Chapter 63

Trevor allowed himself a small smile as he gave his voice a serious timbre. "I do not know what his reaction will be to such a request. I can merely pass it on, and see what happens. Would you care to send the libretto – or whatever word you use for the words to a song? Lyrics, I think is the most common. Anyway, please send the lyrics to my phone, and I shall pass them on with your request.

Did you select an appropriate tune for the words of Dinah's song? We really ought to have a title for it. I thought it should be something simple, like "My Dad." What do you think?"

"Sounds very straightforward, Mr Defreitas. I shall pass it on, and yes, we picked one that we like particularly. Do you want The Montford Sisters to sing this song?"

"That was the intention of the lyricist – really love that word. Were you aware that it comes from the early Greek lyric poetry, which was accompanied by a person on the lyre, so lyric is the adjectival form of lyre. Goes back to around 2,500 B.C., so I understand. Lyricist is the derived from that." There was an audible gasp at the other end at his erudition.

He paused for a second before continuing.

"My apologies, we are straying. Indeed, The Montford Sisters will sing this song, if the chosen music suits their voices."

"I'll send up the music to you today, Mr Defreitas, so that the ladies can cast their eyes over it."

"Thank you. Goodbye."

The phone call to the Governor was from George Montford. "Sir, I have a question that you could perhaps answer."

"Certainly, George. I am not busy at the moment, so fire away."

You recall that I am trying to set up a standards authority? Well, there are related matters that might be incorporated in the overall arrangement. Standards are normally just data that everyone has to adhere to if they want to make anything."

"Yes, I agree on that, George."

"Well, sir, there is also the question of patents. At the moment, if anyone wants to patent any new idea, they have to do so on Earth, with one of the national patents bodies. That is acceptable for any invention that will be sold on Earth, but if an invention is made on Rehome, should the inventor have to go to earth to register his invention? It would make sense to have our body act as a patent office as well; that was my thought."

"Good thinking, George. I would go along with such a proposal."

"There's more, sir. Copyright. That falls into the same gap as do patents. Our online newspaper should have copyright protection, so that any other media that uses a story from our newspaper should pay for the privilege. Admittedly Tom Pfeiffer has been successful in getting payments from Earth for any material copied there, but should anyone copy a story and NOT pay for it, he would have no redress for that criminality. If we instituted copyright on a legal basis, that would help. Again, there is music. My daughters have been getting royalties from their Earth publishers, but purely on the basis of the copyright laws on Earth. If anyone on Rehome copies anyone's music or songs, a the moment there is nothing to prevent it happening."

"Quite so, George. You have a valid point there. Do you propose three bodies for these matters, or a single overarching body to cover them all?"

"I view this as a practical matter, sir. With the limited amount of activity in all three fields, I would suggest an overall body for standards, patents and copyright, then as the Colony grows, that body can be split up into the three fields as soon as numbers prove it to be worthwhile to do so. To begin with, Standards should be the priority, with some basic protection for copyright and patent. Going from previous views on laws, all we need is a basic legal instrument granting copyright in any artistic field to the artist, unless there is any evidence to the contrary. Likewise, any inventor should automatically be assumed to be the patent holder, until he gets a formal recognition of his rights. The occasions when two men squabble over the claim of invention, are few and far between. We could simply ask that any inventor should transmit a copy of his invention to the Colony administration, marked "invention", and that dated communication would be proof of the claim. Similar procedures can be used for copyright proof."

"Is there any advantage for us, to be integrated into the systems on earth? To my mind, it would save the cost and effort of setting up our own procedures."

"If that was so, then why would every country on Earth set up their own systems? They get a financial advantage, through charges for applications, sales of copies of official standards, patents; and any arguments are settled within their own legal system, so all the money for lawyers, etc. is spent within their own country. It usually boils down to financial advantage, though there are aspects of national pride involved too. The drawback is if your system is not in the languages most used on Earth then recognition of your patents may be more difficult to obtain, and an inventor in that country may find himself not being recognised as the original inventor of something, through that language barrier."

"That is a problem for that inventor, but not necessarily for the country."

"It is, if the country does not want to be ignored by the rest of the world."

"Right, I accept that language would be a problem, but as we use English, there is no such problem affecting us; right?"

"Correct, sir. The main benefit would be simplicity. We can deal with applications swiftly and with almost no bureaucracy involved. The national systems of Earth are slow and cumbersome, and it would be easy for an application to get lost in the system for ages. Doing things our way, we can keep costs low, which helps the less-advantaged members of our community."

"Excellent. That's what I like to hear: a simple and practical method of helping our citizens. Clear it with Admin, telling them I have approved it in principle; but it is up to them, if they like it too, to work with you to implement a workable service. Well done, George."

"Thank you, sir." There was a question in his eyes, and the Governor knew what the answer was.

"There will be a large consultancy fee for you, George, reflecting your hard work."

"Thank you very much, sir," George grinned at him. "My wives will be happy to spend it."

Trevor this evening found himself on baby duty, along with Peggy. His wives were all busy rehearsing the new song, now that they had the selected music for it. He could vaguely hear singing noises from the dining room. They had commandeered it for the purpose. He thanked God for the sound insulation in the house. That was one of the excellent design standards that the original builders had applied.

He finished changing the nappy that he was working on. He was not enamoured of the smell, but recognised that all babies do urinate and defecate, and parents have to deal with it. Input causes output. It was a task he was prepared for, as he did not personally have to put up with the problems of pregnancy and childbirth. This was the easier responsibility, and he accepted that it came with the pride of fatherhood.

The great thing was that once changed, the babies either settled down or went off to sleep. Either way, they were less trouble after a nappy change. He reported to Peggy.

"That is this one done, Peggy. How are the rest doing?"

"They seem settled, Trevor darling, but I find myself counting them every so often, just so I have all five accounted for. Can we have a kiss and a cuddle while we wait for the next one to start crying?"

"I don't see why not, Peggy. We won't get much of a break, though, going on past experience. Come here, then, and sit on my lap. You deserve a kiss for your helpfulness."

They were enjoying the quiet togetherness when they heard a muffled screech coming through the house. Trevor stood up, carefully standing Peggy on her feet, as he rushed to deal with the problem. He got through to where his wives were, to find Dinah glaring at Tracy. They had clearly just spoken angrily, and were at the visual challenge stage. Trevor asked. "What is going on, girls? I could hear you through the house."

Dinah declared vehemently, "Tracy is mangling the song!"

Tracy was quick to reply, "No, I am not. The words and tune are not easy to fit together!"

Annabel intervened, "Dinah, it is true. The tune is clever, but if your attention is on the words, the tune is not easy; If your attention is on the tune, you can miss out on the words. It is nobody's fault: just a technical difficulty we have to overcome."

Trevor decided to play the husband card. "Dinah, darling, we appreciate you wanting to make this song perfect, but perfection comes after making errors, doesn't it? Give your sisters some leeway, my love."

Dinah came over to him and kissed him. "You always manage to say the right things, Trevor. I apologise for my outburst." She turned back to the others and called out "All right, you lot. We are going to get this right, eventually. From the top, again..." She pressed the icon on her phone, and the music started once more.

The group burst into song on cue, and this time it seemed to go better. Certainly Tracy had a smirk on her face, as she performed perfectly this time. As it finished, Trevor felt able to leave, but as he turned, Dinah shouted to him, " Trevor: Lay off kissing Peggy for a while. I could taste her lipstick on you, my man."

"Sorry, Dinah. We took a break, and she just wanted a kiss and cuddle. You can't complain about that, can you?"

"As long as there is no fucking. You have a wife waiting for you tonight." She resumed her self-appointed conductor duties. "That was much better, girls, but we have to get it perfect before we record it. Once more, please, then we can finish for tonight."

As Trevor returned to his babies, he reflected that his wives were a hellova lot richer than he was, with their songs. He smiled happily; they had no reason ever to moan about not having the money for a new dress, or whatever. They had already ordered a set of dresses for their recording. They would all be wearing identical costumes, but in varying pastel colours. They planned to have Steve Nicholas come up from Earth with his crew, to make the recording once they felt they were ready.

Terence Rattigan had more news for the Governor.

"Sir, I thought you would like to know. We now have three universities participating in the analysis of timber samples, and the students are having great fun with them. Knowing they are unique samples gives the students great pride in their work, and the standard of results we are getting from them is excellent. I have not had to drop a single one from our panel of analysts.

The thick bark has been of interest to our students, for many tree barks on Earth have medicinal qualities. They are still checking out possible uses for each type of bark, so that will take considerable time to clarify. That task has been passed to chemistry students, as more in their line of study."

"I am very pleased to hear that, Terence. In that case, would you be interested in tackling another set of samples? This lot come from the same source, but are animal, insect or other creatures found in association with the forests. They are sealed to prevent them contaminating any biosphere, so they can only be tackled in a sealed laboratory. Such facilities are few and far between, as you know. It may be that only government or military facilities have these, unless you know better; I am a few years out of date with Earth's technical abilities."