Chapter 13

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 unallocated 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 that shelter was, my ladies had finished the fittings for their wedding dresses. They had their dresses. They were also given a copy of the measurement template used to make their dresses, in case they had to make a last minute adjustment to their fit. This was more common than I realized. I have to agree that men are often oblivious to these things, but in our defense, it’s hard to be aware of these things, when our women just don’t talk with us about them. My ladies say they do, but men don’t listen. That may be true, but I don’t recall them ever talking with me about the process of getting their dresses.

A second benefit was Sereine and I had a lot of time to discuss our plans for regulating the D-Hoppers and traders who would come to Earth. We both knew that it was too early to create a fully detailed plan; but we had the time, so we used it. We could always revise our plan, later.

Sereine’s experience at the Trade Checkpoint on Bethany, a Provisional World, was exceptionally useful. She had twixted the police officer currently in charge of the Trade Checkpoint on Bethany while she was on Toomby, and explained the problem she faced in setting up a Trade Checkpoint on Earth. The officer in charge sent her copies of the documents that defined their policies, procedures, and practices. It was a good starting point for Sereine. She could tailor those documents to meet the needs of Earth’s Trade Checkpoint. Those policies would require extensive tailoring, considering the unique situation Earth presented to traders.

The main difficulty with the procedures was caused by Bethany being an established Multiverse Provisional Member World. If a D-Hopper’s clients intended to engage in commerce on Bethany, they were required to comm the local Trade Checkpoint office to report their arrival and their purpose for visiting the planet. The clients would conduct their business and file the necessary paperwork regarding merchandise sold and purchased, which was then crosschecked with the documentation local merchants filed. It was not necessary for the D-Hopper and his party to physically check in at the Trade Checkpoint.

On Earth things would be very different, initially. There would only be one Trade Checkpoint and Earth’s merchants weren’t required to file transaction reports with the checkpoint. A D-Hopper could not comm the checkpoint for Multiverse comm units were not compatible with Earth’s telephone system. Earth’s system could not be easily adapted because the upper frequency response limit of Earth’s telephone system was too low to create the sounds needed for Trade Speak. Therefore, the D-Hopper and his clients would have to physically check in at the Trade Checkpoint. Eventually there would be multiple Trade Checkpoints, and a Multiverse compatible communication system.

Greed was common in the Multiverse, so trade between Earth and the Multiverse had to be closely monitored. On an established Provisional World, a greedy trader had very little chance of successfully selling advanced technology to the local population. Yes, these types of sales did take place; but the traders were usually discovered very quickly. Everyone involved in the transaction would be tried and sentenced to a penal world. The technology sold would determine if the penal world was for violent or non-violent criminals, and the duration of the sentence if violence was not a consideration.

The Multiverse and its officials had no legal standing on Earth, and the Earth officials would not enforce our laws. However, Multiverse officials had power over Multiverse citizens regardless of where they were in the Multiverse and Earth was within the borders of the Multiverse even if it wasn’t a Member World.

The problem Sereine would have is determining if a trader sold merchandise to an Earth merchant at a location other than the Embassy’s Trade Center, and what merchandise was sold. Therefore, I would write the Embassy’s trade policies to require D-Hoppers and their parties to check in at the Embassy’s Trade Checkpoint when they first arrived on Earth, so their merchandise could be inspected.

Enforcement of the Embassy’s policies on Earth would not be as difficult as it would seem. A D-Hopper can sense the presence of another D-Hopper’s arrival in a universe. Therefore, if a D-Hopper came to Earth, Sereine and I would know that they had arrived and their approximate location on the planet. With Sereine’s unique abilities, she could do a lateral hop to the D-Hopper’s arrival point and find the D-Hopper. This type of detection would not work on an established planet like Slave World or Vora. There were too many D-Hoppers on such a planet and the presence of those D-Hoppers made the arrival or departure of a specific D-Hopper almost impossible to isolate from the others.

It was then that I was reminded of a problem we would have when we enforced our policy, so I said, “Sereine, it’s going to be good to be able to find and prosecute someone that violates our trade policies. However, have you made any progress on finding us two penal planets?”

“I obtained the Multiverse requirements for prison planets, Doug, and I found two worlds that might work for us. I have been assessing them to ensure they are suitable. I haven’t pushed to complete that effort in that it doesn’t seem to be a high priority task. We won’t need them until the D-Hoppers start coming to Earth, and that will not happen for a long time.”

“That’s true, but you never know when we might need the capability of incarcerating someone on a prison planet.”

Sereine did point out one problem we would have enforcing the trade policy. If a trader were to learn how to speak English and sold advanced technology to a local merchant, a D-Hopper could make an immediate return hop leaving the illicit merchandise at a pickup point on Earth. Our Police D-Hopper would have to make an immediate lateral hop to the pickup point to seize the merchandise, but if the merchant’s representatives had taken possession of the merchandise, the D-Hopper could not legally seize the merchandise. Earth’s status as a Limited Provisional Member World meant Earth had no standing in the Multiverse’s consortium of member worlds and therefore, Sereine had no legal right to inspect or seize merchandise that was in the possession of Earth merchants. Since Sereine would have no proof of a crime, she could not follow and arrest the D-Hopper. This was something that I would have to address with Amir.

The first couple of days following our return to the estate were hectic. I finished the few things I needed to do on Slave World, and those of us going to Shilling prepared for our trip. We all prepared for an immediate departure to Vora when I returned from Shilling. I made the mistake of mentioning that my ladies didn’t need to start preparing now, for they would have time while I was gone to do their preparation. Evidently, they had more to do than I thought for that observation earned me a dirty look. I wisely refrained from stating the other comments I was going to make.

I was eager to get to Shilling and finish my business there. Maribel Stanton, her husband, bodyguards, and their D-Hopper would be departing for Vora about a week after we returned to Slave World.

Cindy had given Kendrick a list of topics I wanted to discuss with Maribel and had him twixt it to her. In her reply, Maribel let us know that she had arranged things so we would have two full days and evenings to discuss our various topics. We were relatively fresh when we arrived at the Timson Luxury Hotel during the early afternoon. I commed Maribel to let her know we had arrived. She informed me we could meet that evening to start our two days of discussions.

Cindy, Kendrick, and I were exhausted after traveling all day and our first evening of talks. Sto’s only remark was about his concern for Coral. He did not like being separated from her with the kits arrival date only six months away. If he kept worrying, he would die of exhaustion before the kits were born. Maribel and I agreed to end our discussions early that evening and reconvene the next day. Over the next two days, we addressed numerous items. Some of the topics were very important to me professionally and personally, but most were relatively minor.

Sandy selling Archer products as the conglomerate’s sales representative before my opening Earth for trade was one of the important topics, both professionally and personally. I explained my plans to provide Sandy permission to trade using my trade rights and I would provide the financing for her business. In return, I would receive a percentage of the businesses stock. Sandy would be the majority stockholder and I would not be one of her board members. Maribel said there was nothing wrong with that as long as I was not the majority stockholder; I could even serve as a board member.

I talked with Maribel about my thought of creating a holding company to manage my business interests that might seem to conflict with my position as Ambassador. I defined my primary concern that Sandy and I were the primary competitors of the other traders. I described Sandy receiving fifty-one percent of the stock and me getting forty-nine percent, so I was not the controlling partner of the holding company. The holding company would own a controlling interest of the stock of any business that Sandy or I created, and we would own the remaining stock. We would allow traders to think that the holding company owned all of the stock. In fact, we may set it up that way. I would have to wait and see what my Earth lawyers said about that type of business practice.

“That might work Doug, but if obfuscation is your goal, you should add several additional layers of ownership. If you used the system I use, there would be no visible connection between you and your companies.

“When I first knew that I wanted a career in politics, I knew my financial holdings would be used against me by my opponents. A wealthy person going into politics on Carson is viewed as a person who is trying to manipulate the commercial environment to their fiscal advantage. In most cases that’s a false perception, but that’s a common belief of Carson’s voters. Most politicians on Carson are wealthy, so I conformed to the standard practice of hiding my wealth by devising a corporate structure that was extremely difficult to penetrate. The voters know or at least suspect that most candidates are wealthy and believe that if a candidate is not capable of hiding their wealth, then they are incompetent and should not hold public office.

“I created a complex three-tier business structure that relies on misdirection to conceal the identity of the person who owns the business’s stock. This is not an efficient way to do business, but it works and it hides the fact that I own the businesses. Keep in mind that on Carson, a privately-owned business is not required to divulge any of the details of its ownership or the manner in which it conducts its financial dealings, as long as the business does not violate the laws governing commerce. The business must report its income and pay its taxes, but it does so as an independent entity. Details such as who owns the company and who owns stock in the company is considered private, confidential information and is not divulged to the public or to the government.

“My corporate structure is possible because on Carson, there is no tax levied on private individuals’ income. Since all of the income from my businesses is classified as personal income, there is no public record of my owning stock in any of my companies.

“In my business structure, the first-tier companies are actual businesses. They work together and support each other as a loose consortium; very much like the businesses that make up the Archer Conglomerate do. The businesses are each run by a manager and the managers all say that they are only a manager. These managers meet monthly to coordinate their business activities, but it’s a closed meeting and only the people attending the meeting know who chairs the meeting.

“The public has been encouraged to believe that one of the managers owns all of the businesses, and all of the managers encourage this erroneous perception. The first-tier managers receive a lucrative salary and an annual bonus. They receive their pay and bonus from the second-tier holding company that manages their respective company. The bonus is equal to ten percent of the stock dividends of the company they manage. The remaining ninety percent of the dividends are forwarded to my three, second-tier holding companies. The managers of the first-tier companies believe the three owners of the holding companies jointly own their company’s stock. They are also aware of the fact that their position is dependent on their maintaining the fiction that one of them is the owner of the companies, not the holding companies.

“The second tier of businesses consists of three holding companies that are in turn owned by my third-tier holding company. Each holding company holds and votes a third of my stock in each of the first-tier companies. Each of the second-tier companies’ managers encourages the public to believe that they are the owner of the privately-owned holding companies.

The manager of the second-tier companies reinvests fifty percent of the profits from the stock they manage by purchasing stock in other companies. As with the first-tier companies, the person managing each of the three companies receives a salary plus an annual bonus. Their bonus is equal to ten percent of the stock dividends they receive from the first-tier companies they manage. The remaining forty percent of the first-tier companies’ stock dividends is forwarded to my third-tier company.

The second-tier holding companies are actually owned by my third-tier holding company, which I own and manage using a registered alias. The third-tier holding company is a very small office with a staff of only five people. The manager’s function is to oversee the operation of the three second-tier holding companies. The owners of the second and third tier companies have never met me; the manager of the third-tier company only knows me by my alias for he deals with one of my many lawyers. His position is contingent on him maintaining the fiction that he is the owner of the third-tier company.

“If you want to set up a similar structure, Doug, first find a good lawyer and have him set up the third-tier company. Have your lawyer work through another lawyer to set up your second-tier companies, and have the second-tier companies set up the first-tier companies. Use separate accounting agencies for each tier of the business. This business structure is more costly to run, but it will give you total anonymity assuming that Earth’s laws will permit such a structure. If not, register the business on Carson.”

“Thanks, Maribel. I will look into that on Earth. It sounds like the type of structure I need to separate my business activities from my Ambassadorial duties. Although, I doubt I need that degree of secrecy.”

During my prior visit, Maribel and I had come to an impasse regarding control of the Embassy and the ranch. We resolved the impasse by drafting the first cut of an agreement in which the Multiverse would reimburse me for the use of my property. Neither of us was satisfied with the complexity of the agreement and Maribel wanted to consult with her associates, to come up with a simpler agreement that was fair to all of us.

“Doug, my associates and I discussed how to reimburse you for use of your property, and we put together a financial plan for reimbursing you. We would like for you to take it back to Earth and consider whether it would work for you.”

Maribel handed me a document that was thicker than I expected. I passed it to Cindy, who put it with the rest of our papers. I then asked Cindy to give me the stack of papers we had prepared for Maribel.

“Alright, Maribel, I will consider this reimbursement plan and get back to you.

“Do you recall the questions your subcommittees have been sending Kevin that I failed to answer?”

“Yes, I do.”

“While back on Earth, I had Betty, Carol, Rita, and Cindy do some research on those questions. They prepared a response per our agreement for each of the questions.

“As I expected, there was little to no data available for most of the questions. In these cases, my official response is that there is no data available. I explained that conducting a study on these topics requires the cooperation of the current Earth governments. Since Earth has not submitted a request for membership in the Multiverse, its governments are under no obligation to cooperate with such a study. I went on to describe the difficulties inherent in bringing these countries together. I ended with an estimate that the Earth governments might be ready to consider applying for membership in about two hundred years if everything proceeds at a high rate of progress.”

“I see. In other words, you told them you are doing your best, but don’t hold your breath. Is that right?”

“Yes, you could put it that way, but as an Ambassador, I tried to put it diplomatically.”

“Oh, that’s fine with me, Doug. I would be happy if I could give my counterparts in the other committees apoplexy. You see the Council of Affiliated Worlds tasked them with gathering the data they asked us to get for them. They have a budget for gathering this data, I don’t. By passing the request to me, they get to keep and use the money while telling the Council that they are waiting for me to respond.

“Now, I can give them your answer. If they comment about receiving an inadequate response, I can read your response to the Council, which will show that they placed unreasonable demands on my department by not providing a budget to do the work and that they failed to respond in a reasonable and timely manner to the Council’s tasking. They will also have to account for and return all that money, which they didn’t want to share with us for doing their work.”

“Ah, it always seems to come down to money. Will they ever give us the tasking and a budget to perform the work?”

“Yes they will. The bad feelings they create between now and then will cost them when they get our bill for doing their work for them. Unfortunately, my committee cannot keep the excess money for our uses, but I can see that my people are highly compensated for doing another committee’s job.”

“Maribel, for the questions that had data available, I explained that we had found some data that appeared to be what they needed, but the data was minimal, and we weren’t technically competent to understand what we had found. We would need an expert that could speak the local language and was familiar with the local scientific terms in order to determine if what we found was what they wanted. I informed them the Embassy would be happy to host a technical expert, but I also included a warning that anyone that was sent here for a long-term study was very likely to become a sugar addict.

“We were able to provide a few barely adequate replies to some of the reasonable questions. That’s about all I have for you on that topic. If you need a different response on any of those items, let me know and I can tweak the current response to give you what you need before I leave.”

“That’s a good way to handle their questions, Doug. It’s ludicrous to request highly technical data from people who do not have the training necessary to understand and gather the data.

“I received an update on your Sugar Addict Program. The people I submitted it to are very interested, but need to do some research and check on whether it’s a viable concept.”

“Okay, at least the reply is positive and not an outright refusal.”

I briefed Maribel on the progress we had made in determining Earth’s technological level and my efforts of determining an exchange rate.