Chapter 5: Back on Earth

Chitrath and Norgazza accepted Jason’s invitation travel in the comfort of the battleship. Jason had suggested that the cargo ships be kept back until they had dealt with whatever needed to be done in the system. They were now called in. Chitrath and her father communicated with Lauren, and gave her an order so large that she queried the numbers of zeros, twice! Lauren was very excited to be seeing Jason much earlier than she expected. She very much liked the idea of facilitating intergalactic trade particularly as it benefited the people of Earth. She had worldwide contacts and was established in businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the United States ; as well as Canada and Europe, for the purchase of a diversity of farm products, foodstuff and equipment.

The bugs intended to purchase any and every kind of equipment that was used on earth. It was their intention to change the equipment’s power supplies, and then entirely modify and upgrade it all. They wanted absolutely everything for analysis, and were even intending to purchase many varieties of soil. They had environmental experts who were going to study every single environment and were intending to remain on earth if they could for a few years. They were especially interested in aquaculture, as they felt it was going to be the easiest to transfer directly to the collective. Chitrath and Lauren got on famously. Jason was delighted to meet up again with Chloe and Chuck who were equally happy to see him.

“Lauren I believe that you have been busy since I left and have had a dramatic change in direction?” Jason asked her. “I know the basics of what you’ve been doing as you told me as you were going along. I certainly didn’t get any idea of the scale and scope of what you’ve done!

“Why don’t you tell your story to me again and it will give Chitrath some idea of how you’ve built up the business? Her father has built up a massive business in food and I am sure she will be interested.” Jason suggested to Lauren.

“I was very restless after you left, Dad. I found the IT business tedious and I decided find a way to sell it and move into food production and distribution. I missed the high level organizational tasks with which I was involved when we sent you off to the Empire and I was finding work in the company mundane and unfulfilling. I needed a new purpose.

“I enjoyed meeting and getting to know the family in the US and felt that I needed a change in direction.

“Grandpa wanted to pass on or sell his cattle stations in Western Australia. I was very close to him, and indicated to him that I was considering entering the business.

“The IT business was big enough that I was able to acquire a first-rate CEO, and allow myself to step back. I had an excellent staff in place, and felt that there was sufficient established management potential within the business to help the CEO get going and for me to be able to back out of the day-to-day running of the business. His role was to take the company to market, which allowed me to sell out. I did very well, getting out of the company,” Lauren said.

“I decided to visit the family in Houston to discuss how to go about setting up in the food business and how to effectively use the money we had to build a company of some substance and meaning to us. In speaking to your grandfather he explained that they were pretty much doing the same as I wanted to do.

“The whole family enjoyed dealing with the people from the Empire.

“We understood very clearly that they loved the food and would come back for more.

“I wanted to be able to use our company and our family, to accomplish orders that were much bigger.

“Dad I was shocked and mortified when I heard you had been killed preventing the assassination of Cassius and amazingly resurrected and tuned up by the bugs.

“Cassius is a real sweetie, and is also talking to me; although most of the time it’s Alana who I like very much and is lovely. She tells me mum was from her family that is why I have such good organizational skills!

“We have a contract with your company directed by Robert and the horticulturists to export breeding stock and every variety of prepared food and potential crops. He wants to export to the bugs and Empire from your experimental farms on Porquenta and Mars so no one discovers about Earth; reducing our risk at this terrible time

“Robert tells me that he started the food company with the horticulturalists, and then when you found Mars and Porquenta, it was more logical for you to be the dominant partner in the food company as they were your planets and the contacts come through you. He then said they folded their company into yours and are running it. He said associating with you is like owning a money tree. He said you are the richest dude in the Empire and own a chunk of the Jumo Empire as well. He said that does not include any of the Kargo holdings either.

“Andrea sent me information on the horrible cockroaches. I also would love to know what those Ghoulish entities were that you encountered and what they are up to. The first part of my life was so plain and boring. All of a sudden it has all changed; it must be even more weird for you.

“I am so happy you are back for a visit. I am looking forward to the next level of video or holographic communication. Face to face to Charassa will be great. Ouma Chatzke called the day after the communications were hooked up. She also wants to do some trade with us. She said she is sending research doctors, political specialists and all sorts of people to help us get this planet into shape if it can be done. She said she spoke to you about it. Hooray for the bugs!

“We have done a lot of work to be ready to supply the bugs and their first farms on Porquenta and Mars. I said to them that they need to develop their expertise on those planets first then test how they can do the same on their own very different planets. I am keen to meet the other bugs and both children want to spend some time with you. It’s all very exciting. The family is busy assembling livestock of all types as are we here. “Grandfather came out of retirement to help and is looking younger than ever. He was checked over on the ship, they declared him fit, and healthy but did some more tweaks this morning.

“Mum’s family in the USA is into oil and gas and power. I spoke to them about how we can introduce a non-polluting energy source that they could market instead. They are very keen. They can supply energy to the whole Eastern side of the country. We need to ask the Empire and the bugs if they can hustle us along a bit.

“We are lucky to have such a great family on both sides. We can be open about it all. I did not mention the bugs are real bugs. I leave that to you my dear father. I referred to the bugs in conversation. They asked what they looked like and I sent a picture of Philippa, Gamma, Jonathan, and Norbert. I suspect they think they are a group called “The Bugs”.

“Chitrath, I have my father’s sense of humor, though mine is a little drier and more sophisticated,” Lauren said and stuck out her tongue at her father.

“Incidentally, Philippa is a hoot. She is the most undignified queen I know. She is just like a chatty teenager. There is nothing stuffy and ancient about her. The only stuffy thing she did was when she said, ‘Dear, a younger woman never asks an older woman her age. I am the age I look, twenty-five of your years.’

“Robert and Cyril the horticulturist chat daily as does Mervyn the aquaculturist. Your orders are monstrous in size and as more ships came along they’ll get bigger. The families in the USA have organized schools for each group when here as well as direct farm experience.

“Sorry, Chitrath, I am just rambling on. Dad I guess I am like Cassius. I don’t need anyone to say anything. I have so much to tell my father and I am so excited to see him.

“Philippa tells me they are sending thousands of insect equivalents of vets and one of the Universities has convened veterinary classes for them at your Grandfather’s education center.

“There is a kitchen supply convention in Houston with the opportunity to use products which the food people can attend as well. They want to look at packaged foods for the bugs to help start them off getting a basic idea of tastes. We have rented the culinary school for the whole time they are here in Perth and another big one in Houston. Some of the chefs will immerse themselves in our cooking. We have approached other schools to get involved as well.

“Dad, I am thankful to our family in the USA. They sent two great aspirants CEO’s to help me get a very fast start here and both now elected to work for me. The business is ginormous. We do a lot of business together.

“I forgot to tell you I did do a joint venture with the family in Brazil. We have substantial holdings in Brazil and in California. We are in partnership in chicken farms and pork, and we’re heavily into organic seed production. Great-grandfather told me that they had been accumulating seed assets strategically for a very long time and the family has bought seeds worldwide that they believe will disappear in the future.

“The family and I visit Houston regularly. No one has seen our cloaked shuttles. The subterfuge has worked well.

“The Houston group discussed with me and my great-grandfather, a couple of options. They would be happy to continue to assist me in acquiring further expertise that I needed by spending time in their corporate program which was very extensive and was a requirement for all managers in the company. The other option was for me and my grandfather to merge with them. I agreed and they accepted that I put in an extra billion dollars. They provided management staff for my grandfather’s operation and used the money that I put in for further agricultural investments in Australia, New Zealand and in the US. The Brazilian deal came after I got another few billion.

“After you mentioned about asking the bugs for simple medical tech I spoke to them. They have their own research interests that include in human and animal medical research and believed that they could more easily hook a new alien technology into one of those companies than in any other way.

“The food thing has become my pride and joy and I wanted to concentrate on it. I did speak at length with your grandfather, your mother’s grandfather and mum’s grandfather and Dan, before deciding to commit to the family food corporate, but it is at the end of the day a no brainer. It is a great deal and I have not regretted the decision for a second.

“I did move us to the US to enter the family company training program eight months ago. It was tiresome flying to and from there daily or even weekly. I am also on their board now with a fun group of oldies from the Empire who are astute business people.

“Now on to arrangements; the problem is the Empire people are a bit too red. The cover story we concocted is they come from different parts of Eastern Europe. They do not use sun screen so are redder than us. They will speak the appropriate languages and they know a lot about the culture if they meet others from their alleged countries. I did speak to the doctor who says if we have people stay on here they will change color to look like us in a few months anyhow, as you will get redder on some of the Empire planets or more blue on others. He said some people in the Empire are yellow or even gray.

“Chloe and Chuck are beside themselves with excitement. Craig and the boys are looking forward to seeing you again. I have kept them all up to date with your activities. I never thought you had it in you, Dad!

“Chitrath, he was a fine father but we had no real adventure in our lives. All of a sudden my father is an intergalactic celebrity and has lots of women and even he does not know how many children. It has all been rather overwhelming.”

Lauren and her managers and the US family and their managers had detailed plans and timetables for the different groups to satisfy their interests. Lauren presented plans indicating where they attended for educational sessions, and in practical work.

Bug educationalists went along to create learning experiences for each activity. Lauren reiterated her suggestion that the bugs not take the living animals first trip, unless in stasis to go to farms on Mars and Porquenta; but consider taking prepared food and skills learned on farms on Earth and then on Porquenta and Mars, before trying to re-create farms in a very different environment in the Collective. She said they needed experience with a very different ecosystem, before working with living animals.

For those from the Empire she suggested that they spend time looking at factories and in the corporate kitchens while attending trade shows and looking at products. They had huge canteens and myriads of test kitchens as well as the intensive experiences in the culinary schools for the more senior chefs.

Lauren had again worked to lease massive storage facilities in rural locations, where they were unlikely to be observed removing goods using cloaked cargo shuttles. Using her farming corporate identity, it was easy - particularly with prepayment - to order massive stocks for delivery during the entire period that the cargo ships would be present.

She purchased entire ranches which they would later restock for cattle in the US, cattle stations in Australia, sheep farms in Australia and New Zealand, Pork on both continents and some huge chicken farms. They partly emptied many of the holdings. Many of these animals would be taken in stasis to be eaten at the other side. Many of the AIs attended the abattoirs to learn the necessary butchering skills. The best animals would be used for breeding stock on Mars and Porquenta.

She decided that for the volumes that were being looked at in the future, it was necessary to assemble animals over time and do progressive deliveries rather than filling two fleets of massive cargo ships all at once, as they were doing this time. They were used to huge volumes; but these orders were the business of an entire year, for the total combined business ventures.

They needed to give the farmers from elsewhere an opportunity to work at building up the stock for future deliveries. Lauren and Jason’s family enlarged their food production companies on Earth with a vengeance with the increased capital as the new drug cartels were further denuded of assets.

To supply Mars and Porquenta, Jason’s team had put together a formidable list of top-quality seeds, a diversity of cattle from the US, Brazil, Argentina and Australia, sheep from New Zealand, pork and goats from Australia, and chickens and pork from everywhere else. The farming communities in these places were used to delivering in bulk.

Jason arrived on top of the corporate building in Houston in a cloaked shuttle together with Lauren, Dan her husband and two children Chloe and Chuck. Along with them were Andrea, Peter Kane, Robert Kohn the chef and Marie his assistant, Celia Ford, Chitrath and her father, Meglith, Linda, Felicia MacDonald, Gamma, Morgan James, Karen DuPree, Janet Malone Colonel of his Marines, Jonathan the bug, Norbert the educator, Philippa Queen of the collective and Col. Phoebe Harris Jason’s Colonel of his battleship’s fighter corps. They were met by Jason’s paternal grandfather and grandmother, and his maternal grandmother and grandfather.

“Welcome, Jason,” said his grandfather laughing, “You, have indeed made a grand entrance with your entourage! This is but a small part of the welcoming party of the family, so please introduce your party before we head to the festivities below.”

Very brief introductions were made before they met in the top floor conference room. A buffet meal was provided with many waiters providing drinks and snacks. The visitors had an opportunity to try barbecue ribs, barbecue brisket, and a variety of delicious desserts to follow. The visitors watched carefully how the food was eaten. Nothing like it was provided on the ship. They enjoyed the spicy food and most of them ate until they were bursting. Jason watched Robert and Marie try everything and then head for the kitchen where they remained for some time.

After the meal Jason’s grandfather welcomed the guests. “Our family as you all probably know has come from the Empire. What you don’t know is that many of the royal families sent a part of their families to Earth. Everything was kept very quiet. We were not told the issues that were involved, but we were probably part of an ‘insurance policy’ for our respective families. There are enough families that we have been able to engineer intermarriage between people who are of Empire origin. Even so it has been a principle of ours never to talk about the Empire to others. The families have dispersed members in most countries. We have been here a pretty long time. You can imagine how difficult it was not to influence the societies that we lived in.

“In recent years, it is becoming increasingly easy to contribute. We were aware that Jason was always a special one. There was something about Jason that we knew was exceptional, but we did not know why he was selected to leave Earth and we were not. I suspect now that we have a special role on earth and that may have been the original purpose that we were encouraged to involve ourselves in agriculture, medicine, and information technology. We have maintained a disciplined life.

“We would like to hear Jason’s story and understand how all of you have come here today,” said Jason’s grandfather. “We don’t need it in detail tonight, but I suspect that you will need to do a more detailed version in the next few days. Welcome to all of you, and for those for whom it is your first visit we will do our best to make it a great one. We have many family members available to be of help. We have a comprehensive program mapped out for your specialists.”

Jason replied, “Grandfather I would very much like to thank you for your generosity in welcoming us all and providing such an interesting Texan meal. I suspect that you may have toned it down a little for our guests, but I assure you that they like the hottest Thai food we have been able to produce.

“Tonight we can show a short hour and a half production, and I say production because it was made on Charassa the bug’s core planet, that will give you an idea of their technology, the likes of which you have never seen. They literally extracted the information from my brain and AIs summarized the information at different levels of detail. Philippa has selected a family appropriate short version and a very much longer version for later consumption that provides more detail for those of you who are interested. You will understand so much better who is in my group today, once you have seen this account. I can assure you that even the longer version will provide you with gripping entertainment. If Hollywood made it as a movie it would be regarded as too far-fetched for fantasy.

“The presentation is aimed at both telling what happened to me, but also providing the background to understanding who are our guests. They are all absolutely the most exceptional people that you will ever encounter. We could travel here from two galaxies away in a day. That is a fair few light years! No doubt it will be very much easier for us to travel back to Earth more often, and for us to take family members on trips with us. You will also understand some of the profound issues that we still face,” said Jason emphatically, “and without further ado I would like to ask Philippa to do her thing.” Jason sat back and indicated to Philippa to begin.

Philippa placed her tiny cube on the table. It projected a cinema sized clear 3D picture. What followed was an enthralling production seen through the eyes of Jason beginning with his walking onto the ship and ending after the battle above earth. After it ended everyone sat stunned for a few minutes before Jason’s maternal grandmother, a very powerful matriarch in the family, stood to say a few words.

“Philippa, that was absolutely extraordinary. You have done a wonderful job. The story is truly amazing. Lauren long before I met your grandfather I was on a scout ship when we encountered a ship that had been severely damaged many years before. It looked like it had been in a major battle. It was frigate sized and very much like those ships that we saw. We saw suits that must’ve been a few versions prior to the ones we saw on the holo-projection. There were the desiccated remains of what looked like octopi within the suits. The technology was clearly very advanced and we literally pulled the entire ship back with us to the Empire. We were told to never talk of it again. We were not permitted to ask any questions. We were threatened with dire penalties if we spoke of any of the events. Philippa you pulled that stuff out of Jason’s mind somehow. Is there any way that you can get the similar pictures that I saw from my mind?”

“Jane, of course I can. We are very interested in what you saw.”

When Jane waved her arm in agreement Philippa projected the images Jane had seen. It was done in a condensed form, for over three minutes. It was very clear that both the ship and its crew were of the same origins as those over Earth. This excited considerable conversation about the risks that earth might face.

“Family members it is quite late and tomorrow is a big day for all of you,” said Jason, “do not over worry about what you have seen; we have some very powerful allies with vested interests in the conflict. We will return to the ship each night. We have asked all of you to pack some clothing, which I assume is in those bags that I see around the room. We will help you carry it to the shuttle and take you to sleep over on the battleship. We will return you in the morning when we will return with a much bigger group to meet with your family managers to plan how all of this will work,” said Jason as he picked up his grandparent’s bags to head for the shuttle.

At breakfast the next morning on the ship, which consisted of the same group as the previous night, Jason’s paternal grandfather stood up to speak to Jason and the family.