Later that night, Dustin made his way to the Cyclonian camp with the invitation. When they saw the royal seal on the letter, they were practically tripping over themselves to lead him to where Cyclonis was staying. Deep down, it amuses Dustin as he watched this and soon was at Cyclonis' door where a talon announced him.
The talon quickly let Dustin in when Cyclonis calls in confirmation that she was expecting him. Dustin looks around the fancy room before he spots Cyclonis. "So I take it you did recognize me on the ship," he observes.
Cyclonis nods before standing up from her desk and work, finally having a chance to catch a full break. "How can I? When I would be dead right now?"
"Fair enough point. So why did you really call me here? Getting tired of the stupidity or want someone to tell it to you straight?" Dustin asks.
Cyclonis smiles and leans against her desk. "You still know me so well."
"So where do you want to start…before you ask. Yes, I designed the ship with help," Dustin informs.
Cyclonis hums and brings up the paper on the other racers. "Well, you indeed have won by a large margin. I say it would take decades before the others can catch up."
"Decades? If we keep going as we have been for the last five decades, it will take more than a century and a half for them to match the record," Dustin says, taking a seat.
Cyclonis was about to say something before she thought back on the Cyclonian 'cruisers'. "Well, you are not wrong as things are now," she admits.
Dustin sighs as he taps a finger against his leg. "And frankly, boring too. Rather make this all fun and exciting again."
"Tell me about it. All week it has been just one big ball for Cyclonia camp. Though, your ship is the talk of the entire affair. I was sending my talons to look for the owner of the ship in the merchant's sector, especially after you pulled that crazy stunt at the start that many still are trying to wrap their heads around how it didn't shear your ship in half," Cyclonis explains.
Dustin smiles. "Made for it. If it needs to do something, the ship is made for it as far as I can think of. Anything else will come in later versions."
"You are a thinker after all…did you ever finish that one thing that I saw the plans for? I think it started with an s?" Cyclonis asks, trying to recall what exactly it was.
Dustin hums and scratches his cheek as he tries to remember. "S. S. S."
"Something about making something easier," Cyclonis remembers.
"S. S. Sewing?" Dusting asks, thinking about that.
"I think so…" Cyclonis guesses, "It could have been…something to make…clothes. That was it," she remembers with a small smile on her face.
"Oh, right…yeah, I think I did. It should be in my cabin…whoa. Haven't thought about it for a while now," Dustin says, remembering it and why he made it.
"Why haven't you?" Cyclonis asks, laughing silently before noticing his clothes and how they seem more cleanly stitched like the more expensive clothing. But she figures he couldn't have earned that much on his regular jobs to justify it.
"I forgot about it when I started designing the Tailwind," Dustin admits a bit embarrassed.
Cyclonis shakes her head, amused before sighing. "You never stopped wanting to see what the world has to offer, did you?"
"Too busy facepalming at the stupidity of things both sides are doing," Dustin remarks making Cyclonis sympathize with that.
"Don't get me started on that front. We will be here all night," Cyclonis advises.
Dustin laughs before leaning back in his seat. "Times are changing, and many are going to ask what other ship I will make. Wait till I tell them it still has to be improved."
"I think I can dissuade my grandmother if I tell her the ship is not even finished, and you are the one who saved me. So Cyclonia should be reigned in for a time, but the main issue would be the sky knights," Cyclonis points out.
"Which are too preoccupied with infighting each other because they are too individualistic, and the exploration guild connection makes it where the individual squadrons can't push the matter," Dustin adds. "The truth is that Cyclonia is the only one with the money to let me do full-time development on the ship, but we agree that that would set off the war again, which you aren't ready for."
"This is one of the few times we can be neutral against each other," Cyclonis mentions before looking out the window to the people roaming around.
"How likely would word of the ship being incomplete being spread around your faction by now?" Dustin asks.
"Knowing the loudmouth on one," Cyclonis starts, "Give it a single night."
"Your empire will feel a bit humiliated by this one. Best to head it off by contacting the empress now?" Dustin advises.
"Yes. Possibly a good idea," Cyclonis sighs before walking back around her table.
Dustin, hearing this, brings out a notebook and starts going over ideas and suggestions for the Tailwind to review and think on while Cyclonis is on the radio. After a while, Cyclonis came back, rubbing her head. "Trouble?"
"Apparently, someone had already informed grandmother that you had won, and she was very interested in acquiring the ship, if not, then the creator or designer," Cyclonis informs.
"She is old fashioned and doesn't see things as we do?" Dustin asks.
Cyclonis breathes out silently enough for him to hear as she picks up a glass and starts to drink something. "Oh, persuaded to be able to use it to win the war."
"But, since you haven't called the guards yet, you have dissuaded her from doing that yet?" Dustin asks.
"Hearing the ship was unfinished, she relented. Something about picking ripe fruit," Cyclonis admits.
"So she wants the final product, not the start of one. Wise enough, because trying to recreate it now also recreates the problems the ship also has at the moment," Dustin comments, nodding to Cyclonis.
Cyclonis stares at Dustin for a while as he seems to write something down in his notebook. "You are not going to make it easy, are you?"
"This up here hardly takes a break," Dustin says, tapping his pencil on his head.
"I do not doubt any of your words for that," Cyclonis admits.
"So, what would you like to talk about next?" Dustin asks.
Cyclonis sighs and taps her desk with her nails. "I am wondering what you think of our cruisers."
Dustin puts away his notebook and rubs his head. "Where to even start with that…you technically have cruisers, but the truth is you just have scaled-down destroyer designs with less armor, weaponry, and somehow less engine power. The last one is your main advantage of the free atmos design, so how your engineers managed that, I would like to know before you round them up and execute them for sabotaging your forces," Dustin states.
Cyclonis stares at him for a few moments before she starts laughing. "Ok, points well made. You are right on all of those things. Even if I am not a ship engineer, I can still tell the same from when the officials tried to explain the differences to me," Cyclonis says.
Dustin smiles. "Let me guess the only things they said were improvements. Two percent more engine power, while scraping three percent of the weight. On top of that, being able to make another storage room for ammo and supplies. Did I get that right?" he asks while looking closely at this book. "Oh, and another streamline area on the cockpit bulge of the ship and engines. So how did I do?"
"They wouldn't say how much more engine power it had," Cyclonis informs.
"Ah. Then they were too embarrassed to say it was a shit gain or there was none to a decrease in power," Dustin theorizes.
Cyclonis smirks. "If you lead our R&D team, I know you will not give me the runaround."
"My first advice would probably be to execute the teams on the cruiser project," Dustin admits. "After that, I would review the entire division and all the projects. And after that, then review and then try to salvage what seems usable and scrapping waste of resources and other things," Dustin adds, thinking over the offer.
"Cut out the fat," Cyclonis summarizes as she brings out some fruits from a nearby food plate. She then tosses a few to him, and he quickly fumbles and drops one but catches the rest. "I am afraid most of our work is built upon the fat."
"And that is a result of incompetence and corruption," Dustin acknowledges.
From there, the two talked for hours about many things from the R&D, to crystal mining, and Cyclonis even talked Dustin into selling Cyclonia the plans for his sewing machines for royalties.
"Oh, no. I am selling that to everyone. Not just you guys. Even those like the raptors need good clothes," Dustin chuckles as he eats the last of the food.
"I expect as much as you are funding yourself basically," Cyclonis says, smirking before there was a knock at the door. Cyclonis sighs, hearing that and replies, "Enter."
Dustin turns as well to the door and sees it open wide before a purple hair girl peeks in. "Excuse me, Master Cyclonis. I am here to see how you are doing as it is two in the morning, and some are worried about where you have been."
"Oh, it is that time already? Well, then I think we should end negotiations here for the night. Initially, if the winner of the race were Cyclonian, we would have been given the honor of being the ship I return on. How about you accept the honor, and we can continue on the way to Cyclonia?" Cyclonis offers trying to make it appear like this had all been a business meeting to her subordinate.
Dustin paused for a bit, thinking before nodding. "Very well. I was planning to visit Cyclonia anyways to see if we can be outfitted with some quality cannons since the Tailwind has none anyways," Dustin says, playing along.
Ravess seems even more shocked that the winning ship made it through the race with no armaments. "Good. I do hope you at least made some sleeping quarters as it would be a while," Cyclonis jokes along.
"We made a few for eventual crew and to ferry people for certain jobs if we need to," Dustin says, getting up and leaving the room. This left Ravess and Cyclonis alone now.
"It is funny how things turn out sometimes," Cyclonis says to herself, looking out the window now.
"Pardon master?" Ravess asks, confused.
"This isn't the first time I have met the young captain from the exploration guild," Cyclonis clarifies, making Ravess try to think of when she could have met him.
"Pardon master, but where did you meet him? I can not imagine where you would have unless he is some noble or was a ward to a noble a while back in Cyclonia," Ravess says.
"No. He is nothing of the sort. He is the young man who saved my life a few years ago now when some nobles tried to assassinate me with their scheming. Now tell me, isn't it funny how things turn out?" Cyclonis asks Ravess, now knowing immediately who Dustin was.
"Yes…it is," Ravess says slowly, wondering how far Dustin's reach can be at this point.
The next day, the rest of the cruisers starts coming in as only four competitors remained since one Cyclonian cruiser had been disqualified when it used its guns on the sky sharks. The race was neck and neck for the most part as they neared the line. In the end, though, it was Cyclonia who took second place, and the sky knights took a close third. The Cyclonians were a bit happy they saved some face with coming in second at least. A few hours later, after the last ship crossed the finish line, the award ceremony took place where many officials took to congratulating the winners. The journalists from both sides were all over them as well as they took many pictures and begging for comments, especially when the officials asked for them to get together to get photos made of the entire crew for the record they had set.
Overnight, Dustin and his motley crew were starting to be recognized as coming out of nowhere to not only win the race but smashing the Condor's previous legendary record. This added to the fact that rumors circulated the Tailwind was not even finished and made crews and engineers start making speculations of the ship and the components trying to figure it out in the days to come.
After the ceremony ended, people started to leave the race area and head out. The three Cyclonian cruisers gathered the next morning as they were to escort the crown princess Cyclonis back to Cyclonia. Snipe and Ravess watch the crew as they are once again led inside before being given a short tour of the Tailwind by the first officer Rorack and ending at the nice quarters. Master Cyclonis gets her own while her guards are to share the quarters right next to hers.
"Nicer than I expected," Snipe says, taking a seat on the bed.
Ravess nods as she takes a seat on her bed. "When they said it was still being made, I expected less in these areas."
"Oh, no, these areas are mostly done. It is that the captain wasn't satisfied with this. Anyone else this would be mostly the final product. Captain, though, he wants this baby to be able to do stuff like climb to the stratosphere," Rorack informs.
"Stratosphere?" both ask at the same time in shock.
"Captain doesn't think small," Rorack comments as he leaves them to their thoughts.
The two look at each other and wonder what kind of a deal their princess is making with said captain.
"And putting, if you pardon the term, the skeleton of the ship in such a way, we can absorb the impact of anything. It wouldn't be possible for you to start building your ships that way without a major redesign as our ship was made around that concept," Dustin explains, showing her some early versions of the ship blueprints for reference.
Cyclonis nods as she compares the different blueprints. "It seems you started with a regular design before trying to redesign, and then you threw it all away for a custom one. Where did you get the idea for the shape of the ship anyway?"
"Ironically enough, it came to me in a dream actually," Dustin says, embarrassed as he starts to put the blueprints away into a chest for storage.
Cyclonis then smirks. "Did the map and machine come to you in a dream, too?" she seems to tease.
"Nope," Dustin clarifies, sealing the case, so they didn't fall out accidentally.
"Pity. We can use more of your dreams for more fun things," Cyclonis further teases as she notices him trying to keep facing away and struggling to put away the case on a shelf.
"So you mentioned you wanted to buy the design for the sewing machine, right?" Dustin asks, finally managing to get it up over the shelf before grabbing another case.
"I need to see your machine in action first to note if it is viable…or needs improving," Cyclonis adds with a little smile at the end.
"Right…first, let me see if I can find the schematics," Dustin says, putting the case on the desk and starts looking through all the papers. "No, no, no. I thought I burned that one. No, no, ah. Here we are," Dustin says finally and pulls out the paper.
Cyclonis notes the diagram on top as Dustin gives a quick once over to make sure everything is in order. "Do you have a machine made so I can see how it is?"
"Yeah, right over there. I am just going to start copying the plans after we are done," Dustin says, starting to put the other papers away after pointing it out to Cyclonis.
Cyclonis looks over where he is pointing and spots a table with a machine over it. The base is rolling around and having an arm piece that comes down over the far end of the support with a needle. Lines and rolls of threads litter around the machine, giving a rough and messy look. She hums in thought before walking over and pulling up her cloak to a small torn piece at the end of it.
Cyclonis sits down at the chair in front of the table as she places the torn pieces together under the needle. Her hands carefully stay out of the way as Dustin walks by and turns the machine on, making the needle slowly start to come down and pierce the cloth. Cyclonis stays focused throughout her surprise and works on running the thread through her cloak. Only when it runs out of material to work with does it keep going, and she quickly turns the same switch Dustin used to turn it off.
"Very interesting," Cyclonis notes, looking at the sewn pieces of her cloak and how it ties together. She even gives it a few tugs to see how strong it is and notes how the threads don't even seem to allow it to break.
Dustin walks over as he takes out the now old and empty crystal from the side of the machine. "It will take some practice, but when someone gets the hang of it, I estimate that something like in the time a team of seamstresses can make a quilt," Dustin grabs another crystal from a nearby box and places it into the slot where he took the old one out. "Six to eight quilts can be made with this machine in the same amount of time. This is accounting for mistakes and skill of the user, though," Dustin says, thinking on that one.
Cyclonis watches as he prepares the machine for another line of clothing or simple cloth. "Well, I think this is proof enough. For something of this magnitude…how about this much?" she asks, writing on a piece of paper the amount she was offering already seeing the potential in this for the textile industry.
Dustin leans over her shoulder to see the amount. "Too much for buying. Maybe…half for selling a royalty to use? And a few more additions to the deal too?" he asks.
"Very well. Half plus royalties," Cyclonis agrees. 'An investment in the future as my grandmother would say.'
"And I won't add the improvements you make, but I will want to know how they are improved. Alright, I will get started on copying the plans then," Dustin says, putting the plans on a drawing table.
Cyclonis raises an eyebrow now as she watches him work. 'Wants to know improvements, won't add, but will take half the money? Are you thinking of selling to the Atmos?'
"Yes, I am. I had forgotten about it, but I intended to sell the sewing machine," Dustin informs as if he read her thoughts.
Cyclonis stops and narrows her eyes. 'How much have you thought about these things?'
"I mean fair footing between the two as, let's face it, if the war ends, this tech will still be used won't it? So easier if your side wins?" Dustin asks.
Cyclonis now thinks of their production capabilities when it is compared to the Atmos. "That is correct. So you think we would be able to win in this style alone if it was a trade and production war."
Dustin hums as he keeps drawing. "Not really. If it were only a trade and production side of things, Atmos and its terras would have you guys beat. For one, they are pretty diverse and have many ideas of how things will go or how it's made. For prices, they would be competing against themselves and make the price drop just to get customers into their door," he explains while looking to the blueprint to compare. "You guys operate under a government mostly, so it's less inner competition and diversity of things to buy. From a merchant and customer standpoint, Atmos is the better bet on how to get the best deal with as little as possible on hand. On the other hand, you have the resources in places for higher quality stuff like your engines since you have a more cohesive force. So your side will mostly depend on your business savviness," Dustin points out.
Cyclonis is rendered speechless for a minute as the only sounds are his drawing and sketches—all before she composes herself and sighs. "You must be alone for much longer after I met you to think of everything."
"I grew up on a merchant ship with my dad until I earned enough money to buy my ship. I think I know a thing or two about economics," Dustin reminds.
Cyclonis gives him a moment to calm down whatever emotions Dustin might have before tapping her finger against her leg. "You must want more than this."
"Slow and steady. Cyclonia wasn't built in a day," Dustin informs, smirking as he kept working.
'There is more to his ideas than just wanting to build and engineer a passion project just from that,' Cyclonis thinks as she watches Dustin keep working.
"Alright. That is done," Dustin says, starting to fold the copy before handing the plans to Cyclonis.
Cyclonis nods before pocketing the blueprints. "You will get the initial payment for this plan after we get back."
"Alright, while we make the transaction, I can also send my people to shop for some good medium and heavy cannons," Dustin says mostly to himself.
"I can make a few recommendations and push for lower prices," Cyclonis offers.
"As a favor, or are we renegotiating here?" Dustin asks seriously.
"Favor. Relax," she explains, shaking her head. "What I am pointing out is that I can make the whole transaction easier for you."
"Alright, but we should make it look like a part of a deal we have made. As showing favoritism to me will only cause both of us problems later," Dustin points out.
Cyclonis smirks and leans on her hand with a head tilt. "You're speaking to master Cyclonis. I can make some people disappear at times. Deals are easy."
Dustin stops for a moment. "All the time?"
"Mostly by month. Grandmother has the weekly."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they won't try getting stuff from you, or they won't try to eliminate my crew and me. I heard about what they wanted to do to me after getting back home a while later," Dustin informs, surprising her.
"How did you hear about that?" Cyclonis asks questionably.
"Still have an ear in the business world, and with that, you hear rumors from the gossip of Talons who are standing guard while merchants unload cargo," Dustin informs.
Cyclonis frowns and looks away, not wanting to admit she also knew. "I see. Then I would have to work on finding those that want to hurt our best engineer," she promises but can't help but hide the lie of what she knew.
"I also heard about thirty or so being executed shortly afterward for treason and attempted assassination of the crown princess," Dustin adds, smirking to her.
Cyclonis hums. "Grandmother doesn't like crystals against our necks."
"Well then, to avoid more jealous or suicidal cyclonians plotting to kill us, we should act as if it's a business arrangement, not a favor?" Dustin asks.
"Didn't I say that?" Cyclonis questions. "Just relax. I will take care of it."
"Alright, I trust you. Which is something that many would say I am crazy for doing," Dustin comments.
"Or is smart in my areas," Cyclonis quips.