"There are so many mysterious and unknown things in this world..."
Sitting in the office of the Port Military Management Office, Byron couldn't help but sigh.
Outside the window, the sound of the tide rises and falls from the distant sea, and occasionally the low calls of seabirds passing by the port area are heard. The slanted sunlight shines from the vast sea into the large buildings in Beigang. , casting clear-cut light and shadow between those brand-new ramps, houses, towers and walls, a group of soldiers were arrogantly walking towards the observation deck for the changing of the guard in a neat queue, and further away, there was a demon army loaded with supplies. The guide truck passed through the newly built concrete road, and businessmen who responded to the recruitment lined up in front of the checkpoint waiting to pass. The roar of construction machinery came from further away - that is the direction of the No. 2 Port Connecting Bridge.
There is a soft warm breeze blowing in the office of the management office. Two visitor representatives are sitting on armchairs next to the desk. One is a beautiful woman with medium-long blue hair, wearing a dress of unknown texture. Wearing a sea-blue dress with a golden pendant on her forehead, she was carefully studying several crystal vessels placed on the table. The other one was almost entirely covered with scales and tough leather, resembling a human being or some kind of deep-sea creature. The fused woman - the latter is particularly striking. Her lower limbs, which resembled a fusion of sea snakes and fishes, were "sitting" on the chair in a very awkward posture. The extra half of her tail didn't seem to know how to place it, and kept shaking awkwardly. Although her upper body was obviously It has a female form, but it has the characteristics of deep-sea creatures everywhere.
Byron couldn't help but cast his eyes on the "Naga" again, and explained: "Sorry, Ms. Helen, I don't mean to offend - but this is indeed the first time I have seen it with my own eyes. "To Naga."
"This must be the first time for everyone to see 'Naga'," the female Naga who was sitting awkwardly on the chair smiled and didn't seem to care, " After all, we just... gained a new life not long ago."
"Your crystal processing technology is different from before," the blue-haired woman sitting aside seemed not to care at all about the relationship between Byron and Helen. During the conversation, she curiously picked up the cup on the table and shook it, "I remember the last time I saw the artificial white crystal on land, there were many impurities and bubbles in it, so it could only be broken and used as the base material for runes. ..."
"Well...artifacts and utensil-grade white crystals have been available many years ago..." Byron didn't pay attention to the interruption of the siren lady, but showed a trace of doubt, "Wei. Ms. Ola, can I ask about the 'last time' you mentioned?"
"...I can't remember clearly. I don't care much about things outside of the technical field. , but I vaguely remember that at that time, you humans were still thinking of ways to break through the offshore blockade..." The blue-haired siren known as Ms. Viola thought for a while and nodded seriously, "Well, you are also thinking of ways now. Breaking through the offshore blockade, so it shouldn't have taken long."
Byron was stunned for a moment before he realized how the other party's timeline had jumped, and he was stunned: "You didn't even mean seven hundred.The Age of Sail years ago...it's already been seven centuries, Ms. Viola! "
The blue-haired Siren spread his hands: "Look, I just said it won't be long." "
Although Byron, who had always had good eloquence and responsiveness, didn't know how to handle such a topic at the moment, Naga Helen on the side helped break the awkwardness: "The time of the Siren The concepts are very different from humans, and Ms. Viola's concept of time is very... powerful even among the Sirens. Please understand this. "
"Oh, oh...of course, of course. In fact, I also know some immortal races, and I can understand the difference between your concept of time and that of humans." Byron was stunned for a moment, and then clicked He nodded and said, then he stood up with a smile, opening his hands in a welcoming gesture to the two visitors who came from afar, "Anyway, thank you very much for the technical assistance Io provided to Cecil. You brought The technical team is crucial to Beigang. We are now at a critical point in the entire project - would you be interested in visiting the shipyard with me? The rest of the technical team should already be over there. "
Naga Helen immediately jumped down from the chair, with a smile on her heterogeneous face: "Of course, we are here for this. "
...
In the newly built shipyard on the east side of North Port, near the sheltered bay, the roar of machinery can be heard endlessly, and the intense and busy construction work is gradually coming to an end.
A new ship made of steel as the main body is lying quietly in the dry dock. A large number of support structures on both sides of the hull make it stable. On the scaffolding distributed along the hull and frame, skilled workers We are inspecting the key structures of the new ship and confirming that the crucial power ridge has been installed in place. In the several openings on the hull that have not been closed, the flashes of welding light up one after another. The person responsible for the construction. The builders are sealing off the mechanical structures and key sections there.
On the ground at the end of the dock, there is a platform several meters above the ground, with technicians responsible for shipbuilding and some special " "Guests" are gathering on this platform.
Some of them are humans wearing Cecil navy uniforms or technician uniforms, and the remaining few are beautiful women and people with obvious deep sea These people are paying attention to the construction progress on the slipway not far away. Some people are pointing at various parts of the ship, while others are holding drawings in their hands and interpreting the drawings on the people next to them. Content.
Obviously, the "cooperation" between these people has just begun, and they are still very strange to each other. The human technicians can't help but cast curious eyes on the sirens. As well as Naga, the latter is always curious about other magic machines in this shipbuilding facility. They sometimes discuss and sometimes chat, but overall, the atmosphere is quite harmonious.
A magic machine. The car stopped near the platform, and Byron, Viola, and Helen got out of the car. Helen was still curiously looking at the ride she had just taken."Weird car", but Viola has already set her sights on the slipway. Byron looked at the platform not far away, his eyes swept over the Kraken and Naga who were already mixed with his technical staff, and couldn't help but mutter to himself: "Look at the atmosphere. Not bad..."
In fact, these technicians only arrived in North Port yesterday - they suddenly emerged from the nearby sea and startled the patrol officers on the beach. After a hurried welcome ceremony, these "technical experts" who came from afar went directly to work.
They arrived earlier than everyone expected. Fortunately, the relevant news reached Byron's ears a few weeks ago. A lot of information about Naga and the Siren has been released in recent weeks. Through the audio-visual information at the meeting, which was conveyed to the main staff of various port facilities, these turbulent "deep-sea visitors" did not cause any chaos in Beigang.
This special "deep sea expert group" is led by the sea monster "Viola". This beautiful lady with blue hair claims to be a "deep sea witch" - according to the sea monster's In other words, this seems to be a title for a technical position. In addition, Viola has two main Naga assistants, one of whom is Helen, and the other is a male Naga nicknamed "Philosopher" - that Naga did not show up in the management office. Instead, he followed other Kraken and Naga to the shipyard early in the morning. Now he is standing on a platform not far away. However, Byron can't distinguish Naga's appearance clearly, and he can't see where. One is him.
"This is the ship you built..." Viola's eyes moved slowly on the slipway. The big ship with a metal shell was reflected in her beautiful eyes. She looked at the streamlined The bottom of the ship, the magic energy wings placed on both sides of the ship, and some structures on the deck, nodded slightly, "The ship made by land is very different from our transportation, but at least it looks reasonable."< /p>
"There is nothing wrong with the external structure," Naga Helen nodded, "But... we didn't expect you to have progressed to this point. I thought you would wait until we arrived before actually starting construction. New ship."
"When Northport started construction, no one could tell when you would come, and we couldn't stop everything and wait for someone else's technical team," Byron laughed. He said, “And we have experience in inland shipbuilding. Although this experience may not be useful at sea, at least it is more than enough to build an experimental offshore prototype ship. For us, this not only allows Beigang to The various facilities are on track as soon as possible, which is also a way to accumulate valuable experience.”
Byron was very candid, but there were still some things he didn’t say – in fact, the Krakens’ technical team had already set out. Gawain had discussed the construction of sea-going ships with him before. There was one rule that both of them agreed on, that is, regardless of whether or when third-party technical experts would come, Cecil’s own R&D and Construction projects should be carried out according to plan, even if this will cause some loss of resources, from the perspective of laying a solid foundation and mastering the technology and accumulating experience, everything is worth it.
After all, foreigners are foreigners after all. No matter how good the technical experts are, they are not our own. It is good to have good relations with more allies, but it is good to base one's major projects entirely on the help of other people's technical experts. It would be unwise not to help.
Byron didn't know if the "Deep Sea Witch" beside him and the "Naga" who was once the son of the storm on the other side could think of this. He didn't care much about it. He just felt a little proud. He looked at the beautiful steel ship on the slipway with a smile on his face: "It's a beautiful ship, isn't it?"
"Does it have a name?" Helen looked at Byron had curiosity in his tawny vertical pupils.
"...Actually, I wanted to name it 'Pea' at first, but His Majesty didn't agree. My daughter even talked about me for half an hour," Byron shrugged, "Now Its official name is 'Curiosity', and I think this fits its positioning well - it will be a symbol of mankind's re-exploration of the sea after the end of the classical navigation era. We will use it to reopen the offshore navigation route of the northwest loop of the continent, and Try to explore the dividing line between the open sea and the offshore sea. "
"Curiosity... is indeed a good name," Helen blinked, and the long tail covered with scales swept across the ground, making a rustling sound. "I'm curious..."
The Naga's tone seemed a bit complicated. She may have thought of the courage and exploration when humans first entered the sea, or she may have thought of the storms of the classical maritime age. The short-lived glory of the church may also be due to the regretful situation that the Storm Priests fell into darkness and humans stayed away from the sea for hundreds of years... However, the scales on her cheeks and the body that she has not fully mastered made her unable to act like a human. She made such rich expression changes every time, so in the end all her sighs could only be attributed to one sigh.
......
On the platform at the end of the dry dock, a tall male Naga with sunken eye sockets and skin covered with light blue scales withdrew his eyes and looked at the sea at the end of the dock. sight.
A Naga companion next to him was joking: "Philosopher, you don't want to write poetry again, do you? You keep looking like this today."
"I just "While considering what areas of Curiosity need to be improved and modified in time," Naga, a tall male with deep-set eyes, glanced at his companions beside him, "The technology used in this ship is very unfamiliar to us. At the beginning, The ships built by the Church of Storms are all powered by magic, manpower and sails, but Curiosity mainly relies on magic machinery to propel... Different power systems will lead to completely different hull structures and various characteristics during navigation. These are all It’s something that must be considered.”
“Indeed,” a Kraken deep-water technician nodded, “Although we are here to provide technical support, we also need to study human magic technology. Only then can we understand how to support it specifically..."
"Human..." The Naga technician nicknamed "Philosopher" couldn't help but mutter softly when he heard this word, but then he shook his head, "But no matter how it changes, the laws of nature will It will never change, and the basic principles of ship navigation will not change much."
His speech was quickly recognized by the technicians present, who came from different races and different forces. Technicians with completely different ways of perceiving the world came together again and began studying the drawings of the Curiosity rover.
Byron, who was standing not far from the platform, was paying attention to the movements of the technical staff on the platform. As a transcendent person, he could hear their discussions - purely technical matters, this " "Admiral of the Navy" didn't know clearly, but he could understand things other than technology.
When it comes to exploring the sea, the Typhon people have indeed taken a step early. They started earlier, have a richer heritage, have better coastlines and natural ports, and there are still many places between the offshore and the distant sea. The advantages of being blessed with a natural island chain that can be used to build advance bases are too great to ignore.
But the Cecils will still be confident of catching up.
The Cecil people know magic technology, the Nagas who were once children of the storm know how to build ships, and the Kraken know the sea.
Now, these three things have come together.
This is the advantage of Cecil people in this field.