Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

13th July 1660

Panaitan Island

On an island situated at the southernmost point of Java, a couple of Dutch lookouts stationed on top of a tower stared at the coast with bewilderment. They were dumbfounded as they looked at the empty and calm waters with their eyes wide like saucers.

"Hey Lucas. Why do you think there are so few ships traveling today?" David Verhoeven muttered, unable to believe his eyes. He kept rubbing them until they turned red. The always-busy coast, bustling with Bharatiya merchant ships, was now completely empty. It was as if this was not even a trade route but a simple, isolated coast in some remote corner of the world.

Lucas Meijer, his colleague, also looked confused. "Do you think the merchants are finally using the Malacca Strait?" he asked, but he was not too sure.

Despite the Bharatiya Empire occupying the major ports of Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, it was still closed off to civilian vessels and was completely occupied by the military. So, the civilian vessels of various logistic companies still had to travel around Sumatra and Java in order to reach nations in the interior of Southeast Asia.

This was one of the reasons merchant ships from the Bharatiya Empire could be seen sailing frequently off their coast. Since it was impossible for the Dutch pseudo-kingdoms, which had just been established, to form defenses on the southern coast where there wasn’t much population, it had been mostly ignored. Except for a couple of lookouts, there weren’t any defenses on the southern coast of Sumatra and Java.

David was about to deny the claim since he had received information that the Bharatiya Empire had invented something similar to their sea mines and no naval traffic could be seen, but suddenly, a black dot appeared in the corner of his eye, catching his attention.

"Wa—what is that?" David Verhoeven, pointing at the horizon, suddenly yelled in shock.

Lucas Meijer was startled. He looked towards the direction pointed by his colleague, and he was horrified. It was the navy of the Bharatiya Empire. The emblem of the Ashoka Chakra was clearly visible to him, radiating like the illustration of the immortal sun with its boundless majesty and brilliance.

David Verhoeven recovered and shook awake Lucas, who was stunned silent.

"Quick, quick! Evacuate! We have to send the alert!"

David Verhoeven and Lucas Meijer hurriedly got down from their 100-feet-tall watchtower.

"Ahhh!"

Due to the tension, Lucas Meijer slipped and fell down a few feet, injuring his tendon. Lucas felt a sting in his leg as he kept slipping, and his feet wouldn’t stand still.

"Ugh!"

Finally, after a few grunts later, he somehow sprawled into the small boat docked right next to their watchtower.

Fortunately, Lucas had not injured his hand, so the rowing of the boat was not hampered.

The distance from their island to the mainland was less than seven kilometers; it would not take long for them to reach their destination. But the Bharatiya ships were faster than them, so David Verhoeven knew that he could not hesitate. He resolutely took out the firework that was supposed to be used at the most critical moments and lit it up with determination in his eyes.

A few soldiers, newly conscripted into the army for the Kingdom of Reed, who were lazily basking in the sun, were startled when a firework was observed on the horizon.

"Send the alert!" an officer screamed at the top of his lungs.

Soon, the whole western coast of Java saw a line of fireworks rising up into the sky every few kilometers.

General Thomas van der Meulen, stationed on Sangiang, who was alerted of the news, looked at the horizon with a grave expression.

"All men, prepare for battle," he ordered, with a hint of nervousness, as if he were facing the biggest enemy of his life.

---

A few kilometers away...

A burly, middle-aged man was looking at the fireworks through a telescope.

"Very smart," Sarvesh muttered as the reflection of the fireworks appeared on his retina.

Akhil, who was right next to him, hearing the comment made by Sarvesh, shrugged. "It’s not very surprising that they are using this method to communicate since we showed it to them in the first place."

"But it’s still a little surprising considering how quickly they adopted the strategy."

Sarvesh nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Could this method of communication be more effective than the Arkha Dristhi communication we currently use?"

Akhil was taken aback and looked at Sarvesh wide-eyed. "How is that possible? How can our cutting-edge communication technology be compared to this primitive method where no message can be communicated except for alerting the other person?"

Sarvesh did not deny it. "It is true, but you have to agree that in an emergency like this, nothing can be faster than the fireworks the Dutch are setting off. They may be very inflexible and cost more, but you cannot deny their effectiveness."

Sarvesh pointed at the coast that was fast approaching. "For the Arkha Drishti communication channel, a signal tower has to be built every three to five kilometers, but by using the fireworks, it can be extended to a longer distance. The amount of time it takes to receive the message is further shortened."

Akhil imagined what Sarvesh had described to him, and his eyes lit up. He began to look forward to the implementation. ’If the range between signal towers is increased by a few more kilometres, then the communication time will be cut at least by 50% or even more in case of clear skies.’ He got very excited, and his heartbeat started to rise. But suddenly, he became a little disappointed. ’Although it will work, unfortunately, the future prospects are not too promising. If only by using this method, we could have complex communication instead of simply sending an alert… maybe a revolution would be in order.’

"Wait!" Akhil suddenly exclaimed. He got an idea and looked at Sarvesh with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Wh- What if, instead of only using one firework, we can use three at a time? If fired at different intervals, it can be used to send different messages depending on the interval difference. Also, we can use the rocket launcher platform in order to measure the time more precisely."

He quickly calculated in his mind,

"This gives us six different combinations to work with, meaning six different messages to convey. Although the cost may be much higher than the Arkha Drishti communication, like you said, the speed of communication should be cut down at least by half or even more."

Listening to the idea, Sarvesh’s eyes widened. "Great, great," he continuously exclaimed, but then, following through with the same train of thought as Akhil, he suddenly got a bigger idea.

"Then what if we have three different colors of fireworks?"

Akhil suddenly realized what Sarvesh meant. He looked at him with his mouth wide open.

Sarvesh nodded at Akhil with a smile. "We can divide a minute into six different slots, and in these six different slots, the three fireworks could be fired at any time. This should give us 120 combinations by itself. And given that the three fireworks could be of any three colors—let’s take red, blue, and green—that should increase our combinations to over uh..."

Sarvesh realized that he couldn’t do this calculation and Akhil couldnt either, so he immediately called over a data analyst from the research and analysis wing.

The data analyst did not know why he was suddenly called and asked to solve a problem, but the problem of permutations and combinations, although a new concept invented in the Bharatiya Empire, was simple enough. So he quickly calculated the answer. "120 × 27... it will be 3,240 combinations, sir."

"Hahaha," Sarvesh was excited, his previous reserve nowhere to be seen. "3,240 combinations are plenty to use in order to form a coherent coded language, which the military can use to communicate important intel."

Akhil was stunned for a long time, but in the end, he too joined Sarvesh, laughing loudly.

He hugged Sarvesh without much thought. Sarvesh didn’t think much of it and hugged him back.

Akhil, only a few seconds later, realized what was happening. He had been uptight with Sarvesh throughout the journey because Sarvesh, his friend who had been his classmate in the Naval Academy and also his colleague as one of the four commanders of the Bharatiya Navy, was now in a position where he could only look up to—not to mention he was also a king. Continue reading on NovelBin.Côm

But now, looking at Sarvesh laughing and chatting with him like always, he let go of his reserve.

"Haha, you guy! I didn’t believe it when I heard the rumor that sister-in-law is making you sit in the study room every day and making you do homework like a schoolchild, but now, looking at you, I have no choice but to believe it!"

" You’ve become a lot smarter "

"Ah!" Sarvesh was immediately embarrassed. He secretly gritted his teeth in his heart. ’Which bastard let out this news? I am going to skin him alive.’

Sarvesh silently changed the subject. "Forget about that. Now tell me, how are we going to move forward with this idea of ours?"

Akhil fell into deep thought. "You hold a large stake in the Himalayan Group, don’t you?"

Sarvesh nodded. He immediately understood what Akhil was implying. Although fireworks are a civilian technology, their usage in the military field is not, not to mention the design and working require the platform of a rocket launcher. Since he owns a majority stake in one of the three military manufacturing conglomerates of the Bharatiya Empire, he and his direct family are not allowed to open any industries or companies related to the military.

"Then it’s a pity since you cannot open any design firm in your name." Akhil thought for a while and came up with a solution. "How about this? I will personally set up a design firm. You can register the patent and license it to this design firm and obtain royalties in perpetuity for the product and its two major iterations. That way, in theory, you don’t own any military-related industry apart from your majority stake in Himalayan Group, and you will also get the maximum benefit from the invention."

Sarvesh nodded thoughtfully. "Alright, it is acceptable, but the details should still be polished out by my wife."

"That’s all right, but we can decide on a rough outline."

Akhil suddenly looked straight into Sarvesh’s eyes and asked directly, "So, how will the Patent be distributed between us?"

Sarvesh didn’t think anything was wrong with being so straightforward since they were taught constantly in college that matters of interest should be settled as precisely and clearly as possible without any emotions involved.

"Does 60-40 sound good?"

Akhil thought for a while and nodded, "Yes, it’s fair, but I think we can expand on the patent even more ."

"What do you mean?" Sarvesh asked, confused.

Akhil explained, "Let’s invite Kumar, the top linguist in the empire, and have him create a new language designed to communicate with the fireworks. Part of the patent will be going to him, and finally, let us invite Heyram to redesign the platform and modify it for extreme precision."

" By doing this we can create many technical patent’s working with each other and the interests could be more fairly divided ’’

"So in the end, I propose you take 60%, I will take 15%, Mr. Kumar will take 12.5%, and Mr. Heyram and his team will take the remaining 12.5%."

Sarvesh nodded. "It sounds fair, but isn’t my share a bit too much if you’re bringing so many people into the patent? Also, are you okay with only getting a few percent? Your idea is the core turning point of the project, after all."

Akhil shook his head. "No, my idea was not crucial. It was your idea that was crucial. If anything, I simply expanded on your idea. Moreover, you will be funding the whole research after all. It is only fair that you get the most benefits."

Sarvesh looked at Akhil weirdly, a little confused. "Akhil, are you forgetting that I am not allowed to invest in any research projects, along with not establishing any companies related to the military industry? Creating a patent for the idea is acceptable since there is no research involved, but directly funding the research completely opposes the rules and regulations of the empire."

"Ugh!" Akhil groaned. "Right, I totally forgot about this rule. Alright, let’s think about it another way. You get to hold 80% of the patent rights for your idea of using fireworks in communication, while I get the remaining 20% for my input. Heyram can get 50% of the patent rights for the modification of the platform, as I suspect the other 50% will go to the Academy of Military Sciences. And 100% of the intellectual property rights to the new coded language will go to Mr. Kumar. All these patents will be licensed to a design firm to research the final product, and I will negotiate the deal with the military procurement logistics department to see if the military is interested in the new communication device."

Sarvesh thought about it and felt that there was nothing wrong with this idea. "I’m okay with it, but I want you to maximize the interests of your yet to be established design firm and see what options you have for manufacturing from all three military manufacturing conglomerates. Just because I’m a shareholder, don’t give any priority treatment to the Himalayan Group."

Akhil looked at Sarvesh with some admiration. "Don’t worry, I know what to do." He then looked at Sarvesh with a sly grin, "Besides, if I cause a stain on your name, wouldn’t sister-in-law come looking for me to beat me up just like she beats you up whenever you stay out in the regiment?"

"Oh, shut it!" Sarvesh slapped his neck, a little annoyed.

Akhil held his neck and started laughing.

"Uh... Commanders!"

Suddenly, a hesitant voice was heard.

Both of them immediately became serious and turned around, now dignified, returning to acting cold and ruthless.

"What is it?" Both of them asked, their eyes piercing, as if they wanted to threaten the sailor to forget whatever he had seen.

’Gulp!’

’What did I do!’ the sailor was screaming in his heart.

"We have reached the designated location, sirs."

Sarvesh and Akhil looked at each other and nodded.

Soon, the fleet began to split: a battle group headed towards Semangka Bay, another deviated towards Pelabuhan Ratu Bay, a small battle group traveled towards Bali, and finally, the largest battle group proceeded straight towards Sangiang Island—the gateway stopping the Bharatiya Empire’s operation.

P.S. Thankyou Lucifer_6671, for the Inspiration capsule