Frustration. The blacksmith looked on patiently as I cussed in a language that he didn’t know. He did know that I wasn’t happy. The engine would turn and it had a ton of torque, but only at one speed. I had made a crude valve on the intake, but it did little more than shut the engine down. The crystal “spark plug” was fired by sensing the position of the piston and the valve train. It came down to needing a carburetor, or a fuel injection system. It couldn’t inject pure water as the crystal wouldn’t be able to convert it to steam fast enough. I sighed and called for the artist.

It came down to fuel injection. After I explained it to the smith, it was actually his idea. The work of about a week, we had a single cylinder steam engine that worked by magically vaporizing water. I smiled and called for the artist again. After the sketch was done, the smith was drooling.

The guns? Now that was a different story. The mechanical aspect was simple and worked flawlessly. The firing was another matter. I finally decided to put “trigger” crystals at the base of each barrel with a master crystal in the trigger. We put it on a wagon and took it to one of the towers at the entrance to the harbor. After a dragon airlift, it was mounted. I flew up afterward and studied it. It was a sitting duck.

I conjured another large crystal and put it under the mount. I made a second “trigger” crystal to activate it. Haladoria had joined me by that point.

“I like it not, Michael.”

“I don’t care for it either, Haladoria. All we can do is pray it is never used.”

“How does it work?” She asked.

“Just sit on the stool and turn the wheel on the bottom to swing the guns left to right, the top one makes them go up or down.”

“So simple.” She sighed. “It would seem that this much destruction should be harder to use.”

“The blue crystal in the center of the handle activates a shield.” I continued.

“Shield?”

“I took my power and embedded it in that crystal.”

“So another of your powers you let us use.”

“The red crystal on the front of the handle fires it.”

She stared at the crystal like it was a hungry dragon in a cage. “Will you test it?”

I sighed. “I suppose I should. I think you should warn the people, though. If this works it could cause panic.”

“I suppose you are right.”

“The smiths are going to make another place to make these and the engines.”

“Engines?”

“The things that will make your new boats move. Later on, they will probably be used for the carriages as well.”

She sighed. “These changes… where will they take us?”

“I hope to a safer future. These are tools to help you survive should something happen and I cannot be there fast enough. Think on the pirates. If something else had happened at the same time, how would I be able to handle both problems? With just this one working, the black sails would have never been able to enter the harbor. Nor would the orcs when they attacked. Try not to think of it as a destructive device. Think on it as a tool for survival to protect our people.”

She smiled slightly. “I will try. You make a valid point about the orcs and the pirates. I only fear the next problem might be your own people.”

“As do I, Haladoria. As do I.”

Twas another week when the shipwright on Torgos sent a message that the test hull was done. It was simple with no details. I ported over the sea outside the harbor and flew into the docks to land. He approached as I shifted.

“Greetings Lord Dragon.”

“Greetings. Tell me, if I gave you another gold sphere, would you call me Michael?”

He laughed. “No, tis common knowledge now that it is a tradition of the empire, therefore it is and unwritten law.”

I just sighed.

“I do want to apologize, though. I made two ship models of the same size. I actually made the second after I made yours. The second was of the hulls that we commonly use. I would have contacted you last week, but I couldn’t quite believe the difference would be that great between the two. I even weighed them with cargo and dropped large stones in the water to make waves. I don’t know where you got this design, but I am sold.”

I was rather shocked that he tested it at well. “That saves me time as the testing was what I had came here for.”

He smiled. “Well, while you are here, come look at your new hull.”

“New hull?”

“I made a few additions and modifications to the sketch. I still don’t understand how you are going to drive this, but it will be a grand ship.”

We were walking down the docks to the dry docks and in the last berth, the ship sat. It was longer and leaner than I envisioned and the control deck was enclosed. We climbed aboard to look it over.

“As it sits, it can carry about fifty percent more cargo than the old ships and be stable in waves that would sink them. From what I saw with the models, It takes less than half the power to move it as well. I used a weight and pulley system to measure that, by the way.”

I smiled. “If you would like to make a sailed version of it, make the beam larger and make a fin that is about a third the mast height under it. Like the dorsal on a fish.”

His eyes lit up. “Aye, I can see that working.”

“My smith says that the engines will be ready in about two weeks. The flat section on the hull before the stern will have to be made to fit the shafts and screws that mount there.”

“Screws?”

“Have you ever seen a windmill?”

“Of course. We use them in some of the shops now to cut wood.”

“Then imagine the blades of a windmill that are shaped like rounded leaves made of metal. Three of them around the shaft. I probably should have brought the sketch with me, but the smith wouldn’t turn loose of it.”

“Something like that will move this hull?”

“If I have everything right, it should.”

“Then good luck to you, Michael.”

“I thank you… I never caught your name.”

“Jim.”

“Jim?”

“Yes, my father heard the name from one of the scav… er… humans. It got me a lot of teasing over the years so I did my best to overcome it.”

I laughed. “I understand the legacy of names.”

“I suppose you do. Your’s used to be a curse word.”

“Well justified. I would say I was sorry, but it would change nothing. I, like you, have to work that much harder to overcome it.”

While I was there I went to see Alistor.

“Greetings Lord Dragon!”

“Greetings Lord Alistor.”

“What, no fight?”

“I was talking to Jim and found it had been made a tradition, I figure it would do no good to fight it.”

“But it is no fun unless you react.”

I laughed. “I suppose I must keep tradition, then.”

“What can I do for you, Michael?”

“I wanted to tell you that you will need a metal shop, foundry and production smithy.”

“I take it you are going to expand our shipping?”

“That and a few other things. In a few weeks, the new ship should be ready for the test run. If successful, we may wish to expand your ship building as well.”

“I will be sending plans to you soon for what they are to build. One set should be made in it’s own shop, but we can discuss that later.”

“I get the feeling that coming under your wing is not going to be boring.”

“Probably not. Though I could wish for it. My main concern is to keep our people safe. I do have an idea if you would be interested.”

“What would be your command most ancient?”

I frowned at him as he chuckled. “I want to contact Jearomy about making a special military shipyard.”

“Military? What do you have planned?”

“You said that they were more home on the water than on land. That sounds like navy to me. I am going to design some ships if my tests on the new hulls work and I would give them the designs and make them the patrol for the sea lanes as well as a coastal guard for Torgos and Dragonhaven.”

“Might I make a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“Make the people of Veirania the sea arm of the navy and the people of Dallase the coastal guard. The humans work with us, but still feel like outsiders. As a military arm, they would be insured of their place on Torgos.”

I smiled widely. “I like that. It helps bring the people together.”

“I will talk with David later this eve, then. I am guessing they will need to make a shipyard as well as everything that was on the list you gave me.”

“Yes, For each of the shipyards.”

“I will start working on it then. Is there anything else?”

“Not now, we will know more in a few weeks.”

Two weeks later, I was back at Torgos with the new engines. I had given the smith the single cylinder and he made it work with the lathes and presses. Apparently, it had sped up production dramatically. The main problems were mounting them and making the shaft seals so they wouldn’t leak. The smith had made the bulkhead mount with duel bearings, but the seals were the problems. We wound up with brass disks that were stacked along the shaft. It still leaked slightly, but they worked well enough.

“Are you ready to try this thing?” Jim asked.

“Sure you want to tag along?”

“Wouldn’t miss it. Given any thought about how you are going to back it out?”

I face palmed. “Lets tow it out and get it pointed in the right direction.”

We were finally pointed out of the harbor. I hit the crystals that started the motors and the boat started forward. No clutch. Damn, this shit was complicated. We were crawling forward and Jim cheered.

“It works!”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“What?”

I advanced the throttles about a third. I was NOT expecting what happened. The ship jumped forward, Jim landed on his ass and I came close. The front rose in the water and seemed to ride on top of it. It smoothed out and we were cruising. Jim climbed up and looked out of the wheel house.

“Oh my god. How fast are we going?”

“I have no clue. Lets take the next step a little slower.”

He looked over at the throttle leavers and turned white. I took them and slowly started pushing them forwards. I put up my natural radar so I didn’t run over some poor innocent merchant. The engines didn’t sound like they were working that hard as it started picking up speed. About two thirds, I lost my nerve. We were cutting waves and it almost seemed like we were flying. I backed it down to half and started to wheel it around. I had to use planar sight to figure out which way Torgos was, as it was well out of sight by this point.

“Is this as fast as it goes?” Jim asked with wide eyes.

“I don’t think so. I am just not that sure how controllable it will be if I open the engines up.”

“It will hold together.”

“Well then, here goes.”

I opened the throttles all the way. The engines sang. Two horizontally opposed six cylinder engines came to full power and the ship leapt forward. I could see Torgos in the distance coming up fast. I cut throttles back to a third, but it took a while for it to slow down. I shut the engines off and coasted the rest of the way in. We were just inside of the harbor mouth when it drifted to a stop.

Jim was almost white when he looked at me. “This is a freighter hull. I would hate to see something that was made for speed.”

I agreed with him. “This design is yours. I have the shops being put into place to make the engines here as well as plans to expand your ship building capabilities. I am not a sailor, so I leave this to you. You have the basic principles of the design, feel free to experiment, just share the plans. Alistor is going to be building small ships, Veirania will be doing naval ships and Dallase will be making patrol ships for the sea lanes.”

“You do realize that you are going to make Torgos the capital of the sea by doing this.”

“Yes, and once I have the armament finished, you will be a force to be reckoned with.”

“Armament?”

“I have something that will make even dragons pause. All that have seen them so far agree in the hope that they are never used.”

Jim shuddered. “Why do this, then?”

I smiled sadly. “Because I cannot be everywhere and I will not see my people harmed.”

It was another month before we worked out a usable transmission for the ship. There were two more hulls that were almost ready, so after a test run with the new transmission, I dropped Jim off and turned the bow towards Calalistos. The ship was a lot smoother and controllable and I made the journey in a matter of hours. I took it into the harbor at, for it, a crawl and dropped anchor. I dropped a row boat and rowed into the docks… only to be met with a huge crowd. They parted and Haladoria stepped through.

“Greetings Lord Dragon.”

“Michael, milady.”

She smiled. “I have the nobles here. Would you like to take us for a ride?”

“I hadn’t planned on it, but I think that would be a good idea. I am thinking of a demonstration as well.”

“The guns?” She asked with a frown.

“Yes. I think it better this way as it will not cause panic. We can do it safely out to sea.”

She sighed. “You are right, I think.”

By this time the other nobles and Dorvus of course, were at the docks. I opened a portal to the ship and we went on the tour. I had made two slightly raised platforms just before and aft of the wheel house, which were left blank. The looked at them questioningly, but none said anything. I weighed anchor and backed the ship out far enough to turn it around. Everyone was suitably impressed. Then I took it out to sea. I was careful to advance the throttles slowly so the increase over time wouldn’t be that violent, but at a quarter throttle, the nobles were looking at the ship in awe. Half throttle and they were beyond that. I left it there and held course till we were well away from both land and the sea lanes. Then I stopped.

Walking to the forward platform, I opened a portal to the warehouse where the guns were stored. I literally had to place the portal where I wanted them and then move it around the gun to transfer them. They were of a larger bore than the originals. When the fore and aft guns were in place, I turned to the nobles.

“Greetings this day. What I am about to show you now, I would like for you to keep hidden. I do not want our people panicked. These things are something that I pray we never ever use. However, I would be neglect if I did not have them in place. The dragons and I can only be in so many places and we are not always easy to reach. These are in case you need to defend yourselves when we are not there.”

That said, I pulled a large box through the portal and opened it. I took out four clips of bright red crystals, about a foot long, finned, twelve in a clip. I slid each one into the magazine and pulled the lever that released them and pulled the clip out. It was loaded. I was at the forward gun. I had the nobles move to the top of the wheel house and then sat down on the stool. I swung them around to the port side and dropped the elevation to just lower than the horizon. I looked up and met Haladoria and Dorvus’s eyes. I activated the shield stone then shook my head with a tired sigh and touched the trigger stone once. They were “programmed” to fire each barrel in order, top right, top left, bottom right and bottom left. They worked perfectly. It cycled four shots in two seconds, lines of fire with whip cracks and the sea was ripped open.

I took the elevation up till it was around sixty degrees and held it down for a three count. Then dropped it back down and fired the rest back into the sea. The barrels were hot, but not glowing and there were no misfires. The design worked flawlessly. I felt sick. Looking up to the platform, I could see I wasn’t the only one. Three or four were actively being sick over the side of the rails. Dorvus had sat down and just stared at the gun and Haladoria was crying.

I was called back to Torgos a week later. A dead adult dragon had washed up on the shore just south of Dallase. Suddenly, I didn’t feel paranoid anymore. The body had lacerations all over it and it’s wings were almost shredded. I looked down at my poor dead cousin and wept. It was a long way over from Torgos to the other continent, but suddenly, it didn’t seem far enough. I went back home praying that we had time.