Page 34 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

Globe Rentals
(Fantastic Transactions 1, 1990)

Swapping out a sleep-cycle for a bit of shopping, Kithlumer
wandered into a globe rental shop not far from his neighborhood
It was tucked away behind a take-out larva stand and a sheath
rejuvenation parlor, but enjoyed a brisk trade nonetheless.
Kithlumer wobbled through the semipermeable portal and sought
assistance.
A salesperson, identified as Felnox by a glowing buccal tattoo,
eructated politely and approached his prospective client. “Clean
brachia, my cohort,” he bleated, “and no slops in your crops.”
Kithlumer, unimpressed by excessive formalities, genuflected
with his hindmost limbs only. “Right, right.” He blinked and
gawked at the shimmering globe displays darting about the shop,
buzzing in and out of each shopper’s field of vision, halting long
enough to unload a synoptic preview of their special attractions.
Felnox continued, missing no beat.
“Your fortune multiplies, my cohort: for new customers, today
only, the first globe may be rented at half-price. Just in from
Erotronics, ‘The Cycles of Nurg’, a tour of the breeding planet
recorded during the last great season of—”
“Never mind that kind of stuff,” Kithlumer clicked his visors
impatiently. “I’ve got a brood at home. Just bought a holon unit to
keep them quiet.”
The salesperson plucked a globe from its stand.
“Ah, I’ve just the thing to occupy young minds: ‘Plasma Physics
and the Structure of Spacetime in a Supernova’. Truly amusing,
and answers all those silly questions with which your brood has no
doubt been pestering its parents.”
Kithlumer examined the sphere, featureless save the shop’s
label. “All that information is really inside this thing?”
Felnox reconsidered his approach. “So you haven’t yet had the
experience of a holon? Well, let me explain.” He signaled, and a
display unit positioned itself in front of Kithlumer’s hunkering
bulk. “You see the schematic? Some actually correspond to entire

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