Chapter 13

A rectangle of off-color light showed up in my tent near my desk. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Pretty soon a voice was emitted which talked gibberish for a moment, then I could understand every word. "Hello, can you understand me?" The voice was that of a young woman.

"Yes, Ma'am, I can understand you with no problem. What is going on and what can I do for you?"

"Aren't you a nice man! My name is Anna Hobarth, and I represent a trading company that would like to do business on your planet. Are you willing to talk to me?"

"Yes, I am. I am not a trader, but I know some people who are. What do you have for trade?"

From there, the conversation continued into a discussion of alternate universes and I made it clear that I was well aware of what they were. Ms. Hobarth then explained that the company she represented was looking for new things to trade over her galaxy, and they were branching out into the multiverse to look for new items for trade and new prospects to trade with.

We talked some more, and I explained that Inglet was neither a rich nor an industrialized planetary culture, and was currently involved in fighting a war with another culture which was capturing the locals and selling them as sex slaves. She was suitably appalled at the news, and she was impressed when I explained that I was not a native, but was there to help them fight off the invaders.

When I asked how she planned to transport the goods between planets and universes, she showed me how the display screen could also function as a transporter. I asked how large a screen could be built, and she answered that there was no theoretical limit, but that currently, the largest was approximately 40 meters square. Dammit, that was the answer to our logistics problem, so I asked how much it would cost to buy a pair to use to transport our troops around the planet.

She explained that they did not sell the transporters, but provided them as a service. They charged for shipping items from one place to another, but they controlled the machines. I said, "OK, suppose you provided us the transportation for our troops and materials as we fought off the invaders. Could you do that, and how much would it cost?"

That was something that was outside her authority to negotiate. However, she would get back to me within 24 hours with an answer, provided I could wait that long. Hell, yes, I could wait that long. I could wait longer than that for the solution to our logistic problems!

She was back the next morning with a larger panel, one large enough for a man to step through. A man who looked as human as I did stepped through the panel and held out his hand. I took it, and he said, "Good morning, I am John Haycock. Ms. Hobarth had told me the gist of your conversation yesterday, and I am here to learn more of just what you would want us to do."

"OK, Mr. Haycock. Let me call in my logistics chief. You and she can spend all of the time you need going over our situation. I told her of Ms. Hobarth's meeting with me, so she has a general idea of what kind of service you might be able to provide."

I called Hasup in and she led Haycock to her office/tent to discuss what we needed. Just after Haycock left with Hasup, the transporter disappeared, and I saw no more of it for the rest of the day.

The next day, the transporter appeared again and a different man stepped through. "Col. McDonald, my name is Jim Ward, and I need to talk to you when you have a few minutes available."

"Certainly, Mr. Ward. I can take the time right now to talk to you. I need a break, anyway. Would you care for coffee?"

Ward joined me for coffee, and he sat down to explain why he wanted to talk to me. "Col. McDonald, I am one of the primary officers of a company we call TWT, Trans World Traders. Actually, we do more than trade goods and services. We are also interested in insuring that the multiverse operates in a ethical manner. To that end, we assist people in fighting oppression, wherever it might come from. John Haycock has filled me in on the problem on Inglet, and I would like to offer the help of TWT in driving the Bustols off of Inglet.

"We can do several things with our transporters that you may not be aware of. Specifically, we have very fine control of where they can be situated, so I would like to suggest a different way to rescue the captives from what you and Maj. Hasup Ordell have proposed.

"I propose to set a transporter inside a holding cell and pull the slaves out without having to send troops into a major battle. Once the captives have been rescued, you can attack and destroy the base with your air attacks, which I gather have been eminently successful. How does that sound?"

"Mr. Ward, that sounds like the answer to our prayers. How quickly can you set that up?"

"I don't mean to sound flip, but we could be ready within half a day. All we have to do is to position one of our already-existing transporters at this base and the other at the enemy camp. Actually, it all depends on how quickly you can be ready."

"WOW! With service like that, I hate to mention our piddling efforts. We will need at least a week just to get adequate fuel and ammunition transferred to our forward bases so that we can attack when the time comes."

"Fuel! Oh, blast! I forgot to mention that we can sell you a fusion power source that can power your planes for a minimum of 10 years of continuous flying, so I think that a conversion would be warranted, if you agree. I understand that you have two versions of an ultra light, one that you use as a fighter and the other as an attack bomber. We would be happy to convert these planes to use the fusion power source and electric engine to drive the propeller. My guess is that we can convert 10-12 planes per day. Long term financing can be arranged, if necessary."

"How about our Hurricanes? They are medium performance light planes that serve as top cover for our attacks and as long range scout planes. Do you have something that would work for them?"

"I am sure we do, but I'll have to check back with our base and show them engineering drawings of your Hurricanes before I can give you a positive answer. Conversion of the Hurricanes will probably take longer than for the ultra lights."

"All of this sounds wonderful, but how will we pay you for everything? Inglet is not a rich planet, so our source of money is kind of thin. Arklet, which is now my home, is much better off, but still we are not rolling in money. Will you accept gold in payment, and how much do we need?"

"Yes, Colonel, we will be happy to accept gold in payment. We will accept 2½ Troy ounces of gold for each ultra light we convert. I will have to get more information on how much we will have to charge you for converting the Hurricanes, but I would guess that it would come to about 5 Troy ounces of gold. I think that the whole conversion would cost approximately 650 Troy ounces of gold."

"That sounds eminently doable, but how much will you charge us for using your transporters?"

"We have a fixed fee of one gram of gold for every ton of freight. The nature of the freight is of no concern to us. Move whatever you want, it all costs the same."

"OK, one last question. Can we get you to use your viewports to scout a base before we attack it. It would be very helpful if we had detailed information on each base, especially how the captives are being held and where. It would also help to know if there was going to be any effective air borne resistance to our attack."

"That, too, we can do, and there would be no charge for that service. We have some people who are very skilled in that kind of investigation. If we have an agreement, I could have them come in tomorrow and start the scanning you requested."

"Excellent! Would you be interested in talking to my superiors on Arklet? I am sure that they would be able to find many uses for your services, and they may be able to steer you toward traders who could deal with your more conventional requests."

Well, to make a long story short, Ward and I came to a tentative agreement that he was satisfied with, and he said that people would start showing up tomorrow to start working for us. I said that I would get his people some working tents set up this afternoon. I would also send word to Arklet about our agreement. I figured that he would be met tomorrow by somebody from Gen. Isrult's office.

The group of seven people who showed up to do the surveillance we wanted worked very well with Ansa and Hasup. It was clear that they had done this sort of thing before, so they meshed with our group very smoothly. By that afternoon, they had supplied us with data on two camps and expected to have data on five more by late tomorrow afternoon. Now this was the way to gather intelligence!