by Ken Pence
Andrew turned to UmBllatt. “You are curious how I know so much about this chart since you never gave us navigation learning cylinders – right? My MemDex has the chart in memory and can translate Trade into English and pronounce the names for me to repeat.”
“I understand MemDex but how do you know? How does it tell you?” UmBllatt asked because he did not hear any voice and did not see Andrew reading anything.
“This is common technology here.”
“I see we are going to have many more things to trade and I will need more ships,” UmBllatt said.
“...Or a bigger ship,” Brad said, thinking about the Odin that was to take part in the expedition after its shakedown trials.
“Here is where we have been thinking of going since you gave us the manual and we had your map. We are thinking of going as far as 250 light years, our years, from this planet. Where is the largest trading center near here? We think it is Bellatrix.” Andrew said and pointed at the star on the chart and then pronounced its name in Trade.”
“Yes. That is a good trading port. That is a good, safe area to go. There are many ES patrols so make sure you follow procedures in the manuals. Will you make any stops on the way? There are a few places I recommend,” UmBllatt said.
“We are thinking of going in this direction,” Brad indicated the route past Tau Ceti. We are going to do a return visit to the metal poor planet where we first met intelligent life. It had an eccentric orbit and would pass near the limits of the habitable zone around its G8 sun. It was moving from a cooler period to a warmer orbit for a thousand years at about 0.84 Astronomical Units (closer than Earth to Sol).
“We have never traded there as it was too marginal and this second system, you call Procyon 2, has never been fully explored. You will waste time looking for planets that do not hold intelligent life – they are too wild or dangerous. It takes too much time. You must get small explorer ships to chart them for you first. It is more efficient. This ale is good. Do you have more to trade? I like these containers it comes in too. They seem very effective,” UmBllatt said as he indicated to the first officer to refill his cup for the tenth time.
“Yes. We can get more for you,” Andrew said.
“Where did you get our machines?” Brad asked in a shocked tone.
“There are some on your planet that do not wish to limit trade through this base. There is limited communication with these beings. I can say no more on that topic. I know what is in the ES treaty. I know you can bar trade with a planet when representatives skip procedures. I realize that you are powerful though you are new. I have spoken to the ES Captain that initiated the original agreement with you and I suspect you are even stronger now.” UmBllatt said in a tone that sounded serious even in Trade.
“We are much stronger now and beings should not try to test the limits of our resolve,” Brad said.
“Let us get back to seriously drinking as traders should. This system,” he pointed to what was known as 68 Eridani, “...is dangerous but good to trade if you can get there and away safely. I usually do not bother but they sell weapons that are very good. Anyone can trade there if you have goods for goods. They do not trade for metals or knowledge. They want things for things. I think it is a very short-sighted attitude but I am a bit older than most and have a more conservative attitude,” the Captain said. “Ask my navigator. He has had some experience there.”
They checked off names and jointly rejected twenty possibilities. They decided on ten possible candidates but two were too much out of their way. There were 140 G stars similar to the Sol within 100 light years of Earth alone. It was looking like about a 565 light year round trip. It would take four months just to travel that distance with little time for trade between stops.
UmBllatt was very helpful and all the conversations were video recorded. They could replay their drinking binge later. Now they had to get back to their quarters and get out of this gravity. It had been lowered to 1.1 Earth’s gravity, for the length of their stay. Gravity was raised back to 1.25 Earth as soon as they left. Andrew and Brad both swallowed their anti-alc pills right before they left and wished UmBllatt and his officers a good evening. They promised to send complimentary carts of food for all UmBllatt’s crew as soon as they returned to their own quarters. They sobered rapidly as the anti-alc pills rendered the alcohol inactive.
Lieutenant Atassi met General Kyger as soon as they were out of sight of the Ullumff lodging area.
“Trouble,” Kyger asked.
“Probably, General...another incursion attempt in progress. We monitored that shadow with UmBllatt’s ship and lost the shadow somewhere near Jupiter. Sir. It seems your sealed orders had some effect.”
Brad said, “Let’s head to the command center. Andrew. I think we’re close on what we want to do with this trade – get consensus with your team on the trade – do us proud and I’ll handle this breach.”
“Will do, General...enjoyed the evening,” Andrew said and took his chart and findings back to his team.
Andrew and his staff worked until late weighing the respective merits of trade goods. “We should offer a large screen, high definition 3D system with camera for recording and ten documentaries in Trade for every teaching machine and cylinder set. We will offer one 3D window simulators for every star chart. We can start there and start throwing in produce to sweeten the deal. We have 100 of those window simulators we never got around to putting up.”
“What about the microwaves, flashlights and music players/recorders?” Susan asked.
“Steve, how about those manufacturing manuals? You looked them over didn’t you?”
“We have to get teaching machines, the manuals and charts. Anything else is gravy. How about the way they reacted to our catalogs in color? We can trade them a few of those plus the formula to produce the writable Riz.” Steve expounded on the question. “That made them pass gas.”
“Let’s get some rest,” Fran said. “Set your room regulator for 8 hours of sleep because it is only three hours until the meeting is due to start and we want to be fresh. They’ll be worn out without sleep and we’ll be fresh from our time in the stressed field environment. Let’s meet here in two hours normal.”
All nodded wearily and Andrew turned to Fran, “I still can’t get used to sleeping for a full eight hours and waking up an hour or so later. It sure beats my early college days.”
Brad needed eight hours sleep himself so he went to his quarters, turned down the temperature to hang meat, took a quick shower, set the gravity at 0.5 Earth normal and the relative time acceleration to ten. Ten times normal was the most these individualized habitats had been designed to perform. He’d spend about 50 minutes of local time to get eight hours of sleep. The alien quarters had the gravity, temperature, humidity, air speed and lighting adjustments but no time differential setup.
The Earth team assembled to prepare for the trade negotiations and General Kyger returned to the control room a new man in a crisp uniform.
Lieutenant Atassi had prepared some delicious coffee and received his summary briefing from his staff. It appeared that the shadow had been a second ship that had moved to positions blocked by Earth’s moon. The route of this second ship; had evidently been planned to follow a path blocked from the view of the sensor station on Mars and the two roving patrols. It wasn’t visible until those patrols changed their positions because of their sealed orders. The ship had been visible from the new unmanned, stealth sensors on the outskirts of the solar system. Brad was relieved by that fact, but he wouldn’t know until the ship stayed visible for over four hours. The unknown ship moved to a new heading and within an hour was undetectable by the Hermes but remained clearly visible to the second patrol ship and the outer system unmanned sensors. It was unerringly headed to Earth but was on too erratic a course to plot a landing zone.
General Kyger was none too pleased. He had narrowed the leaks so far to the crew of the Hermes and those they contacted. Kyger had ordered the intelligence se
ction to record all communications to and from the ships and communications centers. They were monitoring, discretely, the personnel at both ends of the communication pipeline. He watched the progress of the unknown ship as it moved toward Earth.
***
Andrew and team moved into the room where they had displayed all the trade goods. The aliens had arrived a bit earlier and were seeing how fast they could ingest the grape juice, fruits and breads. The station had provided more alfalfa pellets and soybeans that were being...appreciated in volume.
The Earth team also joined the breakfast eating pastries with honey, another favorite of the aliens. They seemed to know what that was but they were bumping each other out of the way to get to the hot, sweetened cocoa. No animal products and few preservatives was a current trend on Earth so it wasn’t as hard to acquire, as it would have been decades before. Interestingly – all food becomes local when you have a super inexpensive distribution system. Gasoline and diesel engines were still used in third world countries but even there; cheap electricity was taking its place now that the ultra-expensive electrical grid need not be built or maintained. Power generation was becoming local too. The new technology caused layoffs of millions of workers in one industry, oil production and its offshoots, but there was still a large need for petrochemicals for the chemical industry. Laid off workers in one field became retrained in installation and maintenance of distributed generation devices as well as repowered and retooled electronics. The new, self powered microwaves were just the tip of the iceberg in new products that were being introduced.
The teams finished eating and then the Earth team sat down across from the Ullumff on their props at a long conference table.
“You have the most experience in trade Captain,” Andrew said to UmBllatt. “Please begin like you would anywhere else.”
UmBllatt snorted. “You think this trade is like anywhere else. You are trying to be funny I think,” he said – snorted and expelled gas. His crew began snorting and passing gas too – it must be their equivalent of laughter. “Okay. I like this word okay. I will start.” He paused until the silence got uncomfortable. No one said anything and the room was deathly quiet. “We want all that we see. You obviously want all we have. We just need to decide what for what is good commerce for both. We have 100 translation devices with many cylinders. We want cameras and 3D viewing recording systems. We also have the history of trade and manufacturing cylinders,” he stated.
Andrew looked thoughtful. “We will give 50 of the 3D systems for those,” Andrew said.
“You insult me. I know that you manufacture these in vast quantities. I want 200.”
“The materials are costly and printing the control and manuals in Trade is costly...100,” Andrew said but realized these systems were dirt cheap to manufacture these days.
“Okay. One hundred systems but we want fifty cases of apples, in different varieties. You are on a distant planet,” UmBllatt said.
Andrew was quiet a long time like he was thinking it over and turned to Susan and Fran and spoke quietly. They nodded. Steve came over.
Andrew turned back to the Captain. “Okay...One hundred 3D systems with cameras and manuals plus fifty bushels of apples in different varieties for 100 teaching machines and cylinders. What’s next?”
“You say what you want this time,” UmBllatt said. “It is the custom.”
“Okay. I want all your manuals. What do you want for them?” Andrew asked.
The Captain turned to the first officer. They mumbled a few seconds and then turned back. “We want 100 window displays.” The Captain knew they would be a huge hit anywhere – even with that horrible water scene.
“Okay. I think we have that many,” he said turned to look for Lieutenant Atassi, but it was Steve who gave him a thumbs up. Atassi had evidently slipped away to the communications center. “We have enough. Your turn,” Andrew said but it sounded a bit different in Trade.
“We want the microwave ovens, flashlights and music player/recording systems,” UmBllatt said.
“We will trade you 25 self-powered microwave ovens and 100 of the flashlights and 100 of the music systems for all your star charts,” Andrew said.
“We want 100 of the microwave ovens and 200 each of the others” UmBllatt said.
“We only have 25 of the microwaves but 200 of the others is acceptable. If you will spend a day explaining the charts to us we will give you fifty liters of grape juice and a large quantity of peppers, fruits and grains like we have been serving for meals.”
“Including cocoa beverage and how to make Riz print in color then...okay,” the Captain said remembering the stunning catalogs. “How do you want to move the goods?”
“We have empty warehouse space down the hall. I will show you,” and spoke briefly into his MemDex. Suddenly the wide green line down the corridor displayed another wide yellow stripe beside it. The lighting and gravity had been adjusted to allow the Ullumff access to the warehouse space. Andrew was already having teams of workers move the agreed on items to be placed on one side of the huge warehouse. UmBllatt seemed unperturbed by the large expanse and bleated at his crew. It was obvious that he had ordered his crew to offload the merchandise. Ling quietly confirmed what UmBllatt had said. Andrew realized that he didn’t need to whisper because Ullumff had such acute hearing it was wasted effort.
Captain UmBllatt snorted when he heard the little Ling being, confirm to Andrew what he had told his crew. “What do you want to do about the outside the trade room trade?”
“What do you mean by that?” Andrew asked.
UmBllatt snorted again in obvious amusement. “Do you think my crew and your crew will not make private trades of their own? Is it forbidden?”
Andrew was at a loss. He hadn’t thought of that but it would most certainly happen. “Tell them to remember the rules about banned items, animals and drugs. If they trade any of those I will have them shoved out the airlock – without a suit,” Andrew said trying to sound stern.
“No need. I would do the same to my own...a good plan. I will tell my crew. Please send a sample of each trade item to my quarters,” UmBllatt said and walked away without waiting for a reply.
Ling came up to Andrew. “I think he’s serious. You were just kidding about the out the airlock without a suit weren’t you?”
“Not really. I was half joking but that could be a serious problem. I’ll talk it over with everyone. I want anyone who trades to let us know. They can keep the trade items IF they are safe. We might want similar items and don’t know what to ask traders to bring,” he said. “When you know nothing – everything becomes a learning experience.”
Andrew had his staff come in and move a sample of each item from the Ullumff to a separate room. He ordered them to start scanning the available star charts and the manuals that were available. He decided he’d try the history cylinder from one of the learning machines and took it into his office. He set the do not disturb on the door and inserted the cylinder, turned his time variance to a factor of ten. Twenty minutes later he emerged after three relative hours with the device. He now had a more detailed knowledge of this spiral arm. He realized how provincial the culture of Earth was as he tried to wrap himself around all the new concepts – alien concepts in morality and motivation. He decided he was glad we had met traders who were essentially evolved herbivores. Some of the carnivore, omnivore traders were scary. The one documented cephalopod analog species was just plain creepy. How could a species, engineer a suit where they could move and manipulate eight tentacles and still function?
Andrew was deep in thought and distracted as he walked toward the communications center. As he entered, he was amazed to see Tod Schroeder, Desiree Bardeen, and Joel Fredrickson talking with a group of officers around General Kyger. Tod, Desiree and Joel saw Andrew, Fran and Ling at about the same time and rushed over to greet them. There was a round of hugs, backslaps from all before anything much was said. “What have you folks been up to in that lab?” A
ndrew asked and then reconsidered. “How long was it for you over there? I haven’t seen you in almost three weeks?” Andrew realized the greeting was warmer than it should have been if only three weeks had gone by.
“It’s been almost three years for us,” Tod said with a grin – waiting for the implications to sink in.
Andrew sputtered,”...but that’s impossible. We’ve never gotten better than an acceleration factor of thirty before. That would be double that...how?”
Tod lifted up both palms and bowed slightly toward Joel. “Joel took Desiree and Fran’s idea of fields within field to a new level. We were working on a way to add shielding for Brad’s new ship, the Odin. It’s docked to the main base now. We...Joel...You tell him.”
Joel was obviously proud of his work. “We used a feedback method using quantum entanglement on the entire surface of the Odin. Any molecular disruptor just transfers that power to the core power unit. Instead of disrupting the force that holds matter together, the shield now transfers the projected disruption field into fermionic particles – it’s in the lepton group and generates electromagnetic power. That’s what we call things now – anyway.”
Andrew asked, ”Tod, do you really understand the principles behind these new abilities or are you just guessing?”
“We think we do. Lots of it still fits the old standard model for electricity. We even took a short, shakedown trip and the theory works. It is gratifying when any of our theories even loosely fit reality. We had a minimal crew learning their new jobs and most everything worked okay. We had the usual glitches to work out but the Odin could almost be duplicated with all the spare parts we carry on board. We broke down a few times but squared it away,” Tod explained.
“Brad, you didn’t say a word...traitor,” Andrew said and chuckled. “Go on Steve. You were explaining how the shield now produces energy from molecular disruptor fire...”
