Chapter 11

The family meeting was scheduled to start at ten. So the next morning, we all had a late breakfast and I hopped us back to my parents’ home. When we arrived, everyone was there except for one of my uncles. He wasn’t responding to Dad’s comms, so we weren’t sure if he was coming. Mom was chairing the meeting and she said we should start without him.

Mom started the meeting by defining its purpose. She then had Dad present the status of the new company that the family had formed to do business with my company. From what I heard, Mom and Dad had done a great job putting everything together.

Mom then asked me to present the status of my company. Things didn’t go as good as I had hoped with my presentation.

The first problem was the family didn’t like my making Sandy a partner in my business. Most of the family was of the opinion that we should not include outsiders in The Joint Family Business. While I could understand their feelings, it just wasn’t possible for me to run my end of the business without help, and I was the only family member living on Earth. It didn’t take long to explain why I had to have a partner. There was a bit of disagreement with everyone saying I should consider a family member as my partner. The disagreement ended when I asked who wanted to volunteer to go to Earth with me, which meant the volunteer would become a sugar addict. Since no one wanted to volunteer, they agreed Sandy would be acceptable.

The next problem they had was, understanding why it was taking so long to set up my end of the business. That explanation took a lot longer than getting them to accept Sandy as my partner. I don’t think my family understood just how different doing business on Earth would be in respect to doing business in the Multiverse.

The concept of hundreds of autonomous nations with different political structures and leaders who had to reach an agreement at a political level before they would consider allowing their citizens to do business with each other was mind boggling for my family. When I started to explain how each country had different trade laws, how each country used a different currency, and how the relative value of two currencies would vary, I overwhelmed them.

Finally, someone finally just asked when I thought my company would be ready to start doing business. When I told them we should be able to begin trading within the United States in about two years, they just accepted the delay with no further discussion. One of my uncles said he hoped it wouldn’t be much longer than that. What I didn’t stress was, it would take a lot longer before I would be able to trade with the other countries.

Mom’s caterer arrived just as we were finishing up the discussion, but to me, it seemed more argument than discussion. Mom declared us in recess until everyone had lunch. A few of my family wanted to continue the discussion during lunch, but Mom reminded everyone about her house rule of no business discussions during meals.

After we resumed the meeting, Mom got to the part that I wasn’t looking forward to discussing. She said, “Doug, tell us what products you think you can export from Earth.”

“Finding merchandise for export to the Multiverse from Earth is going to be a problem. So far I have identified spices, sugar, black pepper, gems, and perfume as trade goods that would be profitable to sell in the Multiverse. Native handmade artwork is another possibility.

Dad asked, “Why is it going to be difficult to find merchandise to sell here in the Multiverse?”

“To start with, Earth’s technology is primitive compared to the Multiverse’s technology. No one will want to buy technology from Earth, and the quality of their manufactured goods is inferior to ours. The cost of manufactured goods is also higher due to their manufacturing processes, distribution system, and retail outlets being more labor intensive than ours. In other words, Earth has very few profitable goods to export to the Multiverse.”

Mom asked, “Why is the cost of manufactured goods higher on Earth than here?”

“There are many factors that go into the high cost of goods on Earth, Mom, and I am still looking into that problem. So far, I have identified that in the Multiverse people in manufacturing jobs are paid according to the value of their contribution to producing the end product. On Earth, the educational system does a poor job of educating their students, and the poorly educated people want to have the same living standard as the highly educated people. The result is, the poorly educated people receive a comparatively higher pay rate than their Multiverse equivalents. The higher pay rate drives up the cost of the end product, so the cost of Earth goods is higher than that of Multiverse goods. There are other factors, but I haven’t invested the time necessary to determine all of the causes and effects that leads to the high cost of Earth goods.”

One of my aunts asked, “What is there about Earth’s educational system that is different from what we have in the Multiverse?”

“In the Multiverse, we recognize the relationship between education and a job seeker’s ability to find employment that pays a decent pay rate. The educational system and parents take the steps necessary to ensure that the students work to attain the required level of knowledge and understanding that is needed to enter our Universities and to succeed in the job market. We all know that those who pursue additional knowledge will be hired by employers and their pay rate will be higher than those who do not have the additional education. So students work harder to get the necessary education, and their parents make sure they do.

“The people of Earth also recognize this relationship, but they respond to it in a very different manner. On Earth, the educational systems seem to focus more on processing students through the system than it does on educating students. In America, there are twelve years of mandatory education, which are referred to as Grade 1 through Grade 12.

“In theory, the teachers at each grade level evaluate their students to determine if their students have attained the required knowledge necessary to be promoted to the next higher grade level. Only those students who have met the requirements are supposed to be promoted and those found deficient are supposed to repeat the grade level.

“In practice, the regional governments fund their educational systems, and the governments do not want to pay for students repeating a year of school. The result is, the teachers are often pressured to pass failing students to the next higher grade level. Since the students who failed do not have the necessary knowledge to perform at the higher grade level, they usually fail at that grade level. Once again the student is passed to the next higher grade level. When the failing students finish their public education, they are not equipped with the necessary knowledge to enter the more advanced levels of education and they do not have the knowledge necessary to obtain a high paying job.

“The problem with the educational system is complicated by parents who do not pressure their children to high levels of performance in school, by teachers who have given up trying to educate students who do not want to learn, and by the governments failing to provide adequate financial support to the educational systems.

“I have also found educators who have personal theories on how to better educate students, and these educators promote their theories. For reasons I am not yet aware of, the educational systems change their curriculum at all grade levels to implement the unproven theories of the educators. This change often has a very different approach to learning than what the students have learned in prior school years, and having them convert to the new system causes confusion and that has a negative impact on their learning. It would be far better to test the theories before implementing them, and when a new proven system is implemented, the changes should be implemented at Grade 1 with the subsequent grade levels being updated as the initial group of students progress through the educational system.

“The people of Earth also have an unusual view regarding their standard of living. In America, the young people seem to focus on having a good time during what they call their high school years, which is their final four years of mandatory public education. The educational system allows this and in many ways promotes this attitude. The result is many of the students don’t study as they should and aren’t prepared for the higher levels of learning, so they go directly into the job market.

“The newly hired young people want higher salaries than what is warranted by their job and skill levels. Many of a company’s employees join what is called a union, which is similar to our Trade Guilds. However, the unions focus on their members, and the union leaders want higher salaries and benefits for their members without a comparable increase in the members’ productivity. The companies and unions negotiate contracts, and during the negotiations, the unions use stop-work tactics to force companies to meet their demands. This form of coercion occurs in many of the companies in America.

“In theory, the higher pay rates will increase the members’ standard of living in all of the companies. In practice, the higher pay rates increase the cost of all of the companies doing business. That drives up the prices the companies must charge for their products and services. Due to increased prices, taxes, and other factors, the employees’ higher purchasing power is actually less than what it was before their salaries were increased. Since their standard of living is the same, or worse, the whole process is repeated. The result is the companies continue to make money and the employees have the same, or a lower, standard of living. They refer to this phenome as an inflationary spiral.

“These problems also affect other aspects of life on Earth. As our Ambassador, I need to change the negative aspects of life on Earth that have a negative influence on trade between Earth and the Multiverse. Earth’s poor educational systems are definitely one of the problems that I will need to change, but that is for the future. I have too much to do now to even begin to address that problem.

“Let’s get back to Mom’s request for me to define the goods I think can be exported from Earth. I listed a few of the trade items on Earth suitable for sale here in the Multiverse. These and a few others are difficult to obtain here in the Multiverse, so if we import large amounts of these items, we can easily sell them here. However, selling too much of an item can destabilize the marketplace, which would cause us legal problems. We will have to monitor the market price of these trade goods to ensure we don’t sell too much merchandise during any given period of time and destabilize the market.

“Perhaps we need to set internal price controls on what we sell to ensure we don’t get too greedy. I’m thinking of something like setting a maximum yearly sale price of one or two percent above the past year’s average daily market price. Carol Matts will probably be the best person to advise us on setting the price of the merchandise we have for sale and to advise us on how much of our merchandise we should make available for sale during a given sales period.

“Exporting goods to Earth creates a similar set of problems. As our Ambassador to Earth, I cannot allow goods imported from the Multiverse to destabilize the Earth markets. Until I open Earth to trade, Sandy and I will have to be very careful to not introduce too much Multiverse merchandise into the Earth markets. One of the things I am thinking of doing is to become a manufacturer of Multiverse goods on Earth. This will solve several problems.”

One of my aunts interrupted and asked, “How long will it be before you open Earth to trade with the Multiverse, and how will that affect our family business?”

“As the Ambassador, I cannot declare Earth open for trade until certain conditions are met. I think Earth will require a very long time before it is ready for open trade with the Multiverse. What that means for us is, I think our family will be able to trade on Earth for the next twenty to fifty years without competition. By that time, our family will be well established as the primary conduit for trade with Earth. Granted other traders will take a portion of the marketplace away from us, but they will encounter many problems in doing that.”

An uncle asked, “What types of problems will they have, Doug?”

“I would rather not say at this time. That type of information has a way of making its way to our competitors. Once they become aware of the problems they will face, they will start preparing to overcome those problems so they will be ready to do business when I open Earth to trade.

“Now let’s talk about what we will export to Earth and how the merchandise will be handled. Sandy and I have agreed that all shipments of merchandise to and from Earth will go through our family business. Sandy is also the Archer Conglomerate’s Sales Representative on Earth. I would like to limit the merchandise we export to Earth to just the Archer line of products. I think there is a way to do that without upsetting the Trade Guilds.

“We have just started to work on identifying manufactured goods that can be sold on Earth. Sandy and I recently learned that there will be a significant delay in preparing many of the Archer line of trade goods for the Earth market, and Sandy and I are working to overcome the problem. The reasons behind this delay are what will prevent other businesses from selling their trade goods on Earth, and as I said, I don’t want to discuss the reasons at this time. However, there will be many Archer trade goods that can be exported with only minimal delay. We are working on that now.

“The main hold up to us trading with Earth has been the difficulties I experienced in determining Earth’s technology level. That is an exceptionally difficult thing to do for the technology level varies between each country. A method for determining a provisional technology level has been proposed and accepted. During the next year, my people will gather the necessary data and I should be able to recommend a technology level in about a year. But that recommendation must be approved by the Multiverse Council, which may take another year.”

Our meeting continued for the rest of the day and into the evening. By the time we adjourned, I had a list of items to address on Earth and Mom had a list of items the family would need to address on Vora. Before I left, Mom told me that she and Dad had three freight shelters filled with merchandise for me to take to Earth. I let Mom know I would pick up the shelters as we were leaving Vora.

I hopped us back to the Hotel Trinity late that evening. It took a few minutes to locate the people who had not gone with me to my folks’ home in Willibald. In a very short meeting, I told everyone we would have a meeting after breakfast to determine what had to be done before we returned to Slave World.

After breakfast the next morning, we met in one of the Trinity’s small meeting rooms. I started the meeting with, “Good morning, everyone. This meeting is to identify what needs to be done before we return to Slave World. So I would like to go around the room so everyone has a chance to provide the status of what they planned to do while we were here. Betty, let’s start with you.”

“Okay. Misty, Juliana, Holly, Bailey, and I have been working on the translation effort with some help from Cindy. That will be an ongoing task. However, I did manage to buy the herbs and spices I need.”

“Misty, do you have anything outstanding to do?”

“No, Doug. The translation effort and finding some help for my hospital was all I had to do this trip. I found two people to help me, but they won’t be returning with us on this trip. As Betty said, the translation effort will be a work in progress for quite a while.

“That should work out okay for me, since I will need time to convert a few of the portable’s rooms to residences for my people.”

I didn’t think Juliana, Holly, or Bailey had been tasked with anything to do that had to be completed before we left. But out of courtesy I decided to ask them. When I asked, they all dropped their chins on their chests and shrugged their shoulders. I nodded to them to acknowledge their answer.

Sereine was giving a running translation of the meeting to Carla. So when I looked to her, she said, “I’m done with what you asked me to do, Doug. Since then Carla and I have been taking in a few sights.”

I took that to mean they had been shopping. “Sereine, what did Carl have to say about additional police officers joining us and his supply of sugar?”

“Carl said he heard two police officers were reported to Multiverse Police Headquarters as new sugar addicts. The officers and their families will be sent to Carl for a briefing regarding joining me on Earth as part of my Trade Checkpoint’s staff. He also told me the two ten-pound bags of sugar I dropped off with him would probably last a full year at his current rate of use. I’ll drop off another bag of sugar during our next trip to the Multiverse.”

“What about you, Carla? You have been running around with my mom doing wedding stuff. Do you and Andy have anything to do before we leave?”

Carla glanced at Andy and then said, “No, we’re ready to go.”

“Kendrick, what about you?”

“I’ve been supporting you, Doug. During our meetings, I was tasked with a number of items to do, but I’ll work on them after we return to Slave World. Once I complete the items, I can Twixt any information necessary to Harry, Kevin, and Sergei.”

I had already talked with Cindy, so I asked, “What about you, Sandy?”

She replied, “Other than some shopping, which I can do on Slave World, I’m ready to go.”

“If anyone else has anything to do, speak up now.”

I waited for a few moments, and then said, “All right. It seems we are all ready to return to Earth. Let’s get packed and meet in my room. I’ll check us out of the hotel and then Sereine and I will hop us back to Slave World.”

We all headed for our hotel rooms to get ready to leave. When I got back to my room, the first thing I did was to call Tom Hauser to let him know we would be leaving for Slave World within the next hour or so. Tom said he would twixt the bill for our stay to Kendrick as usual, and then he wished us a good return trip.

A short while later, my party started making its way to my hotel room. After verifying that everyone was ready to go, Sereine hopped everyone but me and my security detail to the first stop on the way to Slave World. I hopped my group to Willibald to pick up Mom’s travel shelters. Once I rested, I hopped us and the three travel shelters to where Sereine was waiting for us.

When we arrived, Sereine hopped us and the shelters to the second stop. Due to her shorter recovery time, Sereine recovered before me and she made the third hop to my estate on Slave World.

When we arrived at the estate, Fitz commed the Control Center to let them know we had returned before we all headed to our rooms to unpack. It was late morning and we had sheltered under trees during a rainstorm at our last stop. We were all drenched, muddy, and in need of a hot bath. One of Charyl’s fabulous lunches would be great after we were clean. A nap in a comfortable bed might be nice after lunch, but I needed to talk with a few people before I went to bed. Before we split up and headed for our rooms, I asked Sereine, Sandy, and Cindy to join me in my office after we had a late lunch.

Betty, Cindy, and I headed for the master bedroom, while everyone else went to their rooms. Kendrick left to go home to his wife and kids. Charyl and her helpers headed to the kitchen; she knew how hungry we usually were when we arrived. I had never considered a sandwich buffet as a gourmet meal, until I dined on one of Charyl’s buffets.

My wives and I really enjoyed the eight-person shower Edgar had installed after I inherited the estate and he found out I had three slaves. At the time, Edgar had said he expected I would be gathering a few more women and would need the extra room. He was right for Abby and Sereine had sort of committed themselves to me as unofficial wives, and my four wives were in complete agreement with their joining us. Although until they actually married into our family, everyone felt they should live separate from us. They were also very reluctant to join us in bed, although Cindy was in favor of it for she said it would break down their resistance to marrying us.

Cindy was trying to formalize the relationship, so our marriage would have six wives. She was making headway, but it was going to take a lot more effort on her part.

When Betty, Cindy, Sereine, Sandy, and I were settled in my office, I said, “One of the things our family business meeting identified as needing to be done, was the preparation of a detailed plan for the Trading Center that we will be building on the ranch. What I would like to do today, is to make a list of the facility’s features. Once that is done we can start defining the specifics of each feature in a design requirements document that we can give it to the HRD Architectural Group. They can use the document to start designing the facility. Sandy, why don’t you start us off with what you think we need, while Cindy takes notes?”

Sandy said, “All right, Doug. In general terms, we will need support facilities for the traders, areas for local merchants and traders to do business, office space for facilities management and site security, and offices for Sereine’s Trade Checkpoint officers.

“The trader support facilities need to include lodging, a dining facility, a store for the supplies a trader will need to buy before they leave, storage for trade merchandise, transportation with drivers, and translation services.

“The areas for trading can be tables in an open space or dedicated offices. I think we will need to provide both options. The offices may be needed for privacy and could be rented on a daily or weekly basis.

“Our facility’s security group will need at least one large room or several offices for our security officers, some type of holding cell, a room for their security monitoring equipment, and audio and video equipment throughout the facility for monitoring all of the public areas. We may want to install only audio pickups in areas like bathrooms. We can use a computerized system for evaluating the audio we record that picks up on key words like ‘help’ and screams of distress.

“Sereine’s main office will be in the Embassy, but her Trade Checkpoint officers will need offices in the facility for transacting business with the traders and merchants. They may need a holding cell for people they arrest until they can be transported to the Embassy’s cells.

“Our new company’s headquarters can be collocated with the facilities offices, so we can manage the facility directly.”

Sandy indicated she was finished, so I asked, “Sereine, do you have anything to add to Sandy’s list?”

“No, I think she covered everything. When we get down to the specifics of what my police officers will need, I will probably have something to say.”