The Story Untold and Other Sime~Gen Stories by Jean Lorrah

Author:Jean Lorrah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, science fiction, sime-gen, sime~gen, mutant, symbiosis, romance, adventure
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2011-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Reflection of a Dream

The concert was reaching its peak. Police Lieutenant Carla Stenner, in charge of security, had seen no sign of anyone trying to disrupt the concert or harm the Sime shiltpron player.

It was the first time since Unity that a Sime performer had appeared in Gen Territory. The audience, half won over before the music began, were in total accord now, absorbing the most moving music Carla had ever experienced. Such performances would do far more to promote Sime/Gen Unity than any laws or treaties.

Tonyo Logan and Zhag Paget’s recordings could not even half convey the experience of seeing, hearing, and...somehow feeling them in live performance. Tony, Gen like Carla, sang and danced and pranced in denim trousers tight enough to provide evidence of how inspired he was by the music...or was it by the young Gen woman in a pink dress, dancing before the stage? Echoing each other’s movements, they appeared oblivious to the crowd.

But Tony was not truly oblivious. He never missed a word or a note—and now he danced to the other side of the stage, where Carla stood near the barricade separating stage from audience.

Despite the backlighting that silhouetted Tony and turned his blond curls into a halo, Carla saw the wink he gave her. When she smiled in return, he grinned and bounced back to center stage as the brief instrumental interval concluded.

Tony wore a sleeveless shirt, open down to his belt. A white enamel chain about his neck supported a black-and-white starred-cross of a design Carla had never seen before. Against his plain dark shirt, Zhag Paget, the shiltpron player, wore an identical emblem. His hung just beneath his closed collar, so as not to interfere with the instrument from which he brought forth a variety of sounds.

The girl in pink, as well as most others pushing their way down front, might be trying to attract Tony’s attention, but Carla saw as many eyes fastened on the shiltpron player as Tony concluded his vocals and danced once more into the shadows. The light came up on Zhag.

The Sime’s dark hair and pale skin made a strong contrast to Tony’s golden mane and suntan—they were like the sun and the moon, emblemizing the roles of Gen and Sime, producer and receiver of energy. That was the theme of numerous interviews they had given throughout their triumphant tour. Logan and Paget might be the first, but they did not intend to be the only Sime/Gen ensemble to perform in Gen Territory.

The press was here in force. After this experience, Carla could not imagine even the most conservative journalists rejecting the cultural exchange. The eyes of the Gen audience fastened on Sime tentacles in admiration. Tonight that outward mark of the difference between the two kinds of humans produced not fear, but pleasure.

The shiltpron solo swelled out into the auditorium. The light on Zhag dimmed. A faint green glow developed around the Sime performer, brightest near his hands, where his tentacles emerged from their wrist openings.

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