But... but you didn't tell us who won! I guess it was a tense, hard-fought game if it took longer than either of you expected, and so I guess it was also rather enjoyable :)
Late night tournament "What's there to tell?" said Stan, noting that Maxim had managed to get him walking back towards the palace again without actually saying anything or even touching him. He felt a little impressed; he knew that the rumours were that Maxim was either a spy or a spy-catcher, and that he was supposedly a master of disguise, but from he could see, the man was just very good at tricky conversations that got you to say more than you meant to. "I talk to scientists all over Europe, I think the Prince would be unhappy if I were working in seclusion." "Seclusion," said Maxim as though savouring the word. He repeated it, enjoying the sound of it. "Seclusion goes a long way towards secrecy though, and secrets can mean power to someone like a Prince. Did you ever think of that?" Stan snorted a laugh, and then stopped, slightly embarrassed to have been so crude. "Difficulty is a much better way of protecting things," he said. "Davy has isolated a new gas, which he calls Chlorine. That's known and has been for a while. Scheele, in Prussia, is claiming that he got there first and seems to have a different method, but he was claiming that he'd made oxygen the exact same way, so who knows what's going on there. But now that I've told you that this new gas exists, how do you propose to go about isolating it yourself?" Maxim frowned, staring at the ground as he walked onward. "You haven't told me anything else about it," he said. "Where is found?" "You mix ore with an acid," said Stan. "At least, that's the extent of what Davy has explained so far in writing; I believe he held a demonstration in London and is investigating the properties of the new gas there. It seems very toxic and caustic. If you were looking for a weapon that was nearly invisible and crept places where only air should go, this would be a place to start." He wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking for it, but Maxim's eyes widened briefly and his face paled, just fractionally. "That's still not enough," he said. "Except maybe to worry about." "And there you go," said Stan. "That's everything I know so far, and there's no secrecy or seclusion around this. When I wanted to isolate oxygen myself it took over two months before I could get the method to work reliably. And it's easy to say, 'ah, Stan, you just need a rock this shade of yellow!' but actually, you need the right rock that shade of yellow, and it might not look yellow to you anyway but orange." "So... you're saying that Science can be public about what it's doing and still not be reproducable elsewhere?" "I'm saying that reproduction is not trivial, even with a recipe to hand, Max. Seclusion would at best just invite spies to find out what I was trying to hide." "I see." There was a moment's silence as they walked on to the well-maintained lawns of the palace and quickly moved to a curving stone path to avoid the wrath of the gardeners. "I was more interested, in truth, in knowing which of the scientists are occultists though." "Invite them to a late night tournament," said Stan, compressing his lips to hide his smirk. Four paces later Maxim said, "Ah, because something that is occulted is hidden, and any competitive game played late at night would suffer from a lack of light, and you are suggesting that those people who play best are most used to being concealed from the light?" Stan nodded, not wanting to say anything at all lest his tone give away how surprised and shocked he was that Maxim had got there so fast.
Greg - over the course of our visit I won twice and mom won once. The last game was the tightest, but that had a lot to do with neither of us having very many useful letters in our racks at one time.
This is a delightful take on the prompt. And I continue to enjoy this tale a great deal.
2 comments:
But... but you didn't tell us who won! I guess it was a tense, hard-fought game if it took longer than either of you expected, and so I guess it was also rather enjoyable :)
Late night tournament
"What's there to tell?" said Stan, noting that Maxim had managed to get him walking back towards the palace again without actually saying anything or even touching him. He felt a little impressed; he knew that the rumours were that Maxim was either a spy or a spy-catcher, and that he was supposedly a master of disguise, but from he could see, the man was just very good at tricky conversations that got you to say more than you meant to. "I talk to scientists all over Europe, I think the Prince would be unhappy if I were working in seclusion."
"Seclusion," said Maxim as though savouring the word. He repeated it, enjoying the sound of it. "Seclusion goes a long way towards secrecy though, and secrets can mean power to someone like a Prince. Did you ever think of that?"
Stan snorted a laugh, and then stopped, slightly embarrassed to have been so crude. "Difficulty is a much better way of protecting things," he said. "Davy has isolated a new gas, which he calls Chlorine. That's known and has been for a while. Scheele, in Prussia, is claiming that he got there first and seems to have a different method, but he was claiming that he'd made oxygen the exact same way, so who knows what's going on there. But now that I've told you that this new gas exists, how do you propose to go about isolating it yourself?"
Maxim frowned, staring at the ground as he walked onward. "You haven't told me anything else about it," he said. "Where is found?"
"You mix ore with an acid," said Stan. "At least, that's the extent of what Davy has explained so far in writing; I believe he held a demonstration in London and is investigating the properties of the new gas there. It seems very toxic and caustic. If you were looking for a weapon that was nearly invisible and crept places where only air should go, this would be a place to start."
He wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking for it, but Maxim's eyes widened briefly and his face paled, just fractionally.
"That's still not enough," he said. "Except maybe to worry about."
"And there you go," said Stan. "That's everything I know so far, and there's no secrecy or seclusion around this. When I wanted to isolate oxygen myself it took over two months before I could get the method to work reliably. And it's easy to say, 'ah, Stan, you just need a rock this shade of yellow!' but actually, you need the right rock that shade of yellow, and it might not look yellow to you anyway but orange."
"So... you're saying that Science can be public about what it's doing and still not be reproducable elsewhere?"
"I'm saying that reproduction is not trivial, even with a recipe to hand, Max. Seclusion would at best just invite spies to find out what I was trying to hide."
"I see." There was a moment's silence as they walked on to the well-maintained lawns of the palace and quickly moved to a curving stone path to avoid the wrath of the gardeners. "I was more interested, in truth, in knowing which of the scientists are occultists though."
"Invite them to a late night tournament," said Stan, compressing his lips to hide his smirk. Four paces later Maxim said,
"Ah, because something that is occulted is hidden, and any competitive game played late at night would suffer from a lack of light, and you are suggesting that those people who play best are most used to being concealed from the light?"
Stan nodded, not wanting to say anything at all lest his tone give away how surprised and shocked he was that Maxim had got there so fast.
Greg - over the course of our visit I won twice and mom won once. The last game was the tightest, but that had a lot to do with neither of us having very many useful letters in our racks at one time.
This is a delightful take on the prompt. And I continue to enjoy this tale a great deal.
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