This -was The Path, the driver knew. In time, the elders, such as him, grew weak and unable to serve, and had to be eliminated and replaced with fresh, fierce Young, who in turn served the even more vicious, malicious, and avaricious Younger. So now the swarm would return with nothing to offer but themselves, their own bodies, their own pain and anguish and fear, to be devoured by the slavering hordes of their offspring.
The driver regretted this with a deep bitter regret that the Young -would find added a nice tang. He himself had replaced a used up, -worn out elder -whom he personally devoured only a few brief time units ago. His turn at the Gathering should have lasted many, many more time units. It was not right. It was not fair. It did not suit him. But it was The Path.
Between his agitation and his pain and the lack of attentiveness on the part of the other crew members due to similar distractions, he veered somewhat off course, folio-wing several other members of the swarm -who were also affected and also deviated from course.
His was the first ship to spot the alien vessel. It did not appear to be accelerating, nor orbiting, nor moving in any way. Nor did it appear to be damaged. The equipment detected life signs. The other ships of the swarm also spotted it. It -was still a great distance away and if it -was fast, it might yet evade them. But if it was not, here was food to offer the Young, -who might be so busy feeding, they -would forget to consume a few stringy old elders.
The hydroponics garden of the AcaSecki now blossomed with exotic flowers of crimson and orchid, lilacs so real they seemed fragrant, jasmine and roses of all descriptions vying with frangipani, plumena, and lush lotus blossoms floating in a pool of crystal water, fed by a sparkling fountain.
As each child looked at the others, he or she saw not another child but either a beautiful (if rather plump; Hafiz always made his holograms in the images of his own desire) houri or a dashing thief. The ladies were scantily clad in clothing that included many layers of silken veils and skirts, balloon-legged pants with slits down the sides to show shapely limbs, and lots and lots of clanking silver and gold coin jewelry. The thieves “were clad in Berber blues, their skins dyed by the indigo in their clothing, or in striped robes colored in the soft golds, saffrons, russets, and browns of a desert most of the children had never imagined. Now it stretched out before them, just beyond the boundaries of the gardens. Each child was alone among fascinating strangers, all of them listening respectfully, attentively to the voice of Hafiz Harakamian. Ouds and doumbeks, tambourines and zills, a whining flute spiraled and curled around Hafiz’s words, illuminating each as colored inks adorned the alphabets of ancient holy books.
And that was only the backdrop!
Hafiz’s tales came to life between him and the children.
The story began, “There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, on Kezdet, before the Federation, a poor but enterprising lad, by name Habib, son of a lowly designer of inexpensive gaming software. Sadly for Habib, before he had reached his fifteenth year, his father passed into the land foretold by the Three Books and the Three Prophets, and Habib, whose mother had long ago run off with a smoothtalking merchant of space travel insurance, was left alone.”
He went on to demonstrate how the young Habib found his fortune in a magic lamp – a lamp that, -when used in the sleep pods of space travelers in cryosleep, prevented deaths that had been occurring due to lack of vitamin D. But Hafiz made the lamp look like an ancient magic lamp and coming from it was a genie-in cryosleep.
He was just coming to the next plot turn in this tale when Calum Baird called down, “Hafiz, will you cool it with the special effects? You’re draining the power of the ship’s computer.”
“Nonsense, my boy,” Hafiz said. “My holograms take up very little power.” Normally, he might have taken Baird’s warning under advisement but he had yet to perform his best trick.