Negotiations Are Not Fun
The Quake
The Entertainer stood watching the children assemble. They were all dressed in luminescent form compressing travel suits that recalled the first Travel suits worn when the tribes left Earth. Lilith was at the center flanked by her husbands. Adel stood to the right by Ghee. Cora to the left by Tory. Seven the number of completion with him they would be eight the number of a new beginning. He wished his wife had lived to see it. She loved a good hero assembly.
"The Holder of Wolds sent me to help you in this endeavor. He believed my obvious old age would appeal to the Keeper. Your video indicated a hostility toward the elderly. I will set the belief that you are a foolish child to rest. Seeing so one my age differing to your lead and seeing you take my advise will assure them you rule because you should."
"Thank you for bringing the Holder’s wisdom and strength to us. What are we trading for? We have everything. If we need more wouldn’t our family supply it?"
"No dear girl. You left your family out side of every tenth child and the supplies for their lives not to be a burden on you your family owes you nothing but love and well wishes. Morgat and the others will continue formatting the planets in this system. This one took very little time to get up and running. Now that you have demonstrated how you want it done it will be." He lead them toward the touring ship. "Welcome to the Quake your touring ship. A present from the Holder of Worlds. Adel your station is there. Cora your controls. Tory do you recognize the design? It is an exact replica of the Northern ship. We wanted to show that even though we are going to a Western tribe first we are not favoring one over the other."
Ghee sat in a chiar and asked the question that was burning in his mind. "Why are we going in a ship instead of transprojection?" Now that he knew how it was possible to move from one place to the other it was the only way he wanted to travel.
"Timing dear one." The Entertainer answered. "They have just learned they have to deal with people they don’t know. If we show up before they have had a chance to absorb this new information they may be hostile taking us as a threat. We wouldn’t want a war. Wars are not as exciting as we make them look." He knew war personally. Although it was his job as Band Entertainer to make the battles seem important. War was a messy and deliberate act against all order.
"If we have to war we will need to win it as quick as possible. Knowing their capabilities and supply lines is an essential step. Trade is better than war. Adel will evaluate break down and rebuild all they give to us into what they ask from us." Tory said taking a seat by Ghee. "Depending on them for anything would put us in their debt."
"We will offer them puffs. They are a Band invention. I think they will be new and well liked all the tribes and clans view them as a harmless. I don’t mind them thinking we need them. Their goods must not be touched Adel created micro factories when we were children they can make anything into particles and turn any particle into whatever they wish." Lilith crossed to her friends. "Did you bring it? Will it be able to handle the volume?"
"We created one for the cargo bay. Puffs are an amazing idea the snacks they have are chewy the flavors easy to replicate. Having something new yet familiar will work. Ghee gave us his analysis they will respond best to heat. We will create a few test puffs to experiment with flavor." Adel contributed.
The Entertainer was every bit the old man in a comfortable chair listening to the idealistic babble. They were so excited and not in the least bit curious about their objectives not being met. "What is their protocol for trade?"
They all looked at Tory.
Tory stood up and walked toward the middle of the room. and spread out his projection screen. "They did not give is a protocol so we will have to be awkward and new. This is a tactic to display dominance at the opening. This is the history of trade it is filled with conflict. Conflict arises when one feels trade does not benefit them. At times some provoke a trade war between two parties to improve trade of their product."
Lilith nodded,"I will wait for them to speak before speaking and not move until invited. Adel I need you to be pushy. Cora I need you to be reserved."
"I will lead you all into the conference room make introductions and leave. Negotiations are no fun and my job is to make whatever you decide in there okay for all of us out here. Your Entertainer will package it to suit you and all you rule. Their people will package it for all of them. The masses never want all the details just to feel good about their self and confident about the things."
"I wonder if they kept the order." Ghee said there was a time when the order was everything now that he was certain he fulfilled his portion to date. "It seems melancholy and chaos was a debate point on several of their shows. They move similar to us but I don’t see them smile a lot so I wonder if they have joy."
"I think they don’t have entertainment just informants. Their music is has elongation of sounds we associate with sleep. The overriding theme is death. They are a depressing people so far." The Entertainer asides he stood and walked to the window.
"Do they have a game show? I wonder if the Big Quiz comes in there." Cora asked changing the conversation.
"I don’t know if they tune in but it is on now. Shall we watch?" The Entertainer spread out his screen. It quickly dissolved into the Big Quiz set. Ichabod Dressed in his trade mark blue appeared in a tornado. Everyone but Cora who had to fly the ship sat and watched.
"Hello are you ready for The Big Quiz?" They nodded yes with smiles on their face. "Good for you because that is what you are watching! Let’s get to it!" He spun around and turned into a middle aged man who looked around the room with a puzzled expression.
"It’s me!" he exclaimed happily. That was everyone’s favorite part. Anyone watching the show could be "The Quizzed". No one knew where in the universe the show would be from just when. The thrill of being right was great but nothing like the euphoria of beating the quiz in front of the universe.
The Entertainer watched the group more than the show. They laughed at the jokes as they answered the quiz correctly. They took turns and the others awarded their crew mates with a toss of puffs. Catching the puffs was the harder task for them. They were relaxed with each other Lilith’s husbands surrounded her on a couch her hands rested on their laps leaning back in their arms. When it was her turn to answer she would sit up pulling her hands under her chin as she listened unblinking to the question. When she answered she would go back to her relaxed position. If someone else was answering she whispered the correct answer.
Her crew soon adjusted to follow. Adel sat together facing the image opposite their leader. The couple had engineered The Quake and inspected it before boarding even though ships were not an Aslip tribal forte. Cora’s exclamations of delight after testing their ship. Apparently The Quake was fast, agile and so easy to handle they wondered if it had intuitive patterns or read their minds.
If mind reading was a skill allowed to be taken seriously it would cause panic. The mind was not a place people wanted other people in. Being on a ship for three generations before they were able to spread out made the Nis a people that feel best in a crowd. The Quake was spacious but they chose to all sit within 4 strides of the other. It was why the camera system was never questioned. They liked knowing they were not alone. Yet needed the safety of their own thoughts.
You could put on gear to obscure your sex, size, voice or mood but your mind was open. When they learned a tribe specializing in communication developed that nonverbal way to communicate. The other tribes petitioned to have them cut off that tribe from outside hours. They would only be allowed to mate within their tribe. The Holder of the time decided that instead of isolating that tribe, every tribe would mate inside their tribal lines for eight generations. Lilith’s husbands were the first men to mate outside their tribe. No one even noted it because it was so well buried. Entertainers were established given a protocol to keep tribes happy not to mix across triple lines yet never thinking they could not.
Entertaining was the art of making people very happy with who and what they were. They kept people moving along the path they were needed in. The people they were going to meet will be placed in a package and shown to the Nis as friend, foe or nothing. He was here to evaluate them and see if there was a path of coexistence or noninterference. If those two paths were closed off he would have to forge another.