"It's not a piece of art, I told you that. It's a guitar."
"Tshh! That it's a gui/tar isn't exactly news to me! But what's a gui/tar if not a work of art?"
"An instrument used to produce art," Ferd Harling interjected.
That made the Teladi think. A tool to produce artwork was of course less valuable than a work of art itself. Pity! "What kind of art?" he asked.
"Oh - a sales lizard who believes to be able to tell apart different art forms. Remarkable!" Ferd sneered at the Teladi.
"Tshhhhhh! So do you want to buy it, or do you not, honourable Argons?"
Elena had to have the instrument, it had belonged to a crewmember of the USCSS Dragonfyre and that made it an immeasurably valuable scientific and cultural item. But she didn't have any local currency – credits.
"That depends entirely on how much it is," Elena eventually answered, carefully.
"Say – 7.1k credits!"
"Isn't that a bit too expensive?" She was planning on negotiating an as low as possible price and then ask the Teladi to put the instrument back for her until she had the means to pay. "I should think 1k credits is more than enough."
"Beg your pardon? Honourable Argon, you…"
"One moment!" Ferd Harling interrupted. "Before your scale plate turns dark green, dear colleague. Miss…"
"Kho. Elena Kho", Elena answered with a second's delay.
"Miss Kho, even fifty credits were a waste of money for this rattling skeleton of rotting wood and rusty wire. I have a few brand-new and adorably pretty specimens of guitars aboard my ship. Perhaps you would like to have a look at them? Twenty-five, and one of those is yours. Because it's you!" Ferd winked.
"My highly esteemed sirs! 75 credits for this wonderful construct, this is my last offer. And I'm protesting your taking away my customers and bringing down the prices in my own shop, Fred Harling!"
"Ferd's the name, not Fred. I'm Argon." Ferd corrected the Teladi. "50 Credits, and the lady makes her decision after she had had a look at my guitars. Put the instrument away until we're back, will you?"
"Tshhhhh! Yes! No! When you're not back to gather it within the Quazura, I'll sell it to anyone who'll ask for it!" the Teladi shouted, not mentioning, that the instrument had lingered in his shop for more than two suns already – and for two mazuras in the window – and that not a single customer had showed any interest in all the time.
Ferd nodded. "Naturally. Of course. Thanks a lot, colleague. It's always a pleasure to do business with a Teladi."
Elena had followed the end of the heated discussion more or less uninvolved and she wasn't quite sure what all of it meant. She followed Ferd out of the shop into the aisle. The tall man didn't look if she was following him; instead, he hurried to put a few meters between himself and the souvenir shop. Then he halted so abruptly that Elena crashed into him. He half turned around, leaned his back against the wall and burst out in roaring laughter.
Perplexed Elena stared at the Argon, who was laughing so hard that tears came into his eyes. Now, was she supposed to understand this? But the laughter was highly intoxicating, and even though she'd rather have avoided it, she eventually had to join in.
After half a minute Ferd had himself under control enough again to utter a few words of explanation under his breath. "I'm sorry… oh, I'm sorry! I didn't want to interfere, but… you seem not to have much experience dealing with Teladi, have you?" Elena shook her head. "Then you're a Goner?"
"I sure am," Elena said.
Ferd inhaled deeply a couple of times and held his tummy, panting. "Okay. Quiet now. Heh. See, I know that this instrument is very old and possibly quite valuable. But for a Teladi at the most it's an ugly old noisemaker. Without the right information he'll hardly be able to imagine that you'd rather have this old piece of wood than a pretty, modern guitar made from an amino plastic synthetic resin."
"I'm not quite sure…" Elena started.
"One moment. If you go back now, he'll sell you the instrument for those 50 credits. If we go and get my son's guitar from my ship and take it to the store, and you act a little indecisive, the old lizard will sell you his guitar for half of the original price. Or less."
"So you don't actually sell guitars?" asked Elena. The veil was lifting a little now, but things weren't yet fully clear to her.
The Argon put the palm of his hand against the wall and smiled pleasantly. "Why, no! I'm dealing with information. I'm an info broker. My ship is right down below here. Second to next landing bay. Be my guest."
"I've yet to see the Port Authority", she said, remembering her real problems. Ferd waved it away.
"Well, that can wait. The Teladi are not so picky about it as long as they get their docking dues."
"Okay, alright", Elena agreed. "Let's go, then." She followed the tall Argon to one of the transparent gangways. "So you're a Goner. From Cloudbase or Argon Prime? Or converted?" he asked when they arrived at the gangway and the door opened. Elena only caught a quick glimpse of the information panel and saw nothing but the name of the ship: AP Omicron Hill.
"Mmh. Converted," she eventually replied. The way he had asked seemed to imply one was either born a Goner, or converted to it – almost like a religious confession. If this should really be a religion here then it was understandable why no one could really tell her to be either Argon or Goner; there simply weren't any distinguishing features on the outside. To keep Ferd from asking further questions she couldn't correctly answer, she in return asked him something that had been on the tip of her tongue for a couple of minutes already. "I'm very grateful you're helping me out, Ferd. But I'm wondering why you are doing it, and how I can reciprocate?"
"Just a mo'", Ferd said when they reached the ship's airlock. "Wait here; I'll be right back." He vanished inside a ship that was barely larger than Elena's Getsu Fune. He was back in under a minute, carrying a pretty, light-grey guitar under his arm. "Here it is. Nice, isn't it? I wish I could work it as good as you can – or my son."
Elena took it in her hands. It was truly magnificent; it had a softly curved form and it's lines melted fluidly into each other. The bottom was slightly convex and, astonishingly, the strings were attached to the guitar without any visible clamping bolts. Everything seemed as if constructed in a single extrusion process. Elena ran her thumb over the strings. The guitar's full and warm sound surprised her; the rich overtones made it sound almost like a concert harp.
"Oh, it sure is wonderful!" she exclaimed with ardour.
"It is, isn't it? But to return to your question, Elena", he said while they were back on the gangway. "When I heard you sing back in the shop I wondered if you perhaps knew all the verses of the Stardust Symphony, and if so, if you were willing to play and sing them to me. I'll give you the old instrument from the shop in return."
That was a strange thing to ask, Elena thought. But it was too easy to do, and the prize too valuable not to immediately agree. "Ferd, I'm pleased to grant you this wish. And yes, I do know all of the verses, don't you? I know it may sound strange, but my mother soothed me into sleep with this song."
"Fine," the Argon replied with a strangely satisfied expression on his face. "And it doesn't sound so strange to me at all – except for the fact that you do know all verses and I don't." He shrugged. "We're one people with common roots after all."
Yes, Elena thought, and still it's pretty darn strange because those roots go farther back than you'd be likely to believe. "How old is your son?" she asked just to change the topic, while they were heading back to the shop on the aisle.
"Erki is 11 jazuras. He's got a girlfriend back on Ringo now. Mona, they're all the world to each other at the moment." He smiled.
"So he stayed at home?"
"No, he's here with me on the station. Wanted to meet some Boron he knows from the ArgoNet."
"And his mother? Your wife?"
"Stayed on Ringo. Listen, Elena, it's actually me who's the info broker here, not you. And still, you're interrogating me!" he com
plained with a sparkle in his eye.
"Please excuse my indiscretion," Elena grinned, "but wait until I start pumping you for real!"
They reached Ebelon Souvenirs and entered the shop. The red-eyed Teladi was busy serving another customer, a saurian as well, with relatively brightly toned scales, and eyes more orange than red. They conversed in an aggressive, hissing language, which Elena supposed was their native tongue. She used the opportunity to take a closer look at the shop. Plenty of bits and pieces were presented for sale here, some of which were entirely strange to her, but many were similar to things known from Earth. For example, there was something looking like an old-fashioned postcard rack. The cards showed a host of different images: space stations, large islands and other landscape pictures; one was a close-up on a couple of seemingly very small creatures crawling about on a die, looking like green slugs with tiny feet and scales.
The two Teladi had obviously just concluded their negotiations. The older handed the younger one a small packet and received something that looked much like a credit card in return. He pushed the card in a slot on his desk for a second, and then gave it back.
"Spaceweed", Ferd explained nodding toward the packet that the younger Teladi was now tentatively placing in an orange-blue polymer bag, before he left, hissing a good bye.
"Selling amongst Teladi is quite legal, honourable colleague!" the merchant said.
"I know, I know," Ferd replied, glancing at Elena from the corner of his eye.
The Teladi examined the instrument that Elena was still carrying. "So this is one of your gui/tars, oh colleague. Well, admitted, it's prettier than mine…"
"It is that," Elena interjected. "And it sounds much nicer." She strung a chord. "Would you like to hear more?"
"No! By no means! Twenty credits and the Argon artwork is yours!"
Elena looked at Ferd who nodded in agreement. "I pay," he said.
The Teladi was confused. "But…?"
"Well," Ferd explained, "this lady here is one of my best customers, and even if she doesn't buy one of my products this time, I'd rather she take this instrument as a gift from me." He hoped the Teladi wouldn't remember the fact that he and Elena had first met here in the shop, and had introduced each other.
But the sales lizard had no further objections and just said: "Oh. I can understand that, honourable Argon. May we then?"
Ferd produced his credit card and the Teladi pushed it through the card reader, typed something into a keypad that looked much too clunky for humans, and handed the card back.
"It was a great pleasure to have made business with you, please grace my humble shop again soon!"
Elena and Ferd sat together in the mess room of the AP Omicron Hill, sipping a cup of Silvan tea crowned by a mountain of foamed Yalfur. Elena didn't know what either was, but the tea tasted excellent, not unlike spearmint with a mellow aftertaste. The Yalfur was some kind of foamed pudding that tasted a little like mint as well, but also left a faint aftertaste of cinnamon and clove on her tongue. Even though that combination was quite unusual, she was already on her second serving of the steaming brew.
"Teladi are cutthroats. Consider him originally offering you the instrument for more than 7k, but in the end selling it at a mere 20c. I bet he's got it from an Argon in exchange for a dead comrade's squawk cube or something." Ferd smiled inwardly and stirred his tea with a spork. "However, thanks for your effort, Elena. I trust it's ok with you that I recorded your interpretation of the Stardust Symphony?"
"Absolutely, no worries," Elena answered. After she and Ferd had seen the Port Authority to register the USC Getsu Fune, she had played the ancient song onboard the Omicron with Erki's beautiful guitar, while Ferd sat cross-legged at her feet, enthralled.
"I'm wondering in what kind of information you're dealing in, Ferd?"
The Argon rocked his head. "Depends. Any kind of information someone might be interested in, actually. News. Stock market tips. Coordinates. Blueprints. Star charts. Sheet music and Lyrics of historical songs…" he smirked and raised the cup to his mouth to take a sip. "Why do you ask? Can you offer me something interesting?"
Elena thought about it. She definitely had information to immediately promote Ferd to the star of info brokers. But as helpful as the Argon might be, she could not give away her true place of origin and the nature of her mission. The only thing she might perhaps offer, she thought, was data about interstellar bodies: coordinates of stars, quasars, singularities, jump-gates, nebulae, galaxies and so forth. Marc, the onboard computer of the Getsu Fune, had a comprehensive, historical, astronomical encyclopaedia based on original data from the Winterblossom and it had been continuously updated through the decades of the first colonization era. If she programmed Marc to remove all references to Earth and its solar system – just as if there had never been a star named Sol – this massive astronomical atlas might be of great value to Ferd without giving away any secrets.
"Most interesting," Ferd murmured after Elena had made her proposal. "But of course I'm rather curious as to the source of the data, and above all, how I can verify its authenticity."
Elena had seen this question coming and had prepared for an instant answer. "As to the source – I can only say this much: it's the onboard computer of a very ancient ship." Which is the truth, she thought. "As you know by now, Ferd," she continued, "I'm collecting old items. And as to the authenticity of the star catalogue – you can easily verify it by computer correlation."
Ferd slowly nodded. "Right, lets assume for the moment your data is not already contained within the public knowledge bases for Decazuras. I'm interested and I must say quite curious, Elena."
Elena was curious herself. She thought of the difficulty Marc had had determining the coordinates of this sector; hopefully, the onboard computers of the Argon ship were more powerful and had enough data to prove Marc's databases authentic. She made a confident face and took another sip from the Silvan tea.
Back aboard her ship, she ordered Marc to create a copy of his astronomical database and eradicate Earth's existence from it. She articulated her commands slowly and with caution so the near-obsolete onboard computer could not misinterpret any of her words. After Marc had finished, she ran a positional search for Earth over the modified copy of the database – without any result.
"Alright." Elena had Marc open a video channel to the AP Omicron Hill and Ferd came on the screen immediately.
"Ferd, are you ready to receive the database?"
"One moment," Ferd said, pushing a few buttons. "Now!"
Marc transmitted the modified Database directly into the other ship's main computer. A sign appearing in the upper right corner marked the completion of the transmission after no more than a few seconds.
"Give me a Mizura, Elena." The Argon turned from the camera and began picking away on a keyboard outside the cameras angle. Elena saw a small projection coming up on Ferd's side, but the letters and graphics were so blurred she couldn't decipher anything. So she waited patiently, with Ferd occasionally making an amazed remark, or speaking to his onboard computer.
Five minutes passed; Elena used the time to fetch a dehydrated meal from the onboard kitchen, pour water over it and heat it (she was quite fed up with the nutrition bars). She had just returned to the cockpit, when the Argon turned back to the camera. He seemed a little confused when he didn't see Elena on her seat at first. She sat down with the steaming meal on a tray in her hand.
"Ah, there you are, Elena!" Ferd shouted. His face seemed a little pale.
"You alright, Ferd?"
"I'd like to be honest with you, Elena. The authenticity of this database is beyond doubt. But it's so extensive, it more than triples the data that was collected by the Commonwealth of Planets in all its decazuras!"
"Terrific! So you're interested?"
Ferd paused to take a deep breath and exhaled heavily. His usually youthful face became deeply furrowed. "Elena, this astronomical encyclopaedia is incredibly valuable. I must be hon
est. I couldn't buy this treasure at a fair price; I just don't have that kind of money."
"Ferd, let me be honest to you as well. There are certain things that I can't talk about at this point in time. But in exchange for some information – your own astronomical charts, for instance, and reports on sightings of unusual spacecrafts – the database is yours."
"Absolutely no problem at all concerning my astronomical data. I don't think I have much on sightings of the Ancients though. But I'll send you everything I have. Ready?"
"Marc?"
"Please rephrase your command."
"Please stand ready for data transmission by the Omicron Hill and save the data when received," she said testily. Mark acknowledged.
"One more thing Elena… I took the freedom to transfer ten times 10k to your onboard computer. That's about all I have right now. Should I be able to sell your encyclopaedia – and I trust I will – then I'm more than willing to share fifty-fifty with you. I hope that meets with your approval."
"Very much so, Ferd. You don't know how much you helped me. Many thanks."
"Don't mention it – I have to thank you! I have no idea where you dug out these fantastic star charts. But they're going to make us rich, make no mistake!"
"Wealth is not the only key to happiness – although a few spare bucks on your bank account tend to make you sleep better," she joked.
Ferd laughed. "Quite right. By the way, Elena, I gather your ship isn't signed into the MD guidance system. This will make it difficult to reach you via message drone. Is there some other means to reach you?"
"Unfortunately no, not yet. In a couple of days, probably. I mean, Tazuras. Should there be any message until then, please leave it here at the station for me to fetch." Elena made a mental note to buy a handful of message drones before she left the station and register her ship profile for the MD guidance system. This was the only way to send messages faster than light across star systems – and had always been, right back to the time of Capt. Farnham – so she was accustomed to the concept.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 20
