by Laer Carroll
Gilear introduced them and everyone ordered food and drink. At Gilear's enquiry Jane told of her experience with her flying belt. This elicited several anecdotes from her lunch companions about their first experiences with the belts.
The talk became wide ranging. Everyone was interested in Jane's life on a Protected planet. Jane answered their questions but tried to keep her answers brief though not curtly so. She wanted to know about her companions' lives.
Afterward they retired to Jane's apartment where Jane's two new acquaintances marveled over her books and, after much consideration, chose one each.
As the meeting broke up in the late afternoon Gilear told her that he'd been contacted by seven other people who wanted to see and likely buy her books.
"The news is getting around beyond my acquaintances. I estimate that in a few more days all of your books will have found a home."
His guess was accurate. Within five more days every book was gone. The two hardest to find a buyer for were the two multivolume works by Tolkien and Rowling. One went to a city museum and the other to a university. In both places they'd be protected by an invisibly small force-field generator placed in each book's spine. This way they could be viewed and handled by interested parties and suffer no wear or other damage. This would also protect them from theft.
In between meeting with people interested in her books and in evenings Jane found time to visit Bayview sights. She was accompanied most often by Gilear but Susuki had her own favorite spots to show off. Usually he or she would be accompanied by their friends who wanted to meet the off-planet visitor.
She visited shops and eateries which had no lack of customers despite the fact that their products could be easily viewed and duplicated in the home by holograms and force fields, then made material down to below the atomic level by transmuters at the customers' homes.
Partly, Gilear explained, it was that there was just an ineffable satisfaction in personally shopping for a product. Susuki added that some products, food especially, were created by hand and simple tools in restaurants and shops. They had the cachet of being made by artisans and artists.
So strong was this prestige in Galactic society, at least on this planet, that there were entire villages where practically everything was made by hand and simple tools. Waymon suggested that in celebration of finding a home for all her books that Jane accompany him, Susuki, and Gilear to a weekend at the nearest such village.
A week was eight days and a weekend the last four days of the eight. The four of them lifted off from the ground of Jane's residence mid-morning of Fiveday in just-materialized air vehicles like flying motorcycles. They were going to be traveling higher and faster than lift belts could. They ascended quickly to about 35,000 feet, some six and a half miles.
Here they angled to horizontal travel and about 6,000 miles per hour in a southwesterly direction out over the ocean. In forty-five minutes they sighted a chain of islands about four hundred miles long. The biggest was shaped like the letter C some fifty miles wide and twice that north to south.
At Susuki's command they entered a Down invisible tunnel in the sky. As they descended Jane saw that the island was heavily forested. In its middle a modest mountain range ran north and south providing a curved backbone for the island. Near the eastern side of the island there was a bay that helped to form the C shape.
The inner crescent of the bay was a white beach. Inland of it tiny boxes of buildings ran for about ten miles along the shore. The white, beige, mustard, and red brick shapes were half hidden by trees. All were brightly lit by the noonday sun.
As they slowed at about a mile up Jane could see a business district a dozen blocks long and several wide. In its center was an open square area. Slowing still further she could tell that it was a city-block sized plaza surrounded by shops. It turned out to be a hundred-foot round floor of concrete or something similar. Though people walked in it they stayed away from its center and so it could be used as a landing stage by people flying in using lift fields.
As they alighted a voice spoke in Jane's ears and, judging from their listening postures, in those of her companions.
"Welcome to Oceanside City. We here are eager to serve you but there are a few simple rules you must follow.
"First, you must not use lift fields to get around except in emergencies. There will be a fine if you do so.
"Second, you must not use phones ...."
It went on like that for ten rules, all intended to limit within reason modern technology. The fines were small, leading Jane to think they were more sources of revenue than attempts to keep advanced technology out of the village.
"Thank you," said Gilear. "Can you direct us to the nearest hostel?"
It turned out that beyond the surrounding shops were two blocks of rentable residences. The four were able to find places at one of them. Susuki and Waymon shared one room. Gilear suggested that Jane and he share another, an oblique way of suggesting they have sex together.
"Thanks, but no. I've gotten too used to sleeping with my friend Phil and a different bed partner would disrupt my habits."
"OK," he said. His manner was casual and Jane's Robotic senses assured her that his real feelings matched his outward appearance.
Susuki said, "I have a favorite eating place close by. Why don't we meet back here after we settle into our rooms and we'll go there?"
Fifteen minutes later all Jane's modest luggage was stowed and she returned to the island residence lobby to find her companions already there. They'd planned their arrival for local noon so they went to lunch. Their orders were taken, cooked, prepared, and served by actual humans. This was routine for Jane but unusual for her friends. They commented much on details and their reactions to them.
Afterward they retired to their apartments for a customary after-lunch nap.
Then they changed into light loose clothing, very colorful, for a few hours of shopping. To Jane this seemed like shopping at craft fairs back home. However, there was a difference. Every product was an exquisite work of art handcrafted with only the simplest of tools.
Jane supposed she shouldn't be surprised. People who lived or expected to live centuries and millennia could take many decades to develop their crafts.
She bought almost two dozen items of arts and crafts and had them delivered (by actual humans!) back to her island residence. When she left this planet they would come with her as presents for families and friends.
Dinner was a bit early but lasted long. This was in part because Jane's table attracted an eventual couple dozen other people who either knew her three friends or wanted to meet her. The arrival of a primitive human was moderately big news on the planet of three billion people, every one of whom was tied into the numerous huge lightning-fast social networks.
Afterwards the foursome walked back to their residence through a golden sunset evening for another after-meal nap.
When they gathered again in the plaza outside their residence night had fallen. Everywhere lights glowed golden. Waymon told Jane that they were lit by burning gas from gasified wood.
It was a few blocks to the beach. There was a hundred feet or so of bare sand, then a line of palm trees underneath which tables were set. Inward still was a wide path of hard packed sand, then one- to two-story restaurants and bars open to the air. Some of the bars had dance floors and a tiny area for bands of a small group of musicians.
Jane stopped at the first bar and listened for several minutes and watched the dancers while her companions strolled on ahead, Gilear lingering behind. The instruments reminded her of a marimba, a bass viol, four kinds of drum mounted together in front of a seated player, and a guitar-like instrument lying flat atop a skeletal table. The music was simple and bouncy. The dancing matched the music with lots of hopping around and simple footwork.
"Like it?" It was Gilear at her elbow.
"Oh, a lot. It's a bit like some of the music I play and dance to."
"You play?"
"Sev
eral kind of instruments. One of them would not be allowed here. It's my OmniSonar, an electronic instrument that lets me be an entire orchestra all by myself."
"I'd like to hear you play sometime."
"It's in my spaceship."
"Perhaps the database on Earth has enough information to reconstruct it. Or we could send someone to your ship to retrieve your...OmniSonar."
"Oh, no. Stay far away from my ship. It has weapons to protect itself and its contents and a very smart AI to control it."
"Very well. But if we can construct something similar would you play for me and a few friends?"
"Oh, sure. I'll give it a try."
With that she began to trot to catch up with bulk of the group they were with.
<>
The rest of the weekend was packed with activities which included swimming in the cool ocean under a warm sun, sailing on a trimaran along the lovely coast, a picnic on a small island, and dancing at night. They ate a lot of sea food and lay on the sand near the ocean's edge while listening to all the sounds of sea birds and distant music.
On Eightday afternoon the foursome, which had swelled to a ninesome, spent much of the afternoon swimming in the ocean and lying on the sand soaking up sun. Like Jane none of the Galactics sunburned. The more sun they got the darker their skin became, Susuki like Jane becoming a deep gold color.
After a furious splashing game in knee-length water Jane and Susuki retired for a time to yet another layabout on the sand.
After a half hour Susuki raised herself on an elbow to look down at Jane's face. Jane raised an eyebrow.
"I've been wondering something. The discarded cells from your breath have genetic encodings that mark you as clearly heterosexual not homosexual. Why don't you take any of the men to bed? Don't you find them lovely?" She motioned toward the ocean where a group was playing yet another game that involved a lot of splashing.
Jane raised herself on both elbows and looked. Everyone was wearing bikini-type swimwear, bodies well displayed.
The men all had the slender but masculine build that seemingly every Galactic had. Muscles played under the golden and brown and black skins. Genetically enhanced for thousands of years, their muscles were four or five times as strong as the muscles of those on Earth. They did not need to bulge to be very strong.
"Yes, I do. But I have Phil back home. It's he who makes my tits tingle and my legs want to spread. No one else has that effect."
"Ha! Waymon and I got it right. You're genemodded to be monogamous."
Jane pondered Susuki's statement, decided it was true. Once she had imprinted on a man only he turned her on.
A moment's thought brought an answer to her. Before a species became forever young adultery was an evolutionary survival trait. It aided the spread of more and more various genes than that which would have been spread from monogamous marriages. After individuals became functionally immortal the number of children born had to drop drastically to prevent population explosions. So galactics were genemodded to be monogamous and have fewer children. And she was a galactic.
She dropped back fully onto her back and considered the fact that genemods had been made to her emotional makeup. Did that make her a slave to someone else's idea of right? Did she mind?
No. Every person's was shaped by the past, whether random through chance or deliberate through design. She no more resented the second shaping than the first. She liked what she was.
She could live and travel in vacuum both hot enough to melt metal and approach absolute zero and was comfortable with an inertial frame of a hundred gravities. She could sense a vast continuum of energy besides light. She had a robot which when merged with could speed subjective time a thousand fold. And she could merge with a vast array of machines to become a godlike cyborg.
In addition to her physical augments her emotions had been designed for some purpose. She liked people and was curious about them and when she acted upon those emotions she attracted people to her as if she were a magnet and they made of iron. She liked even her enemies--unless they threatened "her" people when she became a soulless demonic defender. She could stay away from Phil for long times and not be jealous if he turned to other women for sex in her absence. And she felt not a tinge of jealousy. If anything she felt gratitude that others had taken over her job as sex partner--or she would have if Phil had ever strayed.
The best she could discern the purpose for which she was designed was to be a commander of spaceships or groups of ships able both to explore and to do battle.
Did all that make her a biological robot?
She mulled over that for a time, her bikini top over her eyes to shade them from the sun. Finally she decided No. If she chose for some practical or other reason she could take a man to bed and enjoy the sex with almost gluttonous gusto. Similarly she could override her other emotions if a need arose.
That decided she dozed for a time, then rose to yet another acrobatic water game, a nearly ruleless one which let her exert much of her superhuman strength, speed, and toughness against other similarly enhanced Galactics. For a time the dozen or so augmented humans fought a silly game which to Earthly humans would look like a flashing and vicious battle.
<>
In the next eight-day week they traveled from OceanSide to a mountain area where they were able to play in the snow on ski-like footwear. Desert and jungle lands provided other games and sights to see. So did travel to a deep under-ocean country.
Then she and her three companions traveled back to BayView a week before her meeting with the soon not-to-be-absent Guardian. There in her suite she found an OmniSonar waiting for her.
Susuki and Waymon stood grinning while she took it up with delight. She plunked down on her couch, had the room AI replace the low coffee table with a higher musical performance table, and sat the keyboard on it.
She examined the device with its piano keyboard and multiple controls above the keyboard. There were several new blocks of controls beside the original ones. One caught her attention right away. It was labeled PERFORMERS. A few taps revealed its function. Exercising it she brought up a salsa piece and began to play it.
"Look at this!"
The "this" was a hologram projection that projected before or behind her or to one side a simulacrum of the seven players in the salsa band she was simulating
She broke it off and brought up an Argentine tango band and played a few bars of "La Cumparsita." Next in quick succession she showed them three symphony orchestras of 13, 43, and 91 performer sizes.
When she quit Waymon said, "You actually play all those types of music?"
"Oh, sure. I've been doing this since I was a teenager."
She frowned at the controls section. It had more blocks of new controls than the Performers block.
"I hope the people who added these new controls didn't screw anything up."
Susuki said, "I predict you will like what you discover. Over three hundred citizens collaborated on the redesign. Their first priority was to add to and enhance your instrument not to radically change it."
Jane gazed at her albino-like friend.
"That many? Sounds like a too-many-cooks making-for-disaster situation."
"They had a manager who ensured the redesign ran smoothly and ensured all efforts were coordinated. S/he has been doing that work for over a century and gotten very good at it."
Jane nodded. She kept forgetting these people were virtual immortals and took their time doing everything to the closest to perfection as possible.
"I'm sure I'll be happy with their work. I'm amazed so many people were involved."
"Most of us have lived at least a few centuries and expect to live many more. All our needs and wants are supplied and there's not the slightest danger to face. Boredom is our worst enemy. So a project like this is a happy occasion."
"Well, I'll have to pay them back by giving them a concert."
She raised her voice slightly. "Hotel, do you have a room which I could u
se as a concert hall?"
A voice out of the air said, "Of course. It will take a few minutes to get it ready. Do you want to come down and supervise my efforts?"
"Thank you, I will."
Waymon said, "We'd only be a distraction. We'll be on our way."
Jane went to them and gathered them in a three-way hug.
"You have been such good friends to me. If I don't see you again know that I will always remember you."
"'Always' is a long time with us, dear. But I'm sure we'll see you again soon."
The Down antigravity well took Jane quickly to the first floor and a voice out of the air guided her through three zigzagging corridors to a large open space. It already showed a hologram of a music performance hall with padded seats arranged before a stage. It was little different from what she might have performed in back on Earth.
Once the visual mockup was complete the Hotel AI converted it to a virtual hall made of force fields. This let Jane test the comfort and placement of the seats and other such details by sitting in them. After she requested a few more changes the AI converted the hall into material synthesized out of air.
The last step was to check the acoustics of the performance hall by sitting down on the stage with her OmniSonar and playing parts of the several pieces she might perform at her concert. Hotel added force-field dummies in the seats to help with the acoustics simulation.
Jane had the Hotel send out invitations to all of the Galactics who'd helped in the keyboard's redesign. Each of them could bring a companion.
RSVPs quickly came back. Some of the invitees could not be physically there, some because they were half a planet away or even on one of the planet's moons or space habitats. Hotel made some changes to the hall to reflect the actual size of the audience.
Some of the invitees who could not attend asked in their RSVPs if they could attend in a virtual space and include friends. Jane through Hotel, who was acting as her temporary secretary, said "Certainly, the more the merrier."
