Chapter 7

After breakfast the next morning, we said our goodbyes to Sereine, Coral, and Sto. Sereine would deliver her report to Carl on Vora and check on the availability of police officers, who could staff the checkpoint on Earth. Then she would be taking Coral to Toomby for a prenatal checkup; Sto was going to support Coral. Sereine expected to return in a week, but she told us to not hold our breaths. It’s nice to see I am not the only one who is learning and using Earth slang. However, it must sound very odd for someone in the Multiverse to hear Earth slang when they lack the background to understand what it means, but some slang doesn’t require background.

Kendrick made arrangements for a D-Hopper to pick Victor up after lunch and take him to Balsam, and to bring him back. He would be gone for three weeks and we were hoping he could make the arrangements for the care of his wife’s mother, so Pauline could return to Earth with him. Her returning with him depended on the arrangements they could make with her brother and sister for her mother.

Once Sereine hopped to her first stop on the way to Vora, my bodyguards, Kendrick, Cindy, Betty, Misty, and I left for my appointment with Harry. I had considered adding Sandy to our party, but decided that the business arrangements between her and Harry should be discussed on a separate occasion from those that I would be discussing with him today. While we were at the Archer Conglomerate Headquarters, Andy would take Carla to see a doctor. She needed to have a splinter inserted, to get a comprehensive checkup, and to get her desensitization shot. A visit to a medical center shortly after we arrived in the Multiverse had become a standard practice for any first-time visitor from Earth and anyone needing their desensitization shot updated.

We arrived at the Archer Conglomerate Headquarters’ building earlier than we expected. As I approached the receptionist, I saw her nametag; her name was Kaitlin. I recognized her from my prior visit as the new employee who wasn’t sure if she should call security because of how she felt about our presence.

“Good morning, Kaitlin. I’m Doug Smith and I have an appointment with Chairman Smart at ten o’clock.”

“Yes, Sir, Mister Smith. If you would care to have a seat, I’ll let Chairman Smart’s secretary Janice know you are here.”

When I didn’t move, she asked, “Is there something else I can do for you?”

“Yes. I recall meeting you on my prior visit, and I wanted you to know that I’m not upset that you considered calling Security regarding Sandy, me, and our party. Actually, if you have any disturbing feelings about someone who comes in the door that is probably the best thing you can do.”

She was blushing slightly as she said, “Yes, Sir. That is what Janice told me after you left.”

I smiled and said, “If you feel comfortable with it, call me Doug. I could just call you Kaitlin, but a last name would be better than me just referring to you as that pretty receptionist on the front desk that everyone calls Kaitlin.”

“It’s Kaitlin Vaccaro, Mister Smith, and I doubt Chairman Smart would approve of me addressing visitors by their first names.”

“I understand, Kaitlin, have a good day.”

Janice appeared a few minutes after we had taken our seats. As she ushered us to Chairman Smart’s office, I said, “I gather Kaitlin worked out okay after her encounter with Sandy and me.”

“Yes, she has. She was very flustered that day and embarrassed about almost calling Security. I reassured her and told her she should always follow her instincts in that type of situation. So far, nothing similar has happened to her. Did she handle you okay, today?”

“She did an outstanding job, Janice. I think I embarrassed her a bit when I reminded her of the incident and let her know it didn’t upset me. I also told her to follow her instincts if something didn’t seem right.”

Janice escorted us to a small meeting room, and then left to inform Harry that we had arrived and we were ready for our meeting with him. While she was gone, Kendrick, Cindy, Betty, Misty, and I seated ourselves at the table leaving the chair at the head of the table vacant for Harry.

Harry joined us nodding to all of us while saying, “Good morning, Doug.”

I responded with, “Good morning, Harry. We addressed almost everything I needed to discuss with you over the comm unit yesterday. There are however a couple of items that I felt would best be addressed in a meeting with you.

“Let me introduce you to Doctor Misty Carr.”

After the initial exchange of greetings, I continued, “Harry, Misty and Betty will be doing the translation of the diagnostic equipment’s front panel, display, and user’s manuals into English. They will do what they can during this trip, but it is a big job and most of their work will have to be done back on Earth. To expedite their efforts, while they are here, I think they should work at the estate so they won’t have to waste their time commuting between the estate and here to consult with your people and they can avoid the hassle of arranging for a security detail to come here. I suggest that tomorrow your people bring one of the diagnostic units and anything else that they will need to the estate. They can stay with us until the scope of the work that can be done now is complete. Tell them to pack their bags with any clothing or personal needs that they may need for an extended stay, and let them know that they will be going with us when we need to hop to another planet.”

Harry was nodding as I spoke, and then he said, “You mentioned that would be one of your topics for this meeting, so I identified several people to support the translation effort. They are waiting for us in my office’s reception area. Let me go get them so we can make the arrangements for tomorrow.”

While Harry was gone, I said to Misty and Betty, “I need to address a couple of items with Harry. When he and his people get back, it would be best for the two of you to discuss your task separate from this meeting.”

They agreed with me just as Harry was opening the door. He had two women and a man with him when he returned. Pointing to one young woman, Harry said, “This is Miss Juliana Wixx and she is one of our Publication Specialists. She has a data chip containing the user manual you will be translating and she can obtain anything else that you may need from us to do the translation.”

After introducing Juliana to us, Harry indicated the other two people and said, “These are two of our Service Department’s technicians who support the portable diagnostic equipment, Holly Cahill and Bailey Vega.”

We introduced ourselves to Harry’s technicians, and Harry said, “Doug, I don’t think our people will need us in their discussion. I arranged for a second meeting room just down the hall from us for them to use while we take care of the other matters you want to talk about.

“I told my people about them working at your home and that they will have to travel; they are agreeable to your plan and looking forward to visiting other planets. If Betty and Misty would like to join my people in the other meeting room, they can discuss how they will approach the translation and what may be required in addition to any plans for travel. When they finish their discussion, my people can obtain anything that they might need during their time with you, so they can take it with them tomorrow.”

Once they were gone, Harry said, “Now, what are the other topics you needed to talk with me about today?”

“During the attempt to kill me, we discovered what appears to be an omission in our security system’s capabilities. The system did not report what it detected as the cause of the security alert. However, the duty operator told me that he worked with an earlier system and that system had a report explaining what caused an alert.”

“It is my understanding, Doug, that your system has that report. I’ll have our people look at the system’s code to see why the report wasn’t generated, and fix the problem. It should be a relatively simple matter to resolve, so I will have them generate an update to the software that you can take back with you when you return.

“What else do we need to discuss?”

I said, “The next topic I have is Sergei’s plans for a defensive system for a small estate I bought for my use. Has he contacted you or your representative about the equipment that he will be purchasing for that system?”

“Was it a big order?”

“I don’t know for sure. I need to talk with Sergei during this trip, but from what I heard, it would have been as big as the order he placed with you for securing my Embassy, or larger.”

“No. I haven’t heard anything about that large of an order from Sergei. I doubt we received his order for the person I assigned to support him would have needed me to approve a large order like that.”

“Then I’ll assume he is waiting to discuss his plans with me.

“The last item we need to talk about is the products the Archer Conglomerate will be selling on Earth. I’ll let Sandy talk with you on another occasion, since she is your representative. She may not know enough about Earth, yet, to explain all of what is involved in establishing trade on Earth. I will help with the explanation, if she feels she needs my assistance.

“I have plans to sell a wide range of medications on Earth. The situation with having to translate the diagnostic unit’s front panel labeling and the screens gave me a wakeup call. Here in the Multiverse, vials of medicine have a data chip, built into the bottom of the vial that contains information about the medicine. The consumer can download the information using a standard household chip reader. Earth doesn’t have chip reader technology and until there is a need for the people of Earth to own a chip reader, they won’t buy one. Without a chip reader, they won’t buy Archer’s medications or other products that have an imbedded chip.”

“I wasn’t aware of that, Doug. How do the people of Earth get information about their prescriptions?”

“Two ways, Harry. If it is a small amount of information, the information is printed on the bottle. If there is too much information to print on the bottle, the manufacturer prints the information on paper and inserts a printout of the information into each package of medicine.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard for us to do, Doug.”

“I know, Harry, but the information will need to be translated into English, and after we get back to Earth, Misty is going to be very busy. She won’t have time to do the translations for the number of medications I will be selling. You also need to extend the need for translation to the other Archer products. How many of the products you plan to sell on Earth have information or labeling that will require translation? I would guess at least eighty percent will need something translated.”

“You’re right, but the percentage of products is probably closer to ninety-five percent. This is going to be a big problem for us.”

“Yes, it will and you need to keep the problem secret. If the problem is contained, then in the future, we will have at least two advantages over the other Conglomerates that will want to do business on Earth. Our first advantage is, we are aware of the need to translate Multiverse information into English well in advance of actually starting to sell our merchandise on Earth. When I open Earth to general trade, we will be prepared to do business on Earth; our competition will need to do a lot of work translating their instructions and information before they can sell their merchandise on Earth. The second advantage is, we have a business relationship with people who speak English; they don’t. I doubt that I or anyone in my group on Earth would be willing to work for the other Conglomerates, and right now, we are the only Multiverse citizens who can speak English.”

“Doug, you’re right. We need to keep this information between the three of us. The other Conglomerates aren’t stupid, and we don’t need to help them by telling them what they need to do before they can sell their merchandise.”

“I realized that, Harry, and that is why I wanted to tell you about the problem in a private meeting. You need to talk with the three people working with Betty and Misty about the importance of not talking about what they are doing. That goes for anyone else that you may have told about the need to translate information into English. Otherwise, the need to translate information might get back to the other Conglomerates and allow them enough time to be prepared to market their products on Earth.

“Harry, one other thing I want you to be aware of is, as our Ambassador to Earth, it will be my job to aid our competitors with marketing their products on Earth. I think I can limit that aid to assisting their people in learning English, and I have to explain to them how to conduct trade on Earth and provide them with appropriate contacts.”

“Will that aid have any effect the advantages you mentioned earlier?”

“I don’t think so. While I have to provide assistance, I won’t need to dispense that aid until asked and I will only need to provide the assistance that is requested. I also don’t have to assist them with business matters that fall outside of my Embassy’s mission.

“If we are finished with current business, Harry, I would like to know what it is that you are doing for the Archer Family’s members.”

“So far, very little Doug. I arranged for a few of the more distant family members to get jobs with our subsidiaries, but these are some of the less capable members of the family.”

“I think I phrased that wrong, Harry. What I am really interested in learning is, what Henry said to you in asking you to help the family?

“Oh. That is not an easy conversation to describe, Doug. A lot of what he said was based on conversations we had over the years, and what I already knew about the Archer Family.

“Henry was in a very depressed mood on that day, so his attitude and words reeked of doom and gloom. It seemed as if he had given up and was ready to stop doing whatever it was that he was having difficulty accomplishing.

“Henry started the conversation by reminiscing about the early days of the Archer Family. I recall him saying that back then, the family had worked together to build a business that would provide everyone with financial security. He dwelled on this for a while, and then he began talking about how the family started changing around four hundred and fifty years ago. A few family members started accepting the profits of the family’s efforts without contributing to the business. From what I know of the family, this trend continued and expanded until the time of Henry’s death.

“He jumped ahead to the time when his father and grandfather made changes in hope of changing the direction the family was taking, and the failure of their attempts to turn the situation around. He dwelled in particular about the things his father had done to change the situation. He then started to explain what he had tried and drew parallelisms between his efforts and the efforts his father and grandfather had made. His final comment on that matter is burned into my mind.

“He said to me, ‘Harry, except for a few like Sandy, they are useless and will never amount to anything as long as someone continues to support them. They have become parasites and are very happy accepting whatever handout someone chooses to give them without raising a hand to help.’

“Henry said to me, ‘Harry, I gave my father my word I would take care of them, and I will. I decided the only way to truly take care of them is to force them to start taking care of themselves. I have already taken steps to ensure that the ones that I believe are salvageable are taken care of. The only way to save the family is to remove their financial security. Those that are able to change their ways will survive in comfort; the others will live like the parasites they are.’

“Henry paused for a few moments, Doug, and then he said, ‘I redid my will to leave a small portion of my estate to Sandy and a few bequests to the family members who are salvageable. I’m giving a portion of my money to you now to use to help those members of the family who can’t or won’t help themselves, and the rest of my estate will go to someone outside of the family.’

“I asked who that person was and he told me he would leave that up to Sto. Henry went on to say, ‘The members of my family have some money and investments, but that won’t last them forever. They will eventually be forced back into the workplace. I find it very difficult to leave my extended family penniless; I really don’t want them destitute and living on the streets.’

“When I asked Henry if I could help him, he said, ‘What I want you to do, Harry, is make positions available to them in the Conglomerate. Most of them are worthless, so you will have to put them in positions where they can learn to do something useful without damaging the businesses they are working for. Don’t let them use their position as Archer Family members to run roughshod over the management of the companies they go to work for. Make sure, the upper management of the businesses know that the family member has no decision-making power or authority other than what the managers grant them. Harry, if they are able to change and become something more than they are currently, shepherd them into more senior positions, don’t promote them unless they earn the promotion and are capable of performing at the higher level positions.’

“That is the essence of what Henry asked of me, Doug. Like I said, a few of the family have come to me for help, and I put them in low-level positions. In my opinion, they should be able to perform at that level and I made it known to them and their superiors that they are to only be promoted if they are capable of learning and performing the tasks of the new position.”

“What about the rest of the family, Harry? How are they managing without an income?

“Well as I said, some of them have money and investments. However, Henry was a very considerate, realistic person. He wanted all of the family members to change, but he also knew many couldn’t do what was necessary to change. He invested a very large sum of money, which I am managing for the family members who can’t change. I use the dividends to provide them with some financial support, so they won’t end up living on the streets. Henry made it clear that if they made no effort to support themselves, I was to gradually reduce their income, which he thought would force them to change their lifestyles. He also hoped that his plan would help them evolve into more responsible people.”

“Harry, when I first received this inheritance, I learned Henry requested you to help his family, I told Kendrick I would help you if I could. Is there anything I can do to assist you with aiding the Archer Family?”

“Yes, there is one thing that I need help with, Doug. My wife and I have reached that point in our lives, where we don’t have that many years left before we die. Before that happens, I need to make arrangements for someone to take over management of the investments Henry made for his family’s welfare. Do you think that Kendrick could manage those investments in addition to your business interests?”

I looked to Kendrick and asked, “Do you think you can manage those investments for Harry?”

I don’t see that as a problem, Doug. If necessary, I can hire a separate group of people to oversee those investments and their disbursement to the family members. Is that an acceptable approach for you, Harry?”

“Yes, that will work. We can get together later to discuss the details and begin the handover of the investments.”

Harry and I continued to discuss a variety of minor matters concerning the problems the Archer Conglomerate was having; Kendrick also commented on a few of the items. There was nothing I could do to resolve those problems, but Harry and Kendrick thought it was important for me to know about the inner workings of the Archer Conglomerate.

When Betty and Misty finished their meeting, we returned to the estate. For some reason, I liked Kaitlin and felt a connection with her, so I gave her a smile and nod of my head as we passed through the lobby. She is really pretty when she blushes.

During our trip back to the estate, Betty put me on the spot regarding my smiling and nodding to Kaitlin and her blushing. I admitted that I found her attractive, but had no idea why she blushed.

Betty and Cindy looked at each other and held one of those silent conversations that women seem to have with their eyes and facial expressions. Betty said, “Doug, we think she blushed because she likes you and interpreted your smile and nod as an indication that you are interested in her in the same way she is interested in you.”

“I admit to liking her, but liking isn’t an interest in forming a relationship, Betty. There is nothing between us and I sincerely doubt that there ever will be.”

Cindy said, “We understand that, Doug. What you don’t understand is that we and your other two wives and potential wives may decide that you should add her to our relationship.”

“What! If Sereine and Abby ever marry us that would be six wives, and Kaitlin would be seven, and that assumes she is interested.”

Betty said, “Doug, I watched you and Kaitlin talking this morning. She is interested in you, but probably thinks you aren’t interested in her. It wouldn’t take more than you showing her a bit of personal interest, and she would accept that there may be a chance of you having something more than a casual acquaintance with her.”

I decided this conversation was headed in a direction that I wasn’t sure I wanted it to go, so I stopped talking and changed the topic. I think Betty and Cindy accepted that I wasn’t ready to think about a relationship with Kaitlin. Of course I knew that wouldn’t stop them from pushing the idea if Rita and Carol agreed.

After dinner, Misty, Betty, Cindy, and I discussed the translation effort. Misty and Betty would be the ones doing the translation and we reviewed the arrangements we had made with Harry for them to do the translation here at the estate.

I said, “Harry and I discussed the translation after you left. He understands that it will be a major amount of work for the two of you, and he asked me for an estimate when the work will be complete. Tomorrow morning, Juliana, Holly, and Bailey will arrive with a portable diagnostic unit and its manuals to include blow-ups of all the display screens. While they are here, put together an estimate of what the five of you think needs to be done and how long each part of the effort will take to complete.

Misty said, “Spending most of my time on the translation is okay with me, as long as I have enough time to recruit the nurses I will need and attend services at my church.”

Betty said, “You should have plenty of time for that, Misty. All we have to do is translate the wording on the equipment’s front panel and the displays. We can leave the manuals for after we return home.”

Misty said, “I know, Betty, but you don’t understand what that entails. There must be close to twenty top-level display screens, and each of them has multiple subordinate screens. Some of the subordinate screens also have subordinate screens. Altogether, there must be over a hundred scrollable screens and there is probably an average of between fifteen and twenty new terms on each screen, and I don’t know the Earth words for those terms.

“The front panel labeling and screen content are mainly technical terms, values, and information. I’m not familiar with most of the Earth’s medical terms and units of measure, so we will have to wait until we get back to Earth so I can research those items to determine the proper Earth terms to use. We will also need to determine a conversion factor between the units of measure, which are used in the Multiverse and Earth. The screens may also require technical changes due to changes in the scaling of plotted information. Translating the terms on the screens is going to be a major effort, and since the manuals explain the screens, translating the manuals will be an even bigger effort. I think the biggest effort will be converting between the units of measure. I doubt your knowledge of the English language will help with identifying the proper Earth terms and conversion factors to use, but once that is done, you will need to put the concepts in terms the doctors on Earth will understand. I won’t be able to do all of that efficiently, so that means I will need the help of an Earth doctor.

“For now, I will work on the equipment and its screens and you can work on translating the equipment manuals. When you find a medical term or explanation you can’t translate, document it and we can find the proper terms and explanations later. The biggest effort ahead of us right now is to document what we need to translate each screen and passage in the manuals and then wait until we get back to Earth to gather that information.”

Betty said, “Alright, an Earth doctor will probably be a good idea, but we don’t have one with us. I have to admit this task is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. So as you said, for now we can document the terms we will need to research.

“Doug, do you plan to keep Misty and me here at the estate working on the translation for the entire time we are here in the Multiverse?”

“No, that wasn’t what I intended. Why did you think that was my intent?”

“Well ... this task is going to take a long time to complete. We will definitely need the equipment to support our effort both here and back on Earth. We will also need access to people familiar with the technical aspects of the equipment and access to people familiar with the manuals to do things properly. I’m not sure how efficient it will be to keep changing locations while we do the translation. But I also know you will need Cindy with you, and Misty and I don’t want to be left here at the estate.”

“I see. It looks like Sandy and I need to talk about our plans to sell this equipment on Earth. We thought that you would be able to do the translation within six months. From what you and Misty just said, the translation will take a year or longer. Misty, how long do you think it will take for you to learn Earth’s medical terminology?”

“From what I know about the level of Earth’s medical knowledge there are two things that need to be considered. I need a thorough understanding of their current medical concepts and terminology, which will probably take me about six months to learn if I have a doctor to work with full-time. The big problem is the Multiverse’s medical knowledge is more advanced than Earth’s medical community’s knowledge, so we can’t just translate our displays. They will need to learn our medical knowledge, concepts, and treatment approaches.

“To give you an example of what I mean, Earth is very archaic in the way they deal with medical problems. Consider Mary’s cancer. Earth would have radiated her body with radiation to kill the cancer cells, which would have also killed cells that form part of her healthy body mass. Alternatively, they would have injected chemicals into her body and those chemicals would have destroyed both diseased and health body tissue in addition to making her very sick. Both treatments take a long time. The Multiverse uses an injection to treat cancer that is tailored to the specific type of cancer and the injection only affects the cancerous cells. For Mary’s form of cancer, it only took one injection and several days of rest to cure her. Some of the more difficult forms of cancer may require a series of two or three injections. The injections would not have made her sick, but they would have made her extremely tired until about a week after the last injection.

“I guess what I am trying to tell you is, we will have to educate Earth’s medical community in how to use the equipment to diagnose medical ailments, and how to treat the ailments with Multiverse medications and other medical techniques. They may not want to accept our diagnostic techniques and methods of treatment.”

“Oh! This is going to be even a bigger problem than I thought it would be. What you are saying means the Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical Association will be involved even more than I thought they would be. I was expecting the FDA would be involved. However, you are talking about changing what the AMA believes in regard to the proper method of treating illnesses.”

“Yes, I think you’re right, Doug. You also need to remember that for them to use our other medical techniques, they will need additional medical equipment, which involves even more translation efforts and involvement of the FDA and AMA.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, Misty. I’ll make a note about needing more equipment and the additional problems I will have with the FDA and AMA. But for now, let’s handle the current problem of translation this way. Do what you can do while we are here on Slave World. Gather blowups of the artwork that illustrates the screens in the user’s manual and anything else you will need back on Earth. I will talk with Harry about the possibility of technical changes necessary to use the equipment on Earth, and that we will also need to sell other equipment to Earth’s medical community. Put together your best guess as to how long it will take you to complete this translation effort, so I can give it to Harry. Sandy and I will adjust our plans for selling the diagnostic equipment on Earth to meet your translation schedule. She and I will have to wait until we get a list of any additional equipment that will be needed before we can make plans for selling that equipment on Earth.