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Emerging from the ship onto the surface of Ecisfiip required us to wear plastic suits similar to those used by forensic scientists. Ya Lindron explained that the drizzle wasn’t strongly acidic, but over a couple of days, could exfoliate the top layers of skin on a sensitive individual, so this was a safe-rather-than-sorry precaution.
It was not quite daylight in this part of the world when we arrived, but gradually the light level improved as we walked along damp streets with our two diplomatic guides and three Ecisfiipian envoys.
‘Miserable place, Melanie,’ said Juan Mistoba.
‘Not ideal for taking the kids on vacation,’ she agreed.
‘We’re about to start our tour, everyone,’ said Yol Ruud. ‘Let me introduce you to Yol Nostawe who has agreed to act as our local liaison for the industrial section of Qisvij.’ The local person nodded his somewhat elongated head in acknowledgement.
The Ecisfiipians stood between about one and a half to two metres tall. Two arms came out of the thorax region rather than at the shoulders. Their leathery skin, in this part of the planet, was the dark side of tanned, but some had lighter and others even darker skin. The elongated head seemed to be precariously balanced on a somewhat slender neck, causing it to loll from side to side when walking, but not in an unattractive manner.
‘Everything west of this street is to do with production,’ Yol Nostawe said. ‘Most mechanical areas are designed to protect visitors, but I would ask you all to remain alert to autonomous equipment. We are entering the domain of machines.’ He turned down the next side street followed by his rather strange-looking entourage.
Entering the first building began half a day of tolerating mechanical and factory noise. In this unit, incoming sheet metal was handled, cut, pressed, and shaped into wheels before being stacked, containerised and stored for shipping.
A second unit produced plastic bottles, a third made some unidentified widget.
‘Presumably,’ said Prime Minister Solberg, ‘there are not factories for every single thing which is ever needed, Yol Nostawe. Who changes the master moulds and sets up the next production run?’
Yol Nostawe had the group follow him through a double door into a quieter area.
‘For detail, you’d need to ask the plant director, but the plant manager will be here in a few moments and he’ll be able to explain. Some factories are dedicated to single products, but most have to re-tool regularly. Ah, here’s the manager,’ said Yol Nostawe.
The double doors parted and a robot, about the height of a four-drawer filing cabinet, but with slatted sides and more brightly coloured than the other machines the party had seen, entered the room.
‘Welcome to the Nodor Complex. How can I help?’ it said in a reassuringly, very non-mechanical voice.
‘How do I formulate questions for it?’ asked Prime Minister Solberg.
‘Just ask what you want to know in the normal way,’ said Yol Nostawe. ‘Automatons speak normal Galactic Standard,’
‘We were wondering about product batch sizes and how the factories change for different products,’ said Prime Minister Solberg. ‘Surely each factory cannot possibly only have a single use.’
‘All factories are adaptable to a degree,’ said the robot manager. ‘The current production run you’re witnessing here was for twenty-five thousand items. When that is complete, we move on to producing eglorts. Eight thousand of those are required. Before production begins, robots similar to me, but with specific functions to manage individual parts of the factory, will set up the parameters for the new product. Once they have each reported back to me, I permit the inflow of the correct materials and report to my central manager that the new product is underway. Sometimes certain machines are not employed, and other times additional machines arrive from a nearby storage facility.’
‘And what if the product is not quite right during production?’ President Spence inquired.
‘Quality control is built in to each major process,’ replied the manager. ‘If a product were to fail, the machine manager would be notified. If it’s a failure within parameters, it would be recycled. If not, then the process is stopped while the machine is adjusted. There are dozens of different robot types with specialist arms and hands capable of dealing with any mechanical, electrical, or electronic issues. At the beginning of a production run, readjustments can happen many times. Time is not important to automated systems.’
‘So, how far ahead do you plan production?’ asked President Spence.
‘Currently, my factory has orders for several months.’
‘So, if I had an urgent requirement?’ the US President asked.
‘Schedules are continually assessed and reallocated by a chain of managers responsible for manufacturing. It would be slotted into the schedule at an appropriate point, depending upon relative urgency.’
‘Do you never have to call upon a living person?’
‘To assist production, you mean?’
‘No, for anything?’ asked President Spence.
‘Only for any design considerations, but it is very rare. I’ve never had to call upon a person in my fourteen years as a manager.’
Questions, answers, and movement from factory to factory continued for three hours before we emerged back into daylight. It was much brighter outside and dry. The drizzle seemed to be taking a lunchbreak with the visitors.
As they walked, Prime Minister Channarong said to President Spence, ‘Impressive robots. You wouldn’t know they weren’t people.’
‘Yes,’ said President Spence, ‘they’d have a disastrous effect on employment.’
‘Oh. I was thinking they’d be a great boon, doing all the repetitive and administrative tasks,’ said the Thai leader.
‘That’s a very optimistic way of looking at it,’ said the US President who then walked faster to catch up with the other leaders.
The group walked back to the dividing line between the industrial and residential sections of the city and Yol Nostawe guided them through to a main pedestrian thoroughfare which was extremely busy.
Most of the people walking to and fro, or entering or leaving the shop units, were Ecisfiipians. An occasional alien of a different type was seen, but these were quite rare. Many people stopped to look at the group of aliens, but only in a vaguely inquisitive manner.
The entire street was made up of small restaurants and bars. Ya Lindron explained that the hieroglyphs we could see outside each were advertising the type of food or drink supplied, very much like a restaurant district on Earth.
‘How long would it take to esponge into us, written galactic standard?’ asked Prime Minister Grange.
‘About forty minutes to an hour, I would think,’ said Ya Lindron.
The group came to a halt outside a particularly colourful establishment which had LED signs producing neon-like effects. There were tables outside covered with huge umbrellas. They contained built-in fans which sucked the atmosphere through a filter and gently blew it outwards from the seated area. This allowed people to dine in the dry with the drizzle extracted.
The party entered the restaurant and was ushered to a long table which had been specially reserved for them. All around there was the buzz of a successful and popular café.
‘Ya Lindron and Yol Ruud have given us a list of acceptable foods which you can eat safely,’ said Yol Nostrawe. ‘You can also choose from the local beer, dark or light, a form of wine drunk here or a more traditional galactic wine, fruit juices, or water.’ He began writing selections onto a notepad which was then passed to one of the mechanical waiters.
An Ecisfiipian in overalls walked up to the table and the visitors looked around at him, quickly discovering it was a her. Male and female Ecisfiipians were outwardly very similar in appearance and dress. Knowing which sex each person was, often came down to knowing their name.
‘My name is Ya Inid Tosterfon and I love cooking. I spend most of my time here with a couple of friends, creating new dishes for the clients. It’s one of the reasons we are always so busy.
‘After consulting with Yol Ruud, what you’re about to receive is all local produce, but without any elements which could adversely affect your alien digestion. I hope you enjoy the meal.’
There were general words of thanks and the party prepared for their meal, drinks arriving rapidly after the chef’s departure.
The US President was seated beside Ya Lindron. ‘So, that chef and his friends do this because they want to? Are you telling me they earn nothing from this enterprise? It is obviously very lucrative. It’s packed.’
‘That is correct, Yol Spence. She will earn her volunteering afeds from her work here as will her friends.’
‘Oh, yes, she. But they must be here more than ten percent of their time, surely?’
‘I am sure they are, but that is from their own choice. You’ll have noticed there is also an Ecisfiipian barman too.’
‘So, what would happen if the chef decided she’d had enough?’
‘Mechanical chefs would take over and things would continue as normal. I must say that on my world, the restaurants which have volunteer chefs do tend to be more popular. Mechanical chefs are virtually infallible and that, somehow, detracts from the experience. It could be the same here.’
President Spence shook his head in disbelief. ‘Can we see where people go shopping after lunch, Ya Lindron.’
‘Indeed. Good idea.’
««o»»
The visitors came out of the restaurant, thrilled with the sampling menu Ya Tosterfon had prepared for them with flavours, textures, and after-tastes they’d never experienced before.
When they emerged from the restaurant, the drizzle forced the need for umbrellas once more. A hundred metres along the street they arrived at what appeared to be an enormous department store.
‘Well, that’s a surprise,’ said President Toscano, ‘I thought all sales would be carried out online. This is a real old-school department store.’
They spent a while making their way along the glass frontage, looking at the goods on display. Many would have been familiar on any high street in the world. Luggage, shoes, domestic appliances of various descriptions – some unfathomable – furniture, beds, cupboards, chests of drawers, kitchen layouts, children’s toys, items similar to bicycles — some motorised — mysterious electronics boxes, fancy goods like clocks, ornaments, gardening equipment and so on.
‘How many such shops would there be in a modern city like this?’ asked the Bolivian president.
‘Most places I’ve been have a couple. It is all based on footfall and location. If a store becomes unpleasantly busy, another is soon opened nearby. The customers’ needs are paramount,’ said Yol Ruud. ‘Come on in.’
The automatic doors in the centre of the run of windows opened and the group entered, drifting apart as they wound their way through the aisles of goods where many local people were also shopping.
Prime Minister Grange was in a domestic appliance section with Ya Lindron and President Spence. She asked, ‘I’m only seeing one or two of each type of item. Take this, which appears to be a kettle. There is just this stainless-steel version, and this coloured model. In Wellington we’d have a couple of dozen to choose from. Is that all that are made?’
‘Not necessarily,’ said Ya Lindron. ‘With some products there is only one available because it does the job efficiently and no one has been dissatisfied with it. Take a look at this.’
She waved a hand above the stainless-steel kettle and a projection appeared in front of them. She swiped the screen. ‘Now, as you can see, this kettle is available in different power variations and also with different finishes – shiny stainless-steel, brushed stainless-steel and, what do we have here, another six or seven versions with the stainless and brushed stainless-steel forming attractive patterns.’
The display faded away and she did the same with the coloured kettle, bringing up dozens of different shapes, shades and colours, reflective or matt and so on to match any decor.
‘And how do you buy something?’ asked President Spence.
‘Come. I’ll show you. I saw something my fiancé would like as a gift. We form a life partnership in a few weeks. Like your marriage. I’ll buy it for him,’ Ya Lindron said and they walked back to a display they’d seen earlier with scarf-like material.
‘I’m going to buy him one of these scarves. He has a collection of them and most of them have come from different worlds,’ said Ya Lindron. She touched the viewer button.
Upon the screen there were multi-choice options.
‘Feel the material,’ she said. President Spence and Prime Minister Grange felt the display scarf, but as they touched it, the colour intensified, rippling outward then fading back to the original.
‘Wow. Lovely,’ said Prime Minister Grange. The President looked as if the beauty of the product was beneath his consideration.
‘This is the one I want,’ said Ya Lindron, pointing at a plaid version. ‘It’s expensive because of the flexible-prism material. Fifteen afeds. Watch me buy it.’
She pressed a button, presumably labelled “BUY” and the screen filled with hieroglyphs. It was a shame the esponging learning process hadn’t taught writing as well.
‘This shows my name, address, and that I have enough afeds, and deducts the amount from my funds. It also tells me I can return for this version in two days or have it delivered to my home in ten days. I’ve chosen the latter.’
The screen spun into invisibility and a disembodied voice thanked Ya Lindron, by name, for her purchase.
‘But you don’t live on this world,’ said President Spence.
‘No. My world is some distance away.’
‘Yet it will deliver to your home?’
‘Yes, exactly.’
‘How did the system identify you?’
‘My personal microchip.’
‘Where is it?’
‘What? My microchip?’
‘Yes.’
‘It is somewhere in my right shoulder. All babies have one implanted at birth. It is quite tiny, about four millimetres square,’ said Ya Lindron.
‘So, what if you’d wanted to touch the one you bought to see if the colours behaved in the way you liked?’
‘Oh, I could have showed you. There was a video which demonstrated just that with someone touching it. Jarl loves plaid, so I know it will be right,’ said Ya Lindron. ‘However, I could have had it delivered to a store in my home town and handled it there.’
‘How much was the delivery element of the item?’ asked President Spence.
‘It was a standard off-world small-packet charge. Half an afed. With some products, the manufacture would take place locally and it would come from somewhere on my home world. This particular material, however, is a speciality of Ecisfiip so it is delivered directly from here. Star-freighters are crewed by robots. It’s a very efficient service for almost all goods.’
After an hour or so in the store, the party returned to the ship and were offered the opportunity to visit a nightclub, show, or theatre. The atmosphere on Ecisfiip might be dark and dank, but the variety of entertainment and food on offer was exciting and vibrant.
Yol Ruud accompanied Prime Minister Grange and President Toscano to the theatre, not unlike any which might be found on Earth. It was about sixty per cent full. Yol Ruud had brought some snacks from the ship with him as he would not be able to tell whether or not the snacks sold in the theatre would be okay for the people from Earth.
‘Are the actors all real people or are some robots?’ asked President Toscano.
‘Automatons are able to fulfil all the functions needed to take part in plays and musicals, but usually the actors are real. This is one of the activities in which many people enjoy participating for fun. I noticed that the star is a person called Yol Deron Mipocharl. He is playing the part of the main character, the scientist. Judging by the lights and flashing stars around his name, he must be very good at what he does,’ said Yol Ruud.
The curtain rose, and the story began.
By the intermission, it became clear that the story was about a group of adventurers lost in a jungle where they had found evidence of an old civilisation. The star was trying to discover why they had died out, but at the break, one of the party had been dragged off into the jungle by a very fearsome and totally realistic-looking beast.
In the second half, they learned more and more about the lost tribe who had built the structures but lost two more from the group. Soon there was only the scientist remaining. He came face-to-face with the beast, who was intelligent, and the scientist convinced him to hand back the others with a promise that his people would be left in peace in the jungle.
A very simple story, but with a lot of emotional scenes and an ultimate feel-good ending.
Back at the ship, the leaders discussed their various choices, and everyone had had an interesting evening. Those who’d visited the nightclub were exhausted from dancing, including Jack Spence.