Chapter 907 — A World Full of the Unknown

This special "deep-sea expert delegation" was led by the siren Viola, a beautiful lady with blue hair who called herself a "deep-sea witch"—by the sirens' account, it seemed to be the title of a technical post. Viola had two principal naga assistants besides: one was Helen, and the other a male naga nicknamed "the Philosopher"—that naga had not appeared in the administration office, but had come to the shipyard early in the morning with the other sirens and nagas, and now stood on the platform not far away. Byron, however, simply could not tell naga faces apart, and had no idea which one he was.

"So this is the ship you've built..." Viola's gaze moved slowly across the slipway, the great metal-hulled vessel mirrored in her lovely eyes. She looked at the streamlined bottom, the magic-energy wing panels set along both sides of the hull, and certain structures on the deck, and gave a slight nod. "Ships built by landsmen are very different from our means of transport, but at least it looks reasonable."

"Nothing wrong with the external structure," the naga Helen agreed with a nod. "But... we didn't expect you to have progressed this far. I assumed you would wait until we arrived before truly beginning construction of the new ship."

"When North Port began construction, no one could say for certain when you would come, and we couldn't halt everything to wait for someone else's technical team," Byron said with a smile. "Besides, we have experience building riverboats. That experience may not hold on the open sea, but at least it's more than enough to build an experimental coastal prototype—for us, it not only gets North Port's facilities onto the right track as quickly as possible, but also accumulates valuable experience."

Byron spoke frankly, but there were some things he left unsaid. In fact, even before the sirens' technical team set out, Gao Yang had discussed the matter of building seagoing ships with him, and one principle both of them firmly endorsed was this: whether or not the third-party technical experts came, and whenever they came, Cecil's own research, development, and construction projects should proceed according to plan. Even if this entailed some waste of resources, from the standpoint of laying a solid foundation, mastering the technology, and accumulating experience, it was all worthwhile.

After all, foreigners were foreigners in the end; however good the technical experts, they were not one's own. Cultivating good relations with more allies was all well and good, but to build one's major projects entirely upon whether another's technical experts chose to help—that would be most unwise.

Byron did not know whether this "deep-sea witch" beside him, or that "naga" on the other side who had once been a Child of the Storm, could think of such things, and he did not much care. He merely looked at the beautiful steel vessel on the slipway with a touch of pride, a smile spreading across his face. "It's a fine ship, isn't it?"

"Does it have a name?" Helen turned to Byron, curiosity glinting in her tawny, slit-pupiled eyes.

"...Actually, at first I wanted to name it 'Pea,' but His Majesty wouldn't agree, and my daughter lectured me about it for a full half hour," Byron shrugged. "Its official name now is 'Curiosity.' I think that suits its purpose well—it will be the symbol of humanity exploring the sea once again after the end of the classical Age of Navigation. We'll use it to reopen the coastal routes along the northwestern ring of the continent, and to attempt to explore the boundary between the deep sea and the coastal waters."

"Curiosity... that really is a good name," Helen blinked, and the long, scale-covered tail swept across the ground with a rustling sound. "Curiosity..."

There seemed to be something complicated in the naga's tone. Perhaps she was thinking of the courage and spirit of exploration with which humanity first strode toward the sea; perhaps of the brief glory of the Storm Church during the classical Age of Navigation; or perhaps of the storm priests' fall into darkness, and the regrettable state in which humanity kept away from the sea for centuries thereafter... Yet the scales on her cheeks and a body not yet fully mastered made it impossible for her to show the rich expressions she once had as a human, and so in the end all her lamentations could only come to rest in a single sigh.

……

On the platform at the far end of the dry dock, a tall male naga with deep-set eyes and pale blue-green scales covering his skin withdrew his gaze from the sea at the end of the dock.

A naga companion beside him teased: "Philosopher, don't tell me you're going to compose poetry again? You've worn that sighing look all day today."

"I'm merely considering what on the 'Curiosity' still needs improving, and can be refitted in time," said the tall, deep-eyed male naga, glancing at his companion. "The technology this ship employs is very unfamiliar to us. The ships the Storm Church built in those days were driven by three powers—magic, manpower, and sail—whereas the Curiosity relies chiefly on magic-powered machinery for propulsion... With a different power system, the hull structure and all manner of characteristics in navigation will be utterly different as well. These are all things that must be considered."

"Quite so," a siren deep-water technician nodded. "Though we've come to provide technical support, we'll have to study humanity's magic-powered technology ourselves before we can work out exactly how to support it..."

"Humanity's..." The naga technician nicknamed "the Philosopher" could not help muttering softly at the word, but then he shook his head. "Yet whatever changes, the laws of nature never change, and so the basic principles of a ship's navigation cannot change much either."

His words were quickly echoed by the technicians present. These technicians, from different races and different factions, whose very ways of perceiving the world were utterly unlike, gathered together once more and began to study the blueprints of the "Curiosity."

Byron, standing not far from the platform, watched the movements of the technicians upon it. As a Transcendent, he could hear their discussions—matters of a purely technical nature, which this "Grand Admiral" did not understand; but the things beyond technology, those he could grasp well enough.

In the matter of exploring the sea, the Typhonians had indeed taken an earlier step. They had started sooner, commanded richer foundations, possessed finer coastlines and natural harbors, and between the coastal waters and the deep sea lay a matchless natural island chain suited to building forward bases—advantages too great to ignore.

But the people of Cecil would still press forward with full confidence and close the gap.

The people of Cecil understood magic-powered technology; the nagas, once Children of the Storm, understood shipbuilding; and the sirens understood the sea.

Now, these three things had converged.

This was the Cecil's advantage in this field.