Page 36 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

Globe Rentals

“You don’t have to sell me on the blasted things,” replied the
other. “I did buy a holon unit. Many cohorts tell me it keeps the
brood quiet, clean, and orderly. But don’t you have anything a little
less costly?”
Felnox rattled some dorsal scales in resignation. “Over here,” he
gestured. “The bargain bin.”
The back of the shop was not as gaily festooned and illuminated
as the front, nor, noted Kithlumer with a tightening of several
orifices, as clean. Hundreds of old holons were stacked closely in
cases running along the wall; many bore the scuff marks and
scratches of abuse at the claws of countless broods.
“Well,” remarked the client, “just because they’re old doesn’t
mean they’re not good, does it? I mean, they still work as well as
they did when new?”
Felnox surveyed the selection with a connoisseur’s eye.
“Oh, most of them do quite well; not on warranty any more, of
course, so we can’t give you a refund if you encounter any defects.
But we do check them on return, and holons do have self-
protective software.”
“What does that do?”
The salesperson picked up a globe and popped it into a nearby
unit.
“This was very popular about eight cycles ago: ‘High Jinks in
Hyperspace’. It’s a participatory activity; up to five hundred twelve
players, so even the largest brood can keep itself occupied for
cycloids on end. The outer globe projects into a hypersphere of
infinite repetition in three-space, like so.”
Kithlumer’s exoskeleton creaked as he tried to follow the
colorful convolutions of colliding constellations and quasars.
“Looks okay to me,” he said.
“Oh, it’s in pretty good shape—until you try some fancy
commands. Watch this.” Felnox addressed the unit. “Code red,
level seventeen, imploder at nine-tenths light speed.”
The hologram instantly vanished, and the unit solemnly intoned:
“Unable to execute; please restart.”
Felnox ejected the globe and replaced it in the bin.
“You see, when a holon is damaged, it isolates and disables the
faulty logic or data—up to a limit beyond which we will not offer

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