Three men were poling up the Great River, known as the Mississippi River, in another timeline. They were near a place where another civilization built large dirt mounds about a thousand years in the future, in the other timeline. These men neither knew nor cared about the timeline they were changing; they were simply looking for profit.

As they made their way up the Great River, they saw smoke in the distance, so these men beached their longboat and came ashore.

As they were walking, Hetane said, “Reminds me of home, except it looks more lush.”

Bobby chuckled and said, “That’s a nice way of saying this is grassland.”

Gad said, “With all this grass, I don’t see how we will make a lot of profit.”

Bobby smiled and said, “You just don’t know what I know. This area is perfect for farming, and if we set things up right, it could be a wonderful jewel in our trade empire.”

Gad was curious and asked, “All I see is grassland. Sure it's great for farming, but most villages already farm. Why would that make it a jewel in our trade empire?”

Bobby asked, “Hetane, you have been around my father a lot. Do you know about his hybrid grains?”

Hetane thought and thought and asked, “You mean the amazing maize he grows from the nasty maize?”

Bobby smiled and said, “Yes.”

Gad was confused and asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Dad has a few species of grains that need to be cross-bred with other grains to taste good.”

“Cross-breeding maize? Why would he have to do that? If you have maize you like, just plant it in the ground, and it will come out right.”

Bobby’s smile grew bigger, “Hybrid grains don’t work like normal grains. Dad said their benefit is that they tend to be easier to grow when you know what you are doing, and they taste better, but there’s a lot of complications that work for us.

“First of all, all hybrid grains are where you mix two different grains together to produce a better grain. It’s a lot like breeding bison. One hybrid is the father, and the other is the mother. For instance, if you are growing hybrid maize, you would grow a few father grains and a lot of mother grains right next to each other, then cut all the tassels off the mother grain, so only the father grain produces pollen. At the end of the growing season, if you did your job right, all the mother grains would produce the hybrid grain you want. The reason why dad called it a hybrid grain was because if you went out and planted the hybrid grain in the ground, it would either not grow, or what it grew would not taste good. That’s why it's called a hybrid grain; it can only be produced by two different types of grains. If you could put hybrid grains in the ground and they came out the same year after year, then they wouldn’t be hybrid grains; they would be normal grains. Which is perfect for us.”

“Why?”

“Because we are merchants. We can have one village growing father grains every year, another village growing mother grains every year, and then a third village growing hybrid grains every year. When we went out to trade, we would get father and mother grains from the first two villages and trade them to the third village for hybrid grains. The third village would have to trade for the father and mother grains because most hybrid grains won't sprout after they have been planted. Then we take the hybrid grains to the first two villages and trade the hybrid grains for the father and mother grains. It makes the farm villages dependent on us for food and seed. So once the farming villages are dependent on us for food, we will be able to take the surplus and trade it with other villages at no cost to ourselves.

Hetane wasn’t convinced and asked, “What if the father and mother village figure it out and start growing their own hybrid grains?”

“First of all, we are not going to have villages growing the father and mother right next to each other. But even if someone tried to go around us, all that would happen is that they would turn their entire crop into hybrids, and the next year they will be devastated when their fields are barren. Most hybrid grains do not grow. Plant as many hybrid seeds in the ground as you want, but they won't produce any crop. They are good for eating, not growing. Anyone who tries to rob the merchants will go hungry.”

Gad was shocked at the power they could have over these people, and he asked, “Why hasn’t your father done this?”

“Because my dad wants every village to be self-sufficient. If he introduced the hybrid grains like we are, then the entire Trade Alliance would be dependent on the merchants. He thinks that would give merchants too much power, but dad doesn’t want any knowledge lost, so he keeps strains of the hybrid grains around. He grows some every year so they don’t die out and stores them in the various granaries he has.”

“Will he let you take some of them?”

“Of course, he’s my dad. Even if he doesn’t like what we are doing, he will let us do it. He lets Trevor get away with his dictatorship, and he lets Quincy keep his girlfriend. He will trade me the hybrids when we need them.”

And so they continued chatting as they made their way to the smoke of the village. Bobby explained what little he knew about hybrids, but he only knew what his dad taught him when his dad forced him to plant some hybrid grains every year. One of their advantages was that most mother and father strains are very tough, drought-resistant, and require less fertilizer, although on their own produce less desirable grain. It's only when they are bred together that they produce a superior crop that is nearly always infertile. Because of the seed John brought back from the future, Bobby merely had to follow directions to make his plan work, but Bobby experimenting and finding his own hybrid grains was impossible. Both because of his lack of knowledge and unwillingness to experiment, especially since there was no rhyme or reason as to how hybrid seeds turned out. It was all trial by error, and fortunately for Bobby, farmers in another timeline did all his work for him.

After a couple of miles of walking, they reached the fields surrounding the village. It was September, so the maize stalks were very high, and the people were out going through the rows plucking ears and filling baskets.

When those people saw Bobby and his two friends, the only way Bobby could describe it was nervous excitement overcame the people. They didn’t exactly run away like they were monsters, but they were fearful. Some of the people came over and seemed to want to placate them.

Hetane said, “I think they think we are someone else.”

Bobby smiled and said, “Yeah. Maybe we will get to trade with two groups instead of one.”

Gad asked, “Why are you so happy? These people are scared of whoever they think we are. If a village this big is scared, shouldn’t we be?”

“No. We have gifts and offer trade. We have nothing to worry about.” Bobby saw the disbelief on his friend's faces and said, “Whoever these people are scared of can clearly be placated. If this village was wiped out to the last man, woman, and child, then we would have something to fear, but look, the villagers are bringing us baskets of things. Clearly, whoever they are fearful of likes stuff, and we have the best stuff.”

As the villagers brought baskets of maize, Bobby took out an ax and gifted it to one of the elders, who was bewildered to get such a gift. Bobby motioned for him and some of the men to follow them to a thicket near the river, and then he showed them how to use the ax to cut trees.

While the bewildered elder was cutting trees, Bobby, Hetane, and Gad got the shock of their life. Men on buffalo came charging their way.

Gad asked, “Does the Trade Alliance reach here?”

Bobby said, “I don’t think so.” And as the buffalo riders drew closer, Bobby said, “Those are not Trade Alliance men. They have primitive bows instead of fast fire bows. And look at their spears; they are stone-tipped instead of iron-tipped.”

Hetane’s face fell as he said, “Those have to be the raiders. This must be where they went after your dad ran them off. We are going to die.”

Bobby calmly said, “We are not going to die. We are going to get new customers.”

Both of Bobby’s friends looked at him incredulously and said, “WHAT?!”

“Stay calm. I need to do business.”

Hetane touched the fast fire bow on his chest, smiled, and said, “We have fast fire bows. We can fight them off.”

Bobby lightly slapped Hetane on the back of the head and said, “Don’t be an idiot… although we will probably need your bow.”

“Yeah, to fight.”

“No, to sell.”

“What?”

“Just shut up and let me do the talking.”

“How? We have never been here before.”

“If these are the raiders, they took women from the Trade Alliance. I am sure they have picked up at least some of our language.”

Before Hetane could protest anymore, the buffalo riders encircled them. Bobby, Hetane, and Gad stood their ground, but the villagers all fell to the ground, bowing.

Bobby simply smiled and asked, “Which one of you is in charge? I have a gift for you.”

One of the men said, “I am. You speak the language of the Trade Alliance. Are you a member?”

“Wonderful.” Bobby took out a bowie knife, something he deemed appropriate to give a warrior, and walked to the warrior holding the knife butt first to the warrior, “This is a bowie knife. It is far better than any stone knife you have ever used.”

The man frowned and said, “I know what it is. I have one; I took it from a Trade Alliance man I killed. Now answer me. Are you a member of the Trade Alliance?”

“My father is a member of the Trade Alliance, but me and my two friends left them. We sought better conditions than what the Trade Alliance offers.”

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“I will give you many reasons. I can sell you fast fire bows, iron-tipped spears, and maize far better than this village can offer. I also have luxuries you have never heard of, like chocolate, coffee…”

“I can just take those things from your corpse.”

“You can take those things from my corpse once. But we only have three fast-fire bows. Don’t you want all your men armed with them? I can provide your men with iron-tipped spears that are much better at killing bison than your stone-tipped spears. I see that you have this village and probably others growing food for you. Don’t you want better food? I have certain spices and fruits that will not grow this far north. Don’t you want better-tasting food? If you want, let me boil some water, and we can talk about this over a cup of coffee. Coffee that has to be grown far to the south. I can bring you weapons, foods, luxuries, and delights that you can only imagine.”

The leader sat on his buffalo, thinking it over, then said, “Fine bring those things as tribute.”

Bobby said, “No.”

The leader put a dangerous growl in his voice and asked, “What do you mean, no?”

“Let's say I give you everything we have on us. We are merchants, which means that to get new fast-fire bows, more coffee, and better grain, we have to trade for those things. If you take everything from us, then we won't have anything to trade the people down the river for fast fire bows, coffee, better grain, and other things. I am the middle man. I need something to take back to the people who make those things that you want so that I can trade them for that stuff.”

The leader held his hand under his chin as he considered Bobby’s words; then, after a while, he asked, “What do you want?”

“Lots and lots of maize. You have plenty of maize; why not let us turn your maize into weapons and gear worthy of mighty warriors such as yourselves? It costs you nothing to fill our boat full of maize. Just take it from the villagers; they are clearly your slaves after all. If you own more villages, tell me where they are, and we can move our boat to them to get more maize and use it to get the things you want more quickly. We have many things to offer; in fact, I have some samples with me. If you want, I can make a fire and prepare some coffee, and we can discuss your order while getting refreshed.”

The leader told the village elder something, then said, “If you are going to be our go-between for these fascinating trinkets, then it would be better for the slaves to make us a fire.” And with that, they sat down and began discussing his orders.

While they sat and talked, everyone else stood around. Hetane and Gad because they were terrified. The buffalo riders because they were watching out for their leader, and the villagers because they were slaves that had to follow every order or face the consequences.

As they waited, Bobby found out the leader's name was Samoset, and that he called his men the Wi, after the buffalo god that carried the sun.

As Bobby prepared tea, chocolate, pineapple, and other delicacies, he was careful to eat a piece before offering a piece to Samoset. After trying the food and drink, Samoset was very pleased, and they got down to business. Samoset ordered iron tips for his spears, fast fire bows, chocolate, sugar, pineapple, coffee, and everything Bobby had to offer while buying everything Bobby currently had on him. All for the low price of a boatload of maize that this particular village grew.

In a day, all the goods from the longboat were given over to Samoset, and the villagers filled the longboat up with maize. And then the merchants began sailing down the river.

When they were out of bow reach, Gad freaked out, “BOBBY, WHAT WAS THAT! THOSE ARE ENEMIES OF THE TRADE ALLIANCE!”

“So? We are not members of the Trade Alliance anymore.”

“But they are dangerous men. We shouldn’t be trading with them.”

“We had to trade with them; if we didn’t, they would have killed us. If we simply handed everything over to them, they would have killed us. Now that we have a trade relationship with them, they will let us live.”

“Until they get what they want.”

“Exactly, that’s why we are going to slowly bring in fast fire bows, iron-tipped spears, coffee, and other goods. We want them to have enough that they are always wanting more. But if they ever get content, they will kill us.”

“And you're okay with that?”

“Within ten years, they will be working for us… well, maybe fifteen. But sooner or later, they will work for me.”

Gad was shocked stupid, but Hetane had to ask, “Why would they work for us?”

“Because we are going to sell weapons to them and their slaves. Once they lose their slaves, they lose their source of grain, and the only thing they have to trade with is their strength. We will be able to use them as a mobile guard force, like the Rangers, only more ruthless. Not only will we get a wonderful fighting force, but we are also going to make an amazing profit creating them while their slaves pay us to become our slaves. As poorly as the Wi people are treating them, they won’t even notice the chains we put around them.”