My eyes open to the sight of Emi, "Hello love, have been waiting long?"

"Not long, Rufina." She takes my hand, pulling me up. I turn, helping Sophia rise.

Emi leads us out, snuffing candles as she goes. As we reach the table she says, "Here they are, they were in dream space."

"Sorry to keep you waiting." I notice that all that know the secret are here. "Good evening, Nora. I hope all is well with you."

"Well enough, your majesty. Thank you for having me to supper."

"Do you know everyone here?" she nods, "Good."

"Aden, how is the threshing going?"

"We are well over 3000 sacks of grain as of this evening, mostly done by the thresher, though there are groups threshing with flail. I also have another twenty six sacks of large wheat berries for you."

"So twenty or more days until threshing is finished. Have you gotten an update on the completion of the cleaner?"

"Jason and Daniel have finished their portions and Steven is putting it all together, he should be finished tomorrow afternoon if everything fits together like it should."

"Did you bring the plans back?"

"Yes, they are in my office."

"Good, I'll get them after supper. Were you able to check on storefronts?"

"Yes, there are four empty storefronts in the area of the town hall, two small ones and two larger ones. Mark was with me so he saw them and says the larger ones are the right size for him. I don't think the smaller ones are suitable for Helen though."

"They are, one even has an office in the rear. And the rent is reasonable." Mark says.

"We can take Helen to see the others tomorrow then." Helen nods. Emi and Eliza are setting the table as we talk. "Helen would like to rent out her shop, what would her shop rent for, Aden?"

"A building that size, in that location goes for two coppers a week, or about five silver a year. The land rents for two silver twelve copper per year."

"Helen doesn't own the land?"

"No, all land is property of the kingdom."

"Did you know that Helen?"

"No. When is the rent on the land due?"

"I would have to check, but most rents are due before the first of the year."

"Would they have been collected at the same time as the taxes?"

"It's possible. Looks like I will be checking the tax and rent records soon. Argh, more work."

"I'll help Aden." I tell him. "I need to know the kingdom's income sources, as the sale of grain is no where near the total yearly income."

"Thank you, your majesty. When do you want to do it?"

"We can start next week. But find out if Helen is in arrears on her rent, please."

"Yes, your majesty."

"Was it a good day for you, Mark?"

"Yes it was. After we looked at storefronts, I was able to do a little more business so the shop is assured."

"Very good. Kalvin do you have anything to report?"

"I have nothing to report your majesty."

"How about you Tobias, any new progress on the bathhouse?"

"We started the foundation excavation today. How deep is the drain pipe? and is it coming soon? I don't think it is on the plan."

"The pipe should be near the surface next to the tub, sloping one cm per meter. It was promised for the day after tomorrow. I'll check on it tomorrow when in town."

"One of my friends was telling how you made a device to level the bottom of the hole, would you show me how to make that device?"

"Of course. I can do it tonight in fact."

"Will I need to fetch anything?"

"No, nothing is needed."

We had finished our meal of ham sandwiches with lettuce, spread with mustard and mayonnaise. I noticed that Nora had asked what the white substance on the sandwiches was. Eliza explained it to her. When most of us had finished our sandwiches Tilly had returned to the kitchen returning with a large rectangular ceramic dish. It contained an apple pie. So we finished our meal with a slice of pie.

When the last of the pie was eaten, I announced, "There is going to be some special entertainment in the parlor after things are cleaned up, so no running off." Those that were here this morning had an idea of what was planned but the others were left wondering. The table was cleared and the dishes washed in near record time. I had followed Aden to his office to retrieve the thresher plans placing them on the desk in the study.

I was waiting near the parlor when everyone arrived. "I suggest everyone use a chamber pot first, we may be busy for quite a while and there will be no outhouse breaks." They all scattered, heading to different locations to do their business. I even went to my rooms. When I returned most of them were waiting. "You notice that there are mattresses laid out in the parlor, please lay down and relax."

Once they were all laying down, "Alright, most of you have done this before but for those that haven't, Sophia is going to look into your eyes putting you to sleep. Once asleep you will be in a dream but this dream is different, we will all be sharing this dream. Sophia and I will be directing what happens."

I lay down, taking the hands of Emi and Tobias. Sophia looks into my eyes and smiles, I give her a nod as I nod off.

As this is my show, I set the stage. I am standing in a large room. I place ten chairs in rows of three, four and three again. I change the floor so the front of the room is lower than the chairs. I create a large white board on the wall behind me with several pens of different colors. As this is a dream space the room is lit by electric lights, which I have a remote control for.

The others appear one at a time, I direct them to the chairs asking them to sit. They look around the room, at the lights, the white board, the carpet on the floor and even the chairs, which are like modern theater seats. When Sophia appears I begin.

"Welcome to Dream Space. Tonight I will show you a portion of what I have planned for the isle of Haven. Remember this is a dream, nothing here is real, any change is temporary. This morning Emi, Helen, Sophia, Tilly and I came to dream space to try some new hair styles, Helen stand please." I cause Helen's hair to change to what it was like this morning. "When I asked Emi how she would cut my hair, she indicated this style," my hair changes to the pixie cut, "which led to this." I changed my clothes to the fairy outfit, wings included. As the ceiling was high I was able to fly about the room. When I returned to stage, I changed back to my regular clothes.

"Tonight after I show you what I plan on doing, we will go fly around. And now the Plan."

I cause the lights to dim to near dark. I cause an image of a farmer harvesting ripe flax to appear on the the white board. It changes to him retting bundles of flax, finally him using a breaking bar to start the recovery of the fibers. The scene changes, the breaking bar is replaced by a machine, being powered by one man while another feeds bundles of flax into it. The flax comes out the other side in a limp stringy bundle, a third person taking it, giving it a shake then laying it on a pile. I alter the view so the two scenes are side by side, showing the amount and speed that the three person crew can process the flax verse the a lone person.

I change the scene again, showing the farmer using a scutching knife on a bundle of flax, removing more of the core material, freeing the fibers. The scene changes again, another machine appears, again being powered by a young person, the farmer laying the flax into the machine, removing it, flipping it around to do the other end. Giving the scutched flax a twist he lays it down. I repeated the twin view, showing how much the farmer could scutch alone verse with a helper and the machine, well over three times the amount.

I show the farmer heckling the flax, saying I have no small machine to heckle the flax as of yet. Then I show the large machine from the video I had seen. This has a series of chains of combs combing the flax as it moves across the machine. When it exits the machine the flax is ready to spin. I explain that this machine would require a large amount of iron and would need to be powered by a water wheel.

Next I move the view to the interior of a home, the farm wife spinning yarn with a drop spindle. The scene changes, now she is sitting at a spinning wheel, feeding the flax on the the spinning spindle, making over twice the yarn in the same time. This scene changes, to a large machine spinning twelve lines of yarn at once, making twelve two meter lengths at a time. This machine is also powered by a water wheel.

Next I show Helen at her table top loom, flipping the shuttle back and forth, bring the reed towards her between each pass. Then I change the loom to a large floor model with a flying shuttle. She still had to move the beater but now instead of moving the shuttle by hand she pulled a handle in front of her. This causes the shuttle to move. The width of the cloth is four times the width on the table loom. I say that with a loom like this a person could make over 150 square meters of cloth in a week. "How much cloth can you make in a week Helen?"

"If I am lucky and have the yarn, I have done thirty running meters."

I change the scene a final time, showing the image of a row of modern looms, their beaters moving at three beats to the second.

The lights come back up, the images fading. I see their faces. "That last machine was the state of the art looms when I left Earth. For us to reach that level is many years away."

"So you want to use machine to replace people." This is said by Tilly.

"No, I don't want to replace them. I want them to be able to make more while working less. The machines can help one person make what three make now. If the three still made what they can now, that would free two thirds of their time for other things or they could make three time as much, making more available for the next step. I admit that this could be abused but I promise that I won't, that least intensionally."

They are silent so I dim the lights again. "You have seen how the improved tools have increased the speed of the harvest. These improvements are the simplest, least material intense I could make. If I had more iron there are simple machine that can do two or three times the work in one pass. There are others that require portable power sources that can't be used until the fuel source can be found." I start showing videos of farm machinery, horse drawn plows, harrows, rakes, mowers, binders and threshers. Then change the power source to steam powered tractors. As the power increases the implements increase in size, some become multitasking, combining functions. Finally I show the modern machines, the hugh diesel tractors pulling multi ganged plows, seed drills and fertilizer sprayers. These are replaced with the combines, crossing the fields in groups, auguring the grain into semi trucks. "These last machines enable the farmers of Earth to provide 100 sacks of grain with four hours work while our farmers need 100 hours work to provide four sacks of grain. If I figured it out that is now down to 96 hours for four sacks."

I then show the the canned food aisle of a food store,"This is a food market, more specifically the preserved food aisle, each of those containers is full of food, some placed in their can within hours of being picked in the field." The scene changes to couple in a kitchen, preparing baskets of vegetables and placing them in glass jars then cooking them. Finally showing shelves of jarred food. "I have offered a glass maker a shop and a home if he would come to our island, intending to have him make jars like these. In the time of plenty, food can be stored, to be eaten later. No more lean late winters caused by shortages of food."

The scene changes again, this time showing a garden. Rows of beans, tomatoes, peppers and squash. "Each of these vegetables you see are new to you but not to me. These red fruits are tomatoes, they can be used in many different recipes and are tasty raw, fresh from the vine. The green, yellow and red fruits are peppers, a spicy fruit, causing the fire to the tongue, the large ones are mild while the tiny purple ones are like chewing burning coals. Mixed with the tomatoes, onions, garlic and the leave of coriander, they make a great tasting sauce. The beans are like board beans but are easier to prepare. There are many verities of them from small white ones to large red or black ones. Cooked together with the peppers, tomatoes and ground meat they make a dish called chilli. And finally, the squash, these store well over winter, can be used in soups, stews, pies or steamed or boiled. The seeds of all of these have been ordered so we can grow them next year."

"You have notice the lights in this room. I am sorry to say at they can not be reproduced here and now. They require materials and technology that is years in the future. The power that makes the light can be used to power the cloth making machines and others."

"And other machines," the scene changes to a wood workers shop, showing drill presses, different types of power saws, table, band and miter, there is a lathe. Then the hand power tools. "All these tools use a power source called electricity, which is converted to mechanical motion. Notice that some have cords coming out of the handles, these going to the wall where a supply of electricity is. Others have a portable source of electricity in the handle called a battery."

"The finally thing I wish to show you tonight is this," the scene changes to a man working a gutenberg style printing press, first inking the rack of type then places a sheet of paper in its holder lowering it, then pushes the carrier under the screw. After pulling the lever to turn the screw, he slides the carrier back out, lifting the paper holder. When he removes the sheet it is covered in black characters. "He just did in a couple of minutes what it took Sophia, Eliza and I twenty minutes to do. At that rate he could print a hundred pages in two hours. In the afternoon, after changing the type, he could print the back side of the page. So in five days he could print one hundred copies of the Go instruction book which uses five sheets of paper. What is not shown is the typesetter placing the type in the rack or the illustrator cutting their blocks. So depending on the number and size of pages we could print a book in less than a month. I figure four months from the time a one hundred page manuscript is brought to us, to when the book goes out the door, that includes editing, type setting, printing and binding. And binding would take the longest to do, followed by type setting then editing. Using ten men. Or twelve if there are illustrations. And this is using this slow press." The scene changed, showing a newspaper press, the paper a blur as it sped though the press.

I dimmed the lights until there is only one, focus on me. I change the surroundings, removing the room, replacing it with a meadow of wild flowers. "This concludes what I wanted to show you. I hope you will help me turn this dream in to reality." I change everyone to a fairy, making their bodies smaller, changing their clothes and hair and giving them dragonfly wings. The final light fades out, leaving us in the dark but only for a short time. The sky brightens as stars appear, the smaller moon appear to come from behind a cloud. In the increasing light they stare at each other, then start giggling.

I take flight, zooming over their heads, shouting, "Are you going to stay on the ground or will you fly with me?"

First Sophia then Emi, followed by the others, take to the sky, zipping here and there, zooming high then spiraling down. Sophia approaches me, "Well done Rosa, well done." We hover below the others as they play, chasing each other though the sky. Even Nora and Tobias are enjoying themselves. I see Nora slow, then make a throwing motion, a ball of light leaving her hand, striking Kalvin in the back. He tumbles head over heels a short distance before righting himself. His hand lights up, he push a light ball back at her but she dodges. Soon the sky is full of balls of light, each a different color.

I decide to join in but I have a different weapon, a net of light. I soon capture Tilly, Nora, Helen and Tobias, leaving them tangled in the net on the ground. Kalvin and Eliza are missing which leaves Emi, Mark and Aden along with Sophia who is flying well away from us. Mark and Aden soon fall to my nets but Emi is being a harder target, zipping around like she has always been air borne. I hear the others cheering her on, as I make another try at capturing her. As she zooms by me I rotate, flying in reverse but before I can get fully turned she has me tangled in a net. She pulls the net to her and wrapping her arms around me says, "I capture you Rufina, surrender."

"You captured me years ago love, when you nursed me back to health. I surrendered years ago." Her eyes got teary and she hugged me to her breast.

Sophia flies up, "You did well, Emi, evading her attacks and capturing her in the end. And Rufina you did well to capture the others though you seem to be missing two."

"Oh they are probably joining the 100 meter club."

"One hundred meter club?" Emi asks.

"Having sex at one hundred meters. Or they are in the woods or somewhere they can be alone."

We had flown down to the others, "Who was next to Eliza and or Kalvin?"

"I was next to Kalvin. Eliza was last in line." says Aden. "Why?"

"Trying to figure out if they are still in dream space. If Kalvin released your hand he would fade out of dream space."

"I'll go check it they are still connected." says Sophia. She fades away.

With a snap of my fingers I banish the nets, releasing them. "I have a game we can play, who would like to play?" They all do.

"Alright, this is a team game, so four to a side. Guys can be one side, girls the other, seeing as there are only three guys, I'll play on the guys team." I create a rectangular open space of level sand with a net dividing it and a strips of dark sand around the edge. The top of the net is even with the top of Mark's head. "The game is called Volleyball." I continue explaining the rules of volleyball, then we start playing. When Sophia returns she creates a high seat and referee's for us. Being in dream space we don't get tired so can play for a long time. After the score gets to fifty to fifty one, Sophia disappears for a minute before returning.

"Time, I declare the guys the winners. It is pass midnight in the real world. We are asleep but it's the wrong state of sleep to get rest so, we are about to awaken so we can goto bed."

I nod, "In that case, Nora, I invite you to spend the night, Helen would you show her to the room next to yours. Aden, you can sleep in the room next to mine, though you will have wrangle the mattress back to the room. Mark your mattress will also need wrangling. It will be easier to use the new section stairs to move the mattresses."

As the last words leave my mouth I fade out

After sitting up Mark and Emi take Marks mattress, Tobias aids Aden with his and I help Sophia with hers. Tilly starts to roll the last one up, but Helen comes back and helps move it. Soon all the mattresses are where they belong. I hug Sophia good night then head to my room, Helen is standing by her door. "May I sleep with you Rufina? Eliza and Kal are being noisy in there and I do want to sleep."

"Sure sweetie." taking her hand we head to my rooms where we strip down, do our toilet and crawl into bed, cuddling up. We are soon asleep.