The Intergalactic Peddler-Volume 1

by Ronnie Coleinger

  Chapter 15 – The Ganme of Universe Number Four

  When Ronnie stabilized in the ready room of The Empress, the computer informed him that he had a customer from Quantum that would like to teleport to The Empress and trade with him. He needed supplies, ammunition and leather goods. He also had two Glock semi-automatic handguns he would like to sell to Ronnie. Ronnie knew the handguns would be either stolen or simply unregistered, probably purchased on the black market. The IFTT had very strict regulations about the purchase and transport of weapons, so Ronnie would have to be very careful whom he was dealing with.

  Ronnie asked the computer to request a copy of the guns registration or proof of purchase, and then have it sent to The Empress before any transactions could take place. The computer informed Ronnie about ten minutes later that the customer had complied, and had sent copies of the guns purchase records to The Empress. Ronnie asked the computer to display the papers on the monitor. Ronnie studied them and they seemed to be in order, at least enough that the IFTT would prosecute the seller, not The Empress if the papers were fraudulent. They certainly looked authentic to him.

  Ronnie asked the computer to allow the customer to teleport into the secure room, and he would meet him there in a few moments. The customer turned out to be a trader of goods himself and understood the formalities of the sale and purchase of weapons. Ronnie agreed to purchase both of the Glock handguns, the ammunition for them, and two leather holsters. By the time the customer was done with his transactions, Ronnie rounded the price of the customer’s purchases down to two-Galax, and the customer smiled. The customer was very happy with the price and Ronnie felt he had made a nice wage for the week, and had two fine weapons in his possession.

  Ronnie asked the computer to teleport the customer back to the surface, and then waited until the transfer was complete. When the security room was empty, Ronnie shut down the lighting and turned the heat down to five degrees Celsius. He then moved the handguns to the ready room, and placed both loaded weapons into a drawer beside the radio room. The guns would remain on The Empress for security, and he would teach Angela to fire the weapons when she returned with their daughter. The IFTT had recently begun issuing security warnings to all time travel vessels about roving bands of pirates. Their intent seemed to be the capture of salable merchandise that they could peddle on the black market. The weapons could be an asset if the pirates ever tried to board The Empress.

  Ronnie had an appointment in two hours with an old customer of his, who would teleport aboard The Empress so he and Ronnie could discuss some of the newly designed and tested travel computer technology. An entity located in a very distant universe had designed a new travel computer system, and there were only two time travel vessels approved by the IFTT to travel to and trade with this universe. However, the IFTT was just as interested in this new travel computer as Ronnie’s customer. The IFTT had told the customer that they would approve the flight plans for The Empress if the customer would attempt to purchase the new system for the IFTT. The Federation wanted to reverse engineer this new time travel device and find out how it worked.

  Discovers of this universe they planned to travel to, had labeled it as Universe Number Four and named it, Risch. They named the galaxy, Dygra, and the planet, Nalon. The entity wishing to sell their newly designed time travel technology went by the name, Ganme.

  When the customer contacted Ronnie and asked permission to teleport aboard The Empress, Ronnie granted him permission and waited in the security room for the customer to stabilize in the secure area. When he was stable, Ronnie spoke to him and then asked the computer to allow their visitor to enter the security room. Ronnie watched the customer through the clear glass between the two rooms. The customer stepped up to the door leading into the security room. When he touched the door handle, the computer released the locking mechanism and the door slowly slid open. As the customer stepped into the security room, Ronnie reached and shook his friend’s hand, and then said, “Welcome aboard The Empress Keith, it has been a long time since I shook your hand.” Keith could not just shake Ronnie’s hand; instead, he stepped forward and hugged Ronnie. Then he said, “I hear rumors that you have taken a wife, or should I say she took you.” Ronnie smiled and said, “I have seriously mellowed my disposition since the last time we met. I no longer feel the need to beat the crap out of everyone who gets in my way. I think it may be the love of a woman, it may also have to do with getting older, maybe even wiser.” Keith said, “I hope to meet this woman someday, but I also hear from Quantum’s Director of Operations that you have a tiny new girl child, but I cannot remember the name the director told me.” Ronnie told Keith that he and Angela had named their child, Jill Marie Yutaka. Keith replied, “After your wonderful mother: An incredible choice of names. A name I loved to hear spoken, and a woman I loved to talk to when you could shush her talking long enough for anyone else to speak.” Ronnie and Keith both laughed at the wonderful memory of Ronnie’s Mother. Ronnie told Keith that Angela could talk just like his Mother, especially if you made her angry, or if you failed to entertain her point of view when she had things to tell you.

  Ronnie escorted Keith to the ready room and sat him down in the copilot’s seat. Ronnie introduced Keith to the computer, and then asked the computer if the IFTT had input a flight plan to the planet of Nalon. The computer informed Ronnie that the flight plan was in order, and the IFTT had cleared them to enter into a stable orbit around the planet when they arrived. They would then wait in the planets orbit until the Ganme astrophysicists and engineers were ready to teleport them into their travel membranes. Ronnie accepted the flight plan from the IFTT and the computer began the preparations for the flight. Within seconds, The Empress was under way.

  The computer performed the jump-out from Universe Number Two and began the flight through the cosmos towards Universe Number Four. Even though the engineers considered eleventh dimension time travel instantaneous, traveling to some of these universes that were millions of light years away, often took many hours in Earth time. Ronnie and Keith had about three hours to kill, so they ate lunch in the kitchen and talked about the newly designed travel computer that the Ganme had developed. Ronnie and Keith both had studied time travel all their lives. Keith was a published author on the subject as was Ronnie, but neither of them could understand the new concept that the IFTT had tried to explain to them during a radio communication. The Ganme seemed to be able to move through the cosmos by controlling their eleventh-dimension string energy time travel membranes with nothing but their minds. Ronnie could not understand how a mind could have enough capacity and speed to perform the complicated mathematical computation to allow the jump-in and jump-out maneuvers to travel from universe to universe. Keith said that somewhere he and Ronnie had not received enough information. Then Keith made a bold statement, he said, “No human mind could accomplish that feat.” As Ronnie considered Keith’s statement, the computer announced they had entered the outer regions of the planet Nalon, and would be in a stable orbit in sixteen minutes.

  Ronnie heard the chirp from the computer, notifying him that there was an incoming radio message. He talked to Nalon’s flight director, and she greeted The Empress and its passengers like old friends, at least the voice sounded like a female. That familiarity almost panicked Ronnie, but Keith felt they were just very anxious to sell their technology and possibly were also nervous about their visitors. The Nalon’s quickly insured The Empress was stable in its orbit, and then asked Ronnie if he and his passenger were ready to teleport to their travel membrane and then down to the surface. Ronnie said they were ready. The flight director asked if Ronnie and his passenger would send them a video feed of themselves before the transfer took place. Ronnie said they could do that. Ronnie and Keith stepped back from the monitor screen and the computer began feeding the upload to the director. After about three minutes, the director said the feeds were very helpful. The flight director said, “I will begin the transfer when The Empress’
s computer responds with the initiation code.”

  Ronnie and Keith stepped to the center of the ready room and the computer sent the code. When Ronnie and Keith stabilized in the control room of the Ganme travel membrane, the hosts that greeted them, dressed in clothing almost identical to their own flight suits. Keith smiled and Ronnie snickered, but quickly shook hands with their hosts. When the greetings were complete, their host explained the request for the video feeds and why they looked much like Ronnie and Keith. The Ganme had the ability to change their physical appearance to be more acceptable to their guests. The director explained they would show them the normal form of the Ganme entities during their visit here on the planet.

  The Ganme director escorted Ronnie and Keith to a large room that looked like a laboratory on the planet Earth. There were electronic instruments on the shelves that Ronnie could not even venture a guess as to their purpose. Sitting on another table was a radio transceiver that Ronnie recognized and understood very well. It was a Super 11 transceiver, identical to the one located in The Empress. On the next table was another radio transceiver, but assembled completely different from the Super 11 Ronnie and Keith were accustomed. This radio was much smaller, about one-tenth the size of the backpack size Super 11. This radio would easily fit on your belt, similar to the old twenty-century cellular phones systems Ronnie had seen in the museums on planet Earth.

  The director began explaining the size difference between the Super 11 and the new technology they had designed, along with the ability to control the travel computer by simple wireless communications with most minds presently known to them, including the human mind. Keith chuckled aloud and said, “The IFTT director of operations said that the new technology could control teleportation simply by the mind with no other computer system. Ronnie and I both thought that seemed impossible.” The director explained that Keith was correct; no mind known to them was fast enough or had enough memory to control time travel or teleportation directly. However, the mind could easily control the travel computer directly without an interface computer as The Empress presently employs. The director held up his arm showing his empty wrist and his fellow engineers did the same; you must have noticed we no longer use travel watches while here on this planet, but instead control our travel computers with our minds.

  Consider this: Our new travel computers are always in our possession due to their small physical size. If one must maintain a travel membrane for business, as you Ronnie do with The Empress, your new much smaller travel computer would stay with you. You could actually carry the computer on your belt or in a large pocket. The computer that remains on The Empress would be very small. It would only be required to maintain the membrane and its contents.

  If you wished to travel without a large vessel such as The Empress, you could quickly assemble a travel membrane anywhere and anytime you desire; then disassemble it just as easily when you have finished using it. Ronnie, you could actually create a second time travel vessel and then teleport into the new vessel from The Empress. As an example: Say you wanted to travel to a customer’s locations for a meeting and the crew of The Empress needed to service a customer in another location. This second travel membrane would allow you to accomplish that task.

  Ronnie asked if it would require a lot of time to establish a new membrane each time you assembled one, or if you could save the last membrane in memory and re-assemble it the next time you needed it. The director explained that you could name each assembly, store the information, and then recall the different membranes as you wished.

  Keith’s question was not so simple to answer. “Is this new technology completely compatible with the system the IFTT is presently using?” The answer was straight forward and to the point, “Not entirely compatible, but almost, allow me to explain. This compatibility issue is why we are so very excited to have two of the top IFTT time travel designers in our presence today. We have four known compatibility issues that need further engineering. Since we do not have access to the Super 11 transceivers coded frequencies, we would require you and the IFTT to work with our engineers to work out those issues.” The director said, “Since we are the designers of the new time travel technology, we would pay the wages and costs for the final development of the technology, if the IFTT would agree to approve our system once it was fully developed, and proven safe and reliable.”

  The director asked Ronnie and Keith if they would spend another day with them and look carefully at their design. Ronnie asked how the Ganme engineers felt they could trust him and Keith not to steal the new technology. The director quickly stated, “If we discover we cannot trust the two top time travel engineers in the cosmos, he will just have you both killed when he catch up with you.” Keith laughed and said, “I guess that pretty well sums things up for us. I believe you can trust us with your technology just as well as we can trust you with ours.”

  The director said, “Please gentlemen, I know you both can be trusted or we would not have allowed you to become privy to our new technology.” Ronnie asked the director how he wanted to proceed with the IFTT to establish a working relationship. The director said he and his officials would like to take the new technology directly to the IFTT and have Keith become the liaison officer to allow the IFTT, and the Ganme engineers to interface without any difficulties. Ronnie looked to Keith for his response. Keith thought a moment and then agreed to accept the offer. Ronnie reached over, shook Keith’s hand and said, “Our friends here understand you very well my friend, and they will be well represented at the IFTT.”

  Ronnie and Keith spent about forty hours more on the planet. They worked with the Ganme engineers to insure everyone was prepared to present the new technology to the IFTT when the Ganme travel membrane arrived at the IFTT Headquarters in a week or so.

  When Ronnie and Keith left the orbit of the planet, they felt very good about their interaction with the Ganme entities. They also were very comfortable that the IFTT would readily accept this new technology and pay the Ganme handsomely for the rights to use the new technology throughout the cosmos.

  When The Empress settled into a stable orbit around the planet Quantum, Keith asked Ronnie how much the bill was for his help and the use of The Empress for the last couple of days. Ronnie said, “How about if I write down a number in Galax and you write down a number, and we will see how close we are. A few years ago, we were able to figure costs almost identically when we projected costs for a job.” Ronnie wrote down his number and Keith wrote his down, carefully protecting the number from Ronnie’s view. Ronnie laid his paper on the console and Keith laid his beside it. The numbers on the two sheets were identical. Keith said, “Eight Galax it is then.” Keith counted eight gold Galax coins and dropped them into the cup holder on the console between them. Ronnie reached over and shook Keith’s hand, then asked the computer to clear Keith for teleportation back to his vessel.

  Once Keith was safely aboard his own vessel, Ronnie carried the Galax coins to the inventory control locker. He dropped two coins into the slot above Angela’s safe. Then he spoke to the computer and said, “Computer would you deposit the two gold Galax coins I dropped into the slot above Angela’s safe for me, and update her account to show the deposit?” Ronnie heard the computer chirp three times, and then the coins dropped into the safe with the sound of gold hitting on gold. Ronnie then followed the same procedure and deposited the six coins into his safe, and the computer updated the accounts receivable to represent the deposit.

  Ronnie spoke to the computer again, “Computer, can you tell me the valve presently shown in Angela’s account so I know how much currency she presently has in her safe.” The computer was silent. Ronnie asked again to know how much was in Angela’s safe, but the computer again did not respond. Finally, Ronnie said, “Computer, are you still online and functioning properly?” The computer chirped three times. Ronnie laughed to himself at how well the computer was protecting Angela’s finances. It seemed that the computer would not give an acco
unting of Angela’s finances even to the creator of the computers program, even if he were Angela’s husband. Ronnie spoke again to computer and asked, “Is Angela’s husband not allowed to check on his wife’s finances?” The computer was silent. Ronnie did not really want the computer to give him an accounting of the coins in Angela’s safe. He had kept a running tally in his head. Since he had placed all of Angela’s monthly earnings in her safe, he had little difficulty keeping track of her net worth.

  Ronnie performed the required maintenance on the food replicator, then showered and prepared to teleport to Janet’s house to spend the night with his family. He decided to stop at the food store before going to Janet’s house and pick up a few items to put on the outdoor grill for lunch tomorrow. When he stabilized inside the store, the manager greeted him and then said he would deliver the supplies to Janet’s house in about an hour, instead of Ronnie trying to carry them home. Ronnie agreed, and then walked the six blocks to Janet’s house.

  When he stepped up to the front door, he was going to knock and then announce himself, but realized the house was very quiet. He quietly opened the front door and saw Angela asleep on the couch, with Jill cuddled up in the recliner, wrapped in a cozy blanket. Ronnie closed the door and walked around to the back of the house, expecting to sit in the recliner and warm himself in the sunshine until his girls woke from their nap. As he quietly moved the recliner into the sunshine, he realized that his sister Janet was in another recliner beside the garden, sound asleep in the sunshine. Ronnie chuckled to himself, sat down in the sun and did not awake until he felt warm lips kissing his cheeks on both sides of his face. When his eyes opened, Frederica and Monica were both giggling and sneaking away to the protection of their Mother. Janet sat in her chair, giggling with her daughters and telling them the strange man was awake and she could not protect them from his tickling. Ronnie was about to chase the girls and tickle them both, but remembered that they had now grown old enough that they should be hugged, and kissed on the cheek, but not tickled and made to beg to be let go. Ronnie sat quietly in his chair and waited for them to come back to him. He grabbed them both at the same time, hugged them close, planted a kiss on their cheeks and then let them go before they had to squirm or beg for him to release them.

  Then Ronnie heard the door beside him open and a voice said, “Your daddy is home and wanting to love you my tiny daughter.” Angela stepped through the door, kneeled down and kissed Ronnie hard on the lips. Ronnie said, “I love you too my dear,” and returned her kiss. Then Angela placed Jill into her father’s arms and watched her smile and coo for her daddy. Angela went inside, prepared a bottle of milk for Jill, then returned and let Ronnie feed, burp, and change Jill’s wet diapers. Ronnie did not want to share Jill that evening, but he finally did release his grip on her when someone asked to hold her, or Jill needed to sleep and not be bothered. As soon as she was awake again, however, Ronnie had her in his arms.

  After supper, Angela put some warm water into the tub and let Ronnie wash Jill’s tiny body clean, then helped him get the hidden spots washed so he felt comfortable washing his daughters tiny female body. Ronnie tucked Jill in for the night in their room, then joined Angela and the girls in the living room for the evening. Angela wanted to hear the details about the trip to Universe Number Four, and every detail about the entities that lived there. Ronnie explained everything in detail. Frederica, Monica and Janet sat with their mouths hanging open most of the night. The girls had been aboard The Empress before, but they were always amazed at other universes and the entities that lived within them. Angela asked if Keith had paid him for the use of The Empress. Ronnie assured her that Keith had in fact paid for the trip. Angela asked how much, and Ronnie smiled and said, “Eight Galax.” Angela’s lips moved, her eyes moved around in their sockets as she calculated the value of U.S. Earth dollars to Galax. Then she got a huge smile on her face and said, “Ronnie that is in excess of eighty thousand dollars for two days work.” Ronnie said, “I do not work cheep you must realize, and the customer will easily recoup his expenses when he begins selling the new equipment.” Angela started to say more on the subject, but suddenly closed her mouth and sat quietly thinking.

  Ronnie let his wife think for a few minutes and went into the den to see if Frederica and Monica needed any help with their homework. Janet walked in as Ronnie was showing Monica how to finish a trig problem. She asked Ronnie if he would like a cup of coffee if she made some. Ronnie said he would have some with her, and they walked to the kitchen together.

  Ronnie asked Janet how Angela was doing with her dreams and if she had awakened them during the night. Janet said, “We girls are getting along just fine with the dreams and have found ways to keep Angela sleeping all night long.” Ronnie said, “Thank you sister,” but he got the impression he need not ask any more questions on the subject, so instead he asked about their plans for lunch tomorrow. Janet smiled and said, “I was hoping my brother would cook one of those Turkeys the grocery man delivered while you were putting Jill to sleep.” Ronnie agreed to cook lunch for the family. Then Janet said, “Brother, there may be something more important that the cooking of lunch tomorrow. Angela needs to get back to The Empress before she goes stir crazy. We love having her and Jill here with us, and we are going to miss holding Jill, but your wife has missed you more than you could ever imagine, and needs for you to take her home, very soon.” Ronnie looked at his sister and said, “Now I understand her quiet disposition when I was talking to her on the sofa a few minutes ago.” Janet said, “Is there any reason you could not teleport Angela and Jill home yet this night? If you ask her, I bet you will find her arms wrapped around your neck, and you will get kissed to death.” Ronnie took his sisters hand and said, “Thank you for talking with me, but I do not have time for that coffee tonight, can I take a rain check for another time?”

  Ronnie stood up, walked into the living room and sat down beside Angela who was reading a book. Ronnie touched Angela on the arm and said, “Wife, I have missed you terribly on The Empress this week. I was wondering if you and Jill would like to come home with me yet tonight. I asked Janet if she would mind, and she said she would miss us terribly, but she would understand if we went home early.” Angela turned to Ronnie and her eyes began to leak down her cheeks. She kissed him and hugged him hard. Then she stood up, and said, “Will you help me pack our things?” Ronnie stood up as Angela wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “I love Janet and the girls and do not understand why I need to be back at The Empress so badly, but I miss home something terrible.” Ronnie let her hug and cry on his shoulder until she stepped back, and said, “Let’s pack my friend, I am ready to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

  Angela started towards the bedroom, stopped, walked into the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Janet. Angela said, “Thanks for putting up with me this week, but I need to get home. I hope you can come and spend some time with us when you and the girls are free for a week or so. Ronnie and I will take you on some wonderful adventures, and let you diaper a tiny baby whenever you want. Thanks for helping me deal with my dreams while I was here with you. Your thoughts on dealing with the dreams are very good, and I think if I continue doing those things, I may be able to sleep all night in a few more weeks. Janet, I love you.”

  Angela turned herself around and quietly walked into their bedroom and began packing their things. Ronnie took the bags out onto the porch, and then returned to the kitchen and waited for Angela to put two drops of Misenall under Jill’s tongue and then take her own Misenall tablet. While they all talked and waited five minutes, Angela walked into the den and said goodbye to the girls. Ronnie had picked up Jill and had her asleep on his shoulder again by the time Angela stepped out onto the porch. Ronnie leaned down and kissed Frederica and Monica, then kissed Janet on the cheek. Ronnie looked Janet in the eyes and said, “Sister, I believe you were right and I love you.” Janet smiled and gently kissed Jill on the cheek. Ronnie kneeled down and let Frederica and
Monica also kiss Jill goodbye.

  When he stood up, he escorted Angela to the front porch, put the two bags between his legs and held onto Jill carefully. Angela put her hand on Ronnie’s shoulder and pushed the green button on her travel watch.