

As the political will to keep up the Escort War crumbled Jailys zi'Valcas focused on her job. She was not in a position to question the policy choices of her mistress and in any case she found her projects far more interesting. Electric motor production was hitting it's stride, the new wire works was moving along nicely even if copper was becoming scarce and work was underway on numerous generators to meet a rising demand for power. She had to do a fair bit of delegating as the number of tasks increased. Even so she had a particular enthusiasm for one specific project, which on a cool spring morning was undergoing it's final test out in the open.





The Drow States followed a broadly similar pattern, there was comparatively small parcel of land surrounded by walls and Watchtowers which contained a substantial city and was mostly extensively cultivated. In this case this posed some security risks which were only partially minimized by making deals with a few of House Valcas' partners and posting guards. There was still some risk of theft and they were probably being monitored by spies, but that did not make too much difference. Her operation consisted of two parties, one with her, a few slaves and some guards with a table on which was a machine powered by batteries and a hand operated dynamo which stayed still and another party led by one of her subordinates with a similar device on an ox cart and a surveyor's wheel. Jailys spent most of her time waiting with an odd trumpet shaped device in her hand waiting as the machine made slight humming noises. She mused about this new sound at 11:32 and how common it would be in the future and how it's operator had decided cover his ears partially while it was in use. Given how it could go from a quiet buzz to a screech sometimes she allowed it as long as one ear remained uncovered. She'd considered doing a similar thing herself, but decided against it when some of her Drow colleagues told her that it might be seen as a sign of weakness.







Then the machine made a stuttering sound which resolved itself into words. "...esting, testing...this is Tolnir with the Snowbox at 6,600 yards. I repeat this is Tolnir with ... Snowbox at Six Thousand six hundred Yards. Are you hearing this?" The words were tinny and artificial, but were recognizable. The slave operating the machine quickly jotted down the time and distance listed.





She brought the trumpet to her mouth and squeezed the switch. "This is Jailys with Five. I've received your message and you are to proceed to 6,700. I repeat that this is Jailys with Five and I've received your message and your to proceed to 6,700. End message."









"Message Received and proceeding to 6,700. Message Received ...nd proceeding to 6,700." She grinned with that. So far this was working very well even with the stuttering and tinniness. That was an issue that the Infrastructurals had not been able to do away with either even if they were better at it. The Snowbox was a fairly new unit captured off an Infrastructural Cargo Ship and was invaluable as a yardstick and for testing their own work. So far, Number Five has done quite well, being able to send signals more than a thousand yards further than number four could while holding up a lot better than Number Four thanks to improved valve quality and the addition of a small electric fan. While she was prepared for a slip up of one sort or another she did not think that this would be an issue.



While she was not of a nautical bent she understood the concerns of communications. Linkglasses offered instantaneous communications over long distances, but they were expensive, hard to produce, delicate and only worked with their paired counterpart. For this reason ships in fleets often relied on While she was not of a nautical bent she understood the concerns of communications. Linkglasses offered instantaneous communications over long distances, but they were expensive, hard to produce, delicate and only worked with their paired counterpart. For this reason ships in fleets often relied on manaflares and signal flags for communication in battle, but they were clunky and cumbersome at the best of times. Radios could be invaluable in coordinating a fleet's motions in battle, allowing an admiral to better know what is going on with her fleet and allowing her to give orders to her ships in battle even in a foggy night. They could also be useful for civilian ships or trains to summon aide when something went wrong, or to observation posts and many other roles. Number Five was the first design which she felt confident in presenting to her mistress as a workable design fit for mass production and while it might be too late to use them against the Coldlanders they could prove invaluable about The Eternal Foe.







