CHAPTER 3 – MEETING IN TOULOUSE
County of Toulouse in 1030 C.E. (Slightly larger than in 862 C.E. Count Raymond the First of Toulouse possessed the counties of Toulouse, Rouergue and Quercy, plus the vicounties of Albi and of the Limousin.)
07:52 (Paris Time)
Thursday, January 5, 862 C.E.
Toulouse municipal wood construction shop
Next to the Toulouse New Market, outside of the Narbonne Gate
Independent County of Toulouse, Francia
Ranulf was happy to enter the large combined warehouse/hangar/shop that housed the Toulouse municipal wood construction shop, which was heated: while the outside temperature was well above freezing, it was still chilly for him. Taking off his woolen cape and hanging it in the coatrack of the shop’s entrance lobby, he then put his right hand flat on the small screen of a digital print recognition unit fixed to a nearby wall and which would register the time he had entered the shop. Once that was done, he gave a warm smile to the very pretty Oriental young woman from the Human Expansion who worked as the secretary and receptionist for the municipal wood construction shop and who sat behind a reception counter.
‘’Good morning, Kimi!’’
‘’Good morning, Ranulf! How are your wife and kids?’’
‘’Just fine, thank you. I just accompanied Régis and Marie to their school and they should now be eating breakfast there before starting their classes.’’
Kimi Matsuda nodded her head in comprehension at those words: the Toulouse Primary School, a wooden building Ranulf had helped build, was situated nearby, next to the vast open-air marketplace built just outside of the city’s Narbonne Gate. The children of the Carolingian citizens of Toulouse frequented it and benefited from free and nutritious breakfasts and lunches, on top of getting a fresh fruit at the end of the day, something meant to encourage their parents in making them attend school. That had proved successful at once when the school program had been introduced three months ago, with the medieval citizens of Toulouse jumping on that chance to have their young children fed for free. The local church authorities had then blasted verbally what they called ‘a blatant attempt at bribing the citizens of Toulouse with free food’ but had quickly found out that their strident accusations had only turned their old worshippers away from them, on top of getting them much lower offerings at regular masses.
Walking out of the reception lobby and into the construction shop proper, Ranulf then went to see his foreman, Fidel Ramirez, a Human Expansion man in his late thirties who had taught him and fourteen other carpenters from Toulouse how to work with modern tools, measurements and methods. A short session in a mnemotronic chair at the knowledge assimilation center of the giant Toulouse Tower, which sat on the Island of the Ramier, next to the old city, had taught Ranulf how to speak English, read, write and count, thus giving him the basic knowledge he needed to learn about modern carpentry. As a result, Ranulf and his companion carpenters were now able to read architectural plans and follow them to build wooden structures, typically prefabricated houses and communal buildings or small wooden bridges and pieces of furniture. Fidel Ramirez smiled to him on seeing Ranulf approach.
‘’Aah, Ranulf, nice to see you this morning! I will have a new, priority project for you and the team today. We will suspend for a couple of days the construction of park equipment and communal latrines huts, time to urgently build a small family house.’’
‘’Oh?! And what prompted that change of priorities, Fidel?’’
‘’Last night, a farmer and his family lost their house near Moissac{6}, when it accidentally burned to the ground. Thankfully, nobody was hurt but those poor people had to find shelter with a neighbor in the middle of the night.’’
‘’Poor people! Since we got the job of building a new home for them, I suppose that Count Raymond is paying for it?’’
‘’He is!’’ replied Fidel, nodding once his head. While he himself was paid by the Human Expansion as one of its citizens, the Count of Toulouse, Raymond the First, owned the municipal wood construction shop, built for him by the Human Expansion, and paid its Carolingian employees, on top of deciding the priorities in terms of what to build. That collaborative effort between Count Raymond and the Human Expansion’s representative in Toulouse, Ann Shelton, had proved most beneficial to all and had already resulted in the building of schools, an hospice for old people, a communal medical clinic and dispensary, communal latrine huts meant to make Toulouse a much cleaner and sanitary city and, most important of all, the Toulouse open-air market, which was now attracting an ever growing number of merchants from all over Francia and beyond. Fidel then unrolled a blueprint on top of a work table and explained it to Ranulf.
‘’That family in Moissac counts three adults and four children. We will thus build for them our standard model of four-bedroom prefabricated rural house, to which we will add a small barn. Kenneth and his specialist team will take care of the electricity and plumbing parts, while a robotic team is already on the site, clearing the debris and digging new foundations.’’
Ranulf nodded at those words, being well knowledgeable by now with the very efficient construction methods and working robots of the Human Expansion.
‘’Then, we should be able to build the elements of that house and barn within three days and to assemble it on the spot within an extra day, Fidel.’’
‘’That was my assessment as well, Ranulf.’’
‘’Do we have sufficient stocks of cut and dried wood for that project?’’
‘’We have still plenty of cut and dried wood in stocks at this time and we are due to receive today more cut wood from overseas, which will then be stored inside our wood drying warehouse. As for the nails and glass panes, we also have plenty of them. We can thus start building this house right away. Robots already brought in the needed wood and parts from the construction materials warehouse. We now just need to start the cutting and assembling as soon as the others are in.’’
‘’Then, I will go measure and mark in advance the wood beams to be used.’’
That made Fidel smile to Ranulf, most satisfied with him: despite having been a basically illiterate man only four months ago, Ranulf had since proved to be an intelligent, energetic and strong worker with a solid common sense. In that, he had proved yet again that ignorance was not synonymous with stupidity.
‘’Excellent! Let’s get to it, then!’’
09:07 (Paris Time)
Castle of Vienne, Cisjuranian Burgundy
On the Saone River, thirty kilometers south of Lyons
Kingdom of Provence
Girard de Vienne, Duke of Lyon, Count of Vienne and preceptor to King Charles of Provence, was discussing with Aurélien, the notary of young King Charles, the state of the food provisions for the castle when a guard came to them at a run, completely agitated.
‘’YOUR EXCELLENCY! YOUR EXCELLENCY! A FLYING BOAT JUST LANDED IN THE CASTLE’S COURTYARD!’’
Normally, Girard de Vienne would have smacked that guard on the head for saying nonsense but the last few months had been much less than normal. Despite the typical slowness at which news and information traveled around in the Middle Ages, Girard did know that such flying boats and ships were more than just wild visions. The news that King Charles of Francia had been to all intents and purposes defanged and deposed in last October by powerful people from the future who used flying ships had reached Vienne in November, along with the news that the various Viking armies ravaging and looting Francia had been massacred by those same people from the future. That had been a moment of intense celebration in Vienne, as Girard de Vienne and his protégé, young, sickly and feeble-minded King Charles of Provence had been fighting both King Charles of Francia’s army and the Viking pirates, on top of fighting off incursions by the Muslim forces of the Emir of Cordoba, Muhammad the First. Then had come only days ago news about the rather forceful visit those same people from the future had paid to Pope Nicholas the First in early December. Of those enigmatic people from the future, Girard de Vienne knew only two things for sure: first that they used flying ships and had terrifying weapons; second, that they had established an outpost in Toulouse and had concluded some kind of pact with Count Raymond of Toulouse. That some of them had now come to this castle had to be treated with both very cautious diplomacy and utter seriousness. Girard thus asked a question to the guard in a firm but neutral tone.
‘’How big is that flying boat?’’
‘’It is actually not that big, your Excellency: it is at most some eight paces long and two paces wide.’’
That actually helped Girard in relaxing a bit: the people from the future possessed much larger flying ships and such a small boat could possibly mean that they had come with peaceful intents.
‘’Has anybody come out of that flying boat?’’
‘’Not yet, Your Excellency, but ten of our guards are now surrounding it and are ready for anything.’’
‘’Go tell them to leave the courtyard at once!’’ said Girard, tensing up again. ‘’I want no provocative action made against that flying boat or its occupants. I am going to go down to the courtyard to deal with this personally.’’
‘’Understood, Your Excellency!’’ replied the guard before running away. Aurélien, who was also the Abbot of Ainay, in Lyon, gave him a sober look.
‘’Be careful, Your Excellency: we still don’t know if those people from the future are manifestations of the Devil or not. They already humiliated Pope Nicholas and are said to be atheists.’’
Girard nearly laughed in his face in reaction.
‘’Anybody who massacres Viking armies wholesale can’t be evil in my mind, Aurélien. Those people may be atheists but I will ask you not to prejudge them because of that. They represent too much power to be denied or rejected out of hand without good reasons. Go alert King Charles but make sure that he doesn’t panic or becomes incoherent at the sight of that flying boat.’’
‘’Uh, yes, Your Excellency!’’
Letting the royal notary walk away at a quick pace, Girard de Vienne, still a vigorous man at the age of 51, an advanced age for the average man of the time, started climbing down the nearest staircase, coming down from the upper floor of the castle to the ground level. He arrived at the courtyard just as some sort of door pivoted upward on one side of the mysterious flying boat, which was shaped a bit like a flattened teardrop. Girard couldn’t help then to hesitate and stop, while his left hand got hold of his sword’s pommel, when a gigantic shape stepped out of the flying boat. That person wore a sort of elaborate and complicated armored suit and stood higher than Girard, who was considered a big man in Vienne. However, the newcomer was not holding any kind of weapon and simply closed the door of the flying boat before starting to walk calmly towards Girard. The latter had to make an imperious gesture to the four guards standing behind him, who had pointed their spears.
‘’STAND DOWN, MEN! That newcomer is probably here to talk. Go back by a good ten paces.’’
The nervous guards obeyed him and stepped back to the end of the hallway, letting Girard be alone to greet the person from the future, who stood a good half head over him.
‘’Good day to you, Sire! I am Girard de Vienne, Duke of Lyons, Count of Vienne and preceptor of King Charles of Provence. What is the purpose of your visit?’’
The newcomer responded by first unlocking and opening up the opaque facial visor of his helmet and then speaking in good but accented Occitan.
‘’And good day to you, Your Excellency! I am Corporal Diane Champagne, sent by Lady Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse. I came to deliver an invitation to an important meeting.’’
Girard stayed frozen for a good second as he contemplated the face of a pretty young woman smiling down to him.
‘’A…a woman?’’
‘’The last time I checked myself, I was.’’ was her facetious reply. She then became serious and presented a sealed envelope held in her right hand. ‘’If we could go inside, I could then explain to you the goal of that meeting, Your Excellency. Be assured that I came with only peaceful intentions.’’
‘’Uh, alright, Lady Diane.’’ said Girard while taking the offered envelope. ‘’Please follow me.’’
Girard then led her down the hallway and went up the staircase he had just used, coming off it one level up and bringing her to a study, where a large table and ten chairs stood.
‘’The private royal council room.’’ explained Girard after Diane Champagned entered it behind him. ‘’I will now have someone inform King Charles, so that he could listen to your words.’’
‘’Go right ahead, Your Excellency.’’
Somehow, her relaxed attitude and tone did a lot to reassure Girard, who went out in the hallway long enough to pass an order to a guard.
‘’Go tell King Charles that he should come to the private royal council room, along with his notary. A person from the future came to deliver an invitation to a meeting.’’
‘’Right away, Your Excellency!’’
The guard ran away, returning a few minutes with young Charles de Provence, who was only sixteen-years-old, and his notary Aurélien. Girard frowned when he saw that no less than twenty guards and knights were following them closely, probably alerted by Aurélien.
‘’Hold there, men! Only the King and Abbot Aurélien will enter the council room.’’
The senior knight leading the men-at-arms nearly objected but kept his mouth shut on seeing the frown on Girard’s face. The latter let King Charles and Aurélien enter, then closed the thick wooden door behind them before going to the council table, where he sat next to King Charles, facing Diane Champagne. Diane, on her part, examined for a moment the young and frail-looking king before speaking up.
‘’As I said earlier to Duke Girard, I came to deliver an invitation to a meeting with Lady Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse. For your information, we of the Human Expansion accidentally arrived from the 41st Century on September 23 of last year and are now stranded in this century. We were then fleeing a race of alien invaders who were destroying the worlds inhabited by Humans. Before you could panic at this piece of news, be reassured: those alien invaders don’t know how to travel through time, so are incapable of coming here, as incapable as we ourselves are of returning to our original time period. We are thus refugees of sorts, but we do not intend or even wishes to act like invaders and seize by force new lands for ourselves. Instead, we occupied faraway overseas lands which were still devoid of human occupation and are presently rebuilding cities there.’’
‘’Then, why come to Toulouse?’’ asked Girard de Vienne.
‘’We sent first a team in Toulouse in order to ascertain the exact date we had ended in. We also concluded an accord with Count Raymond of Toulouse after finding him to be a caring and reasonable man, so that we could open a public market there and thus be able to attract merchants and buy food from them and from the Count. While they are not in danger of starving at this time, the refugees carried by our fleet are presently rationed, until we could develop our own crops in the lands we settled overseas. In exchange, we sell products that we know how to produce in huge quantities, typically products made of steel or glass. Since the Vikings were approaching Toulouse at the time of our arrival there, we decided to get rid of them and of the other Viking armies ravaging Europe.’’
‘’And in exchange for what did you do that?’’ asked Aurélien in a skeptical tone, prompting Diane in eyeing him severely.
‘’We did that simply to stop and prevent the systematic murder of thousands of innocent people by those Vikings, not simply to gain some reward. Yes, Count Raymond thanked us then by giving us the nearby Island of the Ramier, on which we subsequently built our outpost, but our biggest reward was to save countless innocent lives. The Human Expansion stands for the welfare and care of all, irrespective of race, sex, social conditions or beliefs. The meeting to which King Charles and Duke Girard are invited to is meant to conclude an entente between the various landowners and noble leaders in Francia, in order to cement a durable peace around the country. Other important Carolingian leaders will also be invited to that meeting, which will be held tomorrow in Toulouse.’’
‘’Tomorrow, in Toulouse?’’ said Girard, tensing up. ‘’But we can’t get there this fast!’’
‘’We know!’’ replied Diane while smiling. ‘’That’s why we are going to provide transportation to Toulouse and back for you. If you accept to attend this meeting, we will send tomorrow morning a flying aircar like the one I came in, which will then fly you to Toulouse. Before you decide on whether you will come or not, know that there will be a few conditions attached to our invitation. First, you will not bring any weapons with you. You may dislike some of our other guests attending the meeting and we don’t want to see it degenerate into a brawl. Second, religious beliefs will not be discussed at that briefing, except for us to state that we will not tolerate any acts of religious intolerance or persecution by anyone, be they Christian or Muslim. We are steadfast atheists and we do not wish to waste our time on futile religious debates. The only thing we wish to accomplish is durable peace around the whole of Francia. Finally, we will keep the number of attendees to a reasonable number: the more people around a table, the more intractable the discussion becomes. However, we will be happy to welcome the wives and children of attendees, who will then be able to visit our installations in Toulouse while we talk. Countess Berthez of Toulouse will be guiding them around. In your particular case, we are extending our invitation to King Charles of Provence, to Duke Girard, to King Charles’ scribe and to up to six of your relatives. Please do not bring bodyguards or armed knights with you, as anybody who is armed will be refused seats aboard our aircar.’’
Girard then asked a question on behalf of young Charles of Provence, who obviously had problems following properly the conversation because of his slow mind.
‘’And who else exactly is invited to this meeting, Lady Diane?’’
‘’The list of guests and attendees is attached to our invitation, Duke Girard. You may take your time to review it before giving me your answer to our invitation.’’
Breaking the wax seal of Count Raymond of Toulouse on the envelope, Girard then opened it and extracted a two-page document made in a type of thin, white paper he had never seen before. Reading quickly the first page, which was the actual invitation to the meeting, he then switched to the second page, which gave the list of attendees. Girard couldn’t help tense up on reading a few of the names and he looked up at Diane, misgiving on his face.
‘’You invited the sons of the late Humfrid of Gothie? Wasn’t Humfrid killed by one of the sons of Count Raymond three months ago? How do you expect them to not react violently to your invitation when they will receive it?’’
‘’Well, they will be free to ignore it or to refuse squarely to come to the meeting, which would be a stupid and shortsighted decision in my opinion, but attacking our messenger would not only be stupid on their part: it would prove to be their deaths.’’
Girard couldn’t help eye her with some contempt then. For him, a simple messenger and a woman to boot offering her personal opinion to a nobleman like him was at a minimum displaced on her part, at least here.
‘’Does your lord often listen to your opinion on such high-level political matters?’’
Diane, having expected in advance some level of sexism and snobbery, returned his stare at once, while her voice cooled down noticeably.
‘’Let’s make something clear right away, Duke Girard. I may appear to you to be only a low-level messenger and a woman but know that Doctor Ann Shelton listens to everyone around her, and not only to those of comparable rank or function. In fact, we consider everyone in our society to be equals and our leaders are elected to serve the public, not to get rich or powerful. I am the personal bodyguard of Doctor Shelton, who considers me as one of her friends, and have fifteen years of formal schooling and military training to my credit. I am thus no illiterate tart. If you decide to accept Doctor Shelton’s invitation, then you better treat with respect everybody that you will meet in Toulouse, irrespective of their ranks or functions. Also, in my society, there is absolute equality between the two sexes. In fact, our political leader, who presides over the destinies of over eighteen million of our citizens, is a woman. Now, do you need some time alone with King Charles to take a decision about our invitation? If you do, I will then go out in the hallway and wait there.’’
Girard didn’t need much time before grudgingly nodding his head. This meeting in Toulouse sounded too important to be missed, while getting on the wrong side of these powerful people from the future could quickly prove disastrous, if he could go by what had happened to King Charles of Francia.
‘’Very well: you may tell Lady Shelton that we will come. How long will that meeting be? Could it go on over a number of days?’’
‘’Doctor Shelton is hoping to conclude the meeting on the same day. Anything longer would basically mean that we failed to get to a common understanding.’’
‘’And what if that happens?’’
‘’Then, we will help and support those ready to listen to us, while we will ignore the others.’’ replied at once the commando. ‘’Our aircar will return to this castle early tomorrow morning. Please bring only the minimum of luggage with you. If you will now excuse me, I have many more invitations to deliver.’’
‘’And where are you going next, if I may ask?’’ said Aurélien, attracting a sardonic smile on Diane’s lips.
‘’To Narbonne, to deliver invitations to the sons of Humfrid of Gothie. If they react too stupidly and attack me, I just may end up having to kill them today.’’
‘’You, kill them while yourself are being unarmed?’’
In response, Diane raised her armored right fist in a flash before smashing it down on one corner of the table, which was made of thick wood. To the shock of the Carolingians, that table corner was ripped away cleanly by that strike, with Diane then smiling to them.
‘’I don’t need weapons to kill them, Abbot Aurélien. See you again tomorrow.’’
Diane then left the council room, leaving Girard and Aurélien to look at each other in disbelief.
‘’By the Devil! No wonder that those people could massacre Viking armies wholesale!’’ exclaimed the abbot.
08:40 (Paris Time)
Friday, January 6, 862 C.E.
Aircar on approach to the Toulouse Tower
Independent County of Toulouse
Girard de Vienne, traveling with his wife Berthe, son Thierry and daughter Eva, plus King Charles de Provence, Abbot Aurélien and three servants, had thought that the moment at which the vehicle he had taken place in had lifted off from the courtyard of his castle was the most memorable moment of his very active life. However, he now had to revise his opinion as their flying vehicle was approaching a gigantic tower of steel and glass dominating the nearby city of Toulouse. That tower, whose summit literally pierced the few clouds in the sky over Toulouse, had been visible nearly at once in the distance after the flying boat Diane Champagne called an ‘air limousine’ had climbed to what was for Girard a vertiginous height. That mere men could have built such a mountain of steel and glass was nearly impossible for him to believe, much less comprehend how they had done such a feat. However, that giant tower was not only big and impossibly tall: it was also truly beautiful, with gently curving vertical sides and light blue reflective glass and shiny steel surfaces. His wife Berthe and daughter Eva were presently fawning about it, while his son Thierry had given him a quick, stunned glance. As for young Charles de Provence, to say that he was overwhelmed by that sight would have been a gross understatement. As their air limousine approached a vast, round sort of platform near the top of the tower, Girard de Vienne then fully understood how these people from the future could have massacred whole Viking armies with apparent ease: their technological prowess simply put them in a league of their own, way above anybody else around Europe. Also, from what he had seen up to now, Girard did not believe that those people were some kind of magicians or sorcerers, contrary to the beliefs Abbot Aurélien was still trying to desperately cling to. He had not seen or heard to date anything resembling incantations, spells or other elements of witchcraft. His attention was then caught by Diane Champagne, who was now speaking to her passengers from the front passenger seat.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, we are now about to arrive at the Toulouse Tower, the main Human Expansion outpost in Europe. It measures a total of 5,742 feet in height at the top of its central needle antenna assembly, while the landing platform on which we will land stands at a height of 5,082 feet above the ground. The Toulouse Tower is presently home to over 165,000 Human Expansion citizens living in a total of nearly 33,700 apartments spread over 216 stories. It also contains vast gardens where a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and cereals are being grown, helping to feed the population of the tower. You will also find in the Toulouse Tower many commercial shops and boutiques, a number of schools, a hospital, an amusement park, a sports complex, various light industries, repair shops and administrative offices. Basically, the Toulouse Tower was designed and built to be a nearly self-sufficient city. The tower is also where Doctor Ann Shelton has her offices. She will be greeting you on arrival after we land.’’
‘’My God!’’ exclaimed Berthe while looking down through her side window. ‘’Someone better not fear high places if living in this giant tower.’’
‘’That’s a fact, Lady Berthe.’’ replied Diane Champagne, smiling. ‘’However, living in this tower is perfectly safe, while the view around can’t be beat.’’
‘’And how long did it take your people to build this tower, Lady Diane?’’ asked seventeen-year-old Thierry de Vienne. Diane Champagne answered him as the air limousine overflew the outer ledge of the top landing pad.
‘’The people of Toulouse, which watched on as we assembled the tower at its present location, will tell you that we took only three days to build it. However, what they saw was the putting together of prefabricated modules, already fully equipped and furnished and ready to be assembled together. In reality, the construction of the various modules forming this tower was made on another, faraway world and took over ten months. Most of our buildings are built using such prefabrication methods, which greatly speed up the total construction process.’’
Somehow, that explanation sounded truthful to Girard de Vienne, who then switched his attention to the three persons visible on the landing pad, near the base of the central needle-like tower’s top structure. One was a woman with long black hair, while the other two were respectively a man of seemingly mature age and a younger man holding the handle of what looked like a sort of small cart. The three persons came forward as soon as the air limousine had landed and were on hand to greet the Carolingians as they stepped out of the vehicle, while Diane Champagne took care of taking out and putting on the cart the three chests containing the spare clothes of the Carolingians. The woman, who clearly stood taller than even Girard de Vienne, bowed her head briefly while speaking in a fluent Occitan.
‘’Welcome to the Toulouse Tower! I am Doctor Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse and Francia. To my right is Mister Ben Corbin, General Manager of the Toulouse Tower, who will do his best to make your visit as agreeable as possible. Young Shinzo to my left will drive your baggage chariot.’’
Girard de Vienne, imitated by Charles de Provence, returned her bow, then pointed in turn at the other members of his group while discretely admiring the beautiful woman, whose green eyes sparkled with intelligence.
‘’Thank you, Doctor Shelton! Let me present to you King Charles of Provence, Abbot Aurélien, notary of King Charles, my wife Berthe, my son Thierry and my daughter Eva. We also brought with us two male servants and one maiden.’’
‘’Pleased to meet you!’’ replied Ann Shelton before pointing at a door on the façade of the central structure. ‘’Let’s go inside before continuing this conversation: the winds can be fierce