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Imperator-Zor — Infrastructure: Part Seventy Two

Published: 2012-12-29 02:33:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 3851; Favourites: 8; Downloads: 8
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Description After eight months of sea trials and shakedown, the Prosperity was deemed ready for her first official voyage. Captain Gregorovich was given his orders and his ship was soon provisioned and loaded with cargo. Crates were loaded with electric lanterns, lightcells, batteries, clocks, steel products, furs, patterned textiles, ceramics, books, phonographs, record discs, screw breach loader rifles and other such industrial products as well as the old exports of pelts and gemstones. A few other ships had been readied as well, a few of them smaller steamships and sailing craft. Among the fleet was the Monitor, Sentinel and the Diligence, two warships assigned for escort. In total thirteen ships were in this fleet. The operation was called the Great Embassy, a mission to show the nations to the west a display of Infrastructural Technology. This involved the deployment of soldiers for defense, as well as to serve as bodyguards for the leaders of this expedition, Committee Member Transition.

A few times Infrastructural steamships sailed beyond the Icemountain sea and put into foreign ports. This, however was a much greater undertaking that would go thousands of Kilometers beyond Infrastructure's boarders. Setting out on the seventeenth of March. The first leg of the voyage took a bit more than six days and was fairly uneventful, ending with an arrival at the city of Allergonian city of Norgensburg. A few cargo ships were sighted, but there was no threat made against this flotilla. As they approached the city that morning, each ship in the fleet blared their foghorns while signal flags announced the peaceful intent. Apparently the fleet had been detected by Scryers earlier that morning and some troops had been mustered, but they soon got the message and violent incident did not happen that morning.

Soon they dropped anchor soon Kanev, Transition, some soldiers and a few porters. The local lord, a heavyset man named Elector Barnim von Norgensburg greeted them as well as a few members of the local nobility, the Prior of the local Chapter of the Order of Keepers, some heads of prominent guilds, two military men, four wealthy merchants and about seven wives. Behind them, held back by guards was a crowd. A few gifts were exchanged and pleasantries were given. After that, he gave said party of leaders a tour of the Prosperity. Some cargo was unloaded and then demonstrated by special sales associates, and was quickly bought up. Afterwards, the party was shown around some of the nicer parts of the city. A feast was held in their honor that evening, which the captain quite enjoyed. Even if his table manners and Transition's politely declining of any food or drink did cause some comment among the high society.

The next day he woke up and took a stroll on the deck. Things were proceeding smoothly and soon he would let aboard a few more wealthy figures for the tour, it was a decent way of generating a bit more revenue to cover the expenses. He looked out over the city. It was quite odd in his experience, though he did enjoy it. When picturing a foreign city, he imagined something like Borogskov or Daagsgrad without the slave markets. It was a bit like that, in that it had winding streets, though there were differences. Buildings were on the whole taller. They did not use paint, but fretwork and carving to show off wealth. Especially the latter since a fair number of the upper class houses were made of stone. Civic and religious buildings were far more grand. Glass windows were the rule rather than the exception. Most buildings had either a stone or brick base with wooden upper stories. Rather than having separate workshop or a workshop as an extension on a house, the ground floors of most buildings were shops. The streets were winding and split in odd ways, but they were paved with gutters that led to the sea. It smelled bad, if not as bad as the old parts of The Yards. Nightsoil collectors did their best and the gutters helped. Hopefully a few of the toilets would improve matters.

What he found most amusing was the modifications to buildings. He discerned how this happened by watching it go on. A house was built in a typical way, usually three or four stories plus an attic. Then sometime after it's construction, people would build up, knocking a hole in the roof and making a tower or another story while adding to the chimneys to add living space. Save for those of the very wealthy most homes had one of these to add a bit more living space were tenants could be put. They also built outward, attaching platforms to load bearing beams and having flowerbox like additions grow outward. Occasionally these were linked up and he was told that it was possible to walk across a few districts without ever stepping outside, even if you did have to pay a penny a day to use this system. He wondered if anything else on this journey could top that.

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