Chapter 5

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 checking into the hotel in Cinnity.

“My parents were waiting for us when we arrived. I was surprised by the two hover limos that were parked outside the house, but apparently, my folks were thinking ahead. I had ten people in my group, and my parents made twelve. We would never have fit in Dad’s hover car!

For Vora, Willibald is a medium-sized town. We have several nice restaurants, but they aren’t the high-class restaurants that you would find in a large city like Cinnity. We had no sooner arrived on Vora than Mom had us loaded into the two limos. Evidently, we arrived a little later than she had expected, and being late for an appointment was one of the things my Mom hated with a passion. Kim, Ken, Mom, Dad, two of my bodyguards, and I ended up in one hover limo with everyone else in the second vehicle. We would have been overloaded if Sto had been with us.

“Mom, Dad, these are friends of mine from Earth: Kimberly Bailes and Kenneth Johnson.”

The expression on Kim’s face was interesting when my Mom said, “Nice to meet you,” in English.

Switching to English I said, “Kim, Ken, these are my parents Marsha and Stan Smith.”

Kim said, “It is nice to meet you, also. Doug, you didn’t tell us that your folks could speak English.”

“They can’t, Kim. My Mom has learned a few phases, but not enough to hold a conversation.”

Smiling at me and in Trade Speak, my Mom said, “Rita gave me a set of your Trade Speak-to-English sleep learning disks before you left on your last trip. You are right. I am not fluent in English, yet, but I can now speak more than you think.”

Now that surprised me for she had understood what I said in English. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. It seemed like a good thing, but I had a feeling it would cause me problems in the future. How, I did not know for it was just a nagging feeling in the back of my mind. As a boy, I learned that the more Mom knew about my activities, the more likely it was for me to get in trouble. I hated that feeling for it was invariably accurate.

“That’s great, Mom. Does this mean that I won’t have to translate for you anymore?”

“No, it doesn’t. I haven’t learned enough English to hold a conversation yet, but I’m getting better every night.

Turning to Kim and Ken, I translated what my Mom had told me. Her understanding of the language was not far enough along to properly express her comments in English.

Now that I was here on Vora, I excused myself and commed both Kevin and Sergei to arrange for appointments. When we got to the Hotel Trinity, I would twixt Councilwoman Stanton to request a private meeting with her outside of her office. I really needed her advice and assistance with setting up some way to prevent the destabilization of the Earth and Multiverse markets and for several other matters.

When we arrived, my bodyguards instructed me to remain in the limo, and they stayed with me. The two bodyguards in the other hover limo conducted a security check of the restaurant. That was new. When the all clear was given, my party was quickly guided from the limos into the restaurant.

Once inside, I looked at Kendrick and said, “Isn’t this a bit extreme?”

“Perhaps, Doug, but we have received several threats over the past month threatening you with harm. Most of the threats seem to have come from someone living on Vora. I forwarded the threatening twixts to the police, as you suggested, but they haven’t been able to locate the sender. That, in and of itself, is reason to take additional measures.”

In a whisper, he said, “I will talk about this with you later, Doug. There is a lot I need to explain to you.”

In a normal voice, he said, “I’m sorry, Doug, I thought you understood your situation. It isn’t right to have to live with this type of threat hanging over you all the time, but that is what being a wealthy celebrity means. Your choice is to let your security people deal with the situation in public, or never go out to a public place.”

“I see. From now on, at least let me know if there is a serious security concern. I will be better prepared to respond to my bodyguards’ instructions.”

Once we were seated in a private dining room, I helped Ken while Cindy helped Kim with their menus. Once we had placed our orders, we settled down and began to chat.

Rita and Cindy were glowing with excitement, and seemed to be a little apprehensive. Mom kept glancing at them trying to decide if something was wrong. I decided it was time for the announcement.

“Kim, you and Ken will have to excuse us for a few moments, I am going to tell my folks about my engagement and I suspect things are going to get hectic.

“Mom, Dad, there are several things I have to tell you. Two days ago, I freed Rita.”

Before I could say anything else, Mom and Dad were congratulating her. When the babble slowed down, I went on.

“After I freed Rita, I asked Rita and Cindy to marry me, and they accepted.”

For a moment, there was dead silence. Then Mom and Dad realized exactly what I said and what it meant. The noise level shot up as Mom screamed and rushed around the table to embrace Rita and Cindy. My Dad just sat there looking at me and then he smiled and said, “Congratulations, Son. Now your mom is going to be after you to give her some grandchildren, just like she did with your older brother and sisters.”

Mom was still busy talking with Rita and Cindy. I didn’t think the babble would be returning to normal anytime soon, so returning his smile, I said, “Rita and Cindy already have me working on that. They both want children, and neither of them want to wait. Among other things, I decided to marry them ahead of time, so Mom wouldn’t get upset with me for getting them pregnant without marrying them fast enough to suit her.”

Mom sat down next to me and said, “Rita and Cindy tell me that you will want to get married on your next trip to Vora. You know if you wanted to, you could get married now.”

“Mom there is a bit more that Rita and Cindy are not aware of. I asked Kendrick to find out for me if it is legal for me to marry a woman who is my slave. Just before we came here, Kendrick let me know that it is legal. So when I get back to Earth, I plan to ask Betty and Carol to marry me also. If they accept, then when I return, I will be marrying all four of my women, and they all want me to get them pregnant as soon as possible.”

Dad had a startled look on his face and said, “Four wives. Are you sure you want to take on four wives?”

“Yes, Dad, four women at once. Don’t worry, Dad, it could be worse. Abby and Sereine have made it clear that they are also interested in me. I suspect that I will be marrying them also in the next couple of years. Right now, their professions are important to them and they play a critical role in my position as Ambassador. Marrying them now could create professional problems for all of us. Besides right now, they seem to prefer just living with me.”

Our food started arriving, which slowed down the conversation. Turning back to Ken and Kim, I explained what we had been discussing.

Ken said, “Yes, that’s pretty much what I thought. I can’t understand Trade Speak, but a person’s body language sends out a lot of messages. If you learn how to read body language, you can get a pretty good idea what is being talked about. Well, not the specific words, but the feelings and emotions behind the words were very clear. Knowing the general topic helps a lot also.”

I was pulled back into the conversation about the wedding. Rita, Cindy, and my Mom were busy planning the wedding ceremony and reception. I answered their questions, and my dad caught my eye.

“Doug, I learned a long time ago when your older sisters got married that it is best if I stayed out of the planning stage and just made myself available for carrying packages and writing checks. I suggest you do the same at this point. When you are alone with your women, they may be willing to talk with you about what is being planned. They might even modify their plans to include some of what you want, if you approach them the right way.

“Thanks, Dad. Now that you mention it, I recall those weddings. I never noticed what you did. What I noticed was the women doing all the work, and we men just sat off on the side. I wondered why we weren’t doing more to help. Now I understand. The best help we can give them is to be there if they need us, but otherwise stay out of their way.”

“You got it, son. It took me a lot longer to figure it out, but I didn’t have anyone to advise me back then.”

Kim, Ken, Kendrick, Dad, and I sat back and let the ladies do their thing. I think that Kim wanted to join them, but the language barrier was too much for her, and the three ladies weren’t into translating. I’m not sure anyone could have translated that fast moving conversation. I understood Trade Speak and it was hard for me to keep up when two of them talked at the same time. One of these days, I am going to find out how women can talk and listen at the same time, and maintain continuity in two conversation.

“Dad, I see it was a mistake to mention my personal business before we got the family business out of the way. I haven’t had time to get my Earth end of our business organized before I had to leave on this trip. Did you get any of the things from our list for us?”

“Yeah, we have most of your order, together. It amounts to five storage shelters of merchandise.”

“Oh, boy. Chairman Smart shipped a lot of equipment to Sergei that I need to take back to Earth also.”

“How many storage shelters will that make for you, Doug?”

“I don’t know, Dad. All Harry told me was the types of equipment. He didn’t mention quantities, size, or weight. I’m afraid that your shelters plus what Harry sent Sergei will be more than Sereine and I can handle. Oh, well. We’ll deal with that when necessary.

“There is one other matter that I need to discuss with you and Mom, and that is the investments you have been managing for me. I want to transfer that responsibility to Kendrick. It will simplify tracking my income with everything being managed by his firm.”

“Yes, your Mom and I have been expecting you to merge all of your financial activities under Kendrick. How do you want to go about making the transfer?”

“I will leave that up to you and Kendrick to work out. I discussed the matter with him and gave him my copy of our agreement. I think he is planning on comming you to discuss what needs to be done sometime during this trip.

“Mom is too busy with my ladies to fill me in on the family, so how’s everyone doing?”

“Fine, Doug. Your younger brother and his girlfriend are talking about a permanent relationship. Your other brother, sisters, their spouses, and kids are healthy and doing great. Your mom and I keep busy, although we have been discussing a four-week vacation to one of the Pleasure Worlds.”

“That sounds like fun, Dad. Where are you going and when are you planning to leave?”

“We hadn’t gotten that far in our planning yet. I understand that the weather is better later in the season, but that is the popular time of the year so everything is more expensive. The crowds make it harder to get a reservation also, and I don’t like crowded places.”

“Tell you what, Dad, if I recall the briefing Harry and the Board of Directors gave me, the Archer Conglomerate owns hotels on several of the Pleasure Worlds. It owns several of the Pleasure Parks, as well. I can pull a few strings and get you a good room at a very good rate, and I should be able to get you complimentary tickets to some of our parks, also.”

“That sounds like a good offer to me.”

“How many weeks were you actually planning on being gone?”

“I don’t know, Doug. As I said, we were talking about a four-week vacation. I was planning on finding out what the rates are like, and looking at how much we set aside for our vacation. That would give me a better idea of how long we could stay.”

“It just occurred to me that I need to come up with several First of the Year Celebration presents for Mom, you, and the rest of the family. What if I combine the presents for you and Mom and pay for four weeks at one of the Conglomerate’s Hotels, to include room, meals at the Hotel’s restaurant, other Hotel services, and two one-month guest tickets to the local Pleasure Parks.

“I don’t know, Doug. That’s a very expensive gift. I’m not sure your Mom and I would be comfortable having you spend that much money on us.”

“Dad, it’s something that I would like to do for the two of you, and the cost is, literally, nothing for me. Just to put it perspective for you, if I were to factor in all the hours in a Voran year, and my Archer income for a year, the total cost of the vacation would be less than one second’s worth of my income.”

“Are you sure of that, Doug?”

“Dad, my Archer stock dividends amount to about fourteen-point-five trillion dollars a year. If you were to compute the number of seconds in a Voran year, you would find that my income is about three hundred thousand dollars a second.”

“Oh, hell! I knew you were wealthy from that inheritance, but I didn’t realize just how much you actually inherited.”

“I know, Dad. I don’t like to talk about it and I have trouble getting a good grasp on the numbers myself sometimes. When I stop and express my wealth in the way I just did, it scares me. All that money is power, and in the Multiverse, that much power is very scary.”

We had finished lunch and I paid the bill. Dad didn’t argue as he usually did. I guess he now knew I could afford it. My ladies and Mom had their preliminary plans in order. I figured they would comm each other and be talking again as soon as we checked into the hotel. The limos were parked close to the front door and my bodyguards seemed very alert as we went from the restaurant to the limos.

The limos took us back to Mom and Dad’s home so we could pick up the baggage we had left there. After being dropped off, I commed Tom Hauser at the Trinity to let him know we would be arriving in the next five-to-ten minutes. We said our goodbyes to my folks, and I hopped us to the hotel meeting room.

Tom was waiting for us just outside of the meeting room door when we arrived. The Hotel staff with him pushed three baggage carts into the room and our baggage was on the carts and headed for our rooms before we realized what was happening. The Trinity Hotel had a very efficient staff.

“Doug, I have been made aware of your security issues, and our staff is on alert for any unusual circumstances. You and your party are already checked in and I have your room cards. If you will follow me, I will show you to your rooms.”

“Thanks, Tom.”

Tom was behaving very much like Sto, overly protective and checking all round him for any dangers. As we proceeded to the elevators, we drew near to the reception desk.

A loud, high-pitched, feminine voice called out, “Mr. Hauser. I need to talk with you, right now.”

“Excuse me for just a moment, Doug. This twit has another complaint about something.”

“Mr. Hauser, my room just won’t do. The sun shines in the windows in the morning and wakes me up and...”

In a loud commanding voice, Tom interrupted and said, “I’m sorry, Miss Shell. I am with another guest, right now. Talk with our receptionist, and if she can’t help you, I will be back in a few minutes.”

My bodyguards, Jim Sifer and Patty Burr had moved to flank me while Tom had been talking to this very pretty, young, platinum blond woman. I noticed that as Jim and Patty moved to my sides, two men had taken up positions on each side of the woman and slightly to her rear. I could sense tension in the air.

“Tom, if you need to address this woman’s issue now I will understand.”

The woman said, “I don’t need your understanding, asshole. Stay out of this or you will regret it.”

I know Rita has a temper, but she had managed to keep it under control ever since she got angry with me and turned herself into a sugar addict. Perhaps I should have expected it, but I didn’t. She stepped between the cute blonde and me and took up a defensive stance.

“You can’t talk to my fiancé that way. Keep it up, blondie and I am going to tear that brown hair out of your head and shove it down your throat.”

I didn’t want any problems with the police, so I wrapped my arms around Rita’s waist and lifted her off the ground.

“Put me down, Doug. I am not going to let some arrogant bottle blond speak to my man the way she did you.”

“Rita, there are better ways to handle this than by ending up on a prison planet.”

Letting Ken and Cindy take control of Rita and lead her to the front of our group, I turned to face this thankless woman. I froze when I saw her bodyguards with stunners in their hands pointed toward the floor. Jim and Patty had moved forward and in front of me. My other two bodyguards, Gary Mace and Frank Dahl, moved up even with Jim and Patty; but they spread out to flank the woman’s two bodyguards. All four of them had their hands under their coats, undoubtedly grasping their stunners.

Even though the two bodyguards had their stunners out, they recognized that they were in a bad position to protect their client and that all three of them could end up getting stunned if things went wrong. That was when Kendrick stepped forward.

“Miss Shell. I am Mr. Smith’s attorney, Kendrick Jones. Your comment to my client was out of line, and offensive. Your bodyguards have drawn their stunners, which could be considered a threat of violence. Mr. Smith has had a series of threats made against him. His bodyguards are not armed with the usual stunners. They are currently armed with energy pistols. If you or your guards make the wrong move toward my client, his bodyguards will shoot all three of you. My client and I would like to avoid an unfortunate occurrence like that. I suggest that you instruct your bodyguards to holster their weapons.”

Looking over her shoulder, she nodded to one of her bodyguards. As he put his stunner away, the other bodyguard put his away, and I could see a smirk on their faces. Tom started to head for the elevators.

Before we followed him, Eva said, “Mr. Jones, you are right about this getting out of hand, so I had my people put their stunners away. However, I am very much aware of the laws prohibiting the possession of lethal weapons. You really shouldn’t bluff the way you did. Someone may call your bluff and then you might have more trouble than you can handle.”

Tom had continued moving toward the elevators and I had turned to follow him as the blond was talking. I noticed that Ken and Cindy had Rita between them and right behind Tom. As I started to follow Kendrick to the elevators, I heard Jim say something to Miss Shell.

As I turned my head back, she said, “What did you say?”

As Jim and Patty pulled their coats to the side, he replied, “We don’t bluff.”

I could see her two bodyguards freeze in place, and the blood drained out of all three of their faces. The last thing I heard as I followed Kendrick was one of the men saying, “Damn, those were energy pistols. They weren’t bluffing!”

Once we arrived at our floor, Tom gave everyone but me room keys and told us our bags were in our rooms. With everyone heading to their room, Tom led Rita, Cindy, and me to our room. He unlocked the door and showed us in.

“I apologize for that woman’s actions, Doug, and for the remark I made about her being a twit. The only thing I can say in my defense is that she has been a pain in my side for two full days and nights. She’s a very well known actress, and according to her, there is nothing right with the hotel and the accommodations. The situation she created downstairs is the final straw. If you will excuse me, I have a guest to escort out of the Hotel.

Tom apologized once again as he was preparing to leave. I made it clear to him that I thought his handling of the situation was appropriate, and well within the conduct of a professional.

He smiled and said, “But my remark about her being a twit was unprofessional.”

“That may be true, Tom, but we are all human and have limits that people should not push us beyond. I know nothing about her, but I agree that she acted like a self-centered twit.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Doug, and congratulations on your engagement. I hope you and the young lady will have a pleasant life together.”

“Thank you, Tom, but I am actually engaged to both of my ladies, and we plan to marry in several weeks.”

“I see. If you need a banquet room for your reception, we would be glad to host the event here at the hotel.”

With a laugh I said, “Tom, I’m the groom. Don’t you know that the groom doesn’t know what is happening? He is kept in the dark, and told what to do and when to do it. It’s the first stage of being trained to be a husband.”

Tom got a laugh at my comment and I went on to say, “Actually, the plans right now are to hold a family and close friends ceremony with the reception at a small reception hall near my folk’s home.”

“Well, I hope you all have a happy life together.”

After half a day on Slave World, almost four hours of hopping, and half a day on Vora, we were tired. I had sent my bodyguards to bed for some sleep since the Hotel security staff was standing guard outside our doors. A three-hour nap and then some dinner was exactly what we all needed.

When I woke up and walked into the main room, Rita and Cindy were watching the news on the Tri-D.

“Good Day, Multiverse. This is Evan Alts with the Multiverse News Network bringing you the latest in news from throughout the Multiverse. We have a major story surfacing in Cinnity, which is on Vora in the Home Universe. Earlier today the Cinnity Police were called to Hotel Trinity to remove movie celebrity Miss Eva Shell from the hotel.”

“Our roving reporter, Tandar Nipar, was there to cover the story. Tandar, what happened at the Trinity today?”

“It is a little difficult to put this whole story together, Evan, but I will tell you what I know at this point. I was near Hotel Trinity in Cinnity on Vora researching some background for a story and decided to have a late lunch at the Trinity’s restaurant. While waiting for my meal, I heard an altercation in the lobby and my curiosity compelled me to investigate. I have to tell you, Evan, my curiosity has gotten me into several interesting situations, but this is probably the most interesting of them all.

“When I entered the lobby, I saw Miss Eva Shell being forcibly removed from Hotel Trinity by the Cinnity Police. The police released her once she was outside the hotel and on the public sidewalk. I was able to get a brief interview with Miss Shell.

“Eva Shell indicated that she had been filing a complaint with the Manager of the Hotel Trinity when she was verbally accosted by another guest. According to Miss Shell, words were exchanged and her bodyguards had to draw their stunners to protect her from the party accosting her. Miss Shell informed us that the Hotel Manager, a Mr. Tom Hauser, turned his back on her and walked away with the guest that accosted her. She said that she is considering a lawsuit against the Hotel Trinity for public embarrassment.

“When I started asking Eva about the Hotel Trinity’s reason for asking her to leave, she stated that she had to find other lodging and did not have time to remain and answer questions about the atrocious treatment she received at Hotel Trinity.

“My intuition told me that there was more to this story than what Eva Shell had told me. I followed up by asking several of the Trinity’s guests if they knew anything about why Eva Shell had been asked to leave the Trinity. I was able to find two guests who heard and saw most of what occurred before Miss Shell was escorted out of the Trinity. They spoke with me under agreement of anonymity.

“By putting their two stories together, I discovered that the Hotel Manager, a Mr. Tom Hauser, was escorting a newly arrived guest and his party to their rooms, which under normal circumstances is highly unusual. Miss Shell approached the Manager in the middle of the lobby and started to file a complaint about her room while he was assisting his current guest and his party. The guest spoke to the Manager offering to wait while he handled Miss Shell’s problem, and then Miss Shell appeared to verbally attack the gentleman. This gentleman’s party was protected by four bodyguards. Two of his bodyguards apparently moved to his side to protect him in the event Miss Shell became physically violent.

Miss Shell was accompanied by two bodyguards of her own who responded by drawing their stunners in the event they had to defend Miss Shell. The gentleman’s two remaining bodyguards moved into position to defend against an attack by Miss Shell’s bodyguards and the gentleman’s four bodyguards had their hands under their coats as if they were preparing to draw their stunners.

For a short while, it appeared that there would be a shootout in the Hotel Trinity’s lobby. The gentleman’s lawyer stepped forward identifying himself and his client and then spoke with Miss Shell.

The lawyer told Miss Shell that the gentleman’s bodyguards considered Miss Shell’s bodyguards drawing their weapons to be a threat against their client and they were ready to defend him if necessary. He then told Miss Shell and her bodyguards that his client’s bodyguards were armed with energy pistols, not stunners. Miss Shell instructed her bodyguard to put their stunners away and they did.

The situation ended peacefully, Evan, but as the gentleman’s party was leaving Miss Shell made a comment to the lawyer that bluffing about energy weapons was a dangerous thing to do. As the last two bodyguards prepared to leave, they pulled back their coats and displayed their weapons to Miss Shell and her bodyguards.

“One of my hotel informants informed me that his profession requires him to be familiar with lethal weapons, and while he only got a brief look, it appeared to him that the bodyguards were armed with Archer Model 950 Energy Pistols.”

“That sounds like a story that we will need to follow up on, Tandar.”

“I agree, Evan, but this is where the story starts to get really interesting.”

“You mean there is more to this story, Tandar?”

“Oh yes, Evan, a lot more.

“I was able to interview the Hotel Manager, Mister Hauser. When I asked him about the confrontation in the lobby, Mr. Hauser informed me that it was Hotel Trinity’s policy to not comment on the activities of their guests. But I did get clarification of one thing, Evan. I told him that another guest had seen the weapon carried by one of the gentleman’s bodyguards, and he had identified it to me as an energy pistol. Mister Hauser stated that he was aware of the guest’s security needs. The guest’s bodyguards are all ex-police officers and they have been licensed by the Multiverse Government to carry lethal weapons for the purpose of defending their client.”

“What! I have never heard of anything like that, Tandar. Is that legal?”

“Yes, it is legal, Evan. I checked with the Cinnity Police explaining what I had been told. An officer in their public relations department informed me that a law had been passed about twenty or thirty years ago that authorized licensing bodyguards to carry lethal weapons under very special circumstances. I told him about the situation I had seen with Miss Shell and he informed me that the Cinnity Police Department was aware of the situation and the gentleman in question was authorized by the Multiverse Government to have bodyguards armed with lethal weapons.

“I’ve saved the best for last, Evan. When the lawyer introduced the gentleman and himself, he said he was Kendrick Jones and that his client was Doug Smith. I think you are familiar with those names, aren’t you, Evan?”

“Yes, Tandar. I recall the names from a recent press conference held by the new owner of the Archer Conglomerate.”

“That’s right, Evan. Miss Shell created a confrontation with the owner of the Archer Conglomerate. What makes that interesting, Evan, is the Archer Conglomerate owns the movie company that employs Miss Shell. It will be interesting to see if Miss Shell continues to be employed by her current employer.

“However, what I found to be the most interesting part of the entire situation is when Miss Shell verbally assaulted Mister Smith, a fiery, blond woman came to his defense, and she identified herself as his fiancé. If that is true, Evan, then one of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the Multiverse is about to get married and apparently no one is aware of it.