He nodded as he wrote her answers down. ''I suppose that leads on to the Society of Malta in greater depth. What are the Crime rates like? the education of children? state welfare...or lack thereof? I don't blame you if you can't go into greater depth but If you could give me your observations, that would be appreciated.''
First thing that came to her mind was something she did not like particularly but had come to accept as a necessity. Forced labor of captives. That was a nicer way to describe slavery. At least in her mind it was not as attached to the stigma of that word. For certain more hazardous jobs on the planet. It was born out of necessity - with our low birthrate we do everything in our power to preserve our population's numbers. As such lethal harm against a fellow Maltese with intent to do so is perhaps one of our most taboo crimes on Malta. The state is also against certain practices that would further decrease our fertility and birthrate such as contraceptives and abortion, the latter being officially punishable with exile. Eliza paused for a second to adjust herself in her seat. Sometimes certain individual freedoms must suffer for the greater good of the collective.
He noted it all down without any hint of his own thoughts. ''Is there a high rate of stillborns or miscarriages?'' he asked flatly.
The lack of emotion in Alfred's words surprised the girl. No, no, thankfully not! Cardamine affects the chance of conception. The thought of dead babies made her back quiver. The only gruesome effect of cardamine is it's withdrawal.
''How are children and young adults educated? as in, how are they taught? in schools and universities or...some other way?''
Kids go to school, yeah. Kids in some of the richer families go to private ones at that. Then after they finish school, which usually doesn't specialize you in anything particular there are the academies which specialize in different fields - science, economy, military training and so on. You're not forced to go through that but I guess they help give you a good start if you know what you want to do with your life. The fact the only response from Alfred were more questions began to annoy Eliza a bit so she decided to poke him back with some questions of her own. I imagine things are similar in Bretonia? What about this university, does it specialize in a particular field of studies?
He looked around for a bit before answering ''Medicine and Law I believe are the two specifications. Although I am not entierly sure, most branches of study have schools here.'' He cleared his throat before continuing ''At what age is a child considered a 'man' or a 'woman'? is there anysort of celebration or ritual o mark the passage?''
Maltese are considered adult when they reach their 21st birthday. A lot of us celebrated it one way or another but not like a right of passage or anything. Eliza smiled cheerfully, her 21st birthday wasn't that far back - just an year and few months. Looking back at it was a bit surreal for her, all she had done over the past year, all the things she has seen, all the people she had met. It felt almost like it was yesterday when she first got in a Sabre's cockpit and touched the stars she had dreamed about for so long. Snapping back from the daydreaming she continued. I personally celebrated the fact my dad would let me see the universe and all it's wonders. He was adamant I should be of age before I get anywhere near a space ship! She chuckled in amusement.
''How did the maltese wind up making such a fleet, in the begiining? if I may.''
She wondered what the reason for this quick change of subject was. Was Alfred trying to portray her as someone more mature and cold? In the beginning? Simple - it didn't. Our exploration of space started quite after the other colonies and for a very long time it consisted mainly of small ships. Only fairly recently has the Nation pulled resources into building bigger warships. And we're still a lot more focused on smaller spacecraft than bigger ones. Most of the building resources for big ships have to be bought or raided. Being dependent on cardamine has not let us colonize other worlds for their raw resources like Bretonia and Liberty.