Alan Dean Foster Glory Lane

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"You'd be surprised at the kind of resources I still have access to." He was
staring past Rail at Izmir. "Extremely interesting, your Izmir. I just took
some readings, you know. I can't interpret them. Not my specialty. But I
relayed them to some people who could understand the numbers and they are
very, very interested in conducting a much more exhaustive examination."
"Oh, oh, this sounds familiar. Am I correct in assuming that your intention
isn't to take us straight back to Prufillia?"
Yirunta put a hand on the skinny shoulder, spoke qui-etly. "Now look here,
old friend. Without our help you haven't a chance of getting within a thousand
light years of Prufillia and you know it. By now the Oomemians have scrambled
everything they can get into space, short of putting themselves on a
full-scale war footing. You couldn't smuggle in a toothpick to Prufillia or
any of its satellite worlds without the transaction coming under intense
scru-tiny. Your people, I understand, are yelling, but since no actual
hostilities are involved, everyone's just waiting for it to die down and go
away."
"I don't know," Rail sounded dubious. "This wasn't the kind of deal I had in
mind."
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"You wouldn't be taken to House." Yirunta was trying to soothe his friend's
obvious anxieties. "If the Oomemians spotted you going in, or even found out
what was going on, then we'd be in formal violation of our treaty of
neutrality with both Prufillia and Oomemia. But there's another place where
you can be safe from them, where some of our own people can, shall we say,
assist you in learning of Izmir's possibilities without outside interference."
"I'm going to have to think on this a minute," Rail told him bluntly. "My
whole purpose has been to get him to Prufillia."
"Not entirely. From all that you have told me, your primary intention was to
deny the Oomemians access to him. That you have done, and that we shall
continue to help you to do."
"Hey, what about us? Remember us?" Kerwin said plaintively.
The two aliens ignored him as they continued with their discussion. Kerwin
didn't mind being called primitive, but extraneous was something else.
*9*
"Take it easy, buddy boy." Seeth had come over to chat. Yirunta and Rail were
still arguing, still bargaining. Kerwin had begun to grow bored listening and
had returned to examining the contents of the shop. "Can't you see we don't
matter here? We're just excess baggage. Hey, they might even forget about us
and we'd be stuck here." He looked thoughtful.
"You know, I don't think I'd mind that. I mean, Alvin sure as hell's a lot
more interesting than Albuquerque. I might be able to get a real gig
somewhere, form a side band from some locals. We could start a new trend. I
bet in a place like this, where everybody has access to every-thing, a new
idea, new music, new anything would be worth its weight in cubes and marbles.
I might do better here than in New York, even. This could be my big break!"
"Are you totally out of your mind?" Kerwin looked at him askance. "This isn't
home. This isn't even Earth. Suppose you stay here? What happens when you want
a chocolate shake or TV?"
"First off, man, these food synthesizers can probably do chocolate like
anything else. As for the other, you don't really think I spend my valuable
time watching the bozo box, do you? I bet the entertainment systems here are a
lot slicker." He looked past Kerwin to Miranda. "How about you, sugarhips?
Wanna be in my band?"
She put a finger to her perfect lips. "I don't know. It sounds like it might
be fun, but Mom and Dad might worry about where I am."
"No way. We'd get a letter to 'em or something. What-ever the local version of
Fed Express is. You don't have to tell 'em exactly where you are.
Just say you've switched to another school in another town and that
everything's going swell. If we hit it big here, we could probably make enough
of this garbage," he jiggled the currency weigh-ing down one pocket, "to hire
a ship to take you home for a visit. Same way our buddy
Rail's been doing it."
"I still don't know. Like, I mean, I'll have to think about it. But the
shopping here neat. I'm sure there are stores I can't imagine that carry is
clothes like nobody's seen. Of course, clothes aren't any fun unless you've
got other people around to admire them."
"Gee, that's strange," Kerwin muttered. "I thought their function was to keep
you warm and out of the elements."
"Don't be silly," she chided him. "That's why we have air conditioning and
central heating."
"Yeah. Get with it, dummo."
Kerwin glared at Seeth. "I've had just about enough of you for one day, little
brother."
Seeth's expression hardened. "I told you not to call me that, man."
An instant later they were rolling around on the floor again, flailing away
and doing more damage to their own hands than to each other. Yirunta glanced
down briefly and shook his head.
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"The Isotat certainly knew what they were doing." He raised his eyes to
Rail once more. "You've had time enough to think things over, goodness knows."
The Prufillian let out a resigned sigh. "Then it is agreed."
"Don't look so disappointed. It's really the best thing for you at this point. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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