Streets of Helmarte

The first Teucher Model One to enter Helmarte did not arrive with a parade.

It arrived behind a cart full of cabbages.

Frederick Hale, a young mechanic from the Belfast works, had spent two full days driving the green carriage down from the north. Beside him sat Mr. Collins from commercial sales. The rear tonneau was packed tight with their canvas luggage, two wooden crates of spare parts, three sealed iron cans of fuel, and two spare tires lashed to the back rail.

They had expected crowds. They had expected people to shout.

They had not expected the final five kilometers into the city to take nearly an hour.

Helmarte was nothing like Belfast.

Belfast was an industrial city built on coal, iron, and steam. Its streets were wide, laid out in straight grids to let heavy wagons reach the docks and railway yards without choking the roads.

Helmarte, on the other hand, had grown over centuries without a plan.