NationStates Jolt Archive

The “Venus City” Project, Boardroom

In one of the government owned spires of Tephet-Sheta a group of representatives talked. They were the cream of the huge C’tani construction and heavy industrial concerns, many were represented there, and names like Intar Consolidated Holdings, Emir Shan Steelworks and Sheta Design Works were among those represented. At the head of the table stood a lean, dark haired man, the name plat in front of him reading Edward Weir, Office of the Emperor, Project Director.

He nodded at the assorted others, and sat down, “Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, Neri and Nissi.”

Some nodded, some actively replied to his greeting – with the huge elven population, it was generally normal to add the second clause to the old phrase. He smiled, “Now, as you all know, you have been asked here by the OOE to participate in a national project designed to both showcase our industry and establish a viable colony. At the moment, we are aiming for a single, relatively small city sized colony. This should allow us to consider options that are not available for a larger installation,” several of them nodded, “as well as pour more funding than normal into the establishment,” he picked up a pen from the table and pointed it at them, “Most of which is going to be covered by you guys, though you will be getting a slice of the profits if we run it as a going concern – which is precisely what we plan to do. And yes, you will be added to the colonial council…

“Anyway, I’ve been going over the initial proposals you have all submitted, and I’m rather curious about the Intar suggestion,” he looked at the Intar representative, who nodded, “that it should be powered by three star ship grade power-nodes, and be capable of limited flight, though without inertial dampening, it would be limited to an acceleration in the several gravities range while personnel were aboard…”

He trailed off, watching their faces – he saw in many of their eyes scepticism and in some cases cautious, very cautious, approval…

“Further to this,” he said, reading once more from a copy of the report that hovered before his eyes when he desired it to, “the city would require an energy shield capable of withstanding re-entry, this would be especially useful should it be required to withstand bombardment, which it would of course, be able to take from a vessel of cruiser class or below for some time. This shield would also be able to withstand submersion…” he trailed off again, “or the unlikely reversion of the atmosphere to its preterraformed state…”

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Edward Weir, Special Projects Director.

As time passed, the scheme began to develop into a more coherent form, and designs were created that at first moved from a rudimentary mountain around a single giant gravitic core, to array after array, allowing for a far more effective acceleration technology than the one at first intended. Certain miniature systems were developed on the project that numerous companies made off with and patented, already beginning to recoup their losses by producing finer and finer gravitic equipment than they had done before. Originally the device would have needed to be large in order to continuously operate at the level required indefinitely, but they had reduced that by instead replacing it with arrays of hundreds of smaller devices, which would allow the maintenance to be done more effectively, and the overall volume of the generators was thus reduced manifold.

This had allowed them to consider other options in design, meanwhile, the project director had something else to do that he thought might be of interest…

To: Lord Neldorion, Viceroy of Menelmacari Eärendil, Eärendil
From: Edward Weir, Office of the Emperor, Special Projects Director, Duat
Subject: A brief invitation.

Greetings. If I may trouble you for some of your doubtless valuable time, I would like to speak with you in person about certain plans we have regarding the future civilian population of “Sentinel One.”

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Edward Weir, Special Projects Director.

The talks with Lord Neldorin had been partly successful, and Edward was surprised to find another message, this time from the Menelmacari on his desk… It appeared they had a use for some space in, or rather, aboard the city. He opened it and read it, humming quietly to himself. Yes, that would do rather well.

Then there was a personal directive from the emperor on the design. That was interesting too, though he had no idea why the Emperor would want such a thing, he ordered it integrated. The design was now almost finished, and already construction had begun…

Far away from the star Mictlan, the great shipyards that produced the fleet of the empire was activated. With nothing else to do at the moment, their entire capacity was dedicated to it. In terms of mass, the city-ship was as large as a standard Scythe or Arnstoan class cruiser, though far slower, though more expensive, and with that amount of resources behind it, the city would be completes relatively soon.

http://www.necrontyr.plus.com/images/edwardweirav.jpg
Edward Weir, Special Projects Director.

The assembly chamber which dominated the highest tower in the city was a large hexagonal room, with vast, moderately stained glass windows showing abstracted patterns for its walls, allowing the light from the outside to cascade into the room with no obstructions. They were meant to show nothing but abstract form, rather than any representational art. This was where the C’tan generally considered Abstract art to belong – decoration – rather than as true art, which was generally held to be representative of something. Similarly, the walls could be seen to hold a discrete leaf pattern, that could be seen embossed on the wall, but only if one analysed them closely.

In the six corners of the room were the entrances, double doors, wooden, carved with an elaborate pattern, into which silver had been set, from which a multitude of symbols could be derived, the seal of the necrontyr, the dagger-star of the Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar, an eagle, and dozens of others. Beyond two of the doors lay long flights of circular stairs, and beyond the other four, lifts with mirrored surfaces, also panelled with an expensive Menelmacari wood.

In the centre of the room, there was a large table, like a ring, around which there were twenty-one chairs. There was a gap at the opposite end of the table from the one chair-which was differentiated from the others, by virtue of being somewhat larger, as well as the desk in front of it, which had a number of features, from the ability to mute the others in the room with devices that emitted sound opposite to that of everyone speaking but the person who occupied the chair. A podium could occupy the gap, for speakers, which was raised from the floor by a sideways sweep of a hand over the gap.

The table itself was composed of a single blue crystal ‘grown’ in that overall shape, and finished by expert cutting, There were dividers for the table of course, and a multitude of buttons, and inset computer terminals, which shimmered into life with full holographic displays, miniatures of the massive projector in the centre of the circle, under the floor, which, oddly, showed no lenses or such of any kind, preferring to incorporate the emitters into microscopic recesses in the floor, many hundreds of thousands of them. Above the recesses was a one-way sheet of transparent steel, upon which there was going to be a symbol, as yet undecided upon.

The chairs themselves were elaborate, high backed affairs with something of the same crystal and a light coloured metal. These were rather customisable to the user, but overall they possessed a blend of different cultural roots, from Babylonian to Mayan to Noldorin while at the same time, being non-specific to any species or faction. And for all that, hardly anyone knew just what it was for.

The sunlight streamed in from the window overlooking the command chamber, many floors below the peak of the highest tower in the city. This room however, was a hive of activity, hordes of necrontyr and elves could be seen walking around with numberless pieces of equipment. Somewhere someone called “Initial charge sequence tests completed.”

“Can someone get me south fourteen back on the diagnostic screen?” another shouted, cut off by; “Tell the gets in generator bay three to behave themselves. If I have to go down there again!”

Edward Weir stood at the side of this pandemonium looking out at the great Star Mictlan in the distance. With a sigh he turned around and looked at the pandemonium behind him, calling out quite loudly, “Do we have FTL?”

There was some dispute about that, but after several moments, the answer came back as a firm yes. Weir smiled, “Good! Set course for orbit over Southern Tareldanorë, one million cee.” The star outside vanished, and the city-ship, largely unpopulated so far, of Isasirach entered hyperspeed.

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Isasrach (ph3ar the plagarism)