Chapter 3

The next morning, we slept in until seven. After breakfast, I stepped outside and observed a world gone mad. The reporters were gone and there were Altairian work parties all over the farm. Mike’s people were on guard duty and each of them was accompanied by a soldier dressed in dark gray armor wearing a sidearm on one hip and a baton on the other hip. Mark saw me and joined me on the porch. We sat on the swing and he explained what was happening.

According to Mark, the armor would protect the wearer against most of the projectile and low-energy personal weapons used in the Empire. The sidearm fired an energy beam that paralyzed the skeletal muscles of the person it hit out to a distance of about one hundred yards. The effectiveness of the beam dropped off rapidly after a hundred yards. The beam had no effect on the person’s autonomous functions like breathing or anything that was not biological. However, the sidearms were capable of severely injuring or even killing a person at close distances. Therefore, use of a sidearm at distances of under ten feet was prohibited except for when an attacker was using deadly force.

The baton served a similar purpose but was only used for close combat, which was defined as within striking distance of the baton. It induced an electric shock that caused a localized paralysis of a person’s muscles in the area that was struck. Striking a limb disabled the muscles of the entire limb, but not the rest of the body’s muscles.

Mark told me the work parties had arrived early this morning and they were installing the monitoring system. A post would be installed at each corner of my property and additional posts would be installed between the corner posts at intervals of not more than a hundred yards. The system’s operator would define the system’s threat detection parameters. The parameters could be defined as any value of mass above a minimum value or below a maximum value or between two values or outside the range of two values. Other threat parameters could be combined with mass, but Mark believed mass was the main factor.

Mark told me he was considering adding an object’s velocity as one of the threat factors. Considering the possibility of a sniper, I later told him that would be a good idea.

When an intruder that satisfied the one of the threat detection parameters passed between two posts, the system reported the intrusion as an alarm and displayed a plot of the bearing to the intruder from each post. The system would use the guards’ heads-up displays to direct the guards to the intruder. When the system detected a high-velocity object passing between two posts, a plot of the object’s path is displayed on the guards’ heads-up displays. Unfortunately, the system was detection only and did not stop the high-velocity objects. The Empire had a system that would do that, but it was not authorized for use on worlds that weren’t part of the Empire other than under combat conditions.

When a system is first installed, it typically detects intruders that satisfy a threat detection parameter, but that are not of interest. These intruder’s characteristics are added to an exclusion file, so the system doesn’t generate future alarms for intruders that match the exclusion set of characteristics.

From what Mark told Mike, the system could be manually programmed to recognize the characteristics of things like people, cats, and dogs. I interpreted that to mean the system could differentiate between different types of animals, and ignore some while generating an alarm for others. He also said that if the masss and velocity detection factors were set very low, the system could detect something like a thrown knife or arrow. With these settings, the system could be configured to ignore things like objects that do not travel along a ballistic path, such as birds.

Mark noticed Mike and I sitting on the swing and joined us on the porch.

I asked, “Mark, do you have time to come inside and answer a few questions that I and my ladies have?”

“Sure. I’m happy to make time for another cup of your good coffee.”

I said goodbye to Mike and we went inside. I asked my ladies to join us at the dining room table. We sat around the table sipping on our cups of coffee. I also made a note to add coffee to our list of trade items, if Mark wasn’t just being polite about the quality of Earth coffee.

“Mark, we were informed that the Empire has a procedure for enhancing a person. The four of us have been selected for enhancement, but we really don’t know what to expect or whether the procedure will be very beneficial for us. I understand you have received the Stage 1 procedure. What has enhancement been like for you?”

Mark said, “Let me start out by saying the results can be very different for each individual.

“The actual procedure was straight forward for me. I was secured to a gurney and wheeled into a surgical room, and I received an injection that put me to sleep. While I was asleep, equipment was secured to my body. The doctor then turned the equipment on and performed the procedure. I woke up five days later and was sore from head to foot. It took me almost two weeks of physical and mental therapy to recover enough to return to my quarters. During my recovery period, I vomited, dizzy when I stood up and tried to walk, was unstable on my feet, and my thought processes were sometimes irrational. I had to use a walker most of that time, and I always had someone with me to prevent me from harming myself or someone else. Most people don’t require that long to regain consciousness but my recovery time was about average. I was totally miserable during the recovery period.

“Once I recovered, I noticed that I was a bit stronger than I had been before the procedure. Over the next four months, my strength increased gradually, and now I am almost twice as strong as I was before the procedure. I haven’t gained much muscle mass and I wasn’t consciously aware that my strength was increasing. Although occasionally, I would do something that required more strength than I had before the procedure and I was surprised at how easy it is for me to do it. My mind seems to automatically adjust the strength I use to what is needed. For example, when I shake hands with someone, I don’t have to think about not crushing the bones in their hand.

“Before the procedure and about two months after I was released to my quarters, the doctors tested my reaction time to a stimulus. During the second test, my reaction speed had improved by a little over ten percent. Since then, my reaction speed has stabilized at about fourteen percent faster than before the procedure.

“My mental capacity is far greater than it used to be. The last time I was tested, the doctors told me that I had twice the memory storage capacity compared to my original capacity. I don’t notice the increase, but my memory does seem to be a lot better. They measured my mental processing speed and it was twice as fast as it was. My last intelligence test indicated my prior intelligence level had increased by almost thirty percent. The doctors told me the increase was due to a combination of my increased memory space and faster mental processing speed.

“Once again, all of the changes were so slow that I didn’t notice that I was changing unless something out of the ordinary happened to me. It was only when the doctor’s measurements were compared to their original values that I was aware of how much I had changed.”

Madge asked, “If you had it to do over, would you go through the procedure again?”

“Definitely. The misery of the two recovery weeks was more than offset by the benefits I gained. My companions, who received the same treatment, are just as happy as I am that we had the procedure. If you have the chance to receive the procedure, take it. It will change your life for the better. Hopefully, your recovery won’t be as miserable as mine, but in the long run, you will be glad you accepted the procedure.”

After Mark left, we discussed the procedure and decided to trust Mary and Mark. Once we made the decision, Mary linked us together to speak with us.

“I knew you would be reaching a decision today, but there was a small doubt as to which decision you would make. So I monitored your talk with Mark and noted your subsequent decision to have the procedure. Soldar Tomrd will make the arrangements through Ship Commander Shimlt. You will need today and tomorrow to do some planning and to make arrangements for your absence from the farm.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done in preparation for the second meeting. But you will have plenty of time to do everything and take care of the problems you will encounter in accomplishing everything if you set the start date of the meeting for six months from today.”

Alicia asked, “Why will we need to wait so long?”

“If everything goes perfectly, you could be ready in three months. However, the people at Joint Base Lewis-McChord will need four months to get the tent city ready for the delegates that come to the second meeting. However, it is the member nations that will take the longest to agree to attend the meeting.

I asked, “If it takes them that long, why wait? Just conduct the meeting without them.”

“That is one possibility in the Time Continuum, but the results are less than optimal. A few of the member nations that are the most reluctant to come to the meeting will become your most staunch supporters once they understand the true importance of the agreement. You will need those supporters during the third meeting.

I found it strange that Mary’s monitoring of us wasn’t as objectionable as it seemed to me it should be. When I asked Alicia about it, she said, “I found monitoring to be very objectionable at first. However, I’ve grown accustomed to it. I think part of it is my thinking that Mary’s monitoring of me is her way of protecting me.”

“I still find it strange that I don’t object as much as I think I should. Mary protecting me may be part of the reason I no longer object as strongly as I used to. Perhaps it is just taking me longer to adjust to the idea that my thoughts and actions are subject to constant monitoring.”

When we asked Madge and Phyllis, they told us they originally objected, but it was now acceptable to them. I must be even more stubborn than I realized.

Simon, Paul, and their senior people had joined us for breakfast. After the breakfast mess was cleaned up, everyone gathered around the dining room table and we started our planning session. The majority of what we had to do was predictable.

Alicia opened our meeting with, “The four of us discussed the arrangements we would like to make for the delegates and reporters. This morning, I decided to make a list of the things that I remembered us discussing. The first thing on my list was to set a date for starting the second meeting.

“Last night, Mary told us that the optimum date needed to be at least six months from yesterday, but she did not give us a specific date. I think we should add an additional two weeks to the six month period to allow for unpredictable events. What does everybody think?”

Simon said, “I don’t think an additional two weeks will be necessary if Mary said six months, but completing the negotiation of the agreement is not a time-critical event for the Empire.

“However for the future, you need to remember that when a Zldat makes a statement like that, it is based on their viewing the Time Continuum. Under those circumstances, it is virtually impossible for there to be an unpredictable event. The Zldat may not inform you of future events, but their time predictions take into account the time you will need to address those events.”

Alicia said, “It may not be necessary, but we would be more comfortable with an additional two weeks.” We determined the calendar date, and the date was in the middle of a week; we adjusted it to the following Monday.

Simon said, “It really doesn’t matter if you adjust the date or not for the date the meeting starts will be the same.”

Phyllis said, “That doesn’t make any sense. The dates will be two weeks apart if we add two weeks.”

“That is true, Phyllis, except for one thing. Mary knows if you will or won’t add time to the start date. She undoubtedly adjusted her proposed duration until the meeting will occur to account for whether you do or do not add the time. Therefore, the start date will occur on the date she saw it start in the Time Continuum.”

“Are you telling me that Mary is manipulating us?”

Simon said, “Phyllis, it may seem like it, but she does it to ensure your date matches what she sees in the Time Continuum. Once you have more experience with Zldats, you will understand that they understand the human tendency to compensate for their fears and they adjust what they tell us based on what they see happen in the Time Continuum. In this case, she knows if you will add time to her approximate date, how much time you add, and she knows when the meeting will start. She adjusted her projected date based on what she saw happen in the Time Continuum so your date will match what she sees.”

Alicia said, “Let’s talk about whether this is manipulation or not at a later time.

“The next item on my list was arranging for a place for the delegates to stay and eat. We already discussed this briefly with Betty.

“What I expect to happen is, when we release the start date of the second meeting, the media will want their people to cover the meeting. They are very much aware of how fast their competitors will make long-term reservations for the available hotel and motel rooms that are within a reasonable driving time. The politicians who come to the meeting are also aware of this fact, but they won’t be selected to attend the meeting until after all of the available and suitable reservations within a reasonable commute time are booked. They will need to find somewhere else to stay.

“Mary also mentioned that we can expect a number of extremists to come to this area. She told us there is a possibility of one or more of the extremist using violence against the member nations’ delegations, and against us to disrupt the meeting. That means we and the delegates are at risk of being injured or killed. We will be living here at the farm most of the time, so we should be reasonably safe. Therefore, the delegates will need a safe place to stay.

“We told Betty about this and we feel that Joint Base Lewis-McChord would be the closest suitable place for them to stay. It is about a two-hour drive from us during commute traffic, which supports our intent of making their stay uncomfortable.”

Nick asked, “They are your delegates, so why would you want them to be uncomfortable?”

I replied, “Our politicians and diplomats like being the center of people’s attention. If they are in a comfortable environment, they will not be in a hurry to complete the meetings. Earth once had a very important meeting to end a war in which people were being injured and killed every day, and both sides wanted to end the war. The diplomats attending the meeting were catered to and pampered. They spent six months trying to decide the shape of the table they were to sit at. We don’t want anything like that to delay the completion of our meetings.”

Nick’s facial expression was laughable. He said, “I find it difficult to imagine arguing over the shape of a table for that long. How long did it take to complete the meeting?”

Alicia said, “It took over five years for the diplomats to come to an agreement that would allow the soldiers to stop fighting. I personally believe it would have taken less than six months if each of the diplomats didn’t feel they had to speak on every minor issue and then dispute what the others said.”

Simon said, “I would find diplomats acting in that fashion hard to believe if I hadn’t personally experienced the arguments in yesterday’s meeting.

“How do you propose going about getting permission to use the base, and have the base’s people be disrespectful to the delegates?”

I said, “Well as Alicia said, we briefly discussed this with the President. At the time, she felt it would be a good idea, but needed more time to consider it. Making the delegates uncomfortable was mostly my idea, but we don’t intend to be disrespectful to the delegates. We just want to make them uncomfortable.

“When we privately met with the President, she told us she supports our idea of using the base to house the delegates. However, she needs more details about what we want to do. We told her that we had three main things in mind: force the delegates to live in a tent city, force them to eat at a field kitchen, and force them to use base transportation to get to the meetings. She agreed with us in principle, however the US would incur a substantial cost in providing a living area, food, and transportation for the delegates. Therefore she will need to prepare a budget to cover the costs of supporting the future meetings. And a justification for why the US should incur those costs.

“Betty told me that she can tell Congress that besides the fact there is inadequate housing in our area, there is a risk to the delegates’ lives if they have to live in our local hotels and motels. She will recommend that the US allow the delegates to reside at Joint Base Lewis-McChord to prevent a diplomatic incident caused by a US citizen attacking a delegate. She said she would not go into the details of the housing arrangements, unless asked.

“She will also tell Congress that the Facilitators do not have sufficient space for the delegates to park their cars at the meeting site, and that Joint Base Lewis-McChord has a limited amount of parking available. Therefore, the US will have to provide transportation for the delegates to travel between the meeting site and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. She will expand on that by telling Congress that since the delegates won’t have cars, the US will also have to provide them with food.

“Betty told me that if she provided the housing. a tent city was inevitable for the available base housing is limited. The existing housing is already allocated for other purposes. Therefore any available housing that may be temporarily available will not be made available to delegates, and that includes US delegates.

“She also mentioned that the capacity of base’s current dining facilities is inadequate to support the delegates and their people. Therefore, a field kitchen will be needed to feed the delegates and their people.

“Betty believes Congress will be left with no choice but to fund her proposed solution for housing, food, and transportation. That direction will solve the use of available housing problem for both the second and third meetings.

“She said setting up a tent city on the base for the delegates was relatively easy. The main problem will be to keep them from making arrangements for off base lodging. If they wish to do so, she will not stop them.

“Betty said that arranging for them to eat in a field kitchen is more difficult. The arrangements for this have to be made well in advance of the announcement of the delegates living on base; so she and the base commander will not be in trouble for the base’s facilities not being available to the delegates.

“We will also need to make arrangements to keep the delegates from using something other than the base transportation to get to the farm. However, our limited parking should keep that from being a problem.

Paul said, “From my experience, when a base commander is informed that his base is to host a meeting of important people, he has his staff inspect the facilities to be used to ensure they are suitable for use. If the base commander were notified now, he could conduct such an inspection. If the mess facilities were declared unsuitable for a health issue or another reason, then he would have to correct the problem or make other arrangements. That may be a way to explain the unavailability of the base dining facilities for the second meeting. I doubt the problem could be extended to cover the third meeting.

“As far as the housing issue goes, I think most of the delegates will be accepting of less than comfortable housing arrangements than staying in a hotel with a very long commute, no parking at their destination, and the potential of being attacked by extremists.

“If the extremists we heard about show up and the delegates who choose to stay in hotels have bodyguards, we need to expect violent confrontations in public places. If they don’t have bodyguards, there is also a strong possibility of them being severely injured or killed by a protestor. The cities where they stay would have to provide police to monitor peaceful demonstrations and break up any violent protests. Those factors could be good selling points for having the delegates staying on the base.”

I said, “We need to consider this further to identify other aspects of using the base to house the delegations. That should give us enough time to think about what needs to be done. I will contact Betty tomorrow to discuss any additional ideas we may have for the use of the base, and the uncomfortable arrangements that we would like her to arrange. She can address the matter with the base commander, and they can create a cover story to explain the arrangements we want her to make for the delegates. I agree those arrangements should be good for at least the second meeting, but not for the third meeting.”

Alicia said, “My next item is the media. They will want to cover the meetings, and I think we should make them as welcome as possible. However, we should also restrict their access to the farm and the actual meeting tent.

“There will be television and newspaper reporters from the US and other countries wanting to cover the meetings. I expect the number of media personnel who want to cover the meeting will exceed the number of delegates; that is far more than we can support. We will have to limit the number of reporters we authorize to access the farm. The authorized reporters will also need to be restricted to specific areas of the farm. I would like to make the meeting’s tent off limits to all reporters. Unfortunately, that would result in them being upset with us, which is one of the things we want to avoid.”

Madge said, “I agree with you. We will not only have to restrict them to specific areas, but we will need to make suitable work areas available to them within the area we restrict them to. A tent, tables, and chairs will be needed, and we may want to consider providing them with a heater and air conditioning. We can also consider a video link that will allow them to monitor the meeting. If we do that, they won’t be as upset about not being allowed to sit in a drafty tent with the delegates. Although, a draft would be a plus in the summer when the tent is hot.”

I said, “When we were talking about the arrangements we would make for the delegates, I recalled us deciding to limit the duration of their lunch breaks. To support that, we decided we needed to provide access to a dining facility here on the farm and we were thinking of an army field kitchen.”

Mike chuckled and said, “I thought you were going to say you would provide them with MREs.”

I said, “We considered that, Mike. But the reporters may also feel they need to eat here on the farm and we decided we wanted them happy with us. A diet of MREs would not make them happy.”

Phyllis said, “I can’t recall us discussing any additional arrangements that need to be made for the meeting. Has anyone thought of anything else that needs to be addressed this morning?”

I couldn’t think of anything we had overlooked, but I gave everyone a few moments to think about things.

Aaron said, “We need to consider parking for vehicles and somebody to control traffic in the area.”

I said, “You’re right, we did overlook those items.

“Add those two things to your list, Alicia. We already talked about buying and using the land across from us as a landing field for shuttles and to park them during the meetings. We can use that area as a parking place for cars and buses. Perhaps we can hire off-duty Sheriff’s deputies to direct traffic and to control pedestrians.”

Alicia asked, “If we allow cars to park across the street, won’t that lead to people leasing cars and driving here?”

I said, “Yeah, you are right. We will have to allocate an area on the farm for buses to pick up and drop off passengers. We can expand that area to include enough space for several buses to wait until it is time for them to load passengers.”

Aaron asked, “Won’t the FAA have a problem with media helicopters flying in the area?”

I said, “I’ll add that to the things I discuss with the President. We aren’t that close to an airport, so their presence shouldn’t be a problem. Their presence could be considered a security threat, and that would allow Betty to have the FAA declare our area a no-fly zone for unauthorized aircraft.

“We also forgot that we need walkways to interconnect the places that people will want to walk and floors for the tents. Having to walk through puddles and in mud won’t make people happy, and I also don’t want everyone tracking mud into the house.”

We discussed a few additional items and added some of them to Alicia’s list. Before we ended our meeting, I said, “The Altairians have made us an offer that we decided to accept. We will be going up to their spacecraft two days from now, and we expect to be there between one and two months. The exact duration of our absence may differ from what we expect, so don’t worry if we are gone a little longer than that.

“Paul, Aaron, Simon, Mark, you are welcome to move into the house and share our guest bedrooms while we are gone. Nick, Mike, we would include the two of you in that offer, but we only have two guest bedrooms and each only has room for two beds.

I contacted Betty the next day and provided her with the start date of the second meeting. We also went over our plans for housing and feeding the delegates. When I told her about the parking for the buses, Betty said she had noticed we had limited parking near the house and that would prevent the delegates from parking on the farm. I didn’t inform her of our plans to buy the property across the street from us.

Two days later the four of us found ourselves strapped into shuttle seats wearing Upchuck Kits. The pilot promised to take us to The Seeker without any violent maneuvers. He kept his word and the Upchuck Kits were sanitized and returned to their storage locations; I would say unused, but we did wear them.

We arrived late in the ship’s day, and were immediately taken to the medical facility. We were surprised that the procedure would be started this quickly. Actually, all they did was fit us with translators. The procedure was scheduled for tomorrow morning. When they finished adjusting the translators to each of us, we were taken to our living quarters and told that we had been invited to dine with Ship Commander Shimlt that evening.

Before leaving us alone in our suites, our escorts explained how to use all of the facilities our suite provided. We had only brought a small selection of clothing with us, so we were caught unaware of the need for formal clothing. We shouldn’t have worried for when we went to put our clothes away, we discovered that each of us had been assigned a dresser and in each of the dressers was a selection of civilian ship attire that fit us, which included a set of formal dress. The garments were very comfortable and I enjoyed their snug fit on my ladies.

Our only problem with The Seeker was, their gravity was maintained at ten percent higher than that of Earth. Simon had mentioned that to us, so we were not surprised at feeling heavier than normal.

Dinner that evening was enjoyable. We were served several vegetable dishes that were not available on Earth, and we found them to be very tasty. It wasn’t long before we were all on a first-name basis. We had been thinking of Cindy as Ship Commander Shimlt for so long that it took us a while to be comfortable using her first name. She didn’t have that problem for she had used our first names since she had learned of us. Since Cindy already had the Stage 2 procedure, we asked about her experience with the second stage of the procedure.

She said, “The procedure itself and the recovery period were essentially identical to what I experienced during my Stage 1 procedure. The only differences I am aware of are I haven’t been ill since the procedure, my projected life expectancy increased by half, and any future children that I may bear will inherit my enhancements.”

Phyllis asked, “Do you have any advice about undergoing the procedure?”

“Not really. I was tense before I received the Stage 1 procedure, and far more relaxed for the Stage 2 procedure. So I would recommend that all of you just relax and try to forget what you’ve heard about the recovery period. Thinking about it will just cause you to become tense and won’t help a bit; of course, getting tense won’t hurt you either. Once your injection takes effect, you won’t be aware of anything for several weeks.”

We were each given a mild sedative so we would sleep well that night. Before breakfast, we were taken to the medical facility to begin the procedure. The first thing we did after getting undressed was to make ourselves comfortable on our gurney. We were each given an injection, and that was the last thing we remembered clearly for the next two weeks. We were told that we spent those two weeks in the recovery ward, and from the little we did remember, it was as bad as we had been warned to expect. The last two weeks of our stay were also spent in the recovery ward; it was our adjustment period. The adjustment consisted mostly of light physical exercise, mental exercises, and lots of sleep. Cindy stopped by to visit with us on several occasions, usually late at night. When we completed our recovery, we returned to our room and spent an additional week on the ship. We no longer noticed the increased gravity.