Delphi Envoy (Delphi in Space Book 14), page 13
After an hour of the usual politicking and not-so-subtle attempts to ask for special treatment on trade, Catie was looking for a break. There had been more aggressive politicking and attempts at deal-making since everyone here knew that Catie was not only Princess Catherine, but she was also the owner of StarMerchants and a member of the MacKenzie board.
She had seen Prince Nikitas wandering around alone and was hoping she would be able to spend some time with him.
Catie maneuvered her way over to Prince Nikitas and grabbed him by the arm.
“Hey, funny meeting you here. I’m sure you have lots to tell me about Helike and the trade situation there,” Catie said as she guided him toward the door leading to the garden.
Fiona and Morgan dutifully followed Catie and the prince. As soon as they were far enough away that nobody else could hear, Fiona walked over next to Prince Nikitas and made the trilling sound with her tongue while giving Prince Nikitas a hungry look.
Prince Nikitas’ eyes went wide with surprise, and his face went beet red as he backed away.
“Fiona!” Catie scolded.
“Hey, Morgan bet me five hundred bucks that I wouldn’t do it.”
“Morgan!”
“It was ADI’s idea.”
“ADI!”
“Hey, you have to admit it was funny; just watch the video.”
ADI played the video for everyone, including Prince Nikitas. The three women were howling with laughter while Prince Nikitas turned an even brighter red and started to look for a place to hide.
“I thought it would be more relaxing without Tina here,” he moaned.
Later that evening, Morgan sent Prince Nikitas the details of the embassy compound and how to get to Catie’s bungalow.
◆ ◆ ◆
The next day, Catie and Margaret were having breakfast to talk about the reparation negotiations with Onisiwo.
“Catie, what did you want to discuss about the reparations?” Margaret asked.
“It’s really not a discussion as much as a favor. I would like you to set up the meeting. I think it would be better if you set it up instead of me.”
“It looks like you’re learning. When do you want me to set it up for?”
“The seventh.”
“Any particular time?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know. And by the way, Paraxea just announced that they are sending a different ambassador for the mission. He won’t arrive until the 21st,” Margaret told Catie.
“That’s insane. We’ll have to wait for him?! And if he’s going to be here in eighteen days, he must have been traveling for at least a week; why did they wait to tell us?”
“I don’t know; maybe they just decided he was going to be the Envoy instead of sending the ambassador from here. It will only delay you two weeks or so; that’s not that big a deal.”
“I know you’re right, but it just steams me.”
“It is unusual, but given that the current ambassador is a bit anti-League, it’s probably for the best.”
“What’s his problem?”
“He’s an advocate of open trade. He thinks we shouldn’t restrict trade with new planets joining the League, just let the more advanced civilizations, mainly Paraxea, take over their high-end tech sector. He thinks they’ll adapt faster.”
“He probably really thinks his friends will get richer faster.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Catie, are you sure you don’t want to come to the meeting?” Margaret asked.
Catie laughed. “You know better; if I don’t have to be there, I’m not coming. I’m going to be stuck with those people for months once we start the mission.”
Margaret smiled; she had known Catie wouldn’t come to the meeting. In fact, if she weren’t the League Secretary-General, she would be looking for an excuse to avoid this one. “You know you’re going to have to hear all the gory details at dinner tonight.”
“I know, but at least it’ll be easier to ignore the boring parts.” Catie gave Margaret a little wave as Margaret headed out to the League embassy.
As soon as she entered the room, Margaret was assailed by Ambassador Cakoln, the Paraxean ambassador.
“Why did you replace me on the mission to Aperanje?” he demanded.
“I had nothing to do with you bring replaced.”
“I don’t believe you. I know you don’t like my position on trade.”
“Be that as it may be, I did not ask for you to be replaced. In fact, Princess Catherine was terribly upset that she had to tell the Aperanjens that the mission had been delayed by over two weeks. I suggest you contact your government to find out why you were replaced; they did not provide the Princess with a reason.”
The Paraxean ambassador wasn’t convinced, but his retort was drowned out by the clamor of the Heliken ambassador asking for attention. It took Margaret thirty minutes to deal with all the premeeting requests before starting the meeting.
“Now, first on the agenda is to finalize the rule on first contact. As you know, the proposal is that once a civilization has established a SETI-like program, they are clearly aware of the possibility of alien life and have advanced their technology far enough so that first contact can be made.”
“Why would we bother?” Ambassador Cakoln asked.
“I don’t understand your question,” Margaret said.
“A civilization that is just establishing the search for extraterrestrial life would be so backward that we couldn’t trade anything with them.”
“Why do you say that?” demanded the ambassador from Mangakar.
“With these ridiculous trade rules, we would have to dumb down our technology so much that it wouldn’t be profitable. So, we should wait until they are more advanced.”
“Ambassador Neluts, this conversation is not about trade; it’s about first contact. Please stay on point,” Margaret scolded.
“There is no point in contact if there is not trade.”
“Does that mean Paraxea is withdrawing all of its observation ships from the various pre-space-age civilizations?” the Heliken ambassador demanded.
“Those ships are about studying those civilizations; they do not make contact.”
“Does that mean you are going to be sharing all the data you harvest from those civilizations?”
“Catie, you don’t know what you’re missing,” Margaret thought.
◆ ◆ ◆
After dinner with Margaret and a recap of the meeting, Catie immediately changed her plans and flew out a week earlier to visit her friends. She headed to the island that Zoey and the other women from the captured Onisiwoen mission had bought so they would have privacy to raise all their children. If she’d known about the delay, she would have offered Zoey and her friends a ride home.
“Hi, Zoey; I love what you guys have done with the island.”
“Thanks. We think it’s the perfect place to raise our kids. We started making those Catamaran boats you told us about. We’re teaching the island kids to sail them. We think it’ll attract more tourists to the islands.”
“Did you learn the ʻōteʻa dance?”
“Yes, a few of the locals were able to learn it with help from Onisiwok.” Onisiwok was the AI for Onisiwo that the League had provided. He took a special interest in the former crew of the Onisiwoen mission that had been captured by the Fazullans.
“They give lessons. Are you going to take one?” Zoey asked.
“Not on your life.”
Morgan tried to stifle a laugh but failed.
“Oh, by the way, this is Morgan, my bodyguard. Morgan, Zoey.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Morgan said.
“I hope it was all good.”
“Of course, it was,” Catie said.
“I assume by that laugh you didn’t think Catie would be interested in the lessons?”
“She’s already had that conversation with her uncle.”
“Maggie told me you would refuse, but your Uncle Blake offered us a Lynx if we could persuade you to do it.”
“Ha, he knew he’d never have to pay up.”
“Well, if you want to get back at him, you could take the lesson, then he’d have to spring for a Lynx. I hear they’re expensive.”
“Not expensive enough. If he’d offered up a jetliner, I might have been convinced.”
“So, should I counter his offer?” Zoey asked.
“NO!”
Morgan and Zoey burst out laughing.
“Come on. Let’s go into my condo where you can meet the children.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Catie, we’ve been working with Onisiwok and ADI on our investment strategy. We feel we need to make the money work for all of Onisiwo since we’re actually milking it from the rich. We’re concerned that our investments are too passive,” Zoey said.
“I don’t understand; what do you mean by passive?”
“We’re just investing to make money, but we’re not driving where the planet goes, not encouraging the right kind of social growth.”
“Well, with ADI managing your investments, she could be doing that if you want. Maybe you guys should set up a review with her so that you can tell her what’s important to you.”
“I would be happy to review the portfolio with you,” ADI said.
“Thank you, ADI. I’ll set something up with all of the women.”
“Catie, another thing I wanted to talk about. We’re starting up a new school here on the island. We want to have it well established when our children are ready.”
“Aren’t your oldest children around three? If so, then they should be doing preschool by now.”
“But that’s just about learning how to behave, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so. On Earth, especially in Delphi, they develop lots of critical skills at that age. How to hold a pencil, things like that. You should invest in an AI to run your school. It can do a lot of the work so that the teacher can focus on coaching the children that need the most help. We’ve found it to be a great model.”
“Can you explain?”
“Let me show you. Morgan, do you have a tablet?”
“Of course.” Morgan pulled a tablet out of the side pocket of her pants and handed it to Catie. It was 200 x 140 mm, or 7.8 x 5.5 inches.
“Where’s your oldest?”
“Bitsy, come here,” Zoey called out.
A three-year-old immediately came charging around the corner and into the room, squealing, “Princess Catie!”
“She’s been eager to meet you, as you can tell.”
Catie laughed as the little girl plowed into her mother and then turned to face her.
“Hello, Bitsy. I’ve got a present for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes.” Catie handed the tablet to Bitsy, encouraging her to set it on the low table in the room. The girl stood on her knees at the table as the tablet came to life. A caricature of an Onisiwoen car appeared on the screen and started talking to her. “ADI, do you have it?”
“Certainly.”
Catie handed a stylus to the girl as the car started to ask her to make roads for it to drive on.
Zoey and Catie watched as the car led the girl through drawing lines and loops that it then raced down.
“That’s clever.”
“We think so. It’ll eventually coach her to hold the stylus correctly; then, it’ll teach her how to make the basic shapes necessary to write. Usually, by the time they’re four, they can recite and trace out the letters in the alphabet.”
“What about later?”
“It’ll take them all the way through secondary school. We’ve found that it equalizes education for everyone. Children from families with somewhat marginal educations are able to keep up with their peers from more privileged families where the parents have college experience. They even keep up with children who go to private schools. Daddy is hoping that the program we’ve started on Earth will reduce the income disparity between different social groups.”
“And you say it takes an AI to run this? Can’t Onisiwok do it?”
“He’s pretty busy. The tablets and Comms do most of the work, but it takes an AI to analyze the data and adjust the teaching plan to match the student. Right now, ADI is doing that, but with a small AI, you would be able to handle the entire island, preschool through secondary school. It would even be able to handle some college work.”
“And how much would this AI cost?”
“One large enough for your island would be around twelve million onis.”
“That much?”
“Yes, but it would be able to do a lot more for you than just the education. It could handle household accounts, run cleaning bots for people, and do other things for the community. On Artemis, Orion hosts the household AI for all the homes.”
“Hosts the household AI, what does that mean?”
“Each house has a small AI, but Orion backs it up, so when it needs help figuring things out, Orion takes care of it.”
“How much would one cost to do the whole planet?’”
“You couldn’t make one that big. ADI could do it, but that is not a good use of a DI. We’re starting to expand the use of AIs on Earth. A slightly bigger one than you would need can handle a big city or a state or province if the population is small enough.”
“Define small?”
“Five million people, so about two million children.”
“You mean it would take over five hundred to cover the entire planet?”
“That’s about right. Your population is around three billion, as I recall.”
“That is correct, Cer Catie.”
“Right, and how much would one of those large ones cost?”
“Fifty million.”
“So, for twenty-five billion onis, we could provide the infrastructure to run the education system for all of Onisiwo.”
“Yes. But then all your younger children would need to have tablets, and the older children would need Comms.”
“How much are the tablets?”
“Five hundred.”
“Ooh, that can add up.”
“It can, but parents that can afford it already buy their children tablets just to keep them busy. You or the government would just need to subsidize the cost for the children from low-income families. And we’re starting to see that with a better starter education, those children are less likely to get into trouble as they get older; schools and the community actually save money.”
“Hmm. I need to talk to the others, but I think we should do this. Right now, the privileged classes control most of the wealth and also get most of the high-paying jobs.”
“Just like on Earth. We’d be happy to help however we can.”
Chapter 11
Back to Work
Catie was happy that Kloprewkro was the Chair of the planetary council now. He’d been one of the least slimy council members when she was here before.
“Chair Kloprewkro, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” Catie placed her hand over her heart and gave a slight bow.
“Princess, it is my pleasure. Ambassador Hannaford told me you had something important to discuss.”
“Yes. As I’m sure you can recall, the Fazullans had a small revolution that helped us end their invasion of your system. Their new leader, Empress Cyrianisa, has empowered me to negotiate reparations with your planet. She would like to put the attempted invasion behind her people in order to pave the way for trade and recognition between her planet and the League.”
“Ah, there has been some talk within the council that we should ask for reparations, but frankly, we were so relieved that you stopped the invasion, and we’ve been so busy dealing with the realities of interstellar trade that we haven’t spent too much time speaking about it.”
“I can imagine. I’ve talked with Zoey, and she tells me that the women feel adequately compensated for their deprivation, and I would think that the men would feel much the same way since they were in stasis the entire time. But your planet lost the potential gain from the scientific mission, and the Empress would like to compensate you for the loss.”
“Very well. Let me talk with the other council members, and we can meet again after that. I suggest one week from today if that works for you.”
“Thank you, Chair Kloprewkro; one week works just fine.”
Morgan showed Chair Kloprewkro out. Once he was gone, Margaret came out of the back room and joined Catie.
“Way to go, pulling two aces from his negotiating deck.”
“Hey, Onisiwo actually benefited from the invasion. I don’t want to give them too much since the Aperanjens will feel that they lost a lot more.”
“So, have you decided what you’re going to offer them?”
“I’m going to offer the stasis chambers and settle for that and the enhancements for their fusion power plants.”
“The portable ones?”
“No, the land-based power plants. It will have a big impact on their economy and won’t upset the Paraxeans too much. They plan on selling the portable ones.”
Board meeting—February 10th
Marc started the third meeting on the Delphi League by giving the floor to Admiral Michaels.
“Admiral.”
“After our last meeting, I had the pleasure of chairing a meeting of the Delphi Federation, and I was struck by the similarities between it and what Maggie has been saying about the League. Not only are the names similar, but the issues are as well.”
“I’m not surprised,” Blake said. “Marc carries the hammer for both, so I’m sure the animosity runs similarly.”
The Admiral ignored Blake’s attempt to goad Marc. “The big countries don’t like it. The small ones want to join so they can snuggle up under its umbrella and feel protected from the big boys. But that makes everyone feel like the federation has more control than it does. Countries that aren’t in the federation are convinced that Delphi favors its members for trade, and those in the federation feel that Delphi is coddling them. Holding them back.”
