All That Glitters Ch. 51

"Juanita..."

"Thank-you, Sylvie. The signing ceremony will begin at 09:00 hrs with the Minister of External Affairs, Charles Ronter, signing those diplomatic agreements that will take place at the ministerial level. After which, the President will sign those documents that are meant for the attention of the rulers of the Greater Community. The schedule has been sent to your aides. Please be aware of your timings and arrive a few minutes early.

"Grace Holloway will not be here for the ceremony, as she has to attend to her preparations for her graduation ceremony tomorrow night. She will not be with us after we finish here this morning."

At that, the members of the senior leadership began to applaud Grace where she stood behind Fiona Marsh.

"The President has extended invitations to the Senior Leadership for the graduation tomorrow night. Please indicate how many of your families will be in attendance. I would like to remind you again that this event is not for small children, as you will be sitting for extended periods with little to do but watch. We leave it up to you to determine if your children can attend the event without becoming bored.

"After the signing ceremony, both Assistant Minister Lourdes and myself will be on call. If anything is required, we will come in to see to your needs. I will be here until all of the leadership has left on Monday, then I will join the Johal Consulate as the Union and the UDC representative. I look forward to collaborating with you and your ministers for some years to come," Juanita said, getting polite applause from the group.

"Hanalei..."

"Thank-you, Juanita. This afternoon, Dr. Aruna Ohiraha of Aruna Labs on Liramor Prime, will be here to show off her latest invention, the shields for the farms. As some of you may have heard, the Denders Farm was protected from the last major storm by a modified Gara-Hinn shield that was designed as a large globe that can cover a substantial area.

"Ohi or her staff will be at the farm site all afternoon and tomorrow to explain how her shield works and to offer contracts for those who might wish to purchase it. They will also be in the conference room for consultations on their other products. They will return to Liramor Prime on Monday.

"The Summit is winding down. The signing ceremony today, the Council of Empaths' ceremony tomorrow, the graduation ceremony tomorrow night, which is actually a family event, and the Second Partnership Concert on Saturday are all that remain for this summit. I will tell you Sunday whether it has been the success that we dreamed it would be but, so far, it is looking good," Hanalei told them to laughter and applause.

"I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your efforts here these last two weeks. This might be the last summit at Denders, as there is a rumour that the next one might be on another planet of the Greater Community," that too, got laughter from the group.

"Sylvie..."

"Thank-you, Hanalei. I would like to turn the room over to Raymond Clark who has something of interest to show you.

"Raymond..."

"Thank-you for allowing me to speak this morning. I wanted to give these items to you as a gift for coming to my ship these last two weeks. Pallanders has made a considerable profit from the contracts that you have made after viewing my ship, the Navy vessels in orbit, and PV The Trine here at the Denders shuttle port.

"However, considering what transpired last night, I now realize that I should have made these available to you earlier.

"As I said, these were meant to be a gift to the rulers of the Greater Community. After last night, I decided to make a gift of these items to your families as well.

"All of you who visited my ship, were introduced to our tailor, Arlene Vautor. She is collaborating with another company that we have staked, Les Armuriers Laundray. The two make the item that I am about to show you."

Kim came in with a dummy with some kind of thin vest on it and set it up at one end of the room, away from everyone. Gillaya pulled a powerful energy weapon and fired it at the dummy. A bright nimbus temporarily ringed the dummy then faded. Kim then pulled an eight millimetre rail gun and fired six rounds in quick succession at the dummy. All six rounds failed to penetrate the vest and fell to the floor with no ricochet. A sensor on the vest indicated that the 'dummy' suffered no ill effects from the energy weapon and would only have suffered bruising from the rail gun.

"This is a protective vest that uses nanites to help protect you. There are literally billions of nanites in this vest. Each of the nanites can absorb a certain amount of energy, the kind of energy found in most energy weapons and yes, even those energy weapons made by the member races of the Greater Community.

"With billions of nanites to carry the load, even multiple shots fired by the most powerful of hand-held weapons can be blocked by this vest. It also tends to function as a lightning rod, pulling the charge toward the vest. Which means that shots aimed at the head, hands, or feet, will not reach their target.

"The nanites will also absorb a great deal of kinetic energy, which means rail guns of significant power can be defeated by the vest. Unfortunately, you will not be protected from head shots, so ducking is the preferred option in that event." That got some laughter from the crowd.

"I make this a gift to the rulers and their immediate family. You will have to pay for your ministers, staff, and your bodyguards.

"There is also a Personal Protective Suit available," and here Raymond touched a collar on his neck and a power bubble formed around his head, then shut it down.

"This suit, once activated, will provide you with protection in space for up to an hour in the event of a ship disaster. It will also provide you additional protection from energy weapons and will protect you from kinetic weapons, including head shots. The vest and the PPS can be worn under EVA suits, adding a second and third barrier in the event of a battle in EVA suits.

"The bubble of the PPs can be set on standby and will activate in less than one-one thousandth of a nanosecond in the event that it detects a power surge from an energy weapon or sees the signature of a kinetic weapon. It is meant to save your life in any extreme event such as an assassination attempt.

"Had you been wearing these last night, I would have felt much better about the confrontation with Mike Hollister and his followers. The vest can be made to be concealed under just about any item of clothing. In fact, the Kumaraie, her mate, the Kumaroe, and all of the Kumir-Rai/Ro have these vests on under their garments."

One of the Kumir-Rai stepped forward and dropped her Ga-Den, the traditional garment of the Pod-Drran. She was wearing the same vest as the dummy wore, this one tailored to her body with its four breasts. She picked up her Ga-Den and one of the Kumir-Ro helped her back into it, playing a little and giggling as they did so.

"The Pod-Drran have had this item for a few months now. We made it available to them after the last attempted palace coup they went through. They have not had to make use of them since then but better safe than sorry," Raymond said.

"Arlene will be in Conference Room Three and Four this afternoon. There is a schedule that will be posted at the entrance to the conference center. It will not explain what you will be doing there but it will show Arlene's name and the timings for the different groups.

"Incidentally, the nanites can be incorporated into different materials so you can also have dresses and other outfits made with them. You will have to contact the agent, Michelle Laundray of Les Armuriers Laundray on Liramor Prime, if you want additional vests or PPS for those who did not view the ships. Michelle will be in Conference Room Six and Seven this afternoon, available for all to make contracts with her. Once again, her purpose will not be displayed, just her name. Please see Sylvie or Hanalei for timings to see her and Arlene. They each have a small team of people with them to take measurements for your personnel. The products will be sent to Liramor-23 and your respective embassies for transhipment to your home worlds.

"There are some items that I can give out immediately. Asoc, if you would..." Raymond called the Asoc forward. He opened a box and showed her the outfit inside. It was an exact replica of her cloak of office. She touched the material and realized that there was an outer layer of the richest silk. The Asoc removed her current cloak and took the one from Raymond. The Asost came forward and helped her put it on. It was, of course, a perfect fit.

"The Asoc's cloak is good against power weapons but useless against kinetic weapons. Fortunately, most people today will make use of power weapons before they use kinetic weapons," Raymond said. Raymond had a box for the Asost and for Martte Garnal. He also had boxes with the names of several ministers and all of the Asoc's bodyguards.

"Your protective vests, Asoc, Asost, and Martte Garnal, are a gift from me. The remaining items will have to be purchased. "The cost per vest is 10,000 credits Asoc." That got a surprised look from her.

"So little for such a useful tool," she stated.

"The cost of time and materials to make the item, Asoc, with only a little extra for profit. Les Armuriers Laundray makes its profit from the number of items it sells. These are being made available to senior politicians all over the Union, to all police forces, and to the Union Marine Corps," Raymond told her. "The business is making a fortune in sales volume on this very useful item.

"It cost a small fortune for me to make these available to specific people on my ship. Especially since we needed various models of these vests for different purposes. Then there was the cost of the Personal Protective Suits. Those cost almost 35,000 credits apiece. I gave these to the Marines, the VIP staff, and my personal staff, that's 228 personnel. Fortunately, I am a billionaire and can afford it. The remaining crew received standard Emergency Protective Suits," Raymond told them.

"Only the Djinaëte have not visit my ship, so I have the personal vests of all of the families of the leadership for you this morning. As soon as Sylvie releases us, I will hand them out. Again, I am giving the vests to the leadership and their families as a gift. The other members of your staff and the ministers who came to my ship, you will have to pay for.

"Thank-you for allowing me this time to show you these items. Once again, I apologize for not making them available sooner. Fortunately, we did not end up needing them last night," Raymond said with a small bow.

"You need not be so defensive, Raymond," the Asoc stated for all of the leadership. "None of us could have foreseen last night's event. It is part of the risk that we, as leaders of our people, are familiar with. It was just fortunate for us that Junelliya and Hanalei had their children with them last night."

That got laughter from the group.

"Very well then," Sylvia took over again. "I shall go around the room for points, comments, and questions." The items that came up were easily managed as the group broke up for the day of business.

Conference Room Two, Denders Conference Center, Denders Resort, Terra, The Sol System

Henadi, Junelliya, Fayad, Sylvia, the senior members of the board of Denders, Hern Grad Kidrass, and Medical Specialist Three Mirra Slotty of the Dender's Harradi team, were all seated in the conference room having been called there by Walter Grieves, the General Manager of the resort.

"Good morning all, I would like to make a report on an ongoing event that was started a little over three months ago. It has to do with changes made to the desalination process that Denders uses.

"Before these changes, we were desalinating up to 180,000 liters of water a day using an expensive filtration system. When we discovered that the Harradi were using plant based technology to desalinate sea water for the farm, we looked at whether we could scale this up somewhat to provide potable water for the resort.

"Hern Kidrass, if you please..."

"Yes, Mr. Grieves," Kidrass replied, standing. "The plant-based filtration system is very efficient for desalinating water for the purposes of providing suitable levels of purity for watering the farm. However, this is not suitable for use for potable water.

"Mr. Grieves said that the resort's water purification system can deal with the potable water situation but could not deal with desalination. He wanted to know if our system could be scaled up to provide 200,000 liters of desalinated water for the purification system. We looked at how that could be done and determined that we could create new water ponds that could produce 350,000 liters of desalinated water daily for the purification systems, bypassing the desalination filtration system," he finished and asked MS3 Slotty to provide her analysis of the water filtration system.

"Our new desalination system is a little more robust than the resort's older system as that system was originally designed to provide water for the farm for plants that were less tolerant of salt water. Mr. Grieves asked me how it compared to the potable water of the resort and I told him that there was still microbes and some metals in the system, but otherwise it was suitable for drinking. It needed to go through a bacteriological purification system to take out the microbes and it would be more than suitable as potable water." She showed a slide that gave before and after salt, metals, and microbe counts and explained it to the board.

Hern Kidrass took over again. "We can add additional plants that will take out more of the impurities and some of the microbes, however, the water will still not be suitable as potable water without some filtration."

Walter took over again. "Our biggest expense for potable water is the desalination process. We use over 300 large and very expensive osmosis filters to desalinate the sea water and can only produce a maximum of 190,000 liters a day from that system. The microbe filters are less dense because they use electricity to do some of the work. With the additional guest accommodations that have been built in the last year, we are now approaching our maximum potable water output for the current system. We needed a new addition to the system, a very costly prospect.

"With the desalination ponds able to produce 350,000 liters of desalinate water for the purification system, we now have the ability to double our guest accommodations should there be a need.

"Without having to use the large filters in the desalination plant for desalination, we can modify that plant into a water purification center, adding that output to the amount of daily potable water that we can produce. We can effectively produce just over 300,000 liters of potable water daily and use less expensive filters in the process. We can save over 8,000 credits a month with this process, the cost of the more expensive desalination filters.

"I have been tracking the expenditures for the last three months and can now categorically confirm the savings. The desalination filters can only be used for roughly thirty days then need to be swapped out. They cannot be cleaned or otherwise reconditioned.

"The potable water filters can be used for up to two and a half months and then can be cleaned and used again for another two and a half months. They cost half of what the desalination filters cost and provide five months of use.

"Modifying the desalination center for a purification center would only cost around ten thousand credits, most of which would be made up within the savings in filters in the first month. We still have the unused desalination filters we initially purchased during our first months of tests. These could be used in place of the less expensive potable water filters but I suggest they be kept in reserve in case of an emergency. As the desalination plant was designed to use these filters, swapping them out in the event of a collapse of the new desalination system would be an emergency safe gap. We can keep these filters for up to four years before they would need to be replaced.

"Net savings in the last three months has now exceeded twenty-two thousand credits because of the change in systems," Walter finished.

"Walter, why did you not let us know you were doing this before?" Henadi asked.

"The cost of adding water ponds was negligible and I was able to cover it with our normal monthly expenditures. I needed to track the net savings between the two systems, if there was any, in some way or another before bringing it to the board members. As all of this fell within my purview as general manager, I took it on myself to do it. I am now presenting the results to the board." Walter threw up a file on the monitor that showed the initial costs, the ongoing costs of operations, the expected savings, and the actual savings. There was little cost savings in the first month but the following two months showed a potential ten thousand credit savings per month in not purchasing the more expensive filters.

"I asked this question of you, Walter, because we became aware of this ongoing operation and began to think that this might be a second skimming operation at Denders, similar to the food skimming operation of last year. You could have found yourself in a serious situation. I would suggest, in future, that if you make modifications that will provide potential savings that you inform the board as you start it to prevent possible repercussions for yourself, Walter," Henadi informed him. Walter blanched at the thought of going through the kind of review that was created by Elliot Harold, the former CFO of Caldar Resort.

"Other than that, you have done well. Thank-you for you initiative and for finding new methods of doing business here at Denders," Henadi said, applauding him. The applause was taken up by the other members of the board.

"And thank -you, Hern Kidrass and your people, for the efforts that you have made on behalf of the resort," Hanalei said. Once again the applause was taken up by the members of the board.

Denders Theater, Denders Resort, Terra, The Sol System

The President arrived just ahead of the first signing ceremony with foreign Affairs Minister Charles Ronter and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Greater Community of the Byandi, the two sat down at the proffered table and signed the documents.

The Minster sat down with four other senior ministers before the President stood up and took the podium.

"Today is the last day that Charles Ronter will act as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of that branch of the Union Diplomatic Corps. After today, Charles will move laterally within UDC to a new post, Minister of Interspecies Affairs for the Greater Community. He will also have new staff at UDC dedicated to the Greater Community. Assistant Minister for Trade, Cecilia Lourdes, will become the new Assistant Minister of Interspecies Affairs for the Greater Community, her familiarity with trade will be an asset for her in this new position.

"In Charles' place, the former Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Williams, will now become the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of the UDC for Union affairs.

That received polite applause as both Peter Williams and Charles Ronter took small bows.

The President sat for the signing ceremony between Sister Ambassador Her-ii of the Djinaëte and the Union, between the Mylatrin Adriné of the Byandi and the Union, between the Rolt Sassanna of the Umick and the Union, and between the Malta Gittan of the Paacon and the Union, to much applause from the watching media and guests.