Time Scope Part 2Chapter 9 A Startling Development
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Time Scope Part 2Chapter 19: A Modified Version Of The Truth free porn video
It was apparent that Paul’s mind had wandered off somewhere. He looked like I felt: pulled through a wringer. In a mild voice, I said, “We still have a bit to talk about, Paul.”
“Yes, we do. My mind is running around in circles right now, Jeb. I was picturing what the media might do with Directive 1495, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. What do you want to address first?”
“There is too much for us to discuss if we try to cover everything before tomorrow, so I suggest we limit it to three topics: long range plans for the negotiations, tomorrow’s reception of the Altairian’s delegation, and the first meeting with the President’s representatives. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like a full day of discussion to me, Jeb. However, I think we should limit our discussion of long range plans to the basics that need attention right now.”
“I agree. That was my intent. Hopefully, all we will need to do is hit the high points. Once the Altairians arrive and the first meeting is over, we can get into detailed discussions about our plans and the rest of the things we need to address.
“I suppose the easiest to address is tomorrow’s reception of the Altairians. Mary informed me of the general plan, but I haven’t heard what your plan is for greeting them, Paul.”
“My plan, Jeb? I understood this would be the Facilitators meeting the Altairian delegation. What do you want us to do to support you?”
“Ah ... I thought Earth was greeting them, not me personally. I don’t know where to even start, Paul. What is the normal protocol for something like this?”
“To start with, Jeb, nothing like this has ever happened that I can recall. But, if we treat it like a Diplomatic Reception, then our planning should probably begin with where the four shuttles are to land. From what I’ve been told, their approach is being worked out between the Altairians and the President. I was told there would be four shuttles. Their command shuttle will have their delegation on board. The remaining three shuttles will be support personnel, supplies, and equipment.
“The first thing we need to determine, Jeb, is where you and your ladies will be standing when you meet the Altairians. Mike, Aaron, and I will stand behind your party. Mike’s people can form an honor guard for their delegation to pass through. We can determine where their Command Shuttle needs to land from that information. The President informed me they will be accompanied by an unarmed escort; therefore, our honor guard should also be unarmed. I suspect their escort will exit and form up as an honor guard for their delegates to pass through. Mike will have to leave enough space between his peoples’ lines for them to form their lines. I expect their representatives to pass through their lines and greet you. After the initial meeting, I would expect you to invite all of us back into the house. Once there, they will want to talk with you about whatever. After that, we can all relax and get to know each other.
“Their support shuttles are another matter. Will the subsequent meetings be held here on the farm or elsewhere?”
“I’m planning on here. If we need more space, then we will make other arrangements.”
“Okay, then the first thing to decide is the number of delegates that will attend each meeting and where on the farm the meeting is to be held?”
I said, “Madge, get on your computer and tell me how many countries there are in the world.”
“Jeb, if I might make a suggestion. I would only include delegates from nations that are members of the United Nations. I happen to know there are slightly under two hundred member nations in the UN. If we assume two delegates per nation, probably one in favor of the agreement and one opposed to it, we will have less than four hundred delegates plus their support personnel.”
“Forget it, Madge. Four hundred sounds good for planning purposes.
“Alright, Paul, if we assume one support person per delegate, we can give each delegate a five-foot folding table and two chairs. With a bit of space between tables, we will need an area around one hundred and fifty feet wide and three hundred feet deep. That should be adequate for their tables and chairs, and a stage for my people and staff.
“Madge, start a list of supplies that we will need. So far I think we will need a circus tent big enough to cover a one hundred and fifty foot by three hundred foot area, four hundred and fifty folding tables, and nine hundred folding chairs. Oh yeah, add in porta-potties also.”
Paul asked, “Why so many extra tables and chairs, Jeb?”
“My people will need some, and I can give the media a few for their use. We can adjust the number needed as our plans become more detailed. Madge, add a second small tent for the media.
“Mike is on the north side of the house, Paul, so let’s make the large area to the south of the house our meeting area. The only other area suitable for the Altairian party is the far northern patch on the other side of Mike’s people. Should we move Mike’s people to the far north area and locate the shuttles closer to the house?”
“Humm ... no, I don’t think so, Jeb. For security purposes, it would probably be better to have Mike’s people between their living area and the general meeting area and especially the media’s area, which I assume will be near the delegates’ meeting area.”
I asked, “Won’t that leave the perimeter of the Altairian’s living area exposed, Paul?”
“No, Jeb. Mike’s people will be patrolling the entire perimeter of your farm. They will protect the Altairian camp, and I would expect the Altairians will also post a guard detail. That should probably be one of the topics for tomorrow’s discussion with their representatives. If things go well tomorrow, you might want to suggest that the Altairian escort be armed with personal weapons just in case someone gets through Mike’s people. It would be a disaster if some armed idiot were to attack an unarmed Diplomatic party.
“I’ll have Mike mark the four shuttle landing locations with orange cones, if you can give me the dimensions of their shuttles. He can have several of his people act as wing-walkers to direct the shuttles to the landing areas. Once they are down, their support people can set up their camp, and the Command Shuttle can move to its parking location later.
“Now what are you going to do about the media that shows up to cover the Altairians’ arrival?”
“Media? As far as I know, neither we nor the President has divulged where the Altairians will land. Until then, the media shouldn’t know where to go.”
“Jeb, I’ve met a few guys who are in the FBI and CIA. They told me that they wished their intelligence gathering capability was as good as that of the American media. By now, I suspect the American media knows the Altairians will land somewhere in the Seattle area. The presence of a company of US soldiers here on your farm is going to get out. The media will add two plus two, and decided to pay you a visit sometime today. Once they decide your farm is where the Altairians will land, every reporter on the planet interested in covering their arrival will be headed to Seattle.”
“Okay, Paul. It’s evident that the media will be here. How should we handle them?”
“With disposable gloves, Jeb. But I suppose that would depend on whether you wanted them friendly toward you.”
“Let’s go with friendly for now. We can always do hostile later, if necessary.”
“Okay, Jeb, set up a tent for them near Mike’s people well away from where you will put the circus tent. Feeding them would be nice; but if it were me, I wouldn’t feed them. Let them go into town to eat. In fact, I wouldn’t cater to them at all, other than giving them the use of a tent and a few tables and chairs during the meetings. If Earth’s government representatives get upset with your media arrangements, you can always tell them that the media is not subject to your schedule and security concerns, so the media can come and go at will.”
“What about room reservations for the President’s representatives?”
Paul paused for a few moments and then with a rather large smile on his face, he said, “The politicians the President will send are big boys who are quite capable of taking care of themselves. They almost always do a good job of that, so I suspect they have rooms booked by now. If not, they can always stay in the Bachelor Officers Quarters at Lewis-McCord and commute between there and here. I doubt they will want to stay in a tent with us military types.
“I don’t know about you and your ladies, Jeb, but other than coffee, you four haven’t eaten breakfast and Aaron and I managed to choke down some cold MREs around five this morning. If there is a good breakfast spot around here, I’ll buy. Although, considering the time, we might consider an early lunch.”
Looking at Alicia, I asked, “Eat in or go out?”
Alicia responded with, “Everything considered, it would probably be better for us to go out. The Denny’s in Everett is about a fifteen-minute drive, and I think they have a dining area for group meetings, so we can talk while eating. If Paul is right, it is already too late to keep everything secret, so if our servers pick up on what we are discussing, it shouldn’t hurt things.”
“I guess we will be eating out, Paul. Denny’s okay with you and Aaron?”
“Sure, our families eat there frequently back home.”
“Might I suggest we take Mike with us. He will need to be aware of what is going to happen tomorrow and the day after that.”
“Good idea, Jeb. It would probably be a good idea also if the three of us are in civvies, so give us about thirty minutes to find our bags and change; then we will be ready to go.”
Thirty minutes later, we left. I drove Paul and Alicia to Denny’s and on the way, Alicia fulfilled her duties as my navigator. Phyllis took Madge, Aaron, and Mike in her car. Aaron said he would fill Mike in on our current plans for the Altairians’ arrival tomorrow during the trip.
An hour later, we were seated in an unused portion of Denny’s dining area. We had our coffees in front of us and had given Katie, our server, our orders.
“Paul, for now, I think we should focus on the structure of the first and second sets of meetings rather than their content.”
“Yes, that would probably be for the best.
“If we plan on two Altairians, twelve Presidential representatives, and the four of you Facilitators for the first meeting, it may be crowded, but you should be able to meet in your house, Jeb. The representatives’ support people can fit in where ever there is room.
For the second set of meetings, Jeb, I would say you should set a maximum limit of two delegates per country, as you mentioned earlier; one for and one against the agreement. You should also set a limit of one support person per delegate.”
Madge beat me to it when she asked, “Why do we need to do that?”
“Well, two delegates per nation are enough to present their country’s two viewpoints. The types of people who will be delegates are influenced by their cultures, and a lot of them are on ego trips. If there is no limit set for support staff, they will want twenty or more support people to impress the other delegates with how important they are.”
Phyllis asked, “How many support people are really needed, Paul?”
“I would say two to four, Phyllis. The more complex the issues become the larger the support staff necessary to keep each delegate on track. I get by with just Arron, but I’m not a policymaker. If I were, I would need more than one aide.”
I thought about it and said, “The second meeting will be focused on giving the delegates information, and the delegates won’t need a large staff. What do you think of two delegates per nation with each delegate having two support people for the second meeting? We can go with the same number of delegates for the third meeting, but increase their support personnel to four or possibly five, if needed.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Jeb. However, I would start out presenting it as one support person per delegate for the second meeting and two for the third. During next week’s meeting, the President’s representatives will want more support people than you suggest, so you can give them more without exceeding the maximum you want them to have.”
“Sounds good to me, Paul. Did you get that down, Madge?”
“Got it, Jeb. That sounds like the strategy I recommend to my clients when negotiating the sale or purchase of a home.”
Arron said, “Sounds like you are a real estate agent, Madge.”
“Yes, I have my own business in Kenmore.”
“I guess the President’s people will be going up against a pro, Paul.”
Madge said, “Now don’t try to soften me up for them, Arron. I side with Jeb for these meetings and he will get my best effort.”
I said, “Hey you two, we don’t want this to become an adversarial relationship. I want us to work with the President’s people.”
Paul said, “I agree, Jeb. But, I don’t think Arron or Madge meant it that way.”
“I know. I think he was teasing Madge and she took it that way.
“Alright, it seems as if we fully covered the basics of tomorrow’s reception of the Altairian’s delegation.”
Phyllis asked, “Jeb, we will need to feed our guests. Can they eat the same food as we do?”
Mary said, “Jeb, the Altairians are human the same as you are. They eat the same types of food as Earth people eat, although a few of your dishes will probably be new to them. An assortment of sandwich fixings and side dishes will be more than adequate for tomorrow.”
“Good point, Phyllis. Mary just told me, sandwich fixings and side dishes should be fine for lunch tomorrow. I think we should plan on a sit-down dinner for tomorrow night. For the day after that, we will need to have a caterer supply a buffet luncheon for the first meeting. I’m thinking of a light buffet meal with an initial spread of pastries, a fruit bowl, and drinks for our guests.”
Madge was taking notes on her laptop, so she jotted that down.
“Madge, Phyllis, arrangements for a caterer is an action item for the two of you to address. Any other minor items that we overlooked?”
After waiting a few moments, I said, “Well if anyone thinks of something later, let us know. Now, what are we to do in this first meeting with the President’s representatives?
“Alicia, if you will link with Mary for this discussion and let us know what she thinks, I’ll just coordinate everything while Madge takes notes.”
Phyllis smiled and said, “Looks like I don’t have anything to do, Jeb.”
“Yes you do, Phyllis. Alicia will be presenting the Altairian viewpoint and Paul will represent the President’s, so that leaves you to represent our viewpoint as Facilitators.”
“Me, I thought you were going to do that.”
“I’ll help.
“Which brings me to two questions regarding the meetings: First, how much power will we, as the Facilitators, have to make decisions, and second, how will we enforce our decisions?”
Paul said, “That is a question that you will need to address in the first meeting.
“At first, you will have very little power other than what the President gives you in her instructions to her representatives, and your position as the Altairians’ moderators.
“The terms agreed to in the meeting are what will give you your power in that and subsequent meetings. Be sure that those terms define what you can do with and without justification.”
Madge said, “That doesn’t sound proper to me. We should be accountable for our actions, and we should not be doing something without justification.”
“Yes, you’re correct, Madge,” Paul said. “You shouldn’t do something without justification; that is not proper in our society. Unfortunately, Earth has societies that will use your sense of fair play against you. As a Facilitator, you will find yourselves in situations where a decision is needed and you don’t have the facts to justify your decision. Furthermore, keep in mind that as the Facilitators, you cannot justify your decision once you announce the decision. You would lose the respect of many delegates, and then you would have difficulty controlling the meeting. It is acceptable, however, to briefly mention why you are making a decision when you announce it. You know, something like We agreed to X, Y, and Z Mr. Delegate. You violated X therefore you are expelled from these negotiations.”
“Ah, I see what you mean, Paul.”
“I don’t think there will be any need to enforce a decision in this first set of meetings. However in subsequent meetings, you will need a Sergeant-at-Arms. I am quite certain that Mike can supply six or eight large, capable Rangers to fill your need. True, Mike?”
“Oh, yes. The hard part will be to ensure the delegates aren’t harmed in the process of being escorted out of the meeting. My guys aren’t trained to wear velvet gloves, and no one has issued them a pair either.”
I said, “If I understand you correctly, Paul. You think this first meeting will be us simply sitting down and deciding on things like an agenda for the second and third meetings, number of delegates and support people, the future meetings’ protocols, and similar items.”
“Yes, that is probably a close assessment of what you will need to discuss with the President’s people, Jeb. What about the Altairians, Alicia?”
“Mary said that sounded about right to her. She did suggest two things for the second meeting. The first is that when we invite the nations to send delegates, we also provide them with a briefing paper that describes why the Altairians believe this Alliance Agreement will be a good thing for our planet. That should help expedite the second meeting. The second is we need to define a means for the delegates to notify us of whether they want to meet with us to negotiate an agreement. In other words, how are we to decide if a third meeting is necessary?”
Paul said, “Both sound like good suggestions, Alicia. What did Mary mean by how will we decide if a meeting should be held. It seems clear that a majority of the nations should be the deciding factor.”
“She suggested a couple of other ways to make that decision, Jeb. One way is to use a weighted voting system by adjusting the weight of each nation’s vote based on world population. A second weighting factor could be the level of manufactured goods each nation produces. Those weighting factors would give some countries more say in the decision than others. She said, she can think of other weighting factors that could be used to make the decision, like the average citizen’s education level.”
I said, “Let’s not go there right now, Alicia. We can discuss things like that in our meeting the day after tomorrow.”
“True, but Mary asked if the US should be making that type of decision for all of Earth. Shouldn’t we decide that in the second meeting?
I responded, “Yes, I think she’s right. The second meeting is the right time to do that.”
By the time we finished discussing the first set of meetings, we had finished the meals our server Katie had brought us. She had also made several trips back to replenish our water glasses and coffee mugs. When she brought the check, I told Paul his money was no good. I explained that this was part of the effort that the Altairians had arranged for us to pay for. I really wasn’t thinking when I said that to Paul; for Katie was standing beside me at the time.
Katie’s eyes went wide and she asked, “Are you talking about the aliens up in orbit?”
Me and my big mouth! “Er ... yes.”
“I was sort of curious about the bits and pieces I heard when I brought you more water and coffee. I thought you were like my other customers who have been talking about the Altairians. There have been a lot of guesses about what was going on. I thought you were just talking in general about what might be happening. But you were planning the meetings. Weren’t you?”
Paul just shrugged his shoulders when I looked at him, then he said, “Well, if the cat wasn’t out of the bag, it is now.”
I turned to Katie and said, “Yes, Katie, that is what we were doing.”
I glanced at Alicia as I handed Katie my credit card, and I asked, “Well, Alicia, do we need to beam Katie up to the spaceship like the others?”
Katie jaw dropped open in shock and Alicia quickly said, “He’s just teasing you, Katie. We haven’t beamed anyone up to the spaceship. In fact I don’t think the Altairians have a Star Trek transporter. And for you, Mr. Connor, you can just give this woman a real good tip for putting up with your scaring her half to death.”
“Okay, Alicia. In fact, we may be able to go one-step further. Katie, if you will go run my card, I want to ask Paul about something.”
As Katie left, I turned to Paul and said, “I like to control things that happen around me, Paul, if I can do it. You said the media would probably be coming out to our place sometime later today. What if we suggest to Katie that she sell my name and the fact that we have a farm just off Lowell Snohomish River Road just a bit northwest of Snohomish to the local press? I’m guessing they will be out there within two hours.
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