NOVPUB"Excellent!"
I took the paper sheet out of Things-Things' hands and examined it.
It was very rough and had a brownish-gray color. If I looked closer, I could make out the chunks of fibers and old clothing it was made of. The edges were cut slightly unevenly.
The letters written on it were deep black, in an even worse chicken scrawl than I was used to. There were a lot of smudges and blotches, but to my delight, the dried-out letters didn't smudge when I rubbed them with a finger.
Then I finally read what it said.
The report had the amount of paper-making presses in existence and calculations on how much paper they can produce, and how much manpower it will take to make each sheet of paper and each new paper-making press.
It was a lot of manpower.
While wax tablets could be just shaped by anyone, and clay tablets (much heavier, but much more durable) were just as simple to make.
But with paper, things were much more complicated than it sounded.
First, we had to get enough fiber. Discarded clothing worked well for it, as well as leaves and wood of certain trees—but those had to be manually shredded into small enough bits with knives (and in some cases, claws).
Then they had to soak for a while to get softer, then get pounded with hammers to get even softer.
And only *then* this pulp could be put on the screen frame to form sheets, pressed to get rid of extra water, dried and possibly polished or coated in something for toughness.
While our "mass-production" was just streamlined manufacturing. We didn't have modern machinery, and at most had hand-moved leather conveyor belts…
And this didn't include making ink. At least this mostly included mixing whatever coloring agents we had on hand, some glue boiled from beast bones, and water.
Extremely simple compared to making this single sheet of paper. According to the calculations written there, it took an average of 2,5 working bee-hours to make this single sheet of paper.
It didn't sound like such a huge number until you considered the scale. The Empire's growing bureaucracy used thousands of wax tablets daily… Then there were Researchers, Physicians, Archivists and Artists.
It took only a few minutes to make a wax tablet, and we *still* had thousands of bees who did nothing but making wax tablets.
Producing paper on the same scale would require us to multiply this amount of bees.
I studied Things-Things' calculations some more, while she grew less proud and more anxious by a second.
"I was talking about mass-producing paper presses, of course. But mass-producing paper will be easy, too! We just need bigger pulp-wetting pods and bigger paper screens. And we can dry paper faster if we put it out in the sun, or closer to the furnaces—there are a lot of places. I can make the process… 10% more effective, yes-yes, Father! I can do it before we start on it, or after!"
I let out a breath and rubbed the paper sheet again.
Although it took thirty times longer to make, this paper sheet was also thirty times lighter than a wax tablet, thirty times more durable and took thirty times less space!
"Using paper will be much more effective than tablets," Researchina said. "My personal assistants have all moved from tablets to the test samples of paper we made. I hope the full transition from wax to paper will be done soon."
I thought for another moment and turned to Workharder.
"It will be *your* workforce that will be used for most paper-making. Do you think we can afford to spare so many people?"
Workharder grinned.
"Things-Things asked me to count this all beforehand… Yes, we can do it! But we won't have people to keep building more trains until more workers grow. But only for a few weeks. A couple of them, perhaps!"
Trains or paper?
"There's no need to make a sudden switch. Build the new workforce gradually. Things-Things and Researchina can use this time to refine the paper-making process even more."
In a few weeks, I won't have to shuffle around cumbersome tablet stacks anymore…
"And here are my calculations on how much time it will take to transfer our archives from tablets to paper," Researchina said, giving me another sheet of paper.
I looked at it and felt my soul leaving my body.
"*HOW* much?!…"
"We have thousands of honeycomb cells' worth of archives, and that's only in Hive Supremo," Researchina said. "The Archivists in Hive Supremo have diligently kept up with what is still relevant and what became obsolete, but this is less true for sub-hives. Even with heralds, it takes time for information to reach them. These will need to be sorted through before being copied, too, which increases the amount of work."
"In other words… By your calculation, we will need as much people to transfer our archives as we need to make the paper for them in the first place?"
"Yes. But if we can spare people for one part of it, we can spare people for another," Researchina said with faint smugness. "It's just a matter of time. The Bee Empire never stops growing."
Time… We didn't actually have an unlimited amount of it.
Not because of our lifespans—there was still a generous amount from the last upgrade—but because of attacks on our borders. After what I witnessed in Redsting's fort, I felt like we needed more. A total dominion, or better border fortifications.
None of which will be done if we put all forces on the switch to paper.
"Alright, Things-Things, Researchina, do your thing. But gradually—say, take a third as many people as you'd take if you were making the shift to paper at full speed," I said anyway. "As for the rest of our resources, I want to focus on increasing defenses of our borders for a while."
"Father, I was about to make a suggestion about that!" Bloodhero exclaimed. "The scouts have returned with excellent news…"
