Phase two nears completion

Emily and Teslaimia in the center of a ring of uniformed guards with Jon in his full knight's regalia at the head of the procession walked through the construction zone looking up at the massive superstructure of the Dirigible Airship port. The massive structure was clearly the largest man-made structure ever built on planet Hanston. Looking down on the structure from the air looked like a giant letter X to those on the ground it looked like a massive ten-story glass and Pillson concrete building with a red metal superstructure growing out of it forming a partially covered vaulted ceiling. Two massive Airships were at the docks. The CCAS Indomitable and the HCE Kalepa. The Kalepa was busily taking on trade goods ready to return to her home country.

Once inside the massive building, Mr. Hudsucker and Mr. Duke with a group of their business partners came walking over to Emily with huge grins on all of their faces, "Lady Connaissance, welcome to Connaissance International Airshipport. I am happy to announce as of today we are officially open for business." Mr. Duke puffed up his chest as he spoke.

Emily smiled, "Great work to you and your team, I can see there is still construction work being done, when will the project meet its final completion date?"

Mr. Duke pointed to a few areas, "The main terminal building is completed for passenger flights as well as cargo transport. Military dock one is open and can service the two existing military ships. The second military dock will be opened by next Spring as well as the second terminal building in the Summer. We will have the roof and weather doors completed by next winter."

Emily clapped happily, "I have noticed that you have already started pushing harder on Phase three. Are we behind on the demolition of the old residential area for any specific reason?"

Mr. Duke nodded, "We've had problems with squatters and with a lack of manpower. We diverted a lot of our demolitions workforce to work on the dam project."

Emily looked curious, "Are the squatters coming from the villages?"

Mr. Duke shook his heads with a smile, "No, nothing like that. It has mainly been the elderly who simply refused to leave behind their old residences. For all but the most stubborn, we have been able to get them to freely move by offering assistance with moving and minor upgrades to their residences."

"And the most stubborn?" Emily asked looking at him with a hint of displeasure.

Mr. Duke sighed and said, "All of the above, plus in a couple of instances, they had to be forcefully moved by the constabulary. We haven't been unfair to these people per your instructions, they are mostly just scared of the changes and sad to leave behind the places they lived for so long."

Emily nodded and said, "Make sure you send me a list of their new addresses so that I can visit them personally and apologize."

Mr. Duke nodded and asked, "Shall I show you around the port?"

Emily smiled and nodded, "Thank you, I'd like to see it all." They toured every area of the new port with Mr. Duke pointing to subtle changes made by the design team as they encountered problems.

Halfway through the tour Teslaimia walked beside Jon, "This is sooo boring, Jon, why do you look like you are paying so much attention?"

Jon heard a loud sound causing him to turn his head as one of the workmen dropped a tool from the top of a ladder, "I refuse to see you two put in danger anymore. I have almost lost you three times now because I wasn't vigilant enough." He looked over and saw some of the workers staring their way and made a flash of quick hand signals to his men causing three of them to run over and question the workers who were staring. He looked down into Teslaimia's eyes and asked, "Would you like me to have a detachment escort you home or to your shop?"

Teslaimia shook her head and then looked at Emily, " I think I am a little like you right now. I am afraid to be away from her because I don't want her to have to face anything like that alone."

Jon nodded and then said softly, "We have made numerous changes to how we guard you both now. Something like that shouldn't be possible any longer. We installed a Far Speak in the lobby of her building so that the tenth-floor guards can tell if the person coming up the lift is a threat. The stairs are now guarded separately from the lift and we cycle the guards out every two hours to keep any single guard from losing focus. I have also added the same security protocols to City Hall. From now on, whenever you are outside of those buildings you'll have me with you along with a couple of Roger's Squires. "

Teslaimia nodded, "I just wish she would accept that she needs this much security. She complains about her freedom being gone. The two of us were born as Royalty, we have had such security around us since we were infants. I don't even know how this freedom she is talking about would even benefit her or us. It just seems like she fantasizes about being a commoner."

Jon thought for a moment, "Emily used to escape from her guards to go shopping in the Windsor Capital. She once told me that when she was with her guard, the shop keepers wouldn't talk to her like a person and would only bring out the items that were the most expensive instead of the items that were the most useful."

Teslaimia snorted, "I went shopping with her in Diamondtown, she didn't even know that you should haggle down the prices. Those merchants must have just seen her as a walking money bag."

Jon looked over at Emily and saw that she was scolding Mr. Duke about something and chuckled, "I think when she talks about her freedom she means the freedom to experience her city through the eyes of the people who live in it and marvel at how far it has come in such a short time. She wants to know that what she is doing, is helping the people of the City. Newspaper articles, reports from the people who work for her, and even from the people she loves aren't the same as taking a walk by herself down the street and talking to ordinary people."

Teslaimia nodded and smiled at Emily, "Mm, well, she was born to be so much more than that. In some ways, I want to make sure she never has such freedom again, because it means she is being the ruler that she needs to become for the sake of this city."

Jon looked down at her and asked, "And for you?"

Tesliamia giggled at him and said, "I can't become an Empress if my lover is only a bureaucrat now, can I?"

Jon started to laugh and then quickly stopped and motioned to some of his men to intercept a group of ironworkers that were walking toward the group to get a look at who was on a tour.

*****

"We're halfway through Vernmont pass and they want us to turn back? We haven't gained a single spoil of war! These men have endured too many hardships to return with nothing to show for it. We'll continue on and destroy the Windsor Kingdom. We can return after these men have had their fill of women and spoils. We'll just say the message was delayed." The heavily muscled Archbishop said as he crumpled the paper, "Make sure you kill that bird."

A gangly looking man bowed and said, "Of course, Your Grace."

Another soldier jogged up, "Our advance scouts have reported, the border wall to the north appears to be guarded by a skeleton crew as if they don't expect to be attacked."

The Archbishop roared in laughter, "Lord Léon Jean Reno be praised, we'll be able to raid this Kingdom through an open door!" He turned to another soldier, "Advise the leaders from the free nations, we are two days march from our first spoils of war. Let them know the women of the Windsor Kingdom are blonde blue-eyed and have huge knockers!" He laughed from his belly.

"Your Grace, there was one thing that thought you should know. The scouts advised that the Kingdom had a spotter balloon, so our army won't have much chance for catching them by surprise." The kneeling soldier continued.

The Archbishop nodded and smiled, "Well, that's why we wasted so many days on building these siege engines. We will be firing from a mountain pass down to an unmoving gate. I don't suspect that balloon will be able to give them an advantage for that, even if they do have trebuchets ready to fire on us."

"Ollie, bring me that map of the Windsor Kingdom. I want to see if there are any places along the pass where an army could hide to strike our rear, if there are none, we have nothing to fear aside from losing men to running too fast downhill." The Archbishop bellowed.

A soldier came running over and spread out a map stitched on animal skin, "Your Grace if there was such a place it is not shown on this map."

The Archbishop smiled, "Good, very good! We'll make our camp right here.." He aggressively pointed his finger at a spot on the map, "This will be just out of range of their trebuchet and will allow ours to flatten that wall."

*****

A group of men gathered in a dark basement a small lantern giving light to the room. A tall older man with a long beard waited until everyone turned to him and gave him the undivided attention he needed. "Thank you, everyone, for giving us your time. You know why we're here. That Lady Connaissance that came into our city a little over a year ago tore down our homes, built these monstrosities like those balloons meant for slaughter and forces us to work in these jobs that pay little to nothing while expecting us to work like slaves without breaks not paying us for working over our shifts. For what? Why are we doing all this? Do you know what the answer is? Jim, you work at City Hall, why don't you tell them."

A lean young man stepped forward, "I do the night time clean up at City Hall. I have heard them talking and see the models on their desks. They want to build the biggest city in the world and use those balloons to send their products all over the world to make their money back. They plan to make another college for outsiders to come in and get educated and they plan to build theaters museums for the rich to take their children. There was nothing for us regular folks. It was a city for the rich. We're just here to build it and make it work."

The tall bearded man stepped forward again, "Until we deal with the rich, we're just going to be slaves. Do you understand? This Lady Connaissance was a Princess from the Windsor Kingdom, she still thinks she is a Princess and spends our hard work on her vanity projects. I say let's have a revolution! Brothers, sisters, let us take back our city, kill men like the Dukes, Hammer, and these foreign inventors. It's not going to be quick or easy, but we'll start out small. Burndown their rich buildings. Poison their rich food. Go on now, get out there and spread the word. You all know men and women like us that talk. Just encourage them when you hear that talk. bring them to a meeting. Anything it takes."