Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) Read Free Page B

only barely. He wasn't sure why and
apparently Sprite wasn't either.
    Skip ahead through the dark times until about a century ago.
There, a renaissance of sorts, started. A group of people emigrated to the
planet and started up small cottage factories. One was a sleeper but Sprite
lacked a name, the highlighted blank spot fairly jumped out at him. Apparently
this person had turned Landing back into a small town, and then grew it into a
city of industry and commerce.
    The renewed industry had slowly trickled to the farms. With
eighteenth and nineteenth century farming machinery the farms that had needed
dozens of people to maintain them now needed less than a handful. They were
also far more efficient. Looking for work the people had turned to the cities
or built their own.
    When people heard of this they flocked to the old city. It grew
exponentially, and eventually they settled across the river to form the gothic
city of Gotham. The cities of Metropolis and New Chicago had started up a
decade later. Each of the cities was strategically located, as were the new cities
that were popping up all over the planet.
    Each had something to contribute to the economy. Some were cross
roads of commerce; others were located near large pockets of minerals that were
needed to fuel the growing factories. New Chicago had become a rival after some
of the younger generation broke out on their own to put their own ideas into
action. It now produced most of the hydrogen/electric hybrid engines the
vehicles and aircraft used. Most of the vehicles were also produced in New
Chicago. Aircraft were built in New Seattle on the western coast.
    Since the planet had been terraformed over a thousand years ago it
had little natural fossil fuels which was a problem. The industrialists had
solved that sixty years ago by investing in hydrogen engines. That wouldn't
have amounted to much but a passing ship had traded them a hydrogen fuel
cell... which some wise entrepreneur had taken apart and copied.
    Port town and Fisherman's wharf in the southern part of the main
continent built most of the ships on Epsilon. Up until a few years ago they
were traditional wooden sailing vessels, though now outboard or paddle board
engines and steel hulls were starting to make inroads into shipping.
    Ground vehicles such as cars, trucks, and public transportation
were making a comeback. Apparently they and aircraft had been re-invented by a
few entrepreneurs and historians with access to old footage files. Unlike many
industrialists they hadn't thrown up their hands in despair and given up on
trying to recreate the vehicles and technology of the old Federation. No, they
had set that aside or at least set it as an end goal. Instead they had focused
on what they could achieve, delving as far back to the nineteenth
century Earth time period for inspiration. Now that mass production was in play
their world was finally changing and evolving.
    Apparent attempts to copy air cars and other modern air vehicles
had met with dim results so far. In attempting to understand why, the makers
rediscovered that these vehicles were made out of incredibly light weight
metals and plastics that were heat and wear resistant. They couldn't have
replicated the repulser force emitters that kept the cars aloft. That project
had been picked up and then abandoned several times over the years with little or
no progress made apparently.
    The most common aircraft was a copy of a Douglas DC-1 with
upgraded hydrogen/electric hybrid engines. It had a crew of two, could carry up
to twelve passengers,  it was eighteen meters long and had a twenty six meter
wide wingspan. Its engines were better than the radial engines they had been
based on, with a top speed of three hundred and fifty one kph and a twenty five
hundred kilometer range. Over a hundred of these aircraft as well as others
filled the air, moving cargo and passengers.
    The planet was on the cusp of a second industrial revolution,
teetering there but