Manual Interpretation

By: Ken Pence

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Rett didn't expect to be rescued and then attacked by a primitive on a test flight. Andrew didn't expect to save an alien and nearly destroy his planet because of what he learned. Earth didn't get to choose their representative for a planet-wide treaty and then be threatened by an alien confederation. Surely Earth couldn't defend itself. Surely Earth couldn't have had contact with others, from off-planet, before now...but what was this backwater planet doing with a fleet of ships, advanced navigation systems and a galactic-class trading facility (with personnel who spoke all the major galactic languages). Every species misunderstood our skills. We 'obtained a manual after fighting off a visiting ship and created a trading center on the moon according to the standards in the manual. We had no idea those standards were what other alien cultures considered an unobtainable goal. We didn't know - we achieved it and now everyone wanted to come to Earth. Aliens wanted to land on Earth to trade - why not skip the middleman and go right to the source.

The population on Earth didn't know what to make of aliens landing all over the place - how do you enforce regulations. Some on Earth felt like the young people that had negotiated the trading agreements with an interstellar power should have gone through them (young people should not have that power) and they sought a military effort to remove them during active trading. We did make an excellent trading facility and gave excellent trades to make alien traders rich. Sometimes - success is its own punishment.

Virtual Voice better than expected

I thought this was a great storyline and my favorite part was how the Earth’s had copied exactly the Galactic manual on how to set up a trade station. Hence the title. Very clever play on words in the title. I found this entire series to be quite a good story and would recommend it.. the virtual voice does make mistakes, of course, and I found some of them quite humorous, especially the words live and live, and the incorrect use there of