Chapter 14

Over the course of the next nine years Roger's country continued to grow. He stopped building new naval ships when he had six steel Frigates but they continued to build metal merchant ships and patrol boats. To his pleasure his engineers began to improve his steam engines and were working on diesel engines large enough to power the ships. Tankers were on the drawing boards to accompany his small fleet and refuel them. His ships had the capability of burning wood to produce steam in the off chance they exceeded the range of travel his fuel bunkers would support.

All of the merchantmen were armed with at least two naval cannon and modern semiautomatic rifles. As the young nation expanded along the coasts so did the Navy presence. Each settlement also contained a small Army unit comprised primarily of Native Americans but also consisting of some of the younger whites and the soldier emigrants. There was also a small airfield near every large settlement. The aircraft were used for observation and mail delivery. One or two Air Force planes armed with small guns and bombs were stationed at the seacoast airports. By now Roger was certain he had split or forked the timelines when he was sent into the past by whatever means had sent him there. It was already obvious that history as he remembered it was no longer occurring.

In his new timeline every child was required to attend school until the age of majority which was 16 years of age. In that time the majority of them attained a level of education analogous to that of a Bachelor's Degree from Roger's time. By the time the child was 10 years old they possessed the equivalent of an uptime high school diploma and chose their life's work path then continued their education.

Of course many children chose to go into the trades so their education followed the pathway that would enhance their performance in their chosen occupation whether that was business, agriculture, medicine, mining, manufacturing or any other of the important occupations. The children who chose to go into the military began their military training at age 14. Of course this was the formal training. Living in the society they lived in they had already mastered much of the basics such as camouflage, basic unarmed combat and weapons qualification. Their formal military training only honed those skills and taught tactics, basic military subjects and the laws of warfare.

Roger kept his patrols out in case some of the colonization attempts he was familiar with from his timeline still occurred. From this point on many of the events from the history Roger remembered did not occur. After the treaty England gave up attempts to colonize America. England began treating people and ships from the NAU just as they would those from any other country. The NAU grew and prospered. The local populations were still assimilated into the NAU peacefully if they so desired. If they fought they were annihilated.

The NAU became known for its enlightened society and for its Universities. Scientific discoveries came rapidly based on the jumpstart available from the vehicles and the lone aircraft left at old Birmingham. Many countries were clamoring for the NAU's new inventions particularly those that could be converted to use as weapons of war. Roger tried to keep that technology transfer to a minimum but with only marginal success.