Chapter 8

DAY 2:

Once we were up and dressed, we started cleaning up yesterday’s mess. We gathered in the kitchen to talk as Madge and Phyllis loaded the dishwasher and hand washed the pots and pans. We decided our lives would be chaos until this meeting ended if we continued as we had planned. We decided it wasn’t necessary for all of us to be at all of the sessions at the same time for the next two weeks. We discussed how we could modify our plans, so we could support the sessions and at the same time not have to put our private lives on hold. We decided that as the Lead Facilitator, I needed to be at all of the meeting’s sessions, and I should be assisted by Alicia, Phyllis, or Madge. The two who weren’t assisting me would take care of our personal business activities and household tasks.

We agreed that today Alicia and I would support the meeting; while Phyllis and Madge worked on our real estate acquisition project and several household chores. Madge had to visit several real estate agents to check on the status of the offers we had made to their clients. Phyllis would go with her and they would have lunch at a local restaurant. Alicia, I, and the rest of the breakfast club would eat lunch at the field kitchen.

Until we worked out the specifics, the field kitchen would be a good place to eat. Paul, Aaron, and Mike had each told me that the Army mess halls put out a good breakfast. I never understood what people had against creamed beef on toast; I loved it. Most of the military people I knew referred to it as SOS, which was their polite term for Shit on a Shingle. I needed to try the field kitchen’s version and decide for myself if it was deserving of the SOS label.

The breakfast club showed up in time for breakfast. Mike groused a little at the news that we would be eating at the field kitchen. I think he believed it was required for someone to gripe about mess hall food.

Relpt said, “Vert, it must be a tradition in all militaries to complain about the food that mess halls serve. I wonder what Mike would say if he were on The Seeker and he was served our normal breakfast of Thelpt and Chort.”

Thelpt and chort had not translated, so Mike gave his best pronunciation of the Altairian words, when he asked, “What are thelpt and chort?”

Vert said, “Thelpt and chort are two grains that grow on Altair. They are boiled in water until they are reduced to a thick consistency that has a very bland flavor. Sometimes spices, like delve, are added to improve the bland flavor. I don’t like delve for it causes my stomach to blow up like a balloon. Before you ask, I don’t know the Earth equivalent of delve.” Delve was another word that did not translate.

Alicia said, “We had that when we were on The Seeker. It had an unusual taste, but I didn’t think it was bad. Jeb and Phyllis didn’t care for it, but they were hungry and did eat it. Madge was like me; not as good as Cream of Wheat, but not bad.

We made it to the mess hall before any of the delegates appeared. The day shift of our security force was in line to eat their breakfast before shift change. We got in line behind them and the serving staff filled our plates with what we asked for. Unfortunately, SOS was not on the menu this morning. I would have to find out when it would be served and eat breakfast here then.

They were serving eggs cooked to order, country potatoes, sausage patties, bacon, and toast. We took our food to the dining tent and found several empty tables in one corner of the tent, so we pushed the tables together. Once we were seated, we ate and talked about inconsequential topics. We had agreed to avoid sensitive topics for we could be overheard in the dining tent. We all knew if we weren’t careful, what we said would find its way to the delegates and media. The food was as good as what I ate at Denny’s. It wasn’t as good as what I had eaten at the Courtyard by Marriott Chicago Magnificent Mile, where I stayed when I went to Chicago to meet with Sam. It would be very difficult to find somewhere that served a breakfast superior to what I ate there.

As we were leaving the dining tent, I noticed several delegates had joined us in the dining tent to eat their breakfasts. The buses from the base were loading at the base and leaving for here when they were full. It would take several hours for everyone to be shuttled to our location, so the first buses had to depart early. I hadn’t considered it before, but the buses early departure time meant the delegates had to choose between eating breakfast at the base before they left and eating here after they arrived.

At a quarter to nine, Alicia and I were sitting at our tables in the meeting tent. As the delegates gave us their lists, Dani and Kiara took the lists from us. They started entering the unique questions into two Excel worksheets on their computers. As an aid to finding specific questions, they were assigning each question a unique reference number. As they entered the questions, they would delete any duplicate questions and add any relating to the next meeting to its agenda. When necessary, they would reword the questions for clarity or to modify an existing question so it included a similar question; duplicate questions were not entered. Dani would provide me with a printout of the questions she had entered before the meeting started. Then she would get ready to document Simon’s answers to her list of questions.

Once the meeting started, I would make my opening statement and then I would read the questions to Simon and he would answer them. Kiara would consolidate the two lists by adding her list of questions to the end of Dani’s list and renumbering the questions so the question numbers were consecutive. She would then finish entering the questions into the consolidated list, while Dani wrote down Simon’s answers. Periodically throughout the day, Dani and Kiara would swap the two tasks: taking notes, and entering unique questions and their answers into the consolidated list.

At nine o’clock, I walked to the podium and turned on the microphone.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank all of you for the lists of questions you provided us. Dani and Kiara are preparing a consolidated list of your questions and they will add the answers provided to the list. Similar questions are being merged into a single question. If you believe the intent of your queston was not addressed adequately, you may resubmit the question tomorrow. A copy of the consolidated list of questions and their answers will be presented to each delegate at the end of the meeting.

When we ended the meeting yesterday, Colonel Tanat was answering your questions. As I explained yesterday, I will read the questions you gave us and Colonel Tanat will answer them. If necessary, he will discuss his answers with you.”

I saw Simon moving toward the podium, so I turned to him and said, “Colonel Tanat, the podium is yours.”

As I walked back to my table, Simon said, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Mister Facilitator, what is the first question?”

I read the first question and Simon answered it. We continued this process and Simon’s answers satisfied most of the questions, so there was only a moderate amount of discussion during the morning session.

At eleven, I interrupted Simon to say, “I think Colonel Tanat is in need of a rest and it is time for us to break for lunch. We will reconvene at one.”

There were a number of happy looks directed my way, and most of the delegates prepared themselves to head to the field kitchen, some of them first made a stop at the porta potties. The meeting tent started to empty as I and the breakfast club headed toward the field kitchen. It was a very long line, but it moved rapidly. We took our food back to the house to eat where we could talk without being overheard.

Relpt had been observing the people in line and at the meeting. Once we were seated at the dining room table, she asked, “Do the people of Earth always act as if they are superior to everyone else?”

Alicia replied, “Not really. What we have here is a group of political appointees. I think they view themselves as performing an important duty for their countries and they expect everyone to recognize their importance. Due to their overinflated sense of self-importance, they are oblivious to the fact that they are surrounded by people who are doing the same thing for their countries.”

Vert asked, “Relpt, aren’t the politicians and their appointees on Altair and other Empire worlds the same way?”

Relpt replied, “Yeah, I guess so, but somehow this just seems different.”

Simon asked, “How many questions do we have on the list that I still need to answer?”

I looked at Dani and asked, “Have you and Kiara finished consolidating the individual lists and entering the unique questions into the consolidated list?”

Kiara answered, “I was still working on that when we broke for lunch. I consolidated the two lists Dani and I created this morning, while you and Simon made your opening remarks. Since then, Dani has been taking notes and I have been reviewing and entering the questions that were on the lists given to us this morning. There are about two lists left to enter. I think there are currently a total of more than seventy questions on our consolidated list. Dani and I plan to switch tasks when we get back from lunch.”

Danni said, “Jeb, what you need to realize is, the longer the consolidated list becomes, the longer it takes to determine if a question has already been added. That is why it is taking Kiara and me so long to get through the lists, and don’t forget that we also have to add some of the questions to the agenda for the next meeting.

“I think question nineteen was the last question Simon answered before we broke for lunch, Jeb.

Kiara said, “I don’t think the remaining questions will require long answers. I estimate Simon will likely finish the current questions sometime tomorrow afternoon. Of course, we will probably get further lists in the coming days, so the question and answer session is likely to continue into Friday.”

Dani said, “One thing you may want to remind the delegates of today is you want all of their questions to be submitted in writing to you for review and to be entered into our list, before they are presented to Simon. Tell them that means, Simon won’t be accepting questions directly from the delegates during the remainder of the meeting unless the question is related to the question he is answering.”

“That does sound like a good idea, Dani. Hopefully, it will stop delegates from saving their questions so they can be the center of attention by asking their questions directly. Why do you think Simon will be able to finish all of the current questions that quickly?”

Kiara replied, “If you read the questions, you will find that many of them can be answered by a simple Yes or No, and perhaps a quick explanation of why. I suspect that as Simon answers the questions, he is laying the foundation necessary to understand the answers to future questions. Since he won’t have to lay the foundation when the future questions are asked, his answers will be shorter; if necessary, all he will have to do is remind them of what he said previously.”

Simon said, “Today is Tuesday, so if Kiara is correct I should be finished answering questions late Thursday or early Friday. According to the agenda, the next item on the agenda will be having the delegates state their opinion on whether we should have a second meeting. Will you need me to support that part of the meeting?”

I said, “That is a possibility, Simon, but I hope to keep that part of the meeting to the delegates expressing their opinions so each of the delegates will get a feel for what the other delegates will be recommending to their governments. Once that is complete, we should be able to end the meeting.

“Paul, I suspect Kiara is right about the question and answer session extending into Friday. I would prefer to wait until Monday morning to start having the delegates express their views about conducting another meeting. That means I may end the meeting early Friday afternoon. Would you please contact the base and let them know that we may need the buses earlier than planned on Friday. Tell them you will call Friday morning to provide them with the time they will be needed.”

“Okay, Jeb. It is a good thing you thought about that now for that type of schedule change creates havoc without advance notice.”

We continued to discuss the meeting until twelve forty-five, and then we left to take our places at our tables, so we could resume the meeting.

When we resumed the meeting, Simon was at the podium, I was at my table, Dani was entering questions into the consolidated list, and Kiara was ready to write down Simon’s answers.

When he was ready, Simon asked, “What is the next question, Mister Facilitator?

The rest of the afternoon went smoothly. I had been watching the delegates, and my impression was Simon was doing a good job of convincing the delegates that Earth needed to enter into an alliance agreement. Perhaps their attitude was partially due to the rather blunt explanation I provided about the consequences of Earth not having a agreement. I had tried to be circumspect in my explanation, but it just wasn’t possible to do so and ensure what needed to be said would be understood by the delegates. I did see a few delegates with expressions of disapproval on their faces and in their body language, but I knew that regardless of what was said, we wouldn’t convince everyone that an agreement was necessary.

During our afternoon break, Dani told me she had finished entering the lists of questions we had received this morning and she provided me with a fresh printout of the consolidated listing. There were ninety-five questions and I had just finished asking Simon question thirty-one.

I skimmed through the list and agreed with Kiara: many of the questions could be answered by saying Yes or No with no discussion and a few might require a short explanation. I estimated we should be able to finish the current questions sometime tomorrow. If we only received a moderate number of questions between now and the start of Friday’s session, we should be able to finish Friday and not need to meet on Saturday. However, if we received a large number of questions in the next three days, we may have to continue the question and answer session on Saturday.

I made a quick estimate of how long it would take to poll all of the delegates next week by allocating an average of five minutes per delegate. One hundred and ninety-three delegations meant three hundred and eighty-six delegates. Five minutes per delegate was nine hundred and thirty minutes, which was fifteen and a half hours. If we started the polling on Monday, we could be finished by Wednesday. We had planned the polling to go through Friday of next week, which meant I would make my summary presentation on Saturday, so we had a lot of time in our schedule if we were delayed. It may be advantageous if we let each delegate have more than five minutes to present their opinion and for everyone to discuss it. However knowing how politicians like to talk, I may have to control their discussions, so we can finish in time for my final presentation on Saturday of next week.

It was four-thirty when I decided to bring today’s session to an end. Simon was finishing his answer to a question that had required a long explanation, so I walked toward the podium and waited until he was ready for the next question. When he turned toward my table to receive the next question, he saw me and stepped back from the podium.

After stepping up to the microphone, I said, “Thank you, Colonel Tanat for answering the delegates’ questions.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is approaching the time for us to end today’s session. Before we do so, I have a short announcement.

“This morning you presented your lists of questions to me. I had our assistants enter the questions into either our consolidated list of questions to be presented to Colonel Tanat at this meeting or the questions were added to the agenda for the second meeting. When necessary, the questions were reworded for clarity. Duplicate questions were ignored. We now have ninety-five questions on the consolidated list and I just finished asking Colonel Tanat question number forty-one. I haven’t asked about the exact number of questions added to the agenda for the next meeting, but my assistant Missus Paladino mentioned earlier there were more than a dozen added to the agenda.

“During our afternoon break, I estimated when Colonel Tanat would finish answering your questions. I believe he will finish sometime Thursday or Friday. My estimate includes the questions I expect to receive tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. I am hoping that all of the questions will have been answered by the end of Friday’s session, if not we will meet again on Saturday to finish answering the outstanding questions.

“The meeting agenda I provided to you yesterday has only four major topics: opening comments, a question and answer period, a polling period, and closing comments. If we finish the question and answer period on Friday, we will not meet on Saturday. Instead, you will have Saturday and Sunday to think about the recommendation you will present to your governments when you return home.

“I hope we stay on schedule and will be able to begin the polling period Monday morning. During next week, you will have the opportunity to inform your fellow delegates as to whether you believe Earth should or should not enter into an alliance agreement with the Empire. You may then explain why you believe your opinion is the best for Earth. You are not required to express your opinion or explain it. If you provide an opinion and the reasons for your opinion, I will allow your fellow delegates to hold short discussions related to your reasons. The discussions are for you and your fellow delegates to reconsider and clarify your opinions.

“Depending on the extent of the discussions, I should be able to make my closing comments on Saturday, and possibly as early as Thursday or Friday.

“This concludes today’s session. We will continue the question and answer period tomorrow. Good afternoon and I wish you a good evening.

As the delegates made their way to the shuttle buses, the breakfast club headed for the house. When we got there, we were met by Phyllis and Madge. They had completed their tasks and returned early in the afternoon. They started fixing dinner, and they started a fresh urn of coffee in anticipation of our arrival.

Once everyone had a beverage of their choice, Phyllis asked, “How did today’s meeting go?”

Alicia responded, “I think it went well. Dani and Kiara processed the delegate’s questions. Jeb read the questions to Simon who provided answers. My feeling is the delegates weren’t pleased with our approach for they wanted to be in the limelight by presenting their questions. However, I don’t think they are enjoying their stay at the base and they may welcome anything that will shorten this meeting so they can return to their homes.

“Jeb and I briefly talked about our impressions of how the delegates were leaning as to being in favor of an agreement or opposed to it. It is too early to be sure, but I think most of the delegates will be in favor of entering into an agreement, if the terms are acceptable.”

I said, “I agree with what Alicia said. In my closing remarks today, I tried to convey the possibility that we would be able to end the meeting early. I think the living conditions at the base will result in them wanting to expedite the conclusion of the meeting. Hopefully, that will minimize the number of superfluous questions Simon will have to answer.

“Simon, you were at the podium throughout today’s question and answer period. How are you holding up?”

“So far, I’m doing okay, Jeb. If I start getting tired, I will have Mark relieve me. He is as knowledgeable as I am about what will happen if Earth does or does not enter into the agreement. While we are both acceptable representatives for the Empire, I think he has more patience with politicians than I do, so he will be better at conversing with Earth’s representatives. I may have him replace me at the podium tomorrow, so I don’t become too tired.

Dani said, “I printed out a list of the outstanding questions for you to review before they are presented to you, Simon. If you are considering Mark being at the podium tomorrow or the next day, the two of you should review the questions and form an idea of how to answer them. Personally, I hate being put on the spot by something I am not expecting.”

After dinner, Paul, Simon, and their people went to their bivouac areas. We let them know that we would have breakfast here tomorrow at seven o’clock. Once they were gone, I fixed after-dinner drinks for Dani, Kiara, my ladies, and me, and then we made ourselves comfortable in the living room.

I said to my ladies, “I am going to let the three of you decide who will be my assistant at the meeting tomorrow. I can see us hosting breakfast and dinner here for the breakfast club for the remainder of the meeting. But what about lunch?”

Madge said, “I liked the way things worked out today for Phyllis and me. We had all day to complete what we needed to do. We didn’t have to get back here in time to fix lunch and then go out again to finish what we hadn’t gotten to. How did it work for you, Alicia?”

“It was okay. We broke for lunch at eleven, and after standing in a long line, we got lunch from the field kitchen. We wanted to talk without being overheard, so we came here to eat. We had more than enough time to eat before we had to get back to the meeting.

“I think this arrangement will work for the rest of this meeting and the next meeting.”

Madge said, “I agree, but for the first day of the next meeting, I think we should all be at the meeting for introductions.”

I said, “I agree with you, Madge. How did things work for the two of you, Dani?”

“Today was a little hectic at first what with trying to get enough questions entered into the list for you to start the question and answer session with Simon. Once you finished your opening remarks, I printed out my list and got ready to take down the answers, while Simon was making his opening comments. I knew the number of questions on my list would keep the two of you busy until Kiara finished merging our two lists. After that, we were able to get everything done with time to spare.

Kiara said, “I agree with Dani, we are in good shape right now, but I do have a suggestion. Dani and I both take shorthand, but we each have trouble reading the other’s shorthand. Right now we are planning to switch off at periodic intervals, so we can each transcribe our own notes, and there will be a problem if either of us ends up trying to transcribe the other’s shorthand.

“So I suggest the first thing we need to do in the mornings is to get the new lists of questions entered into the consolidated list of questions. I am going to assume we do this before we break for lunch. I think that when we break for lunch whoever was taking notes should stay behind and the other person should go to lunch. The person who stays behind can start transcribing the answers to the questions presented to Simon from their notes to the consolidated file. When the first person returns from lunch, the second person can take a late lunch, while the first person takes notes. When the person who took the late lunch returns, they can start transcribing the answers to the questions presented to Simon from their notes into the file. When they are finished transcribing their notes, they can switch tasks with the person taking notes and the person who had been taking notes can start transcribing the answers they documented into the file.”

Dani said, “That should work once we get the questions on any new lists the delegates give us entered into our consolidated list. If one of us needs to leave, the other can take the notes.

“Just to clarify things, when we transcribe our notes we will be entering the essence of the conversation regarding the answer, and not everything that was said. Our notes will have most of the conversation’s main points, so I think we need to save our notes in case something comes up at a later date.”

I said, “Now that you mentioned it, we have microphones and video cameras recording the meeting and sending the results to the media tent. They are recording everything that happens in the meeting in addition to rebroadcasting it to their audiences. We need to get a copy of all the video and audio they have recorded and will record for our records. It may not be that important for this meeting, but having an accurate record of the next meeting may be very important if there is ever a question about what was said about a topic and who said it.”

Alicia said, “I agree, but it is also important to have the video and audio of this meeting for what is said here forms the basis of our understanding of the Multiverse and how we will be treated by the Empire.”

Madge asked, “Do you think the Altairians are hiding something?”

I said, “Madge, remember what Simon said when he was questioned about The Seeker’s propulsion systems. He said, there are things he is not allowed to talk about. I suspect that there are other things the Altairians are not supposed to talk about; however, I don’t think those things will have a significant bearing on our entering into this agreement, but I may be wrong.”

Alicia said, “Unless one of you has something further to say about today, I think we need to decide who is going to be at the meeting with Jeb tomorrow and what I and the other person will do. Any volunteers to be with Jeb tomorrow?”

Madge said, “Phyllis and I made good progress on the real estate effort, but we need at least one more day to catch everything up. I think I should work with Alicia on the real estate, and let Phyllis support Jeb in the meeting.”

Phyllis said, “It doesn’t matter to me either way. I’m willing to work with Jeb tomorrow. Then on Thursday, Alicia and I can take care of things not related to real estate.”

I asked, “What efforts are you thinking of, Phyllis?”

“I was thinking of our effort to turn Building 3 into a temporary office, our plans for the next meeting, and what we will be doing to turn the property across from us into a parking lot for shuttles and visitor’s vehicles.”

I said, “You’re right, Phyllis, we did set those efforts aside, when we started focusing on buying real estate. While we need to stay focused on the real estate effort, it doesn’t mean we have to wait until this meeting is over to work on the things you mentioned.”

It was getting late, so Dani and Kiara excused themselves to go home. Once they were gone, Alicia said, “Okay, it’s settled. Phyllis is with Jeb tomorrow, and I will work with Marge on the real estate effort. Now, let’s go to bed.”

I locked up before joining my ladies upstairs. Alicia and Madge were using the bathroom, so I had to wait. When I went into the bathroom, they went to bed and I used the toilet before brushing my teeth. My ladies had showered, but I decided to wait until tomorrow morning.

When I came out of the bathroom, Alicia and Madge were waiting for me in bed. They wore no clothes and were making it very clear that we wouldn’t be going to sleep right away. I had put my pajamas on in the bathroom, so I stripped before climbing into bed.

Before I took my place in bed between my ladies, Alicia said, “We have been too tired to play for the past several nights and just went to sleep. Madge and I decided we don’t want to wait any longer.”

I turned to face Madge when she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me to her for a long passionate kiss. While we kissed, Alicia reached around and played with my cock. I could feel myself becoming very aroused, very quickly. Breaking the kiss, I turned over and kissed Alicia; Madge took over caressing my cock.

I broke off the kiss and rolled onto my back. As I lay between them, I said, “I’m not too tired, but I don’t have a lot of energy and I’m going to cum very quickly.”

Madge didn’t bother responding. She just moved over me, took me into her pussy, and made like a cowgirl riding a bronc. She pulled up and dropped, so her clit hit my pubic bone. I managed to find enough energy to thrust upward as I came hard. Alicia and I squeezed and twisted her nipples and stroked her erogenous zones. Madge was close, so I grabbed her hips and rubbed her clit back and forth across my pubic bone, and she started to cum. I had recovered and was hard when Madge rolled off of me to catch her breath; Alicia took her place.

It was a repeat of before with Alicia on my cock and Madge helping me stroke Alicia. The main difference was, I wasn’t close to cumming. Alicia had two orgasms before I felt my arousal start building. Then I came and my cumming triggered Alicia’s third orgasm. Alicia collapse on my chest and then rolled off me.

My cock was still in a state of tumescence, but it wasn’t really hard. Madge took advantage of my partial erection and worked me back into her pussy. As she started moving, my cock became harder until it was fully erect and very hard. Madge rode my cock to another orgasm, and I came weakly as she collapsed onto me. I was exhausted in all meanings of the term.