Althea would hire a few dozen people per team, with the leads receiving 1 gold per month salary. The leads would also have their own offices and laboratories.
Eugene, the elder of Research and Development, would have the largest one for sure.
All elders now received 5 gold a month like Garan did. This was actually a lot considering the cost of living in Altera and the benefits of 'employees', but she didn't want her elders receiving lower amounts than those hired through the Chancery of Appointments—regardless of whether they could take home a smaller gross amount.
Back to the team leads, the first to be invited was, unsurprisingly, Winona. She was set to spearhead the materials study team.
As someone who knew materials the best, Winona would definitely help her out the most with maximizing the local materials.
She would also be one to push for a great lifestyle in the territory—at least the basic ones expected of Terrans—so Winona was definitely one to depend on about those research items.
Then there was Melissa. Melissa was Eugene's coursemate back then. Although she dropped out after only after a year in university, Eugene told her that the woman was objectively talented and would be worthy of training.
Melissa had a lot to learn, but she was booksmart and would really be able to help put theory to reality, at least some time in the future.
The woman would be Eugene's apprentice and assistant, hopefully triggering a similar job as soon as possible, even if it wasn't the rare Creator job.
Althea also sent an invitation to someone from Mathilda's team: Belinda the antique appraiser, albeit on an on-call job. In a sense, they were also a type of scientist themselves, and they could definitely find projects to do with their own expertise.
For now, her most likely use would be the study of local instruments. While they had the Aborgines, having another set of eyes—one with an entirely different background—could help.
Oslo promised to take back various tools and equipment—even if they seemed useless at first glance—to bring back to Altera for study. The other aborigines, especially those from towns, also promised to bring back what they could when they decided to take a vacation and go back to their hometowns.
The next one to be invited was Yen, one of Drake's suitors. She was actually an electrical engineer who worked for Winona's family, still in a supervisory position. Winona herself asked her to recruit the girl.
Despite her questionable off-work habits (partying a lot, and having different boyfriends every few weeks), she had good professionalism while on the job, and it left Winona impressed.
Winona said that she was lucky to get this one in her territory so early, so the study for electricity could start immediately.
In fact, the invitation was a formality, as the girl had already submitted a proposal on what would be needed to get electricity.
At this thought, Althea fished out the proposal from her space and looked at it again, sighing.
For a start, they would definitely have to maximize their location—with the availability of strong winds and a natural river to create windmills and watermills.
Then the tricky part—the actual conversion to electricity—came into play. In Terran, this was done with electromagnetic induction. They would need copper and magnets for this… which were also raw materials they had yet to find.
They found their iron on bogs after all. Magnetite didn't exist there at all.
Sigh.
Seeing his wife like this, Garan frowned, absentmindedly patting her head.
If he had taken goblins with him, would they have been able to help with their raw material problems?
He should've kidnapped them and tied them up real good to stop them from killing themselves…
How regretful…
Althea had no idea what morbid thoughts were going on in his head and just continued to run through her list.
After electricity, there were plenty of other considerations prior to implementing it. They had to do load calculations, infrastructure planning, transmission and distribution planning, and many more.
Next were the medical aspects.
She sent an invitation to a young man named Gus. He was a pharmacist student who came with Drake's team. Characterized by his freckles and brown hair, he was actually quite well-known as the dude who 'saved people from plants like Ms. Althea did.'
He had applied for Lily's assistant position before but Althea saw his potential for the research center instead. Lily was also training her replacement, as she would be assigned to an actual health center when it was built.
He would be helping Gru, who would have an office there as well. They would naturally focus on agriculture and plant research like she would.
They would also help Clutch out with the combining plants and weapons/armor project. Clutch really wouldn't be able to do it on his own, he'd need a bit of help from her and from others.
And finally, for the weapons research, there would be quite a few people.
For the Aborigines, there was Brenda and Troy. For Terrans, there were Jake and Brandon. The four of them would be spearheading this department, each with their own special teams to handle.
The difference was that they would still be working in the factory. The area dedicated to them in the Research Center would mostly be for testing and optimization of the weapons they created.
Sigh. She had a lot to do. Fortunately, she had a team with her.
Anyway, the Research Center was large enough for all these projects studied together. It might take a while for most of them, but it was a step to progress, and that was what mattered.
Garan smiled when he saw his wife finally take back her list to the space. He leaned down and kissed her, lifting her up back to the bed.
"Now, it's time to relax," he said as he hovered over her, using that low voice of his that seemed to make her heart beat faster every time she heard it.
This time, she didn't fight him.