if I just put there and call it a day. It's also the junk you would get if you had gone to most, so called professionals," she grimaced as she said that word, "they would have fit you with the best thing they could have come up with and then left you alone with what ever crap they sold you. Should you complain they would tell you that it's your fault because the circumstances don't allow for anything better. Lazy off the shelve trash. But you get bespoke tech. And it will be at the very cutting edge of technology because I will take that blunt instrument," she pointed at the humming generator, "and will whet it myself until it has become sharp enough to cut light."
   
    "Hear, hear!" Jenny said toasting Linda, shrugging off the disappointment
   
   
    The next day everyone was back to working on the project. Jenny was helping Byron install a first stove and some appliances in the space that would once become the kitchen era. The old walls had gone leaving marks on walls, floor and ceiling if where they once stood, while the new walls were slowly growing around the room guided by the patient hands of Adrian.
   
    "Maybe," Byron said looking at the room, "we could put up a kind of tent? We could use plastic sheets or something to isolate the cooking area and I could start cooking here?"
   
    It will be weeks until the kitchen is even close to ready." Jenny said. "Are you sure this is such a great idea?"
   
    "Yes. No." Byron looked around in frustration, "I have no idea. Consider this though. Linda is still working on the generator, she is starting with something that works good enough but she is taking in the... building, the circumstances, to make it perfect. Apart from that you told me that this was a living project kind of thing were things grow... as they grow."

    "I think that was more Edmund's insane idea." Jenny said.

    "Doesn't really matter who thought about it first but, I think it is a good idea. We can start working on it right now. We all need to eat, this needs to become a good kitchen and right now it can become the best possible kind of kitchen for this place. Look around? Nothings done yet, we can still decide if we want the wall to be over there or maybe not wall at all? Maybe we don't even need so much space. Right now, we can still move everything..."
   
    "I won't move this wall." said Adrian without looking away from his work.
   
    "We still can move and change a lot." said Byron.
   
    Jenny did not answer for a while. Instead she looked around, blanking out Byron's pleading form and Adrian hunched at the gestating eastern wall. She went back to feel the place. It had changed. The constant smell of fresh cement as well as the now constant supply of fresh air had removed a lot of the original aura of the watermill. In a way it had washed away a lot of the magic that she had felt when she had first entered this place. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. At first it was just the smell of a fresh building shell. This did not smell like a safe space, but like somewhere where you sneaked into in the cover of darkness with you mates to have a drink, explore a house that was yet to be and imagine what it would once become. But there was more. It took her a while to grasp it. She could feel the basement, the solidity of the rock radiating out from underground, connecting it to the building above. The idea itself was strong, the real presence of the place around which the building formed. She turned slowly until she could sense the bright blinding light of the tiny star in the mill room, hear the deep murmur of the generator. Sensing the light, hearing the generator, feeling the spirit of the place she slowly came to understand the situation.
    She opened her eyes again, turned back towards Byron.
   
    "You are right. Right now this place is wide open. Everything that needs to be here to keep the roof up is in place, we have a source of power, but this is far from done. This place is still gestating. And right now we have the chance to find the perfect shape for everything else. You need to build your little experimental kitchen yourself. But on the plus side you get to build the kitchen yourself."
   
    "Thanks." he said looking around imagining several different versions of the kitchen, when he stopped turning back to Jenny, "Wait, does that mean you're not going to help me with this anymore?"
   
    "What?" Jenny said confused for a second. "Oh. I will still help you with getting things done. But the hard part, the thinking, the designing. That's now on your plate... I'm not sure if that qualifies as a pun and if it was intended."
   
    "I'm as confused as you are, but that was horrible. I think." said Byron.
   
    "Could you kids please shut up and let me do my work." Adrian said still looking at his fledgeling wall.
   
   
   
    The weekend was strange. Jenny had become used to the mill being loud, bright and full of people. When she arrived on Saturday the mill was dark and empty. The tiny star was still shining, but the air that day was cold and clear so it could not be seen from the outside. 'We need more windows on the south wall." thought Jenny as she went to the door entered the main room to find more silence and absence. It was a strange feeling. Without anyone inside the building there were only its ghosts left. The ones that had been here for a long time as well as the new ones she and the other had created during the last weeks. Jenny thought that there was still some of the new comfort left inside the mill until she realised that it was the humming of the generator and the reverberation of the waterwheel turning.
    She left the mill to go and say hello to Byron. But the trailer was dark and no one answered the door. So she continued to Barbara's place. Barbara was at home, she answered the door wearing a strikingly beautiful silk bathrobe. She ushered her inside where she found Byron hunched over the sofa table scribbling away at what look like the tenth or so attempt to design a kitchen for the watermill. Jenny looked at Barbara asking a delicate question with her eyes, which was answered by the softest smile and a pair of wriggling eyebrows on Barbara's side.Jenny sat down with a smile.
   
    "Getting anywhere?" she asked Byron, who just looked at her with an expression of deep exhaustion.
   
    "Not really he said." he gestured over the papers. "I'm trying to plan it out but somehow it doesn't really work on paper. At least for me."
   
    "Tea?" asked Barbara.
   
    "Yes please." said Jenny. Byron just made a half hearted wavy motion with his hand.
   
    The rest of the morning they spend discussing the kitchen, Jenny trying to help Byron to find a point that he really liked to use as a focus while Barbara pretty much sabotaged Jenny at every step by reminding him of other enticing possibilities. Around noon Jenny started to feel irritable, when Byron left the room to answer the call of nature, she turned to Barbara. "Why are you working so hard at prevent Byron to decide on anything and what exactly will you do to stop me from strangling you?"
   
    Barbara leant back in her chair laughing, her splendorous gown flowing around her giving her an aura of imperial majesty that could only be given justice by an oil painting. "I'm not trying to sabotage you my dear.", seeing Jenny's reaction she stopped laughing, "Trust me, this is helping him."
   
    "Yes these million discarded sketches are a testament to your incredible skill." Jenny said waving her finger over the table that by now was covered with discarded design attempts. Many had fallen of the table and lay on the floor like it was autumn in an architect child's room.
   
    "Please, there is no need to be sarcastic." Barbara said. "At least not know." Jenny was about to say something else when Barbara shushed her with a gesture. "Please, at least let me explain."
   
    Jenny exhaled. "O.K., go ahead." she relaxed back into the sofa crossing her arms.
   
    "Byron is a type of person that is different to yours. No, please, it will make sense in a minute. You are a visionary there is no doubt about it. You have your dream and you work towards it. Now when you first had that idea. About the mill. Did you have a picture in your mind?"
   
    "Yes." Jenny said.
   
    "It was clear, wasn't it? You had this place in your minds eye and ever since you have worked of translating your dream into reality right?"
   
    Jenny nodded, wishing Barbara could get to the point.
   
    "Does the mill look like it did in your first vision?"
   
    "No, but it's not done yet and..." Jenny did not get further.
   
    "Did it always have a sky-light in the milling room?" Barbara asked.
   
    "No. That just happened after the bloody roof collapsed..."
   
    "But now that it is there, it's part of your vision, right? The details may have changed. But your vision is still the same."
   
    Jenny thought about that for a moment. "Yeah. Pretty much."
   
    "See, that's the difference. You, at least in this instance are working towards a particular vision, one that is so strong that even if parts of it become impossible, you just adapt to the new circumstances. You have perfect clarity of what you want and you have the remarkable skill to work around disruptions by integrating it into this idea of yours."
   
    "I never really thought about it... but yeah... I think I know what I want."
   
    "Right? Even if you haven't really worked on it yet, you know exactly where and what type of windows you want. And you would know instantly when you saw something that is wrong. Like the porthole idea Edmund had for the Milling room."
   
    Jenny laughed. "Yeah, that was ridiculous."
   
    "Right. Now to my actual point. Byron is not like that at all. As you can see here, he has no clear idea what he wants. He knows what he needs, but there are some many possibilities how to get there, that right now he's overwhelmed by all the ideas."
   
    "How is this," Jenny pointed again at the sketches, "helping him then in any way?"
   
    "You are in an inspired way very rational, you know what you want and work towards it. Byron works on instinct and for his instinct to work properly he needs all of this. He needs as much information as possible. He won't find an answer today. It might even take a few days. But he will sleep over it and then one morning, or while he is taking a shower or making one of his crazy coffees it will become clear."
   
    "That does make some kind of sense..." Jenny said. "Hey. Wait a moment. There is something wrong with your little hypothesis."
   
    Barbara drew up one eyebrow. "I beg your pardon."
   
    "You just said that my vision, is crystal clear. However I have no idea how the kitchen will look like."
   
    Barbara smiled a thin smile that made Jenny consider strangulation again. "If you look at the sketches," Barbara said, "you will notice that they always fluctuate around a very specific area. It is always enclosed by the north wall, by the stairs to the south and the milling room to the east and all designs are open to the main room in the west. That are the limits imposed to it by your vision. You want there to be a bar facing the patrons and behind that another kind of bar to the kitchen. All of that is always in the sketches no matter how many variations there are. As long as something is within the bounds of your vision you don't care about the exact form. While Byron doesn’t care that much about the bounds you imposed as long as he gets to realise the perfect form inside of them."
   
    "So... I just have to wait." Jenny said.
   
    "Pretty much and the more ideas you feed him, the better his intuition will turn out to be."
   
    When Byron returned to the room Jenny was looking out of the window deep in thought while Barbara was sorting through all the different versions of the kitchen he had put together so far.
   
    "Did I miss anything?" he asked.
   
    "Have you decided if you want to go gas or electric yet?" Jenny asked.
   
    "I'm still considering my options. In a perfect world we would have gas, electric and fire."
   
    "This," Jenny said, "is as close we are going to come to a perfect world. So why not try and integrate all three of them."
   
    "er..." Byron said, gaze shifting to Barbara looking for help, but she was still looking at the sketches, smiling and utterly ignoring the new conversation. "Well... I think I could make that work..."
   
    "Do that and if you have any problems come to me we might be able to expand the kitchen a little into the milling room."
   
    "We could do that." Byron said. "But I think I can make it work in the space we have." He sat down again, grabbed his pencil and started drawing again.

Project Coffee Break Redux 011

Chapter 12
   
    The next day started late. The last night had been long. Sleep had to be had and the hangover demanded its tribute. Barbara was the only one not really affected as she knew how to party hard but very carefully, always alternating alcoholic drinks with soft drinks, knowing when it was wiser to nip than to down a glass. So when she went to the mill mid morning she found the place empty. She took the time to have a private tour trying to get a feel for the place to understand what it was that Jenny saw in this place. Yesterday during dinner she had felt it, but it did not convince her. You took a bunch of people who were at least on speaking terms, added food, booze and a common goal and you had yourself a party. No matter where you were. She had seen hundreds of events like these. She could engineer then if the fancy struck her. That was one of her personal little dirty secrets. There were times when she did not earn anything from her job as fairy-godmother to the under-appreciated, but she had to keep up appearances, so she had developed a rather healthy side business in designing and orchestrating parties for the terminally boring who as their only saving grace had money in excess. A victimless crime in her eyes as she did a lot to cultivate these people gently deepening the shallow puddles which reflecting the stars high above they mistook for the infinite sky. This also led to her second dirty secret, the only reason she was now wealthy enough to to have to worry about details like rent or food or bills was that it was among this crowd she found those who knew how to turn a bit of money into a bit more. Yes she had helped many artists to fame, she had taken a little cut from those who were truly successful but mostly she had been paid in art and that was the problem really. If the art was great, and a personal gift at that, how could she ever sell it. And if the art was horrible, it had to be put in a safe place to save everyone from embarrassment. She had a vault in her basement that was protecting the dignity of countless people.
   
    She came to stop in front of the great hole in the third floor looking down to the milling room. Nope. She could not feel it. There was something quaint about the watermill and she had some very nice, private memories connected to this place. She smiled as she relieved a few passionate moments of her distant past, wondering what might have become of the others she had shared them with. But no, this was her just being sentimental. In the end this was a ruin. Repairing it would just turn it into an old watermill. Quaint, yes. But nothing remarkable.
    This was intensely frustrating to her. She had watched artists all her life turning nothing into something special. A canvas into a window to new world. A block of stone into a simulacrum so close to real life that she'd expect it to move at any moment, holding her breath as she waited for it to come alive. Or taking random junk sticking it together into strange new forms so that the shadow it would cast would cast the shadow of something whole and beautiful. And never in all those years had she been able to see how the result would feel like until it was almost done. A twist of bitterness flavoured her soul. She grimaced at its taste.
    'Don't.' she thought to herself. 'That path leads nowhere.' Unless of course you were her therapists then it lead to a fine big saloon. How ever there was a karmic balance to the universe. Because she knew the people who could turn things like this pile of rubble into something special. She knew when people had the spark or the drive or the vision to be great. Barbara could always get a quick feel what these people needed to grow. What would motivate them to put the work in that was necessary to go from nothing to art. While she did not know what it would become, she always knew how far one still needed to go. And she was there encouraging all these people, now for generations through this whole gruelling ordeal.
    The mill was still missing to much for Barbara to get it. She saw the light in Jenny though and she saw how her fire slowly spread to the others. Some easily kindled, like Edmund who was probably pre-emptively on fire and Byron who had eyes who could see things much like Jenny did. But even people like Dan who life had failed to break but at least got him stuck in a perpetual state of cynicism was starting to really enjoy the work he was doing. Barbara had caught him regarding a bit of wall he had saved from potential ruin with gentle pride. People like Jenny who had a spark and were able to share it with others were very rare.
   
    'I'm really sentimental today.' she thought kicking a pebble down the hole, it fell down making a satisfying click sound as it struck the ground, it rebounded once and then rolled away, hiding from the crazy old woman upstairs. Lost in thought she went outside again. 'Maybe I do get it?' Barbara thought, 'Or my age is finally catching up with me. I can't be in my mid-twenties all the time.'
   
    "Excuse me, are you Jenny?" a female said, pulling Barbara out of her thoughts.
   
    "I beg your pardon?" said Barbara.
   
    "I asked if you are Jenny." said the woman. She was the age Barbara had decided to stay in for ever, she was wearing combat boots what probably where sensible trousers, almost completely covered up by a long mint green down coat. "I'm Linda." she added with a voice that made clear that, that should explain everything.
   
    "Ah! You're the engineer girl." Barbara said.
   
    "I'm the engineer woman." Linda corrected.
   
    Barbara was about to tell Linda that from her perspective she was still closer to girl than to woman, but then decided against it, she had been far too old for far too long already today. If she wasn't careful the age would stick. "Sorry. You must be the engineer person." she just couldn't stop herself.
   
    Linda considered this for a moment and then nodded, finding it satisfactory. "So, are you?"
   
    "No. I'm afraid, I'm Barbara."
   
    "But you do know Linda." not quite a statement, not yet suspicion.
   
    "Yes, I know her. I guess you want to talk to her?"
   
    "You assume right." said Linda relaxing.
   
    "I'll just call her and I'll give you the tour while we are waiting for her."
   
    "Fair enough." said Linda shrugging.
   
   
    Half an hour later Jenny arrived, finding Linda and Barbara in the milling room, sitting on the floor drinking tea. After a short introduction Linda went straight to the point. "So, you need a generator." she said to Jenny.
   
    Jenny pointed into the middle of the room. "About there to be precise. We have the water wheel, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. In a perfect world the generator could produce enough energy to make this place self sufficient."
   
    "You were planning on a café, right?" Lind asked.
   
    "Yes."
   
    "Why don't you give me a tour and tell me what you would put where, and how far the grounds go."
   
    "The grounds?" said Linda a bit surprised. "Sure, but how is that relevant to the generator."
   
    "My situation is a bit complicated but if the right circumstances came together..." she look around again then looked Jenny directly into her eyes. "We could both benefit from the situation."
   
    Jenny was not sure if that was meant to be reassuring. It did feel more like talking to a mob boss. "Let's give you the tour."
   
    While she walked through the watermill pointing out how she imagined how everything here would look once it was done Jenny noticed that by now the whole project was almost done in her mind. She knew where everything would be. There was a certain solidity to the image she had in her mind. Instead of a mason removing things from a stone until the statue appeared, this was a case of adding to the free space until her idea was made manifest.
    Another thing she noticed was how everyone reacted differently to the tour. She had now shown the place to several people, everyone reacting differently. Edmund with vocal enthusiasm; Barbara with mostly with a silent intensity only once in while pointing out something that she new about the place or where she saw parallels to past projects where she had helped; while Byron for example was almost instantly adding his own ideas, asking questions wanting to understand the whole project on a deep level. Linda was just silent. She listened, without interrupting, there was hardly any emotional reaction, but her eyes were always focused. She was absorbing everything she heard and while she did not say anything it was obvious that she was thinking about everything she heard.
    In the end they stood outside next to Byron's construction trailer where smoke was drifting out of a little chimney on its roof filling the air with the smell of burning wood and breakfast.
   
    "There were the little path leads to that bridge is where western part officially ends." Jenny said.
   
    "OK", said Linda. She faded into deep thought for a while. Jenny decided to wait until she was done with it. While she waited she wondered if she could ask Byron for a coffee. It would help clear her head that was still faintly throbbing and then she would have something war to hold. While it was not exactly cold outside that day it was a damp, The bad weather was crawling beneath her clothes. Something that did not seem to bother Linda to much. Jenny was about to turn around and knock on Byron's door when Linda finally said something.
   
    "I think I might be able to help you." Linda said.
   
    "I'm glad to hear that." Jenny said waiting for the 'but'.
   
    "I might even be able to help you with more than you actually asked for."
   
    OK. This was not what Jenny had expected but now she was really curious where this was going.
   
    "The situation in the mill is interesting, I can use it for my thesis, I had originally thought about something a bit smaller in scale, a proof of concept type thing, but in a way this is even better. There is a direct correlation to real world impact and there is enough room inside the building that we can build it from mostly off the shelve parts. My original plan was something going more in a bespoke direction. But actually, this is better. I'm starting to digress, the take home message here is: I can help you and this will work. OK. I can pay for my work and my materials myself. That is covered by my research grant. However there is more. I was asked by group from another university if I would be interested in a cooperation with them. At the time there wasn't much I could offer them but as it was connected to a pretty sweet grant from the EU I asked them to give me a few days to see if I can find a way to make our projects work as one big project. It did not look good until now." she said with the faintest smile.
   
    "So this other project," said Jenny, "what is it about?"
   
    "It is also about self-sufficient buildings, my project, until now was to small and lacked a suitable location for it. But now... Look at this place." Linda said her hand waving from the bridge to the mill. "This is where you want your watermill café to be right?"

    "Yeah..." said Jenny.
   
    "Now imagine how this would look," Linda said now seeing something there that should be real, "if you build something like a green house over it. Covering everything from the place where we are standing including the entire mill. You would have a space with its own micro-climate. The other team would build the green-house and drill some holes deep into the earth to keep it warm. With the river we can generate electricity, cool the place down in summer and regulate the humidity. It would be magnificent."
   
    "A greenhouse?" Jenny asked.
   
    "Pretty much. Inside it, it would be always summer."
   
    "Deal."
   
    "Just one more thing." said Linda.
   
    "Yes?"
   
    "I'd like to try your coffee."
   
    "My coffee?" Jenny asked feeling that she was being led into a trap.
   
    "Well you say you want to open a café and I'm about to stake my PhD thesis on your venture, so before I do that' I'd like to try your coffee. I want to know if I'm backing the right horse here."
   
    "er..." Jenny was completely taken by surprise "I'm more of a tea person myself." she said her smile crumbling from her face. Now that she had a few panic fuelled seconds to consider it, that was a pretty reasonable request, about something she had never really considered but taken as a given. "However," she said, "Byron, our cook can take care of that." her smile still scared by Linda slowly returned.
   
    Linda looked pleasantly intrigued. Jenny turned around and walked towards the door Byron's trailer, hoping that he was not only awake but also in a presentable shape. She knocked at the door.

    "One moment please!" called Byron from inside. They heard some shuffling from inside and moments later Byron opened the door. He looked rakishly dishevelled in a way that made Jenny wonder if she had been doing hangovers wrong her entire life or if Byron had gone to a special workshop for that. "Good morning." he said.

    "It's 1pm..." said Linda.
   
    "And I just got up." said Byron as if this explained everything.
   
    "Hello Byron," said Jenny choosing to be diplomatic, "may I introduce you to Linda. She is the one that is going to be building our generator."
   
    "Pleased to meet you, Linda. I'm Byron."
   
    "Linda, hi."
   
    "Do you want a coffee? I was just making some."
   
    "With pleasure." said Linda and she meant it.
   
    "Please come in."
   
    Jenny, Linda and Barbara went inside the trailer to find that it actually had just enough space for the four of them. In the middle of the little room was a table with enough space to one side to squeeze past. Behind that was a large book shelve bulging with books, on the other side a shelve full of cooking utensils. At the far end stood a large iron stove in which a fire was happily purring. On top of it stood three small pots, one of containing boiling water, Jenny could not see what was in the other two.
   
    "This is very nice." said Barbara, "Did you do all of this yourself?"
   
    "Most of it. Please take a seat. But I had a lot of help with the design and some of the implementation. The stove here for example is also the radiator. All the hot air goes into metal pipes which run along the floor there and there. I needed some help with the welding and making sure that they are actually air tight, else there would be a significant risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. These things look easy, but they usually turn out to be interesting instead."
   
    "I'm this close to liking you." Linda said holding her thumb and index finger an inch apart. "But you really need to show me your coffee."
   
    "Right, I was experimenting right now with how to get the best result. Does anyone here prefer their coffee with milk?" Jenny and Linda raised their hands while Barbara said, "I prefer mine black."
   
    "Perfect." said Byron turning to the shelve filled with pots, pans, cutlery, glasses and mugs. He took out five mugs and started to pour coffee. "For you Jenny and... Linda, this is a coffee I made using only milk, no water, it should taste better or at list different to coffee made with water and with milk added. I thought that it could be like with chocolate, make it with water and it is watery, but with milk if becomes a creamy miracle. And for you Barbara, I have two different coffees. They are basically the same but one I made with boiling water the other one with water that is a bit cooler. I'm still trying to work out which form of extraction is the best." He poured the coffees, placed them on the table, added two glass containers with sugar, white and brown and enough tea spoons for everyone.
   
    "As you can see," Jenny said trying not to sound smug, "we take our coffee very seriously." she shovelled a prodigious amount of sugar into her coffee, stirred it for a while and then toasted Byron with her cup.
   
    Linda added one spoonful of white sugar to hers, sniffed it with her eyes closed, and only then took a careful sip. She savoured the coffee for a while. "This is very good coffee. And I like how you think.", she turned to Jenny, "With this, we are officially in business."
   
    After they were done with their coffee they returned to the mill. Adrian and his boys had arrived while they had been in the trailer and had started working already. Edmund had texted Jenny informing her that she was helping Claire getting the materials they needed for the ring.
    Later that day the skip finally arrived to the great delight of everyone, which quickly turned into well oiled cursing when they discovered how much work it was to get all the rubble that was already outside into the fucking skip. Claire and Edmund arrived after they had just begun work so that Edmund could enjoy it with them. Claire was the only one of the team that could escape shovel duty as she had a lot to discuss with Linda.
   
    The next few days were mostly filled with a lot of work and while someone looking from outside would not have seen much of a difference inside things were moving at a decent pace. All the walls that needed reinforcement were done filling the building with the smell of fresh concrete. New load bearing pillars had been set up so that the week after they could finally start to take out the walls that needed to be removed. And last but not least the two rings holding up the roof and the ceiling of the milling room were done. The new skeleton of the building was done and hardening and by now the main electrical lines and pipes had been lain. The next week would be the one where the big obvious changes would come. The new windows and doors, but more importantly the new drive-shaft for the water wheel and with it, the first generator.