Chapter 13

Cathy linked with me to respond to a question I had asked her some time ago.

“Ward, do you remember asking me if I thought the Guidance Council was an ethical group?”

“Yes, I do. Did you come to a conclusion?”

“No, not exactly. I was having trouble reaching a decision. From one point of view, I would say yes; but from a different point of view, I would say no. I talked with Jan about your question, since she was assigned to me to help me adapt to the Fourth Dimension.”

“That’s fine with me, Cathy. So what did she say?”

“Well, when I asked Jan the question, she smiled and told me that she had been waiting for me to pose that question. She said that I needed to reach that decision by myself. However, she also told me that I needed to do several things in order to reach an accurate answer. According to her, I needed to define what I meant by ethical and moral.

“She instructed me to select several things I considered to be ethical and unethical and several I considered moral and immoral. Then I was to research the other Third Dimension worlds we monitor to determine their opinions on the things I selected.”

“Since you didn’t reach a decision, what did you learn from that exercise, Cathy?”

“The first thing I learned was, I didn’t know what ethical meant to me. Every time I wrote a definition, I ended up throwing it away or revising it. I wasn’t able to explain in words what I meant by ethical. I had the same problem trying to define moral. The second thing I learned was the things I felt were ethical and unethical were perceived differently on the other Third Dimension worlds. I got the same outcome with moral and immoral.

“Lying was one of the things I selected. On some of the Third Dimension worlds, lying was considered ethical and on a few worlds it was expected of a person. The beings of these worlds believed a person who always told the truth was mentally deranged. For the other things I thought of, I found they were also ethical, or moral, on some worlds and unethical, or immoral, on others.

“I talked with Jan the other day and told her about my trouble defining ethical and moral. I also told her on some Third Dimension worlds, the inhabitant’s opinions were different than my opinions.

“Once again, she just smiled and then asked, ‘Do you I understand the ‘why’ behind your findings?’

“I had to admit that I didn’t know why, so she explained the why to me.

“Jan said, ‘Before a person is qualified to be elevated to the Fourth Dimension, one of the things they need to learn is that ethical and moral are both variable and fixed concepts.’

“She told me that although I may not be aware of it, I had been exposed to many concepts since my arrival that had modified my opinions and beliefs. Some of those modified beliefs made it difficult for me to define ethical and moral.”

“I don’t understand, Cathy. How can ethical be both a variable and a fixed concept?”

“That is almost the exact question that I asked Jan, Ward. She said that the concept of whether something is ethical or moral could only be determined within a specific culture.

“Within different cultures, the ethics and morals of a specific belief, trait, or action is fixed, although the ethics and morals of the culture may evolve over a period of time. However, when someone examines other cultures, they will find that the ethics and morals of a specific belief, trait, or action can be different between different cultures, but fixed within a specific culture. Thus ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ are variable concepts when compared to two or more cultures, but fixed concepts within a single culture.

“Jan used the example that on Earth, euthanasia is unethical in western cultures, but ethical in other Earth cultures.

“Jan then asked me, ‘Is the Guidance Council ethical or unethical, Cathy?’

“At first, I did not know what to say. I finally told her that I didn’t think I knew enough about the Fourth Dimension culture to make a valid judgment. She smiled and told me that was a very good answer. She told me that from her understanding of the Fourth Dimension’s culture, the Guidance Council is very much an ethical and moral organization. However, if judged by Earth’s western culture, it was ethical and moral in most things, but unethical and immoral in others.

“Jan asked me to give you a message, Ward. The Guidance Council does not want to force you to perform what you consider to be an unethical or immoral action. If you perceive something as unethical or immoral, they want you to let them know. Something can be worked out to attain the goal without violating your sense of ethics or morality.”

“I think I understand what you told me, Cathy. I think you are trying to tell me that as far as the Fourth Dimension is concerned the Council is ethical and moral. However, I live in the Third Dimension and in a different culture, so I may find some of their beliefs, traits, or actions unethical or immoral. However, in accomplishing their Mission, they are not asking me to commit acts that I believe are unethical and immoral.”

“Yes, that is what I am saying, Ward. They are ethical and moral, but it may not appear that way to you.”

“All right, I can understand that. If I have a problem with what they ask of me, I’ll let you know.

The next morning, Sam asked, “Ward, how long will it take for us to build a prototype of the car so we can gather test data?”

“I’m not sure, Sam. I am setting up three workshops and have started the fabrication of the three devices, and we have a preliminary design for the first prototype of the car. I think we could have a working prototype within four years.”

Karen asked, “Why so long if you already know how to make the devices and build the car?”

“Well, I know how to make the devices, but there can be a big difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. I expect that we will encounter problems and other delays when we actually build the first solar-powered car. Remember, the first version will be a modified gasoline-powered car that we will use to create a vehicle for testing our basic design. The second car will be a prototype of the car we plan to manufacture. Then we may need to build a final prototype of what we plan to manufacture and sell.”

Two months later, we opened our first two workshops. I had subcontracted the manufacture of the solar cells and other subassemblies for three Solar Cell Trays plus ten spare sticks of solar cells to several vendors. Thank god, Karen gave me the idea of fabricating the series strings of solar cells as forty-eight cell assemblies, which we called sticks. Otherwise loading the trays with individual modules would have been a long, tedious process. Once we plugged the solar cells into the stick’s sockets, we tested the sticks in the first workshop and then assembled the components of three Solar Cell Trays. We stored the sticks and trays in the workshop. Once we installed a Solar Cell Tray on a prototype car, we would install its sticks of solar cells, and connect the output of the Solar Cell Tray to the input connector of the Battery Tray.

We converted the second workshop to assemble twenty eight batteries. One battery would be a spare. I had subcontracted the plates, housings, and other parts for batteries and three battery trays to different subcontractors. Basically, all we had to do was install the plates and separators in the housing, and then make the electrical connections. We would add the electrolytic solution that I would prepare in my basement once the Battery Tray was installed. Once the housing’s lid was installed and sealed, all we had to do was add the electrolyte and the battery would be ready for use. Then all we had to do was assemble the three trays. We stored the batteries and their trays in the second workshop. When we built a prototype car, we would install one of the trays in the car’s engine compartment, install nine batteries on the tray, connect them in parallel to the tray’s output connector, and add the electrolyte. The overall process was a bit more complex than what I described, but we didn’t have any serious problems in fabricating the batteries and Battery Trays.

I subcontracted the motor-generator to a shop that built custom designed motor-generators. In my basement, I fabricated three Magnetic Field Translators. In the design data provided to me, the Magnetic Field Translator was an integral part of the motor-generator. For security purposes, I built the translators as separate assemblies. When we received our three custom motor-generators, I connected a field translator to each of the motor-generators and stored them in the second workshop.

We would use the third workshop to build our prototype vehicles. I had planned to build up to three prototypes, before we built the production cars. The first prototype was to be a proof of concept/test vehicle. I would buy a new vehicle from a dealership that had a large, flat roof on which we would mount the Solar Cell Tray. The second prototype would be as close as possible to a production vehicle, except for a few items that were needed for testing. The third prototype would only be built if we felt additional testing was needed to fine tune and test our design for the production car.

Sam, Mary, Karen, our kids, and I went looking for a new car that would be a good vehicle for building the first prototype. My ladies decided we would use the prototype as our personal vehicle once the testing was complete. They wanted to make sure I bought a vehicle they would be willing to drive, when I was finished testing the first prototype. Of course that car had to have an adequate seating capacity for us and our kids. We eventually selected a Chevy Suburban.

Car dealerships’ managers, salesmen, and finance managers are all alike. The salesman tries to sell you more car than you want to buy. Usually that means the biggest engine, most elaborate trim package, and all the bells and whistles available as optional equipment. The salesman also tries to convince you that you are getting the best deal possible by getting the dealership’s manager involved in negotiating the price. Finally the finance manager does his thing to increase the amount of the sale.

When my salesman started in on his routine, I held up my hand to stop him. I then told him that I planned to strip the vehicle of everything related to a gasoline engine and rebuild it as an electric vehicle, so I didn’t need the larger engine or other options. He immediately shifted gears and tried to interest me in buying a Chevy Volt. I thanked him for his helpfulness, but insisted on the Suburban.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t special order a stripped down Suburban. Well that wasn’t exactly true for the dealership was willing to put in such an order, but the special order would cost me more than the car’s list price and it would have a long delivery time.

Once the salesman and his manager finished their portion of the purchase, I was turned over to the dealership’s finance manager who attempted to sell me the extended warranty and service packages. We declined and finally escaped by giving him a check for just the new car plus the registration fees and taxes. Sam, Mary, and Karen drove it to our third workshop, while I followed them with the kids. After locking the Suburban up in the shop, we went home to celebrate.

After putting the kids to bed, we downed three bottles of champagne and went to bed ourselves. However, unlike the kids, we had no plans for sleeping until much later.

As usual, Karen got to me first. Personally, I think Sam and Mary like to sixty-nine to arouse themselves before they jump my bones. Actually, we weren’t trying for a long involved session of lusty lovemaking. What we wanted was a celebratory pleasure romp. We were successful before we fell asleep.

I had noticed that over the past three years my stamina and my ability to maintain an erection had increased. I also noticed that I no longer went soft between orgasms. My wives really liked that enhancement to my sexual prowess.

I knew that the Guidance Council said they were going to do some modifications to my body to enhance my physical wellbeing. Personally, I had hoped to get an additional inch or so in length and an increase in girth. It didn’t happen.

Once when I discussed my sexual enhancements with Cathy, Cathy said, “Ward, you have all you need to satisfy your wives. All you have to do is learn how to use it better.”

That really deflated my ego. I had always thought I did an outstanding job in bed. Cathy told Sam, Mary, and Karen that I needed to be trained in regard to what women like in bed. They took over my sexual education and taught me what a woman really likes in bed. I guess that no matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement.

There was one odd aspect to the Guidance Council enhancing my body. When I was a teenager, they gave me the ability to affect a person’s body, my own included. I had tweaked my body to enhance it in a few minor ways, which included the length and circumference of my package. Some of the changes I made to my body seemed to be permanent for they haven’t reverted to their prior state. Others, like my extra inch and increase in girth, lasted for a few months, but gradually faded away. It was as if my and others’ bodies had a natural setting. I could make a change but the body would gradually reject the change and return to its normal state. I had never been able to do a major body enhancement that lasted for more than two years. A few of my minor changes are still stable but lately, they seem to be reverting to what they were originally. I suppose I can always re-enforce those enhancements.

During the next two months, I hired a crew of auto mechanics, a machinist, and an automotive engineer. My engineer, Jeff Timmons, was in charge of stripping the Suburban and rebuilding it. Once the engine, drive train, and all of the equipment, gauges and wiring related to the engine were removed, he started to rebuild the Suburban as a solar-powered automobile.

The first modification was to install a support plate where the rear axle had been for mounting the two rear-wheel motor-generators. Jeff also designed two support structures for mounting the front wheel motor-generators. The structures’ had to move with the wheels when the steering system caused the wheels to turn left and right. This also required modifications to the existing steering system.

We then built a support structure in the engine compartment for supporting the Battery Tray. The Battery Tray’s center of balance had to be over the centerline of the vehicle in order to distribute the weight of the tray and nine batteries evenly on the left and right sides of the Suburban. There would always be minor differences in the balance point between cars. So Jeff added an alignment system that allowed us to shift the Battery Tray to the left or right of the car’s centerline.

I had Jeff design a special mount that would spread the weight of the Solar Cell Tray across the surface of the Suburban’s roof.

Mounting the Solar Cell Tray on the Suburban’s roof turned out to be more difficult than I had expected. The roof was not designed to support something as heavy as the tray, even with the special mounting assembly. When we fit checked the completed tray, we could see the roof sag. Jeff predicted that road vibration and shock would result in metal fatigue. He believed the fatigue was likely to result in damage to the Solar Cell Tray to include: damage to the solar cells, tearing of the roof’s sheet metal creating leaks, and potential damage to the front and rear windows. Damage to the door windows was also a possibility.

Jeff redesigned the support frame to transfer the load to the roof’s vertical structural members. The frame also absorbed the minor shocks typically incurred when driving a car over an uneven surface. It wasn’t as pretty as what I had suggested, but it worked better. We would make the exterior pretty when we generated our final design. I knew my wives would also want the prototype to be cleaned up, and repainted so it would be reasonably pretty for their use.

With the mechanical design work completed, we started on the redesign of the electrical system. We had retained the electrical system’s wiring related to headlights, brake lights, turn signals, etc. However, for that part of the system, Jeff had to add a DC-to-DC converter to step the battery voltage down to twelve volts.

He then designed a new instrument panel for displaying the status of the Solar Cell Tray, Battery Tray, and each of the four motor-generators. The instrument panel was necessary for our test driver had to be aware of each device’s status when operating the vehicle. Once all of the control and status monitoring requirements had been identified and added to the panel, we provided the data to a computer hardware engineer who designed the car’s computerized control box and a network of sensors to monitor it all. The design included a computer interface for downloading stored test data and performing diagnostic tests of the car’s electrical system. I also had to engage a computer software designer to work with the hardware engineer to design the software that controlled the control box.

It seemed as if every time I started something, we discovered several things that we had not considered and had to do.

One of those things was that Jeff and the electronics engineer had to design a radio link that would allow us to remotely monitor and record the operating characteristics of the car while it was being tested in a controlled environment. The software engineer had to add a software module to transfer all of the test data to an external location for recording in real time.

We were lucky. While we had problems, the large number of anticipated problems causing long delays did not happen. We were ready for testing in slightly over two years.

While my workshops’ crews and I were busy creating the first prototype of an advanced solar-powered car, my ladies and I had been working on our plans for starting the Mission in the near future.

Sam, Karen, Mary, and I had continued the planning for Task 1 and Task 2. Actually, my wives had done the majority of the planning. I was spending a lot of my time discussing the creation of the prototype and production car with Jeff. My main contribution to our planning was to provide a quality control function to ensure the management structures of the Inner Council and the Task Cells were compatible. I identified problems that might occur and suggested changes to our plan, which my wives implemented.

My wives had penciled their names in as the managers of Task 1 and Task 2. Their names were just placeholders until we found someone suitable for the positions. There really wasn’t a need to find managers for Task 3 and Task 4 at this time because based on our updated schedule Task 3 was not likely to be started during the next fifty years, and Task 4 wouldn’t be started for a couple of centuries. However, Karen considered Task 3 to be her baby, so we added her name to the task.

One weekend, my wives and I talked about how to stop the US Government from destroying our Mission’s financing. I knew the probable solution, but was hoping to find an alternative. If nothing else, my wives would be aware of what was likely to happen and be able to prepare themselves for that eventuality.

I started the conversation with, “Ladies, the idea of the US Government interfering with our Mission financing has been troubling me. Before we continue with our planning, we have to come up with a viable solution to this problem. Does anyone have a solution for the problem?”

My wives looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Then Sam said, “For us to do something like that, we would have to stop the Government agencies from becoming aware of our performing Task 1.

I said, “We are certainly not going to even think about taking over the US Government, at this time. That is why our first government has to be that of a small nation. In my opinion, we won’t be able to do that from the US. Therefore, our plan will require some of us to move to the country we select. Does that give anyone any ideas?”

Mary asked, “If we were living in the country we select, would the US Government be able to interfere with our activities?”

I said, “As long as we are US citizens living in a foreign country, the US Government would have some control over our activities. If they became upset with our activities, they could always request that our host government deport us from their country, and send us back to the US. But, that may not happen if our host government wants to keep the income our businesses generate in their country.”

Sam said, “It is starting to seem like we will have to become citizens of our host country.”

That statement ended our conversation. Sam came to me privately later that evening. She said, “I’m beginning to think the only way to stop the US Government from interfering with us is to move to our host country, apply for citizenship in that country, and surrender our US Citizenship.”

I responded with, “I agree. I’m hoping we can find a different solution to this problem. Have you mentioned this possibility to Mary and Karen?”

“No. I wanted to hear your opinion first.”

“I think you should mention that as a possibility to Mary and Karen, and discuss it with them.”

We were close to the point where the planning for Task 1 and Task 2 was essentially complete. According to the current plan, we needed to start Task 2 first. Once the people to fill Task 2’s Task Cell had been identified, we had to determine the country we would use as our base of operation. When we were established in the country, Task 2’s Task Cell would create the legislation to protect the personal privacy of individuals. We expected the effort needed to create the legislation would cause problems with the country’s media and government. Those problems were likely to create situations that could be used to start Task 1.

Everything seemed to hinge on staffing the two Task Cells and selecting a country. Once that had been done, the Task Cells would probably have to update their plans to adapt them to the country’s culture and how the cells member chose to implement their task’s plan. I suggested that my wives take a vacation from planning the Mission. I was going to be busy testing the prototype.

The completion of the first prototype was a significant milestone in my plan to manufacture and sell a solar-powered car. We had already completed the milestones for the manufacture of the solar cells, batteries, and the motor-generators.

We had maintained the Suburban’s registration even though it had been inoperative for two years. When the Suburban was complete, my crew and I climbed into the vehicle with me in the driver’s seat. I put it in reverse and slowly backed it out of the garage. I made damn sure of one thing, and that was, ‘Did the brakes work?’ They did.

One of the reasons we kept the registration current was, we were supposed to re-register the car as a Specially Constructed or Modified Vehicle. We didn’t want to do that at this time for we would have had to provide the design data. Since our primary use would be on private land, I decide to ignore reregistering the vehicle, and hope we weren’t stopped on a public road. The worst that would happen is we would be given a ticket and have to pay a fine. Of course, we would have to re-register the car before my wives started using it on a regular basis.

As the Suburban sat outside in the bright sunlight, I just sat there looking at the instrument panel. In the process of rebuilding the Suburban, we had connected the Solar Cell Tray to the input of the Battery Tray. We hadn’t thought of it beforehand, but the roof of our workshop was transparent to a portion of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. As soon as we had connected the Solar Cell Tray to the Battery Tray, the batteries had started charging. The car’s instruments read a full charge on the batteries. The Solar Cell Tray was outputting a strong charge current and the output voltage was at forty eight Volts.

Making sure the road was clear, I shifted to forward, gradually pressed down on the accelerator, and pulled out of the driveway. As I had gradually pressed down on the accelerator, the Suburban accelerated slowly with just a hint of a whine and the road noise of the tires on our gravel driveway. From within the passenger area, the noise was different from what a gasoline powered car made. Our car was much quieter. I wondered how it compared to other electric vehicles. As I accelerated up to the speed limit of thirty five miles per hour, Jeff Timmons kept checking the instruments and making notes in his notebook. I made several trips around the block and then brought the Suburban to a stop in front of the shop.

“Well, Jeff, what do you think?”

“The readings look good to me, Ward. I think we need to go for a longer drive and get the car up to higher speeds.”

We all agreed with Jeff. Actually we all wanted to take our new toy out and play with it some more. So after pulling away from the curb, I kept my speed down and headed for one of the local expressways. Once on the expressway, I was able to get our speed up to forty five miles per hour with no problem. Jeff kept monitoring the instruments and making notes.

The freeway entrance was four blocks ahead of us, so I got Jeff’s attention and asked, “Are we ready for the freeway?”

Jeff checked his notes and responded, “It all looks good to me, Ward. Let’s open this baby up!”

I pulled onto the freeway’s on-ramp and started to accelerate, but then I had to almost stop. The freeway traffic was creeping along bumper-to-bumper. For the next mile and a half, our top speed was ten miles per hour. The next exit was coming up and the traffic was backed up as far as we could see. There must have been an accident somewhere ahead of us. Jeff just kept monitoring the instruments and making his notes. To him, performance at low speed was as important as performance at high speed.

We took the exit, and once off the freeway, I headed back to the shop. Our first test drive amounted to six miles. I pulled the Suburban into the work bay, and my crew started checking the motor-generators, batteries, and Solar Cell Tray for any indication of a problem. There were no signs of a problem. While the crew had been going over the car, Jeff had connected his ethernet cable to the car and headed to his office to download the test drive’s data...

“What’s up, Jeff?”

“Nothing really, Ward. I was just comparing my manual instrument readings to those I downloaded and to our predictions.”

“Does it look good?”

“Yes, but we didn’t go very far and weren’t gone for a long time. If our future data looks this good, I think we have a winner.”

At the end of the day, I drove the Suburban home. Jeff told me to not worry about manually recording the data as the on-board recorders were on and working properly. He would be able to retrieve the status data tomorrow.

Besides, I shouldn’t be driving while trying to record the instrument data. He explained the only reason he had manually recorded the data was to validate the accuracy of the recorded values compared to the instrument readings. He said he would have to record the data again when we were able to get the car up to higher speeds.

Dinner that evening was a rushed affair. Normally, there was a lot of conversation during our meal, but everyone ate in silence so they could finish quicker. My ladies wanted to go for a drive in the Suburban. They had waited for a long time and they were looking forward to the end of the testing, so they could get their hands on the car.

When I finished dinner, I left the table and went outside. While Sam, Karen, and Mary cleaned up the kitchen and dining room, I took care of moving the car seats from our van to the Suburban. An hour later, we and the kids were all strapped in the Suburban and ready to go.

We didn’t have time for a really long drive for we had to get the kids to bed. We also knew what they would be like to ride with, after an hour or more of driving. That assumes they stayed awake that long. I decided on a large loop that would take about an hour, of course that assumed that the traffic wasn’t bumper-to-bumper. We would take Highway10 east to Highway 605, and then south on Highway 605 to Highway 105. We would head back to Santa Monica by taking Highway 105 west to Highway 405, north on the Highway 405 to Highway 10, and then west on Highway 10 to Santa Monica. Traffic permitting, I figured we should be back in a little over an hour.

The eastbound Highway 10 traffic was still heavy from normal commute traffic, but not too bad. I was able to get the Suburban up to sixty miles per hour several times before we had to slow down to fifty. Highway 605 was a little better for we were able to do an almost constant sixty miles per hour all the way to Highway 105. I had been monitoring the Suburban’s display panel and all the gauge indications were within what we had expected as normal.