“Cooper’s the only one who’s left the base,” Werhner says flatly. “I don’t know what the hell is going on—these goons spend half their time questioning each other about procedure, the whole dome crew is still here on Guam—Tamashiro, Levsky, Dawes. I think… Look, Rawley, I think they’re trying to set us up, to stick the blow on us. What did your tests show?”
“Nothing abnormal. The same readings as last week. And the week before. And the day after we landed.”
“Still having those nightmares?”
“Werhner,” I say, “they go away. This is a nightmare, this place. Who can live this way? The same questions, steamed food, and look at that cot, that cot’s killing my back. I’m going to get out of here.”
“Me, too,” Werhner says—he is picking up his diving mask and snorkel and fins. “To the reef? Utama Bay?’
“Not now. I’ve got something to do.”
“No swim? Gonna watch the vidi?”
“I wish I were flying,” I tell him. “I didn’t think I’d ever miss it, but I do now. I need to get out of this place.”
“Good luck.” He smiles sardonically.
Chapter 2
Welcome to thePleasureTube
light sensuous sauna
fantasy co-op
lubricious service personnel
foods of the world
aquaplease paradise garden
tactile videon
THE PLEASURE TUBEreserve now
fourteen days and nights
a world of your own
twenty-eight to two-eighty credits
orgo-toto
three separate program classes
CONTINUOUS MOVEMENTLasVenus
suborbitai/deep space
LA SoCal
olde earthe/moonloop
TRIP TO THE SUNrisk venture vector
symphonic synesthetic harmonics
the EnergyWest grand prix
megastars in sidereal concert
NoAm biosphere reserve
SoPac tropical reserve
TOTAL HOLOGRAMtactile reflexive
transcendental sense flight
the world’s only
TOTAL HOLOGRAMour service is pleasure//your pleasure our servicereserve//lie back//relaxtubes daily
thePleasureTube corp.
l.a. trans-port
a division of EnergyWest
106PLEASURETUBE//dial from any codex terminal//106PLEASURETUBEitem 14: If you have only recently learned of thePleasureTube, how did you do so?
[_] nat. videon
[_] travel agent
[_] automag
[X ] other (enter)
leave programmer
SciCom rec area
SciCom.Guam
item 15: Your PleasureTube credits will come from which account?
[_] prog, vacation
[_] personal savings
[X ] GTR
[_] gift or employee bonus
item 16: Please enter your beta function code in the boxes provided below:
[ 2][ 9][ 2][ F][ L][ T][ V][ N][ E][ N][ G][ ]
our service is pleasure / / your pleasure our service
thePleasureTube corp.
Movement itself has made me feel better—and for the last few minutes more exhilarated than I have been since we danced back into the silvery upper atmosphere with our microweather show a month ago, the tenuous landing of our lame ship. I can’t say much for the lower atmosphere of the continent, it is on the brownish side of yellow, but now in descent I can see L.A. through the window rolling from hill to hill, its traffic pattern elegant and intestinal from our altitude, its air light haze beneath its dome. My hand throbs as we lose altitude quickly, the stretched skin of the old scar, hidden in the healing of the new cut, changing cabin pressure.
Werhner is spooked, too—in the month back on Guam he’s left his data entirely to others and now just drifts all the time, psychologically and physically. He spends his days diving around the reef—not fishing or collecting shells—just floating around, swimming past the breakers at Utama Bay and coming in slowly only when the light is almost gone. I told him he should come along, but he said no, he was on too high a dosage. He wasn’t about to go through what I did, and even if he had, there was no guarantee they would have let him go.
My guess is that he’s out there right now, suspended in the blue-green water. I wonder if we’re doing such different things after all. That’s ironic—all the trouble I went through, those obtuse bastards.
As I pass through X-ray and security a bored Oriental asks to see my papers. When he spots my green card, he waves me through without looking at my ticket. Nor does he open my bag—my one leather bag. I’ve only brought a few sets of casual clothes—old blue flight clothes, mostly—I intend to relax. One blonde woman, she looks about thirty, has eight bags. When I ask her what she is carrying, her broad face flushes and she laughs; finally she says clothes, mostly, some tennis gear, wig racks, magazines, cosmetics. I wind up helping her guide her luggage on a cart.
I hadn’t realized theTube was so large—this terminal occupies an entire wing of the Trans-Port. Crowded, all kinds of people, some as young as eighteen, others are eighty. I see a number of very attractive women with men, both sexes in jump suits. Some of the women are wearing tight leather skirts and halters; this must be the latest fashion for women trim enough. The blonde I’m walking with is perhaps ten pounds too heavy for the pastel leather outfit she has on; she is attractive, though, in a fleshy way. I wonder if her nervousness is sexual, like mine, or simply the anxiety of travel. Her luggage is new, covered all over with broad rainbows. I like it and tell her so, her face opens with the flattery, and I ask if she’ll have some free time tonight on the ship.
She giggles. “I’m paired,” she says. “I’m meeting Tonio at my gate, we’re almost there.”
“Paired?” I say, braking the luggage cart to a stop.
“Aren’t you? Not even on your first night? Tonio’s an old friend, but everybody…”
“I don’t know,” I tell her. Then I say: “That should be interesting.”
“It’s on your ticket,” she tells me.
I show her my ticket. My reservation impresses her; I’m going first class on government money. But her forehead wrinkles.
“It doesn’t list anyone,” she says. “Still,” she goes on breathlessly, apparently not knowing what to make of me, “you’ll have fun.”
A tall, thin man with angular shoulders and a sheaf of black hair is making his way toward us against the stream of people. It must be Tonio—as she sees him she puts her hand on my arm.