Read Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation for Free Online Page A

balls on the floor near his hiking boots. Well, at least, I didn't imagine these. He picked up a water ball after deciding that the belt might be too conspicuous, tossed it up and caught it as he carefully shut the door to his room and his MemDex had it locked before they had stepped away. He was actually whistling on his way to the cafeteria though he was deep in thought.
    They'll just send me to psychiatric examination if I take this tale to the authorities. Andrew knew the mood of the world had turned inward after the influenza nightmare. Ironic that one quarters of the world's population had died from a wimpy, adaptive virus and not the nuclear holocaust everyone had anticipated. Populations became paranoid of people from a country or region where there was an outbreak and soon travel between many countries was blocked or severely curtailed. When deaths started occurring in the Western world the health care system in the U.S. and Europe was compromised for years. Travel and tourism suffered, and people, in general, became more insular. Later, when trade became restricted after the height of the influenza deaths, the World Government was formed as an offshoot of the World Bank. Nation states became local governments . Two thirds of the free nations joined and the rest became the “unaligned nations.” It had been the goal of the World Bank to make third world nations dependent on the Bank for loan service -- thus controllable. The reality turned out to be a bit different as there was little “control” yet many inherited problems. The World Government was inefficient, as most governments are inefficient, but the bit of oversight it provided was enough to add some competency where there had been none before. The reality of a distant, weak, slightly incompetent government actually worked. It didn’t work everywhere because culture and corruption were so endemic but that was the reality.
    With all the world's problems, people looked to restoring their own areas and their own homes. Technology was hardly affected but it stopped progress in its tracks for a few decades. History tapes of the last decades were almost incomprehensible in their violence and contradictions.
    No, this story, of mine had better stay with a select few. Maybe we can use the power source of this belt for our group proposal because the project I had planned was too expensive – too mundane for others at the college. That field had to be produced with a ridiculously powerful power supply. Any power supply would be revolutionary plus that field kept the gray ghastly from touching anything – affecting mass and gravity like that ship would rewrite physics. Funny, how lack of motivation should prompt me to take a hike off my regular schedule. Look, where it got me, he chuckled to himself. Nobody is going to believe me, he thought.
    He had only met Susan a year ago when the materials science specialist of their group had been forced out because his grating personality had eroded their efficiency. Susan had come in after an entire group she had been working with had dissolved. Now it seemed like she had been made for the group even in the few times they had worked together. Andrew hoped she'd, at least, accept his story better than any in the group. He was obliquely attracted to her. Of course, any super competent people are good to have around. He saw her waiting for him on one of the benches outside the cafeteria.
    "Hi, Andy. You sure look better," she beamed with the transgression of his missed seminar seemingly forgotten.
    "Hi. Let's eat first, I'm starved."
    They went into the cafeteria and Susan eyed the water ball he carried. "May I ask what that is?" she inquired.
    "No, you may not... yet!" he replied.
    She was politely silent as they passed through the line and didn't even say anything about the voluminous amount of food he heaped onto his tray. She only raised an amused eyebrow when she saw the credit amount for the food he had to spend. He had