(eng) L. Neil Smith by Blade of p'Na

Author:Blade of p'Na [p'Na, Blade of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Recruitment

WHEN MISTERTHOGGOSH SPOKE, HIS LOW, RESONANT voice seemed to emanate from a pair of speakers mounted at either side of his desk. “Please be seated, sir. Will you have something to drink? I’m having beer.”

Eichra Oren opened his mouth to speak, but ended up with an extremely puzzled expression. He pointed to his throat, shaking his head.

“I do apologize, sir. It is possible to vocalize in this medium we are breathing, but only with a deal of training and practice. I use my cerebro-cortical faculties instead—yes, we nautiloids employ them, too—and I would suggest that you do the same. Now about that beer.”

“I’d be delighted,” Eichra Oren told the giant mollusc, without moving his mouth. Why he’d suddenly decided that he could drink with this entity in good conscience defied my merely canine understanding. “Would it be possible to extend your hospitality to my associate, too?”

Misterthoggosh emitted a deep, rolling laugh. “Of course I can. I assume he prefers a bowl—and pardon me Sam, if I may, for speaking of you in the third person. Aelbraugh Pritsch, will you please see to it?” The Elders don’t laugh in a state of nature. They don’t really vocalize except through radio-telepathy. So this was merely a special effect.

“Yes, sir, immediately.” The birdman left the room. I was sitting on a little ottoman Aelbraugh Pritsch had supplied me with to watch the show. I’ve known a lot of strange sapients in my life. Our host was undoubtedly the strangest—and possibly the most sapient, as well.

“I regret,” said our host, “that you are unable to enjoy your accustomed cigar, Eichra Oren. While it is thoroughly oxygenated, the fluid we are breathing carries heat away too quickly to support combustion.”

“I shall endeavor to persevere,” the boss quoted an otherworldly entertainment—a movie—that we had both become particularly fond of. As Aelbraugh Pritsch returned, carrying a long-legged tray with a tall brown bottle and a very pretty bowl, Misterthoggosh reached down into a compartment underneath his desk surface, extracting a pair of flexible synthetic bags filled with a familiar-looking bubbly brown liquid, and equipped at one corner with a tricky valve and straw arrangement.

“Manufactured and bottled,” the cephalopod told us, “in the middle of the northernmost of the western continents. If you’ll examine the label closely, Sam, you’ll see its trademark, one of the two-wheeled contraptions used by separable tentacles to run errands for their owners.”

And there it was, a cheerful red and black machine with white- walled tires, not quite leaning up against a tree, more of a scooter than a bicycle. For some artistic reason, the tires looked excessively fat. The writing was in Old Antarctican and referred to the over-plump wheels.

“But shall we discuss business, gentlebeings? I am not unaware of inquiries you have been making into my affairs. My purpose today is to assuage your concerns in that regard, and to enlist you in a related undertaking.”

We’d hardly started our inquiries yet, being busy with the affair of the missing bridegroom—unless you counted what had happened to Ray.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.