Introduction - The Robot Army

This is the opening part of the intro explaining the family background for a work of sci-fi that takes place in the 2030's. The intro is meant to have elements of historical fiction and is meant to explain the roots of the main characters. Feedback appreciated.

1.0 FAMILY ROOTS / October, 1817.

Robert and Jeffrey Carson lay huddled in twin beds under threadbare blankets shivering from the cold. Though both were awake neither said a word, just laying on the thin mattresses with their eyes open. Brothers, the two were born in England’s Yorkshire County and were miners by trade. At six AM the following morning they were scheduled to board the LE McKenna bound for New York City.

Two days prior, the brothers crossed Saint George’s Channel from Cardiff and landed in Cork, Ireland to make the final arrangements for the trip across the Atlantic. At 21, Robert was oldest with Jeffrey three years younger, but the pair had been struck by the image of the United States as a land of opportunity. They worked the mines in their hometown of Featherstone and they were eager to test their experience and knowledge in the “New World”.

A Cork doss house named Cramer Corner was their last stop before the trip and for the last night, they splurged on a private room where they burned a small bundle of coal for warmth. The building was a three story structure made of brick, but inside the walls were thin and they could hear and smell the activities of the busy place. It was nearing midnight, but the kitchen was still in full swing. They could smell the mean gruel being boiled and could hear by the rising tone of the men being served that beer was still flowing. They lay in silence, anticipation keeping them from sleep.

Robert and Jeffrey were coal miners since they were ten years old and the difficult life made them hard young men. Featherstone was a mining town to the core and they lived in a tiny shack with their mother Catherine. Everyone from Featherstone seemed to work the mines and it was not unusual to see kids as young as six working underground. Robert and Jeffrey were both bringing money home from work before they celebrated their tenth birthdays, though the mines took the life of Edward Carlson, their father. Like many poor kids from Yorkshire, they were forced to earn money at a young age to help their widowed mother and there were many mines throughout the county that didn’t frown upon child labor. Like many other children from poor families, the Carson boys were left with no real alternative than to work. The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, England’s first regulation around child labor and mining, was more than two decades away.

Jeffrey dropped out of school and followed his brother to work for the first time one week before his tenth birthday. Neither said a word to mother until Jeffrey came home with his first paycheck and handed her half of it. An adult could make up to twenty shillings a week working the mines, and both boys were earning 10 shillings a week each. A sense of pride bonded the small family as the boys were proud to be working and bringing in an adult salary together. Though Catherine worried daily for the well being of the boys, she was proud of the way the two conducted themselves. The brothers were smart and independent, and they developed work ethic from an early age. When Jeffrey started, Robert already had three years in the mines.

Both boys showed a wild side at an early age, and Catherine suffered as a single mother trying to reign them in. Every now and then, one of the boys would come home with a blackened eye or some other sign of a scuffle, but Catherine could see they took care of each other. They were both tough, like their father had been.

Catherine taught them early there were certain lines you did not cross. One day, when Robert was fifteen and Jeffrey was just twelve, she caught the boys with a set of silverware. This was not you average knife and fork, she could see right away that it was expensive, and probably made of silver. When she could, she worked cleaning houses of people better off. There was a wealthy family in Harrogate that would bring her up for a week at a time to care for their children and do choirs around the house, and she had seen silverware like that in their home.

The Baxters were the wealthiest family in Featherstone, and it turns out the boys had seen the Mr Baxter taking his brood out and noticed he had mistakenly left the front door open as he marshelled his six kids and wife up the street. Jeffrey, though younger, was more precocious and it was he who snuck into the house and came out with the silverware while Robert stood guard at the door.

Robert and Jeffrey cried, but the next day Catherine took them to the Baxters’ house and made them apologize and return the stolen set of silverware. Catherine felt bad, she couldn’t recall when the last time she had seen her boys cry, but the lesson stuck with the boys and they never stole again.

After that incident, Catherine never failed to be there with motherly guidance and encouragement and as both grew into their teens, they listened more and more. She constantly reinforced the idea that they needed to learn more than just mining and she encouraged them to have dreams and to use their imagination. “If you want to get out of the mines, you have to build your brain up.” was a mantra Catherine repeated with the boys over and over for years.

There was little chance that either would get any sleep with the hard portion of the trip just hours away and the activity going on in the doss house did not seem to be calming down. The two had spent the last few years immersing themselves in the mining business and they were only a few hours away from a life changing trip. They needed no reminders of mining’s cruelty. They had learned a lot, both shared the redeeming quality of knowing how to keep quiet and listen, and neither was stupid, so they picked things up like sponges.

Robert had gone to work on his tenth birthday as well, and from the start he was employed at a mine owned by Linton Bradley. For several decades, Bradley and his clan were a big shots in Yorkshire mining and though older when the boys worked for him, he worked hard to maintain his wealth and position. In a business that was considered ruthless and unforgiving, Bradley was actually popular among the common workers. Men working for him frequently said Linton Bradley was less mean than most, and that was a compliment.

Even as a young man Robert was hard working and no nonsense and he caught Bradley’s eye right away. The day Robert came to work with his younger brother in tow, Bradley saw the makings of a strong team that could make him a lot of money. He took the boys under his wing as apprentices. It was a stroke of luck or fate smiling on the brothers, as they spent four years learning directly from one of the most successful miners in Yorkshire. To his credit, Bradley treated the two like stepsons and recognizing eager students, he never held back knowledge or wisdom.

It was Linton Bradley’s kindness and mentorship gave the brothers the confidence to try their luck in America For ones so young, they had amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience in coal mining, iron mining and iron smelting under Bradley’s tutelage. Linton had not held back on the business side of things either, as one boy or the other was present at all of Bradley’s business deals for four years. Here they learned to read, write and listen beyond their primary school educations. As they lay in the doss house waiting, they just wanted to be in America already, and they hoped the time waiting for the ship to cross the Atlantic would not kill them.

Robert and Jeffrey decided to pursue the “American Dream” and use every bit of trade knowledge handed down to them under old man Bradley to make a fortune in the New World in their mid teens. They immediately started saving for the trip a shilling at a time at first. It took a couple of years for Linton Bradley to realize his star students were planning to leave him.

“Do you remember when old man Bradley confronted us about leaving him?” Robert broke the silence.

“Sure do…” Jeffrey sat up in his bed, putting his back to the bed’s headboard. “You know, I thought he was going to be mad, you know, that we were going to see him mad for the first time.”

“That is what I was getting at...” Robert added, getting up to put the last bit of coal on the burner. The reason they were confident enough to start over three thousand miles from home was a recognition that Bradley had done all he could to prepare the boys for the real world. Both were convinced they were prepared for what lay ahead.

“I am ready to do this, and it is because of the old man.” Rob trailed off as he worked on the coal. Bradley’s mine was a family business and there were a dozen Bradley’s on the payroll, so they had learned to call Linton Bradley “old man.”

“He wasn’t mad, not at all. He gave us that look though, that you ain’t ready look…” Jeffrey remembered with an amused smirk. “But all he did was help, kept on teaching us, gave us more money…. shoot at one point heading into his office, I thought he would fire the two of us...”

Rob closed with a thought and silence engulfed the room once again, “Number one thing is make mom proud, but number two is payback Mr Bradley. We have to show him he didn’t waste time on us.”

The ship boarded at six AM and departed at eight which meant they had to be up and moving at four in the morning, just a few hours away. Each brother had a large valise with a few changes of clothes, but the pair had a dozen heavy wooden trunks carrying mining tools and equipment, including an iron smelter that would have to be taken to the ship. They preferred to take equipment they were familiar with and that they would own. Who knew what procuring mining equipment would take in America? When they didn’t have enough money to buy equipment in preparation, Linton Bradley footed the bill.

After a while Jeffrey drifted into a half sleep, while Robert lay awake a while longer. As the older brother fell asleep, he breathed a sigh of relief that the trip was finally here. He closed his eyes thinking of the ordeal it had been already getting from Featherstone to Cork. They had been on the road for almost two weeks. The horse and carriage ride overland to Cardiff took them more than a week but it was done with less expense than making the shorter march to Liverpool and boarding a ship there. A storm prevented ships from leaving Cardiff, so they spent two nights waiting for the sky to clear. Winds were favorable after the storm, so they spent just two days on the Channels getting to Cork, where they had forty eight hours to make final arrangements for the trip. They paid thirty pounds each for a small cabin they would share. Leaving from Liverpool to America was almost twice that. Robert finally slept thinking the trip to Cork had been worth it after all. Luck was on their side.

The ship they had passage on was named the LE McKenna, after it’s captain, Kevin McKenna. He ran a tight ship and had a solid reputation among sailors. Throughout the trip there was little trouble, though Irish passengers outnumbered the Brits by more than ten to one.

The journey was expected to take a month, and Robert and Jeffrey kept quiet for the most part. Robert was a rugged man, thick around the neck and broad around the shoulders. His brother, was younger, shorter and thicker. The years in the mines had built their bodies up and the two made for an imposing duo. In public, Robert tended to keep quiet while Jeffrey did the talking.

An incident occurred on the second night at sea, as six drunk Irishmen surrounded the brothers in one of the small common areas. Robert recognized the aggression in their body language and he put a hand briefly on Jeffrey’s shoulder, signaling his brother to stay calm.

Jeffrey stood up to face the group saying “So where can we get a drink around here?” he held a hand out in a friendly gesture and gave a tiny smile. He looked at each of them briefly, assessing the situation all the while.

“Who in the hell you figure wants to have a drink with you?” answered one of the Irishmen.

Robert stepped out from behind the table and approached the guy who had spoken. He was a tall and hefty redhead with big hands and a big head, and he was the biggest guy they had, but Rob got right in his face and spoke.

“You know, there are quite a few of you, so I do want to tell you one thing. Between all of you, you might get us, right?” he laughed and looked over for a split second at Jeffrey, who also stood came out from behind the table to stand right behind his brother.

“But I want to tell you something about myself, and that is this - the first guy I hit always goes down. Just so that you know, the first guy I hit is going to be you.” Robert’s voice got lower as he finished speaking but his physical reaction grew more and more intense. He was two inches from Big Red’s face, eyes bulging.

Credit to Big Red, who didn’t back off. For a split second however, a look of fear crossed his face and that was all Robert needed. Robert smashed his head hard into the Irishman’s nose, breaking it and sending blood splattering in all directions. Another of the Irish contingent was standing too close to Big Red and Robert punched him with a solid thud right in the solar plexus.

Jeffrey turned to pick the table up and holding the trunk charged thetwo of the Irish men closest to him. He crashed into the pair with no care for his own body, and he sent them through the next set of tables and chairs behind them.

Robert and Jeffrey shared brief eye contact before turning to face the remaining two Irish men. Jeffrey, opening his mouth and said “Would you look at that, now it’s even...”

Then, just like that the fight was over as men flooded into the small common area. The ship was not huge and the sound of crashing furniture could be heard in every corner of the vessel.

A pair of big Irish brothers name Terence and Michael McGregor stepped in between them and took over the room. Both were big men that measured over six foot. Terence addressed Robert who did the talking while signaling his brother with a fist and a thumb out. Jeffrey understood. Jeffrey hurried back to their cabin.

Terence started off “So these boys here bothering you, mate?”

“Not at all, these friends here, they had a few drinks is all, and you know, the swaying of the ship made ‘em tip over. My brother and I were just about to help ‘em.” Robert addressed the big man smoothly, with confidence.

Terence looked at the red mark on Robert’s head where he had butted big red, then he looked at Red sitting on the floor with a bloody. “Is that so?” Terence asked, his eyes and a vein on his foreheaad bulged a bit.

Back in their room, Jeffrey cabin and opened Robert’s personal chest. Robert, had the chest jammed with his personal belongings, but after some digging Jeffrey found the four bottles of good whiskey Robert signaled him about. “Robert doesn’t even drink but he knew what he was doing.” thought Jeffrey with a smile as he ran back to common area, each handing holding two bottles by the neck.

The incident ended with the Carsons, the McGregors and Big Red and his crew all drinking too much of Robert’s whiskey. Terence and Michael McGregor became fast friends with Robert and Jeffrey and though the Irishmen were sailors by trade they threw their hats in with the brothers, deciding to stay with them once they arrived in America. After landing, the four stayed in New York City just two days before heading inland to central Pennsylvania, where the hilly terrain promised riches in coal and iron.