Frederik Pohl by Black Star Rising

Author:Black Star Rising [Rising, Black Star]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-12-12T21:12:57+00:00

I I

The Governor applauded politely and then called, “Fellow Americans! We are now ready to have the drawing. I hope every one of you has kept the stub of your admission ticket, which you will see is numbered. The numbers will now be drawn at random, and each number called will entitle the erk or Yankee who holds it to form part of the escort party for the President and his staff as they tour World.”

The sixth number drawn was Jupiter’s.

When the party was assembled there were twenty-five of them, the ten escorts who won the lottery, the three high officials from Real America, and about a dozen officials, erk and human, who appointed themselves to the group. Some had a reason to be there, like the Governor herself and the erk A-Belinka, head operator of the matter transporter, who would be an important part of any invasion of Earth—if any invasion of Earth was ever really going to happen. Most were simply just along for the fun. They were too many for carry-birds to deal with, so two hoverplanes were provided. That meant there was plenty of room to carry them all in comfort, but when the Real-American sister Miranda heard that Jupiter was trying to get permission to fly along with them in Flash, she fussed and complained and got on everybody’s nerves until they gave Jupe his permission. Then she gave herself permission to fly with him in the carry-bird.

What a thrill that was for Jupe! Alone in a carry-bird pouch with one of the only two Real-American sisters on World!

What a thrill it was for Miranda, too. Nothing like it had ever happened in her life before. Nothing she saw was familiar. Even the farms were not the same as on Earth; Earth had nothing like erks to share a planet with. Everything she saw was exciting, even such silly and familiar things as herds of inklings pouring down a defile on their way to mate or released carry-birds preying on bird flocks. “Have you ever copulated in a carry-bird pouch?” asked Jupiter, generously. “No, of course not; you’ve never been in a carry-bird before. Here, let me show you what you have to do—”

And what a surprise that was! Because Miranda didn’t want to copulate with him. She not only didn’t want to do it in the pouch, which Jupiter could understand because although that was interesting it was also not really very comfortable, she didn’t want to do it at all. Said she didn’t, anyway. Said she was a “virgin,” which caused Jupiter a whole incredulous shock of unbelief and almost revulsion; why would any sister want to be a virgin?

What she did want to do was talk. No. Not talk, really; she didn’t offer much about Earth, although Jupiter’s curiosity was immense. She acted as though she didn’t enjoy the subject for some reason, almost as though there was something she didn’t want to tell him, though he could not make out what it was.

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