Chapter 158: Double the Wage

August 21, 228 AD.

Colonia Vulcania & Lugdunum, Roman Gaul.

The day began like any other for Antonius. He rose before the dawn bell, washed with warm water and lye soap at the indoor basin, offered a pinch of dried herbs to the ancestral hearth, and pulled on the clean tunic laid out by his wife.

After breaking his fast with porridge and dried figs, he kissed her forehead and stepped into the cool morning air.

On the paved avenues outside, hundreds of workers in identical gray uniforms were already walking toward the river.

The settlement of Colonia Vulcania was a restricted residential cantonment cordoned off by checkpoints. Only licensed personnel attached to the Syndicate’s 3 primary heavy manufacturing trusts were permitted to live here, ensuring that nearly every resident within the perimeter drew a wage from the industrial bureaus.

A familiar figure fell into step beside him. Antonius raised a brow in silent inquiry.

His companion, Servius, a veteran operator who had manned the central power drives alongside him for 5 years, responded with a grimace, shaking his head in quiet frustration.

Servius was 5 years older, with a 16-year-old son who had recently completed his preparatory schooling. Under ideal circumstances, the youth should have advanced to the regional polytechnic.

His marks on the entrance examinations, however, were mediocre. The state faculties refused him, and Servius lacked the capital to purchase a tuition seat at a private academy in Massilia.

Desperate to secure the boy’s future, Servius had petitioned the employment bureaus of all 3 state trusts for an apprentice machinist post. Every guild had rejected the application.

"Still no entry?" Antonius asked softly as they walked.

"None," Servius sighed, adjusting his belt. "The criteria have escalated beyond reason since we signed our charters. In our day, if a man could read a dispatch, draft clean figures, and solve basic division, they handed him a wrench. Now they demand secondary degrees with high marks in geometry, fluid dynamics, and metallurgy. The boy simply lacks the head for higher mathematics."

"Steer him toward the commercial academies," Antonius suggested. "The logistics networks are expanding into Italy and Hispania. They need freight auditors, warehouse managers, and tax clerks. The work is steady and carries a pension."

Servius rubbed his jaw. "Aye. That may be his only practical road."

The crowd thickened as the avenue converged toward the river gates. Younger technicians pedaled past through the morning mist on two-wheeled iron velocipedes driven by roller chains and rubber tires.

The machines had become affordable for senior operators, yet older mechanics like Antonius and Servius still preferred to walk.

At the perimeter gate, armed Jaeger sentries checked their brass tokens before clearing them through the iron turnstiles.

Stepping onto the riverside platform, Antonius looked down at the churning brown waters of the Rh?ne. "The current runs fast today," he noted. "Seasonal snowmelt gives the river teeth. We should maintain full line-shaft speed all shift, perhaps earn a production voucher."

Servius eyed the waterwheels turning against the stone revetments. "Let us hope so."

They signed the ledger at the duty desk, tied on their aprons, and took their stations along the primary power gallery. 3 hours into the shift, the routine broke.

A junior clerk arrived at the gantry, summoning Antonius, Servius, and 28 other senior drive operators to the administrative wing immediately.

Whispers passed through the ranks as they washed the grease from their hands.

Antonius surveyed the group and recognized the pattern: every man called was a specialist responsible for the governors, water gates, and drive clutches of the river wheels.

They filed into the director’s conference hall. At the far end, Director Cotta stood with hands clasped behind his back, looking out the window toward the river.

Clerks moved along the rows, distributing parchment sheets and inkwells. Antonius scanned the text: a Tier-One non-disclosure covenant, specifying financial forfeiture and assignment to frontier labor battalions for any breach of confidentiality.

Antonius dipped his quill and signed without hesitation. A man who valued his livelihood kept his tongue behind his teeth.

Only when the last signature was collected did Director Cotta face them.

"At the order of the High Council in Lugdunum, 4 master technicians from Decimus’s research bureau arrived at midnight," Cotta began, his voice flat. "A definitive breakthrough has been verified. We have acquired the capability to drive this plant’s machine tools continuously, independent of river current."

A stunned silence fell over the room.

"As the senior power-train specialists in this sector, you have been selected for immediate technical conversion," Cotta continued, drawing a stack of scrolls from a desk drawer. "Those who master the operation of this prime mover and pass the certification exams administered by the Lugdunum engineers will be promoted to Grade-Seven Senior Technical Operatives. Your compensation will scale to match... nearly double your current base pay."

Cotta signaled the guards, who distributed the scrolls.

"This is the official State Secrets Undertaking," Cotta said. "Unlike the civil waiver you just executed, a breach of this charter constitutes operational sabotage against the Republic, tried directly before a military tribunal under charges of high treason."

"Examine the articles carefully. If you sign, you board the transport omnibuses immediately."

Antonius read the text. Beyond prohibitions against sketching internal components or discussing maintenance protocols outside authorized facilities, the contract imposed no restrictions on their private lives.

It was standard military order, identical to the oaths sworn by craftsmen on the rifled artillery lathes.

Antonius caught Servius’s eye. Neither felt intimidated; as literate artisans who read the daily broadsheets, they understood what this level of security meant...

An apparatus capable of replacing river waterwheels meant the Forge Master had removed the ultimate geographic constraint on manufacturing.

Factories would no longer be tethered to riverbanks; they could be built directly inside iron mines, atop coal fields, or within coastal citadels.

Antonius set his quill to the parchment and signed. Servius followed immediately, along with every operator in the room.

Minutes later, they were escorted through the rear sally port into covered steam omnibuses, heading toward the classified testing grounds in the foothills.

Similar selections were taking place across 30 manufacturing centers throughout Gaul, assembling the first cadre of certified industrial steam engineers.

Years later, that initial group would branch out across continental industry... Antonius retiring from the state trusts to establish a private consulting firm for municipal boiler plants, while Servius earned enough silver to found the Elephant Technical Institute, an academy dedicated to preparing working-class youths for polytechnic examinations.

While the industrial trusts mobilized their technical personnel, the civil administration moved in parallel.

In Lugdunum, First Minister Aulus convened an emergency ministerial caucus, presenting a draft decree authorizing the creation of the Bureau of Special Economic Enclaves to manage the new tea, coffee, and agricultural processing zones.

A few conservative magistrates initially questioned the need for an independent regulatory body, but all resistance faded once Aulus noted that the framework had been drafted by the Forge Master.

Before the session concluded, the Minister of Public Infrastructure raised his hand.