Chapter 6

The first thing in the morning, Edgar called Kendrick to let him know I was back. Me ... I was lying between two lovely pregnant women, and I had no plans for getting out of bed until it was absolutely necessary.

As usual, my bladder told me it was necessary and I reluctantly got out of bed. When I made it out into the dining room for coffee, Edgar let me know Kendrick had commed, and he had returned the comm to let him know I was out of bed. Kendrick showed up an hour later, and at the time, I was in my office on the comm with Harry Smart. It was shaping up to be a long conversation, so I let Kendrick know so he could take care of anything else he needed to do.

“Harry, Sergei’s installation crew used more equipment than they anticipated while installing our force field. Yarl was going to let Sergei know, so he could place an order with you to replenish the extra equipment. Have you heard from him?”

“I gave the task of supporting Sergei to one of my people to handle, Doug, and told her to do what was needed. She doesn’t come to me for authorization as long as the requests seem reasonable. I will have to check with her to see if we received the order and its status. If the order hasn’t been received, I’ll have her contact Sergei and find out what he needs.

“Have you and Sandy made any progress on addressing those issues that are keeping her from starting to sell our products on Earth?”

“Yes, most of the remaining problems will be resolved once we get our business structure in place. During my last visit with Maribel, it was made clear to me that I can authorize others to sell goods on Earth using my trade rights. Sandy and I can trade on Earth while I start setting up the trade relations between Earth and the Multiverse that will be necessary for general trade to take place.”

“That sounds encouraging, Doug. I will let my Division Managers know as soon as you let me know what we can sell on Earth.”

“Don’t get too carried away, Harry. I am still working on defining Earth’s Trade Level and that will determine what we can sell on Earth. What I would like to have Sandy do is start selling portable medical diagnostic units and pharmaceuticals, since those products are authorized to planets of all Trade Levels. In order to do that, you will need to translate all of the control labels and information displayed by the diagnostic units into English. We will also need to translate the user manuals. Misty and Betty will do the translation for you, and they will need several people to assist them with the translation.

“How many people will Misty and Betty need to support their effort, and what backgrounds should they have?”

“They will need one person from our technical publications department. This person will need to provide copies of the current documentation that is delivered with the medical equipment. We will provide that person with the character set of the English language. They will need to coordinate with the people who are responsible for the labeling on the front panels to get the translated text onto the front panels in place of the Multiverse text.

“We will also need a couple of technical people to provide the messages that appear on the displays. Once the translation is done, the translation’s text will have to replace the Multiverse text in the displays. I don’t know who, but someone will have to convert the readings’ values from Multiverse units to Earth units and any graphs will require rescaling to correlate with the Earth units.”

“I’ll have the manager of our support group select someone from our publications group, Doug, and two of our technical support people to support you.”

“What is going on with the research and development projects, Harry? Do you have a prototype travel shelter built that is ready for me to test and what is happening with the personal force field?”

“The travel shelter project is on track, Doug, and we should have a prototype ready for field testing in a few months. We will get another hopper to do the testing, since you will be on Earth during the testing and the testing will require more time than you will have available.

“The personal force field project is still having problems. One of our whiz kids thinks we can add a phase shift that will make the force field visible to someone enclosed in another force field. That should help solve the problem of two force fields bumping into each other. We are still having a problem with stabilizing the force field when the person using it is moving around. The rest of the problems are still being looked into, and so far the results look hopeful.

“The project’s manager wants to adapt the personal force field to hover cars. By getting the force field away from the ground and fixed structures, the problems are minimized. Landing and taking off could still be a problem, but we could delay turning on the force field until the vehicle is well clear of the ground and turn it off as it prepares to land.

“The main problem with the idea is the protective force field interacts with the gravitational field that provides the power to move the car; this destabilizes both fields. He is thinking of extending the drive projectors further from the car, so they will be outside of the car’s protective force field. Since Level 2 protection will not be used, the drive power won’t be cutoff by the field. I think his solution will work and keep the protective force field from interacting with the drive field. A feasibility study is underway and we should know the results in a couple of months.

“When I was talking with the man in charge of the project, he let me know that there might be more spinoff products from this idea. We didn’t have time to talk about them, but he told me that if they can fix a fairly simple problem then the first of the spinoff ideas should work and the ideas will be extremely profitable.”

“All right, Harry, keep Kendrick and me informed. Anything else happening that I might be interested in knowing about?”

“There is a lot happening, Doug, that you would find interesting; but I can’t think of anything that would require your input. When do you plan to drop-in to see me again?”

“I’m not sure yet, Harry. Edgar let Kendrick know I was back, so you were the first person I called. I need to talk with Kendrick to find out if there is anything critical happening. If not, then I’m hoping to stop by tomorrow morning for a face-to-face talk for I have a number of items that would be best discussed in a meeting. Would tomorrow morning around eight or nine be okay with you?”

“I have nothing important happening tomorrow morning that can’t be rescheduled, Doug. I’ll let my assistant Janice know that if you call, she can cancel my regular morning appointments for tomorrow. Will our meeting need part of the afternoon?”

“Perhaps, but I hope we can finish everything before lunch. I gotta go, Harry. Kendrick is at the dining room table with Cindy and they are waiting for me. We can discuss whatever else we need to talk about when I see you.”

“Harry, we can discuss this tomorrow, but I am curious about the arrangements the Archer Conglomerate is making for the Archer Family. When I first received this inheritance from Henry, I was told that Henry had spoken with you about providing them with some form of support, and I was wondering about the details of that support.”

I ended my comm call and went to invite Kendrick and Cindy to join me in my office. I also asked Cheryl to bring us a pot of coffee and a few finger foods to snack on for I suspected our conversation would take a long time.

“Morning, Kendrick, how are Shelia and the kids doing?”

“Shelia’s fine and the kids are growing faster than you would believe. We promised the kids that we will take them to one of the pleasure worlds that are dedicated to families after school lets out for the summer break.”

“That sounds like a fun vacation, Kendrick. So, tell me what has happened since I left.”

“This will be a rather lengthy conversation, Doug. After we returned from your wedding, I finalized the contract for installing the Twixt Network to Earth and then began a review of the business affairs that I was handling for you.

“I quickly learned that my one-year estimate to install your network was too short by more than two years. I had no idea how much work went into installing a relay site on a planet.”

“Kendrick, I didn’t say anything, but I sort of thought your estimate of one year was a bit low.”

“Yeah, I discovered that when I started looking for a company to install the network. The first problem I encountered was there are many companies that advertise that they install Twixt Networks. However when I looked closer, I learned that there were only six companies with the experience and were also large enough to do the job you want done. The rest of the companies installed short networks consisting of just two or three relay stations.

“The contractor I decided to use was Vroman Communications, which is owned by the Vroman family and their headquarters is on Thompson, which is in the Alleric Universe. The Vroman family’s company is one of the largest communication network installation companies in the Multiverse and it is run by Yaritza Vroman. She is also the head of the Vroman family.

“They put together a proposal for installing the network using Archer equipment, which we will provide. When Yaritza presented their proposal to me, I found out the network would take about four years to complete. I was stunned, but she explained why it would take that long. During her explanation, she mentioned they were using their standard installation process of using a single installation crew to install the equipment one location at a time. That allowed her to keep the annual cost of the network’s installation to a minimum.

“She explained that most of their clients prefer a long, drawn out installation period. It allows them to use the installed portion of the network to provide service to customers, while the network installation is being completed. That means, the client receives income that is used to pay off a portion of the installation cost, so the entire cost of the installation doesn’t need to be financed prior to the start of the installation.

“I told her that for this contract speed was more important than cost. She said if money was not a major consideration then she thought they could cut the proposed schedule by more than half if they were to do concurrent installation of equipment at multiple locations. This alternative approach requires multiple installation crews, and the additional crews drives up the cost of installation slightly, but the network installation is completed sooner. I made the decision to use the accelerated process, and we signed an agreement that allowed them to begin the installation of the sites, while we negotiated and signed a contract.

“Yaritza and I worked out what I think is a good deal for you and Vroman Communications. The modified schedule indicates completion two years from the date they start installing equipment. For every month less than two years, they are to receive a bonus; there will be no penalties if they don’t complete the network on schedule. Vroman is giving us a Twenty-Year Warrantee on the installation effort from the date the network is accepted. Yaritza also asked if we wanted Vroman Communications to service and repair the network or if we had someone else in mind for that effort. I hadn’t given service and repairs any thought until then. I delayed the decision by telling her I would have to talk with you before going any further.”

“You know far more about business and contracts than I do, Kendrick, so I don’t think my reviewing the contract will be necessary. You obviously trust Vroman, so do a cost comparison with the rates charged by other companies for service and repair to make sure their rates are reasonable. One question though, why no penalty for a late completion?”

“Yaritza said that working in the unexplored portions of the Multiverse was hazardous and there were just too many things that might delay them that they could not predict or control. Her reason seemed acceptable based on some of the things you told me about visiting unexplored planets, so I agreed.”

“What she said is true, Kendrick, so no problem as far as I’m concerned. What is the projected completion date?”

“A year and ten months from now for the main route.”

“Good, but what do you mean by the main route?”

“An idea for branch routes was proposed by two of my new employees.

“What happened was after I got back from your wedding, I reviewed my employees’ accomplishments and they were on top of handling your business affairs, but the assessment was at a very detailed level. That made it difficult for me to grasp the entire effort we were doing for you. I realized I needed a broader picture of everything that was going on with a short synopsis of each activity to include any unseen interaction between the separate activities. That would allow me to see the big picture and take any necessary actions that may be necessary to properly manage your assets.

“I was able to hire a young lawyer, Sky Ives, who had recently graduated from law school. He married his child sweetheart, while still in law school, and he was looking for an entry-level position in a law firm. I also hired his wife, Jolene, who is a certified bookkeeper. I gave him the title of Executive Planner and put him to work creating an overview of all of your financial affairs, other than your Archer stock, and I assigned his wife to aid him with the financial aspects of your affairs. I was very happy with the overview they created.

“When Sky and Jolene finished developing the overview, they pointed out what appears to be holes or omissions in your investments; oversights might be a better word. I tasked them with evaluating these oversights to determine what we should do that would be advantageous for you. The first investment they chose to evaluate was your new Twixt Network for they said they thought they had found a major oversight in our plans for the network.

“They explained to me that there are several universes near the planned route of your network that currently have Twixt service. However, the Twixt Network serving those universes is a roundabout route that results in very long message transit times. Sky and Jolene believe that you can build branch routes to these universes that will significantly reduce the message transit time between those universes and the rest of the Multiverse.

“Building the Twixt Network to Earth is a given, Doug; it is going to be built. So I think their idea of expanding the network is excellent and I tasked them with developing proposals for branch routes to each of the nearby universes. I also tasked them with determining if their branch routes to those universes should be extended to neighboring universes that have excessively long Twixt message transit times. Jolene is doing a tradeoff analysis to determine if those additional routes will be cost effective. My instincts tell me that your Twixt Communications company is about to expand enormously. Based on the projected income from the branch networks, the profits from the first five years of operation should come close to paying for the costs of installing the branch routes.

“While Yaritza and I were finalizing the contract for the network to Earth, I asked her about installing the branch routes Sky and Jolene suggested using her standard process. She thinks it would take about a year to install all of the networks. She said she would put a proposal together to do the work once her workload stabilized.

“That sounds like a good venture, Kendrick, and if we implement their suggestion, they deserve a bonus for the idea and their efforts. I need more ventures like that one. What would you think of me giving each of them three per cent of the net profits from the additional branches every year for the rest of the time they work for you?”

“I like that idea, Doug. That will mean I will have two very loyal employees for a very long time. Of course, that bonus will also make them wealthy enough in a very short time that they could retire. However, they seem like people who want to be involved in exciting ventures, so I don’t think they will want to retire and rest on their past accomplishments. I expect they will also be anticipating bonuses for future ideas like that one, which will be an additional incentive for them to do a good job for me and for you.”

“I don’t mind the money, Kendrick. They are not only coming up with the idea, but they are also doing a lot of the work that will ensure it is profitable. I don’t have a problem rewarding someone with a share of the profits when they are creating additional profits for me. Besides, I can’t spend all of the income I am currently getting, so sharing some of it won’t hurt me. Remind me once the branch routes’ profits have paid for the installation costs for I may want to increase the percentage that they receive as a bonus. Perhaps it would be a good idea to let your employees know that if they have good ideas that are implemented and profitable, they will also be rewarded for their efforts.”

“I will, Doug, but that could get out of hand. I will need to establish some requirements and constraints to prevent problems.”

“What sort of problems?”

“I don’t want a situation where each of my employees submits five ideas a day with no supporting documentation. I will also need to track the ideas submitted and who submitted the idea first. If two people submit the same idea within a short period of time, I will need to make them co-owners of the idea.”

“Yeah, things like that could create problems. Have there been other major things happening?”

“No, that has been about the only thing of any significance that’s happened since I got back from Vora.”

“Cindy, please go have a cup of coffee with Charyl for about ten minutes. I want to have a private discussion with Kendrick about putting together my Will, and I will probably be uncomfortable talking about it in front of you. Once everything is in place, I’ll share the details with you, Betty, Carol, and Rita. In fact, it may be a good idea if the four of you also create Wills.”

After Cindy left, I asked, “What have you done regarding the Will I asked you to set up?”

“I contacted a lawyer, Violet Ainge, who specializes in Estate law to develop your Will, Doug. I told her about the trust funds you want for Betty and Carol and that you want the remainder of your estate distributed between Cindy and Rita. Violet will also need to know the specifics of what you want to put into the two trusts in order to create them. She will need to know the details of how the trusts are to be managed and she will also need to know anything else that you may want the Will to address. She asked if you wanted the Will to consider the possibility of you adding additional wives to your family. You didn’t tell me about what other special arrangements you wanted to make, so all I could do is let Violet know you had an unknown number of additional bequests.

“Violet was concerned about what would happen to Betty and Carol after your death, since the court placed them into your care. She checked into it and found that you can designate an heir to take custody of them as long as the heir is acceptable to the court. Violet has applied to have Cindy and Rita approved for taking ownership of Betty and Carol when you die. Everything should be in place and go smoothly when the transfer of ownership is required, which we all hope is a long time in the future.

“The big problem with creating your Will, Doug, is that you have to list your assets including those you have on Earth. I’m managing your financial affairs, so I have a list of your Multiverse assets. But I suspect you have a large number of assets on Earth that I’m not managing. So you need to talk with Violet. One thing she did recommend was for you to create a Life Trust and put all of your assets into the trust.”

“Okay, Kendrick. I’ll do a write up of my ideas for the Will, and then we can talk with Violet about setting up the two trusts and the other details of my Will. I think the idea of a Life Trust is a good idea, but I’m not that familiar with the way they work. If Life Trusts works the way I’ve heard they do, I will want Violet to start setting one up for me. We can discuss that when the three of us go over the details of my Will.”

“My next topic is the currency conversion rate for Earth. What has happened with that?”

“I hired two financial analysts to set up a financial model that will do the conversion rate calculations. They started with the financial model that was used for Bethany, which is still a Provisional World. Bethany is close to becoming a Member World and it switched to the Multiverse currency system about eighty years ago. Most of the factors used to calculate a conversion rate for their old currency should be valid for Earth’s currency.”

“Isn’t there a more current financial model, Kendrick?”

“No, that model is actually the most recent model for doing currency conversion between a backward planet and the Multiverse. The model developed before that was retired more than a hundred years before Bethany’s model was developed, and the Multiverse has changed a lot since the two models were developed. Those changes make the older model useless and Bethany’s model will require extensive tailoring to adapt it to the current Multiverse.”

“All right. I think I told you about Earth having multiple currencies, Kendrick. They don’t have a single currency. Will the model for Earth be tailored to support all of those currencies?”

“No. I recall us having that conversation, Doug. As I recall, you said we would calculate a conversion rate for your current country’s currency, and you could then use Earth’s existing conversion rates to translate the value of Multiverse currency into the other countries’ currencies.”

“Yeah, I forgot I told you that.”

“That’s okay. Now my two analysts prepared an initial list of information that they will need to create the conversion rate. All you need to do is go down the list and enter your country’s prices and other data for the listed items.”

“I think there may be a problem with the list, Kendrick. The Multiverse has many things that don’t exist on Earth, and I suspect some of those things will be on the list. So I need to know what to do for the things that don’t exist on Earth. Earth also has items similar to what is probably on the list but they have very different levels of quality and may not have the same functionality.”

“That’s okay, Doug. The analysts said if there were no equivalent items that you should just note that in the Remarks column. They also said that if there was a similar item to describe the differences in quality and capability in the Remarks column. If the difference is just quality, enter the items price in the Price column and in the Remarks column enter the relative quality as a percentage relative to the quality of the Multiverse item.”

“How do I handle the same item sold by different sources with different prices?”

“The analysts anticipated that, Doug. If the quality is about the same, enter the average value in the Price column, and enter the actual values of the three items in the Remarks column. If the quality varies, include a set of three data points for each of the items with similar quality and note the quality of the items relative to the Multiverse item. Be sure to record the sources of your pricing data to make it easier to update the conversion rate later.”

“There is also a section on income and living expenses for the average citizen. It shows the data for what the model calls an average Multiverse family of eight people; that is two adults and six kids.

“You will have to use your own judgement to determine if the living standards are equivalent. Just note anything pertinent in the Remarks column. I seem to recall you mentioning that the average Earth family has three kids. Note things like that or something like differences in average living standards, so the analysts can compensate for the differences.”

“All right, Kendrick. This is going to be a lot of work. It will take a long time to gather the data, but we will do the best that we can.”

“I know, Doug, and don’t worry about it too much for the analysts will want to discuss each line item with you once you have gathered the data. By then, they will probably have another list of things that need to be priced.”

“That should take care of one of the big items I need to get done; at least, it is a good start. However, how will we adjust for variations in Earth and Multiverse prices, and how often will we have to update the values?”

“I don’t know, Doug. Once the analysts have the model created, I know its data points will need to be updated. I will have to check with them on the frequency of the updates. Hopefully, they will be able to create a means of automatically updating the Multiverse’s data point values.”

Handing me a data chip, Kendrick said, “This data chip contains the first list of data you will need to gather, and there will be additional lists.”

“You know this is going to be a very expensive task for me to take care of, Kendrick.”

“Expensive?”

“Yes, expensive. I’ll have to eventually hire a lot of financial people to document the data points and people to create a program for updating the data points. Then there is the fact that the only people I have who have the necessary knowledge to do most of this pricing are my wives. That means multiple shopping trips for them as a group, and you know how my ladies like to shop. I can bill their time to the Multiverse for this effort, but somehow I doubt the Multiverse will reimburse me for my ladies’ purchases.”

Cindy had returned while we were talking. So while handing her the data chip, I said, “Cindy, upload the list of the data we need to gather from Kendrick’s data chip to your computer, and keep the chip in a safe place. Make a note for me to check on the frequency of update and to develop a way to automatically update Earth’s data points.

“My next item, Kendrick, is a bank for Earth.”

“Doug, that is not going to be as easy as I thought it would be.

“I talked with the Master of our local Banking Guild. He provided me with a list of the requirements that must be met in order to have a bank on Earth. However, he also told me that expansion capital is limited in the banking community at this time. I told him about the problem with sugar addiction. He said he doubted that any of the banks will want to assign their people to a bank on Earth under those conditions.

“I can understand his position, Doug, but I got the feeling there was something more. Even before I told him about the problem with sugar addiction, it seemed as if he was reluctant to set up a bank for Earth. I think his comment about limited capital was an excuse. I can’t think of a single time when the banking community was so short on venture capital that it couldn’t start a new bank. Especially on a Provisional World where the bank’s profits would be very significant.”

“Did you ask him about setting up a bank using banking personnel who are already suffering from sugar addiction?”

“Sort of. I asked about the possibility of using employees who are already sugar addicts. He said he wasn’t aware of anyone afflicted with sugar addiction in the banking community, but he would send a query to the Guild Chapters and the headquarters of all banking corporations. He will let me know if there are any sugar addicts retired, discharged, or still working for a bank. I don’t think he was too hopeful that there would be someone suitable to manage a bank that has held a senior position.”

“It’s beginning to sound like I may have to start a chain of banks on Earth, Kendrick.”

“That was my thought, Doug, when the Guild Master told me he doubted that the banking community could find enough sugar addicts to start a bank on Earth.

“I asked about you creating a new banking corporation. The Guild Master said it could be done, but your bank would have to comply with all the banking rules, regulations, and laws governing Multiverse banks. Evidently, the rules and laws make creating a new bank very difficult for an outsider.”

“Okay, Kendrick. It sounds like I may have to create a few banks on Earth. The Guild Master was undoubtedly thinking of me setting up Multiverse banks. But, if I make them Earth banks, I only have to satisfy Earth’s rules and laws, and I don’t think those rules and laws are as restrictive as those here in the Multiverse.

“Kendrick, when you were talking to the Guild Master, did you get the feeling that the Guild didn’t want any new banks established here in the Multiverse?”

“No, I didn’t get that feeling. Why?”

“Just a passing thought. I have had the feeling for a while that the banking community frowns on more competition. Look into it for me and see what you can find, and one more thing, Kendrick, see if there is any outside influence being brought to bear on the Banking Guild and let me know if they are being influenced and by whom.”