There was a flurry of excitement around the launch. Nothing like it had been tried in anyoneâs living memory. The naysayers stood far away from the spectators, pushed back by hired brutes whose instructions were to let none of the gray clad, doom chanting skeptics anywhere close to the city center on this historic day.
On the southern dock, where the oversized platform had been built for the Great Ship, well dressed aristocrats in their high platform shoes and ridiculously lavish walking sticks paraded through the onlookers to take their seats on wooden bleachers that had been added for the occasion. Anyone with less money and a better sense of balance had either camped out the night before or climbed onto steeply pitched rooftops to get a better view. Enterprising fishermen from as far away as the Attle Islands had charged months worth of wages for a spot on their ships to watch the launch from the water. Everyone had something to gain from such a huge citywide celebration, but no one had as much to lose at Enrich.
âAlcalde,â a smartly dressed functionary hurried up to Enrich where he stood, waving and smiling, from the dignitaries box built out over the edge of the dock. It sat level with the bowsprit, but far wide of it to accommodate the massive width of the fore lift propeller. Enrich turned, his practiced smile still in perfect place on his face.
âYes Mendoza?â he asked, continuing to wave.
âThey have arrived, sir,â the young woman announced, bowing slightly and indicating a large contingent of broad shouldered, uniformed soldiers that were edging their way through the crowd.
Enrich nodded and took a deep breath, he straightened his cravat, brushed an imaginary bit of dust from his coat front and swept across the viewing bridge to meet his guests.
The great ship hadnât been Enrichâs idea. Indeed, it had preceded him by two generations. His grandfather had first insisted, when he was a young up and coming, eventually to be Alcalde, that the way of the future was up. That better trade and a better life lay in the knowledge of advanced shipbuilding and the new creations of the Sky Marshals.
Everyone thought he was crazy.
Everyone thought the Sky Marshals were crazy.
First it was their insistence on being able to shoot down anything that was in the sky. Didnât matter how, in his grandfatherâs grandfatherâs grandfather's day, they just hurled rocks at everything. Insisting that they had some ancient duty to protect the cities from anything larger than a sparrow. Then they decided the best way to do that was to get right up there with the birds! Giant platforms started it, then gliders launched by one Skyman off the platform, often still with the rocks to hurtle at the giant birds of prey that harassed the fishermen pulling their nets in. And that was harmless enough. Crazy, but as long as no one was throwing rocks at the fishermen, no one really cared what a bunch of crazy Sky Marshals did in their spare time.
Then one night, in a drunken fit of, âhey, Iâve got a great ideaâ a bunch of fishermen asked a bunch of equally inebriated sky marshals what they were wasting their time for and why couldnât they come up with something useful in their towers? Like what? the sky men asked. What could be more useful to you than keeping the rocs and vultures from eating your catch? Well how about a way to launch the nets instead of the rocks? We could stand to lose a few fish if we caught more of them.
And thus spawned a partnership six generations standing. Net launchers led to bigger boats to launch nets from. Bigger boats led to taller platforms to protect the coast, because now those bigger boats attracted attention from pirates and rival island fishermen. And then there had to be a way to see and signal farther and farther off shore, which led to the air buoys. And if you could put a buoy that high, surely you could put a man on it to keep watch. And if you could float a man up there, why not a whole boat?
And thatâs where Enrich Castle the first, newly minted Alcalde took over the office from his father and said, âweâre going to build the first Air Ship. A proper air ship, that will travel the known lands and then some!â And at first, everyone thought he was just as crazy as the Sky Marshals when they were throwing rocks.
But Enrich the first knew something that his grandfather had passed along to him. He knew that every great people needed a vision. It didnât have to be a completely achievable vision, but it had to give people a purpose. And thatâs what he did. He took a crazy idea and turned it into a vision. Sky Marshals started frequenting the city more, bringing ideas and buying supplies, not to mention food, clothes, beer. Creative minds from the farm lands started to bring their talents, and their families, to the civic effort. Ship builders were employed to extend the docks and if the experienced shipbuilders were employed by the city, journeymen shipbuilders got their masters positions that much faster because somebody had to pick up the slack. Slowly, through trial, error, many failures but a reasonable number of well publicised successes, the Great Ship and the city grew, and now, Enrich the third, the latest and potentially greatest Alcalde in the cityâs recent history, stood poised to oversee the launch of the historic ship. He had his grandfatherâs vision, his purpose, and one other thing his grandfather had passed down.
Enrich had a map. The only known map of the world before the fall of the last age. A map that showed they were not, could not, possibly be alone.