Regarding the food supply issue for the entire territory, even though the cause was already known, Perfikot still perford a thorough inspection of the Flying Airship early the next morning.
Simultaneously, to prevent further disruptions in the food supply due to the Flying Airship being inoperative, Perfikot dispatched the Behemoth to transport fresh vegetables, fruits, and ats, which were still producible in the southern colonies of the New Continent during this season, back to the Northern Territory.
As a large Flying Airship, the Behemoth far surpasses the carrying capacity of the small Flying Airship Perfikot originally prepared for personal errands, hence its efficiency in a single trip also far exceeds that of the smaller vessel.
However, the Behemoth is ultimately a military ship, and it poses no issue for Perfikot to temporarily assign it for a trip, as it falls within her authority as the Lord of the North.
Nevertheless, Perfikot cannot consistently employ the Behemoth for this task, as it breaks protocol and contradicts the principle of maximizing efficiency.
So, while the Behemoth temporarily assists, Perfikot must devise a thod to repair the damaged small Flying Airship.
After inspection, Perfikot confird that the ship indeed had a broken drive shaft, as Professor Archibald ntioned yesterday, and besides the damaged shaft, nurous parts required repairs and replacents.
"A comprehensive overhaul is necessary, and all vulnerable parts need replacing; this ship has endured excessive wear throughout the winter," Perfikot concluded and abandoned her plan to repair it herself.
Not that she can’t fix it — after all, she designed and built it herself, so resolving the issues isn’t daunting.
Yet, though Perfikot is an Alchemist, she isn’t omnipotent. She used many ordered parts during the construction of this Flying Airship, and repairing it single-handedly would be a vast undertaking with only manual labor.
Thus, after evaluating the ti needed for herself to repair the Flying Airship, Perfikot decisively abandoned the idea of self-repair.
Instead, she sourced a drive shaft from the Behemoth’s spare parts that could fit the faulty Flying Airship. Once it could fly again, she sent it back to the Empire’s holand for repairs.
Of course, Perfikot also sent a telegram to the Empire’s holand explaining the situation and requested the Navy and the Minister of Industry to adjust their plans, prioritizing sending personnel to build a Flying Airship maintenance station in the Northern Territory after the spring.
The maintenance station isn’t a shipbuilding yard; it only offers basic repair and maintenance capabilities but is crucial for the upkeep of the Flying Airship.
Although the Empire’s holand is industrially strong, given the premise that everything will be abandoned in the next two years, enhancing the Northern Territory’s industrial capabilities and establishing a Flying Airship maintenance system is indispensable.
Before the Northern Territory’s industrial system is established, importing parts from the Empire’s holand to enable the Northern Territory to maintain the Flying Airship serves as a compromise to ensure its operation.
At least this approach allows for training a batch of technicians to familiarize themselves with Flying Airship maintenance tasks and understand the issues that could arise under harsh climate conditions, preparing deliberately.
According to Perfikot’s future planning, Flying Airship will beco the primary mode of transport in the Northern Territory, and accompanying maintenance systems indeed need to be established.
Initially, Perfikot considered using trains and railways, but given the extensive maintenance challenges after winter snowstorms, she decided on dual plans, as the maintenance cost of Flying Airships indeed proves cheaper than railways.
Having addressed these matters, Perfikot gathered the Alchemists currently at the Eagle’s Beak Cliff base and presented her Shelter design.
"This is the conceptual design for the Northern Territory towns. I’d like to hear your opinions or suggestions." Perfikot didn’t explicitly state that this was for a Doomsday Shelter; she ntioned it was specially designed to withstand the Northern Territory’s snowstorms as an underground town.
Though these Alchemists hail from Langton as Alchemy professors and related personnel, Perfikot couldn’t disclose the world’s end news until the Empire announced it.
Even just a Shelter design, Perfikot had to change its reference to show them.
Fortunately, the Alchemists were intrigued by Perfikot’s design, paying little attention to what exactly it was.
To so extent, the design indeed fascinated the Alchemists, as it itself was a sophisticated Alchemy creation.
"Did you invent this type of drawing, Count? It’s incredible! To resize freely, adjust different perspectives..." exclaid an excited Alchemist, incapable of hiding his excitent: "I never imagined a drawing could have so many functionalities! With this, we’d never fear misreading drawings or apprentices failing to understand them again!"
Seeing they focused wrongly on the drawing itself, Perfikot had to intervene to bring them back on track towards the Shelter’s design.
With Perfikot steering them back, the Alchemists finally began seriously studying the Shelter on the design.
One spoke first, "Though Count, your design theoretically allows limitless extension, practically we can’t dig too deep or build too large. Whether the Northern Territory’s population is sufficient aside, the sheer scale and construction challenges can’t possibly expand infinitely.
According to your design data, reaching a depth of a hundred ters for this underground town seems the maximum if it’s of town scale. As for the horizontal dinsions..."
"Horizontally, I reckon a radius of one kiloter is already sizeable; a small town of this scale with a multi-level structure can accommodate plenty of people," another Alchemist chid in, voicing his forecast.
Their judgnt largely received approval from the others.
Given the era’s technological level, attempting greater depth or scale entails exponentially growing construction challenges and costs.
And overly large areas pose another issue, that of shelter managent, material assurance, and other related auxiliary services.
Evidently, the current Northern Territory, or even in the foreseeable future, likely couldn’t support a massive underground city.
"What further improvents do you suggest?" Perfikot looked expectantly at the crowd.
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