But what is really waiting for him scares him a lot more. When he opens the door to the meeting room a wave of sound washes over him. The meeting room is filled to the brim with people, and everyone is talking. Nillian looks around him in dismay. He looks at all the people and realizes that probably these are all the members that the University has.
His entrance goes unnoticed for a few seconds, then one of the members standing close to the door notices him, and walks over.
"Nillian! Did you really discover Biene's secret workplace? Is he still alive? What did you find?"
Nillian start to say something to answer him, but is interrupted by other members, who are drawn to him like flies are drawn to honey. Soon he is bombarded by questions, about the most diverse and often absurd things.
"Did you find new machines? New Engines? The corpse of Dr. Biene? ... Did you encounter ghosts? ... Was the laboratory hard to find? Hidden in the water? ... Did you see Dr. Biene? Is he still alive? ... Why did he go away? Why did he build a laboratory? ... Did Dr. Biene contract a disease? Was he really a woman?"
In the end Nillian is rescued by two council members, who push away the crowds and escort him to the front of the room, where a lecture stand is waiting for him. The other council members are sitting in the front row, watching him intently.
As Nillian approaches the stand the noise lessens, as people begin to fall silent. When the council leader stands up and walks over complete silence falls over the room.
"Welcome, members of the University. Today sir Luckett", he nods to Nillian, "will give a report on his findings in Capes. Please do not speculate before he has finished his story, as that will be useless. Afterwards there will be room for questions, after the council has had its say."
He nods to Nillian again, and sits down. All eyes turn to Nillian, and he feels terror rising. But he tries to control himself, puts down his briefcase and turns to the room.
"Thank you very much, sir Strope. Uhm ... yes. As some of you might know I have been working on a book on Dr. Biene and his work. In my research of this book I found some mentions of Dr. Biene's notebooks, containing his research. Curious to find out what happened to these notebooks I did some more research, and with a tip of the council I arrived at sir James Thomp, a retired member of the University.
James Thomp showed me a letter describing the sighting of Miss Gerardina Nott, at a workshop in Raän. After the Great Bang, in which she was thought to have perished. As I had no other leads I went to Raän. There I had a long conversation with Dr. Aeros. He told me that indeed Miss Nott visited his workplace, in the company of a servant covered in a long cloak. She was looking for certain things to do with sails and such, so he sent her to a friend of his. In their conversation she mentioned that she already had visited Stokes, to acquire a large amount of coal.
So after Raän I went to Stokes, where I located one of the companies that supplied the coal to Miss Nott. Sadly they did not have any records as to where the coal went to, and the other company was destroyed in a fire. After some more research I located the export figures from that period, and found that a single large shipment of coal was transported to Capes.
In Capes there was no real information about the location of where the coal was shipped, only that Miss Nott founded a company called Finding the Future. There was no address on the form, but there was a date. Therefore I checked the records for all buildings that were build in that period, and checked them to see if perhaps I could find any sign of a secret workplace or something.
On this search I finally found something, or better said, I stumbled onto something. While I was inspecting a burned-out building in the Wet District I fell down a hole. After exploring a bit I found a door which took me to a large workplace, with tables filled with blueprints and strange machine. As I was looking around I found a piece of paper, a letter."
Nillian reaches into his pocket, and removes the letter. He unfolds it, showing it to the audience, then start reading it to them. While he was talking a little murmur started, but as he starts reading the letter the room becomes deathly quiet. You could quite literally hear a pen drop, which happened twice during the reading.
After Nillian is finished reading it remains silent for a few seconds. Then a low murmur begins anew, which quickly becomes a full blown racket. The members start talking amongst themselves, the contents of the letter too controversial to remain silent. Nillian waits patiently, but the noise keeps on going, and shows no signs of abetting. Finally some members of the council stand up and restore order to the meeting room.
"After reading this letter I explored Dr. Biene's workplace. I found the blueprints that he was referring to, and they seem valid. There are a lot of prototypes and parts lying around, showing that a lot of research and building has been done there. One tunnel led to a nearby cove where the remains of a small harbour could be seen, large enough for one medium sized ship. So there is a lot of evidence that the letter rings true.
But ... there was no real evidence that Dr. Biene was really there, apart from the letter."
A few people begin to talk at that, but the council leader quickly steps up and takes over from Nillian.
"Thank you sir Luckett, for this ... elaborate report. The question now is of course what the course of the University will be, with this ... evidence. I can promise you all from the start that these blueprints will be studied closely, and if they are found reasonable a prototype will be build."
"And what about an expedition?" a voice calls from the room. The council leader looks discomforted by this question, and soon a discussion breaks out in the meeting room. It seems that the majority of the members is for an expedition. But when it comes to finding someone to undertake this expedition everyone seems to rather stay here, and tries to find someone else to go. The council quickly takes the stand that it might be too dangerous, and that therefore a volunteer is needed, but probably that this will remain an academic issue, as the boat probably will never be used. But still voices call out for a real journey, to honour the request from the letter.
Nillian, who was pushed away by the council leader and had taken a seat on stage, feels that something is required of him. So with a sigh he stands up, drawing first a few eyes, then after a few seconds the attention of the whole meeting room swings to him.
"Given the current situation I am willing to undertake this expedition."
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