We didn't have any security breaches, but both the night security and myself noted quite a few people at various times coming down the dock and staring at our ship. There are other ships on this dock, so it isn't surprising that some people would be traveling by. Some might have simply been here to get a look at the oddity. With demons clearly watching on the deck of the ship, even if someone was planning to try to sneak on that probably convinced them to not attempt it.

  I spent my night half-asleep on the bridge just watching over things. The fact that I do need to half-sleep can be annoying at times. I'd honestly rather have just slept through the night rather than just sitting watch, even if it is beneficial overall that I was able to do so. It wasn't until two hours after sunrise that members from the negotiating parties started to arrive. Our negotiations last night did happen a few hours after sunset, so I can't blame them for wanting to get some extra sleep. It'll be easier to observe the artillery with the sun higher in the sky as well, so that's also beneficial.

  Including Kao, there were eight dwarven representatives and four humans. They each had their own aides with them as well. The numbers made things pretty easy, and we decided we'd do 4 demonstrations each with two dwarves and one human, plus their aides, present. We'll sail out to the gap a short distance, and then demonstrate the artillery against some unoccupied cliff faces. In order to actually give them a proper view of the situation, they'll be present up on the observation deck with telescopes so that they can actually see far enough over the horizon to see the resultant hit.

  At maximum distance, the travel times get quite long on the artillery, taking a bit under one minute to hit the target due to the distance and ballistic arc required. That means that the winds in the gap are going to play a big role in where we actually end up hitting compared to the target. In fact, considering they're strong crosswinds of about 30 miles per hour, I'd estimate a deflection of almost a third of a mile at maximum range.

  For the demonstrations, I'm hoping to show shots at 1, 5, and 10 miles to give a sense of what the artillery is capable of. We'll then circle back close to the cliff faces we shot at to show the resultant effect. I'd love if we could make high explosive rounds in the future, but they require a lot of testing and tuning to even make basic explosive rounds sensitive enough to detonate on impact, but not so sensitive as to detonate when being fired.

  I've also started to think about a potential upgrade for our ship's artillery that might allow automatic firing, rather than manual ignition. We could design our turrets to utilize large capacitors powered by a dc generator to use electrical discharge to detonate the explosive in the shells. It wouldn't be useful for the dwarves, but it'd allow us to utilize a far more rapid firing rate and automatic magazines. The whole system would need redesigned from the ground up to utilize it though. Plus the shells would need to be a bit different than the ones we'd be providing for the dwarves, complicating the manufacturing processes.

  In any case, for the first demonstration I decided that we should bring Kao along with the most enthusiastic of the dwarves and least enthusiastic of the remaining humans. The idea was that we'd balance out the groups so that we never have a group that is too negative. Overall, things went fairly smoothly. As we left the dock, I showed them to the cargo bay with the artillery we're offering to them so they could compare them to the turrets on the ship. The barrels are identical, as are the firing mechanisms on the back. The only difference really is that the standalone pieces are mounted on a metal frame with wheels, and the ones on the ship are on the rotatable turret.

  I had Kao pick out the safest place for us to do the demonstrations, which ended up being a cliff face about 15 minutes of travel from the fjord. I should have realized that the strangeness of the ship itself would be a major distraction for most of the individuals involved, so it ended up taking an additional half-hour to get everyone focused in on the demonstration itself. The human was the only one not entirely familiar with using a telescope, as Kao had introduced them into his military years prior after working with us. Of course, they didn't need it for the first demonstration at a mile firing range. We agreed on the first target and the targeting information was sent down through the speaking tube to the fire control center. A few moments later one of the turrets rotated to aim, and after a dozen or so seconds the blast from the turret rang out.

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  The sound from artillery using more efficient supersonic explosives compared to the older, black powder explosives is actually quite distinct. Our artillery produces significantly less smoke, and the sound is a sharp percussive sound. Older black powder explosives have a sort of muffled, rolling blast sound. It caught the observers off guard, with the human immediately making a claim that, "It must have misfired and destroyed itself!"

  Of course, it was easy to show that we had, in fact, fired the projectile correctly. A moderately sized section of cliff had collapsed due to the shell's impact. The five and ten mile demonstrations went off about as well as we could hope for given the unpredictable and strong winds. The ten mile shot was off by a few hundred feet, which the human once again pounced on as a flaw in our claim. Kao and the dwarf seemed to have a better idea of what the accuracy we showed was worth in the conditions, so I considered it a win.

  We then maneuvered back past the target cliff before returning to Ostark to pick up the next group for demonstrations. The round trip took just over 2 hours, so it'll be a full day of demonstrations by the time we're done. Of course, there was all kinds of chatter as soon as the first group was ashore, which makes me wonder whether we'll finish negotiations tonight, or if we'll pick them up first thing in the morning.

  In any case, the second group went about the same as the first. The third and fourth group, perhaps because they had time to talk with the first group before seeing the demonstration, weren't caught off guard by the various abnormalities of the situation. By the fourth group's turn, we'd done a pretty good job of dialing in our shots at max range, and were only off by about 25 feet from the target, though that was largely due to the luck of having cooperative winds.

  Indeed, after the last demonstration group was returned to the shore, it was decided that we'd resume negotiations the next morning, rather than continuing tonight. While I'm getting a little tired of waiting in the dock without much else happening, I took the opportunity to start making basic sketches for prototype designs for an electric firing mechanism to use for artillery turrets.

  The next morning, Kao came to the ship a little after dawn to let me know that we were going to resume negotiations. When I entered into the warehouse, I noticed that another human and a dwarf were missing from the table.

  "After much discussion last night, those who remain here are those we are interested in negotiating. I will not get into the details, but their objections fall in a similar vein as the first objections, and they'll be taking their own path moving forward. I'll lay our requests out plainly to start, and we can negotiate from there." Kao stated calmly. The other members around the table each gave a subtle nod before Kao resumed speaking.

  "First, while the artillery is impressive, we are only interested in the ones you've currently brought, along with their ammo. Moving forward, we will not request any. We'll use them to fortify this city, and only this city, as our last bastion. The demons have already been utilizing cannons they've captured in other cities to break down defensive structures. These artillery pieces are far more dangerous in their hands than ours. As such, the only place we want to keep them is around our last line of defense on this continent. Should this city fall, far worse things may happen than these artillery being captured." Again, Kao paused and the other members nodded in agreement before he continued to speak.

  "Second, we're interested in salt and food supplies. The salt, however, isn't quite as useful for us as it would be on the human continent. Should negotiations succeed, we'll begin the process of determining where on the human continent the salt could best be utilized to supply forces with preserved foods. In an ideal scenario, you would transport the salt directly to the human continent for us, rather than leaving it here, but that can be negotiated. Regardless, the first shipment would come here." The other members nodded in agreement for a third time.

  "Third, though you didn't offer it, we would also like to request logistical assistance for transporting goods and/or personnel from other locations to here in Ostark. Due to the nature of this request, the details wouldn't be readily available until a future date, so we can either put off that negotiation until that date, or perhaps draft a more flexible contract for handling it." Kao takes a much more brief pause than the prior times, and continues talking while the other members are still giving their nods of ascent.

  "So, with our requests laid out, what are your initial requests?"