Chapter 2
Imperium Capital
Dean Eratosthenes worked with the engineers to open a series of trade schools. Not everyone needed to go to the university to learn a trade, many of the hands-on jobs needed just that, hands-on training. What they set up was essentially a trade university—engineers, machinists, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and so on. Many worked off of an apprentice system which the natives were intimately familiar with.
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Doctor Sue Carter recieved detailed files from Doctor Cassie O'Connell and her 3D printed organ and limb project. She was keen to implement such a practice in the Imperium.
They had some long-term cases in wards and hospicies in the city. There was also an institution for people with disabilities. Many elders were retired in homes across the kingdom. They tended to families and the hearth but would go hungry if the farm lacked food. Fortunately, that practice was ending in all but a few of the most isolated farms.
The doctor would love to help those people and more. There were so many that needed help, and like any good doctor, she was frustrated by her lack of tools in some cases. They had some cases where they had to sadly watch someone die and just comfort them in their end time.
She had made great strides with her students to improve things in the kingdom, but she was always aware that there was so much more that could be accomplished. Hopefully, Doctor O'Connell could arranage the time for a visit.
She had recently become aware of an institute for dead, dumb, and blind people in the capital and in several of the duchies. They were hovels, living off of whatever charity was thrown their way. She had started to change that for the better, giving the folks there a new lease on life. Just instituting better care practices, teaching brail and sign language, and basic medicine had made a large impact.
She was not sure about curing all of the blind folks; however, an exam had weeded those with a degnerative disease out from those who had cataracts or just very poor vision. The optotrician had performed a series of cataract surgeries for nearly a mens, what the natives called a month. Just that had gone a long way to clean out some of the folks in the properties.
The truly blind folks had to wait until they could find a means to surgically correct their eyes. She was still leery about attempting replacing an entire eye. Hooking up the optical nerves was scary.
They had also gotten to work on deaf people. Sadly so many deaf people had not been taught how to communicate by sign language. They had learned some rote activities but were considered stupid. She lacked corrective measures beyond the very basic and rudementary. That was changing though.
The time with the institutes had made her reconsider mandatory eye, nutrition, and hearing exams for children. Many children had poor grades and dropped out of school because of one of those three things. Getting to them early helped to change their lives for the better.
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Diedra was overseeing the preparations for the upcoming Harvest Festival when word came in about the attack. She called the cabinet in and they listened to the radio as Ginger described the strike.
"Hopefully, this will serve as a lesson to them?" Winston, the treasurer, asked.
"Only if there were any survivors," Ciara, the dominus of textiles stated.
"And if they can get home safely. This happened off the coast of the Nuevo Imperium," Eugene frowned as he studied a map. "Ginger, any ideas on if any survived?"
"One small lifeboat got away. I don't know how many people were on it," the pilot reported.
"Okay," Eugene said with a nod. "So, they'll either flag down another of their ships or a merchant or fishing vessel."
"If they flag down one of the latter two, all money is off on the safety of the crew," Sergeant Waters, their gaijin expert in military matters, growled. They turned to him. "Remember the crap that pirates pulled off the coast of Africa? Small boat raiding or capturing ships at sea?"
Eugene, Charlie, Sue, Mary, and Max winced. The natives looked confused.
"Warlords off the coast of Africa sent small boats to attack shipping that was coming out of the Persian Gulf region," Mary explained. "They had small fast boats with weapons. They would run up to a bigger ship, many of which didn't mount a watch, then get on board and take the crew hostage. Sometimes they tortured and killed the crew. They would then sell the cargo and ship back to the proper owners."
The natives grimaced.
"The navy got involved. Many navies actually," Ginger stated. "They did like we did or sent in commandos to rescue ships. The pirates are still a threat, but they are not pulling off many raids anymore, at least before we left that is."
Eugene nodded. "So, the crew of any ship that they encounter might be in danger and there is no way to warn them."
"Sorry," Ginger stated.
"Not your fault, Ginger, you did the right thing. We can't have it all our way," Eugene stated. He made a slight puttering sound. "Any other issues?"
"No. Well, yeah, I'm about out of munitions," Ginger reported. "I had four missiles, and it took all four to hit."
"Darn."
"The good news is that they don't have many of those ships," Ginger stated. "But I could use a replenishment."
Eugene looked to Max. He grunted and spread his fingers in a flicking motion. "We'll work on that," Eugene said slowly as he looked back to the radio. "How are you on fuel and parts?"
"Okay. When do we have another PBY coming?"
"Two more and two more DC-3s and then I'm done building them and the Douglas for the time being. I'm switching everything to the Hercules project," Max growled.
There was a long silence. "Hercules?"
"Yeah, we're going for that instead of a bomber. That platform has more flexibility, and the Bootstrap folks have the plans already," Max stated. Eugene nodded.
"Damn good idea!" Ginger stated. "Good range, lots of stuff we can do with that bird. Awesome. When do we get them?"
"We need the plans first. I just got a lot of stuff to sort out from them, and we're going to build the infrastructure too. Plus as many common parts with the other birds as we can."
"Good," Ginger said. "I can't wait to get my hands on the controls," she said. There was a slapping sound and then rubbing. Eugene snorted. Those that knew her knew that the pilot was eagerly rubbing her hands together in glee.
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