This Changes Everything

by Sally Ember, Ed.D.

CHAPTER INTERLUDE XIII

  Excerpts from the Chief Communicator’s Occasional Log, When Trouble is not Trouble

  October 21, 2039

  ALT [According to Linear Time]-wise, it’s been almost thirty years since my first visit with the MWC members, whom Earthers know as The Band: Led, Ringo, Janis—Diana and Mick. They tell me this morning that I am scheduled to retire from being Earth’s CC in about eighteen months. I have to pick a successor. I know this is coming but I do not like it.

  The retirement part is okay; it’s the selecting the successor part I dread. I do not have a process, yet. They tell me I am responsible for creating one.

  My husband, Epifanio, creates the process for me in about six months, an occurrence that The Band timults as well as I do, so why do we do this dance? Sigh.

  ALT and timultaneity are still odd, sometimes. There are some timelines in which I have no husband.

  Also, Led tells me today that I am being formally reprimanded for allowing the publication of The Spanners Series, Volume I, This Changes Everything, in 2013 instead of 2041, as sometimes planned, and for allowing my personal contacts to read versions of it in 2012.

  “Planned by whom?” I ask.

  “By you, Clara” Led replies. Even he sounds confused.

  “But when we talk about it in early 2013, you all encourage me. You say how valuable Volume I is, since it provides several versions of the overview as well as some key details of The Transition and my years as the Chief Communicator. You say that Earthers benefit from knowing the story sooner rather than later. It's part of their 'adequate warm-up' which relaxes them about 'future' occurrences to know about these possibilities in 'fiction' form, earlier, you tell me. So, how can I be in trouble for doing what we all agree I do?”

  “You are not ‘in trouble,’” Diana explains. “We have to issue the formal reprimand so that other CCs or timultaneous leaders remember that there are consequences for alternate actions in the timelines across multiverses, even when those changes are beneficial.”

  “EVERYTHING has consequences. That last statement makes little sense to me,” I mention. “Plus, technically, ALT, I wasn’t even under the jurisdiction of the MWC when I begin sharing the first Volume, so how can I be under Reprimand? You come to me in December, 2012, but I finish writing draft one in May, 2012.”

  “Of course,” Ringo agrees. “You are correct. Consequences always occur. We are required to point it out more sharply, sometimes.”

  “What about the being ‘off-duty’ part?” I persist.

  Silence.

  “Okay. Fine. It’s not as if I don’t know this is coming, right?” I acknowledge, somewhat grudgingly. “When do I receive the Reprimand? What form does it take this time?” I wonder if they hear the amusement in my voice.

  In my years as the Chief Communicator, or the CC, which morphs into my being called “CeeCee,” I receive several formal Reprimands. A lifelong rebel, even in this role. No surprise, for those who know me….

  The next official Reprimand comes in the form of a type of holographic censorship, or restricted Access: I am not allowed to use or view certain records or “channels,” as we may call them, for 30 Earth days. It’s kind of like being grounded from using the library, but only from two of hundreds of shelves. It is quite funny to me, but I make sure not to laugh out loud.

  How do I earn this “punishment”? I facilitate Access to records for Earthers (friends and family, mostly) who are having trouble utilizing their personal iDs by letting them share a general code. I show them how to gain Access by my doing it with them; once a teacher, always a teacher.

  Problem? Access is intended to be individual, not shared. Well, librarians can be such librarians (apologies to my great friend, Robin, who is NOT like that, even though she is a librarian…). Rules. Blech.

  The next two Reprimands are quite different from that one. Following on the heels of my not being available to speak to some leaders from the Central Region of the MWC due to my making it a priority to attend my granddaughter’s 8th birthday party, I do not step out for the “requested” vid call. This Reprimand is really what I call “pro forma.” It looks worse than it is.

  In this Reprimand, the MWC indicates that I may “suffer greatly” from it, but I know they put that language in purely for the benefit of the leaders' egos with whom I do not meet in that vid call. The MWC Council posts a photo of me, as Chief Communicator for Earth, on all the MWC channels for one Earth hour each day for one Earth month, with the caption: “Family over Duty?” Then, below the caption, MWC members are free to comment. It’s like those ads that list people with DUIs, to shame them and publicly embarrass them. Except, I am feeling neither shamed nor embarrassed. Family IS first. And, most of the comments posted are quite supportive. So there!

  Some of the ensuing, multiverse-wide comments are so hilarious, I have to share them with Espe. However, I am the only one who is supposed to see them all, and, thus, be shamed: “CeeCee should have said/done this” and “CeeCee should not have said/done that.” Everybody is entitled to an opinion, right?

  Espe appreciates these comments and the entire incident so much she is inspired to publish a booklet of them and put it on the 'verseweb. I am delighted.

  For this, we get the other of these two (my fourth and Espe's first) formal Reprimands. This one is even more difficult to understand as a negative consequence than the others because all the IGC does is put our booklet on the MWC web-equivalent: mwcw.reprimandcomments.verse/Branon. Then, “everyone” may see what a “terrible” thing we do. Apparently, a lot of species in the MWC have very different (and more restrictive) concepts of privacy than many human Earthers do.

  The outcome of that posting, though, which I could predict for them, if they bother to ask me, is that many more MWC members create booklets of comments from their Reprimands and post them. It becomes a Reprimands sharing fest on verse.com. Not the result they hope for, I’m sure.

  There are a few other Reprimands after that one. Today, refocusing on my first. I enjoy most of them, so I am eager to see what form this takes.

  Led says, and I believe this is in his sternest voice, “Clara. Your formal Reprimand for publishing out of sequence and without following the schedule established by you and us is this: all Volumes of The Spanners Series are being made available, free of charge, to all MWC members who request them. No more financial gain may accrue to any authors from this point on.”

  It is hard to hide my grin. From 2012 – 2021, when Volumes I – X are published, The Spanners Series earns millions of Earth dollars and the equivalent of quadrillions of MWC currency for me and my co-authors (Espe, Zephyr, several others). We earn money not just from the books themselves, but, also, from the franchise: all the “spin-offs” and “merchandising." These include: the TV series and its syndication and re-runs; six feature films; two documentaries; numerous trademarked T-shirts (“Spanners Forever” is the most popular, followed by the title of the first volume, “This Changes Everything!”); toys (each MWC Delegate gets its own “action figure,” of course, and I get to be a doll, a bobble-head dashboard figurine, and a “Clara-Bear,” or “Clara Beara” in 2014 alone); multi-species, multi-player role-play online and personal video games; and more. New merchandising is licensed almost every year thereafter as well.

  These Volumes and the documentaries are viewed, even though the books are labeled as “fiction,” as the premier, definitive chronicles of the early Earth - MWC public years. All the background I can provide is requested frequently. Every library and library equivalent across the multiverse already has copies or can download them from mcwc.Spanners.verse, so everyone has Access to all the Volumes and films free of charge already.

  Plus, since The Spanners franchise makes such an outrageous amount of money very early on, by January, 2015, we establish several charitable foundations to help distribute the profits to places they are most needed. It is difficult to imagine what we would do with it and completely u
nnecessary for any of us authors to be making more money at this point; thus, my grin.

  However, remembering how worried Espe and I are about how we will earn money while doing all of the tasks associated with our new roles when this all starts, I play the aggrieved party. I say to Led, “What about the Foundations’ earnings? May they continue, please?”

  “Of course,” Led says, somewhat primly.

  "Thank you so very much!" I tell him, laying it on very thickly.

  Led bounces once and *POP* he's gone.

  Subject closed.