"Ladies, gentlemen," Mr. Aurene said in his cool professional voice, echoing clearly and loudly through the sunlit ballroom of the Cove House, in the Barony of Saint Aldwin; the hushed murmurs of various leaders were silenced, all heads turning his way, where he stood on a small wooden platform erected at the eastern end of the ballroom. His own sharp eyes picked out the faces especially familiar to him, among them executives and senior analysts from DeMuer Exports (including young Silas Greyshott, fiddling nervously with his notes, which elicited a smile from Jaster); the Baron DeMuer, seated among fellow lords and councillors from the Barony, most of whom the Aurkindar did not recognize; those few captains from the Merchant Fleet who were not already on voyages of their own; and even a few from S.P.I. and the House security staff, among them Shaw.
To an outsider it would have been a very revealing look into the intricacies of House DeMuer's politics and leadership, almost thirty in number assembled now, that in itself suggesting how broad a pool of 'associate' manpower the House could pull from, while on paper so very few worked directly for the family itself. Jaster let the silence linger for a moment, and continued: "I'm here to present what many of you, I'm sure, have already heard of, and I know you've already been debating it - looking at you, Rhothen," he added with a wink, and several chuckled. "I'm referring to the Broader Markets Initiative, the single most ambitious undertaking by our organization to date, and possibly the largest we will ever do." He smiled there, and the fascinated tension in the room rose palpably. Then he began to pace as he explained, as that was one of his strongest habits.
"As I'm sure all of you understand, we're all intricately linked, the House itself, DeMuer Exports, the fleets, the security company, the Barony here - even our fledgling manufacturing sector, which will soon show promising growth, believe me. The success of one part will influence but also depends on the success of every constituent part, and that's why, in order for D.E. to broaden its markets, every part must be strengthened, in some cases completely overhauled.
"Efforts have already begun in earnest to explore the Barony, and new evidence from Mr. Silas Greyshott's studies show what an incredible and shockingly untapped resource the Barony is, as he'll soon demonstrate to all of you. While in RhyDin we have our docks, warehouses, and fleets stretched as far as they can to maximize profits and good relationships with our partners, there is room for growth in RhyDin, and so much room here! Only recently, a refugee settlement has been established at Xhastil on the western shore, and I understand more are to come," which prompted an almost imperceptible nod from Mr. Aaron Shaw.
"These and others are ready and willing to settle the land, build harbors and shipyards, move our cargo and crew our fleets, and take part in this wonderful opportunity for open markets in a fair democratic environment. There is so much promise..." His pointing finger turned into a loose fist, and he shook it, lips pursed in thought before he erupted once more:
"But there's so much still to do! Negotations are underway to bring laborers and engineers from our partners and allies, the esteemed Admiral Wolvinator and Lady Uruloki, and many others from RhyDin, into the Barony to repair, improve, and expand her roads and lay the foundations for new settlements. New shipyards, too, I promise you, will be built under our careful guidance and with our dutiful investment, increasing our returns with fleets sent out not only from RhyDin to explore those trade routes, but to pioneer new ones from the Barony itself, an import-export opportunity we can better control and manage.
"The material carolmagnium, its mine a gift from another of our generous and powerful trading partners, can be processed into a power plant, which we have every intention of building here in the Barony," and soon he was drowned out by a surprised collective murmur, looks and words exchanged, even a smattering of applause until he raised his hands for silence. "More conveniences will be made available to the residents of the Barony, our trade here can become a more efficient process, and there's even the opportunity for energy independence for all our holdings in RhyDin."
This time he paused to let the applause run its course; any indication of greater autonomy was bound to be a crowd-pleaser. "We'll also refit our fleets, and be restricted no longer by physical barriers to our trade - levitation engines compatible with our current designs are under development, in a step that can and will hybridize our sailing ships with airships, taking them over land when necessary, which our analysts promise will immediately open six new Class-A trade routes previously unattainable." Again, applause. "And until our competition figures out what we're up to... it'll be exclusive!" Several of his friends from D.E. laughed at this. Jaster chuckled and shook his head.
"In lieu of expanding our trade capabilities, I'm pleased to finally, officially announce... House DeMuer has entered into negotiations to acquire an orbital shipyard." It took many in the audience several moments to figure out what he meant by 'orbital,' but once they did, a good number were standing to applaud the announcement. Jaster laughed again, but gestured for everyone to be seated, and eventually, they complied.
"I'm sure all of you understand this is an historic but enormous commitment of our budget. We'll be maintaining permanent personnel for road maintenance, the power plant, and the development and repair of the levitation engines, never mind manning the marine and orbital shipyards and devoting even more time and money to coordinating our growing resources. In addition, there's the many, many temp workers necessary to make any of this possible...
"Given the nature of this commitment," he continued, and here he held aloft a rather thick document, "we're asking for the support of each and every one of you to seeing this difficult but very promising initiative completed. The Broader Markets Initiative, as it stands, is a dream... Your signatures can make that a reality."
To an outsider it would have been a very revealing look into the intricacies of House DeMuer's politics and leadership, almost thirty in number assembled now, that in itself suggesting how broad a pool of 'associate' manpower the House could pull from, while on paper so very few worked directly for the family itself. Jaster let the silence linger for a moment, and continued: "I'm here to present what many of you, I'm sure, have already heard of, and I know you've already been debating it - looking at you, Rhothen," he added with a wink, and several chuckled. "I'm referring to the Broader Markets Initiative, the single most ambitious undertaking by our organization to date, and possibly the largest we will ever do." He smiled there, and the fascinated tension in the room rose palpably. Then he began to pace as he explained, as that was one of his strongest habits.
"As I'm sure all of you understand, we're all intricately linked, the House itself, DeMuer Exports, the fleets, the security company, the Barony here - even our fledgling manufacturing sector, which will soon show promising growth, believe me. The success of one part will influence but also depends on the success of every constituent part, and that's why, in order for D.E. to broaden its markets, every part must be strengthened, in some cases completely overhauled.
"Efforts have already begun in earnest to explore the Barony, and new evidence from Mr. Silas Greyshott's studies show what an incredible and shockingly untapped resource the Barony is, as he'll soon demonstrate to all of you. While in RhyDin we have our docks, warehouses, and fleets stretched as far as they can to maximize profits and good relationships with our partners, there is room for growth in RhyDin, and so much room here! Only recently, a refugee settlement has been established at Xhastil on the western shore, and I understand more are to come," which prompted an almost imperceptible nod from Mr. Aaron Shaw.
"These and others are ready and willing to settle the land, build harbors and shipyards, move our cargo and crew our fleets, and take part in this wonderful opportunity for open markets in a fair democratic environment. There is so much promise..." His pointing finger turned into a loose fist, and he shook it, lips pursed in thought before he erupted once more:
"But there's so much still to do! Negotations are underway to bring laborers and engineers from our partners and allies, the esteemed Admiral Wolvinator and Lady Uruloki, and many others from RhyDin, into the Barony to repair, improve, and expand her roads and lay the foundations for new settlements. New shipyards, too, I promise you, will be built under our careful guidance and with our dutiful investment, increasing our returns with fleets sent out not only from RhyDin to explore those trade routes, but to pioneer new ones from the Barony itself, an import-export opportunity we can better control and manage.
"The material carolmagnium, its mine a gift from another of our generous and powerful trading partners, can be processed into a power plant, which we have every intention of building here in the Barony," and soon he was drowned out by a surprised collective murmur, looks and words exchanged, even a smattering of applause until he raised his hands for silence. "More conveniences will be made available to the residents of the Barony, our trade here can become a more efficient process, and there's even the opportunity for energy independence for all our holdings in RhyDin."
This time he paused to let the applause run its course; any indication of greater autonomy was bound to be a crowd-pleaser. "We'll also refit our fleets, and be restricted no longer by physical barriers to our trade - levitation engines compatible with our current designs are under development, in a step that can and will hybridize our sailing ships with airships, taking them over land when necessary, which our analysts promise will immediately open six new Class-A trade routes previously unattainable." Again, applause. "And until our competition figures out what we're up to... it'll be exclusive!" Several of his friends from D.E. laughed at this. Jaster chuckled and shook his head.
"In lieu of expanding our trade capabilities, I'm pleased to finally, officially announce... House DeMuer has entered into negotiations to acquire an orbital shipyard." It took many in the audience several moments to figure out what he meant by 'orbital,' but once they did, a good number were standing to applaud the announcement. Jaster laughed again, but gestured for everyone to be seated, and eventually, they complied.
"I'm sure all of you understand this is an historic but enormous commitment of our budget. We'll be maintaining permanent personnel for road maintenance, the power plant, and the development and repair of the levitation engines, never mind manning the marine and orbital shipyards and devoting even more time and money to coordinating our growing resources. In addition, there's the many, many temp workers necessary to make any of this possible...
"Given the nature of this commitment," he continued, and here he held aloft a rather thick document, "we're asking for the support of each and every one of you to seeing this difficult but very promising initiative completed. The Broader Markets Initiative, as it stands, is a dream... Your signatures can make that a reality."