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action, color, movement, and sound. And noise. "Plenty loud, eh?" Ragna said. "What?" Susan answered. "Oh, Jake, it's all so familiar yet so utterly strange. I can't get over it." "What I find strange is all this chaos contained within a controlled environment." "Maybe this is how they keep from feeling confined." "Hard to realize we're indoors. Where's all this light coming from?" "I'd swear that's sky up there," Susan said, pointing to the distant roof. "They must pump in sunlight through a series of mirrors," I guessed. "This is being true," Ragna said. "Quite a neat trick, but it is also being much too damnably bright in here." Neither of our guides had bothered to take down their protective hoods and both still wore wraparound sunglasses. I wondered if their aversion to sunlight was more psychological than physical. The other Nogon seemed to be at home, though I did notice some wearing wide-brimmed hats and some with dark glasses. "What do we do first?" Susan asked. "Where do we go?" "You said that you were being desirous of equipment by which one lives in the wilderness, making camp and suchlike," Tivi said. Susan laughed. "Well, I'm not exactly desirous of the stuff, but--" She put a hand on Tivi's sloping shoulder. "I'm sorry: Yes, I'd like to buy camping gear. A backpack, maybe, if I can find one that fits my all-too-human frame. And a good flashlight . . . and, um, I'll need an all-climate survival suit--hell, I'll never find one that fits me. Forget that." "On the contrary," Tivi said, "they are having makers of clothing here who can possibly be accommodating you." "Really? Designer fashions, huh?" Page 111 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Pardon?" "You've convinced me. I'd really like some new clothes . . . "Oh, wait." Susan turned to me. "We really should go get that electronic stuff you need first. Right?" "Nah, go ahead and have fun. We've got a little time." "Oh, good." She suddenly frowned. "Rats." "What? "Now I feel guilty that the others didn't get to come along." I nodded, looking around. "Yeah, they are missing some sights. But I thought they'd be safer in the caves." "You were right. We shouldn't take chances." "Good rationalization." "Creep. Let's go." "May I be suggesting," Ragna said, "that we may be having perhaps a parting of the ways at this point, Tivi going with Jake and I myself escorting and otherwise leading Susan?" I said, "Let me get the feel of this place first. It's big, and if we get separated--" "There is little need for the fear you are feeling, Jake. Unfortunately, Ahgirr are very familiar, with this den of iniquity and other foul doings, being that they are coming here to purchase many necessary essentials which are, rats, unpurchasable elsewhere." "Well, I'd rather tag along with Suzie first. Then we'll see." Ragna made circles with his forefingers and elongated thumbs, throwing his arms out. We had come to interpret this as a shrugging gesture, though it had other meanings. "As you are wishing, so shall we be tagging." We set out into the tumult. We went down several levels and walked through a parklet. Children played there, running about and screeching just like children do all over the universe. There were lots of imaginative objects there to climb and swing from, monkey bars and that sort of thing. Parents seated at benches looked on. Susan was right in that everything was familiar in a way--but every object, every aspect of the design of this area and all the rest was totally nonhuman. Everything said alien. Something odd was transpiring on the other side of the park. A crowd of Nogon was gathered in the middle of a large expanse of green tile floor. Everyone was jumping up and down, facing in the direction of a platform upon which were displayed a variety of nutty looking objects. Household wares, maybe. Maybe objets d'art; who knows? As they jumped, the participants threw small balls of various colors into the air and caught them. As we passed, I asked Ragna what was going on. Page 112 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "This is of much difficulty to be explaining," he said, tapping his headband. "Oh. Is it an auction?" "Auction." He brought his hands up to reposition the headband. "Auction. No. It is in the nature of being a protest." "Protest? What are they protesting?" "Again, this is of much difficulty." "Right." Language barriers are one thing, cultural and conceptual ones quite another. We entered another commercial area. The merchants here seemed of a distinct ethnic group, wearing their cornsilk hair in braids tied off with bright ribbons and floral bows. Their costumes were much more molest. Susan stopped to look at some pottery. Some items were quite attractive, though hard to identify. Ragna was chuckling. "It is being centuries since these people are living in anything but faln, yet they construct their traditional objects and sell them quite speedily. Making much money into the bargain, too." "Indians selling beads and blankets," I said. "You will be pardoning me?" "Well, it's difficult to explain." Susan managed to blow fifteen minutes deciding what she wasn't going to buy. "Susan."' "Sorry, right. Let's go." Next up was a sunken arena where a sporting event was being held. The game looked like a cross between rugby and motorcycle racing. If that sounds confusing . . . well, you'd have to see it. We stopped briefly to watch, but I didn't bother to ask Ragna to supply play-by-play commentary. We went on. After taking a path through a small forested area, we came out into another marketplace, this one bigger and offering all sorts of products--furniture, vehicles, foodstuffs, clothing, you name it. It took about ten minutes for Tivi to find the stall of a merchant who could possibly fit Susan. It was an alien, a slender little yellow-furred biped who looked somewhat feline. After conferring with the merchant, Tivi told us, "Yes, it has seen your species before. It can be accommodating your physique in the style of your choosing. But it says its merchandise is of so poor a quality that you would hardly be wanting to waste your money or your time." I said, "Ask it . . . er, him or whatever--ask where he saw creatures like us." She did. "It says it has traveled to many planets and has seen many creatures-your kind to be sure, but it is fearing that your ire will be aroused when it is telling you that the exact location of this sighting is not Page 113 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html being remembered." "Was it recently?" The alien made apologetic gestures. "It is saying also that this memory is not fixed with respect to a time element. It craves a thousand forgivenesses and begs that you not kill it." "Well, tell him he's safe for now. He was probably fibbing about seeing humans. Just wanted our business." Tivi went on as the alien continued mewling: "It still is insisting that you could not possibly be interested in the worthless articles of apparel that it is dealing in. In matter of fact, it is willing to be paying person or persons to take the junk off his hands." "Tell him he doesn't have to go through Nogon dickering rituals with us," I said. "As long as I am interpreting for you," Tivi answered, "it will be afraid not to be doing this dickering and ritualizing." "What's his name?" Susan asked. "It protests that an obviously high-born female such as yourself, one who no doubt is in possession of uncountable husbands and slaves, would not be interested in inquiring as to the name of so low-born and abject a creature as we see before us." As an aside, Tivi added, "I am thinking it is also a female--and also that this is being part of her own type of dickering and ritualizing." "Tell her that I'd be interested in buying everything she has, and would be willing to pay her handsomely for the privilege," Susan instructed. "Again she is protesting that such a wondrously beautiful creature such as yourself would be ill-served by--" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |