GODS OF RIVERWORLD by Philip Jose Farmer

Li Po and his comrades left their world just then, and their questions swelled the volume of sound.

Burton and Star Spoon eased the chairs onto the floor. He got up and yelled, “What’s going on?” but only those very near him could hear.

Frigate had put on an outlandish costume for the party. A huge scarlet bowtie, a lemon-yellow vest with enormous silver buttons, a big sky-blue belt, tight white pants with scarlet seams, and lemon-yellow Wellington boots. His skin color almost matched that of the bowtie.

“We came out of my place,” he said, “and found Netley and a dozen others there. They had beamers and guns, and Netley told me that if I didn’t give him the codeword, he’d shoot all of us! So I gave it to him! I had to, nothing else I could do! He and his gang went inside and closed the door … and … and that’s that! We’re locked out! Dispossessed! My beautiful world taken away from me!”

“Not to mention from me and my friends,” Sophie said. She was dressed in ancient Egyptian fashion, a la Cleopatra. A uraeus headband, a naked torso exposing big shapely breasts— what would Alice think of that?—and a long skirt split in front almost to the crotch. She even had a staff with an ankh at its end. Her companions were in costumes of many periods, Asiatic and European.

“I should have been more cautious!” Frigate cried. “I should have checked on the area outside before we went through the door!”

“He’s locking the barn after the horse is stolen,” Sophie said. “Crying over spilt milk. Pardon the cliches, but crises always bring out cliches. They’re not very creative situations, verbally, anyway.”

Tom Turpin, dressed in tails and a stovepipe hat, came up to them. “It’s Thieves’ Week!” he said. “They’re doing all right, too.”

“What about those?” Burton said, pointing at the weeping and bewildered-looking blacks.

“Them? Those’re the good folks, the churchers, Second Chancers, New Christians, Revised Free Will Baptists, and Nichirenites. Boggs and Hawley threw them out a couple of minutes after Pete got his world taken from him.”

At that moment, Stride, Crook, Kelly and their men came out of the lift shaft. Burton left it to others to explain what had happened. He ordered a screen on the wall and called Alice. Her dark eyes widened when she saw the scene behind him and heard the babel. Burton told her what had happened, and he said, “I’m afraid that this may spoil your party.”

“Not at all,” she said. “I’m not going to allow anything to do that. I suppose it will take Tom and Peter some time to simmer down, but they can do it, I know. As for those poor people those ruffians kicked out, well, tell them they can come to the party if they wish. It might make them feel better. Of course, it’s not as if they can find no home or have to go hungry. Well, anyway, you invite them for me. I’ll be waiting.” .

Burton went to the milling exiles, asked for quiet, got it, and passed on Alice’s invitation. All accepted. These had no flying chairs, but they could have them made in the converter in the anteroom to Alice’s world.

Frigate had some drinks made for his party by the anteroom converter so they could soften the shock with liquor while en route to their destination. Sophie took one, a tall glass of gin, but she said, “I’m not so sure that we should spend any time having fun now, Pete. We ought to go over the list of Computer potentialities and put in all the prohibitions we can. We have to forestall anything those scumbags might think of.”

“Good thinking,” Burton said, though he had not been addressed. “However, Alice won’t like it if you miss her party. And I am sure that the dispossessors are going to be so happy celebrating that they won’t be plotting any more trouble for some time.”

“You may be right,” Sophie said. “But I think we should all put our heads together tomorrow and try to figure out everything those assholes could do.”