“Hello, Mister Hunter,” she said with a sly smile.
Hunter had only heard of holo-girls; he’d yet to see one in the flesh, or at least he didn’t think he had.
(There was no way to really tell, of course.) But this one before him was perfect. Face and shape.
Perfect. Her hair, blond and flowing. Perfect. Her voice, sweet, melodic. Perfect. Her eyes, blue and sparkling.
Perfect.
“Watch this,” the Prince said. He pushed something on the device. Echo’s breasts began to grow. And grow. And grow. She was giggling, almost embarrassed. Just as it became clear that her top was about to burst, the Prince pushed something else. Her breasts began to shrink, almost until they were nonexistent. Echo giggled again.
The Prince gulped more wine, then pushed something else. Echo’s hair turned from blond to red.
Another push, her tight silver top became a simple white blouse. Push. Her skin-tight pants became a skin-tight skirt. Push. Her purple boots disappeared to reveal two very beautiful bare legs and feet.
Hunter was speechless.
This sure ain’t Fools 6, he thought.
The Prince went to push another button — but one of his entourage leaned over and froze his hand in place.
“Better to give it to ‘im, sire,” the man half growled. “He’s the one who won the race. It’s his gift, not yours…”
But the Prince shoved the man’s hand away.
“I have to see if this thing is working properly, don’t I?” he bellowed at the bodyguard. “Our friend here is new at this. He might run into complications. You don’t want his first experience to be a bad one, do you?”
The hulking bodyguard replied: “My orders are to not let you ever—”
But the Prince cut him off with an icy, drunken stare.
“And I’m countermanding those orders,” he said. The tone in his voice indicated this was not the first time he’d barked those words.
Once again he turned back to Hunter.
“You don’t mind, old boy, do you?” he asked.
Hunter didn’t know what to say. He still had a hold of Echo’s hand, and he really didn’t want to let go.
“Mind what exactly?”
“That I take her out a bit, for a bit of a test ride,” the Prince stuttered.
“You’re unbelievable, sire!” another bodyguard said, disgusted. “No self-control at all…”
But the Prince was now ignoring his entire entourage.
It was up to Echo to break the impasse.
“You should let him run his test,” she finally cooed to Hunter. “It doesn’t take very long.”
The Prince let out a yelp of victory. Then he put his arms around Echo, pushed the device’s main control button — and they both disappeared.
“What happened?” Hunter asked, astonished. “Where did they go?”
Erx pushed a mug of wine toward him. “Just wait a few seconds,” he said.
Sure enough, there was a quick yellow flash… and the Prince and the Echo 323 were back. Not ten seconds had passed.
Echo looked the same, but the Prince’s appearance had changed completely. There was now more hair on his head, about a half inch of additional growth, and on his face as well. He was noticeably thinner, and his eyes were bleary. But he looked extremely content and calm. Very, very calm. Like a man who’d just spent a month or so on a deserted island somewhere with a very beautiful female. Which was exactly what had happened. Sort of…
“They went into the thirty-fourth dimension,” Erx explained. “Or is it the thirty-fifth? Either way, the Echo-323 is programmed to bring you to some paradise setting — wherever it is, it’s all projected anyway. She’ll morph any way you want her. Echoes have a large memory. That means you can just go… go far away, for a bunch of time. Days, weeks, however long you can stand it — then be back here before I take another sip of my drink.”
“What I miss?” the Prince squealed in delight.
But before anyone could reply, the club was suddenly filled with a blinding white light. The crowd was stunned. There were a few muffled screams and squeaks.
The bright light slowly condensed into a very powerful yellow beam that became focused on a spot about three feet away from Hunter’s table. The light began twirling, turning, forming a tunnel of sorts. Just barely visible near the source of the beam Hunter could see a translucent face. It was radiating a very warm, soothing light. The face seemed to be at the end of this very long tunnel.
The Prince shielded his eyes and finally got a good look at what was happening. “Oh, shit — it’s my father…”
Flash!
The Prince disappeared.
Echo took one look at the situation, kissed Hunter on the cheek, pushed her own button, and then flash!
She disappeared.
Most of the crowd scurried away. Erx and Berx were frozen in place, though. So was Hunter.
The light finally dimmed a bit, enough for the figure at the end of the tunnel to be seen.
It was indeed the Emperor.
Or at least it looked like him.
He lifted his hand and pointed down at the table.
Flash!
Hunter disappeared.
The next thing he knew, Hunter was standing in the middle of a desert.
Or at least it looked like a desert. It was flat for the most part, though there were some mountains directly to the east. It was dry and hot, too. But the “sand” beneath his feet felt more like tiny glass globules than authentic silica. This gave everything the same shimmering effect that Earth was famous for.
Floating two feet off the ground next to Hunter was the Emperor — or at least some approximation of him. He was dressed in a flowing, all-white gown with a golden aura surrounding it. His face was a complete blank. His arms were raised out on front of him, as if he were sleepwalking. The wind was blowing, yet his hair and clothes were not moving at all. In fact, Hunter could see right through him, clear to the other side.
What’s up with this? Hunter thought. Like many things in the Fourth Empire’s Galaxy, it seemed as if the great O’Nay was there, yet at the same time, not really there at all.
Suddenly a viz-screen appeared out of nowhere. It nearly split Hunter’s forehead in two. He had really bad luck with these things. They always seemed to want to hurt him no matter where they popped in.
The man on the viz-screen looked as weird as the ghost hovering next to him. He had long white hair, a blank face, and that “Special” look in his eyes. He wasn’t an exact twin of the Emperor, but he was close.
An Emperor wannabe?
The man in the viz-screen spoke to Hunter: “As the victor of the Earth Race, you will be allowed to cast eyes upon the holiest of holy things in the Empire. This is the Emperor’s wish.”
“You do all his talking for him?” Hunter asked innocently.
The man in the viz-screen seemed insulted. “The Emperor does not talk directly to his subjects,” he told Hunter, his voice dripping with arrogance. “Especially in the form you see before you.”
“There’s more than one of him?” Hunter asked, looking up at the motionless apparition.
“The Emperor has three modes,” the man in the viz-screen replied. “This one is his ‘sacred spirit.’ He’s calling to you now.”
Sure enough, the ghost was pointing to something over Hunter’s shoulder. He turned to see that they were actually standing near a group of plain white structures built astride a huge, flat, dry lakebed. The buildings looked absolutely ancient.