If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Tesla practically broke the door to the mansion off its hinges, marching into the study with a face entirely red with panic. "You cannot leave, Caleb!" Tesla objected immediately, slamming a stack of blueprints onto the desk. "We are at a highly critical stage in the frequency modulation! If we stabilize the vacuum tubes this week, we could double the transmission range! An interruption now could severely derail my calculations!"
"Nikola," Caleb sighed, rubbing his temples. "I have to leave. The federal government is waiting for me. We can continue the research the exact moment I return."
"The research must continue now!" Tesla insisted, waving his hands frantically. "The alternating currents do not wait for the War Department!"
Caleb opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. He realized very quickly that trying to win a logical argument with Nikola Tesla about leaving a laboratory was an entirely futile endeavor.
"Fine," Caleb said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "You are coming with us to Connecticut."
Tesla blinked, utterly confused. "But... my temporary laboratory is here."
"I will arrange for a private freight carriage on the train to be converted into a temporary workspace," Caleb offered. "You can work on the radio while we travel. But only on two conditions. One, you do not blow a hole in the side of my train. Two, you actually eat the food Mary-Beth brings you, and you sleep for at least four hours a night."
Tesla looked at Caleb, deeply conflicted, before finally nodding reluctantly. "Agreed. But I require a massive amount of copper wire for the journey."
Mary-Beth, who had been watching the exchange from the doorway, burst out laughing. "You have somehow managed to acquire a traveling research partner who is even more obsessively impossible to separate from his work than you are, Caleb. God help us all on this train."
Once all the chaotic preparations were finally complete, Caleb, Mary-Beth, Tesla, Hosea, Vincenzo, Silvio, Arthur, Javier, Bill, and the heavy security entourage boarded the armored Thorne Holding Company train at the Saint Denis station.
The train was heavily modified for the journey. It contained a lavishly appointed private parlor carriage for Caleb and Mary-Beth, sleeping quarters for the men, and, exactly as promised, an entire freight car converted into a sprawling, chaotic temporary research space for Tesla. It was packed with heavy tools, electrical components, spools of wire, induction coils, delicate measuring instruments, and reams of drafting paper.
The exact second the train hissed and lurched forward, Tesla practically sprinted into the research carriage, entirely consumed by the unfinished frequency experiment.
Caleb joined him shortly after, and the two men quickly set up the workspace as the train rumbled out of the Louisiana swamps.
Their primary objective was to drastically improve the crude radio prototype and make the system commercially practical. They relentlessly worked on complex issues such as clearer audio transmission, greater signal range, isolating specific wavelengths to prevent interference, and stabilizing the power output of the vacuum tubes.
Caleb provided the massive, conceptual leaps from his past-life knowledge, suggesting the necessity of tuning capacitors, while Tesla provided the staggering, deep experimental and theoretical physics required to actually build the components.
Their strengths perfectly complemented one another. Tesla would occasionally become wildly excited, rapidly jumping between a dozen different theoretical ideas, while Caleb's fully focused practical mind helped organize the chaos into a sequential, actionable manufacturing process.
However, the train's constant movement made the delicate research incredibly difficult. The relentless vibration of the tracks, the cramped space, the wildly fluctuating electrical draw from the locomotive's dynamo, and the lack of a perfectly grounded laboratory created a nightmare of interference.
But rather than becoming frustrated, Tesla found the sheer difficulty of the challenge endlessly fascinating.
"If I compensate for the kinetic vibration of the chassis by dampening the oscillator mount with rubber..." Tesla muttered, lying on the floor of the train car, soldering a wire while the carriage rattled violently.
"Nikola," Caleb sighed, bracing himself against a table as the train took a sharp curve. "This is supposed to be a train, not a physics laboratory."
"It has now become both, Caleb!" Tesla beamed, completely unbothered by the swaying carriage.
Mary-Beth occasionally visited their makeshift laboratory, carefully navigating through the maze of copper wire and dangerous-looking batteries. She brought fresh sandwiches and hot coffee, sternly reminding both men that neither of them had eaten a proper meal in hours.
She became highly amused by the sight of the two most brilliant men in the country surrounded by papers, smoking instruments, and half finished devices, while the rest of the passengers in the parlor cars were simply trying to enjoy the luxury of the ride.
Arthur, Javier, and Bill occasionally wandered back to the research carriage, observing the strange, sparking activity with varying degrees of utter confusion.
"So," Arthur asked, leaning against the doorframe, chewing on a matchstick as Tesla frantically adjusted a glowing glass tube. "How long does it take before you two finally invent something that explodes?"
"We are working on wireless communication technology, Arthur, not explosives," Caleb answered, entirely focused on tuning a copper coil.
Arthur chuckled, shaking his head. "Knowing you, Caleb, I wouldn't be surprised if the two eventually became related somehow. Just don't blow up my sleeping car."
As the days of travel passed, and the humid Southern swamps gave way to the rolling green hills of the Midwest, the radio research made incredible, meaningful progress.
The prototype became vastly more stable and reliable. Tesla began to see exactly how Caleb's anachronistic ideas fit perfectly into his own sprawling theories. Tesla became increasingly, wildly enthusiastic about the distinct possibility of broadcasting actual human voices over hundreds of miles.
"It is flawless, Caleb!" Tesla cheered as a clear, static free signal chimed through the receiver. "We can transmit across the Atlantic within the decade or even much earlier!"
"Perhaps, Nikola," Caleb reminded him, placing a hand on the transmitter. "But commercial viability is also vital. We need a device that is small enough, and cheap enough, that people can actually use it in their homes."
Tesla agreed reluctantly, though his excitement remained terrifyingly obvious.
At the same time, Caleb used the long hours of the journey to mentally prepare for the staggering meetings ahead.
He sat quietly in the parlor car with a glass of bourbon, reviewing exactly what he expected from John Marlin. He anticipated the War Department's likely aggressive questions concerning the military contract, specifically regarding supply logistics and patent ownership. He considered exactly how Henry Ford's radical vision for the automobile might perfectly fit into his future industrial plans.
And he thought deeply about what the Connecticut headquarters of Thorne-Marlin truly represented.
For Caleb, this was a massive milestone. It was already time that one of the business under his control had grown so powerfully beyond Saint Denis that he was now traveling halfway across the continent to visit a major industrial headquarters in another state.
Mary-Beth noticed his intense, quiet thoughts. She sat beside him on the velvet couch, gently taking his hand.
"You don't need to carry every single problem in your head at once, Caleb," she reminded him softly. "You have Strauss for the numbers, Hosea for the politics, and Arthur for the muscle. Let them help you carry the weight."
Their marriage remained his vital emotional anchor throughout the grueling journey. Between the exhausting work sessions in the research car, Caleb and Mary-Beth spent hours together, sharing elegant meals in the dining car, watching the changing American landscape blur past the windows, and discussing what they hoped to see in Connecticut.
Mary-Beth was genuinely excited to witness how Caleb's massive business empire operated from the perspective of its powerful headquarters, not the southern branch Caleb handled personally.
By the end of the journey, the radio prototype had improved substantially. Caleb and Tesla now had a crystal clear understanding of exactly what still needed to be engineered before they could consider the invention ready for a serious, world altering public demonstration.
As the train finally crossed into the borders of Connecticut, Caleb stood alone in the parlor car, looking out the window as the landscape shifted toward dense, northern forests and sprawling industrial towns.
He knew, with absolute certainty, that this journey was going to be another major turning point in history.
Ahead of him lay the Thorne-Marlin headquarters, the Marlin family, the aggressive representatives of the United States War Department, the visionary Henry Ford, and yet another massive opportunity to relentlessly expand his empire.
Beside him in the carriage was Mary-Beth, his wife and his compass. In the research car behind him was Nikola Tesla, the man who would invent the future. And surrounding him in the train were Vincenzo, Arthur, and the men he trusted to defend his life. Caleb took a slow breath of the cool air leaking through the window frame.
The heavy, iron clad wheels of the Thorne Holding Company's private train shrieked against the rails, hissing out massive clouds of white steam as it finally shuddered to a complete stop at the Connecticut station.
As the heavy steel doors of the parlor and freight carriages swung open, the crisp, biting air of the northern autumn rushed in. Caleb Thorne stepped out onto the platform first, offering a gloved hand to Mary-Beth. Behind them, the sheer scale of their arrival instantly brought the bustling railway station to a grinding halt.
Travelers, railway employees, porters, and curious onlookers stopped in their tracks, staring in unabashed awe. It was not every day that a heavily armored private train rolled into the station, disgorging a massive, exquisitely dressed traveling party flanked by two dozen broad shouldered, heavily armed Italian capos.
Vincenzo and Silvio immediately fanned out, their dark eyes scanning the platform with professional, practiced efficiency, while Arthur, Javier, and Bill directed the station porters. They coordinated the massive unloading process, carefully hauling out heavy steamer trunks, velvet lined rifle cases, lockboxes of corporate documents, and the incredibly fragile crates of Nikola Tesla's scientific equipment.
Waiting for them near the center of the platform was a formal delegation, standing in sharp contrast to the chaotic crowd.
At the head of the group stood John Mahlon Marlin, the seasoned, gray bearded patriarch and CEO of the company. Flanking him were his two surviving sons, Mahlon Henry Marlin and John Howard Marlin, alongside several senior executives who managed the day-to-day operations of the sprawling firearms empire.
John stepped forward as Caleb approached. This was the first time the two men had ever met face to face, and the air between them carried the heavy weight of shifting industry power.
"Mr. Thorne," John Marlin greeted him, extending a calloused hand that had spent decades working steel before it ever pushed a pen.
"Mr. Marlin," Caleb replied, taking the man's hand with a firm, confident grip. "It is an absolute pleasure to finally stand before the man who built the foundation of this company."
Their initial exchange established an immediate, mutual respect. John looked closely at the young rich tycoon, his sharp eyes burning with a deep, pragmatic curiosity about the Southerner who had seemingly appeared from nowhere to become the company's largest shareholder and its primary technological architect.
Caleb then turned to the younger Marlins. "Mahlon. John Howard. It is good to see you both again."
Because Caleb had dealt with the sons during the initial, aggressive acquisition of shares, the reunion carried a layer of established familiarity. They shook hands warmly, the younger Marlins clearly eager to impress the man who was rapidly driving their family name to unprecedented national heights.
"Allow me to introduce my wife, Mary-Beth," Caleb said, stepping aside as she approached.
Mary-Beth offered a warm, elegant smile, extending her hand. The Marlins, to their credit, did not treat her as a mere decorative accessory. They had dealt with enough ruthless tycoons to know when a man genuinely valued his spouse. They recognized that Mary-Beth was not merely a wealthy investor's wife, but an incredibly important, respected figure in Caleb's life. John Marlin bowed his head slightly, offering his genuine respects.
"And finally," Caleb continued, gesturing to the tall, gaunt man currently watching a locomotive switch engine with intense fascination. "This is Mr. Nikola Tesla. He is an extraordinary inventor and scientist who has recently joined my organization."
John's eyebrows rose in surprise. He recognized the name from the scientific journals. "Mr. Tesla. An honor. But if you don't mind my asking... what does an electrical pioneer have to do with the firearms industry?"
"One of our current, long term goals," Caleb explained smoothly, "is to determine whether Mr. Tesla's genius can help us develop new, automated machinery. Systems capable of manufacturing firearm components and other industrial parts exponentially faster, while maintaining the absolute highest standard of quality."
John Marlin was visibly taken aback. He understood better than anyone on earth the staggering amount of manual labor, filing, and physical time required to manufacture quality firearm components. The prospect of automating that precision was a tantalizing dream. "If you can achieve that, Mr. Tesla, you will change the world of manufacturing forever. I sincerely hope the project succeeds."
"The mechanical limitations of your current steam-driven belt systems are entirely solvable!" Tesla responded, his eyes lighting up with his usual, manic enthusiasm. "If we introduce localized alternating current induction motors directly to the milling lathes, we eliminate the kinetic energy loss of the overhead belts and increase the torque by a factor of—"
"Nikola," Caleb interrupted lightly, placing a hand on the inventor's shoulder with a polite chuckle. "Perhaps we can save the schematic overhauls for when we aren't blocking the middle of a railway station."
Tesla blinked, looking around at the crowded platform. "Ah. Yes. Of course."
Once the introductions were complete, John checked his pocket watch. "The representatives from the War Department are scheduled to meet with us tomorrow morning at the main offices, Caleb. After such a long journey from the South, I have arranged for carriages to take you directly to your accommodations. I imagine you and your wife would prefer to rest for the remainder of the day."
"I appreciate the consideration, John," Caleb smiled, buttoning his overcoat. "But I did not travel halfway across the country to sleep in a townhouse. I would much rather use the afternoon to see the Marlin operation with my own eyes. I want to understand the heartbeat of the company I am invested in, and I want my people to see it as well."
John Marlin's eyes gleamed with approval. He had dealt with absentee investors who only cared about dividend checks. A majority shareholder who wanted to walk the grease stained factory floors immediately upon arrival was a man he could respect.
"Then the carriages will take us to Willow Street," John agreed. "I will gladly show you the floor myself."
The massive entourage departed the station, the convoy of carriages rattling through the busy, industrialized streets of New Haven until they arrived at the sprawling Marlin manufacturing complex.
It was an imposing, deeply established industrial fortress. The main facility was a massive, two and a half story brick factory building, its tall windows glowing with the fires of the forges, surrounded by outbuildings and the older, traditional office structure.
The smokestacks belched thick plumes of gray smoke into the crisp Connecticut air. It did not feel like a small, regional workshop, it felt like a deeply rooted, serious industrial enterprise that had armed thousands of men.
John personally led Caleb, Mary-Beth, Tesla, Hosea, and the core gang members through the heavy iron doors of the factory floor.
The cacophony was absolute. The deafening roar of drop forges, the screech of milling machines, and the heavy rhythmic thumping of overhead leather drive belts made the floor vibrate beneath their boots.
John led them through the entire metallurgical lifecycle. They started in the raw materials sector, where massive billets of steel were stacked to the ceiling. They moved through the machining floors, where hundreds of skilled workers cut, milled, and turned the steel into precision components. They walked through the finishing rooms, smelling strongly of bluing salts and linseed oil, and finally into the vast assembly lines and inspection stations.
Caleb paid incredibly close attention to every single detail. He did not behave like a wealthy tourist marveling at the noise. He analyzed the room with the cold efficient gaze of an apex predator.
He asked highly intelligent, piercing questions. He inquired about the maximum production capacity of the drop forges, the exact bottleneck delays caused by barrel rifling, the maintenance schedule for the steam engines, the specialized training of the workers, and the logistical supply chains for the imported walnut wood.
John Marlin was genuinely stunned. Within twenty minutes, he realized that Caleb understood the granular, microscopic reality of heavy manufacturing far better than half of the executives currently sitting on his board.
As they walked, Caleb mentally compared the company's existing, aging machinery with what he knew could eventually be accomplished through the implementation of Tesla's electrical automation and his own future production systems.
Eventually, they reached a highly secured section of the assembly floor. Here, Caleb saw his own creations coming to life. Row upon row of the new Pioneer sporting rifles and the devastating Enforcer shotguns were being carefully assembled. It was a surreal, immensely satisfying moment to see the blueprints he had drafted in a Louisiana basement being mass-produced by hundreds of men in a northern factory.
Caleb occasionally stepped up to the workbenches. When he saw a gunsmith expertly hand fitting a complex action, Caleb praised the man's craftsmanship loudly enough for the surrounding floor to hear. But he was also unflinchingly sharp when he spotted inefficiencies. He stopped at a station where workers were manually carrying heavy crates of receivers across the room to the bluing vats.
"Move the vats thirty yards to the left, directly at the end of the milling line," Caleb instructed the floor supervisor, pointing out the wasted motion. He didn't sound arrogant, he sounded work pragmatic. "I am not trying to interfere with your craftsmen's expertise. My goal is to make their jobs physically easier, eliminate the wasted transit time, and increase the volume of high quality work this factory can output before the whistle blows."
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Name: Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 8/10
- Agility: 8/10
- Perception: 9/10
- Stamina: 8/10
- Charm: 8/10
- Luck: 9/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl MAX)
- Rifle (Lvl MAX)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl MAX)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl MAX)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl MAX)
- Sneaking (Lvl MAX)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl MAX)
- Poker (Lvl MAX)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl MAX)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Dead Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Bow (Lvl MAX)
- Pain Nullifier (Lvl MAX)
- Physical Regeneration (Lvl MAX)
- Crafting (Lvl MAX)
- Persuasion (Lvl MAX)
- Mental Fortitude (Lvl MAX)
- Cooking (Lvl MAX)
- Teaching (Lvl MAX)
- Trilingual Language Proficiency - G, I, & C (Lvl MAX)
- Inventory System (Permanent - 100x100x100)
- Acting (Lvl MAX)
- Alcohol Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Treasure Hunter (Lvl MAX)
- Drugs Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Business (Lvl MAX)
- Leadership (Lvl MAX)
Money: 2,772 dollars and 60 cents
Inventory: 283,392 dollars and 61 cents, 11 gold nuggets, 74 gold bars, 1 Double Action, 1 Schofield, 2 Colm's Schofields, 1 land deed (Parcel), 1 Mauser, 1 Semi Auto Pistol, 1 Lancaster Repeater, 1 Old Wood Jewelry Box, 1 F.F Mausoleum small brass key, 1 Ruby, 1 Broken Pirate Sword, 1 Milton's Safety Deposit Key, Proof Of Marlin-Thorne Firearms Co., 10 Dynamites, 1 LeMat, 1 M1899, 1 Carcano, 1 Ownership deed of Doyle's Tavern, 3 Diamonds, & Important Documents & Deeds Of Cornwall
Bank: -