Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation (40 page)

The Ullumff crew began to fidget a bit and one bumped another and whispered, "He gives them an old chart and Uoott guide. It is at least five years out of date. He... oof!" said the crewmember as his crewmate prodded him to keep him quiet.

The trade session went on for about an hour before anyone thought to bring in peanuts and chilled juices in cans. The humans had to demonstrate how to open the cans and later open them for their guests but the juices were an instant hit. The grape juice was particularly pleasing to the Ullumff and they couldn't get enough of it. Brad had brought several cases of it to the station for Rett but had just set it aside until he thought of it for the visitors.

Captain UmBllatt summarized the session of trade: "It is customary to place the trade goods directly in the others warehouse or quarters or ship for inspection prior to conclusion of any agreement. Each group can then examine the goods or information and signify acceptance in the morning. We may post a guard outside our quarters," UmBllatt declared. "Is that acceptable?"

Brad and Andrew winced a bit knowing that UmBllatt was going a bit outside the manual as it laid out trade rules but not too far off base to be unacceptable. "It is acceptable then. Fifty language sets and ten portable players. Fifty high definition charts of local systems for fifty cases of calculators like I gave you," Brad said.

"Fifty in addition to the calculator you gave me separately," UmBllatt said thinking of the huge profits and not wishing to add his gift to spoils that would have to be divided later. "We will now deliver the goods here to this room."

"Yes. We will deliver the calculators to your rooms," Brad said and humans and Ullumff scurried off to deliver the items.

Lines of Ullumff, ten in all, had come off the ship and were under the direction of two of the original five. Humans could tell those two were from the original five because of their yellow bracelets. Each of the ten carried a heavy plastic box about two thirds of a meter square. The fifty boxes and ten players took up the entire end of the conference room. Desiree and Ling figured out how to open the box with the help of one of the Ullumff and squealed when they saw the contents. There must have been twenty-five training cylinders in each box with several manuals containing color picture prints on some type of plastic-metallic material that was tough as hell. Everything seemed to be made of the same stuff in various shades and thicknesses.

Susan came over and got out one of the manuals too with Andrew looking over her shoulder.

"Good God. Look at that. What is it? My
Trade
isn't up on the reading side. What is this stuff?" Susan asked.

"Each box seems to have a complete language set with instructions for use to learn all about one culture. EVERYTHING about a culture."

Tod and Joel were prowling through some of the other boxes.

"Look at the markings on the box. Anybody recognize anything?" Joel said.

"Doesn't that one say 'Tros' on it?" Ling asked pointed to one of the boxes on the bottom left.

The guys went over, dug down, extracted the box and set it on the conference table. Ling showed Brad the trick to opening them and they reached in and pulled out the manual in the box marked 'TROS'.

"It's about the Tros culture in the same format as that book. It has tons of info about...oh...look at this Susan!" Brad said moving over to her.

"What is it...oh...no wonder Rett got upset when we started introducing ourselves. Look at this everybody. This is on the sexual habits of Tros," she said holding the pictured pages out for everyone to see.

"Makes 69 look pretty tame doesn't it Brad," Fran said with a coy smile at Brad.

Brad blushed hugely and everyone else laughed pleasingly at his discomfiture and her innuendo.

Joel spoke up after looking in several of the boxes, "Looks like solid information about fifty different cultures. Boy is Earth going to have to expand its perspectives quickly. Tod. How about these cylinders and players? Look like they'll hold up?"

Tod pried open the back of one of the players and saw its tiny tubes and power supplies. It looked complicated as hell but though everything was jammed in; all the parts were much larger than any integrated circuit and each part seemed to snap freely into separate connectors. The connectors were attached to thin boards and there were wires neatly connected to the bases of the connectors. Apparently, there was no such thing as printed circuits. Amazing!

Tod looked up. "These look fine. They're like the first ones we traded for. They'll learn a lot about manufacturing techniques from those calculators but not much else. Who would of thought these language sets would have been this complete? We got a good deal with that star chart and index 'gift' and these manuals -- we ought to be in a lot better shape for trade. Hey Joel. Did you get those maps digitized and stored yet?"

"Yes boss. Put it in the system and anyone can pull it up but since I don't have my regular help, referring to the loss of one of the best technicians in the attack, I haven't finished scanning in that book that goes with it. We're a third of the way through it though. Ought to have that scanning finished in an hour or two and then it will take a while to link all the references on the chart to the pages in the book and provide translations. A couple of days I guess as most of the scanning is automated. I have them working on it in a field so it ought to be finished soon. It was a clear copy," Joel continued. "Whatever that stuff is they print it on; we need to find out how they do that. It is tough as iron and resistant to water and looks like it would hold up forever...Great stuff...flexible and thin as all get out. Trade for the formula of that next ship."

"We'll keep that in mind," Brad said and they all laughed realizing how many things would change with an influx of new ideas and technology.

Captain UmBllatt was contemplating popcorn when the door buzzed. This food is very enjoyable -- light and crunchy. I will have to find out how they produce it. I wonder if it is a delicacy that takes elaborate preparation. Probably, thought UmBllatt, as he savored another fist full. The door buzzed again.

UmBllatt realized that there must be someone outside and he had failed to post a guard as allowed. He motioned two of his crewmembers to move toward the door and then yelled, "Enter!"

A lunar service tech came in with two large boxes on a dolly.

"Where do you want these
mack
?" said the tech to the Captain.

UmBllatt decided that '
mack
' must be some obscure term of respect and indicated the wall to the left wondering why the boxes were so large. He had only traded for fifty cases and was puzzled by their large size.

The tech stood back as other techs came trooping in behind with similar loads. The tech indicated the wall beside the other two boxes. More and more boxes came in until the end of the suite was covered with boxes. All the techs had been required to learn rudimentary
Trade
and the team leader had had more training than most. He finished counting the boxes and then turned to Captain UmBllatt with a digitizing pad. "Sign here to say that you received fifty cases of calculators."

Captain UmBllatt was suddenly suspicious that this many boxes was some sort of ploy to give them non-working goods. Surely each calculator didn't take up each box with instructions and packing. If it did; then they sure packed them well. UmBllatt motioned his two crewmen over to open and inspect the boxes while the tech stood by with the same disgruntled air of the longshoreman of old. The Ullumff were having trouble looking for the opening devices on the cases so the tech whipped out a small utility knife and slit open four of the cases the crew had been pawing at. The captain had sucked in a quick breath on seeing the knife but relaxed when he realized that the tech was only cutting open the top of the boxes.

"How do we know these aren't damaged goods?" he said to the tech.

"Most of this stuff comes with some type of ...
guarantee
," he said struggling for the word 'guarantee' which didn't seem to be part of the
Trade
language, at least, not part of any of the language he had studied. "I'll check," he said and reached into a box and pulled out three or four of the blister packs of calculators. He turned them over in his hands and held them up to the light. "Gee
buddy
. I can speak some
Trade
but I never learned to read it yet. Sorry. It probably says that if there is any defect in workmanship or the device fails to work as claimed, you can bring it back and get another working unit to replace any of them that don't work. Most companies will do that for one year from the date the customer receives it. That means that when you sell them, the customer has a year after that, an
Earth
year, to get it back to you and then on your next trip we'll
swap
it for a new one. No
charge
."

"We will check all fifty cases first," UmBllatt said and moved over to the boxes. He didn't understand everything this
human
said but it excited and worried him at the same time.

"
Okay.
Your choice… They are all
guaranteed.
A good company makes these calculators. It will start the time on the
guarantee
if you open them first. My suggestion is to take one at random from each case and test them. Give those to your crew if you want," said the tech. "Sign here please." The tech noticed UmBllatt's hesitation. "You just make some mark that identifies you. This says that I delivered fifty cases. That's all."

UmBllatt marked the digitizing pad and the tech tapped the display and a copy with UmBllatt's signature spewed out. "Here is your copy. See you next trip," said the tech as he went out.

"Humff," snorted UmBllatt politely. It was confusing. Case? Guarantee? How many calculators were there? "Get over here!" ordered the captain to his men who startled and rushed over to him in a line. "Open these cases and take out a calculator from each box. Count them all. I will be in my room." He stomped off sure that he had been tricked somehow but he couldn't step on the reason.

An hour later the navigator came to his door and grunted.

UmBllatt huffed back to go ahead.

"Captain. We've counted the calculators in four of the boxes."

"
Cases
. Navigator.
Cases
."

The navigator snorted affirmative. "There are exactly one hundred calculators. All the ones we have checked work exactly like the first. There are instructions on how to use them, in
Trade
, for every one inside the tough clear casing."

"That would be how many per
case?
” queried stated the Captain.

The navigator snorted a polite grunt and the captain swiveled his oculars up at the navigator. "There are one hundred in every
case
. We can't get them all back into the
case
after we take them out. They are packed that tight. All the other
cases
appear to be packed exactly the same. There are five thousand calculators in those
cases
."

UmBllatt had had no idea that fifty cases might be more than fifty calculators. Five thousand! There must have been some mistake on their part. The language sets he had given them were the high language of each of those cultures not the ordinary common day language. They weren't used except in the aristocratic circles on those planets. That's why he still had them still in boxed sets. He couldn't get much for them anywhere but here.

He realized the enormity of the wealth represented by the boxes in front of him. He pried apart a calculator. Few wires…Metal designs with tiny little silver circles on one side…Colored lines on little parts, capacitors he recognized but they were so tiny. Odd ways of marking what went where...stubborn to get out of their holders... All Ullumff electrical devices have connectors that allow parts to be easily replaced.

The door buzzed again and UmBllatt cursed himself for not posting a guard -- again.

He grunted to his crew who sent two to each side of the door.

"Enter," UmBllatt shouted.

The tech, he guessed it was the same one, was back with a dolly that had a silver barrel on it. He wheeled it into the room without being invited this time.

"What is this?" demanded UmBllatt.

"This
mack
. This is a
keg
of
beer
, " said the tech with a toothy grin.

UmBllatt wondered why this being was showing his teeth but decided it was not a threatening mechanism like most worlds. How strange!
Mack
, the term of respect and the showing of teeth… Curious.
Keg
must mean this barrel thing but what was
beer
? "Beer?" questioned UmBllatt.