Building Utopia Ch. 13

Once again I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His advice has improved this chapter drastically. I have made a few changes since his last review and want to emphasize any errors are definitely mine.

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Before they returned to America Roger crossed the channel and sailed into Brest where he sold the cargo in his merchantman. While they did not manage to buy or trade for any English goods or material, the French goods were of fine quality, including some wine. The profits from the trip would easily pay for all the expenses and leave a tidy amount for the NAU. One of the other purposes of the trip was to open trade with other nations and France was their second intended stop. They succeeded in this goal, the French anxious to establish friendly relations with a nation that could apparently sink English ships at will. Of course a second reason for the trip was to impress Europeans with the technological abilities of the NAU. Roger believed his little skirmish with the English and the visit to France had successfully done this.

In addition to the good wine and brandy Roger traded for he loaded up with some manufactured metal objects such as hinges, pokers and so forth. He really didn't need some of the crudely manufactured items but he did want the metal. He managed to obtain some lead and copper items also. He left a list of items the NAU would trade for and passed the word they were accepting qualified emigrants as well. All in all, Roger was well pleased with his visit to France.

On the day they left Brest Roger consulted with his staff. They decided they had enough fuel in the bunkers to make a small detour to Spain. Roger wanted to "show the flag" as well as to impress the Spanish with the small fleet he had with him. Of course the Spanish were already somewhat familiar with Roger's ships capability from their fights in and around Florida. Even knowing they were already conversant with his fleet's capabilities he wanted to make a port visit or two to impress upon them that his fledgling nation had a long reach. Besides, a little show of force never hurt anything. Of course they needed to set up trade agreements and pass the word on colonists and available trade in the new NAU as widely as possible.

The small fleet made a rapid transit to Spain and made port in Aviles, the hometown of the man who founded St. Augustine, FL. After a short visit they then moved on to Santander before returning to the NAU. At each stop a small amount of trading was done and a large amount of showing off their ships was accomplished. Of course during the shore leave Roger's sailors made sure to pass the word on the damage to the English fleet during their visit to England. Finally, his short term goals for the trip complete Roger ordered his small fleet to return home.

Roger's ships made better time on the trip home since they did not have to travel at the most fuel efficient speeds. After they returned he released his warships to their normal duties of patrolling his coastline. His merchant ship was released to trade with the Caribbean islands and even to make a run back to Europe. She had two smaller caliber guns on board. It might take more than one shot to sink an attacking ship but if she could not sink it she could always outrun it!

One of the naval patrols taken north from Savannah in July of 1607 found three English ships anchored in the James River. They were offloading cargo and there was a small fort taking shape on the shore. This time the NAU ship was the NAUS Enterprise (FF2).

As the Enterprise moved into the harbor frenzied activity could be seen on board the English ships. People on shore could be seen running away from the coast. While the Enterprise was still well out of range of the now old fashioned English cannon they were ran out the gun ports.

Enterprise moved into easy hailing distance of the ships. The Captain of the enterprise moved to the bridge wing and addressed the apparent flagship through his megaphone. "You are in North American Union waters and apparently engaged in an invasion of our country. I demand you surrender at once."

A man dressed in much finery moved to the rail of the quarterdeck of the ship and replied, "You well know this is English land. It is you, sir, who are guilty of invasion, nay, even of piracy. We are engaged in the King's business here. Now be off with you sir before I lose my patience with you."

"No sir, you must know King Roger informed your King that any attempt to colonize America would be considered an act of war and would be met with force. This is your last chance to surrender without violence. I demand you immediately surrender your ships and remove the personnel on shore. As soon as your people are on board your ships you must leave our waters. If you do not comply with my request I will be forced to attack."

The English dandy turned to a man beside him. The Captain of Enterprise could not hear what was said but almost immediately two things occurred. A volley of musket fire roared out toward the Enterprise and soon after the first broadside of cannon fire followed. Enterprise returned fire and sank the three ships with one shell each. She did not bother hunting for survivors.

The Enterprise made a rapid trip back to Savannah where she reported the invasion. Roger immediately ordered a company of soldiers onto a merchant ship. Two days later the troop transport and two FF's made their way down river and headed for the attempt to colonize Jamestown. Their orders were to capture Jamestown and imprison any English soldiers or sailors found. Roger sent his oldest son Prince Roger to take over as Governor of the settlement.

Before he left King Roger said, "Roger I need you and your staff to be careful when you interview the colonists. We want to keep those who will make our new nation stronger and send back those who came here to live on others. I am leaving the decision on who is returned to England and on who is allowed to remain here in America to you and your staff. Do your utmost to keep qualified tradesmen, educated and skilled men. Return the leeches such as the gentry unwilling to work for a living and the so called ministers that wish to repress their flocks instead of guide them to a better life. All English officials should be returned without fail. Do your utmost to entice the soldiers and sailors to emigrate. We need both of those skills desperately. Also, as much as it pains me to do so, you must be positive no one who does not wish to return is sent back to England. If that means a husband wishes to return to England and his wife does not, you must not let him force her to accompany him. As soon as you have completed the interviews you need to move the colony to the area we have selected for the new town of Williamsburg. It will be a much better place for settlement than the location of Jamestown."

"I am willing to make an exception for the gentry if you are convinced they will be of benefit to us. You can make a recommendation to me to allow gentry to stay. I will make the final decision on a case by case basis however. Those who are willing to pledge allegiance to the NAU and study to become citizens will be given a chance to remain."

Two weeks after Prince Roger left for Jamestown King Roger obtained his first report. It arrived in one of the small observation aircraft that routinely patrolled the coasts of the NAU. Prince Roger had already prepared a rudimentary landing strip at Williamsburg and the light aircraft made use of it. The first report that came to him from Jamestown caused Roger to smile. Roger's offer to allow sailors and soldiers to immigrate if they wanted to join his forces or colony was met with great pleasure by the English enlisted men. The Officers mostly refused the offer and tried to prevent their soldiers and sailors from "defecting". More than one officer found himself locked up when he attempted to prevent the defections.

Roger was now 46 calendar years old. His small nation consisted of 4 states with European settlers. To the best of his ability he decided to keep the boundaries he knew from his uptime childhood. There were exceptions. Virginia was one state—there was no West Virginia. Both Carolina's were or would be consolidated into one state when they were settled more fully. They did show up on his rudimentary maps already as Carolina. He had plans to make use of the much better harbor in what would be named Charleston as soon as he could find settlers to build the city. Eventually Charleston would become a major seaport and navy base.

Before news of the defeat at Jamestown and sinking the three colony ships reached England Roger gained almost 500 new colonists. He and his appointed Governor of Virginia decided to only send 23 of the colonists back to England as unfit to live in the NAU. In his original timeline only 60 of those 500 were to survive the winter of 1609-1610. Roger felt he could keep almost all of them alive with his technology and assistance. This gave him a good jump start for populating the state of Virginia. Admittedly these colonists did not have the modern education Roger needed and many of them could not or would not learn the things Roger's schools were teaching the young. Many of the colonists would continue to be mere laborers but Roger needed them too. Many of them could be trained to do some of the simpler things a civilization needs such as operate wagons, farm, work in warehouses and so forth. The children however would be given the education they would need to succeed and would rapidly become important members of the population.

The infant and child mortality rate was already lower by far than normal for this time period because of Roger's health care capability. Just rudimentary cleanliness and the proper positioning of outhouses helped immensely. Add to that his advances in medical care and the development of penicillin and the use of sulfa as antibiotics meant many children and even adults who would have died now did not and became long lived assets of his nation.

That first report to Roger contained a list of immediately needed medicines, food and building materials. Most of what was requested was already prepositioned on the docks for shipment to Williamsburg. Over the course of the summer a secure and, for the time, comfortable settlement was built for the new town of Williamsburg. When the colonists saw the quality of goods offered them and the benevolence of the government they rapidly became staunch supporters of Roger and the NAU. They were in awe of the tight construction for their homes and the fine steel stoves provided for heat.

The improved medical care available to Roger's population insured the children from the normal high birth rate survived in large numbers. The population of his young nation continued to grow almost exponentially. News of the fantastic nation in America spread across Europe and Roger found immigrants begging to get into the NAU so they could build a better life. The population grew faster and faster. Schools were flooded with immigrants learning the ways of their new home. For the first three years after arriving all immigrants over the age of 4 went to school half a day. After noon, those over the age of 16 worked for five hours to support themselves.

In order to better patrol the coasts Roger formed an Air Force rather than depend on the civilian air he had used up to this time. He used some of the smaller aircraft they had been using for mail delivery for coastal patrols. These aircraft used some of his smaller gasoline engines. As the incidence of ships from England violating NAU waters increased Roger was forced to build fighter bomber aircraft. Within three years of the first flight of his fighter bomber Roger had a small Air Force consisting of 30 patrol/observation aircraft and 40 combat aircraft. Roger kept the air technology for military use primarily but he did not proscribe the use in civilian occupations.

His primary reason for limiting civilian use of aircraft was to better conserve vital resources. He did not want resources expended unnecessarily for frivolous purposes as had been done uptime. Every larger settlement ended up with an airport for observation aircraft, fighters and government transports. The range of the small aircraft was still low—only about 200 miles round trip or 4 hours. Settlements began to rise up along the coast near the military airfields and forts. If the settlement had a good harbor ships from several nations began stopping for trade. To Roger's surprise many of these ships contained people from foreign lands who wanted to immigrate to the NAU. Almost all immigrants were accepted if they were willing to return to school and update their abilities so they would fit into Roger's technological society.

By 1612 Roger's treatment of the English so angered the King he sent an Armada of thirty warships and 2000 Soldiers to teach Roger a lesson. Somehow, this invading force arrived undetected near what was Charleston SC in another timeline. They began the march south intent on leveling Savannah and imprisoning the upstart that had given England such trouble.

The invading army was spotted by a patrolling aircraft perhaps two days march south of their landing. They were making a difficult journey because of all the small streams entering the various bays between their landing site and Savannah. If the commander was lucky they could make eight or ten miles a day because of the marshes and difficulty moving their supply trains. Many days they travelled a much shorter distance.

Roger had his small air force keep the column under observation while he made plans for intercepting and defeating them. He immediately sent a frigate to Charleston to deal with the Armada.

On the fifth day of their march to Savannah the English stumbled across one of Roger's roads. Since it was going in the direction they wanted to go they began following it southward. Upon hearing that Roger smiled to himself. He sent Bear Stalker and three companies of soldiers to ambush the approaching English.

After he decided on the location of the ambush Bear Stalker built firing positions and settled in to wait on the advancing English. Even with the better road it took the English four more days to reach the ambush site.

When the advancing army came into sight Bear Stalker and his senior commanders stood on the road to meet them. The English Colonel leading the advancing forces rode to meet the strangely uniformed men blocking his way. After he stopped his prancing horse in front of the four men confronting him the Colonel said, "Who are you and why do you block my way?"

"I am Brigadier General Bear Stalker of the North American Union. My King warned your King that unauthorized landings of colonists or troops would be considered an act of war. I am here to accept your surrender for violating our sovereignty and invading our country."

The English Colonel laughed then said, "You have gall anyway. I demand you surrender in the name of the King. We are sent to put down the rebellion your so called King has made against His Majesty King James I and England."

Bear Stalker glared up at the Colonel and said, "If you do not surrender your command immediately I have been authorized to use force to compel surrender."

The English Colonel laughed uproariously and spluttered "Never. Surely you jest. The English army surrender to a rabble led by an ignorant savage with delusions of grandeur? Oh, I say. This is hilarious."

The Colonel turned his horse and, still laughing, moved back to his column of troops. As he rode toward his soldiers the Colonel wiped tears of laughter from his face and said to his second in command, "Can you believe the gall of that damn Indian? He acted as if he thought he was as good as I. We shall teach him a lesson he will not soon forget."

When the Colonel arrived at the head of his column shouts were heard and they began moving into formation to attack in line as was the custom in those days. As soon as the line was formed the soldiers began marching toward the NAU positions. The road was narrow and the woods dense so their line became almost impossible to maintain almost immediately.

Bear Stalker watched in disgust for a moment then he and his men moved back to their positions. As the English continued marching toward their positions Bear Stalker ordered one volley of fire as a warning. When the English heard the fire they immediately stopped marching. The first rank kneeled and aimed their muskets toward NAU positions. The second rank remained standing.

The NAU soldiers heard the commands, "First rank, Fire." A volley of musket balls was fired toward the positions of the NAU. The smoke partly obscured the enemy soldiers for a moment. Flashes of movement were seen as the first rank began reloading. Then was heard, "Second Rank, Fire." Another volley of fire rippled toward the NAU positions.

After the second volley the English began marching toward NAU positions once again. Bear Stalker turned to his junior leaders and said, "Open fire at will. Have your soldiers aim for their legs. We will try to minimize casualties first off. If they do not stop we will have to fire into their bodies. If they persist in fighting after being wounded we will have to kill them."

In less than fifteen minutes over one third of the English soldiers were wounded and out of the fight. The remainder surrendered or took off running back down the road in the direction from whence they came. When the NAU soldiers moved to secure their prisoners they found 46 dead men and 643 wounded. They captured 416 prisoners. The remaining soldiers and the Colonel were in full retreat. Bear Stalker sent a company of his soldiers after them.

Later that day after another short battle the NAU soldiers captured the remaining English soldiers. During the final battle another 113 were killed and injured.

While the land battle went on the NAU frigate arrived at Charleston and made short work of the Armada. That confrontation could not even be considered a battle. Within fifteen minutes of arriving all but 7 English warships were sunk. The English merchant ships and troop transports all surrendered and were captured. After surviving sailors were picked up the surviving ships were convoyed back to Savannah where they were interred pending resolution of the conflict.

Bear Stalker moved his prisoners back to the camp outside Savannah set aside as a POW compound and reported to King Roger. He took the surviving but wounded English Colonel with him. After questioning the Colonel Roger decided to let two of the captured ships return to England with the Colonel and Admiral aboard. As a gesture of good will he also returned many senior officers. He provided a list of survivors also. Roger retained all wounded because his medicine gave then a much better chance of surviving their wounds. This time the message he sent to the King with the returned officers was abrupt. It was insulting. It was also very factual. Roger told the English King he had one choice. They could live and trade in peace or Roger would continue the fight and conquer England.

After the Admiral and Captain returned to England it was over a year before there was a return message. One lone English Frigate sailed into Savannah harbor. She carried Sir George Sommers as ambassador to the new nation. He and King Roger spent the next three weeks negotiating a treaty for the two nations. This treaty covered trade, immigration and conflict resolution. Without so stating it tacitly deeded the entire North American continent to the NAU.

The frigate returned to England with its crew and the very few soldiers that opted to return home. The balance of the soldiers opted to stay in the NAU and become immigrants to the great anger of their commanders.