by Ken Pence
“How did you get all this information from the innkeeper?” Steve asked.
“He and I shared many, many pints of the local ale. I have more mass and could handle the effects,” Rett said.
“I think you have plenty of stones,” Steve said.
“What does that mean?” Rett asked.
“It is a compliment,” Tod said. “I like your suggestion. We brought a huge assortment of cut synthetic precious stones and the Shuma device can duplicate masses of the stuff if we need it.”
Desiree spoke up again. “We found the equivalent to a bank and they knew about lamlee and fell over themselves to make us comfortable when we displayed them. We got them to explain the current currencies and levels of exchange. We are now wealthy and will require bodyguards. They wanted us to hire their own people. I declined after our stint on Bellatrix remembering our assault and near capture there.
Tod ordered,”We stay in suits – Desiree. I want you to go back out with Steve and get the classiest harness or whatever for LeiLei. We will get precious stones for all of us. You two head out now…suits on active defense. Show weapons. We’ll get classy looking and then see if we can find some big dogs around here,” he said and turned his Dex toward his face. “Summarize this and requisition some precious stones arrangements. Need some five carat ones and arrangements of smaller…necklaces…magnetic earrings…bracelets and anklets to fit LeiLei and Desiree. Irradiated, blue diamonds for the men…simple but modern cuts. We need it soon,” he said and the Dex acknowledged receipt from the stealthy destroyer that was holding above their position.
Steve and Desiree distributed their large purse between the crewmembers so each would have a selection of local currency. Steve and Desiree left with their invisible escorts.
***
Steve and Desiree came back about two hours later as it was already past dusk. LeiLei and Tod had decided to eavesdrop through their Dexs and had followed every purchase. LeiLei had turned down several of their selections and actually squealed with delight at others. They returned bearing their loot about the same time a remote controlled package came to their balcony, returned to visibility and pinged their Dexs.
***
LeiLei slipped on the silver stringed sandals that were as next to nothing as Tod had ever seen but they molded to her feet in a perfect fit thanks to her Dex coordinating with Desiree’s Dex. The five diamonds on a platinum necklace were stunning. The necklace was comprised of a five-carat central stone and two smaller stones on each side. She had a small diamond on each ear held by a magnet and a beautiful diamond and ruby bracelet. A tight harness in a particularly disturbing pattern to the human males completed the outfit.
“Now we go down and find a place to party and get seen. Desiree, if I know you – you have already found a place for us to go. Who will arrange transportation? Progeny – I want two of you to be visible with weapons at all times. They will try to disarm us wherever we go so disappear the guns before we get in sight. Bust up anyone who bothers us. Set a field to prevent gas and set your suits so you’ll stay mostly sober – mostly.”
***
From the journal of Steve Cutcher
The innkeeper was more than willing to arrange us transportation for a fee and Tod chuckled when he saw the driver from the spaceport pull up. He was a little put off by the two human-like progeny as they kept their faces impassive and looked like security everywhere.
The innkeeper and the driver both sucked in air and went goggle-eyes when LeiLei came out. She had used a small sonic cleaner and some eye shadow, eyeliner, and Desiree had used some type of conditioner on her body/fur – she was absolutely stunning. The driver nearly fell out of the vehicle so he rush over and offer a hand to help her into the car as any chivalrous dandy on Earth. She gave him a smile and, I swear, his legs almost buckled. The innkeeper shouted encouragements as they drove off as a means to advertise these notables were staying at his establishment. There were some heads, popping out as they drove along. We drove a long way and then pulled up at this enormous building. There were Lemsa all over the place and obvious security at the front keeping out a line of male and female Lemsa undressed to the nines. They didn’t know what to make of us so we acted like we owned the place – the right choice – and went in and cleared out a table that hastily cleared out when Rett sat down in an empty spot and glared.
There were Lemsa on a small stage wailing into a sad example of a public address system. LeiLei swept in and the whole room got quiet – she was damn lovely – evidently, even among the Lemsa, she was a rare beauty.
We ordered some of the local ale and sat there drinking quietly when Desiree said something to LeiLei who looked shocked and then took a long pull of the ale and got up. I thought she was going to the rest room. She sashayed up to the stage where the lone Lemsa was rasping into the microphone. She climbed the steps and there was not a male anywhere – Lemsa or human – that didn’t follow her as she walked across the stage and stood by the very inebriated Lemsa. She leaned forward and every eye was on her as she took the microphone and the previous singer stumbled away. She said something into her Dex and waited – she looked glorious.
Suddenly a spotlight – actually a hand light set on broad beam – came from across the room. The light was held by one of the progeny. Suddenly, music filled the room from her wrist Dex set at maximum with its Rimloff effect, ionization speakers. LeiLei started singing and she had a beautiful voice. Chills ran down my spine – I recognized the tune but the words were in Lemsa – it happened to be “Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan. You could hear a pin drop as she finished and I’ll be damned if I didn’t see a couple of old Lemsa rubbing tears out of their eyes. The place went crazy a few seconds later and the Lemsa jumped up and started roaring – no shit – full throated roars and beating their mugs on the tables.
She touched her Dex and it began another song – I don’t know anything but one line of lyrics or chorus of any song and I didn’t know this one but my Dex said it was Mercy – hell – it was in Lemsa too and sounded great. The place went nuts when she finished and she got lots of offers – the progeny moved to the edge of the stage to keep the Lemsa from rushing it but LeiLei didn’t leave. She walked to our side of the stage and indicated she wanted Desiree to come up on stage too. Desiree blushed but never turned down a challenge.
Tod was going nuts – worried about his wife but Desiree’s formfitting silver suit would have gotten catcalls – haha – on any planet. It was only her un-Lemsa-like appearance and her glittering diamonds in abundance that stayed their comments. Desiree’s long hair was in bun and the Lemsa went wild when she shook it out and flipped it back where it just touched her shoulders. Evidently long hair was attractive to Lemsa also. The crowd went quiet as the waited in anticipation. Another hand light lit her up also and Tod looked across to room where another progeny stood with a hand light.
The two females talked with other for a minute and then music came from two Dexs – plenty loud. LeiLei started singing and I couldn’t help laughing. She was singing “You Don’t Impress Me Much” – an old Shania Twain song translated into Lemsa. Evidently they had asked for songs that translated well. LeiLei would sing a part and then Desiree would sing a bit – the Lemsa were slapping their hands on the tables to match the beat. Pandemonium. The two females spoke into their Dexs for a second and then the lights went out – it was pitch black except from some weak glow strips at the edges of the room. Suddenly two spotlights hit Desiree and she started singing – “These Boots Are Made for Walking” – no – really. She pulled it off and stomped across the stage. When she got to the part about “these boots are gonna walk all over you” – she and LeiLei would stomp across the stage.
The erotic effects of the silver suit, long hair and seeing two sensuous, beautiful females were not lost on the crowd. The pair bowed together during the roaring accolades and then the progeny and the Earth crowd made their way out to their waiting transportation. Many patrons rushed
out to thank them and see where they were going. They drove slowly away because tavern patrons were running alongside their vehicle for a kilometer. They arrived back at their lodgings – exhausted and exhilarated – what fun.
Tod called them all together before they were to go to bed – it had been a long day. “This was a good idea…thank you LeiLei and Desiree…I think we ought to explore this a bit more. We ought to actually put together a show for another venue tomorrow. These people have never seen anything like us. I want to build us a reputation and then offer to trade. These people have little here but from what I hear – it is difficult to get invitations to the upper echelons here. LeiLei – would you talk with the innkeeper and find us a venue for tomorrow. Tell them we will pay the difference of double what they earn in a night just to perform. Get a pretty big place. Tomorrow we become a show – Rett – you are our manager. You get to keep ten percent of any commission we make.”
Rett snorted in disgust but they could tell he liked the idea.
***
The group had gotten some good ideas together…most based on technology but the group was full of talented amateurs. LeiLei had more talent then all of them together though. She was the main act. The innkeeper jumped on the idea of his guests putting on a show – they were obviously wealthy and yet they were staying in his inn. He figured aliens weren’t Lemsa so who knew what they thought. Several nightclubs had sent representatives anyway so he chose the swankest one he could – a good-sized club in a decent area. He was rewarded with a nice little advance, which he kept.
The ride to the Artist Studio – the name of the club in Lemsa was a bit longer than the night before and the place was a lot bigger with a nice, well-lighted stage, better sound system and a large auditorium with tables. They got there early and used the large staging room to make their final plans. One of progeny asked to see the sound system and used some lamlee to make it perform adequately.
Everyone was nervous as the time approached and they could hear the crowd building outside. Word of the past performance must have spread around because the crowd was calling, “LeiLei…LeiLei…we want LeiLei.”
The four progeny marched out on the stage and bowed to the audience. They just said, “We are here to trade – this is to just get your attention – we are from the planet Earth.” They then did something impossible without their suits and tremendous strength…three leapt into the air with a somersault on either side of the speaker and he put his arms out, with palms up and the two somersaulting progeny landed on his palms. The two standing on one leg in the palms of the first progeny nodded to the fourth. The crowd’s heads snapped to the remaining progeny off to the side. A drum roll courtesy of a Dex stating playing loudly and a spotlight lit the outstretched palms of the top two. The fourth ran a few steps as if to check his distance and set the stage. The crowd hushed as the drum roll began again and the progeny ran impossibly fast and leaped into the air flipping three full revolutions before landing lightly in the palms of the top two.
The crowd went wild. Cries of “wires and impossible were shouted out but the crowd got quiet as the one on top clapped his hands together, bowed to the crowd and then appeared to lose his balance and the whole assemblage tumbled down and they all rolled to their feet and bowed. The crowd pounded the tables and roared as the lights dimmed slowly. It was incredibly dark in the auditorium when a strangely accented voice rang out in Lemsa. “You are here!” and there floating on the stage was floating 3D projection of their solar system. Their world, Lupia 6, displayed and zoomed in, showing their city. The 3D image then zoomed out and Epsilon Lupi got smaller and smaller.
“You live here. We are from here,” the progeny said in his accented Lemsa. The image zoomed out and the image soon centered on a small yellow sun that got bigger and bigger while the view passed spectacular Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars – through the asteroid belt where they seemed to float out in the audience and the Lemsa could be seen pawing at them and dodging out of the way. Finally the view centered on Earth and zoomed in on the bright blue world and zoomed some of the city streets around the world.
The view zoomed in on an immense square with strange buildings in the background – actually the 440,000 m2 of Tiananmen Square in China on Earth. There was one individual standing in the center of the square – it was LeiLei, resplendent in her jewels (at least a 3d image of her). The image zoomed in and then circled her and zoomed out as the light faded to near dark. A spotlight gradually brightened showing LeiLei standing exactly in the same spot but now it was she and not just a 3D image.
“My name is LeiLei. I was born across town from here but decided to come visit. I wish to sing you an Earth love song. It is called ‘Make You Feel My Love.’” The song brought down the house. They had never had this scale of theatrics or such a powerful message. The songs that followed did the same. She finished with ‘I Will Always Love You.’ The Lemsa went crazy and offered drinks and wanted to talk. We all talked with them and we were buddies/friends/stars. The progeny were mobbed. The Lemsa asked them how they could do what they did and the progeny did well to multitask and guard us when they were mobbed themselves. One of them actually lifted a Lemsa with one hand. They had many offers of drinks.
The Fats Cats
Rett was approached with an offer later that evening.
“I represent the ruling class. We require you to perform for us at this location tomorrow night,” the elegant, older Lemsa said and gave a note to Rett.
Rett looked at the note and placed it back down on the table.
“Shall I tell them when you will be there or do you need transportation?”
“Transportation will not be necessary as we have no intention of coming,” Rett said and looked away knowing his suit was on defensive mode.
“You don’t understand,” the Lemsa said. “I have the authority from the ruling class to ask you for them. It is not me but my masters that have insisted you attend them,” he said.
Rett grasped the stone in the old Lemsa’s necklace. He leaned forward to examine the stone. “Poor clarity with many imperfections. You will note we all have flawless diamonds – the humans have blue diamonds – very rare and with absolutely no imperfections. We prefer the company, here, right now. These people appreciate us for what we do.”
“These people hardy qualify as civilized,” the Lemsa said.
“Exactly. We will not be coming tomorrow. Thank you for your elegant invitation. Be off,” Rett said.
The elderly Lemsa left in a snit and Rett approached Tod to explain the invitation. Tod laughed and signaled everyone to mount up and leave. The owner of the establishment came up as they prepared to leave.
“Will you come back tomorrow?” he asked.
“Do we owe you anything?” Tod asked.
“Owe me? I made more tonight than I make in a week of good days. I suppose you will go to entertain the upper classes now…I saw the messenger,” he said with an obvious sadness.
Tod laughed which startled the owner. “We turned them down. Is there a larger place we could perform? Would you arrange it for us in three nights?”
“I would be honored but you owe me nothing. I will put someone else in charge so I can come watch. I only saw glimpses of the show I was so busy and you were wonderful,” said the owner.
“Here,” Tod said and handed the owner a small satin bag containing four cut gems of ruby and sapphire. “This is for your trouble and for any lost business tomorrow if we draw away your crowd. We are essentially traders and warriors – not entertainers. We do this because it is fun and a method to become known. We would rather become known this way than having to kill all the Allung in the galaxy.”
“You know Allung? You have killed some? You are warriors?” the owner asked as he had heard tales from travelers. He was especially well informed.
“Our forces destroyed over 2,000 of their ships recently. We retrofitted many of them after we boarded and captured them. It saved us a lot of time rather than b
uilding our own,” Tod said.
“You boarded their ships and captured them?” the owner whispered. “They have never lost a battle.”
Tod laughed and signaled for Rett to hand him something out of his bag. “Here,” Tod said. “This is a training cylinder describing weak points of the Allung, where and how they hide/use weapons and some clips of us defeating them in battle. Pass it around. Have your people look at it before you send it to the higher classes. Here are three more,” Tod said and handed the owner three more of the small cylinders.
***
We were informed later that evening that we would be performing at the largest venue in the city so we decided we needed a lot of prep time – more than we had. We put a progeny in Tod’s room to guard – extended our helmets and vanished. We actually just turned our suits invisible, turned on our suit propulsion and flew up to the paralleling destroyer over the city from Tod’s balcony. We then got ten hours of sleep in accelerated time and worked a week of accelerated practice in a converted bay on the ship. We were going to have a hell of a show.
***
“They turned us down, mistress. They dismissed me,” said the messenger to his bejeweled mistress. She was well on in Lemsa years and controlled much of the commerce in the city. She did not like aliens – especially ones she couldn’t control.
“What else have you found out about them? You better have more than a rejection for me,” she said with the harsh tone of one dealing with her minions.
