The best way for her to protect her moneymakers was to step away from them for the moment. She hated so much to sacrifice the pictures she could be taking of the rabid mob closing in on the object of their fear and hate but since that was herself she didn’t have a lot of choice. She had to move fast, the nearest assailants were almost close enough to start swinging hard things at her.
Regimentator knew a few things about misdirection so she jumped at the group and shouted, “Boo!” That had the intended effect of momentarily stopping them in confusion.
Then she broke into a run, heading for her car. She made sure her camera and all the memory cards were in her fanny pack, then she unhitched that from around her waist as she ran.
As she had planned it, everyone in the mob was behind her so for a short time when she ran around to the far side of her parked car they couldn’t see her hands. During that short time she dropped the fanny pack by the car so it bounced and ended up just under the vehicle out of obvious cursory view.
Then she sowed more confusion among her cautious pursuers by reversing direction, putting on a fierce expression, clenching her fists, and running back at the mob.
The majority were intimidated by that display and slowed and moved apart – so she ran right through the middle of the group growling and shouting out aggressive sounding nonsense.
The mobs’ bravery and resolve returned once she was past them and heading away down the lot. They took up the chase again, a few learning from her example and shouting out fierce noises to encourage everybody in their intent.
Two police cars with flashing lights entered the lot at the far end and headed toward the action, hoping to figure out what was happening here before they had to get involved. Regimentator ran for them.
Krinkle walked calmly to and around Regimentator’s car. After a glance around he picked up her fanny pack, opened it took out her camera. He slipped out the memory card and pocketed that along with the several others that were in there.
Looking around he noticed a car with two men in it who were probably able to see what he had done. He held up the camera and used the zoom lens to get a closer look at them, confirming his suspicion. He put the camera back in the fanny pack, and that back on the ground where he found it, then casually headed back to his own car.
Krinkle didn’t turn to watch that but was confident he knew what would and did happen. He hadn’t gone far before Gorilla drove his car up to Regimentator’s, Sparker got out of the passenger seat, grabbed the fanny pack and took it back inside with him, and they drove off.
Krinkle returned to the spot where he last saw Nerber. He knelt and sorted through the debris of shredded newspaper for recognizable pieces of the Nerber or Wilburps but found none. He looked skywards, then sat on the ground staring up. He wasn’t sure what he had been a small part of here but he could fantasize. Somewhere up there were other worlds and other creatures that might be a lot like humans.
Truer that he could imagine based on the part of the story he knew.
Chapter 20
On the home planet things played out in their own way of course.
Ormelex City was colorful in a happy cartoonish sort of way but totally barren of any vegetation. The area beyond the city was also barren but those places were not artificially colored so they looked as empty and desolate as they actually were.
The A.D.U. company headquarters was an imposing building covered in tiles of several shades of red and orange with Amuse & Distract U spelled out in large black letters on each side.
The directors’ office in the A.D.U. building was a large, high-ceilinged space but plain with little adornment since with no vegetation for inspiration all Ormelexian decor was flat and simplistic.
Delmus, a male with red cheeks and dark feet, and Ackack, a male with dark cheeks and red feet, lolled in comfortable chairs under beams of light coming through ceiling portals.
Large view-screens with no hardware apparent occupied much of one long wall with a large control console and desk facing the screens. These could show segments of the same visual to produce one very large image or up to three dozen different ones at once. Bits of several videos showing Ormelexians in violent encounters with one another or with other things, living and mechanical, were on different screen areas. These fights involved a lot of head butting, often with various augmentations of the head spikes, and flailing feet with strapped-on claws.
Delmus said laconically, “It's hard being in charge - although of course it has its perks. All the audience wants is violence but they soon get bored with each new variety we search out for them.”
When Ackack slid his chair closer to the desk the beam of light disappeared as the ceiling portal closed. “I'm brimming with new energy but I can't claim to be brimming with new ideas for what to offer nextmost. Fickle audiences don't deserve us.”
Delmus also slid to the desk and his light beam went off. “But without them we have nothing special to offer to get the perks of being in charge so we have to keep them fixated so they’ll be entertained and stay docile.”
Nerber, looking around before he meets the dog, appeared on a segment screen, then was shifted to be the full screen visual.
“Will this be the new Can't miss it?” Ackack wondered.
“We had both better hope so,” Delmus said with a mirthless laugh. “There's some funding on the side for helping the governors explore the universe without seeming to put any of us at risk but the real money is from the fickle audience's ‘amuse me’ fees.”
“It’d be so much simpler if we had a monopoly on supplying the distractions but with the huge profits to be made, both in cash and in influence and clout, the competition for the few licenses the governors grant is fierce. Bips fump, there’s not even much point in arranging lethal accidents for your competitors when a new group will get the go-ahead to take over the license before the removed one’s bodies fade to gray.”
“Of course if you hate the very scales off their feet it’s still a bit satisfying to have some of the competitors removed.”
“Of course. But that’s as much a personal as a business decision. It’s risky though since the governors understand the motivation but don’t approve of such actions. If the removal is sloppy they may reassign your license which defeats the whole point of paying an assassin. Sure you get that bit of satisfaction, but in the process you can lose the best thing you have going for you,” Ackack said with a sigh of beechens.
“I sneered to set the proper tone when the program idea lackeys said only an intergalactic twist would keep an audience glued to challenge shows much longer. As always they said they only need a little more time to come up with the big new idea for a show that’s something entirely different but basically the same since that's what we know how to package and the audience know how to consume. Then the governors told us what they wanted and it all came together. Sending dorks off to do silly challenges on a far away planet is my most brilliant ratings gimmick to date.”
“Our most brilliant ratings gimmick to date. Unless it fails. Then of course I'll make sure you get all the blame but we'll still both lose money and clout. It's risky since nothing like it's ever been done before.”
“Challenge shows are new? They've been the backbone of the whole Pacification By Distraction With Entertainment industry for as long as I've cared about making money.”
“Off the planet challenge shows are new and very now. Secretly going along with the governors' plans to explore the cosmos is also new. We stay on their good sides and make the big money by trying to pacify the masses so they'll let the governors get richer and do whatever they want. It’s mimzy plishers that the only shows getting good ratings today are so lethally violent that no sane citizens will go on them as contestants. They bred other species as fighters but the audience soon got bored with those - leaving the breeders with lots of useless and hard-to-control fighting things. One of these days that’s gonna come back to haunt those who can’t duck the blame.”
Various violent action scenes reappeared on several of the screen sections while the central area now showed Nerber talking with Ipanema. Delmus said, “How long before the two moralists on our whole planet who object to any supposed intergalactic exploitation find a way to get attention for their nonsense claims? Guys who want to be noticed even for the wrong reasons always find dumb things to protest.”
“I’m not much concerned about that unless there’s a big change in the panel of governors. The present ones understand that it’s better if some things are never allowed to be talk-talked about in the open even if they maintain the absurd claim that anyone should be free to talk-talk out his or her thoughts. Censors they are and phony’s they are on this point – but don’t quote me on that. The governors know subtle ways to keep small groups from being heard – and have the means to use the unsubtle ways if those seem called for. Even talking about interactions between different kinds would open the governors program to search the universe for vulnerable planets to widespread scrutiny. Consequently that’s a no-no so it won’t be allowed to happen. They’ll decide that a few individuals who disappear and aren’t heard from again is an acceptable price.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“The technicians are working on the best translation of the stuff from the far planet. The producers sent us their version but we're juicing it up for maximum impact. The odd pattern of not having six letters in all names for inhabitants and eight letters for their zerpies caused a lot of confusion.”
“I saw the memo about that.”
“Recognizing their naming dumbness makes it clear that we've misunderstood a lot of the signals from there that we've intercepted over time so our guys have warped ideas about what the creatures there are like. We'll have to see if that affects the new show's ratings. Fortunately what we've broadcast before this we always labeled as ‘edited, altered, and amplified’. So we can continue to alter and amplify and just plain fabricate any stuff that seems to amuse the audience and might extend their interest and their number.”
“Meanwhile it's smart to plan ahead,” Delmus said. “I have the research guy searching the science reports for hints about other planets we might reach for the next-most challenge season.”
“Assuming Whizybeam holds together and it is possible for us to send and get back bodies and signals in usably fast time.”
“An exciting part of the whole Far-Out Show experiment that we’re hardly even talking about. Is two-way traffic with really far places through a snaggiewarp possible?”
“It seems that the inhabitants of the far off planet know enough about snaggiewarps to have a name for them but so far our zerpies find no hints in their records that they have any practical knowledge about them. They call them wormholes, whatever that might mean to them. Superior as we are we still have basic questions about them too. Do we yet for truly sure understand the risks and the quirks? Have we devised technology to let us send and get back messages and even travelers? And if not, who will we blame because we can’t do that?”
“So far we’re getting the signals quick-quick but we won’t know until they try it if the Whizybeam can get back by that route. If it can’t the other route will take a long-long time so those on the ship will be long-long forgotten by the time they get here. That also means they’ll have been dead for so long those who come after us probably won’t even realize what the debris had been at one time,” Delmus said with a shrug.
“On the other hand if they make the trip in both directions more or less intact that’ll make the whole group on board heroes of a sort but it’ll be up to the governors to decide if they can be acclaimed. This Nerber is definitely the first to set foot on another planet but getting there was a big challenge too. And a bigger risk than the contestants and the crew are supposed to be fully aware of.”
A shrill beep sounded just before the A.D.U. logo appeared in a section of the view-screen, replacing the close-up view of a impending decapitation in a program running in that spot.
“I tell them to use that ninxy annoying sound signal because I can’t ignore it but I hate it every time it jostles my mind. That means the latest material’s ready for us to decide about,” Delmus said. “I told the techs to let me know as soon as it was ready for our first look. I’m thinking that what we’ve been getting is too worked over and we need to demand the Bang-Boom guys send us no more than lightly edited scenes. I find it suspicious that they’re stretching it so thin. They should be accumulating continuous records from the contestants’ zerpies. This raises questions about who’s amassing the library of potentially usable material to be milked for episodes for the longer time, them or us. Of course the answer’s going to be us, no matter how they try to play games about it. This is why we went to the trouble and expense to make sure we know more than they think or would like us to know about what’s happening on Whizybeam. We got some raw feed for comparison so the techs have put together several versions for us to decide about how we can get the most use out of it.”
At a nod from Ackack that he was ready, Delmus started the presentations on the screen.
The scene that appeared was what Wilburps saw as Nerber walked up Oakline Street to meet Adam Parker whom he could see a block ahead at the intersection with Elmworm Street. The focus is on a teen boy shooting hoops solo in a driveway on the far side of the street as they passed him.
The zoom of the image revealed that the zerpy was recording this from half a city block away. The recording moved in for a variety of views of the moving young man, sometimes going split screen with a full view and a close up of his expression as he focused on his performance drill. There was never any hint in his movements or expression that the teen noticed those passing by on the sidewalk across the street. The door of the house opened a bit and he smoothly took the ball and went inside. Through the entire sequence there was no sound except that of the basketball on the blacktop.
After a short appearance of the A.D.U. logo the scene repeated but now snippets were cut and rearranged, repeated when needed, and augmented with fairly obvious distorted alterations. This time the teen stopped in the midst of his drill to stare in awe at those passing by – who were visible this time in a few bits that were not in the original sequence so there was no doubt about the focus of his look of amazement. He clutched the ball and ran into the house in fear. There was still no sound.
After a short appearance of the A.D.U. logo the scene repeated but now with even more snippets of it cut, rearranged, repeated, and heavily augmented with obvious distortions and bits pieced in from other scenes. This time after a short bit of dribbling and taking two shots at the basket the teen spots those passing by and stops in obvious fear and awe.
In a high pitched synthesized voice the teen would surely protest if he knew about this, he seemed to shout without moving his lips, “Oh neighbors and all inhabitants of our sad and weak planet, behold this amazing and awe-inspiring superior being who does us the honor of passing by without destroying us which he could surely do. We owe it thanks and should bow before him but he so scares me that I am overwhelmed and must run to hide or I will show too much my fear. Respect is all I want to show this noble being that we can all see is so much better in every way than any of my kind are.” Then he fled into the house.
That section of the screen blanked.
“That lays it on thick. If Hasley and his associates send us the material
only in the last form we’re limited in how much more we can do with it. No, I say this is too much. We put the pressure on and make them send us the raw footage. We’ll make it clear that if they don’t use good sense and limit themselves we’ll have to take over and do all the editing. They won’t like that but sib sog, as long as we know what they’re gathering – and getting a lot of it directly ourselves without them even knowing it – we control what gets aired,” Ackack said.
“The techs need to get a bit artfully sloppy when they produce new stuff to expand and fill in the holes in the stories we want the scenes to tell. The inhabitant’s talk-talk was too good, it didn’t sound like translated from real comments. Even our dumb audience would hoot at it as fake,” Delmus noted.
“I’m not saying we don’t want to air episodes with that much of it edited and augmented by us but we need to set the policy right from the start that we, not the Bang-Boom Show guys, control how much and what kind of changes get made.”
“This could be the start of a major new part of our entertainment industry so all those who follow us will applaud that right from the start we made things work for the distribution company, not the producers. Once a bad precedent is set it too often takes the spilling of blood and guts to change it. That removal of your enemies stuff is okay on screen for the masses to enjoy but messy when you have to arrange it and then arrange for those who you paid to do it to meet the same end themselves but by surprise for three steps along the line.”
“At least this gives me bigger ideas about how we can use the other things the zerpy records around them that the contestant doesn’t interact with. I want to believe that will be a big pile of usable sights we could build whole stretched out story lines around. This makes me more certain of that,” Ackack said.
Far-out Show (9781465735829) Page 18