‘Do you want us to help you pick up the other Primes?* Delcamp asked. ‘Your Main, big as it is, will be crowded, and we have three ships here now instead of one.’
‘I don’t think so … no,’ Garlock decided. ‘We told ’em we’d do it, and in the Pleiades, so we’d better. Unless, Alsyne, you don’t agree?’
‘I agree. The point, while of course minor, is very well taken. We and our Operators – we brought six along; experts in their various fields – can serve best by working on Tellus with its Galaxian Society in getting ready for the meeting.’
‘Oh, of course,’ Fao said. ‘Probably Deg and I should do the same thing?’
‘That would be our thought.’ The two Thakerns were thinking – and lepping – in fusion. ‘However,’ they went on carefully, ‘it must not be and is not our intent to sway you in any action or decision. While not all of you four, perhaps, are as yet fully mature, not one of you should be subjected to any additional exterior stresses.’
‘I hope you don’t think that way about all Primes,’ Garlick said grimly. Tm going to smack some of those kids down so hard that their shirt-tails will roll up their backs like window shades.’
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‘If you find such action either necessary or desirable, we will join you quite happily in it. We go.’
The four remaining Primes looked at each other in puzzled surprise.
‘What do you think about thatT Garlock asked finally, of no one in particular.
‘I don’t understand them,’ Fao said, ‘but they’re mighty nice people.’
Belle nibbled at her lower Up. ‘Clee, do you suppose we’re going off on the wrong foot with uniforms and admirals and things? That with really adult Primes running things the Galactic Service would run itself? No bosses or anything?’
Garlock frowned heavily. ‘I hope not. Or do I? Anyway, not enough data yet to make speculation profitable. But I wonder, Miss Bellamy, if it would be considered an unjustifiable attempt to sway you in any action or decision if I were to suggest that if we’re going to be busy tomorrow morning then we ought to get some sleep right now.’
‘Considering the source, as well as and/or in connection with the admittedly extreme provocation’ – Belle straightened up into a regal pose – ‘you may say, Mister Garlock, without fear of successful contradiction, that in this instance no umbrage will be taken, at least for the moment.’ She broke the pose and smiled. ‘So goodnight, all.’
Belle was still sunny and gay when the Pleiades reached Lizoria; Garlock was inwardly happy and outwardly content Semolo, however, was his usual intransigent self. In fact, if it had not been for Mirea Mitala, and the fact that she – metaphorically – did pin Semolo’s ears back, Garlock would not have taken him aboard at all.
Thus, after loading on only one pair of Primes, that auspiciously-beginning day had lost some of its luster; and as the day wore on it got no better fast Baver of Falne had not learned anything, either – only Oarlock’s intervention saved the cocky and obstreperous Semolo from a mental blast that would have knocked him out cold.
Then there were Onthave and Lerthe of Crenna; Korl and KM of Gleer; Parleof and Ginseona of Pasquerone; Atnim and Sotara of Flandoon; and eighty others. Very few of them were as bad as Semolo; some of them, particularly the Pas-168
queronians and the Gleerans, were almost as good as Delcamp and Fao.
This was the first time that any pair of them had ever come physically close to any other Prime. Many of them had not really believed that any Primes abler than themselves existed. The Pleiades was crowded, and Garlock and Belle were not giving to any of them the deference and consideration and submissive respect which each considered his unique due.
Therefore the undertaking was neither easy nor pleasant, and both Tellurians were tremendously relieved when, the last pair picked up, they flashed the starship back to Tellus and Del-camp, Fao, and the Thakerns ‘ported themselves aboard.
‘Give me your attention, please,’ Garlock said crisply. Then, after a moment, ‘Any and all who are not tuned to me in five seconds will be returned immediately to their home planets and will lose all contact with this group…
That’s better. For some of you this has been a very long day. For all of you it has been a very trying day. You were all informed previously as to what we had in mind. However, since you are young and callow, and were thoroughly convinced of your own omniscience and omipotence, it is natural enough that you derived little or no benefit from that information. You are now facing reality, not your own fantasies.
‘Each pair of you has been assigned a suite of rooms in Galaxian Hall. Each suite is furnished appropriately; each is fully Gunthered for self-service.
“This meeting has not been announced to the public and, at least for the present will not be. Therefore none of you will attempt to communicate with anyone outside Galaxian Hall. Anyone making any such attempt will be surprised.
The meeting will open at eight o’clock tomorrow morning in the auditorium. The Thakerns and the Margonians will now inform you as to your quarters.’ There was a moment of flashing thought. ‘Dismissed.’
At one second before eight o’clock the auditorium was empty. At eight o’clock, ninety-eight human beings appeared in it – six on the stage, the rest occupying the first few rows of seats.
‘Good morning, everybody,’ Garlock said pleasantly.
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‘Everyone being rested, fed, and having had some time in which to consider the changed reality faced by us all, I hope and am inclined to believe that we can attain friendship and accord. We will spend the next hour in becoming acquainted with each-other. We will walk around, not teleport. We will meet each other physically, as well as mentally. We will learn each other’s forms of greeting and we will use them. This meeting is adjourned until nine o’clock – or, rather, the meeting will begin then.’
For several minutes no one moved. All blocks were locked at maximum. Each Prime used only his eyes.
Physically, it was a scene of almost overpowering perfection. The men were, without exception, handsome, strong, and magnificently male. The women from heroically-framed Fao Talaho to surprisingly slender Mirea Mitala, all were arrest-ingly beautiful, breathtakingly proportioned, spectacularly female.
Clothing varied from complete absence to almost complete coverage, with a bewildering variety of intermediate conditions. Color was rampant.
Hair – or lack of it – was also an individual and highly variant matter. Some of the women, like Belle and Fao, were content with one solid but unnatural shade. One shaven head -Mirea Mitala’s – was deeply tanned, but unadorned, even though the rest of her body was almost covered by precious stones. Another was decorated with geometrical and esoteric designs in eye-searing colors. A third supported a structure – it could not possibly be called a hat – of spun metal and gems.
Among the medium- and long-hairs there were two-, three-, and multi-toned jobs galore. Some of the color-combinations were harmonious; some were sharply contrasting, such as black and white; some looked as though their wearers had used the most violently-clashing colors they could find.
The prize-winner, however, was Therea of Thaker’s enormous, inexplicable mop; and it was that phenomenon that first broke the ice.
The girl with the decorated scalp had been glancing ques-tioningly at neighbor after neighbor, only to be met by uncompromising stares. Finally, however, her gaze met another as interested as her own. This second girl, whose coiffure was a
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high-piled confection of black, white, yellow, red, blue, and green, half-masted her screen and said:
‘Oh, thanks Jethay of Lodie-Yann. I’m glad everybody isn’t going to stay locked up all day. I’m Ginseona of Pasquerone. They call me “Jin” whenever they want to call me anything printable. And this” – she dug a knuckle into her companion’s short ribs, whereupon he jumped, whirled around, lowered his screen, and grinned – ‘is my … the boyfriend, Parleof. Also of Pasquerone, of course. Par, both Jethay and I…’
‘Call me “Jet” – everybody does,’ Jethay said … almost shyly, for a Prime.
‘Both Jet and I have been wondering about that woman’s hair – over there. How could you possibly give a head of hair a static charge of fifty or a hundred kilovolts and not have it leak off?’
‘You couldn’t, unless it was a perfectly-insulated wig … but it looks as though she did, at that…’ Parleof paused in thought.
‘Maybe Byuk would have an idea or two.’ And Jet uttered aloud a dozen or so crackling syllables that sounded as if they could have been ladylike profanity. Whatever they were, Byuk jumped, too, and tuned in with the other three.
‘Oh, it’s quite easy, really,’ Therea said then. ‘Look.’ Her mass of hair cascaded gracefully down around her neck and shoulders. ‘Look again.’ Each hair stood fiercely out all by itself, exactly as before. ‘All you young people will learn much more difficult and much more important things before this meeting is over. I can not tell you how glad I am that so many of you are here.’