Chapter 21

Most of our travel arrangements, such as our visas to enter Spain, hotel reservations, and airline reservations were made with no problems. Unfortunately, we had two small problems. Those problems were that we did not have passports, and the suites on most cruise ships are set up for two adults.

The limited sleeping space in the suite was easily resolved. Abby used her contacts through the State Department to make the cruise line aware that Ambassador Doug Smith, the Ambassador from the Stars, and his four wives wished to cruise the Mediterranean on their ship during their honeymoon. Unfortunately, Ambassador Smith was disappointed that the suites were set up for only two people. She told them, the Ambassador and his wives enjoyed snuggling, and then asked if it was possible to add one or possibly two single beds to the suite’s bedroom. If that was possible, then they and their ten bodyguards would be happy to book a cruise with their cruise line. Abby said the cruise line’s booking agents seemed eager to arrange passage on their vessel for the Ambassador from the Stars, once the title bestowed on him by the US media was explained to them.

The passport problem was a bit more difficult to resolve, or should I say more complex. Abby’s boss Charlie arranged passports for all of us. Unfortunately, he wanted us have diplomatic passports, and he encountered what is commonly known as bureaucratic red tape. If I understand things correctly, the State Department could only issue diplomatic passports to individuals who represented the US Government and traveled on official US Government business. Charlie told Abby that he could work around that problem, but not in time for us to depart on our honeymoon. He recommended that I talk with Amir.

The UN is an organization, not a country, so I thought that the UN wouldn’t be able to issue me a passport. I wasn’t totally wrong in that belief. The UN issues what is called a Laissez-Passer (LP), which is actually a travel document, rather than a passport; but it’s effectively the same thing. Amir had to stretch his rules and policies a bit also to get us UNLPs.

Amir was limited to only issuing LPs to individuals traveling on official UN business. He suggested, and I agreed, for me to make an official trip to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Zambia for the UN to evaluate the medical situation in those countries, and to talk with their leaders, after we finished our honeymoon cruise. Since our party would be on official business, Amir could authorize the issue of LPs to all of my party. Amir was able to have me classified a Grade D-2, so I would receive a red LP with diplomatic privileges. My wives were given the title of Assistants to the Ambassador, and our bodyguards were identified as Security Personnel. They received blue LPs with no diplomatic privileges. The bad part of this side trip was our visa required that we get a series of shots to immunize us against the various bugs we might pick up in Africa. Sto got a big chuckle about us needing the shots!

Sto got a big laugh out of that until I talked with him about him going with us, and about the problems we might have to deal with. I knew that Sto was an intelligent, sentient being, but the rest of Earth’s people would view him as a pet or wild animal. I told Sto that we would be happy to have him with us, if he really wanted to go; the choice was up to him. He was really torn. He wanted to stay with Coral during her pregnancy, but he also wanted to go with us. I think the deciding factor was that if he went with us, Misty was going to give him several shots. Sto hates shots.

Sto later discussed the trip with Coral and she told him he should go with us. He told her that he would like to go, but he also wanted to stay with her and he hated shots. Sereine, Coral, Sto, and I met to discuss Sto going with us. Sereine pointed out the obvious to us. Sto could go with us and enjoy the cruise. Prior to us departing the ship for Africa, I could hop him back to the ranch and then return to the ship. With the need for shots eliminated and with Coral’s blessing, Sto decided to go with us for the cruise. He did indicate that Africa might be interesting, but not interesting enough to submit to Misty giving him shots.

My wives and I don’t like to fly. Our bodyguards didn’t like it, either. Sitting in an enclosed metal tube for hours at a time is uncomfortable, boring, and a major waste of time. We all preferred to hop when we needed to travel any significant distance. The thing that stopped us from hopping to Barcelona, which was the city where we would board the cruise ship, was I needed to be familiar with my destination in order to arrive at the right place. I can do a lateral hop to an unknown destination; but that’s not recommended for very long hops. The D-Hopper can lose their sense of orientation, which makes hopping dangerous. It’s a situation that’s easily corrected, but unpleasant to endure. The bottom line was, we had to fly to Barcelona.

Things went smoothly for us during the week preceding our departure; although Monday and Tuesday were hectic due to our finalizing things and preparing to leave. Early Wednesday morning we left for the airport, and I hoped that everything would go smoothly.

“Miss, I understand that the airline has policies in place for very valid reasons. However, this situation is unusual. To start with, Sto is an animal in the same sense that you and I are animals. The main difference between Earth’s animal kingdom, you, Sto, and me is sentience. You, Sto, and I are sentient and the other animals are not. Sto is not a pet and he is not from Earth. He is a sentient species from the planet Toomby and requiring him to travel in a carrier will create an Intergalactic Incident.”

“Look, this is beyond the scope of my authority. I understand what you are telling me, but I need to let my boss make this decision.”

We were basically checked in with our luggage on its way for loading into the airplane when this problem came up. We stepped aside to wait for the lady’s boss to arrive. While waiting for the man to get here, Matt told me to keep my mouth shut, and just stare at the man’s eyes with an angry look on my face.

When he arrived, Abby showed him her credentials, and said, “Sir, I am Abigail White with the State Department, and this is Ambassador Doug Smith with the Multiverse Embassy. There seems to be some misunderstanding concerning the travel arrangements for the Ambassador’s friend Sto.

“We understand the airline’s policy regarding pets and would comply with it, if Bushbies were not a sentient species. But they are and it would create an Intergalactic Incident, if this airline were to treat Sto as an ignorant animal.”

I had done what Matt suggested. As Abby was talking, the man kept glancing at me. I had given him Sto’s passport and ticket, when he told me to do so, and he was close to being convinced.

Suddenly I heard, “Sto go Doug. Sto behave. Sto not problem.”

Sto had created a temporary link with the supervisor. I could tell the man was shocked from the stunned look on his face. Personally, I don’t think we could have offered more proof of Sto’s sentience than that.

Before Abby could say anything further, I said, “It’s sometimes difficult to understand Sto for he doesn’t speak in words. He communicates using word pictures, and he can’t form long sentences that way. He sends word images to us, and our minds translate the images into words and short sentences that we can understand.”

The man said, “This is probably going to cause me a lot of trouble, but I will call the gate and tell them to let Sto board the aircraft as a regular passenger.”

“Thank you, man. You good man. Sto go now.”

Our next stop was the TSA checkpoint. We had all the necessary credentials for my bodyguards to pass through with their weapons. Sto played his usual line hopping game. Sto’s method of playing the game was to stand in the personal space of the person in front of us while quietly laughing, which sounded like a low growl. When the person turned around, they took one look at Sto running his tongue over his teeth, and invariably wanted to move out of our way. They usually decided to move behind us in the line. Of course, I told them Sto wouldn’t harm them, but I don’t think they believed me. It worked for a couple of people, but then he ran into a man who was in a hurry and wanted to keep his place in line.

I must admit that going through the TSA checkpoint made me nervous. It didn’t happen, but I thought that they might haul me off to one of their rooms, again, as they did back in Boston. We made it to our gate and onto the airplane with no further problems.