We Open on Venus by Christopher Stasheff

Author:Christopher Stasheff [Stasheff, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-23T21:00:00+00:00

12

“Do you suppose anyone knew we were coming?” I ventured.

Barry’s face was grim—or at least his eyes were; his mouth and nose were hidden by his breathing mask. He had been seized by the same apprehension, but both of us had hesitated to voice it, as if the mere saying of it might have made it come true. Now, though, the fear was in the open, and we had to deal with it. “We must find Publius and discuss the issue,” he said, his voice coming flat and muffled through the breather.

“How are we to find him?” I wondered.

“Easily enough,” Barry said. “There can’t be all that many hotels in so rudimentary a town.”

I looked around me at the bleakness and devastation of graded and rammed earth and low, beige and gray buildings, slightly relieved by garish shop signs. Oh, some of the stores had been cast in pastels, but time and ultraviolet had softened and leached the color till it was almost indistinguishable from the rest. We were looking at downtown Aphrodite, capital of New Venus—and a very negative tribute to the goddess of beauty it was. “In fact,” I murmured, “I can’t think there would be even one hotel. Who would wish to visit here if he did not have to?”

“Ah, but we must consider those who must visit,” Barry said, smiling. “After all, Amalgamated Petroleum has many outlying offices; surely their executives must need to attend conferences with the central management now and again.”

“But why?” I said. “With visiphones ...”

“For the impact of personal confrontation.” Barry turned to me, the smile still in place. “Surely a man dedicated to live theater could understand that better than any. For personal confrontation, inspiration, and intimidation, and for the ceremonies of power.”

“Also for security,” I amended, “if they don’t want some enthusiastic teenager eavesdropping electronically on their plans for dealing with labor.”

Barry nodded. “No doubt. So I would be surprised if the Company did not have some accommodation for visiting executives—which is, I trust, willing to take the occasional tourist from Terra.”

‘Tourist?” I wrinkled my nose at the scent of gasoline fumes that managed to penetrate through my breathing mask—spray suspended in the helium, no doubt. “Who would want to visit this barren—”

“Now, now, my good Horace,” Barry reminded me, “we are guests, of a sort.”

I sighed. “I shall try to remember, Barry. Now, where is this hotel?”

We had asked the cabbie to drop us in the center of town, so that we could wander about a bit and get the feel of the locale—get lost and find our way home, as it were. We had managed to become lost excellently, but we were doing rather poorly at finding our way home.

“I haven’t the faintest,” he replied, “but I do see a phone.”

I looked up and saw the screen fastened to the side of a tavern, with a sign above it that read, “If you can’t make it in on time, phone!” Pleasant chaps.

Barry stepped up, fed in his credit card, and waited while a mellow synthesized voice advised him, “Processing.

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