"What 'this' do you mean? The poverty? The legal snarls?"

"The poverty, mostly. I know my world is very much enriched by daeva but even before that became a major input the trend was decidedly against poverty."

"There were a lot of wars in the last two generations when all the easily mineable deposits of stuff started running out, and climate change really kicked in. Europe is doing fine."

"Is it really hard to immigrate to Europe? How are Asia and Africa and South America?"

"Not if you're well-off or have a useful professional skill. I think everyone's having a hard time, and the EU had the most functional response to it all? And North America the worst. Luna and El-Five are supposedly fully automated utopias, but you need to be a billionaire to live there."

"El-Five?"

"Lagrange point five. Big rotating cylinder thing."

"And they're expensive because... rocket fuel is expensive, the current inhabitants like having a cover charge...?"

"I assume both? I'm not an economist, I'm afraid."

The other guy comes back with a battered tablet. "Here you go, this has all the standard general medicine modules on it."

"Can you recommend me a history book or something? Also, is there a good place for me to hang out - like, on the roof or whatever is fine, just a place to loiter where I won't be in the way."

"Hmm... Most I can think of are incredibly biased in one direction or another. Maybe Meyned's 'Rusting Dreams', or the Serisse World Encyclopedia 2117. They should be pretty... Opposite each other. I can get you a room in the Nurse Hive. We have a dedicated housing complex for the hospital."

"I don't have to sleep, I don't need the place to have a bed."

"It's still the only place I'm thinking of where we can get you immediately and you probably won't be disturbed or spied on. Or well, an empty office I guess?"

"Whatever's convenient."

They quickly locate an office that doesn't have anything confidential in it.

"I'll be gone overnight," hexagon eyes guy (Maxim) says, "Well, it's about two right now so I'm not leaving for a while. I'm going to go talk to my friend in Logistics now, okay? You can make one of my business cards if you need to contact me."

"Sure, thanks! I'll do some reading, let me know if you urgently need ten units of AB-negative or whatever."

"Trauma always wants more Kobiyashi blood packs, centipede sutures, and MedChem sets but I don't think it's urgent on a scale of minutes!"

"Can you stash them in a cupboard somewhere if I give you a wheely cartful?"

"Oh, definitely. Faking the papers is the hard part and I have that down to an art. Uh, gonna open and test a few for due diligence though. More sutures and blood than medchems. The kits are kind of big. No refrigeration necessary."

Wheely cart. "How big?"

He gestures. About like three rolls of toilet paper stacked on top of each other.

Cam lines the top shelf of the cart with those and the lower two with the other things. "Enjoy."

"Well, I'm sure the recipients will enjoy shorter recover times."

Off goes Maxim.

The medical primers contain both familiar techniques- When it comes to lower-intervention stuff like rashes, burns, coughs, allergies, infections and trauma- And a lot of new information on implant complications, nanomed pharmacology, and so on.

Of the two books 'Rusting Dreams' seems to have undertones of some sort of anarchist manifesto while meticulously chronicling the Resource Wars and the dissolution of the United States of America and the collapse of the midwest into the Badlands Desert and how things have remained terrible since, and how greedy corporations and short-sighted fascists are responsible for it. Corporations push drugs and sabotage each other and have murder squads. The fate of humanity is eternal war unless everyone is able to defend themselves, apparently.

While the Serisse World Encyclopedia subtly emphasizes all about the wonderful technologies and opportunities that capitalism and enlightened self-interest have brought about, allowing those with the skill and drive to innovate to live out their dreams! It also covers a lot of the new technologies in broad terms- Computers are apparently incredibly modular now, there's widespread fusion power and drone-based warfare, lots of fancy sounding recycling tech, 'neural spikes' can allow access to new knowledge, skills, and experiences when jacked in via implants.

It does sound like they'd need recycling tech! Who's at war at this time? What about, if they've mentioned their causus belli or offered terms?

There's a whole lot of fighting that gets declared "officially not a war" by those in power, according to Rusting Dreams. The Serisse encyclopedia admits to the following big conflicts: The Russian Federation is in an ongoing nuclear standoff with the EU. Nigeria is fighting Ghana over massive electronics landfills both want to mine and recycle. Vietnam is losing against China despite ANZAC backing. The North African Federation is occupying Israel over its 'history of aggression and terrorism'. India and Pakistan are doing a proxy war in south and eastern Africa. There's brush wars in South America. Texas is fighting the Mississippi Combine over farmland. The New California Republic is fighting the Republic of Montana, ostensibly because the Felmann corporation owns Montana and is undemocratic but maybe also over farmland.