Opening Earth Part 1Chapter 6
- 2 years ago
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Matt and I were up early the next morning for we knew Yarl and his crew were eager to complete the installation and get back to Vora. I think they were worried that their food would somehow become contaminated by sugar and turn them into sugar addicts. Things didn’t work that way, but many fears are often totally unreasonable.
We needed more drivers than I thought, so Matt, Mary, Bill, Sue, and I went into Greely and picked up the rental equipment that Matt had reserved. With Carla and Ken’s help, the seven of us should be able to drive the trucks around the perimeter, operate the cherry picker and forklift, and translate for Yarl and his crew. At least no one objected to my driving this time. The one thing that I found odd was not calling Ken, Kenneth.
We had defined one of our eight-office portables to be our Security Headquarters, so the control equipment for the detection system and force field would be installed in one of the portable’s offices. A second office was Bill’s office, and the rest of the offices were used by his security people. This was one of our larger portables, so it also had two restrooms, a kitchenette, and a good-sized lobby. Yarl used it as his field office while he was with us.
While I was busy helping with the installation, Sereine showed Misty where her medical portable and mobile home were located. She also took Misty back to Wayside to get the storage containers containing her medical equipment and supplies.
Yarl’s first task was to install the energy broadcast system on the broadcast tower that was installed near the utility buildings. While one group was doing that, a second group installed the perimeter detection control center equipment.
Their next task was to verify that the perimeter detection towers and rover shelters were ready to receive equipment. Once that was done, they started installing equipment on the perimeter’s detection towers. Initially, Yarl had two two-man teams installing the equipment on the towers. It only took three hours to do each tower, but there were a lot of towers.
When the broadcast tower equipment installation was complete, that crew started installing the rovers, the rover charging units, and other equipment in the rover shelters. Once installation of the perimeter defense system’s equipment was complete, Yarl and his crew had to align the power transmission heads on the energy broadcast system’s tower with the receiver heads on the perimeter detection towers and rover shelters. The final task for the outer defense perimeter was a final system test to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to work.
This last trip created a problem for me that interfered with my expanding my current Embassy staff. I had a plan for bringing my security staff and their families to Earth that was established based on the availability of housing and our ability to provide a safe environment. My having to bring my new people to Earth earlier than planned disrupted the housing plan. We would shortly have a safe environment, but there was no longer any available housing for the rest of my security force. I had tasked Matt with ordering additional mobile homes and he had talked with William and Jack about additional pads. I suppose I should handoff the coordination of the construction details to Bill since he had handled them previously, but I needed to think on that for Bill already had a lot of work to do.
I knew that we needed decent Multiverse medical care for my people. I had planned bringing in a doctor and have the doctor care for my current staff. That part of my planning was destroyed by my staff of about twenty growing to almost fifty people. It was evident that Misty needed a staff of nurses and medical technicians to assist her. Having those people join us now meant additional housing.
Considering the circumstances, Bill’s security staff had been adequate for our needs. However, providing security for fifty people, and Kendrick’s insistence that I have additional bodyguards, meant I needed to bring in a few more of our Multiverse Security Guards. I thought the remainder of the single people who were interested in being bodyguards and a few of the married couples without children would workout good, especially for Mac’s wife Martha. Of course, that also increased our need for additional housing.
One evening during the installation, I talked with Mary about running the warehouse for my business to see if she was ready to start on that. She was, so I would have to find warehouse staff on my next trip to the Multiverse. Until then, she could continue setting up the portables we would be using as our temporary warehouse. More staff meant more housing.
Betty and Carol did a good job feeding all of us, but it was a big job for them. I was thinking about more kitchen staff to help them, when it occurred to me that with everyone in their own mobile homes, most of my staff would be cooking for themselves. Now Betty and Carol would only have to cook for our family and the occasional guest. My wives had been busy taking care of a house containing over twenty people. Now there were only five people in the house. What if they got bored from practically nothing to do? Oh well, I’ll deal with it later if it becomes a problem. At least we didn’t need even more staff that I would have to house.
I really needed to discuss the need for additional housing with Matt and Bill. Matt and I had made an estimate of how many additional homes would be needed for the new people. However, we failed to identify the total number of people we would actually need at our temporary location between now and the time the main Embassy building was completed. The alternative to installing a larger number of additional mobile homes was to not increase the staffing at this time, but we really needed additional people in many areas.
Our current mobile homes and portables were spread out over a fairly large area. Sergei had suggested that we install six force field towers to provide adequate coverage. I had spoken with Yarl at the start of the installation about our expanding our housing by adding more mobile homes. He looked over the area we would be adding to the expanded area and he told us he could cover the additional area by increasing the distance between the force field towers and adding two additional towers. I agreed and Yarl had his crew do the modifications to our force field perimeter, to include installing some additional towers. These towers were the ones that were going to be installed on the roofs of the inner perimeter guard posts and they did not require pads. Yarl could move them as needed and we still had additional towers.
Matt, Bill, and I had a meeting to generate an accurate count of the additional mobile homes we needed to install, to make sure our revised space estimate was correct. Then, I could give Yarl an accurate estimate of how much additional area would be needed within the area to be protected by the force field. He may have to add more than two additional towers to provide adequate coverage, if the area was larger than I thought it would be.
The three of us held our meeting and forwarded the information regarding the total number of mobile homes and pads we would need to William. He would discuss it with Jack and get back to us. I decided to split the construction supervision between Matt and Bill. It looked like they would have additional construction to coordinate. We let Yarl know of our decision to enclose the additional area. Matt would order the additional mobile homes and portables.
Matt smiled when I assigned that task to him. I got a good laugh from everyone when I told Matt that I thought he just liked to irritate the salesman by calling them mobile homes instead of manufactured homes. Now all I had to do was figure out the best way to tell Rita that she needed to furnish even more mobile homes and portables.
Yarl and I marked the area that we would need protected with a couple of those marking stakes with flags, and he updated the plan for installing the towers for the additional force field generators. Fortunately, the equipment Harry shipped to Sergei was for the Embassy Compound installation, so we had more force field generators than we actually needed for our temporary living area.
While Yarl and Dan were conducting the final test of the outer perimeter detection system, the rest of Yarl’s crew started installing the force field system. Yarl had increased the number of force field towers from six to eight, and then increased it to twelve. With twelve towers, he decided to maintain the tower spacing at the original distance.
Now that we had an operable outer perimeter detection system and would shortly have a defensive force field to protect us, I felt that it would be safe to start bringing in the additional people we needed, once the living places to support them were in place.
Altogether, it required more than an Earth month for Yarl and his crew to install and checkout both systems. At the end of the final week, which was mainly testing, Bill and his security people were happy with the system. The pressure of providing a secure area using just guards was over. Now we had a high tech defensive installation. I would have to check with Sergei to confirm that Yarl let him know of the additional equipment installed at our temporary living site. He would have to increase his order of replacement equipment for installation of the Embassy Compound’s inner defense system. At least the outer perimeter installation was complete with the exception of reorienting certain components, when we moved the control center to the new Embassy.
Yarl and his crew were happy to complete the job. They could now return to Vora and their families. Once Dan hopped them off of Earth, they would not have to worry about sugar. They were very eager to leave.
Once they had left, most of us took a break, and only did what was absolutely necessary. Monday of the week after Yarl and his crew left, I convened a meeting of my key advisers. I had told them about the meeting and its agenda, last week.
“As I said last week, this meeting is to review where we are, and where we want to be in the future. As you all know, my long-term goal is for Earth to join the Multiverse. However, I doubt that will happen in my lifetime. What I would like to do today, is to define a series of short- and mid-range goals that will eventually lead to Earth joining the Multiverse as a Provisional Member World.
“Personally, I think developing trade between Earth and the Multiverse will be the best way to convince Earth’s governments and citizens that applying for Provisional Membership will be the best course of action for them to pursue. The Embassy’s charitable activities will also help us to reach that goal, but they are not going to be enough to swing public opinion far enough to convince Earth’s people to take action. I have noticed that humanity, both here and in the Multiverse, always asks ‘What’s in it for me?’ I think our short- and mid-term goals need to keep that in mind. Our approach needs to give the average man a reason to support applying to the Multiverse for membership.
“Does anyone see things differently?”
Looking around the table I could see no one had anything to say. Matt and I had talked before the meeting about Kim. We agreed that including her in this meeting was a risk, but we also knew that we would need her in the future. If she used what she learned in this meeting in a detrimental manner, we would know we could not trust her with some of the more sensitive information that I wasn’t ready to share with her. The other part of the problem was, if we couldn’t trust her, what would we do with her?
“For the first part of this meeting, I want to define where we are today. To save time, I will add my tasks, status, and goals to our plans after the meeting, and we can review everything during our next full meeting.
“Matt, tell us about what you have been doing and the status of your efforts.”
“My part in arranging the presentation of your credentials and getting the first batch of mobile homes and portables ordered and installed is complete. Do you want me to include the expansion of our living space as part of this status?”
“No. I think we should address that as if it were part of our future effort.”
“I talked with William and he thinks the main Embassy building will be ready for occupancy in a little over a year and a half from now. The rest of the compound will take another six to eight months to complete. For this area, I made an estimate of how many people will be joining us during the coming year and we ordered a second batch of mobile homes. Our meeting last week changed that number, so I will be increasing that order’s quantity, and William will be modifying the drawings he was preparing for submission to the building department.
“Jack got the building permit a couple of weeks ago, and so the construction of the Embassy Compound is officially underway. Of course we started digging holes two months ago. If we use our official start date we are two months ahead of schedule. Using the date we started digging holes, the construction is on schedule or slightly ahead of the original schedule. William tells me it’s difficult to get a good status, as Jack Tander has started a few activities earlier than their scheduled start date. However he also said, the exact percentage of completion is not that important this early in the construction schedule. He indicated that the percentage of completion relative to the schedule would become more important to him during the middle and final third of the construction period.
“Abby is still in the process of defining and arranging for support staff for her new position, and I have been helping her with that. That covers most of the current tasks I have been working on, Doug.”
Looking at Mary, I said, “Where are you on your warehouse tasks?”
“I received the storage racks I ordered before our last Multiverse trip. Bill loaned me two of his security people who are in the process of assembling them and securing them to the floor of our warehouse portables. They should be finished with that task in two days.
“I set up the warehouse computer and installed the software for ordering and tracking inventory. Once all the racks are installed, I will be ready for someone to hop all of the storage shelters of merchandise down from Wayside, so we can inventory the contents and allocate rack space for the various items.”
“Good job, Mary, but out of curiosity, how are you tracking an item’s location?”
“I assigned numbers to the portables and to each rack in the portables. I used masking tape to divide the 8-foot shelves into zones one foot wide. The shelves are assigned letters from top to bottom and the zones are numbered from left to right. Therefore a storage location like 3-12-C4 means Portable number 3, Rack 12, Shelf C, and Zone 4. When we move into the warehouse, we can use the same numbering system, simply by eliminating the Portable’s number.
“As I said, I’m not ready to start unpacking storage containers, but when I am, I would like to have about six of the new people who want to learn the warehousing business, to help with the unpacking. The quicker the new people learn English the easier it will be for the manager of my warehouse operation to train them in that profession, but I still need to find and hire someone for that position.”
That sounds good, Mary. Bill, where are you in your tasks?”
“Well, as Matt said, you have presented your credentials so my part in that effort is finished, and so is my part in the construction of our current living area. Although I am helping Matt with the expansion of our living area when needed. I started defining the Embassy Security Group’s structure and I started writing a Security Department Policies and Procedures Manual, but that’s still just a rough outline.
Moving on to the next topic, I said, “Tammy told everyone about being licensed to carry energy weapons in the Multiverse. While we were on Slave World, Tammy made arrangements for our Earth security personnel to go through the energy weapon training that Chairman Smart provided. They were issued their energy pistols, but for now we left their pistols and energy rifles on Wayside.
“Bill, I think that up to now stun guns have been adequate for our security personnel. I don’t see the Security Guards needing energy weapons in the near future. However, we should have them available for when they are needed, so I want you to order several lockable gun cabinets or racks and install them in the Security Portable. Once that’s done, we will bring their weapon here and everyone can store their energy weapons in the weapons’ storage area. I will leave it up to you to determine if my bodyguards need to carry energy weapons on the ranch or when we go to town.
“Oh, and one other thing, Bill, I talked with Sergei’s D-Hopper about why they carried both energy rifles and pistols. He said his people had gotten into the habit of stacking their weapons during their rest period when hopping. At one of their stops, some of the local carnivores attacked them and they were lucky that someone was able to get to their weapons and kill the beasts before someone was hurt. On this last trip, I noticed that we are starting to develop a similar habit once we feel the area is safe. I think we need to carry energy pistols in addition to energy rifles when we are hopping, and we need to be more alert to local hazards that we may not be aware of being present.”
“Alright, Doug, both ideas make sense to me. Carrying energy weapons here on Earth is one of the things I wanted to discuss with you. I agree the Security Guards don’t need to carry energy weapons at this time, but I would like for your bodyguards to start carrying energy pistols in addition to stun guns when they accompany you in public. Their stun guns will be the preferred weapon, but if they need additional firepower, they will have it. I also want them to have energy rifles stored somewhere in their vehicles.
“The building permit for our temporary housing area has been signed off, so that effort is complete. Jack Tander obtained the building permit for the Embassy Compound. I talked with Matt and William about the additional pads. The manager of the Weld County Building Department is still very cooperative and let me know that there would be no problem getting a permit for the necessary expansion.
“I was talking with Matt about the vehicles we have on order. Most of them will be for my group, but Matt suggested I consider armoring some of the other vehicles. I’ll look at that again and define what the Embassy needs immediately, and define what we will need in the near future.
“Except for the items I mentioned and a few minor tasks, everything I’ve been working on is on schedule or complete.”
“Okay, Sue, where are you in your tasks?”
“Up until recently, I have been helping Bill with the tasks you gave him. For the past two weeks, I have been researching what will be needed to sell medical equipment and medications in the US and other countries. In my spare time, I have been thinking about how to organize the Analysis Department. I need some clarification to proceed with the research and defining my department.”
“Okay, let’s wait on that until we get to near future goals. Sereine, do you have anything?”
“Yes. I obtained some policy and procedure documents that were prepared for a Trade Check Point on a Provisional Member World. Many parts of the documents are applicable to Earth. Although I will need to adapt, delete, or create new sections for those that do not apply to Earth, as written. I talked with Carl about this while I was on Vora.
“There is nothing for the police officers who will be assigned to the Embassy’s Trade Check Point to do, right now, and I won’t need them until the traders start doing business on Earth. However, Carl thinks it would be a good idea for me to staff their positions early. He said I could use them to help me prepare for business, and they will need time to get acclimated to the area. I will need to get them identification cards; and you will need to do whatever, to have them hired by your Security Company.
“There is one point that Carl and I discussed, and that’s in addition to being the Ambassador. You are also a trader. Your company’s current trade should be going through my Trade Check Point. Unfortunately, we aren’t ready to perform that function. I am considering bringing in one or two people to help me with defining the policies and procedures; so we can test our policies and procedures using your trade activity.”
“Thanks, Sereine. I had sort of forgotten that I created the Security Guard Company. I suppose I should formalize it as part of my Earth businesses. I also have the Bullion Trading business that Slim and I set up in Boston. I will need to get a couple of accountants and lawyers for those businesses.”
No one else had been assigned tasks that needed a status report, so I asked if anyone had something to add. It surprised me and most of the others, when Kim raised her hand.
“Doug, I have a couple of articles finished. Do you have time to look them over before I submit them to the paper?”
“Sure. Bring them to my office after the meeting. I will be happy to read them for you. Would you mind if Matt reads them also?”
“Sure! I’d welcome his opinion, also.”
While we had been talking, Cindy had been taking notes. We would have to update our action item list, later. I would have to have her add a couple of items that popped into my mind while we were talking.
“Alright, if there is nothing further for current and completed tasks, let’s move onto future goals.
“Matt, let’s start with the expansion of our current living space.”
“In last week’s meeting, we revised our estimate of the number of people to be brought to Earth in the near future. We revised our estimate of the additional mobile homes and portables we would need in order to house all of the people we want to bring here in the next year and the number we will need to alleviate our current crowding. I placed the order for the additional mobile homes and portables with the manufacturer, William started on plans for the addition, and Phyllis will consult with Jack Tander for his input for a cost estimate and get back to us. Phyllis estimated that the addition should be complete within two months of starting the construction.
“The mobile home and portable manufacturer will need at least six months to build all of our new units. I made two arrangements with him. The first is to build the mobile homes before starting on the portables. The second is to install the new mobile homes as soon as they are finished rather than wait until the order is complete like we did last time. Hopefully, that will allow us to start bringing key people to Earth within the next two or three months; it should also help alleviate the crowding.”
“Thanks, Matt. Does anyone have any additional tasks that they are working on that need to be addressed?”
Bill said, “I am going to need some help with developing my policies and procedures manual. We need to define the level and type of security needed for the ranch and within the Embassy compound. It would probably be a good idea to set up a series of meetings to discuss what will be needed and to review the policies I will need to establish for the Embassy. I may also need help with creating the procedures for implementing the policies.
“Alright, Bill, just let us know when you need your meetings, who needs to be there, and the subject matter. I will have Cindy schedule them. Anyone else?”
Sue said, “I plan to start a similar effort for my Analysis Group, and I will also need to start staffing my key positions.”
“Okay. Cindy, add those items to of list of things that need to be reviewed in our status meetings. Anyone else?”
Looking around the room I could not see any hands in the air, so I said, “For the rest of our meeting, I would like to define and discuss the goals and tasks that need to be completed in preparing Earth for joining the Multiverse as a Provisional Member World. For our discussion, let’s refer to a goal as a task. The idea is to assign each task we identify to one of three plans: a Five-Year Plan, a Ten-Year Plan, and an Over Ten-Year Plan.
“The Five-Year Plan will include all of the tasks that we plan to start within the next five years. For each task, we need to assign a person to be responsible for the task, and we will also need a best guess assessment of the task’s staffing requirements and its expected duration. Once we have the tasks identified, the person assigned to the task will need to develop a task description, an initial approach to completing the task, and a schedule. Keep in mind that we are making an initial task assessment that will probably be modified before the task is even started.
“For the Ten-Year Plan, I would like to see a listing of the tasks we will start five to ten years from now. It isn’t necessary to assign a person to manage the task and we don’t need staffing or duration estimates, but we do need a brief task description. I also want to list these tasks in the order we think they will be started.
Our Over Ten-Year Plan will be a listing of the tasks we know we will not be starting for at least ten years. It isn’t worth the time and effort for us to do more than just list the tasks and write a brief description, so that should minimize the effort we need to expend in preparing that plan.
“Alright, rather than going around the room, does anyone have any tasks that will be fairly easy to complete?”
I could see Sue’s hand go up. “Go ahead Sue, what are your tasks?”
“During this last trip to the Multiverse, I worked on defining the Analysis Department. I have a basic organizational structure blocked out and am ready to start staffing the positions. The one area of your current effort that really needs looking at closer, is your agreement with Amir to support the medical needs of the African countries. I would like to find one or two people to support me with looking into this matter. I will need people with special training in analysis, so I thought of my former Homeland Security boss, Charlie Stoddard. I called him and during our conversation he mentioned there is something going on with his boss’s bosses. There have been a few questions sent to his boss regarding him and some questions were also sent to Alan’s boss.
“It’s not clear why, but the questions are about their involvement with you and the diamonds you imported from the Multiverse. Charlie told me that Kim’s newspaper article and the State Department’s report to the Justice Department had shot down Senator Belton’s accusations. Since his accusations are no longer valid, why are Charlie and Alan’s superiors asking these questions?”
I was momentarily dumbfounded. “Sue, did Charlie or Alan have any idea as to why their bosses might be asking these questions?”
“Charlie didn’t, and I wasn’t able to talk with Alan. His boss sent him on a surveillance trip to Grand Junction to check on a rumor that someone in the area had threatened the ex-President with harm.”
“Hmm, I think you should give his wife a call and see what she knows. The last time the HS senior staff was involved with us, there were threats that led to you and Bill resigning from HS. If Belton still has contacts with Alan and Charlie’s bosses or their bosses, he may be the source of their investigation.”
“I agree, Doug. I can see them targeting Alan for supporting you. But I don’t see them going after Charlie. He wasn’t involved with us in the office other than in one or two brief meetings, and I don’t think they know about the meetings at your place in Denver.”
“That’s true, Sue, but someone may have heard a remark or two he made about his involvement with us. It’s also possible that Alan said something that linked Charlie to us. Were you thinking of recruiting Alan or Charlie to support your group?”
“They were the people that initially came to my mind. Charlie has the training and experience my department will need; if he doesn’t object to working for me. Alan hasn’t had the specialized training that he will need for the position. However, he can learn that quickly, and his field experience will be invaluable.”
“Hmm, they have been our source of information about HS activities; but there has been essentially nothing going on in HS regarding us lately, until this came up. This may be a good time to recruit them, but let’s wait until after you talk with Alan and his wife to make a final decision. Did you have any other tasks in mind?”
“Well, sort of. The type of research and analysis you will need me to do requires a lot of data to form good recommendations. I want to establish a computerized database of information related to the areas you are interested in. One of the things I need is advance notification of your plans for the future. That will allow me to staff the Analyst positions with trained people to gather preliminary data on those areas that will be of interest to you.”
“I agree that type of information would be very useful. Do you know what you need to set up that type of database?”
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The next morning Abby, Sereine, Mac, and I were ready to leave. Unfortunately, Cindy was sick. My ladies told me that she would be fine in a couple of days, so I should go ahead without her. I hopped us to Wayside and we got our traveling equipment, then Sereine hopped us to our next stop. As usual, the trip was uneventful. Abby was excited at first, but then her excitement turned to boredom. We did have one dismal event on the way to First Stop. I had hopped us to our next stop, and when...
I had Twixted ahead to reserve a room at the Timson Luxury Hotel, as we usually did when I visited Maribel in Timson before leaving the estate. Maribel currently had a moderately light schedule; well, light relative to how busy she seemed to be during my previous visits to Timson. A light schedule was good for we had a number of things that needed to be discussed, and there were a few items that were important to me. Most of this visit would be dedicated to our discussing specific topics, but...
We had just arrived, and I felt my link with Sto reestablish itself. All I heard was, “Doug back. Go talk.” The idea of Sto having to be face-to-face with me in order for us to talk over our mental link seemed funny to me. “Hello, Sto. How was Toomby?” “Shots hurt. No go Vet. Sto no need shots.” “Shots? Was there something wrong?” “Vet say need. Sto good. No need shots.” By then Sereine and the rest of my people made it out of the house and had walked over to greet us. “Hello, Sereine....
Cindy was right about us needing a bank. My idea of, me becoming a middleman for my people making deposits to and withdrawals from their Multiverse banks was a stopgap measure that would suffice, but only for a short time. The more I thought about things, it was very evident that the Banking Guild would not establish a bank on Earth in the near future, and we needed one now. By the time I got to my office portable, I had formed a rough plan to handle this issue. My first step would be to...
It had been a long and tiring trip back to Earth. The seasons were changing on our layover planets, so we had rain, snow, and temperature extremes to contend with on the different planets. We all agreed that we didn’t care for sitting on a planet in a hundred and two degree heat, and then hopping to our next layover and arriving in the middle of a blizzard and minus twelve-degree cold; the wind chill factor made it worse. I really needed to get a travel shelter. Harry had told me the...
Before my wives and I left on our honeymoon, Sandy and I had hired two lawyers, Grant Baker and Kenny Natron, to help us start our new business. They set up an appointment with us for today to discuss their progress and to ask us questions. It was ten minutes to two in the afternoon when Cindy called to let me know our two lawyers had arrived and they and Sandy were waiting for me in our conference room. We were starting to get really busy, so I definitely needed to find someone to be my...
Sereine and I getting stuck in a quarantine shelter for almost a week didn’t really affect my overall schedule. I didn’t have much to do before I had to leave for Shilling, so there was a lot of available time in my schedule. The only impact the delay caused me, was my having to reschedule a few minor things that I wanted to do before I left for Vora. Overall, I would be able to finish all of my outstanding tasks before my departure date. One of the good things that happened while I sat in...
While returning to Earth, I had a great deal of time to think about my past activities on Earth, and the changes that my new position would require in regard to my relations with the people of Earth. I had been telling lies of omission to many people since my arrival on Earth. I don’t like lying, but most of Earth’s people were not ready to learn the truth about my being an alien from outer space or about some aspects of my being a D-Hopper. When a D-Hopper opens a planet, they can choose...
By the time Sereine and I got to Wayside, we were both tired. We had let our egos control our actions, by hopping eight shipping containers to Wayside. Their combined mass and volume was more than the utility equipment we had hopped to Earth some months before, and we had been pushing our limits to hop that much equipment. We decided to leave the shipping containers on Wayside, and hop them to the ranch, later. As soon as we had stored our travel equipment and rested, we hopped home. Since...
Turning back to Kim I could see that she had endured all the culture shock that she could handle at this time. “Kim, I think we should set this subject aside, for now. Once you have had a chance to think about it, we can talk about it again if you wish. “I’m curious about whom you work for, and what prompted you to become a reporter. Would you care to talk about that instead?” “Yeah, I would. I think I got in over my head, and you are right. From what your friends have said, I do need to...
A strong pungent odor burned Zax's respiratory system through his nostrils and rose to his brain, the body organ which contained the soul. Zax woke up from the smell, but when his eyes opened what he saw was foreign. All he could see as he stared above was the ground as the ceiling and a dim light illuminating from somewhere. The last imagery that Zax could remember was the earth he was lying on splitting and a black shadow, like a long and thick whip, moving quickly out of the cracks,...
The trip to First Stop was the usual boring event. When we had arrived on Wayside, it occurred to me, this was the first trip I had made to the Multiverse with no trade goods. On our way to First Stop, Sereine and I briefed everyone on our plans for what each of our two groups would be doing during this trip. We had been talking during the trip, while we rested. During our discussions, it occurred to me that in the future, we might need two penal planets in Earth’s Universe. For the interim...
The first thing in the morning, Edgar called Kendrick to let him know I was back. Me ... I was lying between two lovely pregnant women, and I had no plans for getting out of bed until it was absolutely necessary. As usual, my bladder told me it was necessary and I reluctantly got out of bed. When I made it out into the dining room for coffee, Edgar let me know Kendrick had commed, and he had returned the comm to let him know I was out of bed. Kendrick showed up an hour later, and at the...
Matt, Bill, Sue, and I were waiting for Aaron when we heard a knock at the door. Rita answered the door. “Good afternoon, I’m Aaron McCaul. Is Doug Smith available?” “Yes, please come in.” Rita’s English was getting better, especially the standard phrases we use in our interpersonal communications. Aaron and a woman in her mid-thirties came into the room. “Doug, this is Miss Abby White. Abby, this is Mister Doug Smith. “It’s nice to meet you, Mister Smith.” “And it’s my pleasure to meet...
I timed our departure from Timson so we would arrive at Mister Tam’s home on Halpern late in the morning. I did so for I knew we had to be at the Tam home before mid-afternoon to confirm our hotel reservations and we didn’t want to arrive too early. We arrived in the portion of his backyard that he had previously designated as our arrival area. It didn’t take the Tam family long to usher all of us into their home. Our party was too large for them to accommodate us in their six-bedroom house,...
“Those are the main points that Maribel and I discussed, Kevin, and here are your copies of my replies to the questions that her committee sent you over the past year or so,” I said. “Maribel said that for the next year or two, she will have future questions routed to you, and will expect me to reply through you. That will change once I have a Twixt System in place. Maribel and I did this first set of responses to her questions this way, so we could work out any problems between the two of...
For Alma Walcott it was all in a day’s job as a freelance stringer. She started her day on the phone by calling her normal news sources, but it was an unusually unproductive day for news. Then she called her contact in the Sheriff’s office. To ensure confidentiality, she never used her real name when dealing with someone she had registered with her paper as a confidential informant. She was always Sheila and her informant was either Bob or Babs. Her contacts were aware of this duplicity, but...
From Vora it was only one hop to First Stop. Since we were now based on Slave World, we needed to consider a different planet as our point of arrival and departure. It didn’t make much sense to make three hops to and from Slave World when that would be our first stop. A planet along the route we used to travel between Slave World and Vora would be a better First Stop planet, as it was not commonly used as a rest stop by other D-Hoppers. I would discuss that with Sereine during our return to...
Arriving at the Archer home, Doug rang the doorbell. “Good morning, I’m Doug Smith. This is my Administrative Assistant Cindy Smith, and my lawyer, Kendrick Jones. We have an appointment with Mrs. Archer. Is she available?” “Yes, sir. Mrs. Archer is expecting you. Please come in and I will show you to the sitting room, and let Mrs. Archer know you are here.” The sitting room was a nicely furnished and pleasant place to meet with someone. I decided that I would like to have a small meeting...
Kendrick and I were talking and he said, “The Judge outsmarted the media. The case number and parties associated with the case, have to be posted for at least one hour prior to a hearing. Normally, the case number and all of the main parties are listed in the posting. He listed the case number and your name followed by the phrase ‘and others’, which satisfied the requirement of the law. The media expected the Archer family’s name to be listed. Since it wasn’t, the majority of the media missed...
“Are you ready to go, Doug?” “Go where, Bill?” “To put in another order for vehicles. You were going to put me on your calendar for a vehicle shopping trip.” “Sorry, Bill, I forgot to tell Cindy. I can’t think of anyone I was to meet with today. Let me check my calendar ah, yes, I have the rest of today clear; except for my regular tasks, which I can put off until later. I was talking with Matt about this, so will we need him and when did you want to go?” “Matt told me that as far as...
I was awakened at two in the morning by the siren alert of my comm unit. Someone had sent me a Twixt, and had flagged it as urgent. By the time I got to my comm unit, my eyes were open far enough for me to read the message. The message read, ‘Urgent you and Abby return to my office at once, Kevin Moore.’ I went down the hall and knocked on Abby’s bedroom door. When she said to come in, I opened the door, and said, “You need to get up and dress. We need to leave for Vora as soon as we can. I...
I needed to talk with Matt, Bill, and Sue about presenting my credentials and a few other things. “Matt? Doug, here.” “Hi, Doug, what’s up?” “I’ve finished the immediate things that I had to do. Do you have time to go over the arrangements for my presenting my credentials?” “Yes, when do you want to do it?” “I’m still at the ranch. We should be back at my home, shortly. Let’s meet there in two hours.” “See you then, Doug. Bye.” “Hello, Sue, Doug. Matt is going to be at my place in two...
The media had gotten word that my entourage was staying at the Trinity Hotel in Cinnity. They had staked out the hotel’s ground-level entrance and the landing pad on the roof. The only way my people could come and go undetected was for Sereine to hop them in and out of the hotel. Since her ability to hop was limited by her recovery time, it was very inconvenient for all of my people. My bodyguards decided that the media representatives needed to be taught a lesson; namely, do not harass the...
My wives said I needed a new wardrobe for the office. Rita was the most insistent, and she had arranged for an appointment with a tailor at a men’s specialty store that Charlie had recommended. Charlie always looked good in the office while he had been with HS, so I accepted his suggestion. Rita knew exactly what I needed as office casual and my other wives agreed, but Charlie had said that whatever I got as off-the-shelf clothing had to be tailored to fit me properly. Cindy had some work to...
During breakfast the next morning, I talked with Betty about her translation efforts. She said she needed an office in which to work. I suggested she get with Misty and set something up in the Hospital portable. Then the conversation took a turn that I wasn’t expecting. Rita said, “Carol and I have been talking to Betty and Cindy about your trip to visit with Harry at his office at the Archer Conglomerate. “Betty and Cindy think you are interested in the receptionist at the front desk and...
Within a sealed cavern, encompassed by blackness, sitting crossed legs, Zax prepared himself to tackle the fifth bottleneck of insight. Smell, touch, taste, sight ... These were the four bottlenecks of insight Zax already perceived and proceeded to comprehend. Zax was not oblivious. By now he could tell that the bottlenecks of insight have something to do with the five senses. The issue was with him unable to figure out if the remaining sense, sense of hearing, which will probably make him...
Our status meeting went well. Matt was making progress on getting a building permit for our temporary facilities and William was finalizing the supporting drawings. I let Matt know that we would have to install the utility equipment at what would be their permanent location, since Chairman Smart had bought me the equipment I would use for the Embassy Compound. I let him know I would get the equipment’s technical details for him when I had a chance and we would get with William to give him...
The Reyes and Rivera families remained at the clinic for the remainder of the day and well into the evening. Misty would periodically check her patients with her analyzer. By early evening, it was apparent that their condition was improving. After Misty informed the families, they returned home except for the mothers, who stayed with their sons for the night. They didn’t want a bed in which to sleep, so we provided them with a couple of our comfortable office chairs. They talked until the...
I arrived a little early for my appointment with Sergei, and was immediately ushered into his office. “Yarl Wilson, who is my installation foreman, Tim, and I, were reviewing the pictures that Tim Hart took at your ranch. Tim told us that you plan to set up a temporary Embassy Compound on your ranch, and live in it for a year or two. Is that right?” “Yes, but we hope it will only be a little over a year from the time we move in, until we can move into the Embassy.” “Yarl mentioned that you...
It took a bit longer than I had planned before we were ready to depart. Sereine hopped us to our first intermediary stop just as the sun was rising above the horizon. Three hops later, we arrived in the backyard of Mister Tam’s home. They had started to worry about whether we would get there for the wedding. Mister Tam said they had expected us to arrive three days ago so there would be plenty of time to make any final arrangements that may be necessary, and the wedding was scheduled for...
The four security people traveling with us were new to me. I had just a few minutes to introduce myself before we left Slave World, and I was having trouble recalling their names. Edgar said they were four of the better people that he’d had assigned to him by Kendrick. I would make a point of getting to know them better as I rested between hops. Our first stop on Vora was at my parent’s home. I had timed our departure so we would arrive early enough to have lunch with my Mom and Dad before...
Kendrick wanted to know when I would hold my media conference. The media was in a frenzy to find me. They wanted to know everything about me. My task during the interview was to limit my answers to my public life. He also wanted to set a date for me to meet my Board of Directors. He had contacted the Chairman of the Board and explained how I had inherited the conglomerate. The Chairman wanted at least a week to finalize their presentation. Kendrick and I settled on dates and times for my...
My wives woke me early the next morning. They enjoyed playing in bed yesterday morning, and were thinking of another romp in our bed. We had just started our usual sex play, when Carol made a mad dash for the bathroom. We could hear the sound of her retching, so Rita went to check on her. When Rita returned, she said, “It’s time for Carol to be checked out by Misty. I think she’s pregnant.” “Pregnant!” I exclaimed. “Didn’t she just finish her ovulation period? I didn’t think morning...
Alpha males vs earth sissies revolution part 1 "Pink or blue?" "Or should i say light pink or powder blue, we cant make you think blue is a boys color, it can be feminine also... or a sissy yellow... hmm." the deep alpha manly voice asked his soon to be sissy prisoners as he and the other alpha men laughed. the captured "men" were asked. "It doesn't matter soon to be sissies," the tall, huge super alpha man said grinning as the captured men of earth struggled. "You'll look...
Alpha Males Vs Earth sissies; part 2 A few weeks later.... "Stacy... are you ready to come out and show your new feminine self to me your new master?" The strong alpha male called from outside her girly room. Jack/Stacy stared at slender self in the mirror still not quite believing what had come of herself.. The servants had taken their time get "her" ready... slowly stripping away the earth masculinity and showing the inner girlishness all earth men naturally have, but has...
Alpha Males with earth girl sissys part 4 final. John tried to get away, but it was hopeless, as she looked down at his new feminized body, the restive pink skirts did nothing to help with getting away as he tried to escape. The nightly ritual of letting the now conquered earth sissies try to escape from their manly super alpha males, now their strong boyfriends/husbands. They never got that far, with their girly clothes always giving them away, the light pink yellow pastel colors...
“Morning, Betty, are you feeling any better this morning?” “Yeah, knowing that you really care about me as a person helps a lot. The way my parents and friends treated me is going to bother me for some time to come. I’ll get over it, but it will take time.” “That’s good ... at least, the getting better part is. Rita, Cindy, and Carol should be back tonight, unless they comm and extend their visit for another day. “I think we should plan on getting back to Vora tomorrow or at the latest the...
Matt and his wife Mary were to join my ladies and me for dinner at my home. We had to discuss the trading hop and to make plans for outfitting Matt and Mary for the trip to Vora. Mary turned out to be a moderately attractive redhead in her mid-forties, with the lithe muscular tone of an athlete. Betty had been in her element all day for she had been busy preparing our meal. My ladies tolerance to sugar had increased, so I had cleared them for eating a wider variety of foods. Betty was making...
Rita met me at the door with, “Doug, Aaron called you and he asked you to call him back.” Bill and Sue were still at the house, so I asked everyone to stick around until I finished the call. Once the pleasantries were out of the way, Aaron said, “Doug, I wanted to discuss the President’s event with you. “I had my assistant reserve three, two-bedroom suites for you at the Embassy Suites, and each bedroom has two queen-sized beds. I don’t know what the sleeping arrangements are for your...
As I said, we arrived at Wayside two hours later than I had expected. During one of our rest stops, Mac and Martha’s son Timmy wandered around the clearing. He was tired, so he stretched out on a comfy looking bed of leaves and fell asleep. Unfortunately, the leaves were on the far side of a boulder. So, when Dan prepared to hop us to our next stop, no one noticed him behind the boulder. Mac and Martha each thought the other was holding his hand. Martha knew Timmy wasn’t holding her hand,...
The first thing I did was to call William on his direct line at HRD. “HRD Architects, William Chambers speaking.” “Hello, William. Doug Smith here. I was able to complete my business on the East Coast sooner than expected. I would like to arrange an appointment with you for tomorrow morning.” “No problem, Doug, would nine be alright?” “That will be good. I will be bringing Matt Crane and his wife Mary with me. “Matt will be setting up mobile homes, portable buildings, and utility...
Days 4 & 5: It was Day 4 and Sereine was to make her presentation to our attackers and the lawyers they had retained. Yesterday, Sto, Coral, and the kits had moved back to their home with Sereine. The kits were doing fine. Aunts Sereine, Misty, Betty, Carol, Rita, and Cindy were taking turns making sure they had everything they needed. Sereine started her presentation with a detailed description of the laws pertaining to the commission of an act of violence against another party and the...
“Hello, Bashira, it’s Doug. How are things going with you and Amir?” “Good, Doug. Are you and your wives starting to settle in as married people?” “Well, not yet Bashira. The honeymoon trip has ended and we just got home yesterday, but our honeymoon is continuing. If I’m lucky it will continue for some time to come. I’ll have to wait to see if married life is different from just living with my ladies. What is Amir doing?” “He is busy with a number of issues, Doug. Canceling your visit was...