Chapter 3

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 treaty I negotiated with the President, I wanted the US Government to consider the entire ranch as Embassy grounds. But for the Multiverse Government, I would define the entire ranch as personal property.

I actually considered the ranch to be my personal property, but I strongly suspected that at some point the Embassy would be attacked by people who opposed the Multiverse, and/or me. My position with the US Government gave me the right to prosecute any crime that occurred anywhere on the ranch according to Multiverse laws and customs. I did not trust the Earth courts to dispense justice to an attacker. If someone attacked me on the ranch, I wanted them to be judged according to the Multiverse legal system.

I could envision problems with public opinion, when such a trial was held, so I would have to consult with my advisers regarding a plan for conducting such a trial without enraging the American people. I tasked Sereine with determining the Multiverse’s requirements for selecting a penal planet. She should be able to do that while she was on Vora. I also asked her to find us two penal planets after we returned to Earth.

Sereine had made the final hop to First Stop. So I only needed a short rest before I was ready to leave for my estate on Slave World. Sereine felt that she needed another fifteen minutes of rest before leaving for Vora, so I made my first hop toward the estate. After my third hop, we arrived at the estate and headed for the house.

Charyl met us at the door and called for Edgar to join us. The first thing I did was answer their questions, and then I commed Kendrick to let him know I was here and I needed to talk with him. The next thing was to get Ken to a medical facility, so he could get his splinter. I would comm Chairman Smart, President Jenson, and the manager of the addiction treatment center, when we got back from the medical center.

When we arrived at the medical clinic, I made the arrangements for Ken to get his shot and splinter. I requested Doctor Misty Carr do the work. She was the doctor who installed Abby’s splinter, and was interested in setting up a practice on a Provisional World. While translating for Ken, I talked with Misty about the interest she expressed on my last trip concerning her desire to work on a Provisional Member World.

Misty was an unusual person. Her goal in life was to be of service to the people of a backward planet. The idea of being the Embassy’s medical doctor appealed to her, for I told her I wanted her to become the Multiverse’s liaison with Earth’s medical community and assist them with upgrading their medical equipment, treatments, and medications. I made sure she understood that she would become a sugar addict, if she chose to join us on Earth.

After discussing what that would mean to her on Earth, she indicated that she could live with that problem for she had planned to spend the rest of her life on the planet she selected. To her, being associated with the Multiverse’s Ambassador and being the first Multiverse doctor on Earth was an ideal situation. In fact, to her it was a dream come true. She was willing to consume some sugar on a daily basis, if it would allow her to be in the position she had dreamed of for years. The idea of being able to improve the medical care of an entire planet’s people was especially attractive to her. As I said, Misty was an unusual person.

I had been a little concerned about the trip being a little too stressful for Ken, but he got a clean bill of health from Misty, a shot to deaden his ears’ pain receptors, and his splinter. He was set for the duration of our visit. I was especially happy that Misty said he was in excellent health for I liked him a lot and wanted him to be a part of our group for a long time.

I suggested Doctor Carr think about my offer for several days, and if she decided to accept my offer of employment at the Embassy, she should contact Kendrick’s office to make the necessary arrangements. After leaving the medical center, I remembered that I needed to set up an appointment with Guild Master Kevin Moore. When we got back to the estate, I sent him a Twixt to let him know I was at the estate on Slave World and would be traveling to Vora sometime next week or the week after that. I told him that I would comm him when I got there to set up an appointment to discuss several matters with him. I also sent a similar Twixt to Sergei. By the time we returned to the estate, Kendrick was there waiting for us. I told Kendrick that I needed a few minutes to send a couple of Twixts, and once they were sent, we began our discussion.

“Good afternoon, Kendrick. I’m glad you were able to make it on short notice, but before I crash for the night, I wanted to let you know what I want to accomplish on this trip and find out if anything new has come up.”

“No problem Doug. I had to come out here anyway to talk with your Security Guards. I had a few things to address with them before they headed back to Earth with you. I was able to get that out of the way while you were at the clinic, so I’m all yours now.”

“Cindy, bring up the list of things I need to talk about with Kendrick.”

Cindy started her portable computer, accessed the file containing the list of items for Kendrick, and then turned it so we could read the screen.

“I had Cindy organize the list in order of importance, Kendrick, so we may bounce around a bit in our discussion. The most critical item is to get the sugar out to the treatment center for the patients that have a problem with sugar addiction. In conjunction with that, I need to talk with President Jenson about taking them to Earth.

“I need to talk with Chairman Smart and you about a variety of items, such as the D-Hopping Shelter and installing a Twixt Network to Earth.

“Tim, Tammy, and Stenn need transportation to their home planets, so they can take care of personal business. I would take them, but my time is limited. Can you hire D-Hoppers to get them to where they need to go and then back here?”

“All right, I will do that tomorrow morning.”

“I need to talk with Kevin about how to limit trade with Earth and I’m thinking of import and export taxes, and using the taxes to support the Embassy’s mission. Before I do that, I would like to make sure that such a tax is legal and if it is legal for me to use the tax for supporting my mission. I would like to know as much as possible about the requirements for establishing such a tax and how I will have to account for the taxes I collect. Can you put someone on that right away? I would like to meet with Kevin a week from now.

“I’m going to build a warehouse on Earth and I need to know if I should register my warehouse as a Multiverse business or as an Earth business, and there are other spinoff businesses that I am thinking of starting, which will probably be Earth businesses.

“I have a few minor items that we can discuss later. However, there is one item I would appreciate your handling personally and very confidentially. Betty, Carol, Rita, and Cindy want me to impregnate them. You’ve met Mom, so you know she holds to Vora’s traditional values. One of those values is for a man to marry a woman if he gets them pregnant. Cindy is not a slave and I know that I can free Rita at any time that I wish to do so; but the court sentenced Betty and Carol to slavery for life, so I can’t free them. What I need to know is, is it legal for a man to marry his slave?”

“I assume from your question that you plan on getting all four of your women pregnant and marrying them. Is that correct?”

“Yes, I care for all four of them and several other women, who I will probably marry in the future. Now what has come up since I have been gone?”

“I am still in the process of expanding my law firm to meet your needs, Doug. I have added an accounting section to manage your investments, and we need to discuss the investments you had before you inherited the Archer Conglomeration stock.

“Sandy’s mother is creating problems. She is saying that you coerced Sandy into going to Earth with you, and she is threatening to go to the police if you don’t return her to Slave World.

“There is a Mister and Missus Smith who claim that their daughter Carol was taken to Earth without their approval, and they have been without the financial support she provided them before you abducted her.

“Chairman Smart wants to discuss doing business on Earth with you. He is looking for a full-time representative for Archer products and services.

“President Jenson has the background information on the sugar addicts. His people say there should be no problem with most of them, but two or three had problems in school and with the police. Their files were sent to me a couple of weeks ago, and my people have reviewed them. There is nothing major in their files to indicate that they would cause trouble. There are a few minor run-ins with the authorities, but it is just some of the normal stuff that older kids do to prove themselves to their friends. I don’t understand what they try to prove, but I do remember myself at their age.

“I also received a Twixt from Master Kevin Moore asking you to stop by and discuss a few matters with him. He said it was important to talk before you leave, but the subject matter was not critical.

“The only important matters that I have for you this trip is Councilwoman Stanton needs to talk with you before you return and the contract I put together for me to represent your legal and business interests.”

“It is good to hear that I am not walking into more major problems than I can handle in one trip. Did Maribel say what she needed to see me about?”

“Not specifically ... but I’m to tell you it can wait for a short while; just be sure to see her before you leave.”

“Okay, then let’s talk about Sandy’s mother and Carol’s parents.

“The situation with Carol’s parents is very different from what they’re representing it to be. When Carol was a young girl they forced her to earn money and turn it over to them. About a month before I arrived on one of my trips, she was arrested and tried for robbery. She was found guilty, and the judge sentenced her to a penal planet, but offered her the alternative of a life of slavery. She accepted the alternative and I bought her from the slave trader Phillip Tudor. She was my slave at the time I took her to Earth, so I didn’t need their permission. During my last trip, I gave Carol some spending money and allowed her to go visit her parents and if she wished she could stay over for one night. They made her give them the money for rent and food. She left the next day and vowed to never return. To the best of my knowledge, neither she nor I owe them anything.”

“Doug, it sounds like they are trying to get money they are not entitled to receive. As you undoubtedly know, slaves cannot own property. They knew she was a slave. When they forced her to give them the money she had on her person, they actually stole the money from you. When they filed a claim for financial compensation, they misrepresented the conditions that were described in a legal document that they signed. Both of these acts are crimes that can earn them a long stay on a penal planet. How would you like this handled. I can file a complaint with the police or I can have one of my new associates pay them a visit and explain the problems they have created for themselves.”

“Send your associate to talk with them. Pass a message to them from me also. The message is, I do not approve of the manner in which they treated Carol when I allowed her to visit with them. Carol informed me that after their treatment of her, she no longer considers them to be her family, and she wants nothing further to do with them. I will respect her wishes, and ask that they do not contact her or me in the future.

“Sandy’s mother is a different situation. Set up an appointment with her for early in the morning on the day after tomorrow. I don’t know much about the woman, but it seems as if she is driven by greed. She may love Sandy, but the motivations driving her seem to be greed and a sense of Henry abandoning her and the Archer Family.

“Try to get me an appointment with President Jenson late tomorrow morning. After that we can stop by the treatment center to drop off the sugar, and discuss things with its administrator. I also want to arrange a meeting with the sugar addicts who would like to go to Earth with me.

“Tell Chairman Smart, we can meet to discuss various matters over lunch the day after tomorrow to include the afternoon and evening. If necessary, we can continue the day after that.

“When I have finished with Chairman Smart, we can talk about the things we need to discuss. When we finish, I need to take care of some business on Vora and I would really like to know about the legality of marrying a slave before I leave for Earth.

I expect to be on Vora for two days, possibly three, and then I will return. Right after I return, I will probably take a trip to Shilling to speak with Maribel. Once everything is taken care of, we will be returning to Earth.

“Sereine is currently on Vora with Abby and a new lady called Kim. They should be here about the time I’m ready to leave for Vora. Sereine and Abby will take Coral and Sto to the doctor on Toomby for a checkup. They should return here, two or three days later. We believe Coral is pregnant.

“By the way, what was the name of the judge that handled Henry’s estate? All I remember is addressing him as Judge and Your Honor. I think I will have him look over the agreement that you drew up, if he is willing to do so.”

“Yes, things were a bit rushed that day weren’t they. I guess we forgot to tell you a lot on that first day, Doug. His name is Orion Baker.

“I’ll get out of here now, and let you and your party get something to eat and some sleep.”

After I showed Kendrick to the door, I joined everyone around the dining room table. Rita, Cindy, and Charyl were preparing dinner in the kitchen. Edgar, Ken, and my bodyguards were talking with the estate’s bodyguards and my Earth bodyguards were doing the interpreting for Ken. They weren’t fluent in English yet, but they each knew a bit so everyone seemed to understand each other.

“Are these people taking care of you, Ken?”

“Sure. That nice lady Charyl got me a cold iced tea and a piece of cake when we got here. I thought you said that they don’t use sugar in the food, Doug. The icing on the cake tasted awfully sweet to me.”

“We use Kastler instead of sugar, Ken. Kastler is a sweet tasting grain that is finely ground and used like sugar. I haven’t seen any Kastler on Earth so it probably doesn’t grow there. Excuse me for a couple of minutes; I need to check with Edgar to see how things have been since I left.”

Edgar and I talked for about five minutes. Overall things were going fine. There had been a bit of friction at first between the estate’s regular security people and my new security guards. It took a couple of days, but things smoothed out. The main problem had been a professional dispute on how the estate should be patrolled. My new people favored a roving patrol, and the regular guards had been using fixed guard stations backed up with surveillance equipment.

Henry had the equipment put in by a local company. Edgar told me the company was not highly recommended, but Henry used them anyway. I had Edgar assign four of my security guards to me as bodyguards for the next week or so. After talking with a few of my bodyguards the next day, I let Edgar know that I would have Sergei Magnusson evaluate the estate’s security system and update it as required.

I let my three Earth bodyguards know that Kendrick would arrange for D-Hoppers to take them where they needed to go and to return them when they were finished. I briefed them on my plan for the trip, and told them when we would be returning to Earth. I finally got around to comming Judge Baker.

“Hello, Judge Baker, this is Doug Smith. I was wondering if you could provide me with legal services on the side. Kendrick has drawn up an agreement for his firm to represent me, and I would like for you to represent me by reviewing the agreement before we sign it, and to witness our signatures.”

“Yes, I can do that for you. However, I do need to be cautious about placing myself in a position where a conflict of interest may result. If the agreement were to ever result in a court action, I would have to recuse myself from hearing any appeal that might result.”

“Thanks, Judge, I can accept that. I’ll let Kendrick know so he can provide a copy of the document to you and the two of you can settle on a suitable fee for the work you will be doing for me.”

“Okay, Doug, but I must say that it is a little unusual for him to represent you in a contractual matter when he is the other party, but that is between the two of you.”

“Yeah, I know. I trust Kendrick to be a professional and to do the right thing, otherwise I wouldn’t have hired him. The only reason I want it reviewed by a third party is to ensure it is fair to both of us, and nothing that needs to be addressed has been overlooked. We can all make mistakes and oversights. Bye, Judge.”

Charyl and my ladies served dinner before I was able to get back to Ken and explain my plans for the next few days. I discussed the next three days with Ken, Rita, and Cindy over dinner. Kendrick had returned home; so after dinner, I commed him and explained the arrangements I made with Judge Baker.

The next morning Edgar used my hover bus to drive Ken, Rita, Cindy, my bodyguards, and me to President Andrew Jenson’s office for my meeting at 10:00. Kendrick would leave from his home and meet us there. We also had a drop-in meeting at the treatment center for after Andrew and I finished our meeting.

After the pleasantries were finished, Andrew and I discussed the status of the sugar addicts emigrating to Earth. While we talked, Rita was giving Ken a running translation of our discussion. It was a little distracting for I had to track what she was saying and help her with the translation when she had problems.

Andrew slid a stack of file folders across his desk and said, “These are the files of the men and women currently enrolled in the sugar addiction program who are interested in emigrating. I twixted copies of the files to Kendrick for his review two weeks ago.

“Five of the young women and one of the young men are currently minors, so I had my assistant prepare Guardianship Papers for their parents to sign that will make you their guardian. As their guardian, you can legally take them to Earth. Two of our original three older adult sugar addicts had been in very bad condition, and they recently died. Since then, four additional older adults are in their late-20s and early 30s have enrolled in our program. So in addition to our twenty five young people, we now have five older adults, one female and four males, who want to go with you if you will take them.”

“I will take all thirty of them, Andrew, if we can work out the details on my end. We have no place for them to live right now and we have approached the Earth authorities to see if it would be possible for them to emigrate. It seems like something can be worked out that will allow me to take them to Earth. I expect that it will be more than a year before the main Embassy building will be ready for occupancy. I will look into the possibility of adding additional mobile homes to our temporary living site. If we can do that, then we may be able to take them back with us to Earth on our next trip.”

“You have done a lot to help us, Doug, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful. From what you are saying we need to plan on our sugar addicts being with us for at least two more months and it could be for more than a year. Is that right?”

“Yes, two months is about the quickest that I can take them off your hands, Andrew. Is it going to be a problem if they stay longer?”

“Sort of, you see maintaining the treatment facility with that many inhabitants is putting a strain on my discretionary budget and most of these young women want to get married. The administrator at the treatment center explained your offer to them. They are very eager to get to Earth, so they can start a new life and find a young man to become their husband. Remember what our young men and woman are like when they first become sexually active, and then add in the fact that they were used as sex slaves.

“Actually, Andrew, I was born and raised on Vora. I heard the stereotype rumors of what young men and women on Slave World are like when they reach their sexual maturity, but until recently, I have never been around any one from Slave World during that period of their life.”

“Yes, I’ve heard those stories also and they are exaggerated. However, the actual level of sexual desire is high and it creates a situation that is difficult for us to manage. So far, the administrator has looked the other way regarding their personal lives, since they have their anti-fertility implants. What I am concerned about is one or more of these young men and women forming a permanent attachment with someone who is not a sugar addict. If they remain here, they will lose their source of sugar. So remaining here would be a death sentence for them, and an additional person going to Earth would be a bigger burden on you.”

“Well, don’t worry about it, Andrew. I plan on talking with them after we finish our meeting. I will try to address the matter with them at that time. If they are as stubborn as I was at their age, it may cause problems. But as long as our thirty emigrants don’t grow to sixty, I should be able to manage.”

“Kendrick, we need to get on top of this problem Andrew mentioned. The first solution that comes to my mind is for them to form a relationship with my security people, who will be going to Earth, but most of them are married if I remember correctly.”

“No, about half of them are either single or their families will be remaining behind when they leave. Are you thinking of pairing the ladies up with your people?”