Chapter 7

On the appointed day, Jim, Susan, and George popped onto the bridge of the Sword of the People. There were a few moments before the three humans were able to understand the conversation going on among the bridge's occupants. Once he could understand the others, Jim asked for Dan.

"He's waiting for you in his office. Please go in."

"Thank you." In an effort to be as nonthreatening as possible, the humans walked into the room, instead of being transported there.

They found Dan with two members of his species and two others of a different species. These new people resembled cartoon drawings of Disney's Goofy, except that they were about 7 feet tall.

Dan stood up and walked to greet them. "Jim, I'm glad that you have come, and I see that you brought some people with you."

"Yes, these people are Susan Ward, my wife, and George Wilson, her father. Susan wanted to meet you, and George is here because he's the best negotiator I know."

"Excellent, the two negotiators for my people, the Irzon, are Indios Jerd and Perux Osmer. These other two people are Krinthons. They, too, are trade negotiators. They are Indothamytheler A and Indothamytheler B. You may simply call them "A" and "B."

After some general conversation, B said, "We are here because of your remark to Dan on your last visit that you are able to transport commodities through interstellar space at low cost. We are in need of such a service and hope that you can help us."

JIM:"We hope so, too. I'm sure that George can work out something to our mutual benefit. Please direct your trade conversations to him. Can we begin?"

Indios:"We have prepared a pavilion on this planet to use for our talks. We can go there, now, if you wish."

Jim: "Perhaps you would allow us to demonstrate our transporter by using it to transport us all to the pavilion. It will only take a moment and will give you some idea of our capabilities."

Indios looked at the others in his party and they all nodded.

Indios: "Yes, we would like to experience this wonderful transporter of yours."

Jim: "Pardon me for a moment while I talk to our home base. Esther, please move all of the people in this room to the pavilion on the planet below. Here we go!"

Quicker than any of the people could comprehend the transition, they were all standing near a conference table surrounded by comfortable chairs. Each person took a seat and Indios opened the discussion.

Indios: "None of us have any idea what the other side has to offer in trade, so we might better begin by discussing what A and B need, since their requirements are more easily defined.

A: We have a planet-wide famine raging through one of our most populous planets and we would like to be able to move food to them from several planets who have a food surplus. Can you help us?"

George: "I'm sure we can. The simplest thing for us to do would be to set up portals at the appropriate places to pick up and deliver the food. We would move the food from place to place and you would pay us for the service in some item which we find valuable. Do you have a ready supply of gold, platinum, or rhodium. We could also take silver, but prefer one of the others."

B: "We have large quantities of rhodium which we would be happy to trade for the transport service. I gather from your statements that you would prefer to sell the transportation service rather than sell the transportation device."

George: "That is our current plan. We may sell the device later, but prefer to retain complete control at this time. I'm sure that you will find our rate is very attractive. Is the food in the form of a solid or a liquid, and will there be any special handling requirements?"

A: "The food will be some solid and some liquid. There will be no handling requirements other than that the food be kept clean and uncontaminated."

George: "That sounds quite acceptable. What dimensions should the portal opening have for convenient loading and unloading?"

A: "We have a standard container which is approximately 12 feet high by 10 feet wide by 37 feet long. Can we use that?"

George: "That is quite acceptable. We have seven portals available immediately which can handle that size container. When would you want us to start and how many additional transporters would you eventually need?

"I think that, as a special rate for emergency food delivery, our charge would be 1 gram of rhodium per 5 tons of gross weight. Is that satisfactory?"

A: "That is quite satisfactory. When can you begin operation?"

George: "Will tomorrow be soon enough? It will take us a few hours to get organized."

A: "By the Gods! We can't possibly be ready by then! It will take over 20 days just to get word of our negotiations back to headquarters."

George: "If you will trust us enough to give us the coordinates of your headquarters, we can transport you there before today is over. Furthermore, We can rent you communication devices which will give you instant communication among your planets. The rent will be 1 gram of rhodium per day for each communication device as a starter price. You don't have to give us the coordinates if you don't want to, but I suspect that people are starving to death even as we talk."

A: "Jim was right, you are a powerful negotiator! You have hit on the one point which forces me to give you the desired coordinates. This meeting has gone far beyond our wildest hopes. Please, I beg you, let's get started immediately."

George: "You, B, and Susan adjourn to the far end of the pavilion and work out the details. She knows more about operating the transporter than I do and can set up everything you need. I will stay here to talk to the Irzons."

A: "Excellent, we'll do as you suggest."

Indios: "I am delighted that you could help the Krinthons so quickly and easily. What can we offer you in exchange for the communication devices?"

Jim: "That's an easy one. We need the universal translator. Suppose we swap on a one-for-one basis. One communicator for one translator. We can work out further details, later. You rig your devices and we'll rig ours so that they cannot be reverse engineered. That way, we are both protected against unauthorized duplication."

Indios: "That is an excellent idea. We can make this planet, which we call "Argolot," by the way, our temporary transfer point. You deliver your communicators here and we will deliver our translators here. That way we can swap without compromising our home worlds."

Perux: "Once we know each other better, we can exchange coordinates."

George: "When do you want to make the first exchange?"

Perux: "How does 163 days sound to you? We would like 100 communicators to start. Can you supply that many within 163 days?"

George: "Yes, we can. Do you have an estimate of your projected needs. It would help us to know the potential market."

Perux: "I think that you can trade as many of those communicators as you can make. The potential is unlimited, once the rest of the beings in the Galaxy find out about them."

George: "I think that we need a trade mission set up on a neutral planet. Does anyone claim Argolot and can we establish our mission here?"

Perlux: "Argolot has always been somewhat out of the way and not really interesting enough to any beings to claim. You are welcome to Argolot if you want it."

George: "In that case, would you be so kind as to spread the word among the peoples of the galaxy that we are here and wish to trade? Our initial offerings are the communicators and the transportation service. We will pay a commission for each reference which results in a sale. We'll have to work out the commission on a case-by-case basis, but I imagine that it will be set as a percentage of the value of the transaction."

Indios: "You have just found your agents. We would love to cash in on the opportunity you just offered. I'm sure that you will be inundated with offers in a very short time. I know of two that I will contact as soon as I have access to a communicator."

Dan: "Perhaps we should break up this meeting, now, so that George and Perlux can get to their arrangements. Jim, please transport us back to The Sword of the People as soon as convenient. Goodbye, and we will see you in 163 days, if not sooner."

George: "Goodbye, we are looking forward to seeing you again, soon. Esther, please transport our friends back to their ship and us back to Earth-Alpha."

Susan called in the chief of production and the head of personnel for a short conference. "We have negotiated a deal with some ETs called Krinthons. They need 40 portal-to-portal transporters as soon as we can deliver them. Each portal has to handle a 10-foot wide by 12-foot high container. They have fork lifts that can handle the container, so all we have to provide is the set of portals and the crew to operate them. I know we have 7 transporters available which are large enough for this job that can be shipped as soon as trained crews are available. Cyndi, how quickly can you have the other 37 ready for shipment?"