a young genius' scientific chronicles 4

Her world wasn’t all noblewoman lessons and tinkering, though. She was also expected to learn how to fight, although that was more of a ‘peer pressure’ situation rather than an academic requirement. 

Fortunately, the Baron had enlisted the esteemed Dr. Sun Jen-djieh as a medical instructor for the students advanced enough in biological and chemical sciences to start studying medicine. Which meant her and Theo for the Sparks, and Gil, Sun’s granddaughters, and Hezekiah for the non-Sparks who nonetheless managed to qualify for these exclusive lessons. (as the children of Sparks, all four of them were expected to break through eventually, although by the numbers it’s really more of a coinflip)

While the medical spark had much to teach on his favored subject, the more unusual facet to his instruction was his insistence on martial training to subdue hysterical patients. He had clearly enhanced himself biologically, as the old man of average size nevertheless managed to bend steel in his hands and tossed around the jagermonsters conscripted to assist as training dummies like they were children. 

Whatever Gil was doing to get those muscles of his was clearly working, as he was the only other one in the class that could keep up with Dr. Sun’s similarly enhanced (but weaker) granddaughters. She hadn’t been flung around that easily by a pretty girl since her 30th birthday when they tried out those sporting orbs that only packed a physical enhancement formula… Good times. 

“I think you spun her a little too quickly, Mingmei.” Sun Daiyu pointed out after their spar, which ended with Tanya’s ankle getting grabbed from a kick and then thrown from that pivot. “All the blood rushed to her head.”

“I’m fine!” Tanya squeaked as she stood up, brushing off the dust. She really shouldn’t be thinking of the teenage girls like that, but it was difficult to keep that in mind when the girls in question were taller and more developed than she was. Sure, at barely fourteen she was not a short stick like she was in her second life, but the seventeen-year old twins were basically fully grown. “I’m uninjured, and can keep going.” Puberty sucks, is the point she was trying to make here. 

Somehow, Dr. Sun managed to effectively communicate ‘I diagnose you with gay’ with a single raised eyebrow. It was a very expressive eyebrow. “Tanya, pair up with Theopholous.” He ordered. 

“Yes, sifu.”

Afterwards, Tanya had gone to a much more productive training session: testing out her very first model of personal power armor. 

Castle Wulfenbach had a standing complement of about two hundred jagermonsters at any given time, with that number only shrinking when one of the Jager Generals left to go accomplish some crucial task or another. Despite what some people assumed, jagers were still people, and thus required time and space for rest and relaxation. 

Of course, the fact that the jager barracks’ common room was essentially a beer hall, no different to many of the ones she enjoyed with Visha after the war, was just the Baron demonstrating that he, just as his reputation suggests, always knows ‘the right monster for the job’. 

Her power armor was built specifically for her, which meant that even with it on she was probably the smallest combatant in the room. It added about ten centimeters of height between the repulsors in the feet, not enough for flight but helpful nonetheless, and the thick helmet with subsystems to enhance both her protection and to run the heads up display.. It did somewhat obscure her sex, as it had a full helmet and the armor wasn’t built to accentuate her figure. The waist/hip ratio was somewhat suggestive of a feminine appearance, but that was just so she was capable of bending at the waist. Tanya walked into the bar, looking around for her target. Locating the hatless sod, she went to the bar and sat. “Give me a shot glass of something the monsters drink out of a stein.” She said, slapping down a coin. 

The bartender, a human with powerful arms, an eyepatch, and an artificial leg, looked her over. “...Am I going to get an angry von Pinn here if I sell you this?” He asked. 

“No.” Tanya lied. “I know what I can handle, I just don’t know how potent that stuff is beyond ‘very’, so I’m playing it safe.”

Her unwarranted confidence convinced the man, and he served what appeared to be some kind of beer, thick and frothy. Before she could actually drink it, the jager she sat next to finally noticed the headgear that sat atop her helmet. “Hey, dot’s my hat!” He shouted, incensed. 

“I stole this hat fair and square.” Tanya boasted, raising the volume of her voice. “Fished it right off your head, I did!” ‘Hat-fishing’ used to be Tarvek’s favorite game of the ones Gil invented, but she was still waiting for some requisitions to come through for some rather unusual parts she needs for her next project, so she had a spare afternoon. 

“Hyu tricky minx!” The jager said, his toothy grin betraying his excitement for what was about to happen. “I’ll just vin it bek, den!”

She didn’t survive a war by waiting for her enemies to attack, though. She threw her beer in his face and, setting the shot glass down, punched the jagermonster in the gut. He flew backwards from the force, knocking over a second jagermonster and causing that monster’s beer to splash all over a third. Naturally, this caused a fourth and fifth jager to get up and leap towards her to join in on the fight. 

The magnetron at her back started humming as it powered up, enhancing the suit’s systems, magnetically reinforcing the plating, and allowing her to start moving as if she weighed nothing at all. Jager number four went flying to the second floor of the beer hall with a throw, while number five got in a hit that was ignored, a hip check unbalancing him enough to get hit by an uppercut, sending him to an as of yet undisturbed portion of the bar. 

In just three moves, the entire bar was now getting up and started looking at her appraisingly. A decorative axe on the wall suddenly fell, hitting her head and knocking off her hat. It was the signal to begin. “VE HUNT!” Several jagermonsters shouted as they simultaneously leapt at her. 

Tanya laughed, feeling invincible. “Field Test: Begin!” 

When her armor was thoroughly destroyed and the post-fight mood was cheerful and relaxed, the jagers ordered her a stein of milk and provided some surprisingly insightful criticism on her armor. It wasn’t anything technical, of course, but even the youngest jagermonster was in their fifties, and they had spent at least the last thirty of those years as professional soldiers, seeing power armor from hundreds of sparks in that time. 

It was nostalgic, talking about war with the battle maniacs. She wonders how many of her men would take the jagerdraught, if she was the one asking? Knowing her old unit… it would probably be all of them. 

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Her career as an inventor hasn't been exclusively successful, though: most notably, her designs for a plane. 

One thing that always struck Tanya as strange about this world of mad science is that there weren't any fixed-wing aircraft. Most aerocraft were dirigibles, using gasbags as their primary method of lift. There were a few gliders, a few jetpacks, a few ornithopters, quite a few things with flapping wings, but never anything she’d call a plane. 

After evaluating the state of the world, she came to the conclusion that the reason for this was a lack of runways. For Castle Wulfenbach in particular, launching planes from the gigantic blimp would be easy…  but finding suitable landing zones that can then be taken off from again would be the tricky part. Flying machines that could not reliably return to base was impractical. 

Yet, according to her calculations, nothing in the Wulfenbach fleet could match the hypothetical plane design for speed. It wouldn’t even be particularly close. Granted, that hypothetical design would require a more highly refined fuel than her tractor required, but for a specialized machine used by a formal military that would not be a large obstacle. 

Heck, she was reasonably certain that a jet plane could be made with contemporary materials… although the margins of error on her calculations were such that she wouldn’t know for sure until she tried. She’d need to make everything herself, or at least ensure that any help she gets is substantially more competent than some of the numbskulls the Baron has operating his factories. 

Her solution to the runway problem was making it a sea-plane, able to land and take off safely from any water that was reasonably placid. It didn’t need to be still, but it needed calm sections of river with a steady flow. Or just use a lake, or reservoir. Common enough, in her opinion. 

The prototype worked great! …until the lake it landed on was revealed to have a genetically modified monster that broke it. It was a setback, certainly, but the speed! It could literally fly circles around most of the support ships of Castle Wulfenbach. 

“Tanya?” Sleipnir asked, concerned. “Aren’t you going to go to your lab? We missed you in class.” After a moment, she added: “Why are you already in your pajamas?”

What came from Tanya’s pillow was not coherent to any man or beast. She continued to lay face-down on her bed, pouting brooding brainstorming her next project. 

“Grandfather said that the Baron scuppered her project last night after the test.” Mingmei said, relaxing on her own bed. “She’s been like that all day.”

“There, there.” Sleipnir said sympathetically, rubbing Tanya’s back. “Did the Baron not like the aeroplane?”

Tanya once more didn’t bother using words to convey her desire to be left alone. 

“Should we get Gil?” Sleipnir asked Mingmei. “He might know how to cheer her up.”

“He’s just going to suggest coffee or chocolate.” Mingmei replied, “Just leave her.”

“Or…” Sleipnir suggested, “...we could actually give her some chocolate.” A rustling sound was all Tanya could make out from her actions. “Tanya? I have a tasty chocolate mimmoth right here.” Mimmoths were a breed of tiny wooly mammoths that were developed to hunt rats, and instead basically replaced them. Chocolate-covered ones weren’t as disgusting as it sounded: they were skinned, had their organs scooped out, and were then candied, so they were actually kind of good, the fragile bones gave it a nice crunch and the flesh made it chewy. 

Still, Tanya was resolved. She wasn’t moving until her mind stopped getting flooded with more airplane ideas. A catapult launching system would allow for a plane that could land more or less anywhere, because it can be moved manually to one of the catapults. You could even have a dedicated aircraft carrier blimp, with a massive sortie range. 

No! She needed to think of something else! Airplanes will have to wait. Then she’ll show the Baron what he gave up on too soon. Yes, she’ll show him. She’ll show them all! Everyone who asked her ‘where’s the gasbag?’ like fools will learn the power of aeronautics! 

But how will she show them her power when she’s been forbidden to design more aircraft? She’ll need to wait until she gets control over her county for that part. Until then… military? Yes, she needs to design a military vehicle, a war machine. Back to basics. Something cost-efficient, so that she can eventually build more, upgrade their weapons, and then show them all!

That revelation washed over her, cooling the flames of her rage that she had spent all day trying to quench and giving her focus. It felt light, and floaty, and she found herself giggling as she laid there. 

Tanya sat up, and that giggling turned into great peals of laughter. “Of course! It’s all so clear now.” She took the proffered chocolate and took a big bite. Delicious. 

“Woah, she’s Sparking out!” Sleipnir said, a little panicked. 

After she swallowed her chocolate, Tanya started to change clothes for her work overalls. “I should know this by now: Moping around after the top brass does something stupid is the act of a moody teenage girl!” Just like Brest. Only with lower stakes. “I am Tanya von Degurechaff!” That was once a name that was feared from Moskva to Columbia, and everywhere in between! “If they wish to cling to their antiquated aerial behemoths, then they will rue the day that they rejected my hard-fought expertise!“

Storming out to the common room with lightning in her eyes, she found her most competent minion immediately, who stood to attention immediately. “Gilgamesh! To the lab! There is Science to do!“

Gil grinned widely at the command, and followed her without even saying goodbye. 

Once back at her lab, Tanya immediately started disassembling the Absolute Safety Mecha Mk. III. “It’s time for an upgrade!” She shouted, extracting the more precious components. “Gilgamesh! I’ll need a bigger frame! Find me one.”

“I know just the place.” Gil said, his eyes sparking as he ran off.

Right when she was done disassembling, Gil arrived with several Wulfenbach workmen. “Gather up everything, we’re off to the other lab!” He commanded. 

“Yes, Master!” The minions shouted. 

In short order, Tanya was looking at a massive mecha. It was labeled ‘Medical Transport’ and was approximately seven meters tall. “It’s the perfect size.” She said approvingly before diving into it. “It clearly wasn’t made by someone who knows a damn thing about mecha!” She added, looking at everything in disgust. “The pilot is completely exposed! The struts are overtuned! It has a damn steam engine! That burns coal! So much exhaust… without a single damn muffler, either.”

Gil had already started to disassemble the arms. “These arms, they do nothing! So much wasted space!”

Tanya finished detaching the boiler and kicked it off, letting it crash on the ground. “Minion! Put the engines on the table there, I need to make them bigger!”

Tanya didn’t quite remember the rest of the day… nor the next day for that matter, very clearly. Apparently, Gil had decided to lead her to one of Baron Wulfenbach’s old projects, which they then completely re-built from the ground up. It was made of good materials, and they were able to keep about forty percent of the skeleton intact, but it was not something that she would call a proud moment of her career. 

The good news was, Gil broke through as a spark! Which seemed to please the Baron enough that he was willing to forgive the destruction of something that he didn’t really care much about anyway. Apparently, while it wasn’t common, assisting another spark with their work was known to cause break throughs, although this was usually limited to sparks with powerful lineages. According to the book she had read on the topic, Barry Heterodyne mentioned once that younger members of the family assisted the older ones until they broke through and could start on their own projects. Tanya assumed that this was something that would not ordinarily be shared with outsiders, but was overheard in an unguarded moment. Or it was just made up. 

Tanya apologized deeply for her unsanctioned project, and promised something she was sure he’d like for her next one: a mass-producible military mecha that would be a strict improvement over the Orphan-powered War Clanks, which intrigued him so much all those years ago. 

She was quite proud of it, actually. Small enough to allow for urban maneuvers, cheap enough for fire teams of five to be practical, controls simple enough that a child could operate it, runs on the same engines she made for her tractors (with some incremental improvements), and she made a logistics truck on a tracked platform for extended deployments and as a command post so it could theoretically patrol without any additional support forces beyond those that could fit in the truck. 

Most importantly, they were built to be able to engage in melee, in case that blasted Othar decided to get up close and personal again. 

The Baron was quite pleased with the design, so much so that she was permitted to keep the Absolute Safety Mecha mk. IV, and even to improve it further, although mostly that was to ensure that it was kept to the same standards that she put all of her finished designs through. Her county even got to be put on the short list for places for the newly christened ‘20Xth mechanized infantry’, with the Wulfenbach insignia backed by mechanical dragon wings, and while the Baron looked at her oddly when she requested the third squadron (20 mechs and 2 trucks) to be deployed to her territory, he had already picked up on the fact that she had a particular fondness for the number ‘203’ and saw no reason to deviate. 

Little did she know, that would be the last project she finished while on Castle Wulfenbach. 

-------------------------

Tanya’s laboratory had come equipped with a sign. It was one of those safety markers, proudly proclaiming how many days it had been since a workplace accident had occurred. Well, it specified ‘explosion’, but that was the idea. She ignored it, because the idiots who created it only put two digits on the automatic counter, and she couldn’t be bothered to remove it, as she’d need to bolt a replacement metal panel in its place. 

“Oh. You had an explosion today?” Gil asked as he entered her workplace, seeing the distinctive ‘00’. “That’s a surprise.” 

Gilgamesh Hozfaller was growing up like a weed, the fifteen year old boy easily breaking six feet of height. He was broad, too, as he was quite inclined to physical pursuits like fencing and boxing. His laboratory had plenty of heavy machinery that he tended to move by hand. With pulleys and levers, of course, but with muscle power nonetheless. 

“No.” Tanya replied from inside the Absolute Safety Mecha Mk. IV. Currently, she had the torso opened up, the controls mostly folded away and a series of tables, benches, and shelves occupying the space around her chair. It functioned as a portable workstation, allowing simple fabrication and extensive design work to be completed without having to leave the bubble of safety provided by her mecha, although it was at a minimal level of protection in this state. “The thing just resets when it hits one hundred. This would be my six hundred and ninety-fifth day operating in this workshop.” It wasn’t that hard to remember that the sign said ‘six days’ when she first started working. Which were probably days since the last occupant of the lab lost their privileges due to one too many explosions.  

“Hm. I guess I just never came in those other days.” And didn’t think to ask about the explosions when previously noting the resets, presumably out of politeness. After a beat, Gil decided to get to the point. He was probably her most common visitor, but he never stayed long for some reason. “I’m going to go to Paris for University.” He announced. 

Tanya raised an eyebrow. “You’re allowed?” She asked, before thinking about it. “No, I suppose you would be… You’re an orphan being raised here in the hopes you’ll make something of yourself in the Baron’s service, not a political hostage like some of us.” She’s not, strictly speaking, a hostage, because there is no one alive outside Castle Wulfenbach that would care if she died beyond the citizens that she had impressed the one time she got to see them in person. “I assumed you’d join the military as an officer candidate soon.” Actually, she had heard a rumor from the jagermonsters that Gil had been involved in ‘sekrit tings’ with the Baron. 

“I still can, if the songwriting doesn’t work out.” Gil pointed out, “But I’d like to see Paris. It’s the cultural capital of Europa, after all. Lights, music, science!” He chuckled, “When I come back, then I’ll buckle down and get to work. I just want to live a little first.” He looked at her. “Join me? You’re probably the only one who doesn’t care about… you know.” He was referring to his less than impressive heritage. 

Wait… there was something off, here. “Why is the Baron willing to foot the bill to a foreign university?” She asked, “While you could probably…” Wait. Secret things, going to one of the biggest centers of power outside of Pax Transylvania? “...oh.” She said, connecting the dots. “You’re going to be a spy for the Baron.” 

It made perfect sense. While the Baron’s lands had many fine universities, sending him to one of the premier cultural universities and putting him into a position where traveling the coffee shops, bars, and other gossip hotspots was downright expected as a young composer trying to make their way into the world… It’s a great cover. “...It even explains why you have a hidden guard following you around.” She murmured to herself. Assets with such great covers don’t grow on trees, after all. 

Gil blinked. “I have what?” He looked around, confused. He waved her off. “I’m not going to be a spy. Don’t even joke about that.”

“Of course.” Tanya said. Saying such things out loud, even in a relatively secure space like this one, was foolish. “But still, while I’d love to go pretend to elope with you to Paris or whatever cover story you were intending…” She said, inserting as much sarcasm as was humanly possible into those words. Yes, she’s accepted the fact that her secret deal with The Baron was that she’d eventually have to make an heir with a political marriage, but in the meantime she’d much rather ‘play doctor’ some more with the lovely Sun Mingmei. “...I rather like it here.” She was safe, most things were tied down, which reduced the number of Being X’s opportunities to kill her, the aforementioned fun activities… “While I’m going to assume you’ve cleared my involvement with the Baron for your mission, I don’t see a set of official orders with you so I will also assume that my cooperation is voluntary.” Besides, she doubted that the Master of Paris would look kindly on her bringing a mecha into his city. She certainly wasn’t going to leave it here. 

“It’s not a mission, Tanya…” Gil muttered. 

Sure it isn’t. 

-------------------------

There was just one thing Tanya had failed to take into account: She was also required to attend a university. 

Apparently, her projects had earned her a full-ride scholarship to any university in Europa, and she was even permitted to, as part of a diplomatic/cultural exchange program, attend either Oxford University in sunken England, or the Paris Institute of the Extraordinary. 

With that ultimatum, suspiciously issued the very same day that Gil invited her to Paris, when she had never been informed of any such requirement beforehand… well. She understood her marching orders. 

Being X would love for her to go among the perfidious Albish, anyway. So it was an easy choice. 

It was, admittedly, a bit strange that the Baron decided to personally see them off to the small airship that would transport them to the City of Light, but she was no stranger to underestimating her superior’s personal affection for a productive subordinate that just so happened to be a young girl. Did he perhaps think of himself as having become a father-like figure to her? 

It did make sense, if the Baron was anything like Zettour or Rudersdorf. He did kind of remind her of Zettour, after all. Sure, he told her to make sure Gil made it back out of Paris in one piece, but he probably said the same to Gil about her. 

Yes, she’s decided: If she ever finds anyone as wonderful as Visha was, she’ll be sure to invite the Baron to the wedding. It’s the least she could do after all he’s done for her. 

Now… once more, to Parisee! Hopefully she won’t have to conquer it again.