Training: Engineering Expertise

[Stefan Dornkirk]

83 Searing, 121, Morning

The heir of Dornkirk was not dressed in the usual suit and cravat he wore to his workdays as Manager of the Windworks. Today he wore leather trousers and thick workman's boots under a loose, loosely tucked shirt of a thicker fabric than anything he kept in his wardrobe at home.

His position in the company meant that he spent little time actually working on the dock floors, in the underbelly mechanisms of the ships he designed and redesigned. He missed it; not all the time, but on the days he found himself entrenched in complex mathematical calculations and employee reviews, he did.

Now he was heading towards the gangplank that led to the Noble Gambit. The ship had been put into airdock in the Windworks almost a month ago so it could be refitted with the newer steam stabilization conduits that controlled shaking and allowed for more precise maneuvering, particularly in the dangerous times of inclement weather. Additionally, in concert with the ship's XO and Stefan's friend, Eitan Angevin, there were several other systems being tweaked or added that were standard on the newer ships currently being constructed.

Eitan was with him now, as was Brenner. As he led the two other men across the access bridge and onto the deserted ship he could not help but feel a sense of triumph, of accomplishment. The purpose of the presence of Eitan and Brenner was to ensure all the improvements were correctly adapted and so that the XO of The Searing Victory could teach the XO of The Noble Gambit the workings of the new machines well enough that he, in turn, could teach them to his crew once the ship was released back into service. At least, that was the officially stated reason.

The secondary reason was that having Eitan readily available for the month it had taken to do the needed work was an excellent, and plausible, excuse to keep him around while they planned and prepared for their Great Endeavor. The current inspection's secondary mission was for Stefan to familiarize the two XOs with the use of his new stealth technology so they could make the best use of it if it was needed.

"Well, gentlemen," Stefan said, turning to face his fellows once they were far enough into the ship that they would not be overheard,
"What to first? Officially sanctioned technological training or officially non-existent?"

[Brenner Dornkirk]

Brenner, for his part, donned his ZADC shipboard working uniform. It felt appropriate to their tasks for the day and had, of course, been designed for just the sort of work that might be needed of him. Simple, practical, yet sleek- A marvel of Zaichaeri design in and of itself, just as was the ship that loomed before them.

"My vote is for the officially non-existent." Brenner said, cracking an impish smile, "But I was never a patient one when it came to unwrapping novel gifts, as you both well know." He chuckled. Both men had attended all of his birthdays he could remember- He shared the day with Eitan after all, and indeed he had been rather ravenous when it came to receiving presents as a child. Over-eager and then obsessive about playing with his favourite new toy. Nowadays he hid it better, but those who knew him could see that same familiar glint of delight in his eyes when he was gifted something new and exciting. Only the toys he tended to receive these days were often of a deadlier variety. But they were also more practical, even if his flights of fancy were no less grandiose than they had been during his boyhood. Now he was just living those bygone dreams in a real and palpable way. That was the point of all this, after all. To change the world just as he'd playacted doing all those years ago.

Despite the preference he'd already voiced, he turned to Eitan with a deferential nod,

"But if you'd prefer to begin here," Brenner gestured toward the Noble Gambit, "I am just as happy to oblige. I leave it to you."

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan had been of the same mind as Brenner when dressing for the day, it seemed. Great minds thought alike, at least until the next decision had to be made.

"While we are already in the guts of the Noble Gambit, perhaps we should speak of these particular surgeries. We needn't linger overlong before moving onto our extracurricular activities." His smile flashed bright even in the dim corridors of the airship's innards. While his grasp of engineering wasn't so sophisticated as Stefan's, he had a vague understanding of how things worked. The engineers aboard all his previous ships had glared at him whenever he tried to help, however, and so he was used to leaving well enough alone. It wasn't that he wanted to replace the engineers; he only wanted to be capable of fixing things that went wrong when the engineers were otherwise occupied.

Airships had perforce to travel light. Any redundancies were a luxury, even those of training.

The Excelsior-class frigate wasn't nearly so big nor so impressive as the Dreadnought-class Searing Victory, but he thought it rather amazing as well. Without even reaching through his runic scar, he could send the tingling of the wards. They were more powerful than he knew how to make on his own, but he was learning just by maintaining them.

"In any case, we can always come back here. They rushed us through the basics of engineering. At least, it felt that way to me. But I am enjoying your lessons, Stef. Whether you think me an idiot or not, you don't make me feel like an idiot when you explain the systems to me." He grinned. "Whether the engineers aboard the ship continue to think me an idiot... well, we shall see."

[Stefan Dornkirk]

The vote, it would seem, was split. Luckily for the efficiency of the day, Stefan had tricks up his working sleeves.

"Kommen Sie." He stepped forward, leading into the bowels of the Gambit. Once they were within the engineering deck he gave a small lecture, pointing out the newly installed parts and asking Brenner (who had served on lesser ships without the upgrades and, of course, the flagship, which did) to comment on what practical differences they would make in terms of sailing.

Once he was sure Eitan had a working knowledge he could pass on as needed to his junior officers, an uncharacteristically mischievous look came over Stefan's face. Something between a child having gotten away with peeking into New Year's presents and a cat burglar about to perform a feat of daring intrusion.

Beckoning to his two companions he said nothing, but led them to one of the lower hatches of the Gambit. Releasing the catches that kept it airtight when in flight he opened it and led down, which seemed to make no sense as below should only be a few feet of open-air and then the floor of the factory. Slipping out the small door the elder Dornkirk let himself fall and then did something to a spot on the floor roughly below the hatch. Another hatch opened as though on a spring lever, perfectly concealed unless one knew it was there and somewhat larger than the Gambit's small opening.

Glancing up at the two men peering down at him Stefan grinned and dropped into the dark hole. When followed, as he inevitably would be by the two fearless sailors, they would realize it wasn't actually dark in the room they had descended into, only that the surface of the Nachtherr their feet came to rest upon was so dark it reflected almost no light. The room in which the secret project was being built was an underground workshop that had been installed the winter before when Melchior and Stefan had taken on an equally secret contract to develop ships that might slip into and out of enemy territory undetected by a variety of magical and mundane forces. The Nachtherr was the first fully realized product of the research, and as such was already being outdated by future ideas, yet still, Stefan loved the ship, intended to purchase it for himself once it had been shown off as an example piece to show proof of concept to the brass of the Brass City.

When Eitan and Brenner were both standing on the top deck of the sleek ship Stefan closed the spring hatch behind them and led the two men down a rope ladder and then a proper one till they were standing below and as far back from the ship as was possible in the relatively small space. It was large enough to build a ship in, but not one anywhere near as large as either ship the XO's were assigned to. It was almost hard to look at her, though Stefan was used to it by now, the eye wanted to slide away and it was hard to focus on any single spot. He let them try, for a few moments before allowing them the relief of moving from the visually uncomfortable outside to the significantly comfortable inside.

Pressing the buttons and pulling levers he opened the main entryway and revealed an interior of glossy chestnut wood and white walls. It was an amalgamation between the luxury yachts built in the Windworks and the battleships. The tour included the command deck, the captain's cabin, two shared officer's cabins, and six shared bunking rooms before moving on to the well-appointed galley, surgery, and map room. Once the admiration and questions about the main interior were through Stefan led them into their second engineering bay of the morning.

It looked... similar to what the two men were used. As though someone had taken the concepts and redesigned them from scratch, which is exactly what had happened. The new engines were not what Stefan was eager to show off, however, so he led past them, to an entirely new section.

"This," He said, not afraid to speak in Common in such a well-protected place, "Is the Verborgenheit Engine."

The machine was part technology and part use of dragonshards, similar to the engines that allowed the airships to fly. What it did, as he went on to explain, was reduced the ship's reflection of light even farther, until it appeared as only a blur to any eye that might look it over. Additionally, any magic used in an attempt to detect or probe the ship was also reflected.

[Brenner Dornkirk]

"Of course." Brenner inclined his head in deference to Eitan's point, and turned his attentions to Stefan as he went about what amounted to a refresher course augmented with updates to what they'd been taught in the academy. Whilst the Battle Academy took a rather holistic approach to military training, it wasn't often that officers who'd moved on to a specialised discipline got briefed on how things changed in other arenas. Both Eitan and Brenner had taken a command path, so they weren't regularly informed of the ever-changing world of aeronautical engineering in the ZADC. Brenner had a bit of an advantage, as the scion of the ZADC's premier shipbuilding magnate, but there was still much to learn. It made him proud to recognise how much his own brother could still surprise him with his nonpareil knowledge on the science, and indeed the craft, of ship design and construction.

"How do you get used to such cramped spaces, Eitan?" Brenner cast a playfully cocky grin toward his old friend, "The great thing about the Firestorm-class dreadnoughts to which I am accustomed, is they afford a man so much..." He paused to search the air for the perfect word, before plucking it from the aether, "...Lebensraum." He sniggered and shook his head,

"But I'm in jest, of course. Honestly, I'm quite envious of the speed you're able to reach with the Noble Gambit. I feel like the Searing Victory has a reputation of always showing up late to the party, after the smaller, faster ships have already lit up all the targets. We just come in to scorch the earth and sow it with salt..." Brenner smiled curiously to Stefan, when he adopted a conspiratorial air and led them down through the Noble Gambit and beyond.

Once he was down and through and looking up rather than down at the vessel he blinked back the strangeness of it.

"Rather unnerving, isn't it?" He mused with a smile, "And I mean that as a compliment. May our enemies never be as industrious as my brother." He followed Stefan within and regarded the prototype engine with an arched brow, awed.

"Eine Tarnvorrichtung..." He'd only heard of such things in a theoretical sense. He certainly didn't realise such things were anywhere near being close to completion, but he'd now witnessed its effect with his own reluctant eyes.

"This is another reason containment of our specimens will be of paramount importance. If any were to get loose on the Nachtherr, they could stand to compromise your Meisterstück."

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan smirked at Brenner's jest. "I guess I just like them a bit tight."

But he nodded along, in agreement with Brenner regarding the strengths and weaknesses of various classes of ship, and even the relative differences between ships within a certain class. They were each designed for specific tasks and the strength of the fleet was in the adaptability and cohesion of its various working parts. While the Noble Gambit had been a step up from his previous ship as well as a promotion in rank, even his former ship had been able to play savior on several occasions.

Though curious about the counterintuitive route, he trusted Stefan, and soon he found himself on the eldritch deck of their future airship. Though he knew much of the innovative efforts were scientific in nature, he couldn't help but take out his monocle and look at things through the aura glass to see what he might gather of its magical nature. Wards he could sense, but to the rest of the aether he was blind as any other person. He was rather adept at identifying mages with his monocle or his spyglass, but the intricacies of the Verborgenheit Engine were of a higher order than he could grok unaided, and so it looked like so much chaos to him. That it was contained and working for them gave him some small relief despite his aversion to magic. He liked to think that he was like the Nachtherr; if the Brass City needed to fight fire with fire, it was going to have the best fire. An Order-trained Warder, a feat of magical engineering like this stealth ship.

With such things in its arsenal, the High City had to prevail.

There were so many things going through his mind at that moment that weren't coherent yet, he focused on one that was.

"Will there be a chance to test her out or will we be her maiden voyage?"

[Stefan Dornkirk]

Stefan nodded at the comments,

"It's supposed to be something you don't want to look at, involuntarily will look away from." He was so used to seeing it that the effect was significantly lessened for him, but if he separated his workman's mind from himself briefly he still wanted to get a headache staring at the ship too long.

There were parts of Stefan that still abhorred magic, a deeply ingrained sense of wrongness that went below his conscious mind, but he had long ago let go of his aversion to such things in association with mechanics. To his mind magic was wrong because it twisted the natural order, made helpless those who worked hard for what they had, and gave unearned power to those who were foul enough to take it. Airships, like guns, were power that could be created, yes, but which needed to be learned and earned as well. It was true that an elderly woman could protect herself from a strong young man with the correct application of a gun but that was equalizing power.

Any technology could be used wrong, mists, a stick used as a club could unbalance power and do harm, but there was a Very distinct difference, a wall in Stef's mind erected between personal magic, that of runes and what the Lysanrin and other magical races were born with, and using it in a way that could increase the power of any person if they were willing to apply themselves to learning. If the use of dragonshards continued after the curse of runes was lost and magic was stripped from the races that benefitted from it Stefan would consider the purge to be complete. His mind came back to the present as Eitan's voice filtered through his thoughts,

"I have tested the engine, of course, both of them, but it was decided that we wouldn't take it off the grounds of the factory until the day of our departure. I'll take it out for a quick flight or two just to ensure it isn't going to fall out of the sky but, essentially we will be his maiden voyage." It was traditional to refer to ships as 'her' but using a female pronoun for the Nachtherr felt odd to his mouth.

Turning so he could look at his two companions he said,

"Do you want to see it in action? The stealth, I mean. It wasn't designed for close viewing so it won't be at full effect but you'll get an idea."

[Brenner Dornkirk]

Brenner scoffed at Eitan's bawdy jest and shook his head, muttering:

"Honestly!" With a chuckle, and turned his attentions to Stefan as he replied to Eitan's query. He pursed his lips and listened attentively to the brief exchange, but eagerly nodded at the offer of a demonstration.

"Of course!" He exclaimed, shrugging blithely in response to Stefan's disclaimer about the mitigated effect in such close quarters. Brenner had thought the stealth was already active, in fact, which made the notion that it wasn't that much more enticing. If the ship seemed this nebulous to look upon already, what would it look like in the distant night sky with the fully activated cloaking device? Nothing at all, ideally.

Moments like this made the forthcoming expedition seem at once more close to being realised and more fantastical. A stealth ship was something out of one of their childhood fantasies playing out the destruction of Kalzasi that now seemed almost within reach. If Zaichaer could achieve as much as it had with the strictest limitations on magic usage in all of Karnor- if Zaichaer could achieve the development and construction of a ship like the Nachtherr, who could really stand athwart their manifest destiny to rule over all the Northlands? With minds like Stefan's working toward these goals, it only seemed a matter of time. It paid to never stop dreaming, Brenner thought, rubbing his hands together eagerly and watching Stefan go about his work. It would be important for him to learn how to operate the Nachtherr, if he was going to captain it- Even for the brief voyage to their Landing Zone to the South. And oh, was Brenner looking forward to playing Kapitän for a spell.

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan smirked at Brenner's reaction.

"His," he quietly corrected himself per Stefan's use of pronouns. He was sure not to laugh when he began to imagine the airships banging each other at night when everyone was asleep, making new baby airships. But the internal joke was forgotten when Stefan offered a demonstration.

"Oh, yes. Let's see his naughty bits."

He paused, then, "Would you mind explaining the Verborgenheit Engine for us? I'm certain I haven't the knowledge to understand it fully, nor the maths, but if you would be so kind as to give it to us in laymen's terms, I would certainly like to understand the theory of it better, and whatever bits of application you think we might understand." He paused again, briefly. "I am particularly interested in protecting it from environmental factors that might disrupt it. Storms... whatever other dangers we are likely to face en route to the landing zone. If I can't build it or fix it, I'd at least like to know how it works well enough to anticipate problems and help avoid them."

He smiled. Of course, Eitan was all for learning more about the engineering behind airships, but he didn't have time to follow Stefan's educational track and maintain his own responsibilities to Corps, Order, and Family. He had to be practical... while preparing for a mission right out of his boyhood fantasies.

The younger commander glanced at Brenner to be sure he wasn't asking too much that would bore his friend and soon-to-be captain pro tempore.

[Stefan Dornkirk]

The irony of asking if the other two men wanted to 'see' the stealth engine at work was not lost on Stefan, nor was the somewhat flirtatious banter flowing between them. Between being able to show off his newest invention and the genial attitude of his peers he couldn't keep a grin from his face.

"Alright, close your eyes, please, gentlemen." When both had complied he placed a gentle hand in the small of each of their backs as he passed between them. He was allowed to touch them, they were all friends now and they were alone, and that was nice.

Making his way to a panel, which he flicked open, he adjusted some wires until, from the ship came an inaudible hum. It was deep, and strong enough to be felt throughout the huge room; throbbing through the very walls and floor in a way that even Stefan had found, at first, deeply discomfiting. His mind felt it was akin to the sonic reverberations that might come from an impossibly immense sea-creature moving in the depths. The room seemed to grow dimmer, though the effect wasn't actually on the light.

"Alright, keep your eyes on the floor at first, but you can open them." When the two commanders did as instructed, (He hoped they would do as instructed as doing otherwise in such close quarters could cause... complications. Three separate incidents of assistants throwing up over their shoes had occurred before Stefan had figured out it was easier on the system if you took it gradually.) their senses would recognize that there was something before the, but what it was, its shape or dimensions, refused to process.

It was profoundly uncomfortable. The humming couldn't actually be heard in a traditional sense, it just felt like it was trying to vibrate your skull apart from the inside. He only left it on for a minute or so, long enough for them to carefully observe it from lowered eyes or from the corners of them also lessened the nauseating effect. When he switched it off again the hum didn't end like a blown-out candle ends the light it produces. It faded, as though reluctant, until one wasn't sure if it could still be very faintly felt or one's body was simply still feeling the after-effects.

Stepping back over Stef put a hand on first Brenner's shoulder, asking quietly if he felt well enough to go on, and then did the same with Eitan. The calming touch and quiet words should convince their systems that everything was alright.

He led the men to a bench where they might sit down and fetched them both glasses of water, insisting they sip at them. It seemed the more normal things you could get your system to do the more quickly it stopped wondering if it had just been turned inside out. Pulling over a metal chair so he could sit facing them both he explained.

"You won't be able to feel any of that from the inside, of course. It's tuned to project outward only. And the range of actually feeling it is only a few hundred feet. You'd have to get another ship very close for them to even realize something was off. The coating reflects as close to all light as we could get, the angles of the ship also push the eyes away from it. The normal engines run all but silently. But the Verborgenheit Engine, what it actually does it send out a signal to the mind that tells it not to process what the generated field covers. At least, that's as close as I can get to explaining it.

"I thought you would both want to know what it felt like, as I discovered the first time I turned on the miniature prototype. You're handling it better than I did, I promise. The idea came to me from a book, an old one describing some of the gods the ancient peoples worshipped. You know," He turned to Brenner, "The creepy ones our nursery maid used to read to us before mother found out, with the tentacles and such? Anyway, the book described how looking upon the 'gods' made one immediately want to do anything but keep looking, or observing them in any way. Their servants would choose to do so anyway and eventually, they all went mad. I hope the engine will never drive anyone mad, but, based on the experiments I've done the engine acts not only as a way to pass in stealth, but also as a deterrent to anyone, or anything, that might be interested. Every creature I've brought into contact with the effects has attempted to flee.

"As for the 'how' well, it's technical and a bit odd, but basically I've aligned dragonshards in such a way that they produce the field together. The arrangement and energy being pushed into them causes them to vibrate, that's what you felt. Obtaining the ones I needed, in the quantities I needed, was immensely expensive. I am sort of hoping we find a few areas of the right kinds growing when we go below, so I can send another team to harvest them. Otherwise making more than this will require trading with Kalzasi." He frowned but then his face lit back up,

"Though, wouldn't it just be a punch in the nose to use their own damn shard mines against them?"

He paused here, trying to assess the state of the pair seated across from them. Perhaps he was moving too fast in his excitement. When he'd first turned on his little prototype in his office he'd been promptly sick and spent a good hour on his reclining couch with a cool cloth over his eyes.