Tethered Worlds: Star in Bankruptcy by Gregory Faccone

Author:Gregory Faccone [Faccone, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: V Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty One

Just like the concourse benefited from the synergy of proximity, so did social entertainment establishments that cater to long adolescents, and those who act like them. The most popular grouped their gigantic modular structures to be accessed from the same bank of lifts. It became known as Club Spoke.

A colorful crowd was already gathered waiting for the lifts to open as club capacity allowed. The four of them moved to the far end where Zoraida placed a casual hand on the lift control panel.

“These clubs probably run around the clock,” Solia said.

“It might be a while, judging from the crowd,” Durn said.

Suddenly the lift next to them opened. Heads turned their way.

Zoraida put on a smug grin. “We don't have time to waste. Get in.”

The lift doors closed before any other patrons could join them.

“That wasn't… normal,” Jordahk noted.

“Somebody owed me a favor,” Zoraida said, “and generated us a VIP code.”

Darren nodded. “Fitting.”

With the lift grav weave holding them steady, Jordahk barely noticed its orientation rotating to match the centrifugal gravity of the clubs out on the spoke. The doors opened onto a different world. Music, lights, outrageous signage, and advertisements inundated them from all directions. It was all the more dramatic by its difference from the professional, high-class plaza from which they'd come.

Two girls exited another lift. One pulled a small device away from her eye and handed it to the other. They stepped against the wall as the second girl placed it against her eye. After a faint hiss it strobed a short pattern of light.

Fanta-C.

Jordahk had seen the drug before. It was a problem on the rise, perhaps especially at Aventicia where long adolescents and too much coin were a bad combination. It spoiled perception and repeated use could burn a body out.

The first girl shucked loose her outerwear and touched a device on her wrist. Her coat crunched up into the device revealing a skintight bodysuit. It was one quarter opaque, and three quarters glowing transparent material. The shirt of the second girl crumpled away leaving only strategic dabs of self-illuminated paint and little else.

“Oh, so it's that kind of place,” Zoraida said.

Her hemline shifted, raising high on her thigh, and the top of her dress peeled away, becoming a halter completely exposing her back. Darren ogled with a knowing grin, but the site startled Jordahk. The visceral, back-covering colortat of, of…

“Sekhmet,” Max link-said. “An ancient Egyptian deity. A warrior goddess and fierce hunter.”

Jordahk was momentarily speechless at the oscillating color and light spectacle. Solia threw something at him to get his attention. It was her jacket.

“I guess we're going to have to up our game to blend in,” she said. “Hold on to that, will you?” Tracing a path along the top of her bodysuit legs, the material below peeled off creating shorts so short that he wondered how they still functioned as shorts. “These too,” she said throwing the earth-colored material at him.

Her treaders went soft and rose to knee height. Reaching behind, she adjusted her barrette to prop her braided ponytail high off her head.

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