The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 Edition by Rich Horton
Author:Rich Horton [Horton, Rich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Anthology, Science Fiction & Fantasy, novelette, short story, Science fiction, novella, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Short Stories
ISBN: 9781607014782
Publisher: Prime Books
Published: 2016-06-10T04:00:00+00:00
This Evening’s Performance
Genevieve Valentine
I. Cast off Your Raincoat, Put on Your Dancing Shoes
“Shit,” Emily said, as they pulled in to port. “They’ve lined up Dramatons to greet us.”
Roger looked up. “They wouldn’t.”
“Photographers everywhere,” she said, tugging at her coat. “An Ingénue, a Hero, a Femme Fatale, a Lothario, two Gentlemen—a thin model and a big one, I suppose they didn’t know your size, Roger. One Dame, of course. And she’s wearing my coat.”
She pulled the curtain. “If they’re trying to discourage us, they’re making quite the argument.”
Across the cabin, Peter checked his tie in the mirror and wrinkled his nose. “They want to compare? Let them. Roger, wear your gray coat. Emily, can you find something that doesn’t look like you’re trying so hard?”
She looked down. “The point of this coat is that you look like you’re not trying.”
“Or as though you’re about to molt,” Roger said, pocketing his libris and smoothing his shirt. “Which is preferable to making nice with Dramatons.”
“It will pass,” said Peter. “There are always little phases.” He grinned over his shoulder on his way out, like a romance poster. “They won us the war; let them have their little triumph while people still love them. Come on.”
After Peter was gone, Roger said, “Well, I’m not waiting. I’m throwing myself off the gangplank.”
“Stop stealing the scene,” she said. She fastened the last button on his black morning jacket and turned to him. “How does it look?”
It was big at her shoulders, small at her hips, and she wore it the way she carried off anything absurd. She was a good comedienne; during their first production of This Bright Affair, when Peter got sick and she’d had to play the randy near-sighted grandfather, Roger had broken at least once a night.
“Like you’re not trying,” he said.
Peter was waiting, brushing imaginary dust off his lapel.
He took Emily’s arm with, “Break a leg, darling,” and Roger followed them down the plank to face the Dramatons.
The worst thing about Dramatons, Roger thought as the press closed it, was how hard it was to hate them.
(He still managed, but it meant that he felt like a heel on top of everything else, which was a monster that fed itself neatly.)
Their deployment in the Great War saved thousands of lives. Peter and Roger got draft papers just before the first automaton regiment shipped out, but as it happened, they were clever; the draft was postponed, and postponed, and within six months the war was over.
(When the automatons marched down Piccadilly, victorious, the whole troupe threw confetti and cheered until their throats were hoarse. Emily cried, denied it.)
The automatons were decommissioned (treaties demanded), but the government knew better than to dismantle such toys. Now they were riveters and train conductors and porters. They had endurance to thresh fields, and dexterity to assemble car engines. (Watchmakers were safe; they weren’t as nimble as the hand of an artist.)
An industry for the displaced sprung up overnight: automaton maintenance and modification.
With the proper aesthetic mods, automatons were even decent on stage.
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