“Arak! Hurry!” Sufa called insistently from a doorway at the opposite end of the room. “You’re missing the event!”
“Come on!” Arak urged to the group. “This is important for you to see. It’s the finished product.”
Suzanne was happy to break off from the disquieting image of the fixated child. She hurried after Arak, purposefully avoiding looking into any of the other tanks. Donald, Richard, and Michael lingered, mesmerized by the sight. Michael lifted his finger and reached out with the intention of interrupting the laser beam. Donald batted his hand away.
“Don’t screw around, sailor!” Donald growled.
“Yeah,” Richard said, “the kid might miss his piano lessons.” He laughed.
“This is freakin’ weird,” Michael said. He walked around the tank to see if he could see into the barrel of the laser gun.
“Well, look on the bright side,” Richard said. “It’s a lot easier than going to school. If it doesn’t hurt nothing, like Arak says, I would have gone for it. Hell, I hated school.”
Donald looked at Richard scornfully. “As if I couldn’t have guessed.”
“Come on!” Arak called back to the three men from the distant doorway. “You need to see this.”
The three men hurried after their hosts. In the next room they found Arak, Sufa, Suzanne, and Perry standing around a satin-upholstered area at the base of a stainless steel slide. The slide came out of the wall; its upper end was closed off by double swinging doors. Sitting in the center of the cushioned depression was a darling four-year-old girl already dressed in the typical Interterran manner. It was apparent she’d recently arrived by sliding down the slide. A number of worker clones were in attendance.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” Arak said to Donald and the divers. He pointed to the little girl. “Meet Barlot.”
“Hey, sugarplum,” Richard said in squeaky, babylike voice. He reached out to pinch the girl’s cheek.
“Please,” Barlot said as she ducked Richard’s hand. “It’s better not to touch me for fifteen or twenty minutes since I’ve just come out of the dryer. The nerves in my integument need a chance to adapt to the gaseous environment.”
Richard recoiled.
“These three men are also newly arrived earth surface visitors,” Arak said as he gestured toward Donald, Richard, and Michael.
“My word,” Barlot said. “Isn’t this an occasion! Five surface visitors at the same time. I’m happy to be so honored on my emergence day.”
“We were just welcoming Barlot back to the physical world,” Arak explained.
Barlot nodded. “And it’s wonderful to be back.” She examined her tiny hands, turning them over and then stretching them out. She then glanced at her legs and her feet. She wiggled her toes. “Looks like a good body,” she added. “At least so far.” She giggled.
“I think it looks like a superb body,” Sufa said. “And such beautiful blue eyes. Did you have blue eyes last body?”
“No, but I did the body before that,” Barlot said. “I like variation. Sometimes I allow the eye color to be selected randomly.”
“How do you feel?” Suzanne asked. She knew it was a stupid question, but under the circumstances she couldn’t think of anything else to ask. She was distracted by the marked contrast between the puerile voice and the adult syntax.
“Mainly, I’m hungry,” Barlot said. “And impatient. I’m looking forward to getting home.”
“How long have you been in storage?” Perry asked. “If that’s the right word.”
“We call it being in memory,” Barlot said. “And I’m assuming it was about six years. That was the advertised waiting time when I was extracted. But to me, it seems like it was overnight. When we’re in memory our essences are not programmed to record time.”
“Do your eyes hurt?” Suzanne asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Barlot said. “I suppose you’re referring to the flamelike scleral hemorrhages I undoubtedly have.”
“I am,” Suzanne admitted. The whites of both Barlot’s eyes were fire engine red.
“That’s from the limbal fixation sutures,” Barlot said. “They were probably just removed.”
“Do you remember being in the fish tank?” Michael asked.
Barlot laughed. “I’ve never heard the implant tank referred to as a fish tank. But to answer your question, no! My first conscious memory in this body, and in all previous bodies for that matter, was waking up on the conveyer belt in the dryer.”
“Is the experience of extraction, memory, and recall at all stressful?” Suzanne asked.
Barlot thought for a moment before responding. “No,” she said finally. “The only stressful part is that now I have to wait until puberty to have any real fun.” She laughed, as did Arak, Sufa, Richard, and Michael.
“This is our home,” Sufa said from a hovering air taxi as the exit door materialized. She pointed to a structure similar to the cottages at the visitors’ palace minus the large lawns. It was clustered Levittown-style with hundreds of others just like it. “Arak and I thought it would be instructive for you to experience how we live and perhaps have a bite to eat. Are you all too tired or would you like to come inside for a visit?”
“I could eat,” Richard said eagerly.
“I would love to see your home,” Suzanne said. “It’s very hospitable of you.”
“I’m honored,” Perry said.
Donald merely nodded.
“I’m starved,” Michael said.
“Then it’s decided,” Sufa said. She and Arak climbed from the hovercraft and motioned for the others to follow.
Similar to the quarters at the visitors’ center, the interior was uniformly white-white marble with white fabric and lots of mirrors. Also the main room opened to the outdoors with a pool extending from the inside to the outside. The place was sparsely furnished. Several large holographic displays like those the group had seen in the decon quarters were the only decoration.
“Please come in,” Sufa said.
The group filed in, taking in the surroundings.
“It looks like my apartment in Ocean Beach,” Michael said.
“Get outta here!” Richard scoffed while he playfully cuffed him on the top of his head.
“Are all Interterran homes open to the exterior?” Perry questioned.
“Indeed,” Arak said. “As ironic as it may seem we who dwell inside the earth prefer to be outdoors.”
“Makes it kind of hard to lock up,” Richard said.
“Nothing is locked in Interterra,” Sufa said.
“Nobody steals anything?” Michael questioned.
Both Arak and Sufa giggled. They then self-consciously excused themselves.
“We don’t mean to laugh,” Arak said. “But you people are so entertaining. We can never anticipate what you are going to say. It’s very endearing.”
“I suppose it’s our charming primitiveness,” Donald said.
“Exactly,” Arak agreed.
“There’s no thievery in Interterra,” Sufa said. “There is no need because there is plenty for everyone. Besides, no one owns anything. Private ownership disappeared early in our history. We Interterrans merely use what we need.”
The group sat down. Sufa called for worker clones, who appeared instantly. Along with them came one of the pets the secondary humans had seen from the air taxis. Up close it was even more bizarre looking, with its curious mixture of dog, cat, and monkey traits. The animal loped into the room and made a beeline for the visitors.
“Sark!” Arak bellowed. “Behave!”
The animal obediently stopped in its tracks and, using catlike eyes, it regarded the secondary humans with great curiosity. When it stood up on its hind feet, which were monkeylike with five distinct toes, it was about three feet tall. Its doglike nose twitched as it sniffed.
“This is one weird-looking animal,” Richard said.
“It’s a homid,” Sufa said. “A particularly fine homid, actually. Isn’t he adorable?”