Swarming Sovereignty

Lia stepped back as she set the last of the ships to converting, giving Samantha a nod. “Thank you for your help with this.” She said.

“It was my pleasure, my Queen.” Samantha replied. “To be able to witness the birth of a new age of seafaring is a privilege.”

The tests had gone remarkably well. As expected, she was able to convert the warship into something more battle-focused, and she had even figured out a combination that would let the average member of the swarm create a living ship. It had taken a bit of tinkering, but after a little bit Lia had stumbled upon the right answer; they just needed to add more containers and other ways of moving goods like carts and dollies.

Lia took out her tablet, pulling open the information on the first ship they had set to converting. “Seems the first ship will be done in about five minutes.” She informed Samantha. “Will you come inspect it with me? I’d like the opinion of someone who’s actually familiar with seafaring.” 

“I was hoping you’d ask.” Samantha said excitedly. “I’m very excited about this.”

“Thank you again.” Lia said. “Please, lead the way.”

Samantha led Lia across the shipyard, and by the time they had reached their destination only a minute remained on the timer. They waited anxiously, and soon enough the modeling wax of the cocoon fell away, revealing a strange-looking beast. It was about the size of the original ship, but that was where the resemblance ended; it was a gray monster that looked like the pictures of whales Lia had seen before, but the top of the creature was shaped like, well, a ship.

The beast gazed at Lia with an enormous eye before pulling closer to the dock and sinking lower so that the top was closer to the dock, a section of the “railing” falling down onto the dock so it served as a gangplank. Lia was somewhat surprised to see that the inner part of the railing was made of wood, as was the top of the creature’s body. She had known that the insides were made of wood, but she wasn’t sure if the “deck” would be as well.

“After you, my Queen.” Samantha said, barely restrained excitement in her voice.

Lia boarded the carrier whale, then waited for Samantha to get on as well. “So…I know we haven’t seen the inside yet, but I imagine a lot of sailing work requires you to be on the deck here. What do you think?”

Samantha rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I’m not quite so sure we’ll need to work as much on the deck anymore.” She said. “We’ll probably communicate with the ship and keep watch from here, and any fishing and fighting will probably be done from here too, but we won’t have to deal with the sails or anything. And, for those purposes, this deck seems like it’ll work just fine. I’ll need to take a quick peek at that cabin before I can make any judgement calls, though.

Lia walked over to the door Samantha indicated, then opened it. Inside was a large if normal-looking room with a bed and a desk, but what was more interesting were the large “windows” that hadn’t been visible from the outside. The wood seemed to end around the windows, transitioning to what appeared to be a transparent part of the beast’s skin.

“Fascinating.” Samantha breathed, walking over to one of the windows and placing her hand on it. “I wonder how this works?”

“I’m not sure.” Lia admitted. “Probably a Skill of some sort? I couldn’t see anything on the outside, so it’s definitely not natural.”

“You’re probably right.” Samantha agreed. “Too bad there aren’t any curtai – oh!” As Samantha spoke, the windows became opaque, and a look of delight crossed her face. “Aren’t you a clever one?” She cooed. “Can you put them back?”

The windows became transparent once again, and Samantha smiled wider. “Thank you very much!” She said. “Anything else about this room we should know?” There was a brief moment of stillness as Lia and Samantha waited, but nothing happened. “I see. Well, shall we head out?”

“Actually, I was kind of wondering what it would look like when the ship submerged.” Lia said. “And…is there a warning for when the ship goes underwater? Would whoever was in this room at the time be trapped?”

The ship shifted from side to side, and Lia frowned, focusing in on the mind of the ship. It was very simple, but she got the feeling that the answer to her question was “no”.

“No?” Lia asked. “Is there a trapdoor in here or something?”

Lia began to look around, but was interrupted by Samantha giving an impressed whistle. “My Queen, look at the deck.” She said.

Lia turned to the windows that looked over the deck, and was surprised to see the beast’s flesh rising up past the railing, reaching up to the sky and forming a dome enclosing the deck. The process took no more than fifteen seconds, and once it was finished, the inside of the dome became transparent, just like the windows in the cabin.

“Very impressive.” Lia said approvingly. “Would you mind submerging now? I’m curious.”

There was a small lurch, and then the outside began to rise. Or…rather, the ship began to submerge itself, but Lia could barely even herself moving. “this is a lot smoother than I thought it’d be.” She said.

“No kidding.” Samantha agreed. “And I wasn’t expecting her to be able to hear us from in here. Yes…I don’t think we’re going to go back to regular ships anymore, at least not for transportation. And, if the warships are as capable as they were before, I imagine we’ll have no reason to use a regular ship…ever. Perhaps personal craft like rowboats might still exist, but for big things? This is the way of the future, I guarantee it.”

“That certain?” Lia asked.

“Yes.” Samantha replied confidently. “If the ones regular people make are half as responsive as this, then they’ll be leaps and bounds above normal ships. It’s almost a miracle, really, and to think it only took a few fish and an hour’s time…a couple months ago, I would have laughed you out of the room if you had told me this sort of thing would be possible.”

Lia paused for a moment. “I haven’t put you out of a job, have I?” She asked. “You’ll be taken care of either way, of course, you don’t have to work if you don’t want to, but you said this is what you loved, so…I’m just worried, you know?”

“Not at all!” Samantha said, laughing a little. “We still have to build the ships that will be used for conversion, and many of us can pivot so we’re more capable of supporting these new types of ships. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be just fine.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Lia replied, giving a relieved sigh. “I don’t want to be responsible for your passion becoming meaningless.”

“I think you’re worrying too much, my Queen. Even if we didn’t have cause to be building ships, most of us would become sailors, start building other things, or would just do this for fun anyway.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Lia agreed. “Looks like the ship is done submerging, shall we step outside and see how it feels?”

“Let’s.” Samantha said.

The two of them exited the cabin, and Lia was somewhat surprised to find that it felt…exactly the same. Despite being able to see the surface of the water above her, she certainly didn’t feel like she was underwater; there were no leaks in the ceiling, no pressure or anything, it just felt like she was still inside the cabin.

“Absolutely incredible.” Samantha breathed. “This makes me long to be out on the open water again. My Queen, would you mind if we surface? I’d like to see what it’s like when someone is on the deck and the cover goes away.”

Lia nodded. “Please do.”

The ship obediently rose above the water once again, and Lia took a moment to put up a magic shield to prevent herself from getting wet. As the roof retracted into the beast, water dripped down onto the deck, and while it was less than Lia had anticipated, it was still enough to bother Lia, so she was glad she had put up the shield.

Samantha, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered at all. “There should be no trouble having people on deck while we surface, then.” She said approvingly. “I suppose all that’s left is to check belowdecks.”

So, they went down to check the interior of the ship. According to Samantha, it was mostly standard fare, but there was one area that even Lia could tell was unique; the head. The head had been almost completely hollowed-out, and aside from the floor was made entirely of the window-like flesh.

Curiously, a stand near the front of the room housed a mouth-like orifice, and after consulting with her Analysis Skill, Lia concluded that it existed for the purpose of feeding the ship food or potions without needing to head outside, as well as a way to retrieve modeling wax from the ship. That aside, the room was clearly built to be a command center of some sort, being filled with desks, chairs, boards, and other similar things. And, most importantly, there was a small panel in the side of the room that served as a way to access the ship’s status screen without needing any sort of identification Skill.

“This makes me wish I was a captain.” Samantha admitted. “I feel jealous that they’ll be able to work with something this nice every day.”

“That can be arranged, if you want.” Lia offered. “As long as you’re actually good enough at the job, I’m sure we’d have a place for you.”

“No, that was just me running my mouth.” Samantha said quickly. “I don’t actually want to be a captain; I’d miss building things too much. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to see, from my point of view, the experiment seems to be a huge success. Excellent work, my Queen.”

“Honestly it wasn’t that hard.” Lia said embarrassedly. “I’m sure that, in time, you and your workers will be better at tailoring ships to people’s needs than I am. Really, I was just here to be sure that the concept would actually work.”

Samantha shrugged. “We might have given up if we didn’t know it was possible.” She said. “Who knows how long it would have taken before we realized?”

“Fair enough.” Lia replied, moving back towards the entrance of the room. “Shall we go check on the warship?”

“I’d love to, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to judge its efficacy as well as this one, I’m not familiar with weapons beyond the standard ones we put on ships.”

“I see. Um…give me a second, let me see if Rose is free, she’d know better than us.” Lia replied, bringing out her tablet and writing a quick message to Connie. Hey, experiments are a success so far. What is Rose doing right now? We want her opinion on the war capabilities of the warship we converted.

After a moment, the text “Connie is writing a message…” appeared on the screen, followed quickly by the actual message. She’s here, waiting on the results of a scouting mission, let me see if she has time and if Amelia has enough spare Mana to teleport her to you.

As Lia waited, she and Samantha left the ship, and after two or three minutes, the tablet dinged, indicating that there was a notification waiting for her. Lia opened it back up, and as expected, it was Connie. Seems she can spare half an hour or so. In five minutes, we’ll be sending her to the same spot we sent you.

Got it. Thanks, Connie, love you!

Love you too

Lia put her tablet away, giving Samantha a nod. “Rose will be here in five minutes, sent to the same spot I arrived at.” She relayed. “Would you mind taking me there to meet her?”

“With pleasure.” Samantha replied.

Samantha led Lia back to the middle of the dock, and, as promised, Rose appeared a couple of minutes later. “Lia!” She said, pulling Lia into a hug. “I’m happy to hear it’s going well!”

“Thanks for making time for me.” Lia replied, returning the hug. “I just finished touring the first ship we converted, along with Harbormistress Samantha here.” Lia let go of the hug and motioned at Samantha. “We have a warship that will be finishing in about five minutes, but Samantha says she’s not properly equipped to evaluate the ship’s battle capabilities beyond whatever conventional weaponry it has. So, I thought you would be the best person to ask.”

Rose turned to Samantha, giving her a smile. “Thank you for your work, Harbormistress.” She said. “What is your estimation so far?”

“It’s beyond anything I had ever dreamed about, Ma’am.” Samantha said respectfully. “As I told the Queen, if the ones normal people make are half as good as that, then I believe these types of ships are the future of seafaring.”

“High praise indeed.” Rose said, nodding. “I look forward to touring one of these ships.”

“If I may, would you mind if I took this time to oversee the conversion of another ship?” Samantha asked. “I would like to see how one made by a normal person compares to the ones the Queen made. Of course, if you feel you need my expertise in properly evaluating the warship, I will be more than happy to assist, but I thought I should ask.”

Lia turned to Rose. “Up to you.” She said. “I don’t know enough about ships, but if you feel you do, then I have no problems with her heading off, I’ve been taking her away from her work for long enough as is.”

“You haven’t been taking me away from work!” Samantha exclaimed. “Nothing is more important than your visit, and even if you were not the Queen, I would be doing the same thing. This is an incredibly significant thing, and it deserves proper attention.”

Rose nodded. “I’m glad you see it the same way I do.” She said. “I should be more than capable of evaluating the warship by myself, and having a point of comparison for what more ‘mass-produced’ ships would look like is vital. By all means, feel free to get one going.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” Samantha said. “I’ll be on dock five if either of you need me. If you’re having trouble finding it, just ask any worker, they’ll know where to bring you.”

Samantha left, and Rose grabbed Lia’s hand. “I assume you know where this ship is?”

“It’s the biggest cocoon in the area, just over there.” Lia replied, pointing down at where she knew the cocoon was. “And…well, even if we can’t find it before it finishes converting, the last ship was kind of hard to mistake for a normal ship. We shouldn’t have any issues.”

Hand-in-hand, they began to walk. “Did anything stick out to you about the last ship?” Rose asked.

“It was a lot more capable than I thought it would be.” Lia said. “It could even go underwater and protect its crew while doing so, like you’d been talking about wanting. I didn’t fully read its status, but the only problems I could think of are that it needs to be fed and that it’s vulnerable to mental attacks, but it has pretty high Mental Fortitude so that shouldn’t be that much of an issue.”

“Really?!” Rose asked excitedly. “You didn’t even have to try extra for it?”

Lia shook her head. “No. All the ships I convert can do it, as far as I can tell. Not quite as sure about other people, though, I didn’t ask for the full description of the option they saw, I just confirmed that they had an option that would work. Still, if we have to have me do the conversions for our navy myself, that’s not a huge deal; if we have the things pre-cocooned it’ll only take me a minute or two to do each ship, and I imagine once our current navy is converted it's not something I’ll even have to do once a week unless we really ramp up production.”

“If this goes well, it might be optimal to send you to each of our ports to do that.” Rose agreed. “If we can completely dominate the sea, then our enemies will be forced to commit resources to defending coastal locations, and it’ll be a huge benefit for our war.”

Lia paused for a moment. “This is a weird thought, but I wonder what would happen if we try to convert a ship with a person.” She said. “We’ll have to see if anyone is willing to go into a cocoon just to see what the options are, if we get someone capable of going underwater with the power of a ship, then we can kickstart the acquisition of aquatic monsters.”

“You bring up a good point, I hadn’t thought about that.” Rose said thoughtfully. “We’ll have to ask Samantha if any of the workers would be willing to try. And, if no one here is capable of cocooning already converted things, we can send someone from the capital.”

“Will it be alright on Amelia’s Mana?” Lia asked. “Will you need it for later?”

“Should be.” Rose said. “She regenerates Mana really fast, and teleporting a person this far only takes like a twentieth of her bound pool if there are no wards.”

“That little?” Lia asked.

“Her spells are ridiculously efficient.” Rose said, shaking her head in disbelief. “She’s been teaching me some things about my Primal Magic and I honestly just can’t fully understand even the concepts she calls simple. Calling her an unparalleled genius is an understatement.”

Lia gave Rose an incredulous look. “I knew she was amazing, but even you can’t keep up with her? You were one of the best magicians of your time!”

Rose shrugged. “I wasn’t really, I just had the raw stats to make it seem that way. When it came to theory, I just used spells made by people who were better than me at magic. I know a lot of those and understand their use cases really well, but I’ve never really been able to innovate. I guess part of the issue is that Amelia isn’t exactly the best teacher, but even if she were I don’t think I would have made much more progress.”

They chatted for a while more before they reached the dock, where the cocoon was just about to finish conversion. Lia pulled out her tablet, checking the timer on the cocoon. “Just under half a minute left.” She said.

Rose squeezed her hand. “I can’t wait.”

Lia squeezed back. “I’ve already seen one, but I’m excited too.” She admitted. “This is…more fun than I thought it’d be.”

“I’m glad.” Rose replied. “But let us know if you need a change of pace, okay?”

“I will.” Lia promised, then turned to face the cocoon again, waiting for it to finish.