by Eric Flint
It was going to be a very, very long meeting.
Chapter Three
August, 1633
1
Dr. Werner Rolfinck strode through the botanical gardens early the morning of the first meeting with the representatives from Grantville and his faculty. He bent down and pulled a weed shoot from the row of Matricaria recutita. Chamomile was a useful herb for calming the nerves, as an aide to wound healing, decreasing inflammation and an antispasmotic. The people from Grantville had expressed particular interest in the use of herbs and other botanical agents in healing. He didn't want the garden to look anything less than its best. Since it was July, the foliage was particularly lush.
Werner's feelings about the proposed "joint venture" with Grantville's medical personnel were mixed. So were those of the three Jena faculty members who would be sitting around the conference table with him in a few hours. Werner was thirty-four years old and had been the dean at the medical college for several years. He considered himself a forward-thinking man and made an effort to keep up with the latest information in the healing arts. He had been proud of his accomplishments and his career. He still was. Given what he had learned so far from the Grantville texts he had intently studied, he and the faculty here were on the right track in any number of areas. He was proud of the faculty, too. There may not be many of them left, but those that remained were excellent men, all dedicated healers who were devoted to their work.
None of which changed what he had read in those books and the implications of what he had read. Those things had left him frustrated, disheartened and desperately wanting more. There was so much more to be learned, so much more that could be done for their patients. The possibilities were very exciting. He felt as though a new world was opening up and Jena was going to be a part of incredible things. So am I so unsettled because the changes are happening at all or because they aren't happening fast enough?
It would probably be rude to tell their guests, in the American phrase, about damn time. Rationally, he understood that the Americans had needed to secure their borders and that other pressing needs had kept them from addressing anything but immediate medical needs. Still, they could have shared more of their texts sooner and made medical care more of a priority. Werner began to pace through the feverfew section of the garden. Medical care could save lives just as surely as winning on a battlefield. Healing was its own kind of war. They could have been so much farther ahead of where they were now with more books and communication with Grantville's medical personnel.
Compounding his frustration was the sense of pressure he felt. So much would have to happen very quickly to be ready by January. The bits and pieces he had learned had been tantalizing but bitter. He had read the books and then seen patients in his practice that could have benefited from Grantville's level of care. But Grantville was too far away and even if they had its facilities here, he and the others didn't have the knowledge. That had been eating at all of them for at least a year when they began realizing what the Americans could do.
Instead, the Americans had decided to work with his school at their convenience, when they had time. He knew that wasn't really a fair way of putting it, and it certainly wasn't the frame of mind he needed for this upcoming meeting. Still, fair of not, it didn't change how he felt. He made a deliberate effort to unclench his muscles and slow his pacing. The Americans had chosen the medical college as their first real joint venture with the Jena university. It was both an honor and a burden. A lot of people would be watching how he and his faculty handled the merging. He was hardly naive enough to think the Americans didn't have their own priorities and needs but this could be a mutually beneficial partnership, a partnership among equals. He would see to it.
2
Werner tried to be subtle as he observed his new colleagues from Grantville. He had spoken with each of them at least once by radio and exchanged letters setting up the meeting today in Jena, but he also wanted to actually see them.
The leader of the delegation was an elderly woman who moved rather stiffly. He could see the arthritic changes in her hands, which the trip here and the cobblestones had probably aggravated. The sight didn't inspire much confidence. This old woman was supposed to lead the new college during a time of dramatic changes? Her evident age and ill health didn't bode well at all, even with the much younger Mary Pat Flanagan woman working as her aide. Werner was impressed with what he knew about Fraulein Flanagan and well disposed to her, given how she had gone out of her way to get texts and other materials copied and delivered to Jena. That they were in English made it rather difficult, but he had had them translated and copies made for the faculty.
Beulah MacDonald, as the elderly woman was named, eased stiffly into the hard wooden chair at the long table and smiled reassuringly up at Fraulein Flanagan. Werner could hardly miss the concern or the affection between them. Then Frau MacDonald turned to look at Werner and the others on the opposite side of the table. The smile changed but it was her eyes that Werner studied. Those navy blue eyes held humor, understanding and shrewdness. There was an air of experience and competence about her. He wasn't quite sure how to describe it. He would watch and see how this played out.
Coming into the room behind MacDonald and Flanagan were a man and woman. Werner had gotten better about judging ages of Americans. They both looked around ten years older than Mary Pat Flanagan, give or take a few years. The man was of an intimidating size. What Werner suspected were permanent dark circles lay under his eyes. This would be Hayes Daniels, the only man in the group. The last woman to enter the room sat in her chair and carefully arranged pen and paper in front of her. Process of elimination meant this was Ann Turski. Werner still wasn't exactly clear what a health educator was and how that was different from a faculty member. Still, they each gave the impression of confidence and I-know-what-I'm-about he was coming to associate with some of the Americans he had met.
That attitude wasn't always justified, in his opinion. But... At least they all speak decent German. That will make things a little easier, Werner thought as the Americans introduced themselves. Now it was his turn to make introductions.
"At my far right is Conrad Herbers. He teaches iatrochemistry and theories of medicine." Conrad, whom they all called Kunz, gave a small seated bow, his expression polite but a bit cautious.
"Next to him is Wilhelm Hofacker who teaches iatrochemistry and assists me in the botanical gardens."
"I am Willi, please. I shall be happy to give you a tour of the gardens later if you would like." Willi's English was accented but very understandable. He'd spent some time talking to other Americans before the meeting. The two iatrochemists were remarkably similar in more than appearance. Both were blond, forty-ish family men who were interested in what Grantville had to offer but wary of what it might mean for them both personally and professionally.
"On my left is Phillip Ackermann. Doktor Ackermann teaches anatomy and runs the operating theater." Ackermann had just turned fifty. His thinning blond hair was going gray. Werner noticed that although he was over twenty years her junior, Beulah had fewer lines on her face than Phillip. More than about any of the others, Werner was concerned about how Phillip would handle the coming changes. Werner was considered somewhat radical himself and he was younger than the more conservative Phillip. Phillip hadn't said much about his thoughts or feelings on the merger. He was facing the coming changes toward the end of his career, not the beginning. Phillip was terse at the best of times. Now he just gave a stiff inclination of his head in their guests' general direction.
"It is a pleasure to meet others from Grantville at last. We have had so little contact with other healers from Grantville in the last two years." A hint of hostility was present in the polite tenor voice and it was that hostility Beulah responded to.
"It is a pleasure for us as well. If there had been any way we could have made things happen on our end more quickly so we could meet you sooner, we would have. As it is, we finally feel that
we have enough to offer to entice your faculty into a long-term partnership."
That comment wasn't what any of them expected. Willi blinked several times and Kunz raised his eyebrows.
"What you have to offer us?" Kunz asked. "Surely, with all you know, the concern should be whether we have enough to offer you?"
No stranger to negotiations himself, a well-briefed Hayes stepped in. Hayes always did his homework. "On the contrary. You have a great deal to offer us. Books with useful knowledge, buildings to hold classes in, the operating theater and, of course, your faculty."
"I've seen your facilities, especially the gardens," added Mary Pat. "They're impressive. We brought a few people from Grantville who are gardeners to help us figure out names of plants since we probably won't call them all the same things you do. You know far more about herbal remedies than we do. You know the local artisans who can make medical equipment and have your own practices here in town. Now, we can offer you our knowledge and the hospital in Grantville as a training site."
"We've been pretty disorganized while we were trying to get everything up and running. There wasn't time to plan anything properly before the Ring of Fire," Ann added with a wry grin.
No, Werner thought, definitely not the way I thought they'd approach us.
"You're already set up and fully functional here," Beulah said. "We've spent two years trying to get ourselves organized and dealing with various crises to get to the point where we could approach you. We do have things to offer. I think you'll agree that those things are important. But this merger won't be easy. This is important to us. We don't want to mess up this venture or any future ones."
Even though he had spoken with them over the radio, Werner wouldn't have predicted this. It was better than he had hoped for and the room's atmosphere was warmed by more than the summer sunlight.
Beulah smiled gently. "There is another bonus to working together. You have students who are much further along in their training than those we have in Grantville."
All four of the Jena representatives became very intent. They had been prepared to fight for their students and defend their students' caliber but it looked like that might not be necessary.
"We will be counting on them almost as heavily as on you. I know that the students will need to learn what we have to teach in addition to what you have already taught them," Beulah continued delicately, "but they are still much better trained in any number of areas than the students we would bring from Grantville. Few of our potential students have studied anatomy or performed surgery, for example. The most many of them have ever dissected is a frog in high school biology. One of the things we'd like to ask is whether or not you think your students would be willing to be teaching assistants for the incoming students. We're trying to put together funding for the positions now. We hope to be able to offer room and board, clinical at the hospital in Grantville and access to our textbooks and equipment sooner. In exchange, in addition to acting as teachers' assistants, we'd want a commitment from anyone we offered the positions to stay in the area, one year for each year of study under the joint system. Naturally, we wouldn't restrict them just to Grantville. We don't think we can come up with enough funding for a stipend but we'll try."
"I think the students will be happy with that plan, if we can make it work," Werner said. "We had been concerned about our students and how they would fit in. None of us is under any illusions that we or the students could just go to Grantville and practice. That has not been an easy thing for any of us to admit. Do you see a similar role for the faculty?"
Again, it was Beulah who spoke. "Not exactly. We do think that there will be things you will need to learn and learn quickly. Part of the reason we wanted to come here is to get to know you and your backgrounds more personally. You are all experienced faculty. You don't need to learn how to teach anymore than I do." She gave a little shrug. "There may be a few teaching strategies you'll need to adapt because of different material but you know how to deliver a lecture or teach students in a clinical setting already. There will also probably be some differences in styles that we will need to work on but I think that would be the case anyway. And, it wouldn't necessarily be you adapting to our style all the time, either. We're hoping that you will be the ones doing most if not all the teaching of material like chemistry and anatomy, at least at first."
"That's part of what I'm doing here," said Hayes. "I'd like to work with each of you on course materials, what you have here, what we have and how they can be combined to get the material to the students in the best way."
"You'll probably not be too far ahead of the students sometimes in terms of learning some of the new material," Ann said. "It won't all be new to you though and it will get you ready to learn the practice stuff at the same time."
"What about our learning about your kind of practice? We are already physicians. If you expect us to teach more than the basic courses, we must know more about your kind of practice." Phillip's tone was very firm but without hostility.
"I had hoped to arrange time in Grantville for all of us before we began in January." Judging by the looks the Grantville team exchanged, Werner didn't think they had considered that. "We've studied all you have lent us but the material is complex and has not been given to us in any systematic way." Werner held up a hand. "This is not a complaint. It is just a fact. We would be able to learn more material more quickly if we spent some time with all your material, resources and medical people in Grantville. We would also be able to see how you practice."
Mary Pat chuckled. "We'd been thinking the same thing but from the other direction. How much time would you want to spend in Grantville? Maybe we could split our time between the two places. Hayes will have to be going back to use his desktop computer for this anyway. We could spend some time here and then all go to Grantville together."
Werner thought a few moments. "Two months would be good. We would need time to see what was there and then decide what to focus on to bring copies of material back with us."
"We would need some time to make other arrangements as well." Kunz sounded a little hesitant. "Willi and I have wives and children."
"If you would like to bring them along, I would be happy to start making arrangements for housing," Ann volunteered. "It might work out even better if we can make arrangements with medical personnel for places for you to stay."
"What about bringing some of the students?" asked Phillip.
Beulah cleared her throat. "I think we should take a week or so and decide who should be approached about the teaching assistant positions. That way, if we stay here a month, the students still have several weeks to prepare for the trip. And we'll all be back here by November to get ready for the students. Does that sound reasonable?"
Nods all around. "Now, how many children do you each have and how old are they?" asked Ann.
3
"Guten Morgen, Doktor Rolfinck."
Werner looked up from his contemplation of the rather wilted looking mugwort. He'd have to speak with the gardeners about watering the plants more frequently. Mugwort was a versatile sort of herb in medicine. He used it regularly.
"Guten morgen, Frau Professorin MacDonald."
"I see you like to walk in a garden early in the morning as well. This is so lovely. Very nice layout, too. I try to stop for a bit at Leahy's garden each morning as I start my day. Some days, it is the only calm or quiet I get. Mugwort, isn't it? Stoner, our best herbal expert, has been talking about how useful it is, but I don't know much about it."
"I am pleased you like the garden. Feel free to walk here whenever you wish. I use mugwort primarily for pain, as a diuretic, an emetic or laxative. I've also used it for headaches, insomnia and as an appetite stimulant." Heartened by her admiration of the botanical garden he had created, Werner probed a bit. "From what you and the others said yesterday, I gather you are quite busy in Grantville."
"Fortunately, I've been too busy to tell myself I'm too old for all this very often."
Her eyes were distant and grave. "We had casualties within the first hour and not even a clinic in town, much less a hospital. There were several pharmacies so we had a small supply of our usual medicines, but most of those were set aside for those who already needed them. They didn't last long. The pharmacies up-time also had some other supplies, bandages and such. We nationalized those supplies right away but most of them didn't last long either. At first, we turned the high school into a makeshift hospital. There were only about ten doctors in town, some of them retired. All told, we had fewer than two hundred people with any medical training at all. Some, like me, were retired. Some have died. We did have the aide and LPN vocational technology program at the high school, thank God. We've been able to train some new people but not many and not at the higher levels. It's been a real scramble to get organized and get the hospital built. Everyone was just trying to get themselves and their families through each day at first. We had some things to work with but we didn't even know what materials, personnel, equipment or problems we had initially. Fortunately, we had an architect and Mayor Dreeson put together a sanitation committee within the first week to oversee the public health needs. We've done the best we could but..." Beulah broke off with a grimace, eyes still distant.
Werner remained quiet and after a bit she continued. "Add to that the rapidly expanding population as refugees flooded in, most of whom didn't have a lot more than the clothes on their backs and maybe a few items of furniture or tools and a little food. The resources we had, in terms of supplies and building materials were very limited when you think of the need. Then there were the deaths. There have been so many people we had the knowledge to treat but couldn't. Instead, we had to watch them suffer, sometimes die. Too often, there was little or nothing we could do about it, however hard we worked. I'll warn you now, that has left a mark on us all to some degree. Even with the most advanced materials, the best trained staff, there were still plenty we couldn't have saved anyway. We know that. None of us are miracle workers. I hope you and the others aren't expecting us to be."
