PRI 3 Snippet 7

 

Chapter 6

 

Imperium

 

Eugene was all smiles when the plane's hatch opened and the breeze and light came gushing in. It had been a long flight, shorter than the last but still nearly a week of sitting in that seat. He wasn't quite over his issue with flying, but he was coping.

He chuckled when he saw a pair of ladies waiting for him. The look of love and excitement made all the ass-ache from the long trip worth it. “How are my girls?” he asked as he went and hugged his wife. She had probably scandalized the old guard by wearing gaijin clothing. From the look of it, she'd taken one of his button down shirts and rolled the sleeves up while wearing a faux leopard print power bra top under it.

She had a short black skirt on and long black boots with heels. She was dressed to the nines and the only thing that looked slightly out of place was the growing belly bump. She hadn't started to show before he'd left.

He smiled tenderly, stroking her belly with his fingertips as he kissed her long and thoroughly. When the kiss broke, the smile she had was all he needed to see that she was delighted to see him.

Of course she couldn't help but poke him when the fingertips started to tickle a bit.

“Later,” she promised as a hand grabbed his pant leg. He turned and pulled the little blond minx into his arms.

“Miss me?” he asked as he kissed her cheek and ear. She looked to the people getting out of the plane and waved. “Apparently not enough,” he drawled. He pretended to flip her but caught her when she squealed. He whirled her around like an airplane for a few times as she giggled and then brought her up. “How about now?”

She grinned at him. It was a characteristic three-year-old infectious smile that made the entire world go away in that moment. She nodded and wriggled as he tickled her. Her mother tickled her from behind and she arched her back and protested.

Both adults laughed softly. He let her down and then tucked his wife under his arm. “Hey, did someone forget something?” the copilot asked.

They turned back to see him holding up a package. “Oh, yeah!” Eugene said. He pointed to it and then to the little girl. “That's for you from your aunty.”

The girl skipped over and took it. She opened it and then gasped eyes wide as she hugged the stuffed animal. The adults snorted.

“Another one? As if she needs another,” Deidra said with a chuckle. “She has an entire zoo.”

“Maybe we should open a zoo of stuffed animals?” her husband teased. She gave him a mock disapproving look but collected their daughter so they could be on their way.

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Eugene spent the evening talking with the group, eating dinner, and catching up. He filled them in about Zara and showed them pictures he'd taken.

He read to little Hermione until she fell asleep and then his mate took him by the hand to draw him to their suite to show just how much she had missed him.

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Max kicked off the second week of touring industry by visiting a vehicle assembly plant. They were working on trucks, the mainstay of any country. The trucks were work trucks of course. The assembly line could build them or be retooled to produce other vehicles as needed.

Everything was electric, though he knew that was still an issue. Power generation was a major concern, which was why there was a factory for producing components to build giant wind turbines down the road and another assembly plant to produce construction equipment.

There were complaints that the capital was hogging all of the industry. Recently some subassembly plants had opened in some of the neighboring villages and some as far away as the Duchy of Emory.

More were being constructed as the local dominus realized their importance and invested not just in the buildings, but in the infrastructure necessary to run them successfully.

They were using power tools more and more, a good thing. Currently power was an issue though; they could only run the plant for six to eight hours a day, which limited production. But production was up to one vehicle an hour, an impressive feat for medieval level people.

He was impressed but knew they had a lot to go still. Which meant he had his work cut out for him.

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