The Pen and the Sword (Destiny's Crucible Book 2) by Olan Thorensen Page A

left to Cadwulf and the staff at the Bank of Abersford.
    It
was after a meeting to discuss expanding kerosene production that Cadwulf
commented on Yozef’s recent activity.
    “Yozef,
I hope you don’t mind my asking, but recently you’re spending most of your time
preparing for fighting. Not that I don’t think it important to do whatever we can
in case the Buldorians or the Narthani come again, but I’ve seen you more as
the scholastic type.”
    “I
am, but we can’t always do what we want. My people have a saying: ‘The quill is
mightier than the sword,’ though it’s more a philosophical proposition than one
rooted in the real world. While I agree that over time, often what a person
writes can have more influence than another person’s conquests, time and the
effect of the present can’t be ignored. The quill may be mightier long term,
but the sword wins short term.
    “To
do what I’m best at, I and everyone here have to survive whatever the Narthani
plan. I hope my projects can help both Keelan and me to survive.”
    What
Yozef didn’t tell Cadwulf was that in this case, the “quill” was his journals.
He needed time to write as much as he could remember. Soon after he’d recovered
from the shock of being cast away on Anyar, he recognized that his knowledge of
Earth science would advance human civilization on Anyar by centuries. The
problem was that there was no way to suddenly incorporate what he knew into the
existing civilization. Knowledge didn’t exist in a vacuum. Each piece needed to
fit into a society’s existing knowledge base and philosophical principles.
    Added
to this problem was fear for his own safety, if he attempted to introduce
knowledge violating religious or cultural precepts he didn’t even know existed.
As a science student, he knew of the fate of early scientists who contradicted the
Catholic Church’s teachings on astronomy around 1600 AD: Giordano Bruno, a
Dominican friar, was burned at the stake for heresy, and Galileo, thirty years
later, was threatened with the same fate, until he recanted. Yozef had
estimated Anyarian technology to be at approximately Earth’s level around 1700,
so he treaded lightly at first.
    As
time passed and he gained more confidence, he had used elementary chemistry to
introduce new products and processes without experiencing serious repercussions.
Mathematics had also been safe, because it was seen as more abstract than something
that directly impacted beliefs. The Caedelli were not yet aware of how it
permeated everything else.
    He
had also given St. Sidryn’s medicants, members of the medical order of the
Caedelli service society, ether, ethanol as an antiseptic, and knowledge of the
body’s organs and physiology, being very careful not to introduce too much too
soon and retreating into feigned ignorance at warning signs.
    Still,
these were minor advances. He assumed he would transfer only a fraction of what
he knew within his life span. To reach beyond that time, he wrote in English
two sets of secret journals. One set recounted how he had come to Anyar and
everything he could remember about Earth history. He intended that no one read
this set while he lived, but he wanted there to be a record of what had
happened to him to tell future Anyarians where they came from.
    The
second set of journals he also wrote in English, but it was everything he
remembered about science and mathematics. The Watchers, aliens who had saved
him after colliding with his airliner, had modified his DNA for more efficient
energy production and utilization. The AI, Harlie, said it was to compensate
for Anyar’s gravity being higher than Earth’s. Whether intended or not, a side
effect was enhanced memory for previous experiences. Concentrating brought
forth entire pages of text and lessons from his undergraduate and graduate courses.
There were annoying gaps, paragraphs, or pages missing from a chapter, but the
totality was more advanced than anything likely to exist