Chapter 19

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 sickness would happen that quickly.”

Rita replied, “Normally it doesn’t; but now that you mention it, I don’t recall her having a period. However, pregnancy affects women differently. If I’m right and she is pregnant, then she is probably one of the rare women who get morning sickness from almost the start of her pregnancy. Let’s hope she isn’t one of those women who are sick throughout their pregnancy; that would be horrible.”

Nine months of throwing up did not sound good to me. I could hear Carol freshening up, so I made my way into the bathroom to give her a hug and let her know we would all be there for her. I think she appreciated it, but all she wanted to do at that moment was to go back to bed and sleep. We shut the blinds and door before we left for the kitchen.

Cindy volunteered to help Betty with breakfast since Carol was in bed. After breakfast, Rita and Cindy quietly slipped into the bedroom and brought our clothes out to the living room. William and Phyllis would be arriving in about an hour, and I wanted us to be at the office before they arrived. Matt, Bill, and Mary were waiting for us when we got to our offices. We were both congratulated when we informed them that it seemed as if Carol was pregnant.

Cindy said, “Let’s not get too excited. Rita will arrange an exam for Carol with Misty this morning. Carol certainly displays the indications of pregnancy, but we need to wait until it’s official. She doesn’t want us telling everybody, until she is sure.”

It was a quarter to nine when the control room Security Guard called Bill, to let him know Phyllis and William would be shortly pulling into our visitor parking area. We went outside, and as we approached their car, they got out of the car and just stood there looking around. They hadn’t visited us, since Jack had staked out the pads and the route for the trenching.

Matt said, “Quite a change since you two were last here?”

Phyllis responded, “Yeah, I hardly recognize the place, Matt. Are those the towers where you mounted your force field generators?”

“Yes, we finished the first stage of installing our defensive system several weeks ago.”

William asked, “When will it be operational?”

“It’s been operational since it was installed. Why?”

“I thought that it would stop us from entering this area.”

Bill said, “Oh, the field doesn’t cover the visitor parking area. If you had parked here and walked toward my office, it would have stopped you about halfway there. Here, put these visitor badges on. The field’s control system will recognize the badge and allow you to pass through the field.”

Once they clipped the badges onto the collars of their blouse and shirt, we walked toward the construction site. Jack was there to meet us and he started our tour.

Phyllis and William had explained their plan to excavate much deeper than the lowest sub-level, and to then backfill and pack the soil to achieve a solid base. I had pictured several deep holes where each building would be located. What I saw was one huge pit with a dirt ramp rising up out of the pit and a dirt road extending off toward the huge mound of dirt. The huge hole explained the mountain of dirt.

I asked William, “Isn’t this a wasteful way to do this? Why excavate a huge pit, when it would have been less work to excavate several smaller holes?”

“It may seem like more work, Doug, but it’s actually faster and less labor intensive. If they had dug several small holes, they would require shoring to prevent the sides from caving in and it would have been more difficult to compact the soil to form a stable base and to do the other work in setting up the forms.

“Removing the extra soil, allows them to avoid those problems and the cost of shoring up the sides of the holes. It allows them to bring in heavy equipment to compact the soil rather than use compactors or hand-held pneumatic rams, which don’t do as good of a job. This approach also makes it easier to install sand, gravel, and forms for the foundation and floor of the subterranean levels.”

“If you look over there, you can see they are putting in the sand, gravel, and welded wire mesh for the floor of the lowest level of the main Embassy building. They finished installing forms for the base of the recreational building, and they are starting to set up the forms for the outer walls. The forms for the subterranean levels of the warehouse, apartments, and houses are already in place. As soon as they get the other forms in place, they will start pouring concrete. That’s something else you will want to see, if you haven’t seen how they do that.”

“What do you mean, William?”

“Well, they have this huge concrete pumper that they will set up about where we are standing. It has an articulated, multi-sectional boom that they position over the area where they need to pour the concrete. The boom supports a tube that the concrete is pumped through. The concrete trucks pull up to the pumper and dump their loads of concrete into the pumper’s hopper. The pumper forces the concrete through the tube, and it’s expelled from the end of the tube landing in the pour area.”

“You’ll have to get Jack to invite me over to see that, William. It sounds like a complex operation.”

“It is, Doug, but these guys make it look easy.”

There wasn’t much more to see, so Jack walked us back to his construction trailer.

Phyllis said, “It looks like you are making good progress, Jack. As I mentioned earlier, Doug is going to have to bring in more people in the next few months, and that means more mobile homes and portables. I sent William’s plans for the additional pads and utility runs to you. Will installing all of that impact your schedule significantly?”

“I got your plans, Phyllis, and from what I can see, it shouldn’t affect us. I’ll draw the permit, and when my crew finishes installing the forms and begins the pour, I will put most of them to work on the additional pads and utility runs. They should be done with the additional task by the time the concrete cures enough for us to begin our next step.”

Looking at Phyllis, I nodded my head and said, “I’m happy with what I’ve seen, and it sounds like the new pads will be ready before we have the new mobile homes and portables ready to install.”

Jack showed us his updated construction schedule, and I gathered from her comments that Phyllis liked what she saw. For me, it was nothing more than lines going in every direction that interconnected a bunch of rectangles with words in them.

Phyllis said, “I gather that you don’t understand what you are looking at, Doug. Is that right?”

“Yeah, it makes no sense to me. It’s nothing like the schedule you showed me in your office.”

“Jack and I have software programs that can present project status in different ways, Doug. The schedule I showed you is called a Gantt chart; this is a Pert Chart, which is sometimes called a Network Diagram. The basic difference is a Gantt chart shows the start and end times of a series of tasks. A Pert chart shows the interdependencies between the tasks and their task elements on a detailed level. What that means is, it provides a pictorial view of the tasks that must be completed before the task identified in a block can be completed. It also shows the tasks that cannot be completed until the task in the block is complete.”

“What do you mean by task elements, Phyllis?”

“Well, assume you define a task called Drive a Nail. The task elements might be Find Nail, Find Hammer, Position Nail, and Swing Hammer. The lines between these elements define the order in which the task elements are to be completed.”

“Pick one of the blocks on Jack’s chart, Doug.”

“Okay, this one.”

“All right, that’s a task element and the wording in the box defines the task element. Do you see the arrows coming into the box?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, follow those lines back to the boxes they are coming from. Those are the task elements that must be completed before you can complete your task element. However, it’s sometimes possible to start a task element before its predecessor elements are complete, but you can’t finish the task element before all of its predecessors are complete.

“Now follow the lines coming out of your block that have no arrows. They go to the task elements that require your task element to be completed before those elements can be completed.”

“Oh. I see what you are talking about now. However, there are far more blocks on this chart than there were on your chart.”

“Yes, that’s true. The schedule I showed you was printed out at a summary level, which makes it easier to see the overall project. This chart is showing all of the detailed elements that make up the summary level tasks on my chart.”

“Ah, Matt. A while back, I was thinking of finding something to help us organize our planning. Do you think we could use a software program like this one to track the various tasks we define?”

Matt said, “I suppose so, Doug. Phyllis, is this software useful for all types of planning, and if so, how long do you think it would take us to learn your program?”

“Yes, the software can be used with any type of planning, Matt; simple or complex. Learning to use the program is not hard, but it would help if you had someone familiar with the software to guide and train you. If you wanted to do it without someone, then you could learn enough to define a very simple project in one or two days. To learn how to use all of the program’s features by yourself, could take years.”

“What do you think, Mary? Could we use something like this for the warehouse?”

“Probably. I don’t know which program this is, but I used something very much like it to produce similar results, when I was an Office Manager for my former company. Before you ask, yes it would be an ideal planning tool for the Embassy. However, you need to remember the phrase ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’. The results of a program like this are only as good as the data you enter. If you enter erroneous data, or if you fail to define all of the interdependencies, the program won’t know you made an error. It only shows you the results of what you entered.”

“Thanks, Phyllis. Mary, get with Phyllis later and compare what she uses to what you used. If you think it will be beneficial, buy us several copies of the better program, and hire someone to input planning data for us. We have too many projects and tasks going on and I am afraid we are overlooking things that may impact our plans.”

“All right, Doug. One of the features on my software was the ability to assign people to tasks and define the number of hours they would work on each task element. The program tracked man loading and told me when I overloaded one of my people. Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn we are all overloaded.”

Rita was waiting for us when we got back from Jack’s trailer with a big smile on her face.

“Carol got up right after you left, so I asked Misty to come check her out. Congratulations, Daddy, Carol’s pregnant. She is at home right now and in need of you giving her a cuddle. We need to celebrate, and you need to get the rest of us pregnant.”

Phyllis and William congratulated us on Carol’s pregnancy and left. Now that it’s official and our visitors are gone, Matt and Bill started telling me all the stories about walking a fussy baby that refuses to stop crying. Mary just rolled her eyes and said, Men. It’s a good thing Sue was absent. She would have said far more than that. I headed to my home to cuddle up with Carol. After lunch, Abby stopped by to see how Carol was doing and to congratulate us. She also had some good news for me.

“Doug, Ken called me this morning while you were at the construction site. The applications for your people to immigrate to the US have been approved. We talked about ID Cards. What Ken wants me to do is have your people fill out the ID Request forms and for me to take their pictures. I will mail the forms and pictures to him, and once the forms are approved, our ID section will make their cards and mail them to me.”

“All right, that should work, but I thought we wanted to get United Nation’s ID Cards and what about future people?”

“Charles talked with Amir about the ID Cards, Doug. They decided that since, the US had to approve the immigration of Multiverse citizens, it made more sense for the State Department to issue your people with ID Cards.

“Ken is still working on a process for approving future people coming to Earth. He is working with Immigration to get a quota that will allow a specific number of people to immigrate per year without having to go through the approval process for each small group of people. If he can get that quota, the whole process becomes very simple. He is trying to get an agreement with the Immigration Department that will allow me to determine who should or should not be allowed to immigrate. I will also act as their agent for issuing temporary visas to short-term visitors.

“One of the things Ken needs to know, in order to finalize the agreement is, how many Embassy staff will you need to have join you in the next couple of years, and he is assuming they will be permanent immigrants.”

“I will have to get back to you with a number, Abby, but it sounds as if the majority of that problem is solved.”

“Yeah, but the solution will probably cause a major increase in my workload.”

Later in the afternoon, Matt stopped by the house for a private discussion about Kim’s articles. We had read Kim’s articles, and given her our feedback. Matt and I had also decided to evaluate the articles to determine her opinion of the Multiverse, and if she would make a good candidate for enlistment as our Public Relations Officer.

“Matt, what did you think of the articles and of Kim?”

“I liked the articles, Doug. She did a good job making it come alive for me. From what little I’ve seen of the Multiverse, they seemed accurate. The way she described the people is what made the stories come alive. I liked the description of her personal experience at the water park. As a reader, I can put myself in her position and imagine walking out of a change room into an open area with almost half of the park’s visitors totally nude. She did a good job explaining her initial feelings, and how those feelings evolved as she became accustomed to being around people not wearing clothes.

“There were many places where she could have slanted the story with a negative tone, but she remained neutral in that respect. She did express her dislike of several things, but she presented that dislike as a personal choice indicating that some of your other Earth guests felt differently. Overall, the articles left me with a good impression of the Multiverse and of Kim.”

“I agree Matt. Her articles seemed to create a desire to learn more about the Multiverse. You were there for some of the discussions we had about slavery and the other things that upset some of my guests. She didn’t address slavery in the articles, but when she addressed the other issues it was reporting the events without making judgments. I’m looking forward to reading the article she does on slavery. I suspect that she is working on one, but it isn’t ready for us to read it. Perhaps she hasn’t resolved how she feels about Multiverse slavery, or should I start calling it a Custodial Caretaker Relationship. I think that’s the term Kim used for the Multiverse’s form of slavery during our rest break discussions.

“I think we could bring her on board now, Matt; but I would like to see a few more articles, before we make that decision.”

“Sure, Doug. I want to talk with her about her future articles. It will give me a chance to talk with her about what is going on in her life. It would be nice to know if she has any other commitments or ties on the East Coast that would prevent her from moving here, permanently.”

After Matt left, I was able to slip into bed with Carol again, so I could hold her and talk.

“How are you feeling, Carol?”

“Fine for the moment, sweetheart. The nausea faded away by the time you left this morning, and Misty gave me something to help keep me from vomiting until the morning sickness passes. It seems to be working.”

“That’s good. We were worried that you might have something else wrong with you. We are all glad that you are pregnant and not sick. I know it isn’t pleasant to be sick. Of course, I’m not going to get morning sickness, but I have had several ailments that caused me to have a fever and become violently ill. The worst put me in bed for two weeks, and I don’t ever want to go through something like that again. I may not know what it’s like to be pregnant, but at least I can commiserate with you.”

“Misty told me I should only need the medicine for the next few weeks. If the nausea continues beyond that, she will give me an implant to keep me from suffering from morning sickness for the rest of my pregnancy.”

“Why doesn’t she just give you the implant now?”

“I don’t want to take pills every morning, so I asked her that. She said the implant medication would not be good for the baby, this early in my pregnancy. After six or eight weeks, it will be safe for the baby and me to have the implant.

“Doug, are you going to want me when I get big with the baby? Many men don’t like cuddling up to fat women. I know what everyone says, but I will be a big, fat woman when the baby is due to be borne.”

“Carol, I love you. When I look at you now, I see a beautiful woman. I know you will gain weight and get bigger. When you reach the final month or two of the pregnancy, you will still be beautiful in my eyes. It won’t affect the love I have for you. Snuggling with you and our unborn child will give me great pleasure. If the weight you gain bothers you after the baby is born, then I’m quite certain that Misty can help you by increasing your metabolism, so you burn off the weight faster than you would normally burn it off.”

“Do you really love me that much, Doug? After all, I’m just your sex slave. Not that I object to being your sex slave, but no one in my family ever really loved me. All I was, was someone to go out and bring home money. I never got a real thank you. If I got anything, it was a slap because I didn’t bring enough money home.”

“Carol, that part of your life is over. I had Kendrick send someone to your parents’ home with a message from me. The message was, if they know what is good for them, they will never speak to or bother you again. I bought you and Betty to take care of me here on Earth. I needed someone back then and I need you now. The main difference is since buying the two of you, I came to love both of you for the wonderful women you are. That love is so overwhelming that I had to have both of you as my wives. I can’t legally free you, as I did Rita, but as far as I am concerned, here on Earth you are both free. Nothing will ever change that and the way I feel about you in my heart. You are my friend, companion, lover, and wife. Shortly, you will also become the mother of my first child. I don’t see how I could ever stop loving you.”

“Oh, Doug. I don’t think I ever understood just how much you feel for me. I could see the love you had for my sister-wives, but I haven’t seen that level of love in you for me. I know what you say is true, but it’s hard for me to see it. Be patient with me. I may never see your feelings, but I do know they are there in your heart. You will always be my Master, and the man I love. I dedicated myself to you long ago. That hasn’t changed, and I doubt my feelings of love for you will ever change.”